Awilda Rodríguez Lora in Conversation

Awilda Rodríguez Lora (La Performera) is a performer, choreographer, and cultural producer. Her artistic practice includes the creation of La Rosario Proyectos, a production house for queer, collective, healthy, and sustainable live art. Additionally, she collaborates on transgressive artistic projects, promoting freedom and expression through performance, dance, video, and voice. She is the academic leader of the dance program at the Universidad del Sagrado in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Learn more about the artist.

Paloma Martinez-Cruz is an interdisciplinary writer, scholar, activist, and artist based in Columbus, Ohio. She is the author several books, including Trust the Circle: The Resistance and Resilience of Rubén Castilla Herrera (2023) and Other Bombs (2023). A professor of Latin American Cultural and Literary Studies in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and Latinx Cultural Studies in the Department of English at Ohio State, Martinez-Cruz curates and hosts Onda Latinx Ohio, an arts initiative showcasing Latinx arts practices in the Midwest. Learn more about Martinez-Cruz.

Norah Zuniga Shaw is an artist and director of performance and technology projects that integrate the body, ecology, collaboration, and liberation. Her work has been exhibited worldwide and has won numerous awards. She is artistic director for Livable Futures and a professor and director for dance and technology at Ohio State’s Department of Dance and Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design (ACCAD). She cofounded Ohio State’s Motion Lab at ACCAD in 2005 and oversees its artistic residency program—including collaboration with the Wex, supporting projects by Rodríguez Lora, Renegade Performance, and Brother(hood) Dance. Learn more about Zuniga Shaw.