The #notwhite collective in-dialogue series features conversations with BIPOC, AALANA, indigenous, and immigrant artists and arts administrators. The series reimagines the past and present history of the arts sector by engaging and presenting the wealth of experience, strategies, and tactics of the global majority, notwhite descendants, inheritors of colonialism, indigenous folks, and immigrants who navigate a predominantly white arts sector.

Celebrating and recognizing arts and cultural workers, especially those who tend to be under the radar and forgotten about, the #notwhite collective features speakers from southwestern PA as well as national leaders in the arts. December’s conversation stars Sean Lee and Urayoán Noel.

Sean Lee (he/they) is a part of a new generation of artists, curators, and arts leaders bringing fresh perspectives to the contemporary art field through an intersectional Disability Arts praxis. He is a queer, disabled East-Asian artist and curator exploring the assertion of disability art as the last avant-garde. His methodology explores crip curatorial practices as a means to resist traditional aesthetic idealities. Sean is an independent curator, lecturer, and advisor, and he currently sits on the board of the CARFAC Ontario, Creative Users Projects, and the Toronto Arts Council.

Urayoán Noel is the author or translator of a dozen books, including Transversal, In Visible Movement: Nuyorican Poetry from the Sixties to Slam, andislas adyacentes/adjacent islands. Urayoán’s books have been named finalists or semifinalists for the National Translation Award, the Best Translated Book Award, PEN America Literary Awards, and more. Originally from Río Piedras, Puerto Rico, Urayoán lives in the Bronx and teaches at NYU as well as Stetson University’s MFA of the Americas. He serves on the board of the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center.

In-Dialogue Series Presented by the #notwhite collective: Sean Lee and Urayoán Noel