EmergeNYC Lead and Guest Faculty
george emilio sánchez developed EmergeNYC’s original curriculum and has been the Flagship program’s lead instructor since its inception in 2008. In 2020, Marlène Ramírez-Cancio joined as a co-facilitator of the virtual program, and Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo joined her in 2022. Over the years, guest faculty and presenters have included the artists, activists, and scholars below.
2050 Legacy, Guest Faculty 2013
2050 Legacy is hip-hop and social justice theater group devoted to continuing the great work of the …
Aaron Landsman, Guest Faculty 2018
Aaron Landsman makes live performances involving people, space, time and language…
Abigail Levine, Guest Faculty 2021
Abigail Levine is an artist working between New York and Los Angeles. Rooted in dance but moving …
Alicia Grullón, Guest Faculty 2018–19 & 2022
Alicia Grullón is a LatinX artist from and based in the Bronx. Grullón’s works have been shown in …
Andrés Senra, Guest Faculty 2022
Andrés Senra is a multimedia artivist working in Spain, Berlin and New York. His latest works present the …
Andy Bichlbaum (Jacques Servin), Guest Faculty 2012
Andy Bichlbaum (AKA Jacques Servin) began his current adulthood by inserting a swarm of kissing …
Ann Pellegrini, Guest Faculty 2015
Ann Pellegrini is a Professor of Performance Studies and Social and Cultural Analysis at NYU. Her …
Anna Deavere Smith, Guest Faculty 2008–09
Anna Deavere Smith is an actress and playwright who is said to have created a new form of theatre…
Avram Finkelstein, Guest Faculty 2016–18
Avram Finkelstein is an artist and writer living in Brooklyn. His work has shown at The Whitney …
Benjamin Lundberg Torres Sanchez, Guest Faculty 2013
Benjamin Lundberg Torres Sánchez (b. 1987, Bogotá) (they/them/elle) uses their art to transform…
Carmelita Tropicana, Guest Faculty 2008–09
Cuban-born writer/performance artist Carmelita Tropicana received an Obie award in 1999 for …
Craig Peterson, Guest Faculty 2011 (and Institutional Partner 2018–present)
Craig T. Peterson is the Artistic Director of Abrons Arts Center, joined the staff at Abrons in …
D’Lo, Guest Faculty 2012
D’Lo is a queer Tamil Sri L.A.nkan-American, political theatre artist/writer, director, comedian …
Dahlia Li, Guest Faculty 2023
Dahlia Li (she/her) is an artist and writer currently completing a PhD at the University of Pennsylvania…
Dan Fishback, Guest Faculty 2012–14
Dan Fishback (he/him) is a playwright and performing songwriter, and has released…
Daniel Alexander Jones, Guest Faculty 2013–14
Daniel Alexander Jones makes live art. An award-winning performer, writer, and director, American …
Debra Levine, Guest Faculty 2012–15
Debra Levine received her Ph.D. in Performance Studies from New York University and her MFA in …
Diana Taylor, Guest Faculty 2009–13
Diana Taylor is a University Professor and Professor of Performance Studies and Spanish at New York …
Dulce Pinzón, Guest Faculty 2009
Dulce Pinzón was born in Mexico City in 1974. She studied Mass Media Communications at the …
Ebony Noelle Golden, Guest Faculty 2013–19 & 2021
Ebony Noelle Golden is an artist, scholar, and culture strategist from Houston, TX and now living and …
Ed Woodham, Guest Faculty 2013–19
Ed Woodham has been active in community art, education, and civic interventions across media and …
ERRO Grupo, Guest Faculty 2013
ERRO Grupo was founded in 2001 in Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brasil. The group’s artistic practice …
Favianna Rodríguez, Guest Faculty 2013
Favianna Rodríguez is a transnational interdisciplinary artist and cultural organizer on a mission …
Fulana, Guest Faculty 2009–19
Fulana is a media collective that was founded in 2000 by four New York-based Latina artists joined by …
george emilio sánchez, Lead Instructor & Performance Director
george emilio sánchez has been EmergeNYC’s Director of Performance and Pedagogy…
Gina Athena Ulysses, Guest Faculty 2023
Gina Athena Ulysse is a self-described PostZoraInterventionist. A Haitian-American feminist artist-…
Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Guest Faculty 2008–10 & 2016
Performance artist/writer Guillermo Gómez-Peña resides in San Francisco where he is the artistic …
Iván Monforte, Guest Faculty 2022
Iván Monforte (he/they) is a New York City-based artist who uses conceptual strategies to explore …
Janani Balasubramanian Laia, Guest Faculty 2021
Laia is a multimedia artist, working across installation, image, live and immersive performance …
Jeca Rodríguez-Colón, Guest Faculty 2015-16
Jeca Rodríguez Colón (she/her) is a Puerto Rican multi-disciplinary artist and a scholar living in New York …
Jennifer Miller, Guest Faculty 2016
Jennifer Miller is a playwright, performer and the director and founder of Circus Amok. She …
Karen Finley, Guest Faculty 2008–09 & 2019–23
Karen Finley is a New York-based artist whose raw and transgressive performances have long provoked …
Karina Casiano, Guest Faculty 2010
Karina Casiano is a graduate of the University of Puerto Rico, she has worked in theater in New York …
Karina Claudio-Betancourt, Guest Faculty 2010
Karina Claudio Betancourt is a Program Officer with the Open Society Foundations, where she …
Kelindah bee, Guest Faculty 2024
Kelindah bee (they/them) is a performance artist, producer, and educator known as Theydy Bedbug…
Kirya Traber, Guest Faculty 2014
Kirya Traber is a nationally awarded playwright, actress, and cultural worker. She is the lead Community…
Leónidas Martín, Guest Faculty 2010
Leónidas Martín is a Professor at Barcelona University where he teaches New Media and Political …
Lorie Novak, Guest Faculty 2009
Lorie Novak’s photographs, installations, and internet projects have been in numerous …
Marinieves Alba, Guest Faculty 2023
Marinieves Alba is a cultural worker, educator, writer, and activist born and raised in New York City. She …
Marlène Ramírez-Cancio, Founding Director
Marlène Ramírez-Cancio is a Puerto Rican cultural producer, artist, and educator based in Brooklyn…
Martha Wilson, Guest Faculty 2011
Martha Wilson (b. 1947) is a pioneering feminist artist and gallery director, who over the past …
Mary Notari, Guest Faculty 2014
I am a multidisciplinary theater artist, cultural activist, and dork. I firmly believe in live art and …
Marya Warshaw, Guest Faculty 2011
Warshaw is the Founding Executive/Artistic Director of BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange, an organization …
Maura Nguyen Donohue, Guest Faculty 2019 & 2021-24
maura nguyễn donohue (she/her) is the Director of the MFA in Dance at Hunter College. From 1995-2005…
Nadia Granados, Guest Faculty 2023
Nadia Granados is a Colombian artist using performance, experimental cinema, music, multimedia, web …
nia love, Guest Faculty 2022 & 2024
nia love is a Black, indigenous, American woman, dancer, choreographer, diver, and mother …
Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo, Guest Faculty 2008 & 2021-24
Nicolás Dumit Estévez treads an elusive route that manifests itself performatively or through …
Noelle Ghoussaini, Guest Faculty 2024
Noelle Ghoussaini (she/her) creates performance, ritual and sacred gathering with and for community…
Paloma McGregor, Guest Faculty 2014
Paloma McGregor originally from St. Croix, is an award-winning artist and organizer living in Harlem…
Pamela Sneed, Guest Faculty 2010–12 & 2017
Pamela Sneed is a New York-based poet, writer, and actress. She has been featured in the New York …
Patrícia Hoffbauer, Guest Faculty 2012–18
Patrícia Hoffbauer is a NY dance artist originally from Brazil who has collaborated with many artists …
Peggy Shaw, Guest Faculty 2010–13
Peggy Shaw is a performer, writer, producer, and teacher of writing and performance. She is a 2019 …
Priscilla Marrero, Guest Faculty 2022-23
Priscilla Marrero is an experimental performing + teaching artista from sunny Seminole, Taíno and …
Reverend Billy, Guest Faculty 2008–10
Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Gospel Choir believe that Consumerism is overwhelming …
Ricardo Gamboa, Guest Faculty 2011
Ricardo Gamboa (They/ Them/ Theirs) is an artist, activist and academic. Ricardo is currently …
Robert Farid Karimi, Guest Faculty 2021 & 2023
With 25 years of expertise as cross-disciplinary performer, poet, educator, conceptual dramaturg …
Sonia Guiñansaca, Guest Faculty 2013 & 2017
Sonia Guiñansaca is a Queer Migrant Poet, Cultural Organizer, and Activist from Harlem by way of Ecuador…
Soomi Kim, Guest Faculty 2013
Soomi Kim is a Korean born, New York City based actor/movement artist (dancer, stage combat …
Susana Cook, Guest Faculty 2011–17
Susana Cook, born in Argentina, is a New York-based playwright, director, and performer who has been …
Tavia Nyong’o, Guest Faculty 2014
Tavia Nyong’o is a Professor of African-American Studies, American Studies, and Theatre and …
The Illuminator, Guest Faculty 2016
The Illuminator is an art-activist collective comprised of visual artists, educators, filmmakers, and …
The World Famous *BOB*, Guest Faculty 2014
The Word Famous *BOB*, known for her over the top blonde bombshell image and incredible ability to…
Tim Miller, Guest Faculty 2011
Tim Miller is an internationally acclaimed performance artist. Miller’s creative work as a …
UNIVERSES, Guest Faculty 2011
Universes is a National / International ensemble Company of multi-disciplined writers and …
Wanda Raimundi, Guest Faculty 2024
Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz (she/her) is an interdisciplinary visual artist whose work pulls from 17th and …