Introduction: Shey Ri Acu Rivera Rios is a Puerto Rican multidisciplinary artist and community organizer based in Providence, RI. In this blog post, they introduce us to their practice and urge us to support the people in Puerto Rico who are experiencing the ramifications of Hurricane Fiona, and Hurricanes Maria and Irma from years prior. To learn more about their practice, view their presentation during our 2022 Fall Network Gathering here.
PHOTO CREDIT: CAT LAINE, PAINTED FOOT STUDIO
Tai karaya, hola a todes, hello everyone.
I’m Shey Ri Acu Rivera Ríos, born and raised in the island of Boriken, and otherwise known as the settlement of Puerto Rico, land of Taino people and of AfroCaribbean resistance.
And I live in Providence, RI, land of Narragansett and Wampanoag peoples, and a long lineage of Black leaders.
I come from a land of mangoes and rainstorms, of wet soil, and warm seas. My people are warriors and healers. My people understand the power of joy in times of hardship. My people are proud. My people can knock down colonial governors and sustain movements of self determination across time, against hurricane winds, snapping skirts at the beat of drums under the canopies of the fiery red flamboyan trees. Today I am a person with a heart that is split between two geographies and has learned to call this abundance.
I’m a multidisciplinary artist and community organizer. I’m a 2012 Intercultural Leadership Institute (ILI) alum. I use performance, visual art, and storytelling to imagine better futures for and with the communities I’m a part of. I am an independent artist and founder of Studio Loba, a storytelling lab that uses art to strengthen social causes. I’ve worked with many amazing organizations, including AS220, an arts and culture organization in Providence, First Peoples Fund in Lakota territory, and One Square World, - a climate justice org in Boston. And I’m the Co-Director of an abolitionist futures project called Moral Docs alongside co-director and arts facilitator Vatic Kuumba.
My practice is informed by my experience in the arts, community development, and social practice. But most of all, it is informed by my family and growing up in rural Borikén, and the experience of colonization. I use whatever medium I can, to create stories to imagine decolonial possibilities. And I’ve been on a long journey that has led me in the path of using art and creative practice to impact policy. Whether it’s imagining abolitionist futures that invest in and center community care; or imagining a liberated future for Borikén where Black, and Indigenous, women, and nonbinary folks are leading the way into new governance models; or writing poems of queer love. I’m here for the possibilities of being better together.
I want to uplift the experience of the people of Borokén right now, at the 5th anniversary of the devastation of Hurricanes Maria and Irma, and the very recent trail of Hurricane Fiona. And the humanitarian crisis that reminds us how the climate crisis is connected to colonization and white supremacy. And uplifting the people on the ground in Borikén who have long been doing the work to shed light on the injustices and the problems, those who ground us in hope, and those who lead the way and take risks to engage us in bold reimaginings.
This can only happen with intercultural and intersectional coalition building. It can only happen with truth and vulnerability and risk to walk in our truth and learn from others.
