Arts Mid-Hudson presents Leading with Artivism: an interview with Marielena Ferrer, lead by Poet Gold. This live stream and in-person event at 7:00 pm at our AMH Poughkeepsie Gallery and will also be live streamed on YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn. This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required to receive the streaming link. All who register are invited to submit questions that will be asked during the Q&A session of the event.

Leading with Artivism is a live quarterly interview series, created and curated by Poet Gold in collaboration with Arts Mid-Hudson, featuring a diverse mix of Artivists (Artist Activists) who have taken up the charge through their art to highlight social issues. Each episode gives viewers an inside look at the hearts and minds of these courageous creatives.

In 2024, Poet Gold conducted a series of interviews, engaging with Sammie B via live stream and hosting both Jean-Marc Sovak and Carmen Lizardo in a hybrid format—live-streamed and in-person—at Arts Mid-Hudson’s Gallery, located at 696 Dutchess Turnpike in Poughkeepsie. The previous year, in March 2023, local youth and artist Harrison Brisbon-McKinnon interviewed Poet Gold in person at the gallery. Throughout 2023, Poet Gold also interviewed Artivists Pamela Sneed, Onaje Benjamin, Stephanie JT Russell, and Joel Bergner. Continuing this rich dialogue, the 2022 series featured in-depth conversations with Artivists Amy Trompetter, Barbara Masterson, Bibiana Huang Matheis, Daniel Villegas, Vince Ballentine, Jayda Woodall, Miguel “Lito Koqui” Sanchez, Kicks Kapri, Rosmerayah, and Harrison Brisbon-McKinnon.

To watch all previous virtual episodes of Leading with Artivism: https://www.youtube.com/@ArtsMidHudson

Poet Gold is a rare talent who grabs you by the heart and says “Recognize” – Poet, author, performer, songwriter, community “Artivist” and speaker, Bettina “Poet Gold” Wilkerson is pushing the boundaries of poetry and the spoken word. Living with a chronic illness since childhood, Poet Gold, or as she is affectionately known as “Gold”, brings a soul-searching insight about the human existence, love, dreams, challenges, and triumph.

Marielena’s artistic practice centers on the role of art in social change, particularly through political, public, and community art. Her work has been recognized with the prestigious International Sculpture Center’s 2023 Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award and the 2024 Ulster County Executive’s Arts Award. Previously, she received the Midtown Kingston Arts District’s Red Goat Award in 2021 and served as the inaugural Artist-in-Residence at the Woodstock Artists Association & Museum in 2022.

Marielena’s art installation Broken Monarchs best showcases her thematic and methodological direction as an artist. In Broken Monarchs, she uses monarch butterflies as a metaphor for the fragility and resilience of the more than five thousand migrant children separated from their parents by the Trump-Pence administration’s “zero-tolerance policy.” The installation is also a result of a social engagement effort that includes the facilitation of workshops, following the U.N. High Commission for Refugees’ community-based protection framework.

Recently, Marielena curated Cartografías del Alma, an exhibition delving into how we navigate the inner landscapes of our identities, particularly during times of transition and migration. Her past exhibitions include curating We’re All Humans at the Cornell Creative Arts Center and presenting Masking Identities: Rebuilding Deterritorialized Cultural Memories at the Department of Regional Art Workers.

Her work is deeply informed by her experience facilitating migration-related workshops since 2004, starting in Valencia, Spain, and continuing in New York State since 2011. As a member of the global Athena Network, Marielena has presented at the network’s annual Migration and Mental Health Congress, held in cities such as London, Rome, Berlin, Brussels, New Paltz, Bogotá, Paris, and Mexico City. She introduced her “Overcoming Migratory Mourning” workshop at the 2012 National Council of La Raza’s (now SomosUS) Annual Conference in Las Vegas and has led panel discussions on migratory mourning at the New York State Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators’ annual conference and the “Somos” Latino New York State legislators’ spring conference.

Marielena is the Executive Director of Unison Arts & Learning Center in New Paltz and leads Humanamente, a diversity and inclusion consulting organization. She chairs the steering committee for the Alianza Cultural de Kingston, a community-based organization whose mission is to foment, preserve and celebrate the culture and traditions of our diverse Hispanic/Latino heritage communities, sits on the Family of Woodstock Board of Directors, Arts Mid-Hudson Advisory Board, and Center for Photography at Woodstock Advisory Board.

Marielena holds a BFA and an MFA in Sculpture from SUNY New Paltz. She originally studied architecture at Central University of Venezuela and later earned a certificate of distinction in “Leadership and Empowerment” from Spain’s Polytechnic University of Valencia and a diploma in “Gender Leadership” through the EQUAL Transnational Cooperation Community Initiative of the European Social Fund. Marielena also earned a University Expert Diploma in “Mental Health, Cultural Processes and Psychological Interventions With Immigrants, Minorities and the Socially Excluded” from the University of Barcelona.

When: Wednesday, March 26, 2025 at 7:00 pm

Where: Arts Mid-Hudson Gallery, 696 Dutchess Turnpike, Suite F, Poughkeepsie, NY 12603

Register here: https://interland3.donorperfect.net/weblink/weblink.aspx?name=E231621&id=504