Tanya Torres is a Puerto Rican artist and writer living and working in New York City. After completing a B.A. in Art Education at the City College of New York, she was offered a scholarship to complete her M.F.A. at the same institution.

In 2000 she created the artistic space Mixta Gallery in El Barrio, East Harlem, the community where she has lived since 1997.

Her artwork has been presented at the United Nations Organization, the Center for Puerto Rican Studies Library, the Museum of the 19th Century Dominican Family in Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), the Porta Coeli Museum of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture), and the Prague Congress Centre in the Czech Republic, among other cultural institutions. She has published the handmade poetry books Caguana (1994), Laberinto (1995), Bestiario mío (2001), I Can Certainly Survive (2002), Cuerpo de batalla/Battle Body(2004), and Sagrario (Shrine) (2007). In 2010, she published a handmade, handwritten edition of the book Canción de la Magdalena with a song by Raquel Z. Rivera. In 2007, she published Cuerpo de paz: Repercusiones de la batalla (Peace Body: The Aftermath of the Battle) about life after cancer. Most recently, she published an edition of 50 miniature books of  Destellos de Sofía, a book of mystical poetry completed in August 2011, and a pendant miniature book edition with the English translation, Sophia’s Light in 2014.

In 2002, El Diario/La Prensa selected her as one of the 50 Women of the Year. In 2003, the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College (NY) invited her to be part of the project “Puerto Rican Writers: History and Context”, which provides a space in the general archive to preserve and share her documents.

Tanya has read stories for children at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and taken her projects and exhibitions to places such as Batey Palmarejo in Dominican Republic and Comunidades Especiales in Puerto Rico.

From 2007-2010, she was Artist-in-Residence at P.S. 57 in East Harlem, New York City, where she created 3 mosaic murals and 6 poetry murals. More recently, she installed a series of digital paintings commissioned by the East Harlem Bilingual Head Start, and inspired by its mission to create healthy eating habits in young children and their families. The head start also commissioned and houses several of her mosaics. In 2012, her exhibition Heaven and Earth traveled to Prague and was exhibited at the Prague Congress Centre.

Tanya’s ongoing art project Song of the Magdalene, with author and musician Raquel Z. Rivera, celebrates Mary Magdalene, the biblical character and all other expressions of this symbol of feminine divinity, through research and creative actions since 2005. It was presented at St. Mark’s Church in the Lower East Side of New York in 2010,and has traveled across the United States and Puerto Rico.

Tanya currently works from her studio in East Harlem, where she lives, and travels with her art wherever she is invited. Her work celebrates life and nature.

For more information about Tanya’s artwork, please visit

http://www.artbytanyatorres.com

DR.VAZQUEZ’S JOURNEY

Proud of her humble beginnings, Vilma Caban-Vazquez feels that perhaps she was destined to become a global humanitarian vessel.  Although she faced great adversity along the way, she flourished like a resilient urban flower. Vilma’s mother, with a 2nd grade education, worked 12 hours a day as a seamstress in various sweatshops of the garment industry.  After giving birth to Vilma Luz, her “papa” was nowhere to be found and she remarried — unfortunately, to an abusive and alcoholic husband.

At the age of 18, after graduating from one of the worse inner-city high schools in New York, Vilma fled to an upstate college.   Against all odds, she not only graduated but went on to earn her doctorate — now in class of 0.4% Latina women to have achieved this level of education.

Wearing many community leadership hats, Vilma focused on using education as a social equalizer and encouraging volunteerism.

She was national trainer for Americorps, VISTA and traveled abroad with People to People Ambassadors Programs to Cambodia, Egypt and Vietnam.

Later, she worked to eradicate Female Genital Infanticide in Kenya.

Walden News Article: Child Bride in Kenya

While working on a research project — “The Latina Project: Using Educational Path to Break the Silence of Domestic Abuse” — her mother passed away and so she decided to head back to Dominican Republic and serve there.

Currently, Vilma serves on various international boards to promote positive social change in the world, particularly in the lives of women and children. In 2013, Vilma went to volunteer in Morocco, to explore the international phenomena of the invisible and forgotten Moroccan orphans and street children. Her heart was transformed, as she was inspired to formally launch in 2014 an advocacy study centered on the tragic circumstances that Moroccan street children face. Afterwards, she connected with other amazing souls dedicated to changing the lives of orphans.  

In the spring of 2014, she launched her research work in Guatemala centered on the plight of street children and orphans.  Her primary goal was to support an international community-based organization called Proyecto Mi Hogar, Inc. In this visit, she conducted a program evaluation of this grassroots organization to guide their efforts in creating the greatest impact in this country.

In the summer of 2015, Vilma is going to focus on a project closer to home…on the island of Puerto Rico. It will be a tribute to her beloved mother.  She will work on a research documentary project with Joe Negron called… La Casa de Maria: The state of domestic violence in Puerto Rico.