ABOUT THE PRESENTERS
Betty Yu is a multimedia artist and activist born and raised in New York City to Chinese immigrant parents. She is a co-founder of Chinatown Art Brigade, a collective using art to advance anti-gentrification organizing. Ms. Yu was awarded residencies and fellowships from Laundromat Project, A Blade of Grass, International Studio and Curatorial Program, Intercultural Leadership Institute, Skidmore’s Documentary Storytellers’ Institute, KODA Lab, Asian American Arts Alliance, En Foco, China Residencies, Flux Factory, and Santa Fe Art Institute.
Her work has been presented at the Brooklyn Museum, Queens Museum, Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival, Tribeca Film Festival’s Interactive Showcase, the 2019 BRIC Biennial, Old Stone House, and Squeaky Wheel Film and Media Art Center. She holds a BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, an MFA in Integrated Media Arts from Hunter College, and a One-Year Certificate from the International Center of Photography’s New Media Narratives program.
Charlie Vazquez is an author and art consultant specializing in copywriting and grant writing. He has studied story craft for over twenty years and has designed, facilitated, and funded arts and wellness programs for the NYC Department of Health, the New York Public Library, the Bronx Council on the Arts, and PEN America, serving low-income communities, undocumented immigrants, LGBTQI youth-of-color, and senior citizens.
Organizations that have sought him as a panelist include the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York Public Library, the South Carolina Arts Commission, Humanities New York, and Scholastic Books.
