I am a visual artist,writer, performer and activist. Born in Los Angeles and raised both in Mexicoand L.A. My work often uses performance and writing to question institutionalpower, create collaborations and provoke dialogue among diverse communities. Iuse performance, writing and multimedia installations to redefine the role ofan artist as a facilitator to engage people in critical discourse. Inspired bya personal narrative, I like to explore social, subcultural, marginalized andanthropological issues, often inviting communities and audiences participationinto the work. Art Matters will be supporting my interest in social justicethru an exploration of food politics in my ongoing project “PrisonGourmet," an on-going multimedia project, made from California prisoner's’commissary-food item recipes. I am excited to develop this project and work(for the first time) with the prison community outside of California.