Arts Critic
In 2015, I was approached by a friend from grad school, Shelly Diaz, who asked if I would be interested in reviewing books for School Library Journal. I'm an avid subscriber and I immediately said yes. I was thrilled to review books every month for one of the most prestigious book review journals in the country. I did this for several years until 2020, when I stopped a year in advance of starting the nomination process to judge the Caldecott Award (which requires committee members to not have reviewed professionally for at least a year). During my tenure with the Caldecott, I reviewed over 900 books - every children's picture book and graphic novel made in the United States in 2023, before choosing the winner and honor medalists in January 2024.
In 2016, my friend Helen mentioned that she reviewed for theatre and recommended me to Dan Dinero, the CEO of "Theatre is Easy." Based off of my work as a book critic and my background in theater, Dan hired me as a reviewer for his online publication that reviewed theatre in New York City. I happily wrote for Theatre Is Easy for the next seven years until the website finally shut down in 2023.
In the summer of 2017, I was approached by playwright Ray Yamanouchi. Ray was impressed by my work on stage, as well as my theatre criticism for Theatre Is Easy. While Ray and I were both thrilled to see more and more theatre featuring diverse artists, we also expressed frustration and helplessness with the lack of diverse theatre critics of color. We had both witnessed countless criticisms that were out of touch, ignorant, or simply racist. He proposed we take action to rectify this issue, and thus re: (pronounced "regarding" ) was born. We have interviewed a Pulitzer Prize winner (Jackie Sibblies Drury), as well as the future artistic director of the Public Theatre (Saheem Ali) and a future Oscar nominee (Celine Song). We had to shut down our account during the pandemic and are considering coming back in the near future.
In the interim, I was super excited to receive entry to the BIPOC Critics Lab, a new and prestigious Theatre Critic training by renown theatre journalist, Jose Solis. Jose has written for dozens of publications including the New York Times, and through his classes and tutelage I received a commission from the Public Theater to write about the importance of free theatre.
Below are some samples of my work. I love New York City and our arts scene so much.
