Arts & Nonprofit Leadership

This work reflects my long-standing commitment to community art events, youth programming, and socially engaged theatre. I’ve led art showcases, designed programming for schools and community organizations, coordinated festivals, and developed audience guides. In all of it, the priority is inclusivity, capacity-building, and access to connect communities that aren't just audiences, but co-performers and collaborators.

Related Projects

Backstitch Backstitch Story Arts

Backstitch Story Arts is a new storytelling and theatre initiative in Chicago focused on new work and narratives that haven't been represented on stage.

At Backstitch, we believe we are bound together by the threads of our lives, which we explore through communal performance and storytelling.

Chicago SWANA Collective 

The Chicago SWANA Collective is a group of artists and organizations (including Backstitch Story Arts, Digital Development Project, and BIYA BIYA Productions) that support and promote South West Asian and North African (SWANA) artists by presenting culturally specific performances, plays, installations, and events that represent the SWANA and SWANA diaspora experience and promote the work of SWANA artists and makers in Chicago and beyond, creating spaces for our stories on our terms.

Digital Development Project

Founded in 2023, DDP is a group of dramaturgs from around the world specializing in new play development. Through process-based initiatives, we create more opportunities for playwrights and dramaturgs to collaborate across geographic barriers. 

Mission Waco-Creative Arts Festival 

In 2017, as the director of the Mission Waco Youth Program I curated, facilitated, and moderated Mission Waco’s Youth and Children’s biannual Creative Arts showcase and in 2018 I did it again. Through artistic outreach and engagement I helped the children and youth find ways to express themselves, showcase their talent, and foster their interest in the arts.