Shey Rivera interview

Interview with Shey Rivera by Paola Mejia. The interview is in Spanish and English. Shey is a queer and non-binary multidisciplinary artist from Puerto Rico. Shey studied Psychology and Sociology at the Universidad de Puerto Rico and Contemporary Media and Culture at Universidad del Sagrado Corazón. They moved from Puerto Rico to Providence in 2010 and they have worked as the Director of Inclusive Regional Development at MIT CoLab, in the Dept of Urban Studies and Planning, and as Artistic/Co-Director of AS220 in Providence, Rhode Island. Topics in order of discussion include: Growing up in a rural area of Puerto Rico; reclaiming Taíno roots as a mixed-race person; understanding the complexity of Indigenous and African heritage and cultural erasure as a Carribean; experiencing culture shock moving to America and the self-discovery that comes with that; working at AS220 for 8 years and being a director for the last 3 years; overcoming imposter syndrome; working at MIT CoLab within the Department of Urban Studies and Planning; economic democracy; connections made through being an artist/creative; decolonization and its intersect with queerphobia, transphobia, etc. This interview was created as part of the Queer Stories Project - an oral history project developed by Dr. Virginia Thomas to train LGBTQIA young adults to conduct oral history interviews with LGBTQIA adults in Rhode Island. Queer Stories Project was funded by Rhode Island Council for the Humanities.