Cultural Event Production
High-visibility public stages, diasporic festivals, and co-produced community celebrations, including the Afro-Diasporic Ocean Festival at Rockaway Beach and Noche Andina gatherings honoring Andean music and heritage.
Leadership
Building the institutions our artists deserve
As Founding CEO of LiberArte Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Queens, New York, Yura nurtures artists co-creating joyful and abundant futures in harmony with each other and Mother Earth, working multilingually across the United States, Latin America, and the Global South. A seven-time fellowship winner, Yura leads LiberArte's festivals, grantmaking, education, and artist development programs.
LiberArte Inc.
The power of art to liberate people and create change
Yura founded LiberArte on the belief that artists are catalysts for systemic change. Through storytelling, performance, and ritual, artists make racial, social, and climate justice personal, relational, and actionable, turning imagination into collective movement. The organization's vision is a thriving planet where all beings experience the joy and harmony unleashed by abundant creativity, guided by values of creativity and innovation, affirming global community, and love in action.
Grantmaking & Economic Artist Support
Direct financial backing and fiscal infrastructure so artists have the economic security to lead systemic change, through the Liberation Through the Arts Fund, fiscal sponsorship, and grant writing services.
Education Programs
Community workshops, self-paced courses, and free toolkits sustaining both craft and creative livelihoods, from grant writing and dreamwork to intergenerational masterclasses in capoeira, traditional music, and Indigenous crafts.
Artist Development
An artistic home for early-career creators: a multi-year Artist-in-Residence program, new commissions for Global South and diasporic artists, and work-in-progress showcases ahead of public premieres.
Initiatives & Programs
2024 Echoing Green Global Fellowship
Protectores de la Tierra
Co-founded with Yowar Mosquera in Nuquí, Chocó, this artist-led initiative ends food insecurity in Colombia's Black and Indigenous communities, regenerating biodiverse forest farms by bridging ancestral farming knowledge with modern agroecology.
2020–2025 · HowlRound Theatre Commons
Building Our Own Tables
A podcast Yura created and produced, convening Black, Indigenous, and POC theatre founders across ten annual episodes on self-determination, wellness, and institutional change.
2019 · Bogotá, Colombia
Balistikal
An LGBTIQ+ cultural arts center and gathering space founded by Yura, welcoming hundreds of artists and community members through daily grassroots programming, workshops, and performances.
2018 · New York
Advancing Arts Forward
Yura's first venture, producing cultural events and consulting for independent creators, with national partnerships including the American Theatre Critics Association and the Arts Administrators of Color Network.
Fellowships & Recognition
Echoing Green Global Fellow
2024 · Protectores de la Tierra
Global Lab Fellow
Georgetown University
Intercultural Leadership Institute
Fellow
APAP Emerging Leadership Institute
Emerging Leader
NALAC National Leadership Institute
Fellow
Braiding Seeds Fellowship
Fellow
Writings & Advocacy
Thought leadership for an equitable cultural future
Cultural Equity
Arguing for arts ecosystems where BIPOC and immigrant artists are resourced, credited, and free to shape institutions.
Arts Crowdfunding
Exploring community-powered funding models that shift patronage from gatekeepers to the people the art serves.
Decolonial Leadership
Grounding leadership in lineage, reciprocity, and healing. Leading with power-with rather than power-over.