KARLA ANDREA PÉREZ

Designer, Curator & Community Organizer | Co-Founder of Manhatitlan Community Organization

Long Island City, Queens

Puebla & Tlaxcala, México

A memory you would like to share?

I think one of my most important core memories has to be the second year we were able to have Dia de los Muertos under the Sunnyside Arch. We were able to do so much more, string up papel picado on lamposts, build an ofrenda and have speakers all day play music my dad had curated…Something about how the people moved around the space, the sound, the air was just perfect and it was a wave of gratitude, pride and bewilderment that this was real. My dad felt that at the exact same time as I did, it was surreal. We just looked at each other because we knew we had experienced the same thing. It was tinged with nostalgia and love for my uncle Oscar who had passed away because of COVID that first year. This was all for him, because of him, because I needed a way to pay him the respect he didn’t get because of the state of the world. If the world wasn’t going to know his name, if he was to remain a figure in the toll of deaths, I had to dance about it. He was our earliest and strongest supporter, attending presentations, running fundraisers, taking videos and sending them back to family in Mexico, he was proud and he was vocal about it. 

What does A Great Day in Ñiu Yor look like for you?

A great day is finding ducks in scenic places, sitting with them and reading a book under a blue sky with the kinds of clouds that look like the extra large pink and white Mexican Marshmallows, followed by a walk to any museum or mansion long ago relinquished to a state agency or private donor. A  great day is when it’s almost six pm and I know dance practice starts soon and the trains all ran without delays.

Photographed & Interviewed by Monica Patten