Escribe Aqui/Write Here

The Betsy’s Escribe Aqui/Write Here program was seeded in 2015 with funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to honor artists who ‘do their work’ at the intersection of culture. The project gives a special nod to Miami creatives where 70% of homes are bi-lingual and to writers who come from a background where more than one language is spoken and cultural practice intersects.

As is well documented, the challenges of living within and sometimes between two cultures can produce feelings of alienation and otherness - and as is also well documented: the ability of artists to speak to this duality of experience is transformative for them and for the audiences who experience their work. Amplifying this particular (and important) reality is the mission of Escribe Aqui/Write Here at The Betsy. 

Escribe Aquí’s founding curators were Award-winning Cuban American YA-writer Pablo Cartaya and Peruvian born novelist Pedro Medina Leon, founder and editor of Suburbano Ediciones. Our 2021 community curator was Cuban-American Journalist Grethel Delgado Alvarez. Cuban American Poet Caridad Moro-Gronlier is the Escribe Aqui/Write Here Community Curator, 2022 and 2023.

The 2023 program will welcome ten working poets, including: KC Trommer, Arsimmer McCoy, Juliet Romero, Alexis Ivy, Julie Ireland, Alexa Pleskova, Dustin Berkshire, Jen Karetnick, Veronica Corpuz, Tyler Gillespie, and Melissa Gomez. These artists participated in 2022: Elisa Albo, Francisco Aragon, Clayrre Benzadon, Silvia Curbelo, J. Bruce Fuller, Mia Leonin, Alexandra Relagado, Edgar Pantoja and Olegario Diaz.