Our artistic exchange with OYE Group continues with Oye resident artists Merlixse Ventura and Cindy De La Cruz, who will be deepening their exploration of a new work Vessel of a Woman, a poetry cycle exploring the themes of pandemic, privilege, and patriarchy from the perspective of Black women.

Vessel of a Woman (originally created by Ventura, produced by De La Cruz) was first presented as a live-streamed event by The Tank NYC’s LimeFest in 2020.

Merlixse Ventura is an Afro-Latina artist born and raised in Washington Heights. She is currently pursuing her Masters of Fine Arts in Acting at Columbia University.

Cindy De La Cruz is a Bronx-bred and Harlem-based, first generation Dominican American artist and producer. She's most interested in raising the visibility of Black Latinxs and dismantling the anti-Black rhetoric in the Latinx community. She is an artistic producer of The Dominican Artists Collective, a company of Dominican storytellers based in New York City, currently in residence with the New York Theatre Workshop. Cindy will be attending Yale School of Drama, Fall ‘22. 

This residency is supported in part, through a grant from the Network of Ensemble Theatres' Travel & Exchange Network (NET/TEN), supported by lead funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. It is made possible in part with funding from a Sullivan County Arts & Heritage Grant, funded by the Sullivan County Legislature and administered by Delaware Valley Arts Alliance.