Meet Karina Esperanza Yanez: Arts Educator & Founding Executive Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Karina Esperanza Yanez and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Karina Esperanza, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I thought about it for years, which is why I think it took so long to become an official non-profit, even though Greetings from South-Central was already conducting programming for nearly three years. I wanted everything to be intentional and sometimes that takes time to think through. I felt like I was having more conversations with stakeholders than anything, trying to figure out what the right next step was. When doing community-based work, it cannot solely be the vision of one person, and it can become easy to get stuck in that cycle. I wanted to make sure that the folks I was reaching out to were reflective of our community, that our programming was something students would be interested in, as opposed to some kind of art workshop or class only I thought was great. I think with any new venture, the community comes first so defining that community is important. The biggest motivator for me was that I wanted to see arts education programming in south-central that was a bit more embedded within the community, something that filled in the gaps I noticed while I was a classroom educator. I feel pretty confident we have begun to do just that over the last year.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Greetings from South-Central is a community-based arts education program dedicated to the youth and families of the South-Central L.A community. We’re a small but mightly arts education nonprofit working toward promoting and fostering experiences where the South L.A community can participate in the arts and culture sector our beloved city.

What I am most proud of is that students are excited about our work! A way we do this is through our Art School for College program, where our amazing teaching artists Jose Chavez and Rhombie Sandoval work alongside myself and our board member Elizabeth Waner who oversees the financial aid and literacy aspect of applying to college including applying for scholarships etc. Jose, Rhombie, and I lead students on weekly sessions where we address some of the inequities within the art world, particularly as young BIPOC artists or young art school students in predominantly white institutions. We want our students to leave our program prepared, more prepared than we were.

Starting and developing this organization hasn’t been easy and I don’t really think it will ever be “easy”, but that’s sort of what I love about what we do. There have been little challenges here and there that in retrospect seem small, but at the time felt like mountains I had to climb, annoyances even. I won’t even sugarcoat it.

The nonprofit sector historically was not designed for BIPOC folks. Maneuvering through that system has been interesting, to say the least. From filling out IRS paperwork to raising funds. This system is easy if you have the money and resources to do so, but as a child of immigrants, and first-generation college graduate, I didn’t have thousands of dollars from the jump. I quit my full time teaching position to return to school so I could learn more about how to run the organization and in the middle of the program, the pandemic hit and I quickly realized, some of the things we were discussing and learning about had to be revamped to fit this new world.

Along the way, (particularly at the inception of this organization) folks tried to plagiarize our work and repackage it as their own, even copied our mission statement verbatim! They didn’t really go very far, but that taught me to also just be intentional about whom I share ideas with and what kinds of folks we bring into our shared spaces. There’s another side to community-based work that perhaps doesn’t get discussed as frequently, but we probably should and that is the ethics behind what we do. I guess a challenge has been working with people, adult people, and trying to communicate in a manner that is effective, firm, yet loving. Everything I do comes from a place of love.

Lastly, a huge part of what we do is collaborate with other folks and institutions. Most collaborations have been wonderful, but there have been a few moments where I’ve had to step it up and defend myself and our organization. Something I learned very quickly as a child, was that as a person of color and a woman, not all folks will take me seriously or respect me. Working with institutions has proven to be simultaneously the most rewarding and draining experiences of my life. I guess my advice to anyone is to stand your ground.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
With any of these places, first and foremost, whether you are visiting, new to the city, or a lifelong resident, my advice is to be respectful of the community and not assume you know about any community based on what you’ve read or seen on the media.

With that in mind, some of my hyper-local go-to’s are:

Food:
-El Mercado la Paloma
-Azla
-Any food place in Leimert Park really, but I’m a sucker for the Jamaican Patties at Ackee

Arts & Culture:
-the Underground Museum
-Residency Gallery
-Watts Arts Towers Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Absolutely, first and foremost, shout-out to all our students, past, present, and future! Without them, this work would literally not be possible. I am always really grateful for the families and parents of our students, for trusting me and trusting the organization with their child’s learning and well-being. Huge thank you to our board members; Michelle, Asong, Elizabeth, Jazmin, EJ, Oscar, Maurice, and Jonathan for bringing up critical ideas and questions to our space. Huge thank you to Jose and Rhombie for their love and dedication to our mission. And of course mentors and friends along the way who have inspired me and continue to listen guide, and provide advice whenever I need it, whether they know it or not. Thank you, Megan, Amy, Kenny, Alex & Jo.

Website: https://greetingsfromsouthla.org/

Instagram: @greetingsfromscla

Image Credits:
Karina Esperanza Yanez