Esperanza Martell is a human rights activist, peace educator, organizer, healer, life-skills coach, mother, and poet/artist. She teaches Community Organizing and advises at Hunter College School of Social Work. As the founder of the Urban Atabex Network she facilitates Paulo Frier: Education for Liberation and Healing in Community workshops, trainings and Circles. Since the early ’70’s she has worked on various Social Justice issues (peace, political prisoners, education, housing, health, policing, environment, etc.,) with a focus on ending violence in the lives of women of color from a class, race, and gender prospective.
Esperanza has been honored and recognized for her work in New York and Puerto Rico. She is a graduate of the Hunter College School of Social Work and was a Revson Fellow at Columbia University (2003-2004). She has published essays and poetry, including “In the Belly of the Beast – Beyond Survival,” “The Puerto Rican Movement” Temple University Press (1998), “Learning in Community: A Transformative Healing Educatiponal Model for Teaching Community Organizing,” “Holistic Engagement”, Oxford University Press (2016).
Esperanza’s ceramic sculptures de Tierra y Mar, have allowed her to create sacred space for manifestation and self-renewal. It allows her to find a new way to express her ideas about life, her Boricua African/Taino heritage, women’s culture, freedom, peace and spirituality. She has showed her work at many various Boricua College, Teachers College, Lincoln Center and many community spaces.
Earth Mother Spirit Atabey / 2016 / Stoneware, Yellow Mate Glaze
Not many artists take the time to share how they relate to their art or, even more important, how their art relates to them. Martell does a beautiful job of that in her Artist Statement. PRIDA is honored to share this with you, fellow PRIDA artists.
Esperanza Martell Artist Statement
Cerámica de Tierra y Mar
Esperanza Martell
As an educator and human rights activist / artist, ceramic sculpture has allowed me to create a sacred space for manifestation and self-renewal. It allows me to find a new way to express my ideas about life, my African/Taino heritage, women’s culture, freedom, peace, and spirituality. Mother Earth has the unparalleled power of transformation. From her womb- rivers flow, trees grow, animals and humans find nurturance, and the air purifies. She is the link that keeps it all together. She holds us firmly and gives witness to our life’s journey and holds our ancestral memories. She cares for us with every breath we take until we return to her womb. The use of clay is my primary means of artistic expression. Ceramic sculpture gives me the opportunity to relate hand-in-hand with the Earth Mother, allowing me to emulate her by creating from nothing. I am inspired by the earth, the ocean, and the stars, as they are part of the cycle of life, which connects the heavens and the earth.
My Puerto Rican African/Taino ancestors used art magically in healing and in their quest for answers to their questions of existence, and being. I am no different. I explore my search through art, an expression of the totality of my life’s experience. Creative magic happens when my needs, ideas, hopes, and dreams come to life in a Cemi, a torso, a mask, an amulet… I hand-build using traditional images and methods. Symbols from ancient cultures allow me to merge my energy with the energy of Earth, creating a synergy that only the person meant to own the piece would feel. My work opens the individual to their historical roots and the subtle energies that flow undetected to the naked eye, thus generating a sublime connection between the individual’s healing and inert inner power of my art. Each piece carries a very special and magical meaning. My work is raw, rustic, and transformative. It evokes primeval and dormant longings so as to remind us of our connection to Ourselves, each other and The Mother. We are not alone. Honoring the Ancestral Being
PRIDA asked Martell if she had any favorite artists and she responded with this exciting, short list of names:
Juan Sanchez, New York, NY
Rafael Tufiño, San Juan, PR and
Samuel Lind, Loiza, PR.
Why did Esperanza Martell become a PRIDA member?
“I joined PRIDA to be part of a movement that promoted Puerto Rican art, culture and freedom with love. ”