Wearable Art for a Purpose Roundtable Discussion

Tired of social disparities? Use your purchasing power to change it! This fashion show and exhibition will start conversations about consumer trends, fast fashion, and other commercial conversations that will have you thinking before you make that next fast-fashion purchase. Fight the status quo, and get to know what your purchasing power is truly buying!

Round Table Panelists

Margarita Espada, MFA
Artist, Educator, Activist

She is a performer, educator, cultural maker, researcher, and activist in the fields and studies of physical theater, body and embodiments, settlers-colonialism, race, ethnicity and migration.

Margarita is the founder and director of Teatro Experimental Yerbabuja, an art organization with the mission to use the arts as a tool for social change (teatroyerbabruja.org). She is part of the faculty at the Department of Women Study at Stony Brook University where she teaches theater and activism.
Margarita received her Master of Fine Art in Dramaturgy from Stony Brook University and her Bachelor of Art in Education from Puerto Rico University. She is a New York State and Puerto Rico-certified theatre teacher with over 30 years of experience as an educator, performer, playwriter, arts activist, and cultural and community organizer.

She has conducted research, supported school and organization change efforts, and facilitated teacher / professional learning around applied theater, culturally responsive practice, curriculum design, problem solving, and reflective communication. Margarita advocates on the importance of arts and culture for the social and economic well-being of the local and global community. Her work advancing the art of LatinX, Black, Indigenous, and artists of color on Long Island has made her one of the most prominent leaders in Long Island. She is a board member for the New York State Dance Force, and a member of the Arts Advisory Council for the Suffolk County Legislature.

She has received numerous awards and proclamations for her leadership, her art and community work including 2021 Faces of Long Island, Newsday, 2018 Martin Luther King Living Legend Award, NAACP Islip, NY, 2018. Her work has been reviewed in the New York Times and by the Associated Press, Newsday, and numerous other media outlets.

Jenna Rubaii

Jenna Rubaii is an independent ambassador for Noonday Collection, a Fair-Trade fashion and accessories company that partners with artisan businesses to create sustainable and dignified work for women in some of the world’s most vulnerable
communities, providing them with a global marketplace for their art. Jenna is a passionate stylist, storyteller, and connector and finds it incredibly rewarding to help build a world where women are empowered, children are cherished, people have jobs and we are all connected.

Every piece in the Noonday collection tells the unique story of the inspiring artisans behind them.

Originally from Clearwater, Florida, Jenna now resides in New York City. When she is not sharing Noonday with the world she is a singer and actress who has performed on Broadway and starred in multiple national and international tours.

Submit your wearable art for a purpose, model, and/or perform at the event! Call for Entries!

The round-table discussion will be held via Zoom.

The fashion show will be followed by multi-venue exhibitions throughout the spring and summer of 2023.

The wearable art presented at the fashion show will then be displayed at the following venues:

• Adelphi PAC, Garden City, NY
• Offit Gallery, Gottesman Libraries, Teachers College Columbia University, NYC
• CWNY, Fort Totten, Bayside, NY

For more information, please contact artivism@adelphi.edu