The Arts + Business Council is proud to announce the 2021 Arts + Business Council Leadership Award honoree, Maràngeli Mejía Rabell, Festival Director, Philadelphia Latino Film Festival, who is being awarded for lifting community media practices, cultural organizing, intersectionality, accessibility, and diversity to bring about positive change and new representation.
Marángeli Mejía Rabell is a Puerto Rico-born, Philadelphia-based connector, cultural organizer & producer, arts & culture curator, and programmer whose work is centered on co-creation, capacity building, leadership development, cross-sector collaborations, and honoring our roots as a tool for social change and community self-actualization.
Marángeli’s practice is focused on community media practices, cultural organizing, intersectionality, accessibility, and diversity. As Director of the Philadelphia Latino Film Festival and Co-Founder/Creative Partner of AFROTAINO she co-curates, designs, and executes arts & culture programming, collaborations, and multidisciplinary projects. She has served as the Philadelphia Latino Film Festival Director for over five years supporting the groundbreaking work of Latinx filmmakers. Under Marángeli’s leadership, PHLAFF has evolved into an international film festival that brings the best of US-based Latinx and Latin American stories to wide audiences. Throughout Marángeli’s career, she has centered Latinx creators, stories, and culture to bring about positive change and new representation.
For over three decades, Marangeli has worked to explore the intersection of arts and culture and community building/development. Through her work with nonprofits in the region, she has infused arts as a core component into workforce development, youth development, health education, ESL instruction, community planning, organizing, and other areas of programming in order to create and hold space for marginalized voices, communicate across cultures, build connections between needs, resources and opportunities and lead groups to shared action by focusing on goals. Under Marángeli’s leadership, PHLAFF has evolved into an international film festival that brings the best of US-based Latinx and Latin American stories to wide audiences. Being of service, lifting others and community self actualizations are the priorities that guide and energize her.
The impact of Marangeli’s innovative approach to programming has led to more inclusive spaces where co-creation and community voices have become the drivers and decision-makers on how they are served. This has supported deconstructing traditional models in learning spaces, given agency to stakeholders in how to collaborate more intentionally and how “if you shine, we shine”.
[Virtual] Arts + Business Council Awards
Wednesday, May 19, 2021 | 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. | Virtual Event
The Arts + Business Council’s annual awards program honors leaders in the Philadelphia region who embody and foster cross-sector collaboration between creative and business communities. Join us in celebration of this year’s honorees along with creative and business community leaders from throughout the Greater Philadelphia region.
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