Modesto Flako Jimenez is a Bushwick-raised artist and educator. He was the 2015 Hispanic Organization of Latino Artists (HOLA) Best Ensemble Award Winner, ATI Best Actor Award Winner 2016, HOLA Outstanding Solo Performer 2017 and 2016 Princess Grace Honorarium in Theater. He has taught theater and poetry in NYC Public Schools for ten years. He has toured internationally and appeared on TEDxBushwick, performed in Wooster Group’s Early Shaker Spirituals, Richard Maxwell’s Samara, Kaneza Schaal’s JACK &. and Victor Morales’ Esperento. In 2018 he became the first Dominican-American Lead Artist in The Public Theater’s UTR Festival for ¡Oye! For My Dear Brooklyn.

Fellowship Statement

I am currently working on Taxilandia, a culmination of my work over the past 9 years that serves as a living collection of the people, spaces, and stories from my community. After the virtual run with La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego and The Tank in NYC, when Covid-19 rules permit, I will start the groundwork for a live production with New York Theatre Workshop and the Bushwick Starr. After the city-run, I will use Taxilandia and what I've learned from my years of collaborative creation in New York City to lead conversations with displaced people across America. I want to collaborate with local artists and theaters to adapt the show for their own communities. The 15 years of teaching artist work and cataloging gentrification I’ve done within Bushwick will inform the artistic conversations I’ll have with communities across America.

Photo by Crichton Atkinson