BIO& Purpose
Head to my professional skills page to learn more about my professional experience or to my portfolio page to learn about my creative output
Francis Madi is a cultural organizer: writer (poet, essayist, playwright), stage actress, community organizer, policy advisor, podcast host, and public speaker. Her work is heavily influenced and informed by her undocuqueer migrant experience as a Lebanese-Venezuelan living in the US.
She is a 2020 Ars Nova Emerging Leader and a 2019 National Urban Fellow. Her non-profit advocacy and managing experience includes the New York Immigration Coalition, the Arab American Association of NY, 32BJ-SEIU, Herstory Writers Workshop, Epic Theatre Ensemble, and most recently, Ars Nova Theater Company.
Her writing has been featured in the New York Times, Medium.com, Vanidades Venezuela, The New Republic, Long Island Wins, and many other smaller publications. Her poems and essays have been included in migration anthologies in recent years too. She co-hosts a monthly podcast called La Arepa y El Taco centering Latinx, Undocu-Immigrant, POC, Queer experience conversations.
PURPOSE
I became an ORGANIZER by way of my personal story. Storytelling is a powerful tool rooted in MOVEMENT. We call movements the spaces where new ideas emerge collectively to eventually change perspectives. I am grateful to have been a part of the modern day immigrant rights movement in the US, and to learn to unlearn what I was taught about our current institutions and marginalized communities. To understand the importance of rooting ourselves in INTERSECTIONALITY when we organize or educate others, when we support fellow movements to uplift Womxn's experiences, challenge traditional notions of gender and sexuality and instead love on Queer & Trans communities' existence, understand why Black Lives Matter, why we must defend all Workers' rights, stand with Indigenous People and make sure they retain autonomy for their lands, give visibility and accessibility to Disabilities.
I now want to use my knowledge to empower the next generation to continue doing [and undoing] this lifelong work and use my art to express these messages and connect with wider audiences beyond our movement spaces. I don't want to exist in a silo of superficial comfort at the expense of someone else's oppression. It's time to have UNCOMFORTABLE CONVERSATIONS, put our egos aside, listen, teach, and learn.