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What does it look like when someone takes everything life threw at them
— homelessness, single motherhood at 19, a stage two cancer diagnosis
— and turns it into fuel to transform an entire community?
Meet Zulaika Velazquez.
In this episode of Uptown Voices, Led Black and Octavio
Blanco sit down with one of Northern Manhattan's most extraordinary
educators, directors, and community builders. Zulaika is a South Bronx
native, Juilliard-trained, and the woman who produced In the Heights at
George Washington High School — with Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jon M. Chu, and
Warner Brothers in the audience. But this conversation goes far deeper
than theater.
🎭 DISTRICT 6 SHOWCASE — MAY 29TH AT UNITED PALACE
750 students, K–12, from 37 schools. Free, open to the public. Art
exhibit from 4 PM, performances 5–7 PM. The only district-wide production
of its kind in the country.
🏫 THERE ARE NO BAD KIDS
Why labeling schools and students ignores the real story — underfunded
classrooms, overcrowded schools, and kids reacting to their circumstances.
Change the resources, change the outcomes.
🌎 ARTS AS LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
Kids who didn't speak a word of English performed a full two-hour
production in English at United Palace by year's end. The method works.
🎬 IN THE HEIGHTS AT GW
While on chemo, Zulaika produced In the Heights at GW with a 250-person
waiting list. Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jon M. Chu, and Bette Midler's team
were in the house. It made Oprah Magazine.
🎓 GETTING UPTOWN KIDS INTO SPECIALIZED HIGH SCHOOLS
Why performing arts schools are harder to get into than Stuyvesant —
and how to level the playing field.
🤖 ARTS IN THE AGE OF AI
Why humanities, critical thinking, and storytelling are the skills
AI can't replace.
🗳️ CIVIC EDUCATION IN THE CLASSROOM
How Zulaika navigates politics with students — research the platforms,
register to vote, understand why local elections matter most.
📌 zulaika@spanglishvoces.com
⏱️ CHAPTERS
00:00 There Are No Bad Kids — Opening Statement
01:08 Welcome & Subscribe Reminder
02:06 Introducing Zulaika Velazquez
04:12 District 6 Showcase at United Palace
05:27 750 Students K–12: The Scale of It
06:19 Respecting Every Artist's Work
07:41 The Jukebox Musical Format Explained
08:12 The Only Production of Its Kind Nationwide
09:05 How It Started in 2017
10:46 Free & Open to the Public — May 29th Details
12:10 From South Bronx to Juilliard
14:12 Opera, Word Painting & Why She Left Classical
17:38 Vagina Monologues in Spanish & Arts as Activism
18:05 Language Acquisition Through Musical Theater
19:01 Full English Musical With Non-English Speakers
20:06 Getting Uptown Kids Into Specialized High Schools
22:01 Theater as Community Space at GW
22:20 In the Heights at George Washington High School
35:08 Stage Two Cancer & the Kids Who Showed Up
37:00 Warner Brothers, Lin-Manuel Miranda & Jon M. Chu
39:35 Oprah Magazine & Breaking the Internet
40:57 Latin Grammy Foundation & $40K in Instruments
42:50 LaGuardia vs. GW: The Real Competition
46:20 Arts in the Age of AI
47:07 Saving Lives: Newly Arrived Students & Changed Trajectories
48:09 When the System Fails Newly Arrived Students
52:28 Student Strikes, Civic Power & Social Activism
56:28 How to Get Teenagers to Listen
58:00 The NYC Subway Metaphor for Life
01:02:20 Students, Trump, Andrew Tate & Open Conversations
01:05:51 Research the Platforms, Register to Vote
01:08:54 The Student Who Was Homeless & Became Pro-Trump
01:09:31 Making Better Human Beings Through Art
01:10:29 How to Reach Zulaika & May 29th Details
🎙️ The Uptown Collective documents the culture, community, and voices
that make Northern Manhattan one of the most extraordinary places
in the world.
▶️ SUBSCRIBE: https://youtube.com/@uptowncollective?si=68xPv3IIxHrhJ2BQ
🔔 Hit the bell. Like. Share. It costs nothing and means everything.
❤️ SUPPORT UPTOWN VOICES — TAX DEDUCTIBLE
The Uptown Collective Podcast is a fiscally sponsored project of the
Maysles Documentary Center — your contribution is 100% tax-deductible.
👉 Donate: https://bit.ly/4eddiWT
📺 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBmbtE4yILFqSWCJtf2Day6NBwHp2FYkU
Spread love — it's the Uptown way. 💙
Creators and Guests
What is Uptown Voices?
Uptown Voices tells the stories of unsung heroes who are transforming New York City's Uptown neighborhoods from Washington Heights to Inwood to Harlem to the South Bronx. Each episode profiles an individual or organization making a positive difference. These social entrepreneurs, artists, and community leaders are navigating critical issues of affordability, public safety, and mental health. Through conversations rooted in journalistic integrity and genuine community ties, this podcast challenges negative narratives and celebrates the true spirit of the vibrant neighborhoods thriving north of Central Park.
Each episode features extended interviews in which subjects tell their stories in their own words. The series examines the interconnected challenges facing Uptown communities—gentrification pressures, resource scarcity, systemic inequities—while simultaneously showcasing the creativity and collective power emerging in response. While uplifting the people shaping Uptown’s future, the podcast holds local elected officials accountable for the promises they make. During this pivotal time, Uptown Voices is creating a unique audiovisual archive.
Uptown Voices is a fiscally sponsored project of the Maysles Documentary Center. Make a tax-deductible contribution to our program here: https://bit.ly/4eddiWT
Zulaika Velazquez (00:00)
I don't necessarily think there are bad kids. I think there are kids who are, they're just reacting to their circumstances or their surroundings, right? And we were talking about a community that was called what, Crack Heights back in the day?
and you look at between police brutality, under-resourced schools, overcrowded schools, working families who can't pay enough rent, and they have two and three working jobs. So it's easy for people to label a school and say that's a bad school. And the reality is you have some teachers who are working really hard, you have great kids, and just maybe,
If they funded the schools the way they should be funding them, we wouldn't say those kids are bad because then you'd have the right program.
Octavio Blanco (01:08)
What's up everybody? Welcome to another episode of Uptown Voices. This one, you're in for a real treat today. Our special guest has an incredible track record here in Washington Heights. She's, I'm gonna say, Uptown native. She's from the South Bronx, but we love the South Bronx ⁓ and ⁓ we're really happy to have her here. But before I introduce her, I just wanna introduce my partner in crime here, my brother from around the mother.
Zulaika Velazquez (01:26)
Thank you.
Octavio Blanco (01:38)
The the the the venerable Led black lead. How are doing today, man?
Led Black (01:44)
I'm doing good, my brother. You know, I'm excited for this episode. And I just want to remind everyone to make sure to subscribe to the channel. Go to the Uptown Collective channel. Subscribe, like, tell your people about it.
Octavio Blanco (01:55)
Yes, sir, please subscribe. ⁓ We can use all the love we can get. It doesn't cost you anything, right? It's free to subscribe. We're, yeah, free 99.
Led Black (02:03)
$3.99.
Zulaika Velazquez (02:04)
You
Octavio Blanco (02:06)
Uptown Voices is under the Uptown Collective banner. So if you go to the Uptown Collective page, that's where you subscribe to. You subscribe to the Uptown Collective page. And that'll give you an alert every time we go live, which we do tend to do that quite often. And also when we upload new episodes, which usually drop on Tuesday. So please, please ⁓ give us some love. So anyway, without further ado, ⁓ I just met this
amazing ⁓ woman here in uptown. Zulaika Velazquez, ⁓ she's a real dynamo and her story, you're gonna just feel, think, ⁓ all the, she's perfect for what we do here to highlight people that are behind the scenes in the community, making things work. And also their own personal stories where they've overcome, a lot of people have overcome so much. And I hope that that
Zulaika Velazquez (02:39)
Thank you.
Octavio Blanco (03:04)
can inspire everybody who's watching. If you have a dream and you want to make it happen, people like Zuleika and others that we've interviewed, I hope that they give you that nudge to follow your dreams and to take your dreams seriously. So Zuleika, welcome to Uptown Voices. How are you today?
Zulaika Velazquez (03:22)
I'm doing great. Thank you. No, thank you guys for having me. I am, I'm just excited about this. And I know, I know, led, I actually know led from in his work, right? We've met a few times, but like just in passing. So it's great to be here. And I've heard so many great things about you too, Octavio. So thank you. Thank you for having.
Octavio Blanco (03:28)
Yeah
Led Black (03:37)
Mm-hmm.
Octavio Blanco (03:43)
Thank you,
Led Black (03:43)
Thank you so much. ⁓
Octavio Blanco (03:47)
⁓ Let is known throughout the land. And Uptown Collective is also known throughout the land. ⁓ I wanna just start with your work in the community and something huge that you have coming up. I want you to expound on that and to give us a little bit of the background to how this has all come together. Cause it's an annual event at...
Zulaika Velazquez (03:51)
Yeah.
Octavio Blanco (04:12)
United Palace Theater. so yeah, why don't you tell us a little bit about this work and also your work and how you got involved with all this incredibly interesting arts and theater work here uptown Manhattan.
Zulaika Velazquez (04:30)
⁓ OK, so ⁓ May 29th we have the community has a showcase in United Palace and what we do is District 6 covers the 37 schools from Hamilton Heights to Inwood. And we invite ⁓ schools to submit a performance and from that we select a group of schools that will perform and so I direct and produce it and what I do is I ⁓ create a storyline.
around all of their performances and make it like one cohesive musical. And so it's so much fun. It's amazing because you get to, I mean, you get to see the families, you get to see the children. I've done this for several years now, so I get to see how the children have grown. I also get to see all of the teaching artists and how much they've evolved, right? So it's just a beautiful community event and it's a great collaboration between DOE,
Led Black (05:02)
Wow.
Zulaika Velazquez (05:27)
⁓ people in the community, ⁓ parents, families, elected officials up here. And of course United has, ⁓ yeah. And so it's next Friday, ⁓ the 29th. It's about this year we have about 750 students per forum. So it's quite a challenge. ⁓ Yeah. ⁓ K through 12.
Led Black (05:42)
Wow, it's huge!
And what are the ages?
my gosh, I mean, like, I'm just trying to think of that logistically, right? Like, how do you compose something like that with the breadth of what you have to do? how does that happen? Like, this is fascinating. I did not know, and I think it's beautiful that you are incorporating the kids of the community, you know, right off the bat. But for you, it seems like a Herculean task, right? Like you got to clean the 12 stables of, know, of myth.
Zulaika Velazquez (05:51)
So kindergarten through high school. ⁓ Yeah.
Octavio Blanco (05:57)
Yes.
Zulaika Velazquez (06:16)
It is, yeah,
Octavio Blanco (06:17)
Yeah.
Zulaika Velazquez (06:19)
so it is quite a task. ⁓ But you know what, I love it because I, as an artist, right, I don't believe in changing anybody's art. I am very respectful of everybody's work. So this is an opportunity for me to show respect to other artists, get to work with them, as well as get to learn from them, right? Because you get to see ⁓ how they engage with the younger children, how they engage with the high school students.
⁓ so it's for me, it's a very beautiful experience. and it's a lot of work, but you work with them and you, do I say this? You can find a way to, to bring the performances together from dance to choir to musical numbers. we have salsa, we have bachata. ⁓ and again, it's just, ⁓ you have to find a way to make it.
I don't know if that makes any sense, right? And so for example, last year, way that I was able to create a storyline, you think about it as like a jukebox musical, you know, where they have all these different musical numbers and they create a storyline around those musical numbers or vice versa. And so last year, it was the story of ⁓ this mother who's reading to her child that she's falling asleep. And in her dream state, the child becomes this like little animated pilot.
Led Black (07:14)
Yeah, yeah.
Zulaika Velazquez (07:41)
right, because the backdrops are all animated and she's traveling all around the world and everywhere she landed, it was a different performance. Right. So you're being respectful to the school, to the artists, to the children's work, while also kind of making it one cohesive production. And I'm excited for this year. I can't really disclose what it's about, but ⁓ they're, you know, it should be a lot of fun. And well, I can say that they're going into space.
Led Black (07:50)
Wow.
Hahaha
Zulaika Velazquez (08:12)
So this year should be very interesting. But I mean, if you guys get to go, it would be great if you guys could join us because ⁓ it's just, you get to see all those beautiful children performing, you know, and then you look at, ⁓ and we were just talking about this, Octavio, when you look at how statistically our communities have been neglected and how so many of our schools are Title I and have very limited funding and these schools are really making it work.
Led Black (08:16)
Fascinating.
Zulaika Velazquez (08:41)
You know, they work. The teachers work overtime. We have amazing teaching artists that also come into the schools and we have CBO's that come into the schools. ⁓ You know, so while other communities ⁓ kind of have their own performances, we are the only district actually nationwide that puts on a production of this. So I think that's beautiful.
Octavio Blanco (09:04)
It's beautiful
Led Black (09:05)
That's fundamental.
Octavio Blanco (09:05)
and it sounds like it's powerful too. Like it's a powerful thing. Now, we just said that you've done this for a few years, but that's not actually true. You've done this for more than a few years. You've been doing it annually since... When was it that you started? Because I don't quite remember.
Zulaika Velazquez (09:08)
It is very powerful.
So in 2000,
so in 2007, so to just begin, it was packed the palace before and it was, I believe it was urban arts that did something. And so they did it more as like a talent show showcase. In 2017, towards the end of 2017, the former superintendent reached out to me and said, you know, I want to do this where it's all of our schools, but I kind of want to change it. And so,
I agreed as long as I could come up with a concept, right? Because you have to find a way to make it like we're a family working together. And I think that's what makes it more powerful. And so his last year, we did all of the schools and it was like 28 schools performing. That year we had about 850 students performing. And then last year was when we introduced the animation.
because we took a break after COVID. So then we introduced the animation and things have kind of changed. ⁓ But I mean, I've been doing musical theater and theater for, I mean, I was three, ⁓ but in the community for many, many years. So yeah.
Octavio Blanco (10:39)
you
Led Black (10:46)
And let me ask you question. So is it open to the public? And where can people get tickets? Like, where can they go right now before we go any further? How do we make sure that we pack the house?
Octavio Blanco (10:46)
Yeah.
Zulaika Velazquez (10:57)
So you, anybody could just come in. I mean, it's open to the public, it's open to the community, it's Yeah. ⁓ So I can share more, yeah.
Led Black (11:05)
What other than URLs? Yeah
Octavio Blanco (11:06)
And what
Led Black (11:07)
URLs, Instagrams, like what should people look for info?
Octavio Blanco (11:11)
Sometimes
things are free, but you have to get a ticket, you know, is that.
Zulaika Velazquez (11:14)
No, they don't. They don't have. It's not a ticketed event, so you could just walk in. But it is the 29th of May from 5 to 7 PM. But I would advise for people to arrive early because we also have an art exhibit from all of the students in the community.
Led Black (11:32)
That's amazing.
Octavio Blanco (11:34)
Yeah, it's really, really, really incredible. that's not all that you.
Zulaika Velazquez (11:40)
you
Octavio Blanco (11:40)
do. You're you're
you're you've got a lot going on. But also, you've got a pedigree of I guess I don't want to use the word pedigree because it's you. You you are the like, like the originator of of your of your experience in the arts. So tell me a little bit about your education and then why you because you've kind of traveled the world with with the arts and and and then how is it that you sort of
Zulaika Velazquez (12:06)
Yeah.
Octavio Blanco (12:10)
refocused and returned to, let's say, your roots ⁓ to do this kind of work ⁓ in our community.
Zulaika Velazquez (12:21)
So like you said, I'm a South Bronx native ⁓ and then my family moved around a lot. ⁓ In my teenage years, ⁓ we were homeless. And so it was very difficult to kind of pursue the artistic kind of background that I wanted to pursue. And by then I had already performed professionally. So was very difficult to do that. And my family kind of encouraged me to pursue more like academics. ⁓
forensic psychology, which is what I ended up doing. But then I went back and I said, you know what? I did what you wanted me to do. It's me. It's time for me to be me. And so I went to Juilliard for opera performance and I trained to be a coloratura ⁓ soprano. That led me to France to continue training to be coloratura. And then I came back. Then I went for film and theater direction and I ended up back in
⁓ in the Bronx actually, because I just didn't really like, ⁓ I just didn't really like the classical world, if that makes sense. It just wasn't me. I come from a very, I say musical family, but nobody in my family had studied classical music. I don't have any trade musicians in my family. ⁓ I stumbled into classical music. In my family, it was like,
It's a very eclectic household, right? My dad would listen to boleros. My mom would listen to salsa. My brother would listen to metal. And ⁓ I'm here listening to musical theater and jazz. So, you know, y mere, y salsa, y todo eso. so, and then in the South Bronx, we grew up above a record shop. It was a Puerto Rican record shop. So it was like music all over the place, right? ⁓
Led Black (13:59)
Yeah.
Zulaika Velazquez (14:12)
And so I had this amazing vocal coach, Delmaetier at the Harbor Conservatory for Performing Arts. And she invited me to see her in Don Giovanni. And she was playing Serlina. And when I just heard her aria, I just fell in love with the art form. And like I mentioned to Octavio, part of it was ⁓ an opera I felt like a release. I felt like I could express myself in a way that
I didn't find anywhere else, right? Because we call it word painting, but you need to feel that emotion and you need to hear it in your voice. And I didn't see that anywhere else. So that's what kind of led me into opera because I listened to an aria and I went to my vocal coach and I said, I just want you to hear me. It may not be perfect. And then that led me to train in to be a coloratura soprano.
But again, I just didn't really, it wasn't my world if that makes sense, right? And so I came back and I wanted to focus more on theater. ⁓ I had my daughter when I was 19 years old. So that was also, I was a single mom, 19 at the time homeless. And so it was a lot, right? And so.
You have to think about it this way, right?
your, the things that are happening in your life can either bring you down or shoot you up. And I chose to have that kind of fuel me to keep forward, right? Cause I didn't have, I see it as, okay, now I'm a single mom with a little girl. I don't have the option to sit around and be depressed. I don't have that luxury ⁓ for lack of a better word, but, ⁓ so I chose to just kind of focus on that, go to school, work full time, be a single mom.
⁓ and then whenever I had some time, I would focus on my art and, ⁓ you know, and it was, was difficult, but, but I feel like everything that has happened in my life, I learned something along the way. Right. And it, humbles you even in moments where, where you think, you know, everything you think you've got it. It humbles you and you learn something. And I think that's what makes us, ⁓ more human. And I feel like.
As an artist, I tell people, I just want to be in the presence of good human beings. And I feel like that's what artists do, right? And I tell people whenever I work with students, tell them, I'm in the business of making better human beings through art. And that's kind of how I choose to see it. yeah, I mean, that's overall. then when I was, let me see, in early 2000s,
I was approached by some students from Columbia to do the first production, the first Spanish production of the vagina monologues in New York city. And so I directed that and we donate all the funding to Alianza Dominicana at that point. It was Alianza Dominicana and it was a huge production. And then that led me to do, I directed about 16 productions of the vagina monologues in Mexico and New York city.
Led Black (17:37)
Wow.
Zulaika Velazquez (17:38)
Dominican Republic. Even in right before COVID, we did one here in New York City with the Mami Chula Social Club. ⁓ And the funds from that, we donated it to Latinas y Lideres that do amazing work with young girls in Dominican Republic. And we were able to raise 20,000. So I'm a firm believer in atrs as social activism. And what I've done with that particular production is
Led Black (17:58)
Amazing.
Zulaika Velazquez (18:05)
the funding goes towards ⁓ an organization that supports women and children. ⁓ With the schools, I ended up working with the schools because when teenagers go through things, my daughter needed more support and she needed me to be by her side. And so I reached out to a friend of mine who was a principal and I said, ⁓ I just want to teach this class in musical theater. ⁓
and was at Gregorio Luperon High School and it's specifically for newly arrived students. And I said, I want to do language acquisition through musical theater. And everybody looked at me like I was crazy. And then we put on a full two hour production, musical production in English with 65 students, kids who did not speak the word of English in the beginning of the school year. And my motto was, listen, if you can get up there and perform at United Palace,
Octavio Blanco (18:43)
Mm-hmm.
Zulaika Velazquez (19:01)
a two and a half hour musical, then you shouldn't be ashamed if you make a mistake trying to speak English.
Octavio Blanco (19:06)
Yeah.
Zulaika Velazquez (19:08)
You don't. seriously,
after that, all of them were like, ⁓ miss, it's okay. I got it. I got it. It's cool. And so it's great to see that, that they have that confidence after that. And then I ended up at GW where I kind of created the media and performing arts initiative. got the studio space. ⁓ And part of that was to develop ⁓ arts programming to assist our students through mentorship, to get into the right colleges, to get into
Octavio Blanco (19:19)
Yeah.
Zulaika Velazquez (19:38)
⁓ to get the scholarships to go to the performing arts schools because like I've mentioned to Octavio before, our kids are just as talented or I would argue even more because they've had no formal training and yet they've proven that they can still get into those colleges. And you know this, Led and Octavio since you guys are from Washington Heights, ⁓
Led Black (19:51)
Right.
Zulaika Velazquez (20:06)
You know how difficult it is for our schools to get the proper funding and for our kids from working class families, right? And ⁓ they go to a high school and, you know, they want to become artists in some form of capacity in some way, and they don't have the right resources. And we're consistently telling them, no, you have to go for accounting or you have to go for this or you have to go for that. ⁓ And I just tell the parents, look,
Led Black (20:13)
Mm-hmm.
Zulaika Velazquez (20:36)
All I want to do is through the arts, get your child reading get your child to hang out in the school ⁓ six days a week. Cause that was the kind of training that we had. was very conservatorial training. ⁓ They're not in the streets. Yeah. And on Saturdays and ⁓ yeah. And so they did. Yeah. Yeah. I made them cite a contract.
Octavio Blanco (20:49)
It was like an after school program, right? was after school and on Saturdays. And the kids had to be there every day, right?
Led Black (21:02)
Mm-hmm
Zulaika Velazquez (21:02)
So, ⁓ and I'll tell you this, it seems like a lot, right? ⁓ They trained in dance, they trained in theater, they trained in vocal training, they trained in playwriting, filmmaking. And on Sundays, they would be like, miss, so are we rehearsing today? And I'd be like, no, I gotta do laundry. Like, suelta, my man, like I need to do laundry. ⁓ Or I would be like, listen, my fiance's gonna kick me out if I'm not home at some point, like, come on. ⁓
Octavio Blanco (21:25)
You
you
Zulaika Velazquez (21:33)
But you see that our kids need that, right? We don't have a community space where kids can go. ⁓ I mean, know PTP is opening up soon, right? But we don't have like a community center where kids can go on the weekends to do things, right? So we were able, I was able to build that. And then that led us to do... ⁓
Led Black (21:52)
Mm-hmm. Yep.
Zulaika Velazquez (22:01)
I'm not sure if you remember this one, in the Heights, when in the Heights was gonna shoot here in Washington Heights. Yeah.
Led Black (22:05)
Yeah.
Octavio Blanco (22:06)
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,
into that. want to, yeah, I think we're gonna get there. We're gonna get there. I just wanted to also, because you've had, you had success with your program and also you had success with your program at a school that like many underfunded schools gets a bad rap.
Zulaika Velazquez (22:20)
Mm-hmm.
Octavio Blanco (22:32)
And maybe there is some truth to it. Maybe there's not truth to it, but like the kids get the bad rap of being labeled bad kids, but you had success and you experienced things differently. So can you just get into that a little bit about, first of all, the bad rap, why does that happen? And then, and then what were some of the positive outcomes that you had?
Zulaika Velazquez (22:55)
You know, honestly, am, might sound, it might sound wrong, but I don't necessarily think there are bad kids. I think there are kids who are, they're just reacting to their circumstances or their surroundings, right? And we were talking about a community that was called what, Crack Heights back in the day?
and you look at between police brutality, under-resourced schools, overcrowded schools, ⁓ working families who can't pay enough rent, and they have two and three working jobs. So it's easy for people to label a school and say that's a bad school. And the reality is you have some teachers who are working really hard, you have great kids, and just maybe,
If they funded the schools the way they should be funding them, we wouldn't say those kids are bad because then you'd have the right program. We have the right resources for mental health resources. You'd have school lunches. You'd have afterschool programming with food for the kids, right? You'd have ⁓ for kids in transitional housing, you'd have ⁓ support, whether it's laundry services or anything there. So it's very easy for people to say, that's a bad school.
without seeing that people are really just trying to make it work with the limited resources that we. And ⁓ in our community, especially, we're still struggling with the taboo of mental health, right? We're still struggling with parents who will say, well, my child has a learning disability, but I don't feel comfortable you labeling my child without them understanding that.
we're not labeling your child disabled. We are just trying to support your child because we understand that they need a little bit more support. know, and so those things are still kind of a taboo in our, communities. ⁓ but that doesn't make the children bad children. And I certainly don't think the school was bad. ⁓ at least that was not my experience at all. ⁓ I do remember people telling me also like, how do you go from, ⁓ how do you go from here to there?
and you're in George Washington, don't you feel threatened? Don't you feel, and I'm like, you're going to find gangs everywhere, right? If that's the case, you're going to find something everywhere you go. It could be the best neighborhood. It could be the suburbs. You're going to find something if you're looking for it. That's one. Two, I'm a South Bronx native. Okay. I grew up in the seventies, eighties and nineties in the Bronx. nothing I haven't seen yet. Sorry.
Octavio Blanco (25:38)
Ain't nothing
gonna surprise you.
Zulaika Velazquez (25:40)
You can't nothing
goes surprising. Nothing goes surprising. I know I look white, but nothing's going to surprise me. I promise you. know, ⁓ and you go, grew up visiting Puerto Rico in the Dominican Republic even more. Now that, now that I'm about to say, you know, nothing is going to surprise me, but, ⁓
Led Black (25:46)
Yeah
Octavio Blanco (25:47)
you
That's right,
because you do have that dichotomy, right? You're Puerto Rican and Dominican.
Zulaika Velazquez (26:01)
Yeah, was, yeah,
like I growing up, they would call us a walking conflict because they're like, you know, we were at each other, you know, ⁓ so, so it's, yeah, so it's interesting. ⁓ When people would come up to me and say, Hey, you know, what are you doing? Why are you going to G dubs? And I'm like, well, I wanted to, I wanted to find a way to get back to my community. I wanted to find a way that the same
Led Black (26:08)
Hahaha
Yeah, I remember that.
Zulaika Velazquez (26:28)
the same resources and access that was afforded to me. I wanted to pay it forward and work with our youth, right? ⁓ And it was great because I was able to bring my daughter and get her to participate in different things. And thank God now she's a working actress, but I fell in love with the kids. I fell in love with the families ⁓ and the kids will call me mom. And so you go in and you look at
⁓ You look at these kids that people deem as dangerous and not one kid. That was not my experience at all. ⁓ So again, know, do things happen? I think things can happen anyway. But at GW, that was not my experience. ⁓ And the kids are, the kids were actually very sweet. So, you know, to be able to bring them in, ⁓
the theater program there became, the school didn't have an LGBTQ plus center or space. And so the theater program was like the space where our kids would come out and say, I found a community here. It was a space where newly arrived kids didn't feel like the language was a barrier because we found a way to communicate. It was a space where I had students that, I had a student who was legally blind and she loved,
musical theater. And so we were able to like dictate through the lighting how to move on stage. You know, kids that people would say, they're a they have ADHD, they have no solution. And I'm like, I got you. So I would just tell them just do a lap around the around the, you know, around stage. And those were some of my best students. So I again, I don't believe that there are bad or
bad children or bad schools, I do not believe that. And that was certainly ⁓ not the case for GW, at least for me.
Led Black (28:33)
So like, wanna talk about like your focus on the newly arrived.
I think that's especially very important for our community. mean, you know, because I think when you come from anywhere else, right, you know, it's a tough transition, especially when you're young, right, because you were like ripped apart from this other world and now you have to make this this whole new connection and you don't speak the language. And I find it like very innovative that you're using the arts to, you know, to help with the language. Why is that important to you? And how did that that whole like the theory, right? How did that come about?
Zulaika Velazquez (28:38)
Mm-hmm.
Led Black (29:08)
out.
Zulaika Velazquez (29:08)
So my dad ⁓ to this day doesn't speak English. And you know, my grandmother lived here for many, years and she didn't speak English. But one of the things that I that I was seeing was that a lot of our kids who were newly arrived, you know, didn't feel like a connection, right? There was a kind of a divide. In in like some of the after school programming where you receive the newly arrived here.
and the English speakers here. And there was no bridge, right? ⁓ Because even when they play baseball, they're still kind of like shouting at each other, but they're still not connecting. ⁓ And so I wanted to find a way to kind of find a bridge between the two. And when I started at Lupe Roo, because Lupe Roo was specifically just for newly arrived students, ⁓ that program...
was designed to help them through ⁓ language acquisition and we would study history. So the way that I teach theater is we do the history, we do the psychology, we do reading the material, we do breaking down and understanding the vocabulary and how to pronounce it and un-seam things. So it's like a really long process. And what that does, it helps ⁓ the kids understand what it is that they're saying, how they say it and why they say
⁓ and I actually have a funny story about that. have a teacher who he was teaching, who's a history teacher and they were, they were learning about world war II and all of my kids raised their hands and they knew all the answers. And he was like, well, how do you guys know this? And one of the students says, well, we're studying cabaret and miss Zulaika maybe do the research on this and this and this.
Led Black (30:59)
Hehehe.
Zulaika Velazquez (31:05)
And did you know X, Y, and Z? And did you know, and it was just funny because never in a million years did this history teacher, who by the way, also criticized me for saying, ⁓ the kids are just wasting their time in the program, was amazed that the kids knew the history probably better than he did because they did so much research, right? And when it was time to give an oral presentation on what they were, you know, on what they were studying,
My kids were the best. and they were the best because they were comfortable speaking in front of the class. They rehearsed with me. Okay, miss, how do I properly pronounce this word? What am I staying with this vocabulary word? I understand that this word could be used this way in that way. ⁓ what do you think? And we would sit there and I would take the time with each one of them to, so just say, okay, what is it that, what is the message that you're trying to say? Right. And so again, like I told them, if you can get up in front of.
6,000 people or whatever, you can actually go out there. And even if you make a mistake, let me tell you, most English speakers don't speak English properly either, you'll be fine. ⁓ And if you make a mistake, so what? At least you speak two languages, other people don't. So I think for me, that was there. And then when I got to GW, because there's a very big population of newly-arrived students as well. ⁓
it was a way for me to find a way to bridge them. And like I said, in the theater group, for us, ⁓ there was no language barrier. They would connect with one another. ⁓ If there was a mistake that they made, the kids would say, look, no, let's pronounce it this way. But it wasn't a confrontational thing. It was very much like we're learning together. And then the other kids, the English speakers were learning Spanish too. And if one of them would mess up,
I didn't even have to say anything. They would hold each other accountable. They'd say, hey, listen, your grades are slipping. You're not gonna make it to the, you're not gonna be able to perform because your grades are slipping. You need help? I got you. Let me, let's do this after school. I'll tutor you. So it became, and that's what I love about arts education, because you're building a community where you're holding each other accountable. You're supporting each other, but you also understand that there really is no way
Led Black (33:04)
amazing.
Zulaika Velazquez (33:30)
We all are fighting a battle. We all leave our egos at the door and we're all making this work together. Right? Cause the only way we're going to make this work is if we reach the finish line together. So in, and that to me is what I love and that we can bring, you know, children who are, ⁓ children with disabilities, children with, ⁓ newly arrived students, LGBTQ plus students, ⁓
English students, Black students, Latino students, all students under this one roof working together as opposed to just like having them separate, you know? So that's, that to me is the most inspiring thing. So, sorry, I could keep going. I'm a chatterbox.
Octavio Blanco (34:18)
You're
Led Black (34:19)
Yeah, this is awesome. Thank you.
Octavio Blanco (34:21)
good. This is like I was saying, you you just go with it, you know, because you're such a, you are really such an inspiration. ⁓ So the, the, the students had good outcomes because they
Zulaika Velazquez (34:30)
thank you.
Octavio Blanco (34:37)
became more educated than they might have been otherwise. ⁓ And the students also had good outcomes because they were able to enroll and be accepted to prestigious universities ⁓ from G-dubs, which is not what people associate sometimes that school with. But the school itself also got some good shine because of the work.
Zulaika Velazquez (34:53)
Yeah.
Octavio Blanco (35:03)
that you do. So let's get into that now. The big production that drew Hollywood to the front steps of GW.
Zulaika Velazquez (35:08)
you
I'm gonna ⁓ tell you something that I actually didn't share with you before. ⁓ So in 2018, I was diagnosed with stage two cancer and I had started chemo. And if I tell you, and I'm sharing this because ⁓ I'm a firm believer the same way I told you about.
you know, my family being homeless in my teenage years. I share those stories with the kids because I think it is important for students or youth in general to understand that adults, we still don't have it together 99.9 % of the time, even though we try. But also everybody has a journey and it's just about kind of focusing on something and keep moving forward. And it was my kids. It was my students who...
On the stage, they knew I couldn't keep any food down, so they'd bring me peanuts. They'd check out, hey, miss, I got you some seltzer. Hey, miss, how you feeling? Hey, miss, I think you need to sit down. Hey, miss, listen, these are the kids at GW. You know, the same kids that people were saying are, you know, it's a bad school. ⁓ Hey, miss, are you okay? And so right when I was completing, when I had just ⁓ finished my chemo.
I get a call from ⁓ a friend of mine who's like, hey, are you going to be in school today? I'm like, yeah, what's going on? They're like, yeah, well, we need to have a meeting. And so they just pulled me into this meeting. ⁓ And there was Luis Miranda, who I knew from before because he had given me, when Noma first started, I was one of the first people to receive a grant from Noma. And ⁓ that's when I met Luis.
And so Luis was there to talk about with some representatives from Warner Brothers to talk about essentially putting up a In the Heights, the musical as a way to announce, to launch the, the filming of In the Heights, Moving. ⁓ And I'm not quite sure how they heard about me that, you know, that I was doing musical theater and I was doing this and blah, blah. And so that's how that meeting, that's how that meeting ended up there. But,
Yeah, so they approached me about doing In the Heights as a musical with the students from George Washington. And ⁓ it was funny. I say it was it was meant to be because ⁓ I was actually seeking the rights to the musical ⁓ to do that musical that year. ⁓ It was just bizarre. so anyway, so we met with them and I said, I'd love to do it. And
What made it a task is if you've seen In the Heights, you know, it is a beautiful musical. It is also very challenging if you have students who have no training. So ⁓ we trained sometimes seven days a week. And when I tell, I mean, I can share photos and everything. It was the most beautiful. And I know I'm using the word beautiful lot, but it was just like amazing because
Again, kids that people are saying, no, they're bad kids. And we go, built a two level ⁓ set.
And it was us, we built it. Like I went home ⁓ with like green paint on my face at some point. We built the two level musical, I mean two level set. We had amazing choreography. ⁓ We had, there's four schools in GW. So we have students from all four schools and I opened it up to the community. So district six kids were able to audition as well. So we had like seven through, no, I would say eight.
through K through 12. ⁓ And yeah, we had John Chu in the audience. We had Lynn Manuel, we had Chiara, we had Luis. had, of course, ⁓ at that point, Fett Midler's people had reached out to me about potentially working with the school. And this is right before COVID, unfortunately. ⁓ But they were there.
Led Black (39:16)
Wow. Wow.
Octavio Blanco (39:32)
because Ben Midler is from
the heights.
Zulaika Velazquez (39:35)
So they were there. And again, it was just, we had 250 people on a waiting list to try to get in. And people were still trying to get more tickets. And I was like, I don't know what else to do. But it was great. And...
Led Black (39:44)
Yeah.
Y'all broke
the internet. Y'all broke the internet. I remember when that was happening. That's like my internet fee went crazy because everyone was talking about your production. Like it was amazing. Amazing.
Zulaika Velazquez (39:53)
Yeah.
Thank
you. I was like, I made it to Oprah. That was it. That's what that was the highlight of my day. I called my mom the next day when all this stuff came out. I told my mom, that's it. I've made it. I made it to Oprah. Like I'm wearing the magazine. So ⁓ that was exciting. But overall, ⁓ to me, the most fulfilling part was just to see our kids up there performing. And people tell me, ⁓
I would have never thought that something like this was happening uptown. ⁓ And then I had another, I had a teacher there told me this was better than anything I've seen at LaGuardia. I was like, thank you, thank you very much because those are kids who have training, right? ⁓ And then after that, we did then COVID came and then after COVID, Luis Lin-Manuel and... ⁓
Led Black (40:43)
It's amazing.
Zulaika Velazquez (40:57)
And the Latin Grammy Foundation reached out about doing something else at the school. They were going to donate $40,000 of instruments because we had started a music program, but we didn't have the instruments, right? And so I put on a show where it was a tribute to the music of Lin Manuel Miranda, where it was like the best songs and the kids performed it as like one show. And so that was another one.
that was ⁓ phenomenal. And then after that, we were just doing our musicals at United Palace because part of what I do to teach kids is like we write our own jukebox musicals. And so we wrote a musical called a musical about musicals. And so I work with the kids to write that and then how do we incorporate music. And then the second one was called my immigrant mixtape, ⁓ which I wrote it. ⁓
and the kids supported it with the music. And it was actually a collection of stories from the different kids, right? Because like, even though I'm from the Bronx, on my block, we had Jamaican, Nigerian, Ghanaian, Dominican, Puerto Rican. So literally, our block was a mix tape. You would walk down the block and you would hear reggae, dancehall reggae, would hear merengue, you would hear bachata. You would hear like all types of music just walking down the block.
And so I called it my immigrant mix tape because, you know, at our parties, it wasn't just Abuela, Abuela, Tio. It was like my neighbor who was Indian. So it was like, you know, we wanted to highlight that and the realities that our communities face. And so, ⁓ yeah. And again, all kids from Washington Heights and GW. So.
Octavio Blanco (42:50)
Yeah, you gave me a stat the other day that I found that I didn't make that makes perfect sense now that I you know that you said it to me, but that I didn't even think about in terms of the how difficult it is to get in certain high school. So can you tell us a little bit about about that?
Zulaika Velazquez (43:07)
yeah.
So I always find it funny when people say, ⁓ you know, the most difficult high schools to get into are Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, and I forget what other specialized high schools you need to take a test. Yeah, right, that's the other one. ⁓ And I always tell people, actually, I don't agree with that because you can study for a test. What you cannot do is make up years of training in a year.
Led Black (43:26)
Brooklyn Tech, Brooklyn Tech.
Zulaika Velazquez (43:39)
Right? Most of our kids don't have like most of the kids who go to LaGuardia or to those specialized high schools have some form of training, but you need money, right? You need money to go to classes, money to have training. It's a highly competitive school, right? So how do we get our kids into those high schools? You know, and train them properly so they can get into those high schools so that they can then proceed to go to those universities.
And so ⁓ now that I, when I started working now with some of the middle schoolers, that's been kind of like my other mission. How do I get our kids into those specialized high schools? ⁓ I've had a few kids that go on to go through professional performing arts. I've had students that go into the guardian. ⁓ My daughter was like one of those kids. So I use the same training that I gave my daughter. I apply that to the kids because I don't see a difference.
Right. The same, the same approach I had with my daughter, the same, ⁓ level of training, level of responsibility, level of unique discipline. ⁓ that's exactly what I do with every single one of my kids. And so I feel like now, especially in this AI age, I feel like we're going to need artists more than ever. And I've been saying that for years and people thought I was crazy. Right. ⁓ you can't.
Somebody, how do I say this? Like we need to, the only way we can build community is by connecting, right? And AI can't replace this that we're doing, right? AI can't replace ⁓ how alive and how alive show makes you feel.
And, know, we went through years of people and I remember saying this to people, I don't know why you keep pushing ⁓ coding so much. I'm not mocking coding. I'm just saying, what does it matter that a child knows how to code when their reading level is a sixth grade reading level? What you should be doing is teaching them more humanities so that they can understand and critical thinking is very important. All of those things that I just saw that things were shifting.
And, um, and I remember just telling people, okay, so what are you going to do when AI replaces coding? And you're the kid can't read well, but yet you're telling me it's bad that I'm making them read Shakespeare. Yeah, exactly. And yet you're telling me handing them a book of Shakespeare is bad. That's a waste of time. Right. Um, communicating with one another is a waste of time. And then now you see that companies are hiring, um,
Led Black (46:01)
Yep, that's where we're at now.
Yeah.
Zulaika Velazquez (46:20)
Now you see that companies are hiring people who specialize in theater and communications, right? In order to get their message out. Media content creators are like the, are the ones, you know, producing all the commercials. They're no longer doing like your traditional commercials. Now they're doing these like, ⁓ what is it? V-Drama? No, the, ⁓ what's it called? The, vertical dramas. Yeah, they're doing vertical dramas. And on top of that, they're doing, ⁓
Octavio Blanco (46:41)
the vertical drum is here.
Led Black (46:42)
Yeah.
Zulaika Velazquez (46:46)
They look like micro mini short films now. That's the new approach towards ⁓ these big designer companies. And so what is that? That's storytelling.
Led Black (46:58)
Mm-hmm. Is it like I want to I'm sorry, but I couldn't finish. I'm
Zulaika Velazquez (47:00)
story time. And yeah, sorry.
No, no, please.
Led Black (47:07)
No, so I wanted to say one of the things that I want to focus also back on the newly arrived your work with them, because I think that's so important because it's not just language. It's not just arts, right? It's not just, oh, Shakespeare, I per se. But in a lot of ways for a lot of kids, you're actually kind of saving them in certain ways because, you know, I have family members, right? That, that, you know, came from DR right? And then all of a sudden, you know, she's 16 and she's pregnant at 17.
Zulaika Velazquez (47:31)
Yeah.
Led Black (47:37)
Right. And now, you know, that her, her, whatever dream she may have had or going somewhere else, you know, so a lot of kids come here and because school doesn't really work for them, they, they leave it and they either go to the workforce early or they go into, to, to crime and streets life early. You know what mean? So I think what the work you're doing is you're also saving lives, you know, can you talk a little bit about that? Have you had that like with someone like, you know, that your work kind of
Zulaika Velazquez (47:48)
Yeah.
Thank you.
Led Black (48:05)
change the trajectory of their life.
Zulaika Velazquez (48:09)
have a lot, actually. ⁓ One of the biggest criticisms that I give ⁓
Let me go back. One of the problems that I have is, ⁓ you know, when we say, a lot of our newly arrived students, right, when they arrive, ⁓ because the education is different, oftentimes they're actually ⁓ kind of brought down. You know, if they're like, let's say 11th grade in their native country, they come here because of the language and, know, ⁓ whatever the case may be, they're back to ninth grade for instance.
And so one of the things that I've consistently stated or had a problem with is that I'd say, well, okay.
Once they hit 18, if they don't pass their regent's test, what are we offering them? Realistically, what are we offering them? Because if you're telling me, especially when we had our asylum seekers who were here, right, well, if you're telling me that this child ⁓ didn't have X amount of years of education because of whatever the case may be, maybe they, you
This is when they were crossing over. don't know. Now you brought them back down to ninth grade, right? But we're not offering an alternative. We're not offering, okay, you're going to be 18 and, ⁓ and then the system is going to access you out. We're not giving them, you know, schools know a lot of schools no longer do any kind of training, any, ⁓ what's it called? like any plumbing, there are, welding and vocational. Thank you.
Octavio Blanco (49:46)
vocational.
Led Black (49:46)
The
vocational, yeah.
Zulaika Velazquez (49:48)
Thank you. So a lot of schools, and I'm so happy to see that a lot of schools are going back to that and CTE training, you know, for our kids. And that's always been my biggest criticism. You can't blame the child. ⁓ Because you're not giving them an alternative. You're not giving them. Do you know how many kids I know that are amazing at music production? A lot of kids, you know, and a lot of kids is like, Miss, listen, I like writing.
I like this and but we're not meeting them where they're at. We're expecting them to come into this system and say you need to abide by these rules. And even if they even if they try their hardest, they always feel like they fail. We're not giving them an alternative to say, OK, listen, so. Even if you don't pass the regents exams, we've got you. These are the training programs that we could do to get you to be, ⁓ you know, a contributing member to society.
Right? So that way they don't feel like they failed. But what we have now in place is like, oh, well, you didn't learn the language. I guess, you know, what can we do? We tried our best. And the reality is that they were just dumping them in a class and saying, here, here's the material for you to learn. And again,
blame a lot of kids who get discouraged, right? Because it's a lot, a lot of our kids, especially if they come from working families, a lot of our kids are like, Bueno, mira, mí, si yo tengo que trabajar. I have to, many of the girls that I know have siblings. And so they're like, I can't stay after school because I have to pick up my siblings because my mom has two jobs. ⁓ you know, so all of those things, and that's why I say, you know, it's easy to label
when you don't know everything that's happening in our communities, right? And our kids, ⁓ our families need more support, right? Our kids need more support. ⁓ I feel like with what I do, those who are lucky enough to have the time to go, because many students wanna go, it's just that they have responsibilities at home, whether it's their siblings, ⁓ many kids that actually have to work because...
you they have to help out at home because that is a reality as well. ⁓ And so you try as much as you can to tap into those kids and try to support them. ⁓ But I do have a kid, there was one kid who I loved him so much and he was constantly told in the school, ⁓ he's just a bad kid. ⁓ he, and he would always act out and he would always yell at the teachers. ⁓
But I would tell him, you know, why are you so angry? What's going on? He never told me. And then I just invited him one day to rehearsal. And he was like just beautiful. He was a great performer. He would sing. He was passionate. He loved writing. He loved rapping. And when you actually ask him about his story, nobody asked him that his family was living in the shelter system. He had...
⁓ four siblings. His mom had to drop off two and he would drop off the other two, which is why he was coming to school every day. He was living in Brooklyn at the time because that's where the shelter was. And he had lost, the only father figure he had, ⁓ his stepfather. And so that's how they ended up, you know, there and he had lost him. And so he was very angry and he was already joining a gang. And I remember.
It was a little crazy on my part. I remember seeing him parked behind and he was hanging out with some kids and I'd like, you know, and I have something to do, come on. And I was that person. would go and be like, got something to do. And then, you know, he, and I actually have a video of him saying it. He got accepted to Stedler Adler Conservatory on a full scholarship and was at that point,
Led Black (53:48)
Wow.
Zulaika Velazquez (53:51)
He ⁓ did a fellow and I got a call from the school saying we have never seen a young man perform that monologue the way he did. Because it was, I told him that pain, that knot that you feel that you have in your throat, I need you to channel that through this monologue. We need to find a way to take that energy.
in like channel it a different way, not anger, right? Take it out on the stage. And that's how he was able to do that. And so, I mean, just like him, I've had others. I had another one who was an amazing writer and, ⁓ you know, and he was living here in New York City and his parents had left to Dominican Republic and just left him living in a room because he was dead and hungry, you know? And so it's, ⁓
Led Black (54:26)
Hmm
Zulaika Velazquez (54:49)
It's hard because ⁓ I put myself in their shoes and I can only imagine what they must go through. And ⁓ I can only imagine how other people perceive them. so what I do is I treat them the way I would treat my daughter. I treat them the way I would hope. ⁓ You what? I just believe you just could be a good human being. Really, that's it. It's really nothing.
Octavio Blanco (55:19)
And you said something to me the other day that I thought was around in this topic, which is like, a lot of kids, they see adults, and you mentioned it a little bit here, but I'm gonna, I want you to, I want to push you a little bit more on it. A lot of kids that see adults and they think like, what does he know? What does she know? What do they know? But like, the fact is like, especially like somebody like yourself,
your story aligns so much with the story that a lot of kids might bring with them into the classroom. And I feel like you mentioning is that you find a way to find that.
place of understanding that is like, hey, I know I'm the teacher here. I know I'm the one who runs this program, but I was once like you and sometimes even worse. So listen to me. So how do you get teenagers to actually listen to you when you bring them that reality, that shared, kind of like a shared experience?
Zulaika Velazquez (56:28)
So, honestly?
find that most kids just want you to listen to them. And I find that if you ask them, hey honey, how are you doing? I have a motto, I don't eat in front of children. If I didn't buy pizza for all the kids, then I'm not eating in front of them because I don't know who has eaten and who hasn't. So if I don't have enough to share with them, then I just won't eat. But I...
I asked them, how are you? sit with them and I asked them, how are you? Did you eat? ⁓ And I find that that is really it. ⁓ Even before I talked to them and say, hey, I understand what you're going through or I've been in your shoes. How can I help you? ⁓ I know that one of the things that I did mention, you know, apart from listening to them, I have this thing where I come in and I say, okay, this is your life. Your life is like a New York City subway.
You start in this point and you have an ultimate destination, right? You know, you know, this is your goal. And what does a train do? It makes a few stops, right? Okay. So maybe there's construction and you have to get off on the platform and have to hop on another train to make it to that goal. Right. So you hop on and then you ultimately get back on that line and you end up where you want to go. Or maybe you just decided you don't want to go to the Bronx and you want to go to Brooklyn. I don't know. Maybe you take it.
the opposite way, but that's your life. So how do we create a subway lineman to get you from where you are now to where you want to be? What can we do? Because all life is just about short, like small achievements in between. There is no big leap. That's what life is. And do we mess up? Yeah, we mess up. And maybe we miss that train ride and maybe we just have to wait another 10 minutes for the next one.
but that is your life. And so I say that to the kids ⁓ because ⁓ most of our kids also have this idea, ⁓ you know, I'm going to make a lot of money when I get, okay, what do you consider a lot of money? That's one, right? Cause I had a kid once tell me, miss, I just got to do a job for 30 K and I'm good. I was like, yeah, when you do 25 for that job, then you tell me how much that 30 K was worth, right? And so, ⁓
When you have conversations like that, that are reality, know, reality, like you tell them, you you have this idea in your head, but you've never actually visited a prison or a jail. You have no idea what that lifestyle was like. And I wouldn't recommend it to anybody. You have no idea what your mother is gonna go through, right? So it's easy to say these things. ⁓
de la boca pa fuera or because you romanticize what you're seeing in music videos or whatever the case may be, but the reality is, is that those decisions bring consequences that you are not ready for. And so we have those conversations. We have very open conversations. Most of us, myself included, we've suffered through mass incarcerations in our families. We know what that's like.
to have those conversations with the kids, to understand and show them that no matter their age, they are powerful. Their voices are powerful. And I'm telling you, because I remember one time and what it looped it all. don't remember, honestly, I don't remember what triggered it. All I know is that all my theater students were like, fuck it, tomorrow we're coming in and we're, vamos a quemar vitrina, vamos a quemar goma. And I was like, okay, my Dominican students, y'all need to chill because.
They were like, really like, we are striking tomorrow. We are doing this. ⁓ And it's just like, they really, they really took their, ⁓ their power into their own hands. You know what I mean? They really were like, I'm going to do this. And this is how, this is how we're moving forward. And so they sent a letter to the principal detailing all of their requests. And by certain day, we expect to have a meeting and if not, we're striking. And so.
I thought it was funny, but it was a proud moment because I get to tell the kids, hey, listen, you were powerful. Don't let anybody tell you that your voice doesn't count. ⁓ And like I said, through this, you get to teach them social activism. You get to teach them that your community is important. You get to teach them about ⁓ how Black and brown communities have been affected and how ⁓
Traditionally in this country, they've done everything possible to suppress our voices. so more than ever, they are important because now, especially in media, I mean, this is why what you guys are doing is so important, right? Because we don't have representation. So we have to teach our kids that they are in a position to create those spaces. They are in those positions to really bring forth our stories, right? Or we say stories by us about us and for us.
And so when I teach the film program, it's the same thing. How do you show people that you are worthy?
you know, how do you show them? If you don't provide kids with the tools to express themselves, to think critically, to think, ⁓ which is now more important than ever, you know, we have to do that for them. And I am a firm believer that this is, that working through our youth is actually more important now than ever, right? And we're seeing it now in the elections. We're seeing it in the elections, right? We're seeing how everything is changing. So,
Led Black (1:02:20)
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
And you know, it's funny you say that because, you know, I know we're almost at the, we're past the hour mark, but I have to ask you how, how, how did that, you know, going through this last election, right? And knowing that, you know, there's parts of like some of the parts, poorest parts of Washington Heights and the Bronx, a lot of the people were pro Trump.
Zulaika Velazquez (1:02:34)
my God, already?
Octavio Blanco (1:02:35)
you
Led Black (1:02:50)
How did you deal with that with through your, like, what was the reactions of your students? did, what were they saying? Were they pro-Trump, some of them?
Zulaika Velazquez (1:02:58)
⁓
so that's actually a great question. So I am very, ⁓ I believe in sitting down and having a conversation with the kids and having just like an open and honest conversation. I did hear a few, and it was mostly the boys, but I think that they was just stuff that they heard at home.
Right? did hear, I did hear a lot of them that for whatever reason, families made more money under Trump. ⁓ that's what I would, I would hear a lot of, ⁓ I did hear a few boys also tell me, which I thought was interesting that it was particularly the boys. and we're seeing that now with the Manisfia and everything that's happened. I, and I remember having, yeah. And I, and I remember also having conversations about Andrew Tate.
Led Black (1:03:38)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, the alpha male nonsense, yeah.
Zulaika Velazquez (1:03:56)
with the students because they were glorifying him. ⁓ I had a conversation with a black student about Candace Owens. I've had conversations, you know, and again, it wasn't me judging them. I just wanted to listen to them and understand how they got there and why they were thinking the way they were thinking. Because I think so many times what we do is we try to combat them as opposed to just listening and understanding
How did we get here? I know that ⁓ with the last election, ⁓ most of the students were very pro-proma. The problem was that many of them said, you know, I'm having an issue because I understand that the same thing that happened with Hillary is happening now, where these women were selected for us.
and where is Bernie? So I heard that a lot. And I think that was a problem. think racism was a problem, even though people don't want to talk about it. think misogyny was a problem too. I've heard students say, well, I don't think women are ready to lead. I've heard that as well, which is sad, right? It's sad that you
that you're hearing from students saying, hey, you I don't think, you know, a woman should be leading, the man is the man of house, blah, blah. So again, but I don't necessarily think that that's actually what they believe. I think that that's just stuff that they hear at home and they're just, you know, carrying it. One of the things that I did do was ⁓ we would have this project where I would kind of come in and just say, okay, these are the two platforms. I'm not showing you the face.
Led Black (1:05:39)
Bye.
Zulaika Velazquez (1:05:51)
I'm not showing you the name, just tell me who you kind of, who you resonate more with. And, ⁓ and I do that because identity politics are a real thing. And I wanted the kids to do their research on why, you know, why doing research on each candidate is important. Why, you know, why you have to ⁓ take the time out to understand what local politics are about, to understand what, why that's even more important than the presidential election. Right.
⁓ So I take the time to teach them that as well. ⁓ And just letting them understand, listen, okay, I'm not here to tell you how to vote. I'm here to help you. Well, I encourage them to register to vote. That's a big thing. I encourage them to do their research on the platforms and I encourage them, again, I encourage them to understand why it is so important to exercise their civic duties, right? And then just say,
That is as important because that affects my community. That affects my mom who goes to church every Sunday. ⁓ You know, how the council person allocates funding is important because that affects my schools. It affects community centers, our streets, et cetera. And so with the last election, it was wonderful because I was able to, you know, sit down with them and tell them why researching is important, but it was also...
heartbreaking in many cases because there was a former student that I had ⁓ who really broke my heart. this student was a newly arrived student. He was homeless. He was undocumented at some point. And we worked really hard to support him and his family to help them get the resources they needed. And then years later, he's pro-Trump. And he's like,
these people are leeches. And I'm just like, it really broke my heart because I, how did we get here? It was the question, you know, and, and he, and he wrote to me, he was like, no miss, I still love you. Like, and you know, we, don't have to agree on everything. And, and, know, and I would sit like, yeah, I, you know, I, I can't like, I can't get past this. You, you think it's okay to dehumanize people.
when you were once in their shoes and I have a lot of trouble with that. I cried a lot. I cried a lot because I couldn't believe that we were there. But I also think there's a lot of ⁓ rhetoric that goes around. ⁓ Really just sharing information that's false, telling our families, well, these people are here to take away from you.
⁓ you know, so it's, difficult to cut through that, especially when they come from families that are feeding into that. But, ⁓ but you really just try your hardest and I'm not gonna lie to you, I cried a lot. I cried a lot.
Octavio Blanco (1:08:54)
Yeah.
Led Black (1:08:56)
And know, so like I like that's the thing that that you know, this conversation has been amazing first of all, right? you know and like how it started like, know having these conversations because
You know, you know, it's so much more than arts and culture, right? And English, right? Like you're making better humans, you're making better citizens. You know, you're empowering people. You know what mean? That's, that's what I think is, is so incredible about the work you do. And I think it aligns with what we do here. And so thank you for being on the show, first of all, that we really appreciate it. But I want to make sure.
Zulaika Velazquez (1:09:13)
Yeah.
Led Black (1:09:31)
that we get how how people gonna get to the show that's happening. Please tell us all the information once again.
Zulaika Velazquez (1:09:35)
Yeah,
yeah.
Octavio Blanco (1:09:37)
And also,
because we never know who's watching YouTube or who's listening to Apple. But if somebody wants to reach out to you, wants to ⁓ actually ⁓ talk to you about whatever they're working on, how do they get in touch with you?
Zulaika Velazquez (1:09:54)
Thank you. ⁓ Okay, so first, the show is May 29th at United Palace ⁓ from 4 p.m. for the art exhibit and 5 to 7 for the actual show, for the performances. So I hope everybody can make it. ⁓ And if you do want to reach out to me, I have, ⁓ my fiance and I have a nonprofit that works with schools, as well as emerging artists. ⁓
And also in the professional sector as well. if you want my, it's Zuleika, Z-U-L-A-I-K-A at spanglishvices.com.
Led Black (1:10:29)
to like thank you so much for being on the show. Thank you the work you do too, seriously. Like, you know, I was very lucky, I think, because I was born here, about three months, you know, and then I came very early, I came at five. So I was able to learn English really quick, you know, and I was a very smart kid. You know, my mom was really into like, you know, she was a poor, you know.
Zulaika Velazquez (1:10:31)
No, thank you guys. Thank you. This has been amazing.
Octavio Blanco (1:10:32)
Thank you.
Zulaika Velazquez (1:10:37)
Thank you.
Led Black (1:10:52)
person from the Campo, right? She didn't really, you know, she loved, she didn't really have schooling, but she loved to read. So therefore I love to read, right? And, but thank you for that work because you know, it's so important, right? Like I just think, I think I just have to say that again. The work you're doing is transformational.
Zulaika Velazquez (1:10:53)
Yeah.
It can't
Led Black (1:11:10)
You know, and sometimes people don't get their flowers, but you deserve all the flowers in the world because that kind of work you're doing is it really even though seriously, it really is important. you know, so many people fall through the yeah, seriously, you know, especially with this war being waged against us. Yeah, no, we have a war being waged against us and you want you on the right side fighting. So thank you so much, like and next time you're doing something, please let us know. We'll definitely amplify highlight. Thank you. Please do. Thank you. Thank you.
Zulaika Velazquez (1:11:14)
⁓ Thank you.
Octavio Blanco (1:11:20)
Uptown Hero.
Zulaika Velazquez (1:11:24)
I cry and go, Octavio, over everything. So, thanks for joining.
Thank you.
Yes, I will email you everything. So thank you guys. Thank you so much for having me. ⁓
Led Black (1:11:40)
Thank you so much. Have
Octavio Blanco (1:11:40)
Thank you, Zuleika.