Brown Bag: Porque Estamos Aqui: Presencing Puerto Rican Feminisms

Puerto Ricans have been colonial “citizen” subjects of the US empire for 128 years—our sovereignty denied, our land stolen and sold, our histories maligned and/or absent, and our rights of representation curtailed. Situated within settler colonialism, rather than against it, US-based liberal feminist thinking and doing does not engage the anti-colonial or decolonial feminist scholarship and organizing that grounds Puerto Rican feminisms.

In this Brown Bag, Asili and Pabón will present Puerto Rican feminisms in song, in prose, and through dialogue with one another. Moving from the refrain “Porque Estamos Aquí,” taken from their 2025 anthology of the same name, they will discuss the stakes of presence for boricuas in print and in performance, in and outside of the classroom, in politics and protest, and in everyday life.

Taína Asili is a dynamic singer, composer, interdisciplinary artist, and activist carrying on the tradition of her Puerto Rican ancestors, fusing past and present struggles into one soulful and defiant voice. She is celebrated by NPR, Rolling Stone, Billboard, and Democracy Now! for her soulful, genre-blending music echoing calls for love and liberation. Democracy Now! for her soulful, genre-blending music echoing calls for love and liberation. Her Resiliencia music album and film series, centered on the stories of women of color overcoming trauma, was recognized and awarded at prominent film festivals throughout the nation. In 2019, she wrote the newest anthem for One Billion Rising, a global movement to end gender-based violence founded by V (formerly Eve Ensler). Today Taína Asili is the US Coordinator for One Billion Rising and Board Chair of Soul Fire Farm. Her latest interdisciplinary show, Fever Pitch, combines original music, dance, and video to address the urgency of climate justice, and in 2025 she embarked on the Fever Pitch Pilgrimage, a 15-day, 156-mile journey walking from Albany to Brooklyn to bring public music rituals that connected art with frontline activism. Through her innovative fusion of creative expression and political engagement, Asili continues to forge new pathways for cultural resistance and collective transformation.

Dr. Jessica N. Pabón-Colón (she/her) is a diaspoRican queer feminist scholar of identity, community, and resistance. She is the editor of the first English-language collection of Puerto Rican feminist writings—Porque Estamos Aquí: Puerto Rican Feminisms Against Empire (The Feminist Press, 2025)—and author of the first academic book on women in graffiti subculture—Graffiti Grrlz: Performing Feminism in the Hip Hop Diaspora (NYU Press, 2018). She currently serves as President of the National Women’s Studies Association.

Our Brown Bag series repeats every Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. These talks are catered, free, and open to all.presentPuerto Ricans have been colonial “citizen” subjects of the US empire for 128 years—our sovereignty denied, our land stolen and sold, our histories maligned and/or absent, and our rights of representation curtailed.