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Isa Farfan

Digital Reporting

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Selected work samples:

Hyperallergic •

“Mother Pigeon,” the Artist Fighting to Save NYC’s Urban Birds

Pigeons are disappearing from Maria Hernandez Park in Brooklyn, and one artist says she knows why. New York fixture Tina Piña Trachtenburg — better known as “Mother Pigeon” for her signature feathered gowns — paced back and forth in front of a Bushwick pet store on Saturday, May 24, with a sullen expression. She carried a large painted banner with a message: “They cut their wings, put them in a catapult, and shoot them.” A small group of animal rights activists, who call themselves “dovotees” an...
Hyperallergic •

Foundations and Donors Step in to Fill the Federal Art Funding Gap 

As arts organizations across the United States grapple with the sudden loss of federal grants resulting from the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle culture funding agencies, some private foundations and individual donors are stepping in to meet significant gaps. The Andy Warhol Foundation and Helen Frankenthaler Foundation jointly committed to funding 80 small- to mid-sized community arts organizations affected by sweeping cuts to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), which some es...
Hyperallergic •

Congress Members Demand Investigation Into Trump's Smithsonian Mandate

Seventy-one congressional Democrats are calling for an investigation into the impact of President Trump’s March executive order targeting so-called “improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology” in the Smithsonian Institution. In a May 1 letter addressed to the Smithsonian Inspector General, Nicole Angarella, lawmakers from districts across the United States charged that Trump’s executive order, which directs the Vice President to lead a purge of “race-centered ideology,” jeopardizes the instit...
Hyperallergic •

National Endowment for the Arts Cuts Millions in Grants

Scores of National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grant awardees, including the Print Center New York, received a Friday night email from an unmonitored NEA email address rescinding part or all of their funding. The Manhattan nonprofit had received a $50,000 award for its exhibition Data Consciousness: Reframing Blackness in Contemporary Print, but the grant was abruptly pulled with $0 paid only five months before the show was set to open, a spokesperson told Hyperallergic. Mary Gibilisco, executi...
Hyperallergic •

Art Scholars Pledge to Boycott Columbia University 

More than 1,800 academics, including art historians and art professors, have committed to boycotting Columbia University in a March 26 open letter denouncing the school’s agreement to comply with Trump administration crackdowns on pro-Palestinian dissent. By caving to Trump’s demands and failing to protect international students, the letter says, Columbia has participated in an “authoritarian assault on universities” aimed at “destroying their role as sites of teaching, research, learning, and a...
The Intercept •

Columbia Apologized to Mahmoud Khalil in May 2024 for One-Day Suspension

Ten months before U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested Mahmoud Khalil in the lobby of his Manhattan apartment building, Columbia University suspended the Palestinian graduate student.


The suspension lasted only one day before Columbia — with an apology from the university president’s office, Khalil later said — rescinded the suspension and dropped the disciplinary charges against him.


“After reviewing our records and reviewing evidence with Columbia University Public...
Hyperallergic •

ACLU Sues NEA for Enforcing Trump’s Anti-Trans Mandate

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is suing the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for requiring grant applicants to abstain from using federal funds to “promote gender ideology” in what may be the first major legal challenge to controversial policy changes the agency has enacted since President Donald Trump took office. In a lawsuit filed this morning, March 6, the the national and Rhode Island chapters of ACLU asked a federal judge for the United States District Court of Rhode Island...
Hyperallergic •

Montgomery Mayor Calls for Removal of “Politicized” Billboard Artwork

Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed has requested the removal of a billboard artwork featuring a historic photograph from Selma’s infamous “Bloody Sunday” overlaid with the Trump campaign slogan “Make America Great Again.” The image had captured the attention of the conservative Alabama media outlet 1819 News earlier this week. Designed by the art collective For Freedoms, founded by artists Eric Gottesman, Hank Willis Thomas, and Michelle Woo in 2016, the billboard artwork reproduces civil rights photo...
Hyperallergic •

Art Therapists on the Frontlines of Trauma Struggle for Recognition

Following the murder of 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, 2022, art therapist Wanda Montemayor spent a year driving the six-hour round trip between the town and her home in Austin. By August of that year, Montemayor had launched “Tacos and Tiles” at Uvalde’s St. Henry’s church, where she invited survivors and community members to make mosaic fragments in community art therapy sessions. Over the course of months, Montemayor fired thousands of clay...
Hyperallergic •

Museum Showing Pussy Riot Artwork Targeted in Apparent Vandalism

An exhibition space at an Austrian contemporary art museum was damaged on Saturday, December 7, in an apparent act of vandalism targeting a feminist art installation by Nadya Tolokonnikova, the founder of the Russian activist and performance art group Pussy Riot.The installation, a set of balaclava-clad red mannequins in punk platform black boots titled “Pussy Riot Sex Dolls,” is part of Nadya Tolokonnikova’s exhibition RAGE at the OK Center for Contemporary Art in Linz, Austria (OK Linz). Image...
Hyperallergic •

Museum Limits Entry to Exhibition Criticized by Republicans

After Republican backlash, visitors to East Tennessee State University’s (ETSU) Reece Museum are being asked to sign a liability waiver before entering an exhibition displaying works that challenge conservative dogma.Located in Johnson City, the Reece Museum has presented The FL3TCH3R Exhibit for the last 11 years. The annual show focused on “politically and socially engaged art” was created by the family of Fletcher Dyer, who was an art student at the university when he was killed in a motorcyc...
Hyperallergic •

DACA-Recipient Artists Share Their Stories as Program Hangs by a Thread

The death of a family member brought Miguel Martinez, a painter and teaching artist living in New York City, back to Mexico earlier this year for the first time since he left his Guanajuato hometown for Houston, Texas, 23 years ago, when he was nine years old.Because of his immigration status, Martinez needed special permission, known as advance parole, to leave and return to the United States. Even with permission, reentry is not a guarantee. Martinez is one of more than half a million recipien...
Hyperallergic •

Inside the Bay Area’s Church of Magic Mushrooms

SAN FRANCISCO — If the Bay Area’s Church of Ambrosia had a Christ-like icon, it would be a psychedelic mushroom, and if it had a promised land, it would be the “playa” at Burning Man — and you can find that story on the church’s walls in a sprawling mural by an artist who goes by “Free Rolando.” The Zide Door Church of Entheogenic Plants identifies itself as an interfaith religious organization that celebrates psychedelic mushrooms as a sacrament to “connect people with their soul to help them u...
Hyperallergic •

What Happened to the Art in the Columbia Student Encampments?

On the morning of April 29, before the occupation of Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall, a group of students gathered to paint the banners that would transform the Ivy League lecture building into “Hind’s Hall” in a tribute to Hind Rajab, a Palestinian child killed by Israeli forces in Gaza.

“The paint was still wet when the banners arrived at the hall,” a Barnard College student who painted the Hind’s Hall banner told Hyperallergic. The student spoke under the condition of anonymity, citing d
Al Jazeera •

International students risk immigration status to engage in Gaza protests

Reliant on visas to remain in the US, foreign students face heightened consequences for involvement in campus protests.

New York, New York – Israel’s war in Gaza is personal for Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil.

A 29-year-old Palestinian refugee raised in Syria, Khalil wanted to get involved in the on-campus activism against the war, but he was nervous.

Khalil faced a dilemma common to international students: He was in the United States on a F-1 student visa. His ability to stay in
Hawaii News Now •

Lawmakers, advocates call on military to do more to address violence against Native Hawaiian women

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Advocates and lawmakers are calling on the military to bolster their response to a state-commissioned report on violence against Hawaii women and girls.

The Missing and Murdered Native Hawaiian Women and Girls Task Force report, which was released last year, showed Native Hawaiian girls represent a disproportionate of missing children in and that women subjected to sex trafficking are at higher risk of going missing or being murdered.

The report also found a worrisom
Hawaii News Now •

Secretary Haaland stresses importance of indigenous knowledge in ‘era of climate crisis’

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and Hawaii leaders gathered in Heeia on Tuesday to underscore the importance of indigenous knowledge preservation in conservation efforts.

“I see healing all over this area where people are bringing back native plants and native ways of doing things and I think that indigenous knowledge is one of the absolute most important things that we can practice in this era of the climate crisis,” Haaland said.

On the grounds of Kakoo
Hawaii News Now •

Domestic violence changed her life. Now, she’s trying to end the cycle for other Native Hawaiian women

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - About 25 years ago, Dayna Schultz was beaten so severely by an intimate partner, she was hospitalized.

Living in military housing at the time, she says she was also forced off base on the mainland. She decided to return to the islands.

This trauma, and her aloha, motivated her to advocate for others in similar situations, especially other Native Hawaiian women.

“I’m still healing … 25 years later. But as an advocate, a lifelong advocate, I’ve been doing this work,”
Hyperallergic •

Massive Artwork for Trans Visibility Unveiled on National Mall 

Nearly 260 quilt panels lined the National Mall on Saturday, May 17, spelling the message “Freedom To Be” as part of a temporary installation celebrating trans joy and resilience. Organized by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the display of six-by-six foot panels recalled the 1987 NAMES Project AIDS memorial quilt presented at the same location. The artwork was unveiled as the ACLU challenges a Tennessee ban on gender-affirming health before the Supreme Court.Among the panel artists is...
NBC News •

Maui’s Latino community contends with destruction, grief and immigration fears after fires

Lahaina, the historic town on the island of Maui where Kimberly Romero lived, worked and sent her 5-year-old daughter to school, was already in flames when they fled this month with just minutes to spare. Mother and daughter found housing in an Airbnb. But now, Romero faces an uncertain future as her home and belongings were destroyed. Originally from Honduras, Romero moved to Lahaina a year ago and was just getting to know what she called a “homey” Latino community.

“I did see pictures of my a
Columbia Daily Spectator •

The saga of Celsius: What the energy drink reveals about tensions between Barnard Dining and students - Columbia Spectator

In December 2021, the @barnarddining Instagram account posted a picture of two women wearing “Celsius. Live Fit.” shirts and masks and holding the popular energy drinks in their hands. The image’s caption announced that the energy drinks would now be available in the Diana Center Cafe and Liz’s Place, and that the drinks contained “0 calories,” “accelerate metabolism,” and “burn body fat.”
Untapped New York •

The NYC Bodega: A History of Violence and Resilience

You probably won’t find Jesus next to ketchup and mayonnaise anywhere but a New York City bodega where the city’s character, diversity, and history are embodied in a physical space. Morning to night and night into morning, bodegas are open, offering an assortment of goods including New York’s famous Chopped Cheese sandwich, as well as the head-turning bodega cat.

The Spanish term “bodega,” dating back to the 1840s, originally referred to wine cellars, the hull of ships, and warehouses. Today in