Rebel Betty is an AfroIndigenous Puerto Rican poet, multidisciplinary artist and cultural worker.
Rebel is using a multidisciplinary approach to depict the magic and movement of Black, Brown and Indigenous communities and to trace back ancestral forms of resistance and culture through storytelling and archiving moments in history.
Her visual art, organizing and cultural work center on the preservation of culture in Black and brown communities through facilitated dialogue, poetry, music, education and the arts. Rebels visual art makes use of illustrations as well as historical archives and contemporary photography to create colorful and impactful multimedia collages and animations that speak truth to power and document the power and beauty of Black, Brown and Indigenous communities.
Themes in Rebels work are gentrification, decolonization and honoring Black and Indigenous struggles for liberation and healing through connection to the past.
Rebel has exhibited, presented, offered workshops and/or performed at the following events and institutions:
Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, Arts and Public Life University of Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, Northwestern University, DePaul University, University of Chicago, University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Illinois-Champaign Urbana, The Garfield Park Conservatory, Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center
New Latin Wave Festival, L.A. Zine Fest, College Art Association Annual Conference, Allied Media Conference
Rebel has been featured in The Chicago Reader, The Chicago Tribune, South Side Weekly, Gozamos, Remezcla and Hyperallergic.
Rebel is also an educator with more than 12 years experience providing justice minded school based arts programming and workshops for preschool through adults.
She has taught multiple apprenticeships with institutions like After School Matters at the Art Institute of Chicago and Puerto Rican Arts Alliance, Arts & Public Life, South Side Home Movie Project, Son y Arte, Northeastern Illinois, and The Chicago Poetry Center.
Themes:
Gentrification, Decolonization, Healing, Black, Brown and Indigenous Culture, Feminism
Where you can see my work:
Currently: Diasporic Collage at the Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University
https://broadmuseum.msu.edu/exhibition/diasporic-collage/
August 31, 2024–February 2, 2025
Collections:
Rebels work available for viewing by request at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago as part of the Midwest Photographers project.
https://www.mocp.org/collection/mpp/betty_rebel.php
Press
2024 - WBEZ Interview with Domingos en Vocalo
2024 - Etched in stone - The legacy of Elizabeth Catlett in Chicago
2022 - La Voz Del Paseo Boricua
2018 - HYPERALLERGIC
2018 - The Chicago Tribune