Erina Alejo

Erina Alejo (they/them/siya) is a cultural worker, artist, and arts administrator based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Alejo is dedicated to sustaining long-term collaborative relationships with micro communities–from university students, to families, tenants, service workers, and organizations–by nurturing their narratives, power, and community cultural wealth. Alejo and collaborators examine their environment and urban planning initiatives that affect our lived realities through the lens of visual culture, grassroots movements, and neighborhood organizing. They take ownership of their stories with simple, effective gestures like documenting the world through photography while acknowledging the medium’s origins in imperialism and colonization. Their work as an artist informs their grant-making work at the Office of the Vice President for the Arts at Stanford University and their community organizing work with San Francisco’s SOMA Pilipinas Filipino Cultural Heritage District. They are a third-generation San Francisco renter with family. Alejo’s work is in the collection of SFMOMA.

Projects:

• Thick Solidarity CoLAB