Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful’s experiential CITY AS LIVING ORGANISM workshop shows students how to think deeply about ways to improve their home, their block, their neighborhood, and their city. Nicolás’ empathetic pedagogy stems from the vision of Carolyn Pratt, founder of City and Country School, where he also serves as an educator. Students learn to understand the city as a body in and of itself - one they may ultimately shape through creative work. Individual and collaborative projects help students begin to understand the concept of psychological terrain, and conceive of new cartographies for the world around them. Via a combination of poetry, self-portraiture, writing, and experimental media, Nicolás aims to impart that our seemingly static urban landscape is actually malleable. Ultimately, CITY AS LIVING ORGANISM expands children’s conceptual strengths as it prepares them to be active participants in their future.

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Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful is a performance artist and teacher who has worked across the USA and internationally at venues such as Madrid Abierto/ARCO, The IX Havana Biennial, PERFORMA 05 and 07, IDENSITAT, Prague Quadrennial, and NYU Cantor Film Center. He has received grants and residencies from Art Matters, Lambent Foundation, MacDowell Colony, National Association of Latino Arts and Culture, Printed Matter Inc., PS1/MoMA, and Yaddo, and holds an MFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University, and an MA from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. Nicolás teaches art at the visionary City & Country School in Manhattan and presents architectural workshops that help SEQ ART KIDS students create their own utopian architecture.