Claiming Williams with Verónica A. Pérez

As part of Claiming Williams: Braiding our Interconnected Futures, WCMA invites you to join Verónica A. Pérez (they/them) for a Braiding Circle, a community workshop that invites participants to explore identity and connection through the act of braiding.

Photo by Jess Webb

Pérez, an artist who works with hair and textiles to examine themes of erasure, identity, and interdependency, will guide the circle in a shared process of reflection and dialogue. Through this collaborative activity, participants will weave personal stories into a collective experience, creating a space to engage with resistance and solidarity.

This event is organized by the WCMA Student Program Assistants Tashfa Zafar, Karl Aleman-Valencia, and Yeldana Talgatkyzy and will run from 12:30 to 2 p.m. at the Davis Center.

The workshop is limited to 30 participants; registration is closed as the program is full.

The event will take place on the first floor of the Davis Center, which can be found here on the Williams campus map, and is fully ADA accessible. There are all-gender restroom facilities on the first and second floors of the Davis Center.


About Claiming Williams 

Claiming Williams is an annual event at the college which invites the community to acknowledge and understand the uncomfortable reality that not all students, staff, and faculty can equally “claim” Williams. By challenging the effects of the College’s history of inequality that are based on privileges of class, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and religion, the day’s events provoke individual, institutional, and cultural change.

About the Artist

Veronica Perez is an artist whose work is deeply rooted in the community, exploring themes of erasure, identity, and interdependency through her braiding circles workshops. 

In 2020, they were awarded the Ellis-Beaureguard Visual Arts Fellowship, followed by the inaugural fellowship at the David C. Driskell Black Seed Studio at Indigo Arts Alliance in 2021. In 2022, they were a fellow at the Lunder Institute at Colby College, and subsequently had their first solo exhibition titled voices, whispering at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art.

In 2023, Perez was awarded the St. Botolph Club Foundation Emerging Artist award and the Amelia Peabody award for sculpture excellence. They also had their second solo show at the University of Southern Maine Art Gallery in Gorham titled shadow / echo / memory in the summer of 2023. Recently she was named one of the Maine Artist Fellows for 2024 in fine arts from the Maine Arts Commission. 

Currently, Perez works as the Administrative Assistant at a Black-led arts and residency organization, Indigo Arts Alliance in Portland, Maine. They are also a co-organizer at Tender Table, an organization dedicated to uplifting Maine’s Black and Brown community through storytelling and food.

Veronica Perez resides in Westbrook, Maine, with their partner and child.

February 6, 2025
12:30 PM

Davis Center

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