YeYe Suárez

Songstress and dancing storyteller Johanna Suarez “YeYe” is an interdisciplinary artist and arts-educator who incorporates traditional dance and music from the African Diaspora in Latin America, original poetry, theater and lyrical compositions into a performing journey of emotions in search of collective healing and unification. Johanna "YeYe" Suarez graduted with honors in Dance and Political, Legal and Economic Analysis: International Emphasis from Mills College, Johanna recently received a certificate in Sound, Voice and music Healing from the California Institute of Intergral Studies. She is known in the artistic scene as a songstress and dancing storyteller with her band YeYe Suarez. As an interdisciplinary artist and arts-educator, she incorporates traditional dance and music from the African Diaspora in Latin America, original poetry, theater and lyrical compositions into a performing journey of emotions in search of collective healing and unification. She incorporates writing, music, culture, history, and language into her class. Her work is inspired and deeply rooted on women of color, immigrant life stories and the African Diaspora in Latin America and the Caribbean. Her professional work is rooted in community leadership and organizing to promote family and youth participation in their communities. She currently coordinates the Boys to Men program for the East Bay Agency for Children and directs the Family Art Program at the Red Poppy Art House in San Francisco. She is also a dance instructor for the Hawthorn Family Resource Center and ODC Dance School. Additionally, she facilitates workshops on how to use art for healing for low-income, immigrant children, youth and mothers for organizations such as Bay Area Community Resources, Good Samaritan Family Resource Center, San Francisco State University around the bay area. In the past she has taught Spanish through art at Viva el Espanol, Hillcrest Language School and Escuela Bilingue Internacional. In her free time she enjoys composing songs, playing music, dancing and loves taking human development workshops and psychology classes from different colleges around the bay. YeYe Suarez researches the importance of understanding roots and ancestry while creating history for the generations to come through dance, music and the rhtyhms of the African Diaspora in Latin America and the Caribbean.