Ayling Zulema Dominguez
Ayling Zulema Dominguez (she/they/ella/elle) is a first-generation Chicana-Dominicana from Bronx, New York, with roots in many places. As a poet and creative in an abolitionist mindset, her work has long been the stuff of forging community; of affirming belonging as the first step toward liberation; of imagining new, better, and more radically loving worlds. Knowing that a sense of belonging is counterfactual and ephemeral if we do not work to liberate others, her writing and creative work do not only celebrate joyful resistance, but also push her readers to actively oppose systems of oppression. Select poems of hers have been published in Moko Magazine, La Galería Magazine, The Protest Review, The Mujerista, 433 Magazine, Latino Rebels, The Bronx Free Press, and Alegria Magazine’s Latinx Poetry Anthology.
2021 Creative Action Fund | A Delicate Cycle: Laundromat Poetry
Loads of laundry are washed and dried and our BIPOC caretakers give their time and energy to caring for us in this small way more times in a year than we can count; how often do BIPOC mothers and caretakers get that time back and get to spend it making art, writing and reclaiming the oral tradition—this project brings free radical poetry workshops to our caretakers and provides access to artistic inquisitiveness and creativity in a moment of respite as one of the many chores of their day cycles on in the background; we activate their poetic abundance.
Get to know Ayling Zulema Dominguez
What is the role of art and culture for the future of the city?
Art is to the city what sun is to the land and its plants; a source of both affirming energy and inspiration. Engaging in art-making helps us better know our selves, and that is the first step to better knowing each other, to nurturing a love-based culture. Art’s purpose is to help us imagine better, new, and more radically loving collective futures and worlds. A culture that is abundant in art is abundant in all forms.