Mino Lora | 2024 Latina of Influence
Hispanic Lifestyle is pleased to honor theatre director, advocate, educator, and arts administrator Mino Lora as a Latina of Influence. Ms. Lora will be recognized for her leadership in our community during Hispanic Lifestyle’s Connecting Latinas of Influence | Bronx, New York to be held on September 24, 2024.
Born and raised in the Dominican Republic, Mino Lora has been living and working as a theatre director, advocate, educator, and arts administrator in NYC since 2000. Mino has worked with young people in New York, South Africa, and the Dominican Republic with People’s Theatre Project, Global Camps Africa, Theatre Development Fund, Irondale Ensemble, Hospital Audiences, Arts Genesis, the DreamYard Project, Bronx Community Charter School, and Philosophy Day School. As a theatre director in New York, she has collaborated with and supported dozens of playwrights in the creation of new plays, directing over forty plays and staged readings with children, youth, and adults. Select directing credits include Missing Socks and a Line of Coke (or The Baby Fever Play) (People’s Theatre Project); The Diamond (People’s Theatre Project); 48 Hours in El Bronx (Harlem Nine & Pregones/P.R.T.T.); and Chalkboard Trilogy (UP Theater).
In 2009, Mino founded People’s Theatre Project (PTP) and currently serves as its Executive Artistic Director, overseeing all professional productions, education programs, and frontline fundraising for the organization. Mino launched the public programs for children, youth and adults, as well as partnerships with over thirty NYC public and charter schools. During her tenure at PTP, the organization has grown from a volunteer-run organization to a $1.5M one, serving over 12,000 immigrant New Yorkers and general audiences. PTP has been recognized with awards from government agencies and funders including the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA), the New York City Economic Development Council (NYCEDC), the Ford Foundation, the Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation Arts Education Impact Award, and the Howard Gilman Foundation. In her capacity as Executive Artistic Director, she also serves on the Immigrant Leadership Council at the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) and the Steering Committee of Latinx Arts Consortium of New York (LXNY). Mino is currently leading PTP’s capital project, The People’s Theatre: Centro Cultural Inmigrante, which is set to open in 2026 and will be the largest Latine-operated theatre in New York State.
Mino has received The Creative Power of Women Award from State Senator Bill Perkins, The Cacique Award from the Dominican Day Parade in NYC, Uptown’s Movers and Shakers award from The Uptown Collective, and NBC Latino’s 10 Latinos with Heart recognition in 2012. Additionally, Mino’s work with PTP has been featured in media publications in New York City and Dominican Republic such as Fox News Latino, NBC Latino, El Diario, AP News, Mujer Unica, Estilos, El Diario, CNN, ABC, The Today Show, CBS, TimeOut New York, and others.
Mino has been a guest speaker and presenter at universities and companies including Yale, SUNY Potsdam, Manhattanville College, Fordham University, and the New School, speaking on PTP’s methodology and impact, and sharing her experience as a Latina leader working to build community through theatre. BA, English Literature and Theatre, Manhattanville College; MA in Peace Studies and Conflict Transformation, The Graduate Institute; Certificate in Nonprofit Management, City University of New York.
Nomination statement
Es un verdadero placer y privilegio to nominate Mino Lora, Co-Founder and Executive Artistic Director of People’s Theatre Project (PTP), for Hispanic Lifestyle’s 2024 Latinas of Influence.
I first met Mino in 2010, when I was a neighbor of Washington Heights, in Northern Manhattan, and as a faculty member of the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health serving as community liaison of the Columbia Center for Youth Violence Prevention (CCYVP). Her work tied beautifully with the work of CCYVP, because it provided young people with an avenue for self-expression, and more importantly, for intergenerational exchange and community building. Twelve years later, and in my capacity as CEO of The David Rockefeller Fund, I reconnected with Mino to support the work of PTP with a discretionary grant in recognition of their work in arts education and social justice in Fall 2022.
Under Mino’s leadership, PTP has grown exponentially between when my child was in PTP’s public programs and now. Those same public programs, once offered on a semesterly basis, have now transformed into the PTP Academy for Leadership, Theatre, and Activism, a multi-year scaffolded theatre and social justice program for immigrant youth (K–12). It currently serves 144 youth and is slated to reach capacity at 250 youth in 2026. Additionally, PTP has cultivated a vast network of school and CBO partners to bring multilingual professional theater and theatre education to immigrant communities across Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens, serving over 12,000 immigrant artists and audiences, the vast majority of whom identify as Latine.
Perhaps the most exciting development for PTP under Mino’s leadership is that the organization will soon be owning (WOOT WOOT!!!) and operating The People’s Theatre: Centro Cultural Inmigrante (El Centro), to be located at 206th Street and 10th Ave in Upper Manhattan. At 19,338-sq-ft, El Centro is a historic project: it will be New York State’s largest Latine-operated theatre and NYC’s first cultural center dedicated to the immigrant experience. PTP will grow from serving 1,500 people to 28,000+ annually.
It is my honor – but more importantly, my RESPONSIBILITY) to nominate Mino, not only because of all that she has already accomplished but also because of the bright future in front of her and the community she dearly loves. Her joyful and collaborative spirit has enabled her to build a thriving organization from the ground up, and I know that, through PTP, she will continue to amplify the stories and voices of our Latine community and advocate for our flourishing for decades to come.
