Marggie Ponce: Soy Afro Peruana

11/12/19 • 55 min

Marggie Ponce Valencia was born in New Jersey. She’s the creative director and founder of Bloom NJ.

Bloom NJ is a media platform spotlighting the artistic culture in New Jersey. Their goal is to inspire young minds to get to know their community and be more involved with the underground music scene around them.

Margie’s parents are Peruvians from Lima! Her mom is from Chacra Rios and her dad from Barrios Altos. Her parents came here together in 1995. Although her dad had already been in the US earlier on in the 80s, he was traveling back and forth to Peru.

Margie grew up in an artistic family of dancers, singers and musicians. They taught her about Criollo culture and Afro-Peruvian history. Her mother at age 6 and grandmother were part of Victoria Santa Cruz’s group “Teatros Y Danzas Negras Del Peru”.

Later at 15 years old, her mother joined Peru Negro, a musical ensemble founded in 1969 to celebrate and preserve Peru’s black culture and musica criolla. She has earned a reputation from then in Peru as an Afro-peruvian dancer

Margie’s father runs a trucking business that was formed by his father in the 80s.

Marggie Ponce Valencia was born in New Jersey. She’s the creative director and founder of Bloom NJ.

Margie’s father runs a trucking business that was formed by his father in the 80s.

Previous Episode

Justino Mora - No Human is Illegal!

We spoke about his immigration story. His family and how the journey affected him as a child. He was already older than most kids who migrate. His mom risked it all to save their lives. She left everything behind to fight for a better life and the future of her and her 3 kids. A single mother who worked multiple jobs to put food on the table and made sure they had the basics to do well in school and succeed in life. We discussed how the media plays a part in spreading the narrative of the typical immigrante that migrates into the US. Immigration has become such a sensitive topic. It can get pretty tense, especially with all the misleading facts put out by the media. We spoke about the outsourcing of jobs, the jobs that immigrants actually have and type of pay that is allocated to them which is basically exploitation. We spoke about education and the reality of what “benefits” immgrants actually get. We ended the interview speaking on immigration reform and what we can do moving forward.

Next Episode

Whitney Dobladillo: I’m not your perfect Peruvian Daughter.

Whitney is a Brooklyn-based Graphic Designer, Type Artist and Community Builder. When designing her goal is to always give the best representation of her clients vision. Her close attention to detail, strong communication and time management skills helps facilitate this.

Along with designing full-time at Scholastic Whitney is also the Ambassador of TypeThursday, a monthly meet up for designers who are interested in letterforms. TypeThursday events have attracted 4,000+ letterform lovers all over the world, including Barcelona, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Seattle. Whitney is responsible for cultivating relationships in these cities in order to help create and support thriving chapters. Feel free to reach out to her if you'd like to attend a meet up or present your work.

This past Summer she also became a co-host for Ladies, Wine & Design, a non for profit organization empowering women and non-binary creatives in the work field through planned events. There are over 250 chapters worldwide and her personal goal for the Manhattan chapter is to focus on diversity and making sure everyone feels represented.