Speaker: Angelica Arely Mercados

WSC: Mike Huber: Music: Deb Reid

As Operations Manager of the Sioux Falls Arts Council and new citizen, Angelica is helping implement the Arts Council’s Cultural Plan.  The plan states: arts, heritage, and culture make a real difference to the people of Sioux Falls, to our neighborhoods, to our youth, and to our businesses. Arts and culture help individuals find and reach their potential and help the city achieve its community-building and economic development goals. Arts and heritage help build understanding and bridge differences among our increasingly diverse communities.

Angelica Mercado was born in Jalisco, Mexico before immigrating to the United States. She spent most of her childhood in Fremont, Nebraska. She later attended Briar Cliff University, where she graduated with a BA in Fine Arts. Both Mercado’s artwork and poetry have been used as educational tools to draw awareness to topics such as immigration, feminism, diversity, and cultural awareness. She has been published in a variety of literary arts magazines across the country. Mercado also goes beyond the personal, and touches on a much larger issue: both her physical work as well as poetry highlight the harsh reality many face as they are burdened with the struggle of having to balance life in the in-between: in-between two cultures, two countries, two identities. Her book “Todo Revoluciona” is scheduled for publication, early this year.
Currently, Mercado resides and works in Sioux Falls.