Hello
I'm Monica. I live on Miami Beach where I enjoy writing, going on long walks (lol), and watching the Miami Heat win.
Thank you for being here!
Bio
Monica Peña is the Programs Director at O, Miami, a beloved organization dedicated to building community around the power of poetry through an annual poetry festival, education, and civic publishing.
A thriving regional arts community is essential to civic identity and wellness. For over 10 years, Monica has invested in nurturing her home city's creative infrastructure, working with some of Miami's most innovative arts and culture organizations, including Miami Beach Cinematheque, Borscht Corp., and Locust Projects, where she led all artist-driven programming, including WaveMaker Grants and Care. Monica has also helped raise the national visibility of Miami's artists through collaborations with The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Common Field, Oolite Arts, and others.
Beginning her creative career as a filmmaker, Monica was an inaugural Sundance Institute | Knight Foundation Fellow. Her debut feature film Ectotherms, experimental film Hearts of Palm, and several short films have screened at the Miami, New Orleans, Indie Grits, and Eastern Oregon Film Festivals, among others. Her work has been covered by media including Variety, VICE, Remezcla, Filmmaker Magazine, the Miami New Times, and the Miami Rail. She has been generously supported by Time Warner OneFifty, the Knight Foundation, Borscht Corp., WPBT-PBS, and more.
Because everyone deserves to enjoy the benefits of living a creative life, Monica is passionate about sharing her creative training programs, thoughtfully designed so professionals of all kinds can make their best ideas happen.
In all her work, she has been devoted to questioning and reimagining both artistic and administrative processes to prioritize inclusion, diversity, equity, and access in creative fields. As a Latina, Monica is committed to using her opportunities to create more space for women of color.
Monica is an alumna of the graduate program in Cinema and Media Studies at UCLA and is currently finishing her first novel along with a collection of essays from her studio on Miami Beach.