Gabi Sanchez
Gabriela Serena Sanchez, is a cultural producer and multidisciplinary mother artist- a director, actor, photographer, video editor, teaching artist, poet – who blends creative practice with deeply embedded social justice action. A Philadelphia native, Sanchez graduated from the Creative and Performing Arts highschool and received a Bachelor of Arts in Theater from Temple University. Sanchez is known for effectively building coalitions in a diverse range of communities throughout the city and furthering a vision of an arts sector deeply rooted in equity and justice.
Sanchez is the Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Power Street Theatre, a women of color- led multicultural theater collective presenting powerful new plays, theater education and community story circles in the heart of el barrio as well as other Philadelphia neighborhoods. For over a decade, she has worked with multiple influential arts and culture organizations in the city including Conflict Resolution Theatre, Taller Puertorriqueño, Norris Square Neighborhood Project, Philadelphia Young Playwrights, and dozens more!
Gabriela was awarded the Leeway 2022 Transformation Award for her long-term commitment to social change work. In Spring 2021, Gabriela was an honoree for the AL DÍA 40 Under Forty. She received a Citation from Council of the City of Philadelphia for her dedicated work in theatrical production (2020). Gabriela is also a proud recipient of the NEXUS Initiative Artist Grant (2021), Map Fund Artist Grant (2020), Phenomenal Women’s Award (2020), Leeway Art and Change Grant (2016, 2019), GALAEI David Acosta Revolutionary Award (2017), Knight Foundation Emerging City Champions Fellowship (2018) and keynote speaker with Quiara Alegría Hudes at the 2018 Association for Theatre in Higher Education Conference, in addition, to the plenary speaker for the 2019 Theatre Communications Group National Conference.
Awarded Grants
2022
Leeway Transformation Award (LTA)
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Overview
Gabriela Serena Sanchez, Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Power Street Theatre, has created a women of color led multicultural theatre collective with fellow artists, culturally producing, directing, and starring in several powerful new plays in the heart of el barrio. A Philadelphia native, she received a Bachelor of Arts in Theater from Temple University. In March 2020, Gabriela received a Citation from Council of the City of Philadelphia for her dedicated work in theatrical production. Gabriela is also a proud recipient of the NEXUS Initiative Artist Grant (2021), Map Fund Artist Grant (2020), Phenomenal Women's Award (2020), Leeway Art and Change Grant (2016, 2019), GALAEI David Acosta Revolutionary Award (2017), Knight Foundation Emerging City Champions Fellowship (2018) and keynote speaker with Quiara Alegría Hudes at the 2018 Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) Conference in Boston, Theatres of Revolution: Performance, Pedagogy, and Protest.
2019
Art and Change Grant (ACG)
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Overview
Gabi’s social change project will center research, discussions and artistic creations on gentrification through the lens of ten students from Esperanza Academy. As mass gentrification occurs in North Philadelphia it shifts the ways people experience home, community, and interpersonal relationships, which Gabi believes, are the fabric of any healthy neighborhood.
Partner
2016
Art and Change Grant (ACG)
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Overview
Gabriela’s Power Street Theatre Company (PSTC) will work with Norris Square Neighborhood Project to produce Theatre en Las Parcelas, an accessible and culturally resonant outdoor theater experience in North Philadelphia. PSTC will present theater that portrays dynamic, inspirational Latina herstories of past, present, and future in order to reclaim and represent Latina women’s empowerment. The project will feature two plays written by local feminist playwrights, Las Mujeres by Erlina Ortiz and Shelter in Place by Alisha Adams. Each piece explores diverse intersections of Latinidad and womanhood while posing intergenerational questions about culture, survival, self-preservation, and strength.
