Born into a working poor/working class Borikua | Puerto Rican family of Indigenous (Taíno), African, and Iberian descent, they learned how to listen to dreams and work in collaboration with the natural world. Being both mixed and first-generation their practice is concerned with exploring and confronting issues of being and belonging and seeks to integrate complex trauma of oppressed subjectivities. They engage scholarship, spiritual epistemologies, ritual methodologies, sound, and storytelling as reflexive strategies to present possibilities of healing and liberation for all beings.
Yani’s work has been exhibited in New York, Chicago, and Berlin, at venues including Parent Company, Apparatus Projects, and The Institut für Alles Mögliche, among others. They have a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, an MFA in Art Theory and Practice from Northwestern University, and have received foundational Reiki and Herbalism certifications. Yani has over 15 years of experience in meditation (mindfulness, metta, visualization) and embodiment (yoga, qigong, breathwork) practices.