Stephanie Manriquez

Executive Producer and Educator - Yollocalli Arts Reach

Stephanie Manriquez is the executive producer and educator at Yollocalli Arts Reach, where she leads the Your Story, Your Way audio journalism program for youth and produces the organization’s radio programs.

A Mexico City native, Stephanie has also reported on issues including adult education, literacy, housing, mental health and migration. While rooted at the National Museum of Mexican Art, her work involves close partnerships with many community organizations, including: Casa Aztlán, Frida Kahlo Community Organization, Elevarte Community Studios and the Resurrection Project. As an educator, she strikes the hard-to-find balance of pushing young people to challenge themselves while also allowing them to pursue their creative desires. As a radio producer and media maker, she creates politically engaged and socially conscious content while creating professional pathways for those around her, whether it's partnering with City Bureau, Medill's Social Justice News Nexus, Lumpen Radio or NPR. She has collaborated with and contributed to publications including Extra Newspaper, Remezcla, Pilsen Portal, Gozamos and Revista Contratiempo. Her extended collaboration with Contratiempo, a Latinx-led monthly Spanish-language magazine and 501(c)(3) literary and publishing center, since 2008, and as member of their editorial team since 2010, has allowed her to focus efforts on issues concerning Little Village and Pilsen’s immigrant community, development and arts and culture. She is a trusted voice and mentor in the Chicago radio community.

Stephanie helps train and mentors her community members to have access to the equipment, networks, and ecosystems for their voices to be shared between each other and their respective communities. As a teacher, she is mentoring the next generation of Latinx media makers and cultural workers, who are civically minded, and artistically innovative with a larger goal of changing the representation of public and alternative radio. As a journalist, she consistently speaks on the topics that most affect her communities. As a cultural organizer, she develops spaces for diverse voices to be heard and respected by a larger audience.