EDUCATION
University of Illinois at Chicago, Bachelor of Arts in Gender & Women Studies, 2010
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
2023 - Present Arts & Culture Transition Subcommittee for Mayor Brandon Johnson, Co-Chair, Chicago, IL
2019 — Present Justseeds Artists' Cooperative, Member, National
2019 — Present Uri-Eichen Gallery, Board Member, Chicago, IL
2017 — Present Third Wave Fund, Communications Officer, Chicago, IL
2015 — 2021 For the People Artists Collective, Founding Member, Chicago, IL
2011 — 2015 Brown and Proud Press, Founding Member, Chicago, IL
AWARDS & GRANTS
—2021, Field Foundation of Illinois Grant, Project Recipient in the area of Art, Justice, Media & Storytelling for the Lit Review Podcast
—2020, Chicago Artists Coalition SPARK Grant, Recipient
—2019, Field Foundation of Illinois Grant, Project Recipient in the area of Art, Justice, Media & Storytelling for For the People Artists Collective
—2018, Crossroads Fund Critical Response Fund, Project Recipient for city-wide art exhibition on the history of Chicago police violence
—2016, Civic Engagement, Community Service, & Community Organizing (CESCO) Award at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Recipient
—2016, Women and Femmes to Celebrate Award, Recipient
—2016, Propeller Fund Grant, Project Recipient for For the People Artists Collective
—2015, Windy City Times 30 Under 30 Award, Recipient
RESIDENCIES
—2022, Northwestern University's Kaplan Institute for the Humanities, Artist-in-Residence, Evanston, IL
—2020, Center for Advanced Study, University of Illinois at Urbana, Artist-in-Residence, Urbana, IL
—2019, Build Coffee, Artist-in-Residence, Chicago, IL
—2017, Chicago Artists Coalition, FIELD/WORK Residency, Chicago, IL
—2017, Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College, Activist-in-Residence, Kalamazoo, MI
EXHIBITIONS
—2021, Demilitarize: 20 Years of the War on Terror, P.O. Box Collective, Chicago, IL
—2021, Celebrate People's History, P.O. Box Collective, Chicago, IL
—2020, 19th Amendment: 2020 Vision, Haight Street Art Center, San Francisco, CA
—2020, AND THEN, Agitator Gallery, Curated by Gretchen Hasse, Chicago, IL
—2020,Where We Are Now, P.O. Box Collective, Chicago, IL
—2020, Moving From This Moment To The Next, Uri-Eichen Gallery, Chicago, IL
—2020, Paradise Now, Curated by Kristiana Rae Colón, Westside Justice Center, Chicago, IL
—2019, Justseeds: Networks of Resistance, Co-Prosperity Sphere, Chicago, IL
—2019, Envisioning Justice: The Exhibition, Curated by Alexandria Eregbu, Sullivan Galleries, Chicago, IL
—2017, #PERSIST, Co-Curated by Toisha Tucker and Alexandra Antoine, Confluence 2017, Chicago, IL.
—2016, Freedom Dreams in an Age of Mass Incarceration, Curated by Prison & Neighborhood Arts Project,
UIC Social Justice Initiative Pop-up Art Space, Chicago, IL
—2016, Journey of the Soul, National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago, IL
—2016, Freedom, Resistance, & the Journey Towards Equality, DuSable Museum - Permanent Collections, Chicago, IL
—2015, Queer, Punk Artists of Color, Fed Up Fest, Co-Prosperity Sphere, Chicago, IL
—2015, All of Us or None: Responses & Resistance to Militarism, Curated by AFSC-Chicago, Hairpin Arts Center, Chicago, IL
—2015, Artists Against Police Violence, East Meets World Gallery, Cambridge, MA
—2015, Re-Visions: Black & Brown Resisting State Violence, Uptown Body & Fender, Oakland, CA
—2019, True Peace: The Presence of Justice, Jane Addams Hull-House Museum; Chicago, IL
CURATORIAL PROJECTS
—2021, Flowers for Fighters, P.O. Box Collective, Chicago, IL
—2020, We Keep Each Other Safe, Uri-Eichen Gallery, Chicago, IL
—2020, JUSTICE. DEFUND. ABOLISH: For Black Lives, Co-Curation with Aaron Hughes, Co-Prosperity Sphere, Chicago, IL
—2018, Do Not Resist? 100 Years of Chicago Police Violence, Co-Curation with For the People Artists Collective, a multi-site exhibition; main exhibition site at Hairpin Arts Center, Chicago, IL
—2018, Do Not Resist? Remembrance, featuring artwork by Danbee Kim, site of Do Not Resist? 100 Years of Chicago Police Violence exhibition, Roman Susan Gallery, Chicago, IL
—2018, Do Not Resist? Larry Redmond, solo photography work of lawyer activist Larry Redmond, site of Do Not Resist? 100 Years of Chicago Police Violence exhibition, Uri-Eichen Gallery, Chicago, IL
—2018, Do Not Resist? Reporting Resistance, featuring installation work from Invisible Institute, Community TV Network, and indigenous organizer Kelly Hayes, Art In These Times, Chicago, IL
—2016, Chicago Home Theater Festival, Artist Producer, Rogers Park, Chicago, IL
JURYING EXPERIENCE
—2018, Louder Than a Bomb, VIP Judge, Chicago, IL
—2017, Leeway Foundation, Transformation Award, Panelist, Philadelphia, PA
SELECTED LECTURES & PANELS
—2022, Making Art for the People, Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities, Northwestern University, Lecture, Virtual
—2021, Artists Now!, UW-Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts, Lecture, Virtual
—2021, Art for a New Future, Justice Arts Coalition, Panelist, Virtual
—2021, Community Supported Art, Printed Matter Art Book Fair, Panelist with Justseeds, Virtual
—2020, Celebrate People's History, Pilsen Community Books, Moderator, Virtual
—2020, True Peace: The Presence of Justice, UIC and Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, Panelist with Sarah-Ji Rhee, Virtual
—2020, Midwest Culture Lab, The Center for Cultural Power, Lecture, Virtual
—2019, Making Lineages Visible, Chicago Architectural Biennial, Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, Chicago, IL
—2019, Movement Art WORK, Art In These Times, Panelist, Chicago, IL
—2019, The Power of Story, Build Coffee, Moderator, Chicago, IL
—2019, The Hoodoisie Live with #NoCopAcademy, National Museum of Mexican Art, Guest Speaker, Chicago, IL
—2018, Flash Talks, Midwest Museums Conference, Guest Speaker, Chicago, IL
--2018, InterSECT series: LGBTQ Center Launch, DePaul University, Guest Speaker, Chicago, IL
—2018, The Art of Activism, National Museum of Mexican Art, Guest Speaker, Chicago, IL
—2018, Unfinished Business: the South Side and Chicago Art, Smart Museum, Guest Speaker, Chicago, IL
—2017, Art as Protest: From Carnival to Chicago, DuSable Museum, Panelist, Chicago, IL
—2017, Art Public, Politics: Legacies of the Wall of Respect Symposium, The Block Museum, Guest Speaker, Evanston, IL
—2017, Model Girl Conference on Women's and Girls' Rights, University of Illinois, Keynote, Chicago, IL
—2017, Queering Identity: Gender & Sexuality Art Symposium, Amherst College, Panelist, Amherst, MA
—2017, The (Inaugural) Conversation: Art & Resistance, Women & Children First Bookstore, Panelist, Chicago, IL
—2016, #OurMusicMyBody: Safety, Sexism, & Harassment in the Music Scene, Beat Kitchen, Panelist, Chicago, IL
—2016, Artists Respond to the Times, Lake FX Summit + Expo, Panelist, Chicago, IL
—2016, Who Do You Serve? A Truthout Discussion on Police Violence & Resistance, Evanston Lit Fest, Panelist, Evanston, IL
—2016, Permission Not Granted: Women of Color & the Politics of Zines, Chicago Zine Fest, Panelist, Chicago, IL
—2016, MAKING: A panel discussion on queer zines, University of Chicago's Center for the Study of Gender & Sexuality, Panelist, Chicago, IL
COMMUNITY ART PRACTICE
—2022, Making Art for the People, Kaplan Institute for the Humanities, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
—2019, Zine-Making for Reproductive Justice, Co-facilitator with Melisa Stephen, Augustana College of Art, Rock Island, IL
—2017, Art for the People, Co-facilitator with Bria Royal, Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership, Kalamazoo, MI
—2016, A DIY Feminist Approach to Telling Our Stories, Co-Facilitator with Mika Munoz, Global Girls Youth Leadership Summit, Chicago, IL
—2015, On Confronting Anti-Blackness, Co-Facilitator with Mika Munoz and Arianna Salgado, Mijente Lánzate Convening, Chicago, IL
—2015, Block Printing for Social Justice, Asian Americans Advancing Justice Summer Program, Chicago, IL
—2014, POC Zine-Making As Self Preservation, Co-Facilitator with Brown & Proud Press & MOONROOT, Allied Media Conference, Detroit, MI
—2014, Storytelling Through Zines, Co-Facilitator with Brown & Proud Press, McCormick YMCA, Chicago, IL
BIBLIOGRAPHY & PRESS MENTIONS
—2023
Sasha-Ann Simons, How the Johnson Administration Can Prioritize the Arts, WBEZ's Reset, May 16.
Kerry Cardoza, Artists are all-in for Brandon Johnson, Chicago Reader, February 24.
—2021
Michelle Zacarias, Monica Trinidad Creates Safer Communities with her Movement Posters, City Bureau, March 22.
Aaron Hughes, Monica Trinidad on Experimentation, Accountability, and Making Magic, Justseeds, March 19.
Kerry Cardoza, 'The Long Dream' and a labor nightmare, Chicago Reader, March 3.
Mariame Kaba, We Do This ‘Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice (Haymarket Books, 2021), Cover art.
—2020
The Center for Cultural Power, No Going Back: A COVID-19 Cultural Strategy Guide, October 29, 2020. (Page 12)
Forward Together, We Keep Each Other Safe COVID-19 guide, October, 2020. (Cover art)
Soberscove Press and contributors, Where the Future Came From: A Collective Research Project on the Integral Role of Feminism in Chicago’s Artist-Run Culture From the Late Nineteenth Century to the Present (Soberscove Press, 2020), 254-255, 259.
Joe Ward, Black Trans Lives Matter Mural Takes Over Andersonville Street, Block Club Chicago, August 12.
Claire Wang, Chicago Artists Fuel the Movement for Prison Abolition, Hyperallergic, August 4.
Tarnynon Onumonu, What's Going On—Artists, Poets & Writers Respond to Racial Injustice & Police Brutality, New City, July 10.
Raise Your Hand for Illinois, Parent Perspectives on CPS Remote Learning and Back to School report, July 2020. (Page 8)
The Editors, Monica Trinidad: Moving From This Moment to the Next, The Visualist, June 26,
Monica Trinidad, Envisioning Abolition Through Art, The Quarantine Times, June 12.
Yiwen Lu and Walter Li, Keeping Art Alive During a Pandemic, South Side Weekly, June 9.
Kerry Cardoza, Pandemic Lays Bare Art Worker Precarity, NewCity, June 1.
Interrupting Criminalization, #DefundPolice Toolkit, June, 2020. (Cover)
The Editors, Twenty-Eight Artists Receive Chicago Artists Coalition Grants, ArtForum, April 29.
WBEZ's Reset, Honoring Community Muralist William Walker's Legacy in Chicago, Feb 21.
—2019
Nicolas Lampert, From the Art Build to the Streets, Rethinking Schools, Nov 3.
Patrick Egan, Starving Artist No Longer: Build Coffee's Meal-Based Residency Program, The Chicago Maroon, Feb 21.
Monica Trinidad & Page May, The Lit Review, What Activists Need to Understand About Fascism, with Kelly Hayes, Truthout, Jan 18.
—2018
Soapbox Productions, Ep.26 - Coalition-building & #NoCopAcademy, Bourbon 'N Browntown podcast, Dec 12.
Curve Staff, A Queer Gift Guide With An Activist Twist, Curve, Nov 23.
Andre Castro and Zoe Wiliams, Art Starts Here: Symposium Celebrates South Side Scene, The Chicago Maroon, Oct 25.
Kelly Hayes, Mariame Kaba and Monica Trinidad, It's Not Civil Disobedience if You Ask for Permission, Truthout, July 10.
Monica Trinidad, Zinester's Toolkit: Monica Trinidad, Broken Pencil Magazine, March 10.
Aaron Hughes, Monica Trinidad on Art, Action, and For the People Artists Collective, Justseeds, March 27.
Kiran Misra, Stories of Police Reform and Resistance, South Side Weekly, Feb 13.
Kerry Cardoza, For the People Artists Collective looks back on 100 years of police violence in Chicago, Chicago Reader, Jan 24.
Xiaohang (Shaw) Wan, Artists Track 100 years of Chicago police violence to fight against it, Medill Reports, Jan 30.
—2017
Maya Dukmasova, The activists & the aldermen: The #NoCopAcademy campaign's crash course in Chicago civics, Chicago Reader, Dec 20.
Sarah Jaffe, Here's Why Chicago Activists Are Against Rahm Emanuel's $95 Million Cop Academy, In These Times, Nov 24.
Luz Magdaeleno Flores, Nos apoyamos: ¿SERIO? Zine, Brown and Proud Press, and Beyond, Broken Pencil, Nov 14.
Heather Cherone, New Police Training Center Advances; Protesters Want Funds Spent Elsewhere, DNAinfo, Sept 20.
Julia Esparza, A Latinx entrepreneur creates resistance art for social justice movements in Chicago, Hoy/Chicago Tribune, August 24.
Ashley Ray-Harris, In their words; How the folks at Fed Up Fest help keep queer punk a 'community of care', Chicago Reader, August 2.
Lewis Wallace, "The artist has to be down on the ground"—An interview with Monica Trinidad, Art21 Magazine, April 14.
Jennifer Solheim, "Resistance is Non-Negotiable", Fiction Writers Review, Feb 20.
Blair Paddock, Local bookstore's monthly panels to provide space for artists, resistance, The Columbia Chronicle, Jan 30.
Caitlin Dickson, Chicago activists: Justice Department report confirms what we already knew about police violence, Yahoo! News, Jan 13.
—2016
Jordie Davies, 'For the People': The Radical Artists Collective Repping Chicago Movements, BYP100, Dec 23.
Maya Dukmasova, A workshop on 'cop watching' shows Chicagoans how to safely document police stops, Chicago Reader, Dec 20.
Juan Carlos, Corredor, For the People Artist Collective Awarded Grant for Exhibition on Police Violence, Chicago Monitor, Nov 17.
AirGo Radio, Episode 60: Monica Trinidad, Sept 20.
Kelley O'Death, Fear Of A Queer Planet: Featuring Monica Trinidad, New Noise, April 26.
Truthout, We Charge Genocide: The Emergence of a Movement, Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? (Haymarket Books, 2016), 119-123.
—2015
Page May, Hana Worku, Breanna Champion, Monica Trinidad, Ethan Viets-Van Lear and Kush Thompson, We Charge Genocide: Reflections on Healing and Resistance, AREA Chicago Issue 15, Dec 2015.
Monica Trinidad, On Museums, Visitors of Color Blog
Jean Cochrane, Resistance Remembered, South Side Weekly, Oct 21.
Asha Ransby-Sporn, Page May and Monica Trinidad, We Charge Genocide: The Emergence of a Movement, Truthout, Sept 23.
Nia King, 49: Monica Trinidad, We Want the Airwaves Podcast, Sept 6.
The Editors, 16th Annual 30 Under 30: Honoring the Best, Windy City Times, June 24.
The Editors, Artists Speak on Baltimore, Red Wedge Magazine, May 18.
—2014
Joseph Erbentraut, Some Critics Aren't So Sure Body Cameras Are The Solution To Police Abuse in Chicago, Huffington Post, Dec 4.