Author Archives: Paul Flores

Paul S. Flores is one of the most influential Latino performance artists in the country and a nationally respected arts educator. He creates plays, oral narratives, and spoken word about transnationality and citizenship that spur and support societal movements that lead to change. As a San Francisco artist of Mexican and Cuban-American heritage, Flores has built a national reputation for interview-based theater and bilingual spoken word. He integrates Latino and indigenous healing practices to tell the stories of real people impacted by immigration and systemic inequalities. His body of work touches on the immigrant story in all its complexities: from the violent—forced migration, gang life, war, incarceration, and separated families—to zooming in on intergenerational relationships and the struggle of preserving important cultural values. Flores' work has played across the United States and internationally in Cuba, Mexico, and El Salvador. Paul is a Doris Duke Artist Award winner and an inaugural NALAC Catalyst for Change awardee. His commissions have come from Creative Capital, La Peña Cultural Center, the NEA, MACLA, MAP Fund, Pregones Theater, NJPAC, National Performance Network, SF Arts Commission, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and many more. He has received performance residencies at Headlands Center for the Arts and The Kennedy Center. His debut book of poetry We Still Be on El Martillo Press recently won the 2024 American Book Award. Flores teaches Theater and Spoken Word at the University of San Francisco. He is the Co-Principal Investigator of the NIH-funded Somos Esenciales project https://canasf.org/index/somos-esenciales/, a folklife-based participatory action research and cultural arts intervention initiative led by CANA in partnership with UC Riverside, Native Health Center, and UCSF. Flores also produces Paseo Artistico Free Bilingual Community Art Stroll on 24thStreet for Acción Latina in the Mission District of San Francisco.

paul@accionlatina.org