Welcome to Staff Spotlight! Get to know the dedicated staff at the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, who work year-round to support the success of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.
This month, we’re highlighting Associate Director, Regional Awards, Haydil Henriquez!
Describe your role at the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers.
As the Associate Director of Regional Awards, I support several incredible teams as they administer the regional awards across the U.S. & Canada. Those teams include the Affiliate Partner Network, the Region-at-Large Program, the NYC Scholastic Awards Program, and the National Student Poet Program.
What is your favorite part about working at the Alliance?
It’s a way of giving back to the next generation of creative changemakers. It’s an investment for a more art-filled world.
What is your favorite book of all time, and what makes it so special to you?
I cannot have just one favorite book of all time, there are too many great ones to choose from, but my top two are: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and Sister Outsider: Essays & Speeches by Audre Lorde. For One Hundred Years of Solitude, I was enthralled in generational storylines where magical realism and fatalism wrap you into mirages where you question the beginning and the end. And Sister Outsider is an essential read for black liberation discourse; it’s a reminder of why each generation needs revolutionaries to challenge the status quo. Audre Lorde is one of the greatest writers of all time.
What is your favorite artwork of all time, and what makes it so special to you?
Art is ethereal; thus I can’t choose one, but I am currently obsessed with Firelei Baez’s work. She’s a Dominican, NYC-based visual artist who uses an explosion of colors and magic in her paintings, sculptures, and mixed media pieces. She is often centering cultural references of her African diasporic identity in a very imaginative way. This work here is one of my favs, Olamina (How do we learn to love each other when we are embattled), which is an ode to Lauren Olamina, the protagonist of yet another greatest reads of all time, Earthseed by Octavia Butler: Museums Without Men: Firelei Báez – The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
What are your hobbies outside of work?
I like to live a pretty active life. You can often find me engaging in my seasonal physical activity, whether it’s walking, hiking, biking, swimming, Bikram yoga, etc. I also like to write poetry and garden.
Favorite snack or drink while working?
A bowl of berries with an orange-grapefruit-mint water.
Favorite song or album at the moment?
Rapsody released an album in August that has rocked me. Please check out God Gotta Afro & Gold Hoops as soon as possible.
Name three famous artists and/or writers you would invite to a dinner party and why.
Julia Alvarez because I loved her writing as a child and I’d like to ask her how she came up with the line, “great bulls sire cows,” one of the greatest feminist statements an 11-year-old can read.
Lauryn Hill because she’s the greatest wordsmiths to yield the sword of words.
I love Kehinde Wiley’s work and would like to understand how he is able to capture such tenderness in his powerful portraitures.
Share a photo of your choice and tell us the story behind it!
In this photo, I’m with my former teacher and mentor, the poet Aracelis Girmay, at our latest reading together at the Guggenheim Museum. The reading was for the opening of Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers in June 2025.
If you could visit any museum in the world, where would you go and why?
I would like to visit the Zeitz (MOCAA) in South Africa because I am interested in its architecture and how they were able to integrate its design into an existing abandoned structure, a grain silo. It’s a great concept to explore as a cultural strategist who opposes gentrification and motions people toward community and cultural integration instead. I’d love to see if the theory is aligned with the practice. It also has one of the largest collections of African art in the world, which is dope!