To quote Lin-Manuel Miranda, the people in “the room where it happens” — including the Kimmel Center’s executive leadership and its board of directors – need to ask themselves if cognitive dissonance is the image they want the Kimmel Center to convey as our city and the arts sector recover from the economic and cultural impact of the pandemic. If the Kimmel Center is indeed having “internal discussions about equity all the time,” I wonder who has a seat at the table and if the participants in these conversations reflect the region’s diverse community that the Kimmel Center engages.

I experience art the way I experience life: through the lens of a queer Costa Rican-American and self-proclaimed “Pennsylrican” that straddles two cultures, two languages, and a multitude of intersecting identities.