writing

features + interviews

A Day in the Life of Bad Bunny, Introverted Superstar, Pitchfork (March 2020) // As the Puerto Rican phenom continues to take over the pop universe with his new album YHLQMDLG, he dreams of just kicking back in flip-flops.

Paloma Mami’s Dreams Are Only Getting Bigger, Rolling Stone (March 2021) // After growing up in New York, the Chilean American singer moved to Santiago to make hits that blend R&B, reggaeton, and her own unique style.

Voices Of The Past: Questions For Poet Renato Rosaldo, NPR Books (September 2019) // As a kid in Tucson in the 1950s, anthropologist and poet Renato Rosaldo ran with a crew called the Chasers. 50 years later, he interviewed them at a reunion and created prose poems in their voices.

J Balvin Won’t Settle For Anything Less Than World Domination (+ podcast), NPR Music’s Alt.Latino (May 2018) // After cracking the American pop charts in 2017, the Colombian reggaeton star is following the success of “Mi Gente” with his fifth album, Vibras. And he knows you’re still listening.

Cuco Is The Cariño Of Young Latinos Who Keep Dreaming (+ podcast), NPR Music’s Alt.Latino (April 2018) // At 19, the producer and singer born Omar Banos has built a following for his infectious dream pop — and begun testing it as a tool to help immigrant families like his own.

Phil Collins Returns to the Road, Miami New Times (November 2017) // Music legend Phil Collins, now 66 years old, remembers a world that was far simpler for musicians.

Fergie Talks Reinvention, Mom-Shaming, and the Miami Dolphins, Miami New Times (October 2017)

J Balvin on Miami, the Latin Revolution, and His Gente, Miami New Times (October 2017)

essays

The Emotional Legacy Of ‘Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater’, NPR Music (September 2020) // Since Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater was first released in 1999, kids who played – and listened to – the game have grown into successful artists in their own right.

The Brief Cuban-American “Gozadera”, Club Fonograma (November 2019) // For Cuba and Cubatón, the island’s unique subgenre of reggaetón influenced by traditional Cuban genres, this was the decade that saw the first significant thaw of Cuban-American relations in half a century, which had its own theme song: Gente de Zona’s “La Gozadera.”

Reclaiming The Rhyme: How Black Women And Latinas Have Reshaped Pop Music, NPR Music (August 2018) // Over the first two decades of the 21st century, as the influence of Latin music and R&B has swept over pop, songs by women of color have allowed us to hear real stories that were once obscured.

Celia Cruz’s ‘Son Con Guaguancó’ And The Bridge To Fame In Exile, NPR Music (February 2018) // Recorded five years after Cruz left Cuba for good, Son Con Guaguancó depicts the singer on the cusp of major stardom as she adapts to a new life in the United States.

Sounding Out Sanctuary, Tides Magazine (September 2019) // A profile of singer and soft strong song maker, Anju.

Wasting Away Again (June 2019) // Diagnosing “Keys Disease” — between paradise and hell on Earth, Florida’s Lower Keys fight to survive, from the railroad relics of Pigeon Key to Margaritaville.

reviews

Myke Towers Takes Big Risks, But Also Plays it Too Safe, On ‘LA VIDA ES UNA’, Rolling Stone (March 2023)

Rauw Alejandro, ‘SATURNO’, Pitchfork (November 2022)

Bad Bunny’s ‘Un Verano Sin Ti’ is a Caribbean love letter to Puerto Rico, NPR Music (May 2022)

Rosalía’s ‘Motomami’ is a complex treatise on fame — and her place in Latin pop, NPR Music (March 2022)

Xenia Rubinos, ‘Una Rosa’, Pitchfork (October 2021)

A ‘Black Björk’: Jean Dawson Reintroduces Himself on ‘Pixel Bath’, Remezcla (October 2020)

Rita Indiana, ‘Mandinga Times’, Pitchfork (September 2020)

Tall Juan, ‘Atlantico’, Pitchfork (May 2020)

Why Lido Pimienta Had To Become Her Own ‘Miss Colombia’, NPR Music (April 2020)

Camila Cabello, ‘Romance’, Pitchfork (December 2019)

Maria Usbeck, ‘Envejeciendo’, Pitchfork (August 2019)

J Balvin And Bad Bunny Surprise Us With, And On, ‘Oasis’, NPR Music (June 2019)

With ‘This Is How You Smile’, Helado Negro Transforms Familial Relations Into Beauty, NPR Music (February 2019)

tiny desks

Susana Baca: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert, NPR Music (October 2022) // The Peruvian musician gives an intimate El Tiny performance befitting her status as a curator of folklore and culture of the highest order.

Girl Ultra: Tiny Desk Concert, NPR Music (September 2022) // The music of Mariana de Miguel is always changing — and her intimate, simmering El Tiny performance is an effortless flash of all she’s capable of.

YEИDRY: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert, NPR Music (October 2021) // The Dominican-Italian singer performs an “El Tiny” concert from Soho Beach House in Miami.

Sech: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert, NPR Music (October 2021) // The Panamanian singer celebrates reggaetón with an El Tiny performance set in a library.

Ozuna: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert, NPR Music (October 2020) // Global superstar Ozuna performs five songs in quarantine for Tiny Desk.