Artist in Residence: Julia Rocha-Nava
From June through September 2025, Brooklyn Botanic Garden hosts Julia Rocha-Nava as artist in residence. Drawing from Latin American and Caribbean traditions such as cumbia, bolero, son jarocho, Rocha will write and perform a bilingual music performance connecting the human-plant relationship and exploring our responsibilities as land stewards.
About the Artist
Julia Rocha-Nava (they/them) is a vocalist, producer, and educator born in Mexico City, raised in Los Angeles, and now based in Brooklyn. Rocha-Nava leads the collaborative music project Chispa. This year they are releasing their debut album Somos Medicina, a project that draws on their experience learning to grow food and medicine with their community and tells stories of composting systems of oppression, reconnecting with the land, and channeling the transformative power of queer love.
Rocha-Nava is the founder of Liberation Sounds, empowering QTBIPOC through music production education. They are a two-time recipient of the Brooklyn Art Council’s Creative Equations grant for Justice, Equity and Sustainability in Performing Arts, the New Music Creator Award, as well as a NALAC Arts Fund recipient.
Artist website: liberationsounds.my.canva.site/chispa-website