Anaïs Deal-Márquez is an artist with roots across the U.S.-Mexico border whose work looks at identity, displacement, and memory. She believes stories are their strongest with a good cumbia and a plate of tamales. She is the founder of Border Voices, which uses storytelling and performance to curate shows and conversations that center immigrant and refugee voices of folks of color.

She is a 2015 winner in the Loft Literary Center’s Mentor Series in poetry, and has performed at the Loft, Dakota Jazz Club, and Pangaea World Theater. Her essay, “Our Silence Won’t Save Us: Recovering the Medicine in Our Stories,” was published in “How Dare We! Write,” an anthology of writers of color on the writing life and process.

She is currently finishing her first book of poetry, a project in conversation with Mexican women in her family that weaves stories across generations around migration and resilience.