Instructors

Cristina Diaz-Carrera is a curator at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, specializing in Caribbean and Latin American culture. She has worked as a curator on several Smithsonian Folklife Festivals, highlighting Colombia in 2011 and Peru in 2015, and she is currently preparing for the 2020 event, focusing on Brazil. Additionally, she is pursuing her interest in the ways in which music and dance from Latin America build community in the District of Columbia by working on an engagement project with practitioners of Brazilian traditions in the District. She holds a BA in ethnomusicology from Barnard College, Columbia University, and an MA in Caribbean/Latin American studies from New York University.

Melissa Queen is the education intern at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, focusing on the emergence of go-go music in D.C. high schools and preparing family-friendly activities in relation to the Folklife Festival. She is also the education intern at the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, where she prepares educational resources and materials for the traveling “Narwhal: Revealing an Arctic Legend” exhibit from the National Museum of Natural History. She is a former high school history teacher and curriculum writer from Dallas, Texas. She holds a BA in history and secondary education from the University of North Texas and is currently completing an MA in public history from Texas Woman’s University.