022 Sip & Chat: Mark Travis Rivera

Welcome back to LNXdance with your Co-Hosts, Marcus & Mari! Introducing our next guest, the inspiring Mark Travis Rivera. We are so honored to share his story with you. Enjoy!

Trigger Warning: this episode talks about gun violence and mental health.

Get More Mark: https://linktr.ee/marktravrivera

Telling stories is at the core of Mark Travis Rivera’s purpose in life. He is an award-winning creative entrepreneur and the Chief Executive Officer + Founder of The Professional Storyteller, where he embraces the power of story to create a more inclusive world. As a writer, Rivera’s bylines include The Bergen Record, Herald News, The Star-Ledger, Fox News Latino, and The Huffington Post. He was also a contributing author in the anthology, Crisis and Care: Queer Activist Responses to a Global Pandemic (PM Press, 2022), edited by Adrian Shanker. His debut collection, Drafts: An Imperfect Collection of Writing, was published in August 2017. He was also a contributing writer for Imagining: A Gibney Journal, where he shared his experience as a disabled choreographer and dancer.

As a 17-year-old, Rivera founded the Marked Dance Project (2009-2019), becoming the youngest person in the US to create and lead an integrated dance company for disabled and non-disabled dancers. Inspired by his desire to dance as a person with cerebral palsy, he would go on to help disabled and non-disabled dancers alike find their voice as artists. As a Puerto Rican queer man, he was also one of a handful of artistic directors of color in the disability dance field in the US. As an independent disabled choreographer, Mark is determined to build a bridge between the main dance field and disability dance. Mark was recently selected to participate in Ballet Hispanico’s Instituto Coreográfico program.

As a speaker, he has addressed audiences at various institutions, including Harvard, MIT, Rutgers, and NYU. He has also spoken to corporate audiences virtually in the UK, Canada, Mexico, Latin America, Israel, China, and India. His TEDx Talk, “Embracing Yourself, Embracing Your Potential,” was a smash in 2014 at Bergen Community College.

A first-generation college graduate, Rivera earned his bachelor’s degree in Women’s & Gender Studies from William Paterson University of New Jersey. He is a proud Tio to 5 nieces and 2 nephews. He was born in Miami, raised in New Jersey, and lived in New York City and the Bay Area, but now calls Atlanta, GA, home.