Rozette De Castro

5/15-11/1

Rozette will be creating work throughout the house/with the other artists

I am a storyteller, community weaver and urban planner whose practice explores migration, belonging, grief, and collective healing. Born and raised in both Manila and Negros Occidental, Philippines, and shaped by migration to the United States at eighteen, I create participatory experiences that invite people to encounter themselves and each other more honestly. I believe vulnerability is not weakness, but infrastructure: the foundation upon which trust, healing, and meaningful change are built.

Central to my practice is the understanding that we are living inside systems designed by other people’s imaginations. Before focusing on community-based art and facilitation, I worked across policy and social impact spaces including environmental justice, international development, conservation, immigration, higher education and urban planning. That experience continues to shape my practice, grounding my work in the understanding that systems, public spaces, and policies deeply influence how people live, connect, and see themselves.

Working across workshops, public gatherings, collage, mapping, conversation, and site-specific experiences, I use storytelling as a tool for connection and transformation. I approach spaces as collaborators in the work: cemeteries become sites for grief reflection, libraries become spaces for intergenerational dialogue, and urban farms become places for cultural memory and belonging.

I am deeply interested in the patterns between the personal and political, and in how communities can reimagine the worlds they inhabit. My practice centers radical care, cultural continuity, and the creation of spaces where people feel safe enough to be fully themselves.

Ultimately, my work asks: what becomes possible when we build communities grounded in love, truth, and radical imagination?

I hold a BA in Political Science from UC Berkeley and an MS in Urban Planning from Columbia University