Dorie chat's with her friend and super talented Bushwick bread artist, Monique "Mo" Letamendi. Mo puts Dorie on the Spanish music that's shaped her musical taste, shares why she is not here for the new girls in R&B, and let's us know why she chooses Solange over Bey in versus. 

*recorded in 2021*

Who is Mo Letamendi?

Born and bred in Bushwick, Brooklyn, Monique "Orisha Love" Letamendi has been the mouthpiece of her community for more than a decade. Nicknamed “The Mouthpiece” by her peers, in 2010, Monique found her calling, with a sight on activism and providing for her community. In an attempt to extend herself into other fields, Monique began to teach poetry and literacy in various state-funded programs and non-profit organizations, such as viBe Theater Experience in 2014 and Sankofa Empowerment Program in 2010. Monique became program director at viBe Theater Experience in 2015, and directs, produces, and collaborates with high school girls from the tri-state area to create full-length stage plays and albums. Monique started directing viBeStages, viBeStages residencies in Achievement First High School in Bushwick and Brooklyn High School of the Arts in Fort Greene, viBe Songmakers and viBeCompany and was named viBe Theater Experience’s first Artistic Director in October 2020. Monique created and performed in original plays such as “Are You Trippin?” and “Monolith to Monarch with viBeCompany, as well as in 2020, Monique performed her original one-woman play virtually named La Limpieza and self-published her own poetry book named “Resonance: Being a Black Woman in America” and has published her second poetry book “La Limpieza” with DominusVir Publications. Monique has extended her talents to various social reform movements and campaigns such as #fightfor15, reclaiming the black woman’s body with Black Woman Blueprint at the Roulette Theater, unconstitutional stop and frisk policies with MTR in Bushwick, and #sayhername with the African American Policy Forum for an Evening of Action at Pratt University. Monique has facilitated workshops with NBWC at Medgar Evers, Face to Face Conference, Artists Striving to End Poverty as well as for independent artists. Monique has performed at various universities all over NYC such as Pratt University, NYU, Hunter College, and Barnard College in Boston as well as performing original work at Brooklyn Museum, MOCADA Museum, BRIC, and most recently at theSHED in POWERPLAY, where she was an artist in residence alongside other artists to create a play about power and our relationship to it. In 2018, Monique co-curated and hosted a bi-weekly black and POC-centered open mic with the VooDoo Lounge Underground in Brooklyn. You can follow her on Instagram @orisha_love.