Valerie Martínez (born 1961) is an American poet, writer, educator, arts administrator, consultant, and collaborative artist.
In 2021, Artful Life was chosen as the lead consultant for the Santa Fe, New Mexico CHART (Culture, History, Art, Reconciliation, and Truth) project, leading the city and county of Santa Fe through a twelve-month community engagement process focused on truth, healing, and reconciliation after protests and controversy around monuments and statues.
The poem unfolds over 43 sections of myth-gathering, endangered flora and fauna, accounts of climate devastation, storytelling, witnessing, references to works of eco-art, and evocations of children.
The poem is the subject of a world-premiere vocal work, "As the Waters Began to Rise", by composer Peter Gilbert which premiered in April of 2022, performed by Ekmeles.
Martinez's chapbook-length hybrid work (poetry and prose), "A Hundred Little Mouths", premiered in November 2015 with Susan Silton's "Whistling Project" at SITE Santa Fe.
Martínez also served as assistant editor of the anthology Reinventing the Enemy's Language--Contemporary Writing by Native Women of North America (Norton 1997) and an essay about Joy Harjo (along with poems by Harjo and Martínez) appears in the anthology Women Poets on Mentorship: Efforts and Affections (University of Iowa Press, 2008).
From 2006 to 2014 Valerie was executive director and Core Artist with Littleglobe, a New Mexico-based 501(c)(3) that creates significant works of art/performance with members of diverse and under-served communities.
Valerie's large-scale arts and community development projects include TIASO (an artist-serving cooperative that will launch in 2016); El Puente/The Bridge; Stories of Route 66: The International District; Women and Creativity; EKCO; Rivers Run Through Us; Lines and Circles; Common Ground TOC; Lifesongs, and Memorylines: Voces de Nuestras Jornadas.
In 2021, Artful Life was chosen as the lead consultant for the Santa Fe, New Mexico CHART (Culture, History, Art, Reconciliation, and Truth) project, leading the city and county of Santa Fe through a twelve-month community engagement process focused on truth, healing, and reconciliation.
Martinez is also a collaborative artist who works with other writers, visual artists, dancers, singers, composers and actors in a wide range of creative projects, including Susan Silton's Whistling Project, and the world premiere of "As the Waters Began to Rise", by composer Peter Gilbert, performed by Ekmeles.