page_title: Roberto Lugo
section_title: NCECA 2015
hierarchical_section_title: Roberto Lugo / NCECA 2015
caption_attribution_description: English: Artists Portrait
context_page_description: Roberto Lugo is an American potter, social activist, spoken word poet, and educator. Lugo's work draws together hip-hop, history and politics into formal ceramics and 2D works. Born in Kensington, Philadelphia to Puerto Rican parents, Lugo began his career as a graffiti artist before discovering ceramics.
  Lugo holds a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and an MFA from Penn State, and is a professor of ceramics at Tyler School of Art. Lugo is an Assistant Professor of Art at Tyler School of Art and is the recipient of the 2019 Rome Prize. His unique works have garnered nationwide attention and numerous shows.
context_section_description: In late 2014, having recently graduated with his MFA from Penn State, Lugo received word he had been selected as an Emerging Artist for the National Council on Education in Ceramic Arts 2015 conference, to be held in Providence Rhode Island. Lugo's deeply personal lecture, part spoken word performance, part sermon, electrified the crowd of nearly 5,000 attendees. His speech about how pottery saved his life, including the image of the phrase "This machine kills hate" painted onto his pottery wheel earned him an enthusiastic standing ovation. "I want to take Roberto Lugo out of the equation for a moment, the individual. I am proud to be a part of a community of people that honors the things I just talked about, that finds those things valuable… We’re a culture that can change the world." The video of that lecture has nearly 20,000 views online, and Lugo has received more than 100 emails from people who saw the speech in person or online, thanking him and sharing similar experiences.
caption: Roberto Lugo at the Philadelphia Clay Studio
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