Quique Avilés is a DC poet, performer, and community activist whose work is dedicated to addressing social issues. For 40 years, Quique has been challenging audiences with his provocative, painful, humorous, poignant, and powerful work. Originally from El Salvador, Quique graduated from the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in 1985 and founded the LatiNegro Theater Collective, an ensemble of African American and Latino young artists. In 1999, he co-founded Sol & Soul, an arts and activist organization, and served as its Artistic Director until 2005. He has written and performed in more than 13 major one-man shows dealing with issues of race and identity, including Latinhood, Chaos Standing, Caminata: A Walk though Immigrant America, and The Children of Latinia. His latest work has been as a performer and producer of the film La Manplesa, a documentary about the 1991 Mount Pleasant Street DC riots. He is presently working, for the first time, as a Director and Lead Writer, on Las Muertes Más Bellas del Mundo. Quique is the vision and force behind this project. He is excited to be taking his years as a poet, performer, and trouble maker into the realm of documentary film. He is in charge of all creative decisions about the content, look, and feel of the film and shaping the overarching narrative of the film.