SPEAKING & LECTURES
Julysa Sosa · Artist Speaker & Lecturer
Julysa Sosa is a Xicana Tejana artist, storyteller, and speaker whose talks draw from two distinct and rarely combined bodies of experience. A decade of professional marketing and branding work. A fine art and documentary photography practice rooted in identity.
She speaks at universities, museums, cultural institutions, brands, agencies, and conferences. Her talks span strategic storytelling, decolonized aesthetics, Xicana Tejana identity, and Indigenous futurism as a framework for creative longevity.
Personal narrative, theoretical frameworks, and practical application woven together. For audiences who want more than a keynote. For rooms that are ready for something real.
Available for artist talks, panel conversations, and keynote engagements. In-person and virtual. Honorarium required.
SPEAKING TOPICS
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Finding Your Way Back
On detribalization, reconnection, and what it means to reclaim identity without a map
For many Indigenous and Xicanx people the path back to identity is not straight, documented, or clean. It is made in the making. This talk draws from Julysa Sosa's personal journey as a detribalized Xicanx, descendant of the Nahua people, navigating reconnection outside of tribal enrollment, community gatekeeping, and colonial definitions of belonging. It is a talk about what it means to claim an identity that was interrupted and what healing looks like when it happens through the work.
For: universities, cultural institutions, community organizations, artists navigating similar terrain.
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The Story Comes First
On strategic storytelling, branding, and why the narrative is always the foundation
Most brands know what they do, but few can express it truthfully, specifically, and uniquely. This talk combines a decade of marketing and branding with fine art and documentary photography to explore what authentic strategic storytelling entails from the inside out. It shows how to find and build a visual and verbal identity based on your unique story, and how to communicate with precision, restraint, and cultural relevance in a noisy world.
For: brands, nonprofits, cultural groups, artists, and creatives building their public identity, creative professionals seeking a different framework.
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Decolonized Aesthetics
On what it looks like when the visual language belongs to you
Most visual culture in art, branding, and media was built on a colonial framework of what is beautiful, what is professional, what is worth seeing. This talk examines what it means to build a visual practice outside those terms. What decolonized aesthetics actually looks like in practice, not just in theory. How to develop a visual language rooted in your own cultural specificity without performing it, aestheticizing it, or shrinking it for mainstream consumption.
For: artists, designers, brands, cultural institutions, academic programs in art and design.
FORMAT & AVAILABILITY
Artist talk · Panel participant · Keynote
All three topics are available as standalone talks or as a combined half-day or full-day program. In-person and virtual engagements available. Honorarium required for all engagements. All speaking requests are considered individually.
BOOK JULYSA SOSA
To inquire about a speaking engagement contact the studio directly
Please include the event name, organization, proposed date, format, and honorarium budget. All engagements are considered individually. Responses within 5 business days.
