BIOGRAPHY / CV
b. 1999, Kissimmee, Florida.
currently based in Kansas City, Missouri.
they/them/theirs.
Nasir Anthony Montalvo is an essayist and memory worker based in Kansas City, MO. Montalvo uses archival praxis, digital media, popular education and the written word to move Black diasporic audiences towards life and a true dream beyond social platitudes.
Montalvo’s art has been exhibited locally and nationally in coffee shops, book stores, community fairs and artist galleries. Their art and archival research has also been published in NPR, Syllabus, Sixty Inches From Center, The Advocate, Teen Vogue and KC Studio; along with being used in curricula at Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University and the North Kansas City School District. Montalvo holds a 2024-2026 studio residency at Charlotte Street; and has been awarded fellowships and artist grants with The Opportunity Agenda, Diaspora Solidarities Lab, Gray Area and ArtsKC. Montalvo is most recently founder of {B/qKC}: a community archive of Black queer midwestern history.
Nasir Anthony Montalvo is queer, Afro-Borincane, and from Kissimmee, Florida. They received their BS in Business & Technology from Stevens Institute of Technology.
nasiranthonymontalvo at gmail dot com
residencies
2024–26
Writing Studio Residency (subsidized studio space + access to campus resources) | Charlotte Street | Kansas City, MO
awards, grants + fellowships
2025
Sustainability Grant ($10,000/yr) | Rooted Power Fund | Kansas City, MO
Cultural Memory Lab ($5,500 + DWeb Course For Creators) | Gray Area | International
Inspiration Grant ($3,500) | ArtsKC | Kansas City, MO
2024
TJA x IRE Fellowship (conference/lodging support) | Translash Media | Anaheim, CA
Culture & Narrative Fellowship ($15,000 + project support) | The Opportunity Agenda | National
Grant ($2,000 project stipend) | Stories For All/University of Kansas | Kansas
Community Fellows Program Grant ($5,000 + project support) | Diaspora Solidarities Lab | International
2023
Leadership Academy (LEAD) Fellow ($7,500 + leadership development) | BlaqOut | Kansas City
Journalist Of Color Fellow ($6,500 stipend + mentorship) | Solutions Journalism Network | National
Grant ($6,000 stipend) | Stories For All/University of Kansas | Kansas
Regular Grant ($6,500 stipend + $2,140 for materials) | Fund for Investigative Journalism | International
Cultural Producer Grant ($5,000 + mentorship) | Charlotte Street Foundation | Kansas City
2017–21
Fellow (job placement) | Venture For America | National
Inspiration Award | Stevens Office of Residential Education | Hoboken, NJ
People’s Choice Award | Women @ Work Hackathon | New York City, NY
Sophomore of The Year | Gear & Triangle Honor Society | Hoboken, NJ
Advocacy Program of The Year | Stevens Institute of Technology | Hoboken, NJ
Prize in Poetry | Stevens College of Arts & Letters | Hoboken, NJ
Presidential Scholarship ($30,000/year) | Stevens Institute of Technology | Hoboken, NJ
exhibitions + curatorial work
2025
SOAKIE’S WAS HOME (solo exhibition) | the Waiting Room Gallery | Kansas City, MO
2024
Art In The Loop (public art installation) | Kansas City Streetcar | Kansas City, MO
{B/qKC}: Volume_2 (solo exhibit) | BLK + BRWN, PH Coffee, Waterbird Coffee, Astringent Press & Cafe Corazon | Kansas City, MO
{B/qKC}: Volume_2 (solo exhibit) | The BlaqBox | Kansas City, MO
a Midwest Zine Archive (MZA) (featured material) | UMKC Gallery of Art | Kansas City, MO
Miss/They Camaraderie (group exhibit) | Charlotte Street | Kansas City, MO
2023
PRIDE Edition (solo exhibit) | PH Coffee | Kansas City, MO
{B/qKC}: Volume_1 (solo exhibit) | The BlaqBox | Kansas City, MO
{B/qKC}: Volume_1 (solo exhibit) | BLK + BRWN, PH Coffee, & Cafe Corazon | Kansas City, MO
2021
fluids (multi-person exhibit) | online | Hoboken, NJ 2020
publications (as an author)
“Yashira Davalos Goes for Gold with ‘Allegories of Inertia,’” Sixty Inches from Center, November 2024.
“bad tats, jesus christ, lemons; everything is archival,”Syllabus, October 2024.
“Third Space: Queering Blackness from the Archival Fabrics of Middle America,” MDW Atlas, July 2024.
“The Unseen Struggles: Erasure and Racial Inequities in Kansas City’s Queer Community,” Urban League, November 2023. pgs 204-7.
“Remembering “Soakie’s”: Kansas City’s former Black gay bar from the Y2K Era,” The Kansas City Defender, December 2023.
“55th anniversary of the ‘Kansas City Race Riots,’” The Kansas City Defender, April 2023.
“Kansas City’s ‘Out There’: The 90’s Gay & Lesbian Variety Show Featuring Lea Hopkins,” The Kansas City Defender, December 2022.
“Men of All Colors Together: The Kansas City organization fighting racism amidst gay men in the 80’s–90’s,”
The Kansas City Defender, June 2022.
“Remembering Edye and Ray: The First (Well-Documented) Black Drag Queens of Kansas City,”
The Kansas City Defender, May 2022.
“Stop Naming Buildings After Homophobes and Transphobes,” The Advocate, May 2021.
“3% ain’t gonna cut it,” The Stute, January 2020.
“A Silent Ode To The City,” Selah Magazine, Issue 02 (September 2018). 33-34.
commissions
Essay, “Third Space: Queering Blackness from the Archival Fabrics of Middle America,” MdW + Yashi Davalos
Essay in Public Report, “2023 State of Black Kansas City,” Urban League of Greater Kansas City
2-Page Fold in Public Zine, “A Queer Guide To Kansas City,” Chance McGuire + Astringent Press
Driving Tour Guest Speaker, “KC Rainbow Tour,” Joel Barrett
lectures, presentations, + workshops
2025
“CHERISHED MOMENTS” (Guest Lecturer), Literary KC
“‘…nowhere to go’: reckoning with the displacement of KC’s Black queer community.”(Guest Lecturer), University of Missouri–Kansas City
2024
Guest Pride Presentation, Children’s Mercy Hospital | Online
Art+Feminism Conversations (Panelist), Art + Feminism | Online
2023
“Young Black Writer’s Social” (Founder/Moderator), The Kansas City Defender | Charlotte Street
“Rebuild Honestly: Black PRIDE” (Panelist), Black Excellence KC | Keystone Innovation District
2022
“The Politics Of Gen Z” (Panelist), KC Media Collective | University of Missouri-Kansas City
“Youth Perspective: Fighting the Stigma, Miseducation, & Contraction of HIV/AIDS” (Presenter), Kansas City, Missouri Health Department HIV Prevention and Care Planning Council | Online
2021
“Task Force on Community Equity” (Presenter), workshop for college administration | Stevens Institute of Technology
2020
“How to Create An Inclusive Hall” (Solo), Resident Assistant workshop | Stevens Office of Residential Education
#StevensForSolidarity (Lead), grassroots organizing workshop | Stevens Institute of Technology
“The Toolkit for Social Good” (Lead), hackathon workshop | Online
bibliography
Sixty Inches From Center, “The Radical Memory Work of {B/qKC}: Interview With Nasir Anthony Montalvo” https://sixtyinchesfromcenter.org/the-radical-memory-work-of-b-qkc-interview-with-nasir-anthony-montalvo (July 23, 2024)
The Next Page, “A Review Of Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter Reimagines What An Archive Can Be And Illustrates The Need For Black Archives” https://thenextpagekc.com/articles/news/a-review-of-beyonces-cowboy-carter-reimagines-what-an-archive-can-be-and-illustrates-the-need-for-black-archives (April 12, 2024)
KC Studio, “‘Miss/They Camaraderie 2024,’ Charlotte Street Foundation”
https://kcstudio.org/miss-they-camaraderie-2024-charlotte-street-foundation/ (February 20, 2024)
Parents Defending Education, “North Kansas City School District provides teachers
with lesson plans on LGBTQ issues for students as young as kindergarten in celebration of LGBTQ History Month” https://defendinged.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/October-Heritage-Month-2023-1.pdf (December 5, 2023)
Reckon, “From the Queer Archives: A closer look at LGBTQ archives and the voices they preserve” https://www.reckon.news/lgbtq/2023/11/from-the-queer-archives-a-closer-look-at-lgbtq-archives-and-the-voices-they-preserve.html (November 1, 2023)
KMBC, “Artist uses pride month to honor black LGBTQ+ icons in Kansas City”
https://www.kmbc.com/article/artist-pride-month-black-lgbtq-icons-kansas-city/44304682 (June 22, 2023)
KSHB, “KC Black LGBTQ icons, stories part of new coffee shop exhibit” https://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/kc-black-lgbtq-icons-stories-part-of-new-coffee-shop-exhibit (June 19, 2023)
Voices of Value Podcast, “Combating Oppression through Activism and Verbalism”
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/combating-oppression-through-activism-and-verbalism (April 21, 2023)
KCUR, “Nasir Anthony Montalvo wants to place Kansas City’s Black queer history front and center”
https://www.kcur.org/arts-life/2023-02-23/nasir-montalvo-wants-to-place-kansas-citys-black-queer-history-front-and-center (February 23, 2023)
Channel Q Podcast, “On Spirit Day, How Colleges Can Step Up For LGBTQ Students” https://www.audacy.com/wearechannelq/latest/on-spirit-day-how-colleges-can-step-up-for-lgbtq-students (October 21, 2021)
Teen Vogue, “Teen Vogue Presents GLAAD’s 20 Under 20” https://www.teenvogue.com/gallery/glaad-20-under-20 (June 22, 2020)
Cosmopolitan, “This Is What Pride Looks Like in 2020” https://www.cosmopolitan.com/lifestyle/a32770776/celebrating-pride-2020-in-the-pandemic/ (June 16, 2020)
HelloGiggles, “5 LGBTQ People Reveal the First Times They Saw Themselves in Other People’s Style” https://hellogiggles.com/queer-style-lgbtq-fashion/ (June 9, 2020)
Hudson Reporter, “Stevens students protest Gianforte Center” https://hudsonreporter.com/2019/12/20/stevens-students-protest-gianforte-center/ (December 20, 2019)