Education Staff

Raquel Almazan | Manager of After School Programs

Raquel Almazan: interdisciplinary artist, educator and activist. Almazan’s body of work includes: The Latin is America play cycle that has been presented/ developed at Lincoln Center- Classical Theatre of Harlem, The Signature Theatre, Next Door-New York Theatre Workshop, Bric Arts, The Playwrights Center, New Georges, Pregones-PRTT, Repertorio Espanol, La Micro, INTAR, Hi-Arts, Pangea World Theatre, La Mama and Bushwick Starr; internationally- Greece, Italy, Slovenia, Colombia, Chile, Guatemala and Sweden. She is the recipient of The Kennedy Center’s Latinidad Award and the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture Grant.  

Almazan is the youth program director of Urban Explorers at City Lore. Currently teaches playwriting at Marymount Manhattan College. Has facilitated with Columbia University, Harvard University, New York University, Carnegie Mellon, Suny Purchase, Manhattan Theatre Club, Brooklyn Academy of Music, DreamYard and Art Spring to incarcerated women in prison; as well as with several marginalized communities through the Theatre of the Oppressed forum theatre process. She is the Artistic Director of La Lucha Arts, collaborating with organizations, social movements, and the impacted.  

Dr. Amanda Dargan | Director of Education Special Projects

Amanda Dargan served as Education Director for City Lore 28 years before assuming the role of Director of Special Projects in 2020. She is the recipient of the American Folklore Society’s Benjamin Botkin Award for lifetime achievement in public sector folklore. She is co-author of the book City Play, and her essays have appeared in journals including Journal of American Folklore, Educational Leadership, Journal of Folklore and Education, Journal of Learning through the Arts, and the book Through the Schoolhouse Door. Amanda has a Ph.D. in Folklore and Folklife from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.A. in Folklore from Memorial University of Newfoundland

Sahar Muradi | Director of Education Programs

Sahar Muradi is the Director of Education Programs at City Lore, which brings a cultural and community-based perspective to arts education. Her responsibilities include developing and overseeing school partnership programs, helping grow and support our cadre of teaching artists, and collaboratively leading the Education Programs team. Before City Lore, she facilitated social advocacy, and international service programs for young people, and prior to that, worked with government and civil society groups in her native Afghanistan. Sahar is also a poet and author of the chapbooks [ G A T E S ] and A Garden Beyond My Hand, as well as co-editor of One Story, Thirty Stories: An Anthology of Contemporary Afghan American Literature. She is an active member of several writing community groups, including the Afghan American Artists and Writers Association (co-founder), Kundiman, and the Asian Amerian Writers’ Workshop.  Sahar has an MFA in poetry from Brooklyn College, an MPA in international development from NYU, and a BA in creative writing from Hampshire College. More at: saharmuradi.com(photo by Krista Fogle)

Eva Pedriglieri | Education Program Coordinator

Eva is City Lore’s Communications Manager and Education Program Coordinator, bringing her own interest and experience as a teaching artist to the role. She has served as a cultural ambassador and English teacher for the US as part of a Fulbright grant in southern Italy. She is also a practicing interdisciplinary artist with a degree in fine arts from Parsons School of Design. She has exhibited her artwork and performed in various international galleries and festivals. Her work investigates and represents cultural tradition and heritage through personal and community identity. Learn more about her work: www.evaliaart.com 

Malini Srinivasan | Manager of School Partnership Programs

Malini Srinivasan is a third-generation Bharatanatyam dancer, choreographer, and teacher. She is dedicated to developing new dance works through commissioning music for dance from composes in world music traditions. A critically-acclaimed soloist, Malini was awarded the QCA Individual Artist Grand (2010, 2012, 2014, 2018) and a New Music USA grand (2016) for developing new choreography. Malini is committed to spreading a deep understanding of Indian classical traditions through teaching. She has been a visiting artist/lecturer at Princeton University, Wellesley College, Colgate University, and SUNY Stony Brook. In NYC, she teaches at the Consulate General of India and Chhaya. Malini has been a Teaching Artist with City Lore since 2008 and recently joined the staff managing School Partnerships. 

Dr. Steve Zeitlin | Executive Director

Steve Zeitlin received his PhD in Folklore from the University of Pennsylvania and an MA in literature from Bucknell University. Prior to arriving in New York, Steve Zeitlin served for eight years as a folklorist at the Smithsonian Institution and has taught at George Washington University, American University, and NYU. He is coauthor of a number of award-winning books on America’s folk culture.