Federico Poey

Federico “Freddy” Jose Poey was born in Miami to Cuban immigrants. He grew up in Florida and earned a BFA in Film Production from the College of Motion Picture Arts at Florida State University, moving to New York to pursue filmmaking after graduation. Unexpectedly, upon arriving in New York, Freddy found work as an arts educator at KoKo NYC. He has since become a passionate and deeply involved advocate for visual education. Leaving professional filmmaking behind, Freddy has now spent a decade as a teaching artist, leading his classrooms with creativity, curiosity, and joy.  

During his early years at KoKo NYC, Freddy facilitated a Destroy & Construct after-school STEAM workshop at CAMBA’s Flagstone Family Center in Brownsville. In this workshop, kids disassemble discarded electronics and small appliances, extract fans, motors, wires, buttons, and other internal parts, and learn how to combine these treasures with recyclables to create unique, robotic inventions. Following the positive response to Freddy’s workshops at Flagstone Family Center, CAMBA expanded its work with KoKo NYC and Freddy to SONYC after-school, elementary COMPASS after-school, and summer programs. Through this partnership, over 2,000 kids participated in inquiry-based, hands-on STEAM workshops, developing their skills as artists, creators, and inventors under Freddy’s guidance. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Freddy modified these workshops to be delivered virtually so that his students could continue to participate remotely.  

Freddy has also helped develop the South Slope Soapbox Derby, where students use the skills and tools they’ve become familiar with in KoKo NYC’s wood workshop to build gravity-powered soapbox vehicles from donated or salvaged wood and donated wheels. This event has become a cornerstone of the organization’s summer programming agenda. Students in Freddy’s summer programming make roughly 80 – 100 soapbox cars a summer, meaning that Freddy has worked on over 1000 during his tenure with the organization.  

Freddy is pursuing a master’s degree in Library and Information Sciences from Pratt so he can expand and steward the knowledge depository that archives and libraries represent for young people. Freddy is an exceptional afterschool educator who brings curiosity, compassion, and creativity to each session he leads, and remains steadfastly committed to expanding the horizons and opportunities of the young people who enter his classroom.