Fantasy Island: Panel Discussion

Puerto Rico’s economic spiral has spread uncertainty on the island. A 120 billion debt in bonds and pension responsibilities has been deemed un-payable while a U.S. Fiscal Supervision Board suggests further austerity measures. About 170 schools have closed and a third of the island’s real estate is unoccupied. Puerto Ricans keep fleeing en masse while foreigners move in, altering the urban and cultural landscape.

Artists, scholars, activists, and other thought leaders from various sectors are in conversation throughout the diaspora with the intention of creating awareness and dialogue that can generate solutions. How can art further push to inform socially responsible urban development and shed light on inequitable real estate practices that cause displacement and economic disparity? What about this cult to tourism and its implications on the field?

This panel discussion will focus on the role of the arts in community development, the economic crisis in Puerto Rico, its implications and parallels with other cities/countries, tourism economy, real estate development, and disaster capitalism.

Speakers:

F. JAVIER TORRES  ArtPlace America

f. javier torres

Latest Blog Post: Reflecting on the Interstate’s Impact on an American City

F. Javier Torres is the Director of National Grantmaking at ArtPlace America. In his role he is responsible for building a comprehensive set of demonstration projects that illustrate the many ways in which arts and culture can strengthen the processes and outcomes of the planning and development field across the United States. Thanks to ArtPlace he has travelled across 48 states in the last 3 years and visited a wide variety of community contexts. This travel has expanded his interest in the networks and knowledge sets necessary to sustain creative placemaking as a practice over time.

Prior to his role at ArtPlace, Javier was Senior Program Officer for Arts and Culture at the Boston Foundation where he led an exploration of the role of culture as a tool for transformation, sustainability, and as central to the development of vibrant communities. Javier spent six years as the Director of Villa Victoria Center for the Arts, a program of IBA, a community based multi-disciplinary arts complex that operates as a regional presenter and local programmer for Latino arts. Currently, he is a board member for Grantmakers in the Arts and an advisory board member for the Design Studio for Social Intervention. He has previously served as a board member for the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures, MASSCreative, was a member of the MA Governor’s Creative Economy Council and Chair for the Boston Cultural Council.

 

ED MORALES  Journalist and Writer

ed morales

https://edmorales.net/

Ed Morales is a journalist who has investigated New York City electoral politics, police brutality, street gangs, grassroots activists, and the Latino arts and music scene.  He has been a Latin music Newsday columnist and longtime Village Voice contributing writer whose work has appeared in Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Miami Herald, San Francisco Examiner, The Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, Jacobin, and The Nation. He was a contributing editor to NACLA Report on the Americas a frequent contributor of op ed columns for The Progressive Media Project.

Ed Morales is currently writing Latinx: The New Force in American Politics and Culture, a definitive view of how Latin@s matter in the US’s race debate, to be published by Verso Press in Spring of 2018. In March 2002, he published his first book, Living in Spanglish on St. Martin’s Press/LA Weekly Books. A second book, The Latin Beat: From Rumba to Rock, was published on Da Capo Press in 2003. Morales is also a poet whose work has appeared in Aloud: Voices From the Nuyorican Poets Café (Henry Holt, 1993) and various small magazines, and whose fiction has appeared in Iguana Dreams (HarperCollins, 1992), and Boricuas (Ballantine, 1994).

He has participated in residencies as a member of Nuyorican Poets Café Live, touring as a spoken-word performer in several cities throughout the East Coast, in California, Florida, Texas, Denmark, and Washington, D.C.  Morales has also appeared on CNN, Hispanics Today, Urban Latino, HBO Latino, CNN Español, WNBC-TV’s Visiones, WABC’s Tiempo BBC television and radio, and the Fox Morning News in Washington D.C.

Ed Morales is currently an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race, and occasionally appears as a host on WBAI-FM.

 

SHEY RIVERA RIOS is the Artistic Director of AS220.

shey

 

With a professional background in administration, Rivera is also a performance and installation artist, musician and writer. At AS220, she focuses on community engagement, cross-sector partnerships, and strategic planning, alongside a team of program leaders. Rivera was part of the founding team of Festival de la Palabra in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 2010 (the largest literature festival in Puerto Rico, still ongoing), and reactivated the historic Museum House Concha Melendez in San Juan with literary arts programming. She is an Intercultural Leadership Institute (ILI) Fellow, Brown University Public Humanities Fellow, and alumni of the Leadership Institutes hosted by the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture (NALAC) and the National Association of Media Arts and Culture (NAMAC). Rivera is a Certified NonProfit Accounting Professional (CNAP) and has also served on multidisciplinary art grant panels for the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA), NALAC, and Rhode Island State Council on the Arts. Rivera serves in Congressman Jim Langevin’s Art & Culture Advisory Committee and Providence Mayor Elorza Art & Culture Transition Team. She also serves in the Downtown Improvement District and Providence Parks Conservancy Advisory Committees, as the Dept of Art, Culture+Tourism’s Public Art Committee and Providence Cultural Equity Initiative’s Cultural Think Tank. She has been a speaker at Tulane University, University of Puerto Rico, New Bedford Museum of Art, RISD Museum, Philadelphia Mural Arts, and national conferences on art spaces and community development, including Alliance of Artist Communities, Pittsburgh’s Community Development Summit, Congress of New Urbanism, and NALAC, among others.  http://sheyrivera.com

 

Moderator: HUASCAR ROBLES writes and makes art about technology and culture.

He has published with The New York TimesChicago Tribune’s HoyMetro San Juan and other publications in United States, Puerto Rico and Brazil. He was a correspondent in Haití and  published Puertos príncipes: temblemos todos, a journal and photo book on Haiti after the earthquake. He is currently an Op-Ed contributor to Puerto Rico’s El Nuevo Día. 

The Country Under My Skin, Los silencios de Santurce, Portraits of Marassa, are some of his photo and multimedia performances in the U.S. and Puerto Rico as well as the documentary The Invisible Coast, on Haitian merchants’ struggle on Puerto Rico’s Loíza town.

He has participated with The Dart Center’s Ochberg Fellowship (2009), Center for Justice and Journalism’s Urban Fellowship (2009), AS220’s Artist in Residence, and Brunetto’s School cultural exchange in Brazil (2006). His collection Country Under My Skin as acquired by Rhode Island’s Historical Society’s Permanent Gallery.  Robles has an M.F.A. from New York University.

 

 

 

 

Fantasy Island – Exhibition Open

For Shey Rivera Ríos and Huáscar Robles, Hurricane María is an atmospheric manifestation compounded by the fiscal crisis troubling Puerto Rico’s urban landscape. The installation and performance Fantasy Island is an experience that explores how tourism and consumer culture sell a “fantastical” luxury lifestyle, a tropical paradise twisting crisis into “opportunity”. A door opens into a real estate office selling dreams of luxury and reconstruction and the viewer delves into a dizzying spell of animated gifs, performance and altars.

For Fantasy Island, Rivera transformed Loisaida’s space into a real estate office surrounded by a black and white grid that envelops visitors while monitors flash GIFs that borrow aesthetics from the vaporwave movement. In one image, a hand waves a wad of cash to a “Puerto Rico” neon sign while icons of the Virgin Mary and a ram, both cultural symbols of Puerto Rico’s syncretism and colonial history, spin in an enticing, dizzying spell. Viewers are also inspired to reflect on how natural disasters such as the path of hurricanes affecting not only Puerto Rico but also our Caribbean neighbors maybe twisted into “opportunity” after the crisis subsides.

For the Loisaida Center, a cultural enterprise with deep roots in the Nuyorican and Latinx New York community, Fantasy Island stretches the island to New York and its Puerto Rican and Caribbean diaspora as it hits common issues they all grapple with.

The opening and closing reception will include a special performance.


Exhibition Viewing Hours: Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm and by appointment.


Throughout the fall, and beyond, the Loisaida Inc. Center’s programming will provide opportunities to pledge support to the relief and recovery efforts in the Caribbean.

 

Ecokit Puerto Rico

 

We are Puerto Rican artists living in New York who have collaborated extensively with eco-conscious nonprofit organizations, journalists and media.

In the wake of Hurricane Maria we conducted a quick assessment of needs and have assembled a list of immediate relief items focusing on portability, reuse, waste reduction and effectiveness in off grid situations.

We took this terrible situation as an opportunity to rebuild in sustainable ways, especially given the dilapidated & dangerous state of the island’s waste management which has produced toxic ashes in now hurricane stricken areas.


Visit EcoKitPuertoRico.org

You can help by fulfilling orders here. These resources will be delivered and shipped from our Center directly to trusted sources on the island.


How it works: 
  • Place an order for items on the ‘NEEDS LIST’ page

  • Ship items to our pick up center:

         Eco-Kits Duffle Help

         Loisaida Inc. Center

         710 East 9th Street

         New York, NY 10009​

  • Sorted items are immediately given to our volunteer travelers.

  • Eco-kits get picked up at airports in Puerto Rico by our contacted community coordinators and delivered to the following list of grass-roots organizations:

    Iser Caribe is our fiscal sponsor, a non profit ecological organization based in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.

    Loisaida Inc. Center, extending its support to the Puerto Rican community is housing our drop-off and pickups in its Lower East Side Location.

    Creatives Mean Business, supporting with communications, and design needs.

    Beneficiary Organizations in Puerto Rico, these organizations are the grass-roots recipients so far of the Pre-Assembled Kits:

    Taller Salud
    Casa Ruth
    ASPPRO
    Overseas Press Club
    Comedores Sociales de Puerto Rico
    Centro de Periodismo Investigativo
    Asociación de Foto Periodista de Puerto Rico
    Casa Pueblo
    Boys & Girls Club of Puerto Rico
    Boricuá: Asociación Boricua de Agricultura Ecológica
    Farmer Foot Brigades
    Colectivo Vueltabajo
    Colectivo AgroEcologico Guayabacherry
    Galeria Betances
    Ridge to Reefs
    Biblioteca Juvenil de Mayaguez
    Planeta Feliz

Merengue Prieto New York 2017

Loisaida Inc. Center and Afro-Inspira presents:

Merengue Prieto New York 2017

Marily Gallardo, choreographer/artivist and founder of Kalalú Danza Artes Escénicas, has come from Dominican Republic to share with us her work and provide a master dance class, interactive talk and healing circle. All funds are to support Kalalú Danza Project in keep moving forward their mission and work in Los Mercedes, Dominican Republic.

You are coordially invited to:

MASTER DANCE CLASS: Merengue Prieto / rhythm dance session – traveling steps with TAMBORA. Incorporate another perspective that focuses on the origins of popular tradition and its makers through the execution of poly rhythmic-gestural patterns and to enjoy “merengue” afro. 
INTERACTIVE TALK: “Mujeres de la Candela” (Women of the Fire) / pedagogical experience on identity and black women power such as how women power and values are transmitted within the afro-descendant communities, like courage, daily intelligence, and spiritual beliefs, etc.

HEALING RITUAL: Creative full moon circle.

Class starts prompltly at 5pm followed by talk and healing circle.
Suggested Donation: $25
This event is FREE, no one will be turned away for lack of funds. Please bring comfortable clothes and shoes.


Eventbrite -  Merengue Prieto - Master Class

_____________________________________________________________________
Mission:

Kalalú Danza, Dominican Republic
For Kalalú Danza, the Afro-antillian concept is presented as one that encompasses and is a synthesis of thought and expression of the socio-cultural diversity of the Caribbean. From that premise, Kalalú’s pedagogical approach affirms a particular study of rhythm and movement, of its oral tradition, and symbolism which influenced by “the Afro” can be found in the popular artistic manifestations of such cultures. Such artistic manifestations provides the basis to generate performance, scenic, and pedagogical proposals which contributes to the development of the local communities as well as the individual and social transformation.

Garbagia Universe

Concept:

Building on last year’s successful Garbagia Island, Loisaida Inc. Center will expand this summer into Garbagia Universe. Acting on the continued need to build public historical awareness of cultural immigrant history, and consistent with Loisaida’s commitment to urban place keeping, the project refashions cultural practices of Downtown Latino/a/xs from Carmen Pabón, Jorge Brandon, Bimbo Rivas, Pedro Pietri, Petra Santiago and beyond, to contemporary realities. This second cycle will expand to include and explore the pedagogy and practice of the Latin American modernist, Joaquín Torres García, who lived in New York’s Downtown, and who was the subject of investigation of one of our artist-in-residence, and teaching artists for this cycle, Juan Bautista Climent.

This version will offer three component workshops where participants can hone their skills and realize their final products in a performative exposition. These include sewing and costume making, sculptural and conceptual art, and performance production, over the span of three weeks in August and September.

Description:

1st week: Sewing and Textiles Workshop by Daniela Fabrizi

In this first week, after finding an object and having an introductory inspirational meeting about the universe with images and references, we will be building a specialty costume. Together we will create a more universal idea of what fabric means. We will be looking on how to make fabric from “junk”, while learning basic techniques on sewing and alterations, crafting textile patterns and building this piece that will keep developing on the second stage of the project, adding sculptural pieces, all this while reflecting and developing a character for its 3rd week stage. The garment will be the final product of each participant artist, and will be presented as part of the Fashion Show the day of the event.

While creating this costume we will work on creative stimulation, repurpose of materials that can become/are also fabric, and with invited artist Sonia Peña we will have 1 to 2 hours workshops each day to learn mending and alterations, not only this will help to the development of their costume but while creating it they will learn basics but practical and useful techniques for everyday life.

Workshops will include:
Alterations/Mending: From buttons, zippers, hems to decorative hand stitches.
Patterns and Sewing: Basic machine sewing, introduction and reading of a pattern.
Textile Design: Lets make textiles and design patterns creating consciousness about color, composition and mix media. This will be where we explore with different materials, ways of mixing color and texture while learning the ideal tools to use.
Character Development: Out of all of this aspects, we will start an exploration of the first stages of a character, using the costume as a tool to understand and give information about these creature through color, texture and shape. The idea is to give the first step into what will be an ongoing work until Performance Workshop Week where it will be finally worked in
detail and developed.

2nd week: Sculpture Workshop by Juan Bautista Climent

This workshop will focus on the development of sculptural elements that add visual force and meaning to the garments made in the first Garbagia Universe workshop provided, they are made mostly of recycled materials.

Day 1: Universal Symbols and Drawing
We will study traditional clothing from different indigenous cultures in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, containing symbols of the universe (such as the Sun, Mother Earth, Planets, Stars, etc.). We will have a brief review of the ideas of universal symbols of Joaquín Torres García, previously learned in Loisaida Center during the Constructivism Month in July. With these visual and theoretical sources as inspiration, participants should sketch their own sculptural designs, contemplating that they will be designed with recycled materials.

Day 2: Objects in our neighborhood are objects in the Universe
Participants will be challenged to find at least one object that has been discarded within the Lower East Side area, which they consider to be of visual or conceptual value, or which may have this value with appropriate interventions with other artistic materials. Participants will learn the basic techniques of paper mache to combine it with recycled objects.

Day 3: Time to Work
Development of Sculpture, recycled materials and paper mache.

Day 4: Color as forms in the Universe
This day, participants will learn basic concepts of color, but understanding it as tone and form, as taught in the constructivist doctrine of Joaquín Torres García.

Day 5: Final Details
Completion of sculptures. The participants will add the pieces made to their clothes.

3rd week: Performance Workshop by Zuleyka Alejandro & final presentation.

During the last week of Garbagia Universe Program the participants will have the opportunity todevelop their character in a collaborative manner. Performance, body movement and character workshops will be held in order to develop the Performance for the event. After creating their fabric and sculptural pieces during the first weeks of the Project, it will be a time to put it in action the creations.

Outcome:

Participants developed a socio-political approach and learned about crucial contributors to the history of the LES through active participation. Directed with a pedagogical perspective into recreating what important key people (yet invisible to the mainstream narrative) did for our neighborhood. This created awareness into reusing waste and reconstructing its concept into resource. Also pointing out the use of communal spaces for the benefit of the community.

We empowered participants to be active in their communities. The art workshops are beneficial for trans-generational bonding, mental health, motor skills and cognitive development in younger participants. Infusing the creative act with social contemporary issues at stake in the neighborhood and the larger world of many residents, creates empathy, conviviality and a sense of urgency to make a difference.

Garbagia Universe Show pictures (check back soon):

Press release:
(In progress) Garbagia Universe Show
Sept. 9th, 2017 – 6:00 pm at La Plaza Cultural de Armando Pérez Community Garden.

NEW YORK, NY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2017 – Tbd.

Pedagogical Benefits:

Participants developed a socio-political approach and learned about crucial contributors to the history of the LES through active participation. Directed with a pedagogical perspective into recreating what important key people (yet invisible to the mainstream narrative) did for our neighborhood. This created awareness into reusing waste and reconstructing its concept into resource. Also pointing out the use of communal spaces for the benefit of the community.

We empowered participants to be active in their communities. The art workshops are beneficial for trans-generational bonding, mental health, motor skills and cognitive development in younger participants. Infusing the creative act with social contemporary issues at stake in the neighborhood and the larger world of many residents, creates empathy, conviviality and a sense of urgency to make a difference.

Garbagia Island 2016 original trailer:



Loisaida’s Summer Program is made in collaboration with La Plaza Cultural and with your support, thank you.

Constructivist Month

The Loisaida Center is proud to announce

Constructivist Month

 

A Constructivist View: The artist in the Community, the artist in the Universe

Goals and overview:  In Commemoration of Joaquín Torres García

  • Series of workshops and conferences on Joaquín Torres García Constructivism in Spanish and English language.
  • Artist open-studio (Every Thursday, Friday & Saturday from 1pm to 6pm)

1.Introductory Workshops on Constructivist Aesthetics By María Eugenia Méndez-Marconi

BIO: María Eugenia Méndez-Marconi,

Friday, July 14: Initial theoretical instance, J.T.G biographical presentation (7-9pm)

Saturday, July 15: Introductory Workshops on Constructivist Aesthetics. (For youngsters from 12 to 16 years old from 9 am-1pm, and for those over 17 years old, from 3-6pm)

2.Exposition of the Constructivist Doctrine By Marcos Torres Andrada

BIO: Marcos Torres Andrada, son of the painter Augusto Torres, who received by direct oral tradition, the philosophy proposed by his grandfather, Maestro Joaquín Torres García, in his Constructivist School.

Friday, July 21: Conference: “Relevancy and Urgency of the Constructivist Proposal”(7-9pm) This conference will bring to light fundamental concepts of the Constructivist Proposal highly relevant in the Contemporaneity of the American Continent and global challenges.

Friday, July 28: Tribute to Maestro Torres García’s Legacy. Introduction to Constructivist Thinking (7-9pm)

This commemorative event, has been held for fifty consecutive years, thanks to the  Uruguayan Embassy, Consulate and Uruguayan Diaspora of NYC. Torres-Garcia’s grandson, Marcos Torres, will be present to give a brief scope of the hemispheric influence of his grandfather’s influential Escuela Constructivista in Uruguay and the rest of the world from its beginning to the present day.

Saturday, July 29Comments on the text “The Tradition of the Abstract Man” (9:00 am-5:00pm, with recess from 12: 30 to 2:00 pm)

Original intensive workshop, developed by  that will deepen the constructivist concepts of visionary Torres García, making a thorough reading and revision of his text “The Tradition of the Abstract Man”.

Friday, September 22: Conference: “Relevancy and Urgency of the Constructivist Proposal”(7-9pm)

  • Theoretical lecture on concepts dealing with the exhibition (Dates TBD)

 

Sing for hope!

Come one, Come All!!

Loisaida Inc., Acacia Network and the Institute for the Puerto Rican/Hispanic Elderly invite you to experience the uplifting power of music with Broadway performers from Sing for Hope!

The Sing for Hope vision of art for all is informed by our belief that the arts have unique power to uplift, unite, and transform individuals and communities. Our outreach programs in under-resourced areas – from schools to community centers to healthcare facilities – demonstrate this every day.

Each Sing for Hope program is defined by the volunteer service of artists, the needs of the community, and our belief in the transformative power of the arts.

MAPPING FROM OUTSIDE TO THE INSIDE

Loisaida Inc. and The Little Art Workshop present:


MAPPING FROM OUTSIDE TO THE INSIDE:

The program is based on the idea of taking and  the largest object in this case the universe, and begin to construct maps and from there go to the smaller one the brain, in this workshop we make different artistic approaches to maps including the city/neighborhood, the country, the house and the body.

The program is made for kids starting at 5 years going up to 12, designed for groups up to 8 to 10 kids per class.


Register today!


Make it Verde!

MAKE IT VERDE!

DATE & TIME:
  • Saturday, June 24, 2017 10:00 am to 1:00 pm
LOCATION:

On the High Line at 14th St.

In partnership with the Friends of the High Line, join us for a day of dancing, music, and creating with recycled materials. Portions of this program will be offered in Spanish and English.

This program is geared towards children ages 0-12.

RSVP for this program beginning June 7. To be notified, please join our mailing list.

High Line members may pre-register for this event beginning on June 2.

Not yet a member? Join today.

If you’re an existing member and lost your card, send us an email.


Schedule of events:

10 – 11 AM: Storytime for children ages 0-5 years old by Poncili Creacion

10 AM – 1 PM: Ongoing activities: mobile garden with a Friends of the High Line gardener, worm bin exploration, and mural art project led by Poncili Creacion

11:30 AM: Performance by Poncili Creacion

12:00 PM: Performance by Poncili Creacion (repeat)

12:30 PM: Performance by The Brandon Project

All children must be accompanied by a caregiver at all times.

This program is held rain or shine.


SUPPORT

High Line Families is supported, in part, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the New York City Council.

© 2000–2017 Friends of the High Line

La Lucha Continua The Struggle Continues: 1985 & 2017 (EXTENDED)

La Lucha Continua The Struggle Continues: 1985 & 2017

“Top of the list at New York Times of must-see galleries in the Lower East Side!”


Overview:

In 1985, Eva Cockcroft, founder of Artmakers Inc., gathered together 34 “artists of conviction” to create 26 political murals on four vacant buildings overlooking the then neglected La Plaza Cultural community garden. Known as La Lucha Continua The Struggle Continues, the murals addressed six political issues: gentrification, police brutality, immigration, feminism, and opposition of U.S. intervention in Central America and apartheid in South Africa. Today, the garden is thriving, the issues remain of grave concern, and only two of the murals still exist, the paint cracked and faded.


Exhibition Details:

Opening Date:
Saturday, April 8, 2017

Now Extended through July 31st 2017

Viewing Hours:
Thursday, Friday, Saturday
Noon to 6:00 pm
and by appointment.

Organizer:
Artmakers Inc.
For more info and media queries: Jane Weissman, ArtmakersNYC@aol.com, (212) 989-3006

Host Venue:
Loisaida Inc. Center
(646) 726-4715

710 East 9th Street, Lower East Side
New York, NY 10009 United States
+ Google Map
 
Emailinfo@loisaida.org

Past Public Programming:

April 19, 6:30-8 PM. Panel: Loisaida: Then & Now. With Chino Garcia, Maria Dominguez, Noah Jemisin, Kristin Reed, Seth Tobocman. Libertad Guerra, moderator

April 26, 6:30-8 PM. Illustrated Talk: Protest & Celebration: Community Murals of the 1970s & 1980s in Loisaida and on the Historic Lower East Side. Jane Weissman, presenter

April 30. 1 PM Gallery Talk / 2 PM Garden Visit to La Plaza Cultural at 9th & C. (Gallery remains open to 5 PM)


*SECOND ILLUSTRATED TALK, BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND*

May 11, 7:00-8:30 PM. Illustrated Talk: Protest & Celebration: Community Murals of the 1970s & 1980s in Loisaida and on the Historic Lower East Side. Jane Weissman, presenter


*May 23, 6:30-8 PM. Illustrated Talk: La Lucha Continua The Struggle Continues: 1985 & 2017. Jane Weissman, presenter. City Lore Gallery (56 East 1st Street). Also co-sponsored by Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation & City Lore

*May 27, 2 PM Gallery Talk / 3 PM Garden Visit to La Plaza Cultural at East 9th Street & Avenue C Unless noted, all events take place at The Loisaida Center (710 East 9th Street, NYC) Part of the 2017 Loisaida Festival Weekend Programming.


All events are co-sponsored by Artmakers Inc. and The Loisaida Center

*In conjunction with Lower East Side History Month


Media Queries: Jane Weissman, ArtmakersNYC@aol.org, 212.989.3006