2016, Bilingual, Caribbean, Education, Events, Festival, Partners, Puppetry, Residencies, Storytelling, Theater, Visual Art, Workshops

Low Tech High Magic

Posted on April 20, 2016June 3, 2016 by Alejandro

Loisaida Inc. and Casa Múcaro presents:

LOW TECH HIGH MAGIC – FREE COMMUNITY WORKSHOP

Schedule: Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 5:00 pm – 8:00 pm. Starting Monday, May 9th through Sunday, May 29th.

Overview:

Create puppets out of recycled and upcycled trash, waste and discarded found materials. Learn how to transform junk into beauty! Spin straw into gold! Art with an ecological, green twist. Create your own wondrous puppet or assist in larger collaborative group puppet project.

Making art with trash is one way of reusing everyday found objects and instead of seen as a nuance, if used right, it could become an object of beautification. The purpose behind this workshop is to create a group of community members, or volunteers, interested in working together to be part of a parade happening on the 25th of May and be part of a pageant, happening right after. As a way of bringing people together with under a similar motif, centered around the Loisaida community’s societal impact as pioneers of urban ecology creative innovation.

We’ll be making masks and big puppets, with “upcycled,” or reused materials and full body masks and costumes, made with reusable and recyclable materials. We’ll be reliving the lives of those that made this neighborhood alive, with those that are present today. Be part of this event and help us exalt the creativity of the Loisaida community towards an ecological mindset. Trash, or daily found objects, will be our best friend for this workshop, as they are a cost-effective material filled with endless applications.

Outcomes:

1. A new contingent will be added to the opening Carnival Procession (Parade) of the Loisaida Festival. An exuberant celebration of Caribbean solidarity, drawing inspiration from Afro-Caribbean mythological symbols, and the resilient creative spirit of looking backwards and forwards: a recognition of all the lives of those that made this neighborhood alive, with those that are present today. (Featuring the collaboration of: Braata Productions, Semi-Upright Cultural Workers Collective,and RMO)

2. Join our Giant Puppet making community workshop Low Tech, High Magic. Learn how to create masks! Parade costumes! Larger-than-life Puppets! Colourful parade floats!

3. Beyond the Parade, join the amazing outdoor street-theatre puppet-pageant that follows as part of the Theater Lab inside La Plaza Cultural! Be part of this homage to the legacy of Latino community builders from the Young Lords forward in celebration of all lives that make this neighborhood alive.

Workshop is led by Pablo Varona of CASA MUCARO.

Profile:

Casa Múcaro is a collaborative project on a forested mountaintop near Las Marias, Puerto Rico. We are multidisciplinary artists in pursuit of self-sufficiency for ourselves and others, through “the sharing of tools, materials, and know-how.” We envision “termitopia” cities, like termite mounds, in which by means of re-use, or recycling of materials, their citizens understand the benefits of self-managing “waste” generated by their neighborhood and can actively participate in the construction and maintenance of their own city.

Collaborative Practices: Casa Múcaro’s project will feature a collaboration of with Braata Productions, Semi-Upright Cultural Workers Collective, and the Rude Mechanical Orchestra (RMO) with the goal of joining the talents, resources and visions of multiple theater, music, arts and culture collectives working on projects related to the people and culture of Caribbean Islands living in NYC. It will produce a collection of different works to be presented at the 29th edition of Loisiada Festival and Braata Production’s Caribbean Folk Festival in Jamaica, Queens the following weekend.

Individual Bios:

Bill Birdsall is an artist refugee from Los Angels, with about 40 years of residence now in backwoods Puerto Rico. Bill went from airplanes to coffee farmers, learning survival skills along the way. He built his own home out of free, discarded fishnet and cement, using a technique he calls nylon-cement. Bill invents things and posts his inventions on Instructables.com under the name “Thinkenstein”. Search for his “nylon-cement”, PVC, and “tootophone” instructables there, among other things. See his website: http://thinkenstein.info for other things Bill do, like paintings, sculpture and music.

Pablo Varona or “Pablillo José, spends most his time living close to the forested mountaintops of Puerto Rico. At the time, he is a puppeteer, street performer and a supreme believer of juggling as his way through every corner he visits. He is amazed by the immeasurable value that the reuse, recycling and/or “forgotten” objects do when it comes to the transformation of urban contexts. His interests revolve around making these issues relevant and accessible to the general audience, with the hopes that some day we will all learn from its potential uses and collaborate in the creative process of experimenting with the most abundant material out there: Trash. To see more of his work, go to http://www.diminuto.info.

Daniel Polnau has created puppet parades, circuses, and outdoor theatre spectacles for over 30 years. He specializes in creating larger than life puppets out of recycled junk and up-cycled materials making the mundane become extraordinary. Projects and residencies have spanned the globe from Moscow to Bali to Juneau, Alaska to Puerto Rico. Highly collaborative, at the heart of each project he strives to demystify the creative process and quicken the innate creative abilities in all – regardless of age, abilities or arts experience. He is committed to respectfully embracing underserved and marginalized populations.

2016, Bilingual, Books, Children Friendly, Education, Events, Family Activities, Festival, New York History, Partners, Past, Residencies, Storytelling, Visual Art

GUARDIANS OF LOISAIDA

Posted on April 9, 2016July 28, 2016 by Alejandro

Loisaida Inc. is proud to present:

Marvel writer Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez

Opening Saturday, May 28th 2015 from 1:00PM to 5:00PM.

Miranda-Rodriguez brings an exhibition of original artwork from his best-selling debut comic book Guardians of the Lower East Side from the anthology series Marvel’s Guardians of Infinity.

Join Edgardo for a book signing and art talk. Miranda-Rodriguez and his Marvel team will discuss comic book making and how traditional art techniques and digital technologies come together to create today’s comic world heroes. The art talk is part of El LOOP, Loisaida Inc.’s new fair for Latinos in Innovation.

*Exhibition dates are May 31st, 2016 through July 28th, 2016. Gallery is open to the public by appointment and for special tours Monday to Friday 12:00PM – 5:00PM.

Follow Edgardo on Twitter: @MrEdgardoNYC

2016, Education, Events, Partners, Partnerships, Past, Storytelling, Style, Visual Art, Workshops, Youth

(PILOT) Analog STEAM+D Bootcamp

Posted on March 20, 2016May 21, 2016 by Alejandro

Event Description

Loisaida Inc. in partnership with NEEUKO Inc.

(PILOT) ANALOG S.T.E.A.M.+D INTENSIVE 3 DAY WORKSHOP

This is a FREE 3 days/3 hour workshop – However, we ask for a donation of $50 to cover workshop material expenses. This donation for materials fee can be paid in person at beginning of workshop.

Who will benefit from this bootcamp:

Young adult entrepreneurs, between the ages of 25-40, who have a business idea or product idea. They don’t need to have design experience or a fully developed idea, as this bootcamp will give them the hands on tools to take an idea beyond concept to a product prototype or business prototype.

Dates & Time:

Friday, May 6th – Time: 6:00 – 9:00 PM
Saturday, May 7th – Time: 1:00 – 4:00 PM
Sunday, May 8th – Time: 1:00 – 4:00 PM

Workshop is led by Alejandro Excia of NEEUKO Inc.

MAIN GOAL:

Participants will create a product or business prototype from an initial idea using only analog tools (leave your computer at home), to measure whether an idea can become a solid product or business and push your idea beyond the conceptual stage.

Day 1

Friday, May 6th – Time: 6:00 – 9:00 PM

DESIGN THINKING & PROBLEM RECOGNITION

Apply design thinking techniques to a product or business idea. Using a combination of case studies and exercises, students will discover and narrow down the problems their product or business idea solves.

Day 2

Saturday, May 7th – Time: 1:00 – 4:00 PM

HOW TO TELL YOUR STORY

Formulate a unique product or business narrative using graphic information and storytelling. Students will construct a storyboard that will support them in turning their idea into a selling pitch or a product development opportunity.

Day 3

Sunday, May 8th – Time: 1:00 – 4:00 PM

OPPORTUNITY RECOGNITION

Assess whether a product or business idea have business potential. Students will acquire manual tools for time and project management, as well as techniques for developing a product or business that truly serve their consumers.

About Neeuko Inc.

NEEUKO@Sagrado is part of an innovative college ecosystem of the Sacred Heart University located in the heart of Santurce, Puerto Rico. In this space we promote an environment and the culture of open innovation and entrepreneurship, within a series of educational activities that may include lectures, interviews and book presentations. Neeuko encourages the community to bring their concept ideas and they will be guided through a process that it will enhance that idea into reality.

*Arrangements can be made if you cannot afford the materials fee, please contact The Loisaida Center or call (646) 755-0522 for more information. Space is limited.

Bios

Javier De Jesus Martinez
Innovator, serial entrepreneur, design strategist, architect and urbanist with over 18 years of academic and professional experience. Outstanding career in Public Policy issues, Strategic Planning, University and Governmental Management, R&D and Commercialization. His combined understanding of the private sector with an extensive understanding of government processes informs his design thinking processes in the development strategies and methodologies among the diverse professionals and groups involved in urban socio economic projects. Javier has successful track record conceptualizing and implementing strategies to attract external competitive funding from federal and state government and private investors for educational institutions and non-profit community based organizations. Javier studied architecture at the University of Puerto Rico and at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Sciences and Art in New York City. His thesis, Flatness as a memory of movement: A cartography of a nomad landscape was directed by John Q. Hedjuk. He had lectured in universities and professional forums within the United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica, Colombia, Perú, Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago, and China.

• Founder La’gencia Innovación Abierta 2014-present
• Founder and Dean School of Architecture Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico 2008-2014
• President-Creative Industries Advisory Council Puerto Rico Commerce and Export Company 2014-present
• Founder-CEO Adaptable Paths Strategies Investment and Resources-2007-2012
• Advisor to the Governor on Urbanism, Infrastructure and Environmental Affairs 2005-2007
• Director Design, Construction, Planning and Development Offiece University of Puerto Rico President’s
• Associate Dean-School of Architecture University of Puerto Rico
• Undergraduate Program Coordinator School of Architecture University of Puerto Rico
• Second Year Design Studio Coordinator School of Architecture University of Puerto Rico

Alejandro Excia
Alejandro Excia Studied his bachelors degree in architecture from the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico. After Working for a year in a local art and architecture studio he pursued a double master in Domus Academy and Wales University achieving a degree in Product Design and a Master of Arts in Design respectively. His undergrad thesis dealt with consumerism strategies in order to revitalize dead public spaces within the city of Hato Rey, Puerto Rico. His curiosity for the phenomenon of consumerism carried through images and products helped him undertake his masters research in a creative way.

For his dissertation thesis “Creoelectric” he developed a design methodology derived from the cultural context of his hometown “Criollos” or “Jibaros Puertorriqueños”, to design an electric car charger for the rural context worldwide for the company French/German company Hager. Alejandro Excia co-founded his design consultancy studio postData.Design, with his partner Alejandro Mieses, which works on various projects that range from product design, interaction design, custom software and hardware interfaces. His studio has worked projects in cities like Atlanta, New York, Milan and his hometown of Puerto Rico. postData.Design studio featured and showcase one of their products at Wanted Design New York as part of the Puerto Rican collective “Design in Puerto Rico” where they where part of the group that consisted of 16 young emerging puerto rican design studios.

• Co-founder of Design Consultancy Studio postData.Design
Adjunct professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico.
• Director of the Laboratory of Fabrication “FabLab”, where he manages different types of technologies like 3D printers (Desktop and Full rapid prototyping 3D), CNC Routers, Milling machines, Vacuum Forming, Laser cutters among others to help produce prototypes for students and private clients of the School of Architecture.
• Co-coordinator of the entrepreneurial initiative in digital fabrication.
• Faculty Best Practices: Cross-Campus Arts Integration Mixing Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Unique Venture Development. CEO Conference 2012 Chicago.

WHERE: The Loisaida Inc. Center – 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY 10009 – View Map

2016, Bilingual, Books, Education, Partners, Past, Poetry, Politics, Storytelling, Theater, Workshops, X-Change Express, Youth

How to Self Publish Your First Book

Posted on March 17, 2016April 1, 2016 by Alejandro

La SoPA NYC and Loisaida Inc. presents

How To Self Publish Your First Book

A free workshop talking about the process of publishing, editing and promoting your first book using low cost digital tools.

Speakers: Elisabet Velasquez & George Torres

The School of Poetic Arts aka La S.O.P.A. is a producer of diverse poetry and performing arts events in New York City, formed using the philosophies of the most progressive intellectual and artistic movements of the last century (i.e. The Harlem Renaissance, the Beat Poets, Black Arts Movement & most notably the Nuyorican Movement). We were founded in Brooklyn in March 2007 as an Open Mic & made our presence felt immediately by featuring both veterans as well as up-and-coming performers of spoken word, prominent visual artists, comedians, and select musical guests covering the genres of salsa, bomba y plena, progressive hip hop, and more. We have taken our brand to major academic institutions like New York University, Hunter College and Long Island University, and we have also taken our brand to major international corporations like National Grid Energy and Pepsi.

3/30 – 6pm -8pm

2016, Past, Performance, Poetry, Residencies, Storytelling, Theater

Venus y el Albañil – Casa Cruz de la Luna

Posted on March 17, 2016April 11, 2016 by Alejandro

Loisaida Inc. presents:

“Venus y el Albañil” (in Spanish)

written by: Nara Mansur, as interpreted by: Casa Cruz de la Luna

Saturday, April 9th at 8:00 PM -and- Sunday, April 10th at 3:00 PM

Admission is by a donation $5 – $10

In Spanish. Adult Content.

Our resident theater company Casa Cruz de la Luna will give us a glimpse into their development process. Interpreting the theatrical text “Venus y el Albañil” by Nara Mansur. Presentation is in Spanish, content is adult oriented.

With Alejandra Maldonado and Christopher Cancel Pomales.

Directed by: Aravind Enrique Adyanthaya.

Presentation venue: Loisaida Center, 710 E. 9th Street & Avenue C

Limited Capacity,

With Alejandra Maldonado and Christopher Cancel.
Directed by: Aravind E. Adyanthaya

Capacity is Limited.

2016, Bilingual, Education, Past, Performance, Poetry, Residencies, Storytelling, Theater, Workshops, Youth

Words & Images – Intensive Workshop for Youth

Posted on March 7, 2016April 20, 2016 by Alejandro

Loisaida Inc. presents:

WORDS & IMAGES

FREE Intensive two day workshop with Casa Cruz de la Luna Theater Company

Saturday, April 16 and Sunday, April 17: 1:00P.M.-5:00P.M

Ages 15 – 18

Come and explore how bodies in space create theatrical pictures that can be linked in many ways to spoken and projected words. This workshop combines Brazilian director Augusto Boal´s notions of image theatre with “escritura acto” (computerized writing projected live), a practice we have developed at Casa Cruz de la Luna Theatre. Using the texts generated by the participants some of the exercises will take the form of individual poetry presentations or collective performative sketches.

Instruction will be conducted in English but participants can work in whatever language they choose.

Saturday April 16 and Sunday April 17: 1:00P.M.-5:00P.M.

Facilitated by Casa Cruz de la Luna Company members: Aravind E. Adyanthaya, Alejandra Maldonado and Christopher Cancel.

Requisites:

-Targeted for ages 15-18 years old

-Participants should be able to attend the full two sessions

-Wear clothes comfortable for movement. Bring pen or pencil and notebook.

This workshop is free, but space is limited. Register Today!

2016, Education, Events, Latin America, Music, New York History, Partners, Past, Storytelling, Workshops, X-Change Express, Youth

Meet and Greet – Johnny Colón

Posted on February 29, 2016March 20, 2016 by Alejandro

Loisaida Inc. presents:

The Johnny Colón School of Music @ Loisaida Inc. Center

Music theory lessons for the younger set by the boogaloo music legend Johnny Colon. Divided into three groups ages; 8-10, 11-14 & 15-18. Bilingual friendly (Spanish, English)

Latin music legend and renown music teacher Johnny Colón revives the tradition of his famous uptown music school, now downtown at the Loisaida Center. An dynamic hands-on weekly series of ongoing music classes focused on Latin rhythms and sounds directly under the instruction of vocalist, multi-instrumenatlist, arranger and musical director Johnny Colón.

About Johnny Colón

Johnny Colón, was born in New York City to parents of Puerto Rican heritage. He is the director of the Johnny Colon Orchestra, founder of the legendary East Harlem Music School and widely recognized as a major and legendary contributor to the popular boogaloo sound of the 1960s.

Colón, a versatile vocalist, multi-instrumenatlist, arranger and musical director, became one of Latin music’s leading impresarios at the forefront of the new “Latin Boogaloo” sound when he formed the first Johnny Colon Orchestra in the mid 1960’s. He first found success in the world of salsa with his 1966 debut album”Boogaloo Blues” in 1966, which became a classic, selling over 3,000,000 copies worldwide, and which continues to be an anthem for this period on Latin music history. Colón’s hit “Boogaloo Blues” came out during a time of transition in the Latin music scene of New York years before there was such a thing as “salsa,” when the mambo craze was over and Puerto Ricans were coming of age in the city and the “Nuyorican” culture was emerging. As many of their peers went off to fight in Vietnam, some of New York’s younger Puerto Ricans were losing interest in Latin music and beginning to identify more with R&B hits in English than with the music of their roots. Johnny recorded several other notable tunes over the years, releasing five albums over the period 1967-72.

In 1968, with public funding and much of his own money, Colón founded the East Harlem Music School and offered free lessons to the community. His impact as a music instructor for more than three decades may be even greater than the effect of his recordings. Students like the singer Tito Nieves, percussionists Jimmy Delgado and Robin Loeb, bass player Rubén Rodríguez, and singer Marc Anthony would all go on to become stars in salsa and contemporary Latin music. By the mid-1990s, Colón was struggling to secure funding to maintain the school open. In 2004, unable to keep a permanent space for his school, Colón was given the opportunity to bring his brand of music education to New York City public schools. Today, as well as teaching in schools around the city, Colón has begun giving music classes to patients at drug treatment centers. He’s found a new location for his school at The Loisaida Inc. Center.

– Meet and Greet on Saturday, March 19 at Loisaida Inc. 710 East Ninth Street, New York, NY 10009

Stay tuned!

2016, Bilingual, Education, Past, Photography, Storytelling, Visual Art, Workshops

2016 Community Screenprinting Workshops

Posted on February 22, 2016March 20, 2016 by Alejandro

Hester Street Collaborative & The Loisaida Center

proudly presents:

Water-Base Screen Printing Workshop 2016

8 sessions – YOU CHOOSE EITHER: Tuesday classes or Thursday classes;

Monday, 7:00pm – 9:30pm

Thursday, 7:00pm – 9:30pm

FREE!

Ages 16+

Overview:

For a 2nd year, Hester Street Collaborative happy to announce that we are partnering with the Loisaida center to offer FREE Screen-printing workshops for immigrant, Asian and Latino communities on the Lower East Side. All skill levels are welcome, ages 16 and up.

The workshop series will reflect the neighborhood tradition of art activism and cultural preservation. Art will be the vehicle that unites members of Asian and Latino immigrant communities to discuss, create and build the artistic capacity necessary for socio-cultural change. Our goal is to create opportunities to develop important artistic skills while sharing across differences that would not otherwise be possible.

Workshops will be focused on current social justice issues – from immigrant rights to climate change to cultural identity. We will work with participants to increase their understanding of the built environment, expose them to art/design careers, develop age-specific art/design skills, and actively improve their neighborhood’s quality of life.

2015, Events, Festival, Music, Performance, Plenatorium, Storytelling, Visual Art

Invisible Loisaida – Ideas City

Posted on May 27, 2015March 12, 2016 by Alejandro

IDEAS CITY

Part of the Street Program 12:00 -6:00pm

Loisaida Inc: Invisible Loisaida

The booth by Loisaida, Inc. will play with the visible and invisible tensions of rescued social spaces, their cultural output, and their lack of inclusion in the mainstream story line of the Lower East Side. Through a collaborative installation by resident artists Edgardo Tomás Larregui and Alejandro Epifanio, the booth will recreate the vernacular architecture of “seclusion” and social gathering elements of the traditional casita or urban community garden. Our casita also involves a strategy to render visible the reality of Loisaida, Inc., a social-cultural-artistic community (Latino/Puerto Rican Lower East Side), whose contributions to New York City and the downtown scene have usually remained unacknowledged, absent, and invisible to the hegemonic artistic and cultural narratives of New York City’s creative myth. The presentation will feature a listening station of oral histories by Laura Zelasnic, performances by ongoing Loisaida Center collaborators and projects: the Salvage Project; Flux Theater Ensemble; the Plenatorium, which nurtures and documents the “plena universe”; and Edwin Torres, a Nuyorican poet, performer, and downtown icon, who will explore the nonappearance of “No-isaida.”

A– ONGOING programming throughout the day:

1. Display and live screen-printing of the templates and prints developed and produced through our workshop: Building Community Through the Arts, a partnership with Hester Street Collaborative.

2. Listening Station featuring oral histories focused on local Latino cultural and community organizations such as CHARAS and Loisaida, Inc., by Laura Zelasnic.

3. Visual Collaborative Installation(s) between artist collaborators of the Loisaida Center. The entire booth will act as an installation and visual collaboration between visual artist’s Alejandro Epifanio and Edgardo Larregui with the support of Urban Garden Center NYC.

B– SCHEDULED programming by time-slots:

3:00 pm – The Salvage Project:

Story circles facilitated by the Loisaida Center’s artistic residents Flux Theater Ensemble where community members will share the stories of a precious object and have their stories transformed by professional playwrights into short monologues.

http://www.fluxtheatre.org/2015/02/flux-announces-art-residency-loisaida-center/

4:00 pm – Edwin Torres:

“Nuyorican” (New York-Puerto Rican) poet-performer-sound artist and downtown icon will present work based on the Invisible Loisaida theme. Torres’s work bridges numerous downtown and Loisaida traditions and scenes, from the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church to the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and beyond. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Torres_(poet)

5:00pm – PLENATORIUM:

A project initiative of the Loisaida Center focused on the nurturing and documentation of the practice of Puerto Rican plena, a genre of popular traditional music, song and dance native to the island of Puerto Rico, but related to similar Afro-diasporic expressions throughout the Caribbean and commonly present within the casita/community garden culture.

Planetarium means a space for the plena-universe of activities such as forums, workshops, performances, and other forms of plena-focused sociocultural participation.

http://loisaida.org/plenatorium/

Invisible Loisaida was made possible by: 9C Community Garden – Northeast Avenue C & 9 Street