Fantasy Island: Opening Reception
2017-10-05 19:00 - 21:00 UTC | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
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 reception will include a special performance.
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.

Exhibition Closing: Juan Bautista Climent-Palmer
2017-10-07 13:00 - 18:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States

Fantasy Island: Exhibition Open
2017-10-12 13:00 - 17:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
Fantasy Island by: Sheyla Rivera

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.

Fantasy Island: Panel Discussion
2017-10-21 17:00 - 19:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
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

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

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.

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 Times, Chicago Tribune’s Hoy, Metro 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: Performances
2017-11-11 19:00 - 22:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
StormWater performance:
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”.
Shey Rivera:
Ixchel performance. Video projection and audio of poem.
Pick 5 poems from Hienas y Los buitres.
La jíbara bruja performance, with reading from “Naty and my chaotic stench”
Huáscar Robles performs:
“Héroes del estéreo”
“Salt and wine”
“Pupilas y gaviotas”
“Drenched”
“Las manos del campo”
Video projections: Sharks, Hurricane, Beach floor and photos of the devastation, sent by friends and family.
Audio files: Cocoon poem, Coquis by Fofe, Rain storm

Mercado de Puerto Rico
2017-11-17 16:00 - 20:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States

Teófilo Torres es: Pateco en Loisaida
2017-12-28 20:00 - 21:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
Thespian Maestro, TEOFILO TORRES, performs about post-hurricane María crisis in specially commissioned X-mas show. One night only @ LOISAIDA CENTER.

NEW YORK, NY, DECEMBER 15, 2017 – Puerto Rico’s most treasured monologist, Teófilo Torres, whose acting career spans over 40 years ––will perform at Loisaida Cultural Center on December 28th with his new creation: Pateco el Sepulturero (Pateco the Gravedigger).
Pateco’s character is borrowed from an old Puerto Rican folk tale. Legend has it that in 1899, after the deathly devastation of hurricane San Ciriaco, so many people died in the island -both during and in the hurricane’s aftermath- that dead bodies were left piling up at the gate of a local cemetery. The gravedigger was called Pateco, it is said. From then on, after someone has passed away, the people in the island have been known to say that ‘Pateco took them under’, ‘a fulano se lo llevó Pateco’.

Torres’ take on Pateco comes back to life in 2017, this time after hurricane María devastated Puerto Rico, to take to the grave those “dead bodies” and zombies now piling up all over the island. Torres’ Pateco character is portrayed as a half-drunk, half-political pundit, that has found a new devotion to singing jíbaro folk music “Décimas”. He is a jokester, however a complicated character that takes a swing at killing us (the audience) softly with his rhymes, and makes us aware of the current political and fiscal crisis facing the Caribbean island.
You can find more information online at loisaida.org/events
Loisaida Inc. has produced many performances throughout this year, some that recasts the current fiscal crisis of Puerto Rico, and more recently others hosting visual artists, musicians and academics interpreting through their work the impact on Puerto Rican communities in the wake of the 2017 hurricane season. Loisaida keeps the creative diaspora stemming from the Caribbean island to present a forward-looking merger of eco-urbanism and art-based community making.

Teófilo Torres (born 6 March 1954 in Ponce, Puerto Rico) is a Puerto Rican actor, director and professor of theatre. He has acted for both television as well the big screen, and has performed in Puerto Rico and internationally.

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Teófilo Torres (born 6 March 1954 in Ponce, Puerto Rico) is a Puerto Rican actor, director and professor of theatre. He has acted for both television as well the big screen, and has performed in Puerto Rico and internationally.

Soul of a City - Exhibition Ongoing
2018-01-19 18:00 - 2018-03-18 20:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
Katharine Wright, in conjunction with neighborhood photographer, Ryan John Lee have curated an auction wall to benefit the initiatives of Loisaida Inc. The wall showcases local and international artists, emergent and established artists, all representations of the DIY, immigrant ethos here in Loisaida. Check out the artwork below.

Silent Auction Now Live!

Loisaida Inc. is proud to present Ryan John Lee. Contact us to view exhibition by appointment. Lee is a photographer/filmmaker based in New York City. He is a longtime resident of the Lower East Side. The soul of a city is manifested through its inhabitants: the newspaper sellers, subway riders, pavement pounders, and window shoppers. These seemingly banal routines and daily chores are what feed a city’s energy and identity. Soul of a City represents a collection of these everyday moments I’ve been fortunate enough to capture. Some are humorous or touching, while others are heartbreaking. In these photographs, I’ve aimed to transform the ordinary into something more magical and highlight the calm within the chaos of the urban landscape.

The Native Caribbean Heritage Preservation Project - Exhibition
2018-03-23 18:30 - 2018-03-30 20:30 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
2018 Loisaida Artistic Residency Recipient, Anthony Rosado presents:

The Native Caribbean Heritage Preservation Project – Exhibition
Friday, March 23 from 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm through Friday March 30, 2018

Exhibition Description:
Ní’Tiñao means “relative; friend; progenitor” in Kalinago, and is eponymous with the Taíno peoples of the Caribbean. Rosado’s work focuses on historical, indigenous Caribbean definitions of identity and the influence of their values, spirituality, horticulture, and language today, as well as our relation to these definitions right here in Loisaida.
Rosado’s exhibition aims to refute euro-colonial claims that the Ní’Tiñao were a divided peoples who went extinct. Via art and storytelling, we exist.
Objective:
In effort to honor Arawak Tainx ancestors of the Caribbean while providing their scions with the legitimacy and empowerment of cultural identity, The Testourmonials Project will research, draft, and present an Arawak Tainx Heritage Day that intends on one day being celebrated annually and internationally. As Founder and Artistic Director of The Testourmonials Project I will develop a campaign and build a case to support city-wide, national, and international commemoration of the Arawak Tainx Heritage.
Visitors of my Open Studio Residency will have access to traditional and modern practices cultivated by Arawak Tainx ancestry. Through partnership with The Loisaida Center, the “Arawak Tainx Heritage Day” will ensure unity and mobility for intersectional needs of Tainx progenies. Unity will be present during a hands-on workshop, community discussion, performance showing, and exhibition. The intersectional needs of Tainx descendants will be revealed via interviews with revolutionaries actively preserving the Arawak Tainx culture. Your participation on this journey, which will continue long after the Residency’s end, is the vital mobility produced from our advocacy against erasure of Arawak Tainx traditions.
The project aims to research, archive, and memorialize the herstory, history, principles, spirituality, practices, and core values of the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean. Following research, the “Tainx Heritage Day – Celebration Model” will be drafted. This model will be shared with organizations indigenous to the Arawak Tainx peoples via online survey and interviews, as well as the aforementioned workshop and community discussion. The model will consequently be redrafted considering review by active members of the Arawak Tainx community and their modern day practices. Once the model is complete, a proposal will be drafted and campaign launched to consider the “Arawak Tainx Heritage Day” an annual city-wide, then state-wide, thereafter country-wide, and finally internationally recognized holiday. The holiday will be presented during Summer 2018 via promotion during events, workshops, festivals, and more hosted by organizations who supported the holiday’s culmination.

The Testourmonials Project will host an exhibition at Loisaida Inc. Center opening Monday, March 26 – 30, 2018. The exhibition will be relaying information, sources, reflections, visual art, commissioned photography, and an installation to share the research.

About Anthony Rosado:

Dome Building Workshop
2018-05-06 14:00 - 16:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
Dome Building Workshop
A project by: Matthew Mottel in collaboration with Loisaida Inc.
Sunday, May 6 from 2:00 pm to 4:30 pm (estimated time)

Overview:
The history of dome building on the LES goes back to when CHARAS built domes in collaboration with Buckminster Fuller in 1972/73. Syeus Mottel documented this effort in his photo-journalism book CHARAS THE IMPROBABLE DOME BUILDERS , first published in 1974 and now re published in 2017 by Song Cave Press & Pioneer Works.
Through a collaborative project between Loisaida Inc., La Plaza Cultural de Armando Perez and DIAP (Digital Intermedia MFA program at City College), artist and researcher Matthew Mottel (Syeus Mottel’s son) will build 2 geodesic domes (one at La Plaza and the other at the Loisaida Inc. Center’ courtyard) as an interactive art installation. In interviewing Carlos “Chino” Garcia as part of his research, Matthew was told that the domes CHARAS built functioned as both recreational activity spaces and as experimental examples of how to build disaster relief housing in non urban areas. The same functions apply now. The dome at La Plaza Cultura, will be seen from the street, with high visibility. This will bring people to the other dome in the courtyard and exhibition happening at Loisaida Center, which will feature a more detailed documentation of the original events of 1972-73.
This work highlights the achievements of CHARAS and hopefully expands the pressure on the NYC mayoral office to follow through on their promise to re-acquire El Bohio for the Loisaida community.
The week of the exhibition opening, many public performances, talks and workshops will transpire in both the Loisaida Center dome, and at La Plaza Cultural. These events will be influenced by the type of programming that happened during the 20+ years of events and exhibitions of El Bohio before being pushed out of its iconic and historic location on 9th Street, formerly known as P.S. 64.

Resources:
The Improbable Dome Builders
Matthew’s essay on the book.
The video that will be screened during the exhibition opening; CHARAS IS ALIVE ON SPACESHIP EARTH – Wednesday, May 9 at 6:00 pm

Schedule, Programming & Activities:

Saturday, May 5 at 6:00 pm – Archive exhibition of the 1972/73 CHARAS Geodesic Dome opens during Fiestas de Cruz at Loisaida Center.
Sunday, May 6 at 2:00 pm – Dome Building Workshop where participants will assist in the building of a 12′ geodesic dome. There will also be a special screening of archival footage from Bucky Fuller.
Wednesday, May 9 at 6:00 pm – Geodesic Domes unveiled with exhibition at Loisaida Center and La Plaza Cultural with performance by poet Edwin Torres.
Thursday, May 10 at 12:00 pm – Exhibition hours at Loisaida Center.
Friday, May 11 at 6:00 pm – Exhibition hours at Loisaida Center + Oral history project of the Lower East Side featuring interview with Chino Garcia by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, with documentary screening of Matthew Mottel’s video CHARAS IS ALIVE ON SPACESHIP EARTH at 6:00 pm.
Saturday, May 12 at 12:00 pm – Exhibition hours at Loisaida Center + performances in the afternoon thru evening at La plaza Cultural and Loisaida Center Courtyard.

CHARAS IS ALIVE ON SPACESHIP EARTH: Reception + Performances
2018-05-09 18:00 - 20:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
CHARAS IS ALIVE ON SPACESHIP EARTH: Reception + Performances

A project by: Matthew Mottel in collaboration with Loisaida Inc., La Plaza Cultural de Armando Perez and DIAP (Digital Intermedia MFA program at City College

Overview:
The history of dome building on the LES goes back to when CHARAS built domes in collaboration with Buckminster Fuller in 1972/73. Syeus Mottel documented this effort in his photo-journalism book CHARAS THE IMPROBABLE DOME BUILDERS , first published in 1974 and now re published in 2017 by Song Cave Press & Pioneer Works.
Through a collaborative project between Loisaida Inc., La Plaza Cultural de Armando Perez and DIAP (Digital Intermedia MFA program at City College), artist and researcher Matthew Mottel (Syeus Mottel’s son) will build 2 geodesic domes (one at La Plaza and the other at the Loisaida Inc. Center’ courtyard) as an interactive art installation. In interviewing Carlos “Chino” Garcia as part of his research, Matthew was told that the domes CHARAS built functioned as both recreational activity spaces and as experimental examples of how to build disaster relief housing in non urban areas. The same functions apply now. The dome at La Plaza Cultura, will be seen from the street, with high visibility. This will bring people to the other dome in the courtyard and exhibition happening at Loisaida Center, which will feature a more detailed documentation of the original events of 1972-73.
This work highlights the achievements of CHARAS and hopefully expands the pressure on the NYC mayoral office to follow through on their promise to re-acquire El Bohio for the Loisaida community.
The week of the exhibition opening, many public performances, talks and workshops will transpire in both the Loisaida Center dome, and at La Plaza Cultural. These events will be influenced by the type of programming that happened during the 20+ years of events and exhibitions of El Bohio before being pushed out of its iconic and historic location on 9th Street, formerly known as P.S. 64.

Resources:
CHARAS The Improbable Dome Builders (((THE FUTURE IN ACTION)))
Through the lens of avant-garde architectural theory, the CHARAS Lower East side community group and Buckminster Fuller’s assistant, Michael Ben Eli construct a geodesic dome on an unused plot of land in the shadow of the Manhattan bridge in 1972-1973. The CHARAS members built the geodesic dome to control their own destiny.
CHARAS: The Improbable Dome Builders resonates in 2018. Ever present are the needs of affordable housing, the occupation of public/unused space for civic use, and the participation of communities to take self determined action when governmental institutions forgo their public duty.
CHARAS THE IMPROBABLE DOME BUILDERS: (((THE FUTURE IN ACTION) produced by Matthew Mottel includes archival interviews and photography from 1972/73 by Syeus Mottel with CHARAS members Chino Garcia and Karen Becker. In October 2017, Sal Becker and Chino Garcia, return to the dome construction site on the Lower East Side to reflect on their achievements and speak about the purpose of their dome building activity.
Matthew Mottel’s essay on the book.
The video that will be screened during the exhibition opening; CHARAS IS ALIVE ON SPACESHIP EARTH – Wednesday, May 9 at 6:00 pm

Schedule, Programming & Activities:

Saturday, May 5 at 6:00 pm – Archive exhibition of the 1972/73 CHARAS Geodesic Dome opens during Fiestas de Cruz at Loisaida Center.
Sunday, May 6 at 2:00 pm – Dome Building Workshop where participants will assist in the building of a 12′ geodesic dome. There will also be a special screening of archival footage from Bucky Fuller.
Wednesday, May 9 at 6:00 pm – Geodesic Domes unveiled with exhibition at Loisaida Center and La Plaza Cultural with performance by poet Edwin Torres.
Thursday, May 10 at 12:00 pm – Exhibition hours at Loisaida Center.
Friday, May 11 at 6:00 pm – Exhibition hours at Loisaida Center + Oral history project of the Lower East Side featuring interview with Chino Garcia by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, with documentary screening of Matthew Mottel’s video CHARAS IS ALIVE ON SPACESHIP EARTH at 6:00 pm.
Saturday, May 12 at 12:00 pm – Exhibition hours at Loisaida Center + performances in the afternoon thru evening at La plaza Cultural and Loisaida Center Courtyard.

CHARAS IS ALIVE ON SPACESHIP EARTH
2018-05-09 18:00 - 2018-05-11 21:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
CHARAS IS ALIVE ON SPACESHIP EARTH

A project by: Matthew Mottel in collaboration with Loisaida Inc., La Plaza Cultural de Armando Perez and DIAP (Digital Intermedia MFA program at City College

Overview:
The history of dome building on the LES goes back to when CHARAS built domes in collaboration with Buckminster Fuller in 1972/73. Syeus Mottel documented this effort in his photo-journalism book CHARAS THE IMPROBABLE DOME BUILDERS , first published in 1974 and now re published in 2017 by Song Cave Press & Pioneer Works.
Through a collaborative project between Loisaida Inc., La Plaza Cultural de Armando Perez and DIAP (Digital Intermedia MFA program at City College), artist and researcher Matthew Mottel (Syeus Mottel’s son) will build 2 geodesic domes (one at La Plaza and the other at the Loisaida Inc. Center’ courtyard) as an interactive art installation. In interviewing Carlos “Chino” Garcia as part of his research, Matthew was told that the domes CHARAS built functioned as both recreational activity spaces and as experimental examples of how to build disaster relief housing in non urban areas. The same functions apply now. The dome at La Plaza Cultura, will be seen from the street, with high visibility. This will bring people to the other dome in the courtyard and exhibition happening at Loisaida Center, which will feature a more detailed documentation of the original events of 1972-73.
This work highlights the achievements of CHARAS and hopefully expands the pressure on the NYC mayoral office to follow through on their promise to re-acquire El Bohio for the Loisaida community.
The week of the exhibition opening, many public performances, talks and workshops will transpire in both the Loisaida Center dome, and at La Plaza Cultural. These events will be influenced by the type of programming that happened during the 20+ years of events and exhibitions of El Bohio before being pushed out of its iconic and historic location on 9th Street, formerly known as P.S. 64.

Resources:
CHARAS The Improbable Dome Builders (((THE FUTURE IN ACTION)))
Through the lens of avant-garde architectural theory, the CHARAS Lower East side community group and Buckminster Fuller’s assistant, Michael Ben Eli construct a geodesic dome on an unused plot of land in the shadow of the Manhattan bridge in 1972-1973. The CHARAS members built the geodesic dome to control their own destiny.
CHARAS: The Improbable Dome Builders resonates in 2018. Ever present are the needs of affordable housing, the occupation of public/unused space for civic use, and the participation of communities to take self determined action when governmental institutions forgo their public duty.
CHARAS THE IMPROBABLE DOME BUILDERS: (((THE FUTURE IN ACTION) produced by Matthew Mottel includes archival interviews and photography from 1972/73 by Syeus Mottel with CHARAS members Chino Garcia and Karen Becker. In October 2017, Sal Becker and Chino Garcia, return to the dome construction site on the Lower East Side to reflect on their achievements and speak about the purpose of their dome building activity.
Matthew Mottel’s essay on the book.
The video that will be screened during the exhibition opening; CHARAS IS ALIVE ON SPACESHIP EARTH – Wednesday, May 9 at 6:00 pm

Schedule, Programming & Activities:

Saturday, May 5 at 6:00 pm – Archive exhibition of the 1972/73 CHARAS Geodesic Dome opens during Fiestas de Cruz at Loisaida Center.
Sunday, May 6 at 2:00 pm – Dome Building Workshop where participants will assist in the building of a 12′ geodesic dome. There will also be a special screening of archival footage from Bucky Fuller.
Wednesday, May 9 at 6:00 pm – Geodesic Domes unveiled with exhibition at Loisaida Center and La Plaza Cultural with performance by poet Edwin Torres.
Thursday, May 10 at 12:00 pm – Exhibition hours at Loisaida Center.
Friday, May 11 at 6:00 pm – Exhibition hours at Loisaida Center + Oral history project of the Lower East Side featuring interview with Chino Garcia by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, with documentary screening of Matthew Mottel’s video CHARAS IS ALIVE ON SPACESHIP EARTH at 6:00 pm.
Saturday, May 12 at 12:00 pm – Exhibition hours at Loisaida Center + performances in the afternoon thru evening at La plaza Cultural and Loisaida Center Courtyard.

Chino Garcia Oral History and Screening of CHARAS is Alive on Spaceship Earth
2018-05-11 18:00 - 21:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
Chino Garcia Oral History and Screening of CHARAS is Alive on Spaceship Earth
Friday, May 11, 6:00pm
Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 E 9th Street

presented as part of Lower East Side History Month

GVSHP‘s Oral History Project helps to preserve memories of the Village and East Village. Our newest release features Carlos “Chino” Garcia, co-founder of the East Village’s CHARAS El Bohio Cultural and Community Center.
Chino will join us in conversation with Bonnie Sue Stein, Executive and Artistic Director of GOH Productions. They will discuss Chino’s life and activism, from youth and migrant communities in the 1950s to the education-focused Real Great Society, the founding of CHARAS in the 1970s, and more.
CHARAS first built domes in collaboration with Buckminster Fuller in 1972. Artist and scholar Matthew Mottel will present his short documentary about CHARAS based on archival footage ofSeyus Mottel (his father), working on the Improbable Dome Builders.
This event is fully accessible.
Free. Reservations Required.

Register here.

Last One Standing - Premier *SOLD OUT*
2018-05-25 18:00 - 21:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
DESCRIPTION

Loisaida Inc., producers of the annual Loisaida Festival, are pleased to host the significant event in honor of one of the most iconic pillars of the Puerto Rican, Nuyorican, and Latinx community, Adela Fargas, founder of the restaurant Casa Adela.
Filmakers Gary Cruz and William Rosario from Yagrumo Productions documented Adela’s life for the last four years culminating in their latest documentary “Last One Standing”. They have immortalized the trajectory of this beloved Loisaida Icon.
The reception will feature a special performance from local musician and organizer, David Soto as Daso Y El Grupo Cemi and an acoustic set by Juan Pagan.
Doors open at 6:30pm and the screening begins promptly at 7:45pm.

DATE AND TIME

Fri, May 25, 2018
6:30 PM – 10:00 PM EDT
Add to Calendar

LOCATION

710 E 9th St
710 East 9th Street
New York, NY 10009

Exhibition Closing: CHARAS is Alive on Spaceship Earth
2018-06-27 18:00 - 21:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
Please join us for the closing reception of the exhibition:
CHARAS is Alive on Spaceship Earth
with special performances from Art Jones, Krisia Ayala and Yuko Otomo.

Art Jones will create live audio/video mix featuring the animated sights and sounds of NYC’s utopian future-past, projected onto artist Krisia Ayala’s installation. Both artists will use the dome as a sculpture to be activated through their own creative interventions.
Yuko Otomo: a visual artist & a bilingual poet (poetry & haiku). She also writes art criticism, essays & does translation. In visual art, she has been concentrating herself on the study of “pure abstraction” & has created a body of work covering over 3 decades. Her work has been shown in various gallery spaces; such as Tribes Gallery, Anthology Film Archives Courthouse Gallery, ABC No Rio, Brecht Forum, Gallery 128, Knitting Factory & Vision Festival. As a poet/writer, she has read her work in venues such as St. Marks’s Poetry Project, Bowery Poetry Club, Issue Project Room, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Nuyorican Poet’s Café etc. She also has read in Germany, France & Japan. She has been published in many magazines & literary publications such as Recluse, 6×6, Long Shot, Appearances, The Unbearables Assemblage Magazine, Downtown Anthology, Senritsu & others. Her books include “ Garden: Selected Haiku” (Beehive Press), “Small Poems”, “The Hand of the Poet” (by Ugly Duckling Presse). She also has a huge volume of critical writing on art such as “On Artist & Studio”, “On Artuad: Writing & Drawing”.
Krisia Ayala: Puerto Rican born and New York City based teaching artist, interested in digital mixed media art, print design and sound installations. Her works on paper range from artist books to large format prints. Ayala has focused her artistic research into developing visuals inspired by migratory issues. Her biggest motivation is to explore and illustrate the similarities between avian and human migration, intending to blur the lines that differentiate the human and avian migratory experience. Instagram: Krisia.ayalart

Lying Lydia - Open Reading
2018-07-22 19:00 - 21:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
Loisaida Inc. and Caborca Theatre present:
Lying Lydia
Open Reading

New work by the Loisaida Inc. Center’s 2014 artists in residence –CABORCA.
Written and directed by Javier Antonio González and featuring Laura Butler Rivera, Yaremis Félix, and Tania Molina, Lying Lydia is a piercing look at our civilization’s targeting of women, colonies, and the truth. In the mold of Churchill and Fornes, Lying Lydia is a mysterious and darkly funny chamber work featuring masterful performances from some of Caborca’s veteran actors, as well as an original soundscape by Keenan Hurley.

Truth may have died in the disaster. Two women are confined and forced to paint the landscape that may have once been. One of them is Margaret. The other is Lying Lydia, so called because everything she says is a lie. How do you know? Listen, you can hear her thinking. Like they said you would.
LOISAIDA INC. CENTER
710 E 9th Street, Manhattan
Free Admission
7pm

About Caborca:
Hailing from Puerto Rico, US America and beyond, Caborca makes sprawling, adventurous works in theatre and film. Combining epic auteurship with a tuned ensemble of actors and a flux of collaborators, we bridge language, background and media, inviting our audience, guest artists and members alike, to delve into the pleasure of seeing anew.
Caborca steals its name from the novel The Savage Detectives, by Roberto Bolaño, in which a magazine of the same name is the official organ of visceral realism.

Opinions like those expressed while in a panel, event or presentation, performance or through artwork are expressed by the author in his personal capacity and are the author’s own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of Loisaida Inc. its affiliates or staff.

Documents of Resistance: Our Time
2018-09-14 18:00 - 2018-10-28 17:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
Antonio Serna: Documents of Resistance: Our Time
September 14th – October 28th
Opening Reception: Friday, September 14, 2018, 6-9PM
Loisaida Center Inc. is pleased to present Documents of Resistance: Our Time, a participatory exhibition and residency of new work by Antonio Serna.
How do we give contours to an art history that remains unwritten, scattered across archives, and siloed in scholarship? How can we begin to reconnect the struggle for civil rights across all artists of color and their fight for inclusion in our cultural institutions? How can we being to reflect on the complexity of artists of color and their unique experience, political actions, and art production as part of the art history in American? In the exhibition, Documents of Resistance: Our Time, Mexican-American artist, Antonio Serna is hoping to take us down a visual path to consider these and many other questions in regards to the important but often overlook contributions of artist of color.
Central to the exhibition will be a series timeline collages of art and activism from each decade, from 1960s up to our current decade. In combining the histories of artists of color, visitors will be able to visually locate overlapping shared concerns and experiences of artists of color: from the Chicano Movement to the Black Power Movement, and from the Labor Movement to the Feminist, Third World Movement, and beyond. Leading up to and during the exhibition, Antonio Serna is asking the public to send in their memories of this resistance: people, places, or events relevant in order to continue to expand this histories. Serna’s interest is not just a reflection of the past hopes to inspire and empower a new generation of people of color to join the struggle in becoming the next generation of artists, activists, curators, historians, archivist, and museum workers, to help end discrimination in our cultural institutions.
Originally from San Antonio Texas, Antonio Serna is a Mexican-American artist based in New York. Antonio maintains both a studio and collective social practice. These two practices often balance and ground the sum of his production. Antonio Serna holds a Masters in Fine Arts from Brooklyn College, and a BFA from Parsons School of Art. He has exhibited in New York, Texas, Las Vegas, Spain, Mexico, Berlin, and Romania. His speaking engagements include ArtCenter, Flux Factory, CUE Foundation, Brooklyn Museum, Pratt, Common Field Convening, Eyebeam, Smack Mellon, Queens Museum, and Museo Tamayo. Recently he has participated in residencies at Triangle Arts Association, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, and The Luminary and has taught at Brooklyn College and Parsons School of Design.

Document of Resistance:Our Time is made possible in part by funds from Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Creative Engagement Grant

ACCIONES
2018-09-20 18:00 - 2018-10-19 20:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
ACCIONES QUE LEVANTAN A PUERTO RICO (ACCIONES), IS THE ONLY STUDENT ART EXHIBIT OF ITS KIND, FEATURING 80 ORIGINAL PAINTINGS
FROM PUERTO RICAN STUDENTS IN THE WAKE OF HURRICANE MARIA’S DEVASTATING PATH THROUGH THE ISLAND OF PUERTO RICO.

The CHICAS by Alejandra Foundation (CHICAS Foundation), a leading social movement and non-profit organization against bullying and social injustice in Puerto Rico, announced that student art exhibit, Acciones que levantan a Puerto Rico (Actions that lift Puerto Rico), ACCIONES, will open in New York, September 20, 2018, to mark the first year anniversary of the devastating path of Hurricane Maria through the Caribbean island. ACCIONES is the only hurricane-themed student art exhibit of its kind.
Featuring original works by Puerto Rican students, from public and private schools, the two-part New York presentation of ACCIONES will be available at The Loisaida Center, September 20 through October 19; followed by the second part of the collection, which will be presented at the Queens College Arts Center, starting on October 4.
“The collection communicates a profound sense of hope for the future, as well as, its serves as a poignant reminder of the long road ahead to help Puerto Rico fully recover from the storm’s devastation. Acciones also reveals the values that best represent the people of Puerto Rico; such as service, family, empathy, solidarity, hospitality, culture, love of nature and resiliency,” expressed Frances I. Ryan, executive director of the CHICAS Foundation.
“Unveiling the exhibit in New York as we mark the first-year anniversary of Hurricane Maria, is a fitting gesture of appreciation to all New Yorkers, especially to the Puerto Rican community, which immediately galvanized to provide humanitarian support to victims in the aftermath of
the hurricane,” the CHICAS executive continued saying.
As one of the leading Puerto Rican community and cultural organizations in New York, The Loisaida Center, which in partnership with its umbrella organization, Acacia Network, has been at the center of New York’s humanitarian efforts to help Puerto Rico victims in the wake of Hurricane Maria. “Having ACCIONES at The Loisaida Center, is also our way saying thank you,” Ryan said, adding that the presentation at Queens College provides a different, yet very important academic setting, consistent with the student art exhibit.
Immediately after the passing of Hurricane Maria, the CHICAS Foundation participated in 200 humanitarian missions around the island. Also, in coordination with the Visual Arts Program of the Puerto Rico Department of Education, CHICAS hosted, Acciones, an island wide contest for
students, grades K-12, from public and private schools.

Despite dire conditions, nearly 100{d189f1124ffa6975f5923217354196c41f30852329af055ade71c436dc0b2403} of the island still in the dark, without water, telecommunications or access to roads, an astounding 630 original works were submitted to participate in the Acciones art contest.

A panel of artists, art teachers and community leaders selected 80 paintings that became the exhibit’s official selection The CHICAS Foundation envisioned the hurricane-themed art initiative as an important communication forum for Puerto Rican students, allowing them to express their life changing experiences and begin to heal through art. Many teachers participated in the art contest to facilitate communication with students as they returned to school after the hurricane.

“Opinions like those expressed while in a panel, presentation, performance or through artwork are expressed by the author in their personal capacity and are the author’s own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of Loisaida Inc., its affiliates or staff.”

Decolonial & Third World Studies: Discussion & tour with Antonio Serna
2018-10-25 18:30 - 20:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
Decolonial & Third World Studies: Discussion & tour with Antonio Serna
Thursday, October 25, 2018 from 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM

Panel Discussion: 7:00–8:30 PM*
*Pre-Event: 6:15 PM Exhibition Walk-thru with artist Antonio Serna

Panelists: Macarena Gomez-Baris, J. Kēhaulani Kauanui, Conor Tomás Reed.
Moderated by Patrick Jaojoco.

Since the 1960s, students of color have fought to decolonize campuses across the Americas. One of their goals was to introduce studies related to their own experiences and include their history outside of the dominant Eurocentric lens. We will discuss some of the original demands and achievements, and compare them to the current wave of decolonizing academia.Secondly, one of main concerns in the project Our Time is to highlight the racism in the arts as affecting all people of color across America.
We ask, what can we gain from a comparative ethnographic analysis of this history? What are the limits and pitfalls of such study? How does it affect the visual arts and visual cultural studies in general (framework of research, production, participation, and consumption)?As a third discussion point, we will consider spaces of resistance, noting Esteban Izquierdo Mejia’s intro to Spaces of Cultural Resistance that is similarly echoed in Macarena Gomez-Barris’ intro to The Extractive Zone. Can we consider examples of the importance of spaces of resistance (decolonial or otherwise) that, as Mejia notes, “operate to create imagined geographies of belonging that challenge the effects of cultural oppression at the local and regional level?”
This panel is held in conjunction with “Documents of Resistance: Our Time” Antonio Serna’s exhibition and residency at The Loisaida, Inc. Center, September 14–October 28, 2018. Support for “Documents of Resistance: Our Time” is made possible in part with public funds from Creative Engagement, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and administered by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs‘ Development Fund.
*Pre-Event: Exhibition walk-through with artist Antonio Serna starts at 6:15 pm
Moderated by Patrick Jaojoco
Bios
Patrick JaojocoisaBrooklyn-based arts professional, curator, researcher, and writer focusing on political ecology and historiography, in particular how creative practices and landscape interpretation can aid in public understanding of long-term ecological, economic, and political histories. He has organized numerous exhibitions and public programs throughout New York; recently, he worked withthecuratorial collective Frontview onaproject around American pre-colonial, colonial, and cartographic histories and practices. He currently works at Storefront for Art and Architecture, where Patrick supportstheorganization’s exhibitions and projects as Development and Communications Associate. Patrick wasa2015-2017 Curatorial Fellow at SVA’s MA Curatorial Practice program, and received his BA in English Literature and Environmental Studies from New York University.
Macarena Gomez-Barrisis Professor and Chairperson of Social Science and Cultural Studies at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. She is also Director oftheGlobal South Center (GSC),aresearch center that works attheintersection of social ecologies, art/politics, and decolonial methodologies. Her instructional focus is on Latinx and Latin American Studies, memory andtheafterlives of violence, decolonial theory,theart of social protest, and queer femme epistemes.
J. Kēhaulani Kauanuiis Professor of American Studies and affiliate faculty in Anthropology at Wesleyan University, where she teaches courses related to Indigenous studies, critical race studies, settler colonial studies, and anarchist studies. She isthecurrent Chair of American Studies andthecurrent Director oftheCenter fortheAmericas. Her first book isHawaiian Blood: Colonialism andthePolitics of Sovereignty and Indigeneity(Duke University Press 2008) and her second book isParadoxes of Hawaiian Sovereignty: Land, Sex, andtheColonial Politics of State Nationalism(Duke University Press, 2018). She also hasanew edited book,Speaking of Indigenous Politics: Conversations with Activists, Scholars, and Tribal Leaders. Kauanui currently serves asaco-producer for an anarchist politics show called “Anarchy on Air,”amajority POC show co-produced withagroup of Wesleyan students, which builds on her earlier work on another collaborative anarchist program called “Horizontal Power Hour.”

Conor Tomás Reedis an archivist, doctoral student, educator, and organizer attheCity University of New York,acollective member of Lost & Found:TheCUNY Poetics Document Initiative, andaco-founding participant intheFree University of New York City. Conor researches twentieth and twenty first-century literatures of social movements and urban freedom schools, and isa2016-2017 Scholar-in-Residence attheSchomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Conor is currently working on his dissertation:CUNY Will Be Free!: Black, Puerto Rican, and Women’s Compositions, Literatures, and Studies attheCity College of New York and New York City, 1960-1980.

About the Exhibition:
Documents of Resistance: Our Time
September 14th – October 28th
Loisaida Center Inc. is pleased to present Documents of Resistance: Our Time, a participatory exhibition and residency of new work by Antonio Serna.
How do we give contours to an art history that remains unwritten, scattered across archives, and siloed in scholarship? How can we begin to reconnect the struggle for civil rights across all artists of color and their fight for inclusion in our cultural institutions? How can we being to reflect on the complexity of artists of color and their unique experience, political actions, and art production as part of the art history in American? In the exhibition, Documents of Resistance: Our Time, Mexican-American artist, Antonio Serna is hoping to take us down a visual path to consider these and many other questions in regards to the important but often overlook contributions of artist of color.
Central to the exhibition will be a series timeline collages of art and activism from each decade, from 1960s up to our current decade. In combining the histories of artists of color, visitors will be able to visually locate overlapping shared concerns and experiences of artists of color: from the Chicano Movement to the Black Power Movement, and from the Labor Movement to the Feminist, Third World Movement, and beyond. Leading up to and during the exhibition, Antonio Serna is asking the public to send in their memories of this resistance: people, places, or events relevant in order to continue to expand this histories. Serna’s interest is not just a reflection of the past hopes to inspire and empower a new generation of people of color to join the struggle in becoming the next generation of artists, activists, curators, historians, archivist, and museum workers, to help end discrimination in our cultural institutions.
Originally from San Antonio Texas, Antonio Serna is a Mexican-American artist based in New York. Antonio maintains both a studio and collective social practice. These two practices often balance and ground the sum of his production. Antonio Serna holds a Masters in Fine Arts from Brooklyn College, and a BFA from Parsons School of Art. He has exhibited in New York, Texas, Las Vegas, Spain, Mexico, Berlin, and Romania. His speaking engagements include ArtCenter, Flux Factory, CUE Foundation, Brooklyn Museum, Pratt, Common Field Convening, Eyebeam, Smack Mellon, Queens Museum, and Museo Tamayo. Recently he has participated in residencies at Triangle Arts Association, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, and The Luminary and has taught at Brooklyn College and Parsons School of Design.
Document of Resistance:Our Time is made possible in part by funds from Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Creative Engagement Grant

Book Talk: Counter Institution by Nandini Bagchee
2018-11-28 18:30 - 20:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
Book Talk: Counter Institution by Nandini Bagchee
Wednesday, November 28, 6:30pm
Loisaida Center, 710 E 9th St
Counterinstitution: Activist Estates of the Lower East Side, examines the open-ended histories of activism in the Lower East Side by looking at the spaces used by activists- storefronts, gardens and offices to bring forth the hidden dimensions of these organizational spaces through a collaging together of architectural drawings techniques with archival research, photography and writing. This book examines three re-purposed buildings on the Lower East Side that have been used by activists to launch actions over the past forty years. The Peace Pentagon was the headquarters of the anti-war movement, El Bohio was a metaphoric “hut” that envisioned the Puerto Rican Community as a steward of the environment, and ABC No Rio, a name appropriated from a storefront sign with missing letters, was a catchy punk name that appealed to the anarchistic sensibility of the artists that ran a storefront gallery in a run-down tenement. The “activist estates” explored in this book represents both a conceptual and a literal struggle to create a space for civic action in a city that is built upon real estate speculation.
A book talk by author Nandini Bagchee will be followed by a discussion with Dr. Gregory Sholette. Nandini Bagchee is an Associate Professor of Architecture and History at City College New York and a Principal at Bagchee Architects. Greg Sholette is an artist, activist and author of Delirium and Resistance: Art, Activism & the Crisis of Capitalism (Pluto Press 2017) and Dark Matter: Art and Politics in an Age of Enterprise Culture (Pluto Press, 2011). At this event we will also launch a call for participation for an exhibition planned at the Loisaida Center titled, “Activist Estates: An Alternate History of Real Estate in Loisaida”.
This exhibition designed and curated by Nandini Bagchee in collaboration with Loisaida Center will be mounted in May 2019 to celebrate the history of space-based activism in the Lower East Side. Through timelines, photographs, artifacts, film and architectural models- the exhibit will invite visitors to share their own stories and images to fill in the blanks or simply re-interpret the material within the show. Community workshops and envisioning sessions will open new discussions of the future of community-
controlled space.
Co-Sponsored by the Loisaida Center and GVSHP
This event is fully accessible.

Project LAZO: Supported at its Ends—Hanging by its Weight
2019-01-29 18:00 - 20:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
*Image by: Luciana Pinchiero | El Cuello con Manchas de El Eco (El Eco’s Spotty Neck), 2017
LAZO at Loisaida present:
Supported at its Ends—Hanging by its Weight
Opening Reception: January 29th, 2019 | 6-8 PM
January 29th – February 8th, 2019
Participating Artists:
Ronny Quevedo
Amy Westpfahl
Dolores Furtado
Gaby Collins-Fernandez
Mauricio Cortes Ortega
Pedro Wainer
Daniel Greenfield-Campoverde
Luciana Pinchiero
Esperanza Mayobre
Bernadette Despujols
Omar Barquet
Kristin Reger
Maximilliano Siñani
Constanza Alarcon Tennen

Read more about the residency here.

About the artists:
LAZO is a collaborative project founded by Alva Mooses and Claudia Cortínez. We are artists of Latin American descent focusing on intersections of photography, sculpture and printmaking and began working together while doing our graduate studies together at Yale University. We have organized exhibitions, publications, and talks that support artists while furthering cross-cultural dialogue. Both born in the U.S. (Alva to parents from Mexico & the U.S. and Claudia to parents from Argentina & Chile) our practices have relied largely on being based in NYC while working internationally creating ties to distinct communities.
Alva Mooses is an artist based in New York. She received her BFA from The Cooper Union and her MFA from Yale University. She has exhibited her work at the 10th Havana Biennial, Instituto Cervantes in NY, Shirley Fiterman Art Center, Logan Center for the Arts, Eduardo Sívori Museum, among others. She has completed residencies such as the APL Program at The University of Chicago, Tou Trykk in Stavanger, Norway, the Davidoff Art Initiative in the Dominican Republic, and Casa Wabi in Oaxaca, Mexico. She has presented her work through artist talks at the Swiss Institute in NYC, Rogaland Kunstsenter in Norway, University of Chicago, among others. She is the recipient of a Yale University Schoelkopf Fellowship, the Rema Hort Mann Foundation Artist Community Engagement Grant, and UChicago Arts Grant, among others. Since 2004, she has organized community art initiatives and collaborations in Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, El Salvador, and Argentina. Alva currently teaches Sculpture at The Cooper Union School of Art.
Claudia Cortínez is a visual artist currently living and working between Buenos Aires and NYC. She received her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and her MFA at Yale University. She is the recipient of the Alice Kimball English Traveling Fellowship from Yale University (2012), the Blair Dickinson Memorial Grant from Yale University (2013), the Rema Hort Mann Emerging Artist Grant in NYC (2013), among others. She has exhibited her work extensively in solo and group shows in the US, Latin America, and Europe, and has curated exhibitions at the Shirley Fiterman Art Center in NYC (2016) and the Eduardo Sívori Museum in Buenos Aires (2018), bringing together artists from both cities. She has participated in various residencies such as LMCC Swing Space (2014), La Ira de Dios (BsAs, 2016), Mass MoCA (2017), Real Time and Space (CA, 2018), and Tou Trykk (Norway, 2018), among others. She is currently an artist in residence at the NARS Foundation in Brooklyn, NY.

“Opinions like those expressed while in a panel, presentation, performance or through artwork are expressed by the author in their personal capacity and are the author’s own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of Loisaida Inc., its affiliates or staff.”

Project LAZO: ANALEMMA
2019-03-02 18:00 - 2019-03-12 21:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
*Image by: Alva Mooses | ,2019
LAZO at Loisaida present:
ANALEMMA
Opening Reception: Saturday, March 2nd, 2019 | 6-8 PM
Only through Tuesday, March 12th
Curated by: Javier Bosques in collaboration with LAZO
Participating Artists:
Javier Bosques
Alva Mooses
Mauricio Cortes Ortega
Sofía Reeser del Río
Ana Vaz
Pedro Wainer

Read more about the LAZO residency here.

About the artists:
LAZO is a collaborative project founded by Alva Mooses and Claudia Cortínez. We are artists of Latin American descent focusing on intersections of photography, sculpture and printmaking and began working together while doing our graduate studies together at Yale University. We have organized exhibitions, publications, and talks that support artists while furthering cross-cultural dialogue. Both born in the U.S. (Alva to parents from Mexico & the U.S. and Claudia to parents from Argentina & Chile) our practices have relied largely on being based in NYC while working internationally creating ties to distinct communities.
Alva Mooses is an artist based in New York. She received her BFA from The Cooper Union and her MFA from Yale University. She has exhibited her work at the 10th Havana Biennial, Instituto Cervantes in NY, Shirley Fiterman Art Center, Logan Center for the Arts, Eduardo Sívori Museum, among others. She has completed residencies such as the APL Program at The University of Chicago, Tou Trykk in Stavanger, Norway, the Davidoff Art Initiative in the Dominican Republic, and Casa Wabi in Oaxaca, Mexico. She has presented her work through artist talks at the Swiss Institute in NYC, Rogaland Kunstsenter in Norway, University of Chicago, among others. She is the recipient of a Yale University Schoelkopf Fellowship, the Rema Hort Mann Foundation Artist Community Engagement Grant, and UChicago Arts Grant, among others. Since 2004, she has organized community art initiatives and collaborations in Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, El Salvador, and Argentina. Alva currently teaches Sculpture at The Cooper Union School of Art.
Claudia Cortínez is a visual artist currently living and working between Buenos Aires and NYC. She received her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and her MFA at Yale University. She is the recipient of the Alice Kimball English Traveling Fellowship from Yale University (2012), the Blair Dickinson Memorial Grant from Yale University (2013), the Rema Hort Mann Emerging Artist Grant in NYC (2013), among others. She has exhibited her work extensively in solo and group shows in the US, Latin America, and Europe, and has curated exhibitions at the Shirley Fiterman Art Center in NYC (2016) and the Eduardo Sívori Museum in Buenos Aires (2018), bringing together artists from both cities. She has participated in various residencies such as LMCC Swing Space (2014), La Ira de Dios (BsAs, 2016), Mass MoCA (2017), Real Time and Space (CA, 2018), and Tou Trykk (Norway, 2018), among others. She is currently an artist in residence at the NARS Foundation in Brooklyn, NY.

“Opinions like those expressed while in a panel, presentation, performance or through artwork are expressed by the author in their personal capacity and are the author’s own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of Loisaida Inc., its affiliates or staff.”

Project LAZO: CROSSROADS
2019-03-19 18:00 - 2019-03-30 21:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
*Image by: Pedro Wainer | ‘Cruces’ , 2019.
LAZO at Loisaida present:
CROSSROADS
Opening Reception: Tuesday, March 19th, 2019 | 6-8 PM
Only through Saturday, March 30th
Curated by: Silvia Benedetti in collaboration with LAZO
Participating Artists:
Isabella Cruz-Chong
Jose Joaquín Figueroa
Catalina Schliebener
Pedro Wainer

Overview:
Standing in a crossroads makes us realize that the greatest block we can create for ourselves is the idea that there is a single right choice. This exhibition gathers a series of artworks –in a variety of mediums– in which the literal and figurative meaning of a crossroads is present. Daily life, childhood, gender, class, landscape, and identity are a few of the themes brought to bear by the works in the exhibition. These references, intersected through a range of material and narrative gestures, reveal how various perspectives can exist in a given moment.
This exhibition brings together four Latin American artists from different backgrounds for which New York functions as a point of intersection. The works on display build narratives along different lines: Isabella Cruz-Chong’s works reference the US-Mexico border fence, filmed on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Mexico where she grew up. She presents a performance/video of an invisible wall highlighting the struggle and irony that goes with it. Cruz-Chong also has on view instructions made for Mexican children who are learning how to behave when crossing the border.
José Joaquín Figueroa presents a record of everyday environments illustrating his ongoing pilgrimage. In his drawings he reflects on the fragility of fleeting moments, the complications of inter-layered identities, and the impossibility of a single perspective.
Catalina Schliebener presents a series of collages made with children’s books; material that carries implicit narratives around gender, sexuality, and class. She researches childhood, considering it an important period in which the limits between reality and fiction are not yet defined.
Lastly, Pedro Wainer explores analogue film and photographic techniques by reconfiguring technologies in disuse. He presents composite footage and moving projections made from still images of the East River from both sides in Manhattan and Brooklyn–highlighting the river and its bridges as both a geographic and man-made border meant to be crossed.
This exhibition was organized in collaboration with Silvia Benedetti, a Venezuelan New York-based independent
curator and art writer, and is part of a series of events organized by LAZO at The Loisaida Center in NYC.
Read more about the LAZO project and residency here.
Download press release here.

About the artists:
LAZO is a collaborative project founded by Alva Mooses and Claudia Cortínez. We are artists of Latin American descent focusing on intersections of photography, sculpture and printmaking and began working together while doing our graduate studies together at Yale University. We have organized exhibitions, publications, and talks that support artists while furthering cross-cultural dialogue. Both born in the U.S. (Alva to parents from Mexico & the U.S. and Claudia to parents from Argentina & Chile) our practices have relied largely on being based in NYC while working internationally creating ties to distinct communities.
Alva Mooses is an artist based in New York. She received her BFA from The Cooper Union and her MFA from Yale University. She has exhibited her work at the 10th Havana Biennial, Instituto Cervantes in NY, Shirley Fiterman Art Center, Logan Center for the Arts, Eduardo Sívori Museum, among others. She has completed residencies such as the APL Program at The University of Chicago, Tou Trykk in Stavanger, Norway, the Davidoff Art Initiative in the Dominican Republic, and Casa Wabi in Oaxaca, Mexico. She has presented her work through artist talks at the Swiss Institute in NYC, Rogaland Kunstsenter in Norway, University of Chicago, among others. She is the recipient of a Yale University Schoelkopf Fellowship, the Rema Hort Mann Foundation Artist Community Engagement Grant, and UChicago Arts Grant, among others. Since 2004, she has organized community art initiatives and collaborations in Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, El Salvador, and Argentina. Alva currently teaches Sculpture at The Cooper Union School of Art.
Claudia Cortínez is a visual artist currently living and working between Buenos Aires and NYC. She received her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and her MFA at Yale University. She is the recipient of the Alice Kimball English Traveling Fellowship from Yale University (2012), the Blair Dickinson Memorial Grant from Yale University (2013), the Rema Hort Mann Emerging Artist Grant in NYC (2013), among others. She has exhibited her work extensively in solo and group shows in the US, Latin America, and Europe, and has curated exhibitions at the Shirley Fiterman Art Center in NYC (2016) and the Eduardo Sívori Museum in Buenos Aires (2018), bringing together artists from both cities. She has participated in various residencies such as LMCC Swing Space (2014), La Ira de Dios (BsAs, 2016), Mass MoCA (2017), Real Time and Space (CA, 2018), and Tou Trykk (Norway, 2018), among others. She is currently an artist in residence at the NARS Foundation in Brooklyn, NY.

“Opinions like those expressed while in a panel, presentation, performance or through artwork are expressed by the author in their personal capacity and are the author’s own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of Loisaida Inc., its affiliates or staff.”

Agroecology & Food Sustainability
2019-03-30 18:30 - 20:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
Simultaneous events at Loisaida Inc. Center and :Pública, a cultural space in Santurce, Puerto Rico; will explore the perceived tension between the traditional and the 21st century methods of harvesting and preparation as it relates to all things FOOD. Themes and topics will include: growing ingredients, recipes, colonization and agriculture, farming and imported food, where traditional cuisine comes from and what it means, and where and how Puerto Rican food can be found and prepared locally – both in the Lower East Side and in Santurce, Puerto Rico.
Space is limited, please RSVP here.
Presented as part of the Loisaida Inc. Center AIR Program. Lead by resident artist, Jocelyn Bonadio de Freitas.

@ Loisaida Inc. Center
Speakers: Tara Rodriguez-Besosa, Jocelyn Bonadio-de Freitas
Food by: Tara Rodriguez-Besosa (Asopao – Puerto Rican Stew))
Music/Sound Collage by: Jocelyn Bonadio-de Freitas
@ Pública
Speaker: Ian Pagan, Natalia Vallejo
Food by: Natalia Vallejo (Asopao – Puerto Rican Stew)
Program:

Doors Open at 6:00 pm
Event starts at 6:30 pm and ends at 8:00 pm EST
Rundown
6:30-6:45: Introduction and explanation of event by Jocelyn Bonadio-de Freitas
6:45-7:30: Talk/Sharing from Tara, Ian, Natalia including explanation of “asopao” (Puerto Rican Stew)
7:30-7:45: Audience eats, Q&A, Jocelyn set up
7:45-8:05: Jocelyn Live Sound performance*

LOISAIDA SMORGASBORD CABARET & RESTORATION PROJECTS
2019-05-10 18:30 - 22:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
L.A.B. & Loisaida Inc. Center present: A night of visual art and performance not to be missed!
Friday, May 10, 2019
at the Loisaida Center, 710 E 9th St
6:30 pm – Doors Open to mingle and jingle
8:00 pm – Performances begin!
Event ends promptly at 10:00 pm
Plus:
Opening reception of: Rolando’s Winter Flowers & Bimbo Rivas’ post-mortem prints: part of the Loisaida Restoration Projects at El Semillero. Special Edition prints will be on sale!
And, a special world premiere screening of the new Garbagia Projects short by: Audaz Productions! Woohoo!
Loisaida Inc. presents an evening of esoteric clowns, iconoclastic puppetshows, and strange & wonderful performance in the 4th dimension!
Tickets: $10-15
This event will serve as a fundraiser for the upcoming free community workshops and events in the LES community gardens, hosted by LAB, More Gardens, and the Loisaida Center. Throughout the month of May, visiting artists from around the world will be collaborating with local artists, community volunteers and gardeners to create giant puppets, masks, costumes and installations. Final performances will be held in different gardens of the Lower East Side on Friday, May 24, and Saturday May 25, and of course on Sunday May 26 at the Loisaida Festival, with the parade and the theater lab, culminating in the community pageant. All performances will highlight the struggles, and celebrate the rich stories of the gardeners, the everyday heroes that bring back the green Oasis to the island of Manhattan.
Featured performers for the May 10 show include: Bryan Fernandez, Alexandra Tatarsky, Alex Millan, Merry Carver, Marta Maria, Paola Michelle’s yoni dance, Kalan Sherrard bringing you some ecclectic performance Watch Out! Returning to Loisaida for the fourth year; Adam Ende’s Jawbone Puppet Theater, Pablillo Varona Borges of Casa Mucaro, national treasure Daniel Polnau, and more!
This will seriously be a weird and wonderful show that you don’t want to miss out on!
Check out the Loisaida’s Restorations Project: http://loisaida.org/the-seedbed/restoration-projects/
And check the work of last year’s Loisaida Artists in Residence: More Gardens http://www.moregardens.org/

2019 Loisaida Basketball Tournament
2019-05-25 08:30 - 18:00 | Dry Dock playground, Avenue D and 10th Street, Manhattan, NY, 10009, United States
Last year a young man by the name of Jesse Brennan, born and raised in our Loisaida community, approached our organization to voice his concerns on what was perceived as a lack of sporting activities along Avenue D as compared to the time when he was growing up. There was a specific concern regarding the slow phasing out of the basketball tournaments that he and his peers used to enjoy growing up in the LES as a teenager. After a year of coordinating, we are proud to announce that Loisaida Inc. has brought back the Loisaida Basketball Tournament to Dry Dock playground on 10th Street and Avenue D.
Organized by Loisaida Inc. with the support of community advocate and leader Tom Brasuell and, with the help of many of you, the first Loisaida Basketball Tournament is now open to boys and girls ages 12 to 16.
The tournament will take place Saturday, May 25, 2019 at Dry Dock playground in the Lower East Side. And, the champions will be recognized on the main stage during the historic Loisaida Festival, celebrated on Sunday, May 26, 2019. A Memorial Day weekend full of activities in downtown Manhattan!
This basketball tournament will become another staple of Loisaida Inc. and the annual Loisaida Festival for years to come. The 2019 Loisaida Basketball Tournament will provide an opportunity for LES youth to gather and compete in a community environment through the game of basketball with an emphasis upon mental and physical development, health, wellness and growth through teamwork.

We are confirmed for the Skills Challenge at Basketball City!
Let’s get our girls and boys registered and the teams filled. Click here!
Save the Date – Saturday, May 18 – 10:00 am to 2:00 pm
Basketball City – Pier 36 – 299 South Street, New York, NY 10002

Puerto Rico, Debt & Education led by artist-in-residence Jocelyn Bonadio-de Freitas
2019-06-28 18:30 - 20:30 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
How is the Puerto Rican debt crisis unfolding, and how is it affecting education systems on the island? How can we think about and understand the debt, and what, if anything, can be done about it? Audiences in diaspora on the Lower East Side and in Santurce gather to dialogue with organizers and journalists working on the island. Tembleque will be served. A new piece of music will be debuted by Artist-in-Residence Jocelyn Bonadio-de Freitas, who produced and curated this event along with Tara Rodriguez-Besosa of El Departamento de la Comida, in collaboration with :Pública.

DETAILS:
Friday, June 28th, 6:30pm

Speakers:

Eva Lourdes Ayala Reyes, Educamos
Luís J. Valentín Ortiz, Centro de Periodismo Investigativo
Members of Colectiva Feminista
Dr. Frances Negrón-Muntaner, Columbia University

Food by:

Chef Gabriela Álvarez of Liberation Cuisine
Vero Vero of El Departamento de la Comida

Music by:

Jocelyn Bonadio-de Freitas, Artist-in-Residence
Presented as part of the Loisaida Inc. Center AIR Program. Lead by resident artist, Jocelyn Bonadio de Freitas.

“Opinions like those expressed while in a panel, presentation, performance or through artwork are expressed by the author in their personal capacity and are the author’s own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of Loisaida Inc., its affiliates or staff.”

Activist Estates: A Radical History of Property in Loisaida
2019-10-02 18:00 - 20:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
Activist Estates: A Radical History of Property in Loisaida
Opening Reception
710 E 9th Street | NY, NY 10451
Wednesday, October 2nd, 2019 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM (EDT)
Read More

Overview:
Activist Estates: A Radical History of Property in Loisaida is an exploration of buildings and properties in the Lower East Side that are celebrated sites of resistance. This exhibition curated and designed by the Architect Nandini Bagchee in partnership with Loisaida Center visualizes the narratives of a historic space-based activism via drawings, maps, models, photographs, manuals and posters.
An examination of participatory practices in New York City reveals the critical relationship between real estate, architecture and activism. In cities across the country, in the 1970’s, the devaluation of property created a vacuum of ownership. Vacant lots, storefronts, schoolhouses, factories and abandoned tenements in New York City became havens for experimental, communal practices. Amid current debates about urban justice and access to the city, Activist Estates critically re-evaluates the place of counter-institutional practices that shape the landscape of New York City.

The exhibit features the drawings of Nandini Bagchee and the photography of David McReynolds, Ed Hedemann, Marlis Momber and Jade Doskow. It also highlights the work of collectives such as CHARAS, PAD/D, REPOhistory, Paper Tiger TV, ABC NO Rio and the dedicated artists/ organizers that have created posters, banners, buttons, newsletters and films that advocate for social justice, housing, community and the environment within the Lower East Side.
This project is supported by a grant from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and is part of Archtober. The materials for the exhibition are courtesy of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies, Urban Democracy Lab, War Resisters League, Clemente Soto Velez and Cooper Square MHA.
About:
Nandini Bagchee is an Associate Professor at the Spitzer School of Architecture at CCNY (CUNY) and principal of Bagchee Architects. Her research focuses on activism in architecture and the ways in which ground-up collaborative building practices provide an alternative medium for the creation of public space. Nandini is the author of a recently published book on the history of activist-run spaces in New York City entitled, Counter Institution: Activist Estates of the Lower East Side (Fordham University Press, 2018). Her built-work and writing has been published in the New York Times, Interiors Now, Urban Omnibus and the Journal of Architectural Education. She is the recipient of grants from the Graham Foundation, New York State Council of the Arts and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Her research-based design work involves an ongoing engagement with politically active organizations such as the South Bronx Unite, Sites of Conscience, Interference Archive, Cooperation Jackson and the Loisaida Center.

“Opinions like those expressed while in a panel, presentation, performance or through artwork are expressed by the author in their personal capacity and are the author’s own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of Loisaida Inc., its affiliates or staff.”

Open Arts LES
2019-10-12 14:00 - 17:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
Open Arts LES
Saturday, October 12th, 2019 from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm
at: Loisaida Inc. – 710 East Ninth Street and Avenue C
Fourth Arts Block (FAB) launches Open Arts LES to introduce the public to the broad range of Lower East Side arts & culture experiences and opportunities. The event is designed to engage NYC residents in exploring arts and culture opportunities in the LES. Participation in Open Arts LES is open to nonprofit and community based organizations, as well as individual artists who wish to offer open studio hours.

Loisaida Center presents:
Activist Estates: Gallery Talk & Exhibition Tour 3:00 to 5:00 pm.
Join Architect Nandini Bagchee in conversation with Sociologist Miranda Martinez at the Loisaida Center.

Activist Estates: A Radical History of Property in Loisaida is an exhibition curated and installed by the Architect/ Historian Nandini Bagchee in partnership with Loisaida Center Inc. The exhibit visualizes the narratives of a historic space-based activism via maps, models, photographs, pamphlets and posters. The Loisaida Center has been instrumental in bringing visibility to the many histories of the Latinx resistance in New York. This new exhibition illuminates yet another facet of this history by juxtaposing the parallel trajectories of different social movements. The issue-based timelines construct a network of solidarity between individuals and institutions in the Lower East Side.
Nandini Bagchee is the designer and curator of the exhibit and author of Counter Institution: Activist Estates of the Lower East Side (Fordham University Press, 2018).
Miranda Martinez is the author of Power at the Roots: Community Gardens, Gentrification, and the Puerto Ricans of the Lower East Side (Lexington Books, 2010).

Artist in Residence Open Studio: 2:00 to 5:00 pm.
During his 3-month residency at Loisaida Center, Kevin Pérez has utilized the studio space provided to make sculptures, paintings, audio and video recordings and produced a series of work including performances, video screenings and a final exhibition.
Kevin Perez uses multi-disciplinary approach (performance, painting, sound) in the merged tendencies of Art Informel and Neuve Invention style, whose work means to be an exploration of the subconscious, its shadows and enlightenments.The visual performative language he evokes can sometimes be violent and dissonant, however within the apparent chaos, angst, and irrationality therein lies also a reflection of innocence and at times pure beauty in an effort to come to terms with a sense of dis-location that reimagines a new way forward for the discarded.
The choice of materials demonstrate resourcefulness, as Kevin uses whatever found objects and materials he gets his hands on to create an out of the blue formulation. The objective is to demonstrate that wastes, obsolete components from our trash cans, can enter a creative process as a material and become something else. The desire is not to highlight the object but to use it as a unique component.
An initial member of Loisaida’s Garbagia Project collective, an aspect of Kevin’s practice has involved collaborative, often participatory process involving people as the medium or material of the work. During his 3-month residency at Loisaida Center, Pérez has utilized the studio space to explore his solo practice to make sculptures, paintings, audio and video recordings, and give in to the evolving pursuit of a cohesive cosmology to share as outcome exhibit.
“Papo Cucaracha Vertedero El 3ro in The Realm of Forms (or the story of how the Underworld blinded me by the light)” is an attempt to interpret complex emotions that can live unnoticed in the psyche of a person. Utilizing painting, sculpture, video and sound Papo Cucaracha travels to the underworld in search of the realm of forms to find the true nature of the self. He returns blind but transformed form within with faint interpretations of the creatures (emotions) that inhabit this realm.
Read more here.

“Opinions like those expressed while in a panel, presentation, performance or through artwork are expressed by the author in their personal capacity and are the author’s own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of Loisaida Inc., its affiliates or staff.”

"Papo Cucaracha Vertedero El 3ro in the Realm Of Forms, or the story of how in the Underworld, I was blinded by the light"
2019-10-18 18:00 - 20:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
The Loisaida Center is proud to announce
2019 Artistic Residency Recipient:
KEVIN EMILIO PÉREZ

Loisaida Center Inc. is pleased to present an “open Studio” style exhibition and resident visual artist Kevin Pérez. Opening on Friday, October 18th, 2019
“Papo Cucaracha Vertedero El 3ro in the Realm Of Forms or the story of how in the Underworld, I was blinded by the light”
Exhibition Opening: Friday, October 18th, 2019 – 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Overview:
Kevin Perez uses multi-disciplinary approach (performance, visual, sound) in the merged tendencies of Art Informel and Neuve Invention style, whose work means to be an exploration of the subconscious, its shadows and enlightenments.
The visual performative language he evokes can sometimes be violent and dissonant, however within the apparent chaos, angst, and irrationality therein lies also a reflection of innocence and at times pure beauty in an effort to come to terms with a sense of dis-location that reimagines a new way forward for the discarded.
The choice of materials demonstrate resourcefulness, as Kevin uses whatever found objects and materials he gets his hands on to create an out of the blue formulation. The objective is to demonstrate that wastes, obsolete components from our trash cans, can enter a creative process as a material and become something else. The desire is not to highlight the object but to use it as a unique component.
An initial member of Loisaida’s Garbagia Project collective, an aspect of Kevin’s practice has involved collaborative, often participatory process involving people as the medium or material of the work. During his 3-month residency at Loisaida Center, Pérez has utilized the studio space to explore his solo practice to make sculptures, paintings, audio and video recordings, and give in to the evolving pursuit of a cohesive cosmology to share as outcome exhibit.
“Papo Cucaracha Vertedero El 3ro in The Realm of Forms (or the story of how the Underworld blinded me by the light)” is an attempt to interpret complex emotions that can live unnoticed in the psyche of a person. Utilizing painting, sculpture, video and sound Papo Cucaracha travels to the underworld in search of the realm of forms to find the true nature of the self. He returns blind but transformed form within with faint interpretations of the creatures (emotions) that inhabit this realm.
During his 3-month residency at Loisaida Center, Pérez has utilized the studio space provided to make sculptures, paintings, audio and video recordings and produced a series of work including performances, video screenings and a final exhibition.

“Opinions like those expressed while in a panel, presentation, performance or through artwork are expressed by the author in their personal capacity and are the author’s own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of Loisaida Inc., its affiliates or staff.”
