Loisaida Inc.

Ecological City
2018-05-12 11:00 - 17:00 UTC | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
ECOLOGICAL CITY PROCESSION
SATURDAY MAY 12, 2018 (rain date May 13)
#DANCERS, #MODELS, #ARTISTS, #PERFORMERS, #BODYPAINTERS #PUPPETEERS #ACTIVISTS #PHOTOGRAPHERS #VOLUNTEERS

PLEASE SHARE and invite friends to join and VOLUNTEER FOR #ECOLOGICALCITY – this is not a parade to watch but a transformational experience – become a garden, river and climate solution spirit – help as a marshal- many roles. Experience the ECOLOGICAL URBAN PILGRIMAGE FROM THE GARDENS TO THE RIVER on the LES of NYC – not to be missed!

Earth Celebrations’ ECOLOGICAL CITY, a climate action, ecological urban pilgrimage and performance art event – features a spectacular 6 hour procession featuring visual art, giant puppets and costumes with 20 site performances of dance, music, theater and poetry celebrating sustainability solutions throughout the community gardens, neighborhood and East River Park waterfront on the Lower East Side of New York City.
VOLUNTEER: Sign up to wear spectacular costumes – direct puppets – marshal procession
NEEDED: MAKE-UP/BODY PAINTERS, ARTISTS, DANCERS, PERFORMERS & PHOTOGRAPHERS
SIGN UP FOR A ROLE – CONTACT:
FB Message: https://www.facebook.com/EarthCelebrations/
EMAIL: mail@earthcelebrations.com
SIGN UP: http://earthcelebrations.com/volunteer-ecological-city-sign/
MORE INFO: http://earthcelebrations.com/ecological-city-project/
FB EVENT SHARE: https://www.facebook.com/events/856985337794345/

Earth Celebrations’ ECOLOGICAL CITY in partnership with Loisaida Center Inc., LUNGS-Loisaida United Neighborhood Gardens and over 50 partner organizations and groups including NYC Community Garden District, Green Map, GOLES (Good Old Lower East Side-Housing/Resiliency), LES Ready!, Lower East Side Girls Club, Lower East Side Ecology, East Village Community Coalition, East River Park Coalition, Solar One, Waterfront Alliance, University Settlement, Earth School (PS364), Sixth Street Community Center, Arts Loisaida, MOS Collective, Gaia Institute, East 4th Street Block Association, Times Up, Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space, FAB (Fourth Street Arts Block Association), Theatre for the New City, Hunter College-School of Community Organizing and New York University. Numerous groups and residents throughout the neighborhood are invited to join.

This program is made possible with support from Fund for the City of New York, New York Community Trust, Con Edison, Howard Bayne Fund, private foundations, individuals and
Creative Engagement / Creative Learning, supported by the New York CityDepartment of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and administered by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council

Chino Garcia Oral History and Screening of CHARAS is Alive on Spaceship Earth
2018-05-11 18:00 - 21:00
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.

CHARAS IS ALIVE ON SPACESHIP EARTH
2018-05-09 18:00 - 2018-05-11 21:00
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.

CHARAS IS ALIVE ON SPACESHIP EARTH: Reception + Performances
2018-05-09 18:00 - 20:00
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.

Dome Building Workshop
2018-05-06 14:00 - 16:00
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.

Fiestas de Cruz at Loisaida
2018-05-05 18:00 - 21:00
Loisaida Inc. and its project The Plenatorium are pleased to host a performance and ritual stemming straight from the faith based history of Puerto Ricans in the Lower East Side. The “Feast of the Holy Cross” roughly translates into “Fiestas de Cruz” and members of the community have kept it alive from generation to generation through oral history. On these days during the month of May, many families, neighbors, friends and strangers would gather to recite a live rosary chant accompanied by Puerto Rican traditional plena sounds.
Musical Accompaniment / Quinto Sonó, Sammy Tanco, Nelly Tanco
Festival Coordinators / Maitreyi Villaman Matos, Yawo Pepe Flores, Bala Soto
Please RSVP as there is a limited capacity.

Cocinando Justicia
2018-04-30 18:30 - 20:30
Direct from Puerto Rico, Giovani Roberto, an organizer with Centro de Apoyo Mutuo – CAM (Center of Mutual Support), Caguas, will be discussing how its projects and others, are creating alternative solutions to meet the basic sustenance needs of the Puerto Rican people after Hurricane Maria. Other speakers include Melissa Fuster, Professor of Public Health Nutrition at Brooklyn College, and Huascar Robles, author/journalist/producer of Catatonia podcast.

Central Ethic
Through implementing CAM principles of “ayuda mutua y esfuerzo propio” (mutual help and self-effort) the process of creating a new, regenerative Puerto Rico and allowing a return of the island’s vitality. CAM principles function in contrast to the legacy of colonial policies which continue to eliminate public services and infrastructure, and compromise natural resources for the exclusive benefit of private interests. The ethic of ‘mutual help and self effort’ has proven effective in creating a viable, alternative solution or the people of Puerto Rico, as evidenced by the increasing interest of participants and volunteers received daily in service to the CAM.
Background & Growth
Centro de Apoyo Mutuo ~ Caguas, appeared 8 days after the passing of Hurricane Maria, occupying abandoned space, providing services such as meals, material resources, acupuncture and alternative therapies, and workshops to the public while receiving support from local community volunteers, and later from supporters outside the island.
Weeks after the Centro de Apoyo Mutuo started in Caguas, several groups and individuals across the island helped organize CAMs in their communities, following the call for collective action to island activists and progressive groups, resulting in 8 CAM’s throughout the main island, including 1 on the island of Vieques. Currently there are 8 CAMs, some with a peoples kitchen, some with agro-ecological projects, workshops, alternative community educational projects, and acupuncture and therapeutic spaces.

**Giovanni Roberto is a Puerto Rican social justice activist and organizer for the Center for Political, Educational and Cultural Development (CDPEC) based in Caguas, Puerto Rico. Roberto is a former student leader of the 2010-2011 mobilizations and strikes at the University of Puerto Rico.
Melissa Fuster is an assistant professor of Public Health Nutrition at the City University of New York Brooklyn College. Her current research addresses the sociopolitical and cultural factors affecting culinary and nutritional outcomes in the Hispanic Caribbean region and its transnational communities in the US. Previous to joining Brooklyn College, Prof. Fuster was a Provostial Faculty Fellow in Food Studies at New York University.

Taller de Soles (Sol Lace Workshop)
2018-04-23 18:00 - 21:00
Sol Lace Workshop /// Taller de Soles
with: Zaida Adriana Goveo Balmaseda
Description
Learn how to make beautiful and intricate lace pieces through a simple and meditative
technique with Puerto Rican fiber artist, Zaida Adriana Goveo Balmaseda, who will
introduce us to the technique as it is worked in her native country of Puerto Rico.
Understanding the essence of the technique gives us a vocabulary that we can apply in
both traditional and experimental/contemporary contexts.
What are Soles?
Sol lace is a type of needle lace usually worked in pieces or appliqués. The technique
consists of drawing a net of thread and then weaving and knotting radially to form
patterns. It has its origins in Spain and arrived to the Americas in the 16th century,
where it continued to develop into variations known as Ñandutí, Soles de Maracaibo,
Renda, and simply Soles. Sol Lace is most often used to decorate heirloom clothing,
baby blankets and home linens, but also assembled to create beautiful lace fabrics and
accessories.
Workshop – “Immersive Introduction to Sol Lace” – 6 hrs
Join us for an immersive workshop, where you will learn about the origins of the
technique and see traditional and contemporary examples. Zaida Adriana will share the
basic knowledge to make Soles of different sizes, shapes, and decorative patterns. You
will leave with two completed Soles, and the materials to keep creating and
experimenting.
Details
Duration total: 6 hours (2 days)
Languages: English and Spanish
Level: No previous knowledge required
Number of participants: min. 5, max. 8
Price: $80 (includes materials fee)
Materials included in KIT: Sol cushion, Sol pattern, needle, thread, and instruction
booklet
Dates: Monday, April 23rd from 6-9pm / Tuesday, April 24th 6-9pm
About Zaida Adriana Goveo Balmaseda
Zaida Adriana Goveo Balmaseda is a fiber artist whose work serves as a hands-on
manifesto of the symbiotic relationship we can have with our surroundings. She makes
slowly and mindfully, using local/organic fibers, recycled or found materials, and natural
dyes. These materials are transformed through traditional craft techniques she
respectfully re-contextualizes. Her practice weaves together fiber-art, soft sculpture,
material rescue, and contemplative performance.
Zaida Adriana advocates the slow, ethical and hand-made through talks and workshops
at places like Duduá, Manufacture NY, Slow Fashion Spain/Ethical Fashion Academy,
Eileen Fisher, Bloomingdales, and the Brooklyn Museum of Art. She serves as the
Country Coordinator of the Fashion Revolution movement in Puerto Rico.
As recipient of the Lexus Grant for Artists, she is currently exhibiting a large installation
inspired by Sol lace at the Museum of Art of Puerto Rico, and is an Artist in Residence
at Beta-Local’s La Práctica. During the month of April, she is visiting NY and taking part
in the Textile Arts Center’s Work In Progress Residency.

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Restoring the heart of Ni'Tiñao - Exhibition Closing
2018-04-20 19:00 - 22:00
Please join us for the closing reception of Restoring the Heart of Ni’Tiñao!
A part of: The Native Caribbean Heritage Preservation Project & Exhibition.

Ní’Tiñao means “relative; friend; progenitor” in Kalinago, and is eponymous with the Taíno peoples of the Caribbean. Loisaida Inc.’s artist-in-residence, Anthony 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. His exhibition aims to refute eurocolonial claims that the Ní’Tiñao were a divided peoples who went extinct. Via art and storytelling, We Exist, he tells us.Objective:
In effort to honor Indigenous Caribbean ancestors while providing their descendants with the legitimacy and empowerment of cultural identity, The Testourmonials Project will research, draft, and present an Indigena Caribe Heritage Day that intends on one day being celebrated internationally. As Founder and Artistic Director of The Testourmonials Project, Rosado will develop a campaign and build a case to support city-wide, national, and international celebration of Caribbean Heritage.
The project aims to research, archive, and memorialize the herstory, history, principles, spirituality, practices, and core values of the native peoples of the Caribbean. This project contributes to the “Ní’Tiñao Heritage Day – Celebration Model”. This model will be shared with organizations indigenous to the Ní’Tiñao via interviews, as well as a community engagement workshop and performance components.
Descendants will learn of traditions, practices, values, and foods cultivated by ancestors whose stories are made accessible. 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 “Ní’Tiñao 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.
Through the course of the residency at the Loisaida Inc. Center, Anthony’s project aims to use the researched and archived history, herstory, principles, spiritual practices, and core values of the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean as means to follow the Native Caribbean Day – Celebration Model. The exhibition, culminating his residency, will be relaying information, sources, reflections, visual art, commissioned photography, and an installation to share the research.

About Anthony Rosado:
After graduating Trinity College with a BA in Theatre & Dance, Rosado performed in works by Anabella Lenzu, Deborah Goffe of Scapegoat Garden, Lindsey Dietz Marchant, Carmen Caceres of Dance Action, and Leyya Mona Tawil of Dance Elixr. He studied with George Emilio Sanchez during Hemispheric Institute‘s Summer 2015 EMERGEnyc Performer’s Program.
Rosado has choreographed performances for Ange Noir Café via Chez Bushwick‘s ’24 hour Choreographer’s Project’, Issue Project Room & the Eden’s Expressway Open Performance Series via Movement Research, Bronx Academy of Arts & Dance via their Blaktinx 2015 & Out Like That! 2016 Performance Series & Dancing While Black‘s Masculinities Reborn Series, Gallatin Arts Festival‘s Black Lives Matter series, The Moon Show, and The Judson Church Open Performance Series.
As curator, Anthony has presented the Universal Humyn Love Series at Make The Road NY, the #NativeBushwick Artist Lecture Series at Brooklyn Fire Proof, en casa afuera at The Loisaida Center, and Progress in Five Myles Gallery. He was a 2016 Artist in Residence with Chez Bushwick. Currently the 2018 Artist in Residence at The Loisaida Center. Anthony is also curating and organizing group-led workshops, performance and discussion series as Founder of The Testourmonials Project.

Fabric Yarn Workshop
2018-04-17 18:00 - 21:30
Description
Learn how to recycle fabrics and clothing into a fun material that can be used for
knitting, weaving, crocheting and many other crafts.
Details
Workshop Duration: 1-2 hours
Cost: FREE
Languages: English and Spanish
Level: No previous knowledge required
Dates: April 17th, 2018 from 6:00pm to 9:00pm
For participants to bring:
• Unused fabrics, Old/Stained T-shirts and/or clothing that you are willing to let go of/cut
up and transform
About Zaida Adriana Goveo Balmaseda
Zaida Adriana Goveo Balmaseda is a fiber artist whose work serves as a hands-on
manifesto of the symbiotic relationship we can have with our surroundings. She makes
slowly and mindfully, using local/organic fibers, recycled or found materials, and natural
dyes. These materials are transformed through traditional craft techniques she
respectfully re-contextualizes. Her practice weaves together fiber-art, soft sculpture, material rescue, and
contemplative performance. Zaida Adriana advocates the slow, ethical and hand-made through talks and workshops
at places like Duduá, Manufacture NY, Slow Fashion Spain/Ethical Fashion Academy,
Eileen Fisher, Bloomingdales, and the Brooklyn Museum of Art. She serves as the
Country Coordinator of the Fashion Revolution movement in Puerto Rico.

The Native Caribbean Heritage Preservation Project - Exhibition
2018-03-23 18:30 - 2018-03-30 20:30
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:

Noche de Bohemia with Joe Louis
2018-03-02 19:30 - 21:30
Joe Louis returns with his experimental bohemia to NYC from PR. Come and enjoy a night full of stories to wait for the end of the world and face it. Come to love and be loved with music and vocal improvisation. Swimming in the “Río Piedras” had never been so far away. (https://soundcloud.com/user-553207317/rio-piedras-vol-1-joe-louis-y-los-bohemios)
Joe Louis regresa con su bohemia experimental a la ciudad de Nueva York. Vengan a disfrutar una noche llena de historias para esperar el fin del mundo y afrontarlo. Vengan a amar y ser amados con la música e improvisación vocal. Nadar en el “Río Piedras” nunca había estado tan lejos. ( https://soundcloud.com/user-553207317/rio-piedras-vol-1-joe-louis-y-los-bohemios)
Check out the presentation if you missed it:

Sponsored by Integra Managed Health Plans

Ecological Arts Costume Workshops
2018-02-28 18:00 - 21:00
Costume Workshop with artist: Michele Brody
1st Session
Wednesday, February 28th, 2018

Join us and take action on climate!
Participate in Earth Celebrations’ ECOLOGICAL CITY in partnership with Loisaida Inc. Center, LUNGS Loisaida United Neighborhood Gardens and over 20 community partners.
Ecological City engages the Lower East Side community through creative strategies co-creating a theatrical pageant and environmental action project to develop and bring together climate resiliency and ecological sustainability plans within the gardens, neighborhood and waterfront of the Lower East Side of New York City, and its contribution to city and global climate challenges.
PUPPET & COSTUME WORKSHOPS:
Costumes: Every Wednesday starting February 28 from 6-9pm
Puppet: Every Saturday starting February 24 from 12-4pm
@ Loisaida Center 701 East 9th St. (Bet. Aves. C & D)
ECOLOGICAL CITY PAGEANT
Saturday May 12th, 2018

Sign up to participate.

El Semillero Benefit Event
2018-02-27 18:30 - 21:30
Tuesday, February 27th 2018 – 6:30 pm
Doors open at 6:00 pm – Loisaida Inc. 710 East 9th Street New York, NY 10009

El Semillero
El Semillero is what we call the new 2018 Media & Technology component at the Loisaida Inc. Center. It is an idea-activator, a makerspace for creative cross-training, prototyping, and multi-disciplinary collaboration. The community can make use of our low and high-tech equipment and facilities in addition to the roster of workshops we’re offering for personal and professional development.
Creativity and its profound effect on our own well-being and that of the world are bound together. Therefore, art, culture, fulfillment, and productivity are interdependent. We believe that neighborhoods should act as their own cultural developers and sustainable economic engines. El Semillero is a space for our youth and elders, mentors and mentees, artists and scholars, experts and beginners. We welcome students, young professionals, local entrepreneurs, parents, and grandparents. We’re building an accessible idea incubator where all Loisaida community members can come together to dream, collaborate, and create. El Semillero is for our future-makers.

Loisaida has survived these past 38 years because of the support of the community. In this, our first ever fundraising campaign, we’re asking you to invest in El Semillero, our programs, and projects that support the resilience of our Latinx community footprint and legacy.

Purchase tickets to event:

How many tickets?

1 $50.00 USD2 $100.00 USD3 $150.00 USD4 $200.00 USD

Artist Level Perks
We are here for you! As an artist-level contributor, you can gain access to the fundraiser celebration, enjoy libations and eats from local vendors, and exercise your right to party to the sounds of D’Marquesina.

How many tickets?

1 $150.00 USD2 $300.00 USD3 $450.00 USD

Seedling Level Perks
Make us grow! Dig in at the seedling level and your contribution gives you all of the “Artist” level benefits, plus a signed limited edition print by artist Adrián “Viajero” Román.

How many tickets?

1 $250.00 USD2 $500.00 USD3 $750.00 USD

Germinator Level Perks
You are truly making us blossom! At this level, recieve all of the “Artist” level benefits, plus the first six Germinators get a pair of tickets to their choice of either Shakespeare in the Park’s Othello, Twelfth Night, or The Public’s run of Quiara Alegría Hudes’ Miss You Like Hell. All other Germinators will receive an autographed print by photographer Máximo Rafael Colón.

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EVENT HONOREES:

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Ecological Arts Puppet Workshops
2018-02-24 12:00 - 16:00
Puppet Workshops with artist: Lucrecia Novoa
1st Session
Saturday, February 21st, 2018

Join us and take action on climate!
Participate in Earth Celebrations’ ECOLOGICAL CITY in partnership with Loisaida Inc. Center, LUNGS Loisaida United Neighborhood Gardens and over 20 community partners.
Ecological City engages the Lower East Side community through creative strategies co-creating a theatrical pageant and environmental action project to develop and bring together climate resiliency and ecological sustainability plans within the gardens, neighborhood and waterfront of the Lower East Side of New York City, and its contribution to city and global climate challenges.
PUPPET & COSTUME WORKSHOPS:
Costumes: Every Wednesday starting February 21 from 6-9pm
Puppet: Every Saturday starting February 24 from 12-4pm
@ Loisaida Center 701 East 9th St. (Bet. Aves. C & D)
ECOLOGICAL CITY PAGEANT
Saturday May 12th, 2018

Sign up to participate.

ECOLOGICAL CITY - CREATIVE CLIMATE ACTION PUBLIC PLANNING MEETING
2018-02-07 18:00 - 20:00
ECOLOGICAL CITY – CREATIVE CLIMATE ACTION PUBLIC PLANNING MEETING
Wednesday February 7th @ 6:30 pm
@ Loisaida Inc. Center – 710 East 9th Street btw. Aves. C & D

Loisaida Inc. Center’s 2018 Artists in Residence; Earth Celebrations engages the Lower East Side community through: ECOLOGICAL CITIES, a theatrical pageant and environmental action project to co-develop and bring together climate resiliency and ecological sustainability plans within the gardens, neighborhood and waterfront of the Lower East Side of New York City, and highlight its contribution to the city and address global climate challenges.

View Calendar and Register Today for the FREE Community Workshops.

Soul of a City - Exhibition Ongoing
2018-01-19 18:00 - 2018-03-18 20:00
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.

Book Talk: Street Gangs of the Lower East Side
2018-01-16 18:30 - 20:00
Details
With “The Street Gangs of the Lower East Side,” Jose Cochise
Quiles and Clayton Patterson provide a brutally honest, self-reflective and moving account of one person’s struggle to break the cycle of violence and poverty since birth through creativity and compassion for others in the East Village / Lower East Side. Quiles pulls no punches about the experiences that took him from gang leader to an historian of gangs, artist, and author who creates with a joyous yet desperate edge, for the sake of sheer survival.
Free with Registration
Co-sponsored by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and Loisaida Inc.
Books for sale and signing following the program.
This event is fully accessible.

ReconstruirMX@Loisaida
2018-01-13 19:00 - 22:00
Please join us on January 13th, 2018 for a night of music, dance, tamales and the celebration of the artistic spirit in the rebuilding efforts of communities impacted by the 2017 earthquakes in Mexico. Performances by Sandra Soto Silva, The Josh Craig and more.
In November of 2017 an art benefit was held at 41 Cooper Gallery for communities devastated by earthquakes in Mexico. Through the raffling of over 100 artworks generously donated by local and international artists we were able to fundraise $13,000 USD in support of the relief and rebuilding efforts of the artist collective Los Carpintruenos, the Museo Comunitario del Valle de Xico, and Centro Cultural Bacaanda.
While we began organizing partly due to our familial ties to Mexico and with the intention of making a gesture of support and camaraderie across borders, these efforts have been an urgent reminder to connect with international artistic communities; the need to stay connected, share stories and ideas, and cultivate long lasting relationships that transcend locality and lived experiences.
In December we visited Los Carpintruenos and the Museo Comunitario del Valle de Xico, whose work and energy is truly impressive and inspiring. The purpose of the upcoming event at Loisaida is to share the stories of these artistic communities and their impassioned work as well thank our extended NYC community for their ongoing support.

Los Carpintruenos, whose name combines carpinteros (carpenters) and truenos (thunder), is a group of seven volunteers whose mission is to generate effective, quick, and direct aid in the construction of houses and temporary refuges in both a long- and short-term capacity to regions affected by the earthquake. Los Carpintruenos met while assisting with carpentry, demolition, reconstruction, and rescue work in the area around calle de Gabriel Mancera, Mexico City’s post-earthquake “ground zero”. Buoyed by a sense of purposeful collective energy, they decided to stay in touch as they continued to assist with rebuilding efforts throughout the capital. More recently, they have expand their work beyond Mexico City, transporting supplies to the towns of Jojutla and El Jicarero in the state of Morelos and to this date successfully built 16 wooden houses for individuals and families left homeless.
Museo Comunitario del Valle de Xico located in Valle de Chalco, on the outskirts of Mexico City, the Museo Comunitario del Valle de Xico was built on an ex-hacienda dating to 1529. The Museum now houses an impressive collection of pre-Columbian objects and safeguards the archaeological remains of the Valle de Xico. In response to the earthquake, the museum has partnered with organizations in the region to deliver supplies directly to affected populations. To date, they have sent out three brigades and with our support they are now establishing medical outposts to assist those with medical needs.
Centro Cultural Bacaanda is a project founded by the Visual Artist Cristian Pineda Flores in May of 2006 in Juchitán of Saragossa, Oaxaca. It is an artistic proposal that unites the efforts and ideas of artists in diverse disciplines to create dynamics of exchange, formation, contemporary artistic production and cultural diffusion in the state of Oaxaca, especially in the region of the Isthmus. After the September 7 earthquake—which destroyed hundreds of houses in Juchitán—architects, engineers, people dedicated to the field of construction with experience, organized to support those that lost their homes and everything there.

Teófilo Torres es: Pateco en Loisaida
2017-12-28 20:00 - 21:00
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.

Fantasy Island: Exhibition Closing
2017-11-18 18:00 - 21:00
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.

Tale 53;Snowhite
2017-11-17 20:00 - 21:00
Loisaida Inc. & Maskhunt Motions proudly present:
Tale 53;Snowhite
with: Deborah Hunt & Shanti Lalita

Tale 53; Snowhite is a sinister story told inside an intriguing wooden artefact that houses a toy theatre (with two- dimentional painted puppets moving on tracks), objects, a kamishibai (for backdrop changes) and a cranky or moving panorama. It is based on “Snowhite”, the creation of reknowned Spanish author and illustrator Ana Juan.
Deborah Hunt, (theatre maker, maskbuilder and operator, puppeteer, teacher and autor) has adapted and directed the tale and manipulates the puppets and backdrops. Shanti Lalita, (cellist, poet and performer) is the composer and live musician.
Far from the disneyesque version of Snow White, our tale relates the life of a young woman who falls prey to a blood thirsty stepmother, an hostile city, hustling dwarves and a rapacious prince. Based on the original story Tale 53 (The Little Snow White) of the Grimm Brothers published in 1812, the story of Ana Juan offers a biting and pertinent stare at the situation of women still relevant to our times. Justaposed with the beauty of the puppets, objects and painted backdrops, Tale 53;Snowhite promises a unique theatrical experience.
Toy theatre is a kind of theatre in miniature that flourished in the 19th century in Europe. The small theatres, scenery, backdrops and characters were printed on paper, painted and cutout and the stories were presented in the salas and drawing rooms of private houses, often accompanied with live music.
Hunt has presented the work in Puerto Rico (San German and San Juan) at the Odin Teatret in Denmark and now in New York. It will be presented at the Festival Internacional de Títeres de Matanzas en Cuba in 2018. Additionally I can offer a daylong workshop using the artefact of the show (toy theatre, kamishibai, cranky) as a point of departure. Participants work in groups creating short stories using these techniques.

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Mercado de Puerto Rico
2017-11-17 16:00 - 20:00

ECOLOGICAL CITY-ENGAGEMENT/PLANNING MEETINGS
2017-11-15 18:30 - 20:30
Next Meeting: Wednesday November, 15
When: 6:30-8:00 pm
Where: Loisaida Center – 710 East 9th Street (between Avenue C & D)
OPEN CALL – ARTISTS
Visual Artists, Dancers, Performers, Musicians & Poets
present and collaborate with community creating artistic works exploring climate resiliency, water and ecological sustainability
Please send links to past or current and proposed works related to ecological sustainability themes to mail@earthcelebrations.com (Subject Line – “OPEN CALL – ECOLOGICAL CITY” ) by November 15, 2017.

Fantasy Island: Performances
2017-11-11 19:00 - 22:00
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

Senior Day - November
2017-11-06 12:00 - 17:00
‘SENIOR DAY’
PROGRAMA NOVIEMBRE 2017
12:00-1:30pm:

REGISTRO

1ra Sesión de Talleres

ETIQUETAS NUTRICIONALES – Teatro
ZUMBA (ejercicio) – Salón 1

1:30-2:30pm:

COFFEE BREAK

2:30-3:30pm:
2da Sesión de Talleres

ETIQUETAS NUTRICIONALES – Teatro
ZUMBA (ejercicio) – Salón 1

3:30-4:30pm:

MUSICA con Jeannie Sol

This Senior day is sponsored by: UnitedHealthCare

The Avant Ricuas: A Cross-Generational Poetry Bombessa
2017-10-25 18:00 - 22:00
Featuring
Victor Hernandez Cruz
Urayoan Noel
and Edwin Torres

This event is a reading, performance, and discussion among three Puerto Rican luminaries, celebrating the publication of Hernandez’ new book, “Beneath The Spanish” (Coffee House Press). It will take place at our Center on Wednesday, October 25th at 6:30pm

ABOUT THE BOOK
Beneath the Spanish is history, the clash and melt of cultures, the conquest of the New World, colonialism, bilingualism, fragmentation, and cubism. Poems built of tobacco, sugar, café; Spanish, Arabic, English; José Martí, Federico García Lorca, and William Carlos Williams. A history and exploration of Hernández Cruz’s Caribbean roots as well as a documentation of and counterpoint to the origin of the European cultural intrusion into the New World, Beneath the Spanish deconstructs and reconstructs a wounded history, offering a prayer for communication between distances, oceans, music, dance, and mountains, revealing the past in the present moment we live.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
VICTOR HERNANDEZ CRUZ is the author of several collections of poetry including, most recently, The Mountain in the Sea and In the Shadow of AlAndalus. Featured in Bill Moyers’s Language of Life series, Cruz’s collection Maraca was a finalist for the Lenore Marshall and Griffin Poetry Prizes. He divides his time between Morocco and his native Puerto Rico.

Fantasy Island: Panel Discussion
2017-10-21 17:00 - 19:00
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.

ART BUILD! LES Rises for Sandy 5 Year Action
2017-10-20 15:00 - 16:00
Details
Five years after Sandy, we remember the storm and how our neighbors came together to support one another. Given the hoard of recent hurricanes impacting the Caribbean and other parts of the United States, we recognize the need to rise in solidarity for our siblings abroad, while also continuing to prepare to get through future storms together.
On the 5th anniversary of Superstorm Sandy, New Yorkers will march together to remember the lives lost and the damage incurred from Sandy. We will march to demand bold climate action from Mayor de Blasio, Governor Cuomo, and Senator Schumer. Our elected officials must protect New Yorkers from climate change and mitigate its impacts – especially on already overburdened communities. New Yorkers cannot wait any longer. We march for climate, jobs, and justice.
We are hosting an Art Build to organize our LES contingent as we will be marching from Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn to Smith Houses in the Lower East Side. We will be marching on Saturday, October 28 and meeting at Cadman Plaza at 11am.

For more information, please visit:
** http://lesready.org/sandy5/ **

Fantasy Island: Exhibition Open
2017-10-12 13:00 - 17:00
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.
