Loisaida Inc.

Introduction to Primo Drum (Workshop)
2014-10-25 08:00 - 17:00 UTC | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
THE LOISAIDA CENTER
IS PROUD TO ANNOUNCE:

In partnership with Afro-Inspira and Proyecto Unión

INTRO TO PRIMO DRUM:
With Master Bomba drum percussionist Rafael Maya
Introduction to Primo drum workshop.
(Dance interpretation and Improvisational language)
Workshop description:
This workshop will be about dance interpretation using the language and drum of Puerto Rico’s Bomba. We will be discussing what is needed in preparing for your quest into primo drum playing and will be going over basic variations and language used during improvisation. We will also be diving in hands on with examples of different forms of looking at interpreting dance. Finalizing with ways of adding your own individuality and energy to the equation. Join the Bomba community through movement and song!!!
Bring your own drum/conga/djembe
Requirements: Basic knowledge of Afro-Puerto Rican Bomba rhythms a plus! No one will be turn away for lack of skills.
Saturday October 25th, 2014
3:30pm to 5pm
Cost: $15
Residents of the Lower East Side $10
Djembes for rent $ 5.00 (first come first serve)
Bio:
Rafael Maya Alvarez was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico. He is the founder and director of Desde Cero and founder and director of Proyecto Union. Rafael also has participated in Bomba groups such as Majestad Negra(Member and Coreographer), Compania Folklorica De Loiza, Restauracion Cultural(VP, Co-Director), Tambuye, Tendencias(Co-Director), Carabali, Sabor a Bomba, Fiesta Bombera, Son de Plena, y Bomba Tour. Rafael is currently teaching with the project Gigantes de la Bomba who offers classes twice a week in the Plaza de Recreo of Carolina and to schools in the Municipality of Carolina. Rafael has participated as an instructor in programs such as “Vida Plena”, “Head Start,” “Upward Bound”, “Taller Fotoperiodismo”, “Instituto de Cultura Puertorriquena”, “Program of continued education”, “Early Start” and “Bomba de Oro”. Rafael also gives bilingual Bomba workshops for the Univeristy of Puerto Rico’s(Rio Piedras campus) exchange student program and is currently giving class in The U.N.E. University(Carolina). He was invited and gave his latest Master Class in Berkeley College of Music in Valencia, Spain. For several years he was one of the dance and percussion instructors for the Corporacion Pinones se Integra in Loiza an also for Arthur Murray Dance Studio is Santurce. Rafael has travelled to numerous countries providing lectures and performing, because for Rafael, the most important element in his work is cultural education.

El Mini Fest
2014-10-18 08:00 - 17:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
THE LOISAIDA CENTER
IS PROUD TO ANNOUNCE:

EL MINI FEST!

WITH ACOPLADITOS

Day long activities for the entire family!
Beginning Saturday October 18th 2014 from 12 to 5 pm
12:00pm – 1:35pm Open Yoga for the Family & Creative Movement for the Family with Jeca Rodríguez and Sandralis Ginés

1:00pm – 3:00pm Screening of Pura Belpré Storyteller documentary.
Creative Stations will open:
1. Paper Puppet Creations with Rojo Coquí Robles (El Kibutz del deseo) (2hrs)
2. Upcycling Arts with Visiones Culturales
3. Bilingual Storytelling with Maestra Coral Nogueras Ortiz

2:00pm – 3:00pm Interactive Bomba Performance: María Eugenia Rodriguez & TheLegendary Mic
3:00pm – 4:00pm Headliner Concert by: ¡Acopladitos!
Come join us!

Sense of the Lense: the Photography of Marlis Momber & Lisa Kahane
2014-10-15 20:00 - 21:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
THE LOISAIDA CENTER

IS PROUD TO ANNOUNCE:

SENSE OF THE LENSE:
REGARDING URBAN RESURGENCE AND SURVIVAL IN THE PHOTOGRAPHY OF:
MARLIS MOMBER & LISA KAHANE

Simultaneously but unknown to each other, Lisa Kahane and Marlis Momber documented the life of people and places caught in cycles of urban disinvestment in the 70s and 80s in shattered, depopulated neighborhoods in the South Bronx and in Loisaida, a self-defined neighborhood of the Lower East Side in Manhattan. Both women remain involved in each community to this day. However, both areas are rendered unrecognizable today, due to successful rebuilding led by community groups and churches, homesteaders, and federal, state, and city assistance; shifting immigration patterns; and a new influx of capital. Through the twin lenses of photography and social practice, this discussion and exhibit will explore the conditions that catalyzed their unique views and engagement with these two symbiotic neighborhoods.

Ms. Momber and Ms. Kahane both document the history and conditions of each place at the same time. John Grierson, the Scottish filmmaker who first coined the term documentary, wrote in 1946 that “It is a basic tenet of documentary theory that the primary search is not for beauty, but for the fact of the matter, and that in the fact of the matter is the only path to beauty that will not soon wear down.” On the other hand, the meaning of photographs is mutable. Sontag wrote in 1977 that “the particular qualities and intentions of photographs tend to be swallowed up in the generalized pathos of time past.” How do these photographs read today, especially in light of the social changes and physical evolution of each place depicted?
This discussion will also consider the circumstances that originally opened each place to work in. How did and does each photographer engage with people and groups, including local Puerto Rican activist communities, and what alliances did each photographer forge with other artists and peers? How does the personal, including gender, affect approach, alliances, method and regard? And is there a specific connection between what we now call social practice and photography?
Marlis Momber and Lisa Kahane will be introduced by Amy Westpfahl and Laura Napier, artists and photographers who live and work on the Lower East Side and in the South Bronx today.

Plena Workshop with Tito Matos and Screening of Plenazos Callejeros Documentary
2014-10-11 16:00 - 21:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
THE LOISAIDA CENTER
IS PROUD TO ANNOUNCE:
LIVE PLENA & PLENA WORKSHOPS
AND
SCREENING OF PLENAZOS CALLEJEROS!

1:00pm – 3:00pm
Taller de Plena
with Tito Matos

Master percussionist Tito Matos teaches a basic plena workshop suitable for all levels. The Puerto Rico native has traveled the world playing plena, an Afro Rican musical genre.
Founder and leading plenero of
Viento de Agua; 2014 Latin Grammy Awards Nominee
Students will learn basic rithmic patterns from the traditional to the contemporary style of playing the hand held drum known as pandereta.
Bring your own drum.
All ages Welcomed!

3:00pm – 5:00pm

Plenazos Callejeros
the Documentary

Screening of documentary Plenazos Callejeros, followed by Q&A with producers and musicians.

Plenazos Callejeros is a documentary about a movement that revolutionized Afro Puerto Rican musical genre: plena. Every month a bunch of pleneros would gather at a street corner to play and talk about music. The video takes viewers on a journey through the last 30 years of the plena tradition.
Director: Mariana Reyes Angleró
Producers: Mariana Reyes and Tito Matos for Viento de Agua Inc.
Editor: Juan C. Álvarez Lara

Zoetrope: Part 1 by CABORCA Theatre Co. (Bilingual Version)
2014-10-10 20:00 - 21:00
THE LOISAIDA CENTER
IS PROUD TO ANNOUNCE:

ZOETROPE: PART 1

WITH CABORCA THEATRE CO.
Caborca has been selected to present the new bilingual version of their play as part of Encuentro 2014, the largest national festival of Latino theatre in more than two decades in Los Angeles, CA. Caborca Theatre developed their bilingual version of ZOETROPE as part of the Art Residency Program @ Loisaida Center.
They will present both the bilingual and English version of Zoetrope: Part 1 completely FREE!
Join us for a delightful evening of drama and theater.

11:30am-
Bilingual version
1:30pm-
English version

Saturday, October 11th

LaGuardia Community College

31-10 Thomson Ave
Long Island City, NY 11101

Pictorial Writing Workshop - CABORCA Theatre Co.
2014-10-04 20:00 - 21:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
THE LOISAIDA CENTER
IS PROUD TO ANNOUNCE
CABORCA’S FIRST COMMUNITY WORKSHOP:

PICTORIAL WRITING WORKSHOP

Teaching Artist: Tania Molina
Do you want to explore writing, poetry, short fiction and storytelling? This is your opportunity !!!!!
This workshop will give the attendees a chance to write without restrictions of style or experience, using photographs as a starting point.
Materials: Notebook, Laptop, iPad, etc…Any form of writing devise (there will be writing utensils and paper available at the workshop too)

AGES 17+
FREE!!
STARTING: SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4TH

ABOUT CABORCA:
CABORCA IS A NEW YORK BASED EXPERIMENTAL THEATRE COMPANY WORKING IN TWO LANGUAGES AND MULTIPLE BOROUGHS. CURRENT 2014 THEATER CO. RESIDENCY RECIPIENTS OF THE LOISAIDA INC. CENTER. CABORCA INCLUDES (IN OCCASIONALLY OVERLAPPING COMBINATIONS) A PLAYWRIGHT/DIRECTOR, DESIGNER, A HANDFUL OF ACTORS, AND TWO STAGE MANAGERS. OVER 15 YEARS, THEY HAVE AMASSED MEMBERS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, AND BEYOND, THOUGH WERE OFFICIALLY FOUNDED AS A COMPANY IN 2009.

3rd Annual Harvest Arts Festival - LUNGS
2014-09-21 08:00 - 17:00 | La Plaza Cultural, 700 E 9th Street, New York, 10009, United States
Third Annual
LUNGS Harvest Festival

The Third Annual LUNGS Harvest Arts Festival is taking place in more than 30 community gardens on the Lower East Side on Saturday, September 20 & Sunday, September 21.
The gardens will host performances and workshops in music, dance, theater, spoken word, the arts, and more. One of the highlights of this year’s Festival is a performance by Bread And Puppet Theater of their new piece, “Anti Tar Sands Manifesto Pageant”
Help is needed to publicize the Festival, design and distribute posters and flyers, copy editing for the Festival program, coordinating events and scheduling.
This year the Festival coincides with the People’s Climate March, In support of the People’s Climate March, many gardens will host workshops and teach-ins on a wide range of environmental issues.
On Sunday, the Festival gets on its feet as gardeners and friends join the People’s Climate March en masse. To prepare for the march we need artists to design costumes and banners and visuals that can be carried that will represent our love of Mother Earth and all things natural.
This is going to be a historic event we need to step up as New Yorkers, if you can help in any way, contact us.

Programming Schedule & Info

Events in each Lower East Side Garden

2014 Artist in Residence - Dey Hernández-Vázquez
2014-08-24 20:00 - 21:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
The Loisaida Center is proud to announce our current
2014 Visual Arts-Performance Residency Recipient:
Dey Hernández-Vázquez
Hernández will present the installation/performance piece:
Casita: for Julia de Burgos
About the piece:

In the danger of having the memory of Julia reduced to “the stereotype of the bohemian poet who lived a tragically short life…”The artist will use Julia’s poetic images to create a space that lifts off from the page allowing the spectator/participant to drift into the actual space where the artistic experience is taking place, la “Casita”. The architectural installation will mark out personal territory in the public realm.

About Dey:

Deymirie “Dey” Hernández-Vázquez is an Architect, Teaching Artist, and Puppeteer who works in a variety of media. She is a passionate advocate for the arts as an active educational tool. Issues of race, identity, language, and community are fundamental to her work as a cultural educator and artist. For the past 6+ years, she has designed and facilitated art workshops with AgitArte, a non-profit organization dedicated to initiate and support artistic and popular education projects in disadvantaged and marginalized communities to further the struggle for social justice. Dey is also an artist and puppeteer of the radical workers’ heater collective, Papel Machete. Their performances in community, theaters, streets and protests employ puppets, masks, objects and music to denounce exploitation, build solidarity, and agitate to action in the struggles of the working class. All of their cultural work is generated collectively through facilitated creative processes and construction workshops using papier mâché as their medium and exploring a wide range of forms and styles that include toy theater, cantastoria, shadow theater, table-top puppetry, humanettes, cut-outs, masks, and giants. Dey’s arts and architectural background are key to the design and construction of giant puppets, puppetry booths, shadow shows and toy theaters. Dey Hernández-Vázquez received a MA from the School of Architecture, University of Puerto Rico in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 2010. She currently lives and works in Boston.

2014 Artists in Residence - CABORCA Theatre Co.
2014-08-19 20:00 - 21:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
The Loisaida Center is proud to announce:
2014 Theater Co. Residency Recipients:

Led by playwright/director Javier González, CABORCA is an experimental theatre company making plays that move seamlessly between the irreverent and poetic, the personal and political, and the highly entertaining and intellectually challenging – inspired by Brecht’s view that to be challenged is also to be entertained. Based in New York City and working in both English and Spanish, our work includes new plays, classical adaptations and devised creations.
CABORCA started working together in 2002 at the University of Puerto Rico, continued collecting at Columbia’s MFA Theatre Program, and officially became a company in 2009.
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.
Read more about CABORCA’S residency program.
