The Poetics of Live Writing / Escritura-Acto


Eventbrite - The Poetics of Live Writing / Escritura-Acto


Escritura Acto/The Poetics of Live Writing

with Casa Cruz de la Luna Theater Company

Focusing on “escritura acto”-or the act of live computerized writing projected onstage- this workshop will develop  a consciousness of the performer as another medium (medio, mediumnidad) interacting physically and energetically with other mediums (actors, spectators, objects, apparatuses, locations, programs) in performance.  Exercises will explore the different mechanisms for generating tension through escritura acto, such as:  disjunction (writing one content while speaking another); precognition (playing with expectations on how words and sentences are going to be completed): body kinetic responses to the writing as it is being produced; and the movement of texts through translation / dictation / reading /copying chains. The lab process will culminate in a presentation open to the public on the last day of class.

Requisites:

-18 years and older (we will also have a workshop for younger participants, stay tuned)

-Participants should be able to attend the 6 sessions since the work is cumulative and leading to a final performance.

-Participants will be asked to memorize short texts as assignments.

-Especially useful for theatre makers; performance, visual and sound artists; writers; students focused on literature and/or the performing arts; and people interested in transmedia narratives

Facilitator:  Aravind E. Adyanthaya

This workshop is free, but space is limited!


Company Profile:

English: Casa Cruz de la Luna. Originally based in an old house in the historical district of the town of San Germán in the Southwest of Puerto Rico, Casa Cruz de la Luna, has as its mission the continuous study of the limits of the theatrical experience. Founded in 1998 by Aravind Enrique Adyanthaya, the group has engaged in experimental stagings of classical works by Jorge Luis Borges, Cervantes, García Lorca, Oscar Wilde and  Maeterlinck, as well as the development of new plays by Puerto Rican authors such as José “Pepe” Liboy, Mayra Santos Febres, Carlos Canales, Jaime Carrero, Fátima Santana, Lina Nieves Avilés and Manuel Ramos Otero.

Since 2012,  the company has begun to establish a second home-base in New York City, collaborating in joint projects with  New York Theatre Workshop, Theatre for the New City, The Organization of Puerto Rican Artists (OP Art), LA TEA at the Clemente Soto Vélez Center, Pregones/PRTT and now The Loisaida Inc.Center.

Website: Click here.

Spanish: CASA CRUZ DE LA LUNA se fundó en 1997 con la visión de proveer un ámbito de movimiento para las artes y las humanidades en el área suroeste de la Isla. En el 1998 empieza a funcionar desde su base en la Calle Luna, Esquina de la Cruz en el distrito histórico del pueblo de San Germán. Su actividad se ha extendido desde actividades educativas y de presentación hasta la creación de una compañía profesional de teatro experimental. Desde el 1999, la Casa ha crecido como foro donde discursos sobre arte, sociedad y teoría se materializan a través de conferencias, exposiciones, talleres, proyectos de investigación y puestas escénicas. La inauguración de la Casa como galería (1999), la organización de la Biblioteca Marcos A. Ramírez (2001-3) y la participación de la compañía de teatro en giras y proyectos internacionales (desde el 2000) han servido de puntales para nuestra labores presentes y aspiraciones futuras.


For more information contact (646) 757-0522,

email info@loisaida.org, or visit loisaida.org.
Follow The Loisaida Inc. Center on Facebook and Twitter


The Poetics of Live Writing / Escritura-Acto


Eventbrite - The Poetics of Live Writing / Escritura-Acto


Escritura Acto/The Poetics of Live Writing

with Casa Cruz de la Luna Theater Company

Focusing on “escritura acto”-or the act of live computerized writing projected onstage- this workshop will develop  a consciousness of the performer as another medium (medio, mediumnidad) interacting physically and energetically with other mediums (actors, spectators, objects, apparatuses, locations, programs) in performance.  Exercises will explore the different mechanisms for generating tension through escritura acto, such as:  disjunction (writing one content while speaking another); precognition (playing with expectations on how words and sentences are going to be completed): body kinetic responses to the writing as it is being produced; and the movement of texts through translation / dictation / reading /copying chains. The lab process will culminate in a presentation open to the public on the last day of class.

Requisites:

-18 years and older (we will also have a workshop for younger participants, stay tuned)

-Participants should be able to attend the 6 sessions since the work is cumulative and leading to a final performance.

-Participants will be asked to memorize short texts as assignments.

-Especially useful for theatre makers; performance, visual and sound artists; writers; students focused on literature and/or the performing arts; and people interested in transmedia narratives

Facilitator:  Aravind E. Adyanthaya

This workshop is free, but space is limited!


Company Profile:

English: Casa Cruz de la Luna. Originally based in an old house in the historical district of the town of San Germán in the Southwest of Puerto Rico, Casa Cruz de la Luna, has as its mission the continuous study of the limits of the theatrical experience. Founded in 1998 by Aravind Enrique Adyanthaya, the group has engaged in experimental stagings of classical works by Jorge Luis Borges, Cervantes, García Lorca, Oscar Wilde and  Maeterlinck, as well as the development of new plays by Puerto Rican authors such as José “Pepe” Liboy, Mayra Santos Febres, Carlos Canales, Jaime Carrero, Fátima Santana, Lina Nieves Avilés and Manuel Ramos Otero.

Since 2012,  the company has begun to establish a second home-base in New York City, collaborating in joint projects with  New York Theatre Workshop, Theatre for the New City, The Organization of Puerto Rican Artists (OP Art), LA TEA at the Clemente Soto Vélez Center, Pregones/PRTT and now The Loisaida Inc.Center.

Website: Click here.

Spanish: CASA CRUZ DE LA LUNA se fundó en 1997 con la visión de proveer un ámbito de movimiento para las artes y las humanidades en el área suroeste de la Isla. En el 1998 empieza a funcionar desde su base en la Calle Luna, Esquina de la Cruz en el distrito histórico del pueblo de San Germán. Su actividad se ha extendido desde actividades educativas y de presentación hasta la creación de una compañía profesional de teatro experimental. Desde el 1999, la Casa ha crecido como foro donde discursos sobre arte, sociedad y teoría se materializan a través de conferencias, exposiciones, talleres, proyectos de investigación y puestas escénicas. La inauguración de la Casa como galería (1999), la organización de la Biblioteca Marcos A. Ramírez (2001-3) y la participación de la compañía de teatro en giras y proyectos internacionales (desde el 2000) han servido de puntales para nuestra labores presentes y aspiraciones futuras.


For more information contact (646) 757-0522,

email info@loisaida.org, or visit loisaida.org.
Follow The Loisaida Inc. Center on Facebook and Twitter


The Poetics of Live Writing / Escritura-Acto


Eventbrite - The Poetics of Live Writing / Escritura-Acto


Escritura Acto/The Poetics of Live Writing

with Casa Cruz de la Luna Theater Company

Focusing on “escritura acto”-or the act of live computerized writing projected onstage- this workshop will develop  a consciousness of the performer as another medium (medio, mediumnidad) interacting physically and energetically with other mediums (actors, spectators, objects, apparatuses, locations, programs) in performance.  Exercises will explore the different mechanisms for generating tension through escritura acto, such as:  disjunction (writing one content while speaking another); precognition (playing with expectations on how words and sentences are going to be completed): body kinetic responses to the writing as it is being produced; and the movement of texts through translation / dictation / reading /copying chains. The lab process will culminate in a presentation open to the public on the last day of class.

Requisites:

-18 years and older (we will also have a workshop for younger participants, stay tuned)

-Participants should be able to attend the 6 sessions since the work is cumulative and leading to a final performance.

-Participants will be asked to memorize short texts as assignments.

-Especially useful for theatre makers; performance, visual and sound artists; writers; students focused on literature and/or the performing arts; and people interested in transmedia narratives

Facilitator:  Aravind E. Adyanthaya

This workshop is free, but space is limited!


Company Profile:

English: Casa Cruz de la Luna. Originally based in an old house in the historical district of the town of San Germán in the Southwest of Puerto Rico, Casa Cruz de la Luna, has as its mission the continuous study of the limits of the theatrical experience. Founded in 1998 by Aravind Enrique Adyanthaya, the group has engaged in experimental stagings of classical works by Jorge Luis Borges, Cervantes, García Lorca, Oscar Wilde and  Maeterlinck, as well as the development of new plays by Puerto Rican authors such as José “Pepe” Liboy, Mayra Santos Febres, Carlos Canales, Jaime Carrero, Fátima Santana, Lina Nieves Avilés and Manuel Ramos Otero.

Since 2012,  the company has begun to establish a second home-base in New York City, collaborating in joint projects with  New York Theatre Workshop, Theatre for the New City, The Organization of Puerto Rican Artists (OP Art), LA TEA at the Clemente Soto Vélez Center, Pregones/PRTT and now The Loisaida Inc.Center.

Website: Click here.

Spanish: CASA CRUZ DE LA LUNA se fundó en 1997 con la visión de proveer un ámbito de movimiento para las artes y las humanidades en el área suroeste de la Isla. En el 1998 empieza a funcionar desde su base en la Calle Luna, Esquina de la Cruz en el distrito histórico del pueblo de San Germán. Su actividad se ha extendido desde actividades educativas y de presentación hasta la creación de una compañía profesional de teatro experimental. Desde el 1999, la Casa ha crecido como foro donde discursos sobre arte, sociedad y teoría se materializan a través de conferencias, exposiciones, talleres, proyectos de investigación y puestas escénicas. La inauguración de la Casa como galería (1999), la organización de la Biblioteca Marcos A. Ramírez (2001-3) y la participación de la compañía de teatro en giras y proyectos internacionales (desde el 2000) han servido de puntales para nuestra labores presentes y aspiraciones futuras.


For more information contact (646) 757-0522,

email info@loisaida.org, or visit loisaida.org.
Follow The Loisaida Inc. Center on Facebook and Twitter


The Poetics of Live Writing / Escritura-Acto


Eventbrite - The Poetics of Live Writing / Escritura-Acto


Escritura Acto/The Poetics of Live Writing

with Casa Cruz de la Luna Theater Company

Focusing on “escritura acto”-or the act of live computerized writing projected onstage- this workshop will develop  a consciousness of the performer as another medium (medio, mediumnidad) interacting physically and energetically with other mediums (actors, spectators, objects, apparatuses, locations, programs) in performance.  Exercises will explore the different mechanisms for generating tension through escritura acto, such as:  disjunction (writing one content while speaking another); precognition (playing with expectations on how words and sentences are going to be completed): body kinetic responses to the writing as it is being produced; and the movement of texts through translation / dictation / reading /copying chains. The lab process will culminate in a presentation open to the public on the last day of class.

Requisites:

-18 years and older (we will also have a workshop for younger participants, stay tuned)

-Participants should be able to attend the 6 sessions since the work is cumulative and leading to a final performance.

-Participants will be asked to memorize short texts as assignments.

-Especially useful for theatre makers; performance, visual and sound artists; writers; students focused on literature and/or the performing arts; and people interested in transmedia narratives

Facilitator:  Aravind E. Adyanthaya

This workshop is free, but space is limited!


Company Profile:

English: Casa Cruz de la Luna. Originally based in an old house in the historical district of the town of San Germán in the Southwest of Puerto Rico, Casa Cruz de la Luna, has as its mission the continuous study of the limits of the theatrical experience. Founded in 1998 by Aravind Enrique Adyanthaya, the group has engaged in experimental stagings of classical works by Jorge Luis Borges, Cervantes, García Lorca, Oscar Wilde and  Maeterlinck, as well as the development of new plays by Puerto Rican authors such as José “Pepe” Liboy, Mayra Santos Febres, Carlos Canales, Jaime Carrero, Fátima Santana, Lina Nieves Avilés and Manuel Ramos Otero.

Since 2012,  the company has begun to establish a second home-base in New York City, collaborating in joint projects with  New York Theatre Workshop, Theatre for the New City, The Organization of Puerto Rican Artists (OP Art), LA TEA at the Clemente Soto Vélez Center, Pregones/PRTT and now The Loisaida Inc.Center.

Website: Click here.

Spanish: CASA CRUZ DE LA LUNA se fundó en 1997 con la visión de proveer un ámbito de movimiento para las artes y las humanidades en el área suroeste de la Isla. En el 1998 empieza a funcionar desde su base en la Calle Luna, Esquina de la Cruz en el distrito histórico del pueblo de San Germán. Su actividad se ha extendido desde actividades educativas y de presentación hasta la creación de una compañía profesional de teatro experimental. Desde el 1999, la Casa ha crecido como foro donde discursos sobre arte, sociedad y teoría se materializan a través de conferencias, exposiciones, talleres, proyectos de investigación y puestas escénicas. La inauguración de la Casa como galería (1999), la organización de la Biblioteca Marcos A. Ramírez (2001-3) y la participación de la compañía de teatro en giras y proyectos internacionales (desde el 2000) han servido de puntales para nuestra labores presentes y aspiraciones futuras.


For more information contact (646) 757-0522,

email info@loisaida.org, or visit loisaida.org.
Follow The Loisaida Inc. Center on Facebook and Twitter


The Poetics of Live Writing / Escritura-Acto


Eventbrite - The Poetics of Live Writing / Escritura-Acto


Escritura Acto/The Poetics of Live Writing

with Casa Cruz de la Luna Theater Company

Focusing on “escritura acto”-or the act of live computerized writing projected onstage- this workshop will develop  a consciousness of the performer as another medium (medio, mediumnidad) interacting physically and energetically with other mediums (actors, spectators, objects, apparatuses, locations, programs) in performance.  Exercises will explore the different mechanisms for generating tension through escritura acto, such as:  disjunction (writing one content while speaking another); precognition (playing with expectations on how words and sentences are going to be completed): body kinetic responses to the writing as it is being produced; and the movement of texts through translation / dictation / reading /copying chains. The lab process will culminate in a presentation open to the public on the last day of class.

Requisites:

-18 years and older (we will also have a workshop for younger participants, stay tuned)

-Participants should be able to attend the 6 sessions since the work is cumulative and leading to a final performance.

-Participants will be asked to memorize short texts as assignments.

-Especially useful for theatre makers; performance, visual and sound artists; writers; students focused on literature and/or the performing arts; and people interested in transmedia narratives

Facilitator:  Aravind E. Adyanthaya

This workshop is free, but space is limited!


Company Profile:

English: Casa Cruz de la Luna. Originally based in an old house in the historical district of the town of San Germán in the Southwest of Puerto Rico, Casa Cruz de la Luna, has as its mission the continuous study of the limits of the theatrical experience. Founded in 1998 by Aravind Enrique Adyanthaya, the group has engaged in experimental stagings of classical works by Jorge Luis Borges, Cervantes, García Lorca, Oscar Wilde and  Maeterlinck, as well as the development of new plays by Puerto Rican authors such as José “Pepe” Liboy, Mayra Santos Febres, Carlos Canales, Jaime Carrero, Fátima Santana, Lina Nieves Avilés and Manuel Ramos Otero.

Since 2012,  the company has begun to establish a second home-base in New York City, collaborating in joint projects with  New York Theatre Workshop, Theatre for the New City, The Organization of Puerto Rican Artists (OP Art), LA TEA at the Clemente Soto Vélez Center, Pregones/PRTT and now The Loisaida Inc.Center.

Website: Click here.

Spanish: CASA CRUZ DE LA LUNA se fundó en 1997 con la visión de proveer un ámbito de movimiento para las artes y las humanidades en el área suroeste de la Isla. En el 1998 empieza a funcionar desde su base en la Calle Luna, Esquina de la Cruz en el distrito histórico del pueblo de San Germán. Su actividad se ha extendido desde actividades educativas y de presentación hasta la creación de una compañía profesional de teatro experimental. Desde el 1999, la Casa ha crecido como foro donde discursos sobre arte, sociedad y teoría se materializan a través de conferencias, exposiciones, talleres, proyectos de investigación y puestas escénicas. La inauguración de la Casa como galería (1999), la organización de la Biblioteca Marcos A. Ramírez (2001-3) y la participación de la compañía de teatro en giras y proyectos internacionales (desde el 2000) han servido de puntales para nuestra labores presentes y aspiraciones futuras.


For more information contact (646) 757-0522,

email info@loisaida.org, or visit loisaida.org.
Follow The Loisaida Inc. Center on Facebook and Twitter


The Poetics of Live Writing / Escritura-Acto


Eventbrite - The Poetics of Live Writing / Escritura-Acto


Escritura Acto/The Poetics of Live Writing

with Casa Cruz de la Luna Theater Company

Focusing on “escritura acto”-or the act of live computerized writing projected onstage- this workshop will develop  a consciousness of the performer as another medium (medio, mediumnidad) interacting physically and energetically with other mediums (actors, spectators, objects, apparatuses, locations, programs) in performance.  Exercises will explore the different mechanisms for generating tension through escritura acto, such as:  disjunction (writing one content while speaking another); precognition (playing with expectations on how words and sentences are going to be completed): body kinetic responses to the writing as it is being produced; and the movement of texts through translation / dictation / reading /copying chains. The lab process will culminate in a presentation open to the public on the last day of class.

Requisites:

-18 years and older (we will also have a workshop for younger participants, stay tuned)

-Participants should be able to attend the 6 sessions since the work is cumulative and leading to a final performance.

-Participants will be asked to memorize short texts as assignments.

-Especially useful for theatre makers; performance, visual and sound artists; writers; students focused on literature and/or the performing arts; and people interested in transmedia narratives

Facilitator:  Aravind E. Adyanthaya

This workshop is free, but space is limited!


Company Profile:

English: Casa Cruz de la Luna. Originally based in an old house in the historical district of the town of San Germán in the Southwest of Puerto Rico, Casa Cruz de la Luna, has as its mission the continuous study of the limits of the theatrical experience. Founded in 1998 by Aravind Enrique Adyanthaya, the group has engaged in experimental stagings of classical works by Jorge Luis Borges, Cervantes, García Lorca, Oscar Wilde and  Maeterlinck, as well as the development of new plays by Puerto Rican authors such as José “Pepe” Liboy, Mayra Santos Febres, Carlos Canales, Jaime Carrero, Fátima Santana, Lina Nieves Avilés and Manuel Ramos Otero.

Since 2012,  the company has begun to establish a second home-base in New York City, collaborating in joint projects with  New York Theatre Workshop, Theatre for the New City, The Organization of Puerto Rican Artists (OP Art), LA TEA at the Clemente Soto Vélez Center, Pregones/PRTT and now The Loisaida Inc.Center.

Website: Click here.

Spanish: CASA CRUZ DE LA LUNA se fundó en 1997 con la visión de proveer un ámbito de movimiento para las artes y las humanidades en el área suroeste de la Isla. En el 1998 empieza a funcionar desde su base en la Calle Luna, Esquina de la Cruz en el distrito histórico del pueblo de San Germán. Su actividad se ha extendido desde actividades educativas y de presentación hasta la creación de una compañía profesional de teatro experimental. Desde el 1999, la Casa ha crecido como foro donde discursos sobre arte, sociedad y teoría se materializan a través de conferencias, exposiciones, talleres, proyectos de investigación y puestas escénicas. La inauguración de la Casa como galería (1999), la organización de la Biblioteca Marcos A. Ramírez (2001-3) y la participación de la compañía de teatro en giras y proyectos internacionales (desde el 2000) han servido de puntales para nuestra labores presentes y aspiraciones futuras.


For more information contact (646) 757-0522,

email info@loisaida.org, or visit loisaida.org.
Follow The Loisaida Inc. Center on Facebook and Twitter


en casa afuera

en casa afuera

June 12- 19

Opening Reception and Performances June 12 at 6:00 pm.

A live exhibit which will bring together new young artists— Mckenzie Angelo, Anthony Rosado, Jonathan Gonzalez, Yoira Santos, Adam Echahly, Lamar Stephens, Adam Rhodes, Chazz Bruce, and Stephanie Mota.


 

Curatorial Statement 

en casa afuera

Think gentrification is completely erasing the hirstory and identities of native New York residents? Think again. Amidst new developments, increasing rents, empty storefronts, newcomers in LES, Crown Heights, Washington Heights, Harlem, & Bushwick, artists are finding ways to claim their stake in the areas, tethering the old soul of these communities. A group of such artists are coming to Loisaida, Inc.’s Center, one of the remaining physical spaces serving the LES and NYC Latino and independent community, to present a series of interactive works paying tribute to the Home(s).

en casa afuera, a live exhibit which will run from June 12th to June 19th, brings together new young artists from the metropolitan New York and New Jersey region spanning the ages of mid 20’s-30’s.— Mckenzie Angelo, Anthony Rosado, Jonathan Gonzalez, Yoira Santos, Adam Echahly, Lamar Stephens, Adam Rhodes, Chazz Bruce, and Stephanie Mota. They came together to investigate the intersections of home and displacement, as well as the potential for art making to reflect and revision these relations. Loisaida Inc., as the performance hub, may then be the home or shelter that localizes this web of creative results.

The process of what initially began as a series of conversations on the shifting dynamics of New York City, the forces that will it, and what is authentic in these urban amalgamations, developed into a need to generate around these lofty queries – what is home? and what remains as the physical departs from what we know it to be? (whether by a stripping of possession or decay.) Lastly, what does this process of transition look like, feel like, for us?

Visitors and members of the community, old and new, are encouraged to the engage in and think about the daily rituals of Home(s). The series of installations range from the symbolic to the banal. One of the works, a collage in the main hallways shows a Nuyorican’s response to gentrification while another shares with audiences the everyday objects our communities use to pamper themselves. Together, all works zoom in and out of the experience of a changing neighborhood.

en casa afuera represents and shines light onto the complex process of change and gentrification in NYC, and celebrates the histories that are passed on from generation to generation and carried everywhere. Above all, they encourage artists and guests to preserving our stories and our communities will follow.

When asked what Loisaida means for them the group responded:
“Loisaida has been an iconic place-maker for both its residents and the world at large. It architecturally houses the pride and cultural breadth of a community, while transcending the energetic embodiment of LES – a location/identity in flux. These dynamics are at the heart of our creative interests and explorations en casa afuera.”


 

Invisible Loisaida – Ideas City

IDEAS CITY

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

Loisaida Inc: Invisible Loisaida

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


A ONGOING programming throughout the day:

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

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

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


B SCHEDULED programming by time-slots:

3:00 pm – The Salvage Project

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

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

4:00 pm – Edwin Torres:

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

5:00pm – PLENATORIUM:

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

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

http://loisaida.org/plenatorium/


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


 

NuyoCuba: Poetics & Diaspora

Tuesday, April 21, 2015, 6:00pm – 8:00pm.
2 hrs ·

(a panel plus performance)

featuring Alberto Abreu Arcia, Aja Monet, and Rich Villar, moderated by Urayoán Noel.

Born in 1961 in Cardenas, Matanzas province, a heartland of African culture in Cuba, Alberto Abreu is a novelist, essayist, and social critic on such topics as race and identity and LGBT issues. He is a member of ARAAC, the Cuban civil rights organization. He was coordinator of Virgilio Piñera Narrative Workshop, held in the city of Matanzas. In 1988, he published a volume of short stories The big world. His essay Virgilio Piñera: a man, an island received in 2000 the Enrique José Varona UNEAC Prize. His La Gaceta de Cuba (2003) received mention in the X Prize . He organized the selection and preparation of Zero hour, an anthology of Matanzas stories which was released in 2005. That same year his book The Writing Games received the Dador Award from the Cuban Book Institute . He also received the Casa de las Américas Prize in 2007. (from http://www.afrocubaweb.com/abreu.htm)
——

Aja-Monet is a Cuban-Jamaican poet originally from East NY, Brooklyn. At 19 years old, she was the youngest to ever win the Grand Slam Champion title of the Lower East side’s legendary Nuyorican Poet’s Café in 2007. Her work is classically surrealist, engaging altogether Hip Hop, Soul, and literary audiences.

She dedicates her time and energy working with inner-city adolescence, providing performance poetry workshops and opportunities. Aja Monet received her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and an MFA in Creative Writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Aja Monet’s first book of poems, The Black Unicorn Sings, was independently published with Penmanship books (2010). She recently collaborated with poet/musician Saul Williams to edit a book of poetry due out on MTV Books/Simon & Schuster Publishing in Fall 2012 called, Chorus. She is currently working on a book of science-fiction and new music. (from https://www.facebook.com/poetajamonet/info?tab=page_info)
—–

Rich Villar is a writer, performer, editor, activist, and educator originally from Paterson, New Jersey. His first collection of poems, Comprehending Forever, won the Editor’s Choice from the Willow Books Literature Awards in 2013, and it was published by Willow the following year. He is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee for both his prose and his poetry, and his work has been published in several journals, including Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Rattapallax, and Black Renaissance Noire.

He served as a founding director, host, and co-curator for Acentos, a grassroots project fostering the Latino/a voice in American letters. From 2003-2012, through its workshops, panels, reading series, and public programming, Acentos allowed Latino/a poets at all skill levels to connect with multicultural audiences as well as their peers, in the one of the most historic Latino enclaves in the nation, the South Bronx. He has been quoted on Latino/a literature and culture by HBO, The New York Times, and the Daily News. On the radio, he has been heard on WBAI 99.5 FM in New York, and on the long-running NPR newsmagazine “Latino USA.”

Since 2008, he has served as a curator for La Casita at Lincoln Center Out Of Doors, appearing twice as the show’s emcee. He has been a frequent performer, host, and curator at the iconic Nuyorican Poets’ Cafe, and he has contributed poems and performances to various theater spaces, including Actors Stock NYC, and Luna Stage in West Orange, NJ. (from https://literatiboricua.wordpress.com/about/)