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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)
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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)
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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/)
The Loisaida Center & Flux Theatre Ensemble presents:
SALVAGE
by August Schulenburg
directed by Heather Cohn
featuring the debut of Flux’s LIVING TICKET
WORLD PREMIERE
OPENING NIGHT FRIDAY, APRIL 10 – 8:00pm
PREVIEWS APRIL 8 & 9 – 8:00pm
NO PERFORMANCES APRIL 15 OR APRIL 24
Flux Theatre Ensemble will present the World Premiere of August Schulenburg’s (Jane the Plain with Flux) Salvage, April 8 – 25 at The Loisaida Center (710 E 9th St on Ave C). The production will be directed by Heather Cohn (NYIT Award-nominated production of Sans Merci with Flux) with Assistant Director Emily Hartford (Jane the Plane with Flux) and will feature Sol Crespo (DEINDE with Flux), Rachael Hip-Flores (Once Upon A Bride There Was a Forest with Flux), Mike Mihm* (Ajax in Iraq with Flux), and Isaiah Tanenbaum* (Jane the Plain with Flux). The creative team will include Sound Design by Janie Bullard (2014 USITT/LDI Rising Star Award Winner, NY Theatre Now 2013 Person of the Year; 2014 NYIT Nominee for Jane the Plain), Scenic Design by Will Lowry (Once Upon a Bride There Was a Forest with Flux), Costume Design by Becky Byers (asst. on Jane the Plain, Sans Merci, and Honey Fist with Flux), Lighting Design by Kia Rogers (2014 NYIT Award for Jane the Plain), and Props Design by Alisha Spielmann (Jane the Plain with Flux). The Production Stage Manager will be Jodi M. Witherell.
*Appears courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association.
Salvage is a drama about Noma and Akiko, two government officials searching for precious objects through what’s left of a post-catastrophe New York City. When their manager Dennis hires Mandy, a veteran from America’s many wars, the searchers discover things that make them question their mission, and whether it’s time to let their city go.
Salvage will be presented by Flux Theatre Ensemble at The Loisaida Center (710 East 9th St on Ave C) April 8 – 25, Monday through Saturday at 8pm, with no performances on Wednesday April 15 or Friday April 24.
Beginning with Salvage, no financial transaction is required to attend a Flux performance. Instead, Flux will use a “Living Ticket.” In their commitment to financial transparency, Flux will share their operating budget and leave it to each audience member to donate as they see fit.
Get Tickets Now!
photograph / graphic design by Isaiah Tanenbaum
AUGUST SCHULENBURG (Playwright) is a founding Creative Partner of Flux and current Artistic Director. With Flux, he directed Ajax in Iraq (NYITA nomination), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the Food:Souls Goldsboro and Volleygirls. As an actor with Flux, he has played Dr. X in Hearts Like Fists, Ezekiel in 8 Little Antichrists (NYITA nomination), and the Professor in Rue. As a playwright, his work with Flux includes Riding the Bull, Rue, Other Bodies, The Lesser Seductions of History, Jacob’s House, DEINDE and Honey Fist.
August’s plays include Carrin Beginning, Kidding Jane, Rue, Riding the Bull, Good Hope, Other Bodies, Honey Fist, Dark Matter, Jacob’s House, DEINDE, Dream Walker, Denny and Lila, Dark Matter, Jane the Plain and The Lesser Seductions of History. His plays have been produced and developed at the Lark Play Development Center, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Chelsea Playhouse, Theater for the New City, Portland Stage Company, Dayton Playhouse, Colonial Players, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Contemporary Stage Company, Abingdon Theater Company, Gideon Productions, New Amerikan Theatre, Penobscot Theatre, Impetuous Theater Group, Decades Out, Soundtrack Series, Reverie Productions, Wolf 359, Blue Box Productions, Piper McKenzie, Boomerang Theatre Company, Adaptive Arts, Hall High School, Nosedive Productions, MTWorks, Purple Repertory, Valley Repertory Company, The Brick Theater, CAPS LOCK Theatre, Chameleon Theatre Circle, Retro Productions, Elephant Run District, and TheatreLAB and Flux Theatre Ensemble. He is a member of the Propulsion Lab for Mission to (dit)Mars. His work has also been published in the New York Theater Review, Stage and Screen, Indie Theater Now, Midway Journal, NoPassport Press and in two issues of Carrier Pigeon. He also writes for film and television with MozzleStead Productions.
Visit him online at augustschulenburg.wordpress.com
HEATHER COHN (Director) is a co-founder and Producing Director of Flux Theatre Ensemble. Directing credits for Flux include: Kristen Palmer’s Once Upon A Bride There Was a Forest, Johnna Adams’ Sans Merci (NYITA nomination, Best Original Script), August Schulenburg’s DEINDE, Erin Browne’s Menders, August Schulenburg’s The Lesser Seductions of History (nominated for Outstanding Direction, NYITA) and Other Bodies (FringeNYC Excellence Award for Direction) and numerous staged readings. Outside of Flux: Assistant Director to Austin Pendleton on Johnna Adams’ Gidion’s Knot (59E59); David Stallings’ Dark Water (MTWorks – NYITA for
Outstanding Original Script; nomination for Outstanding Production) and The Stranger to Kindness (Outstanding Overall Production of a One-Act, Planet Connections Theatre Festivity Awards, also nominated for Outstanding Direction Award); Mariah MacCarthy’s For the Good of the Child (Gideon Productions); Rosie The Retired Rockette and Blood (EstroGenius Festival); and numerous staged readings for companies such as: Rattlestick, The Lark, Cherry Lane, The Brick, Mission to Ditmars, On the Square Productions, MTWorks, Resonance Ensemble, Jewish Plays Project, The Platform Group and CAPS LOCKS THEATRE. Member – Women’s Project Producers’ LAB (2008-2010). Heather is a graduate of Vassar College.
FLUX THEATRE ENSEMBLE produces transformative theatre that explores and awakens the capacity for change. As an ensemble-artist driven company, Flux believes that long-term collaboration and rigorous creative development can unite artists and audiences to build a creative home in New York.
Flux is the proud recipient of two NYC Fringe Festival Awards (2007 Village Voice Audience Favorite Award for Riding the Bull; 2008 Outstanding Direction Award for Other Bodies) and an eighteen-time New York Innovative Theatre Award nominee between 2008-2014, including wins for The Angel Eaters Trilogy, Ajax in Iraq, and Jane the Plain. In 2011 The New York Innovative Theatre Awards also awarded the prestigious Caffé Cino Fellowship Award to Flux for “consistently producing outstanding work.” Flux received a Citation for Excellence in Off-Off Broadway Theatre from the Independent Theater Bloggers Association and was named one of nytheatre.com’s 2014 “People of the Decade.”
Bilingual, Dance/Movement, Festival, Partners, Partnerships, Performance, Residencies, Theater, Workshops
2015 Artists in Residence – FLUX Theatre Ensemble
The Loisaida Center is proud to announce
2015 Theater Co. Residency Recipient:
Flux Theatre Ensemble
Time frame of Residency @ Loisaida: February 24th 2015 to April 25th 2015
Proposed project for the residency:
Flux Sundays:
Are you an actor, playwright or director?
Join Flux Theatre Ensemble’s unique play development process and vibrant artist community for their weekly workshop, Flux Sundays. Once a week, up to 30 theatre artists gather for three hours in the afternoon to lightly stage new scenes from playwrights in the community. Not a theatre artist, but want to get involved? Feel free to join us for the final hour of Flux Sundays, where we share all of the scenes, and see plays in their earliest stages of development brought to vivid life by a welcoming community of artists.
Official Dates for Flux Sundays: 2/15, 2/22, 3/1 and 3/15 from 4:00pm – 6:00pm
Email Flux Sundays to learn more about how you can participate.
The Salvage Project:
Behind every special object we keep, there’s something even more important: a story.
Flux Theatre Ensemble’s The Salvage Project is a series of story-circles where communities come together to share stories about the precious objects of their lives. Through the sharing of these stories, we’ll learn what matters most to the people with whom we share this city and why. The Salvage Project culminates in a free, full-length production of the world premiere play Salvage, which imagines a band of searchers looking for precious objects left behind in a post-catastrophe NYC. Interested participants in The Salvage Project will have the option of sharing their object as part of the scenic design of the production, as well as opportunities to have their stories transformed by professional playwrights into short monologues. Stories and objects may also shared as part of The Salvage Project blog.
Email Sol Crespo to learn more and participate in The Salvage Project.
The Salvage Project WORLD PREMIER: Thursday, April 10th 2015 at 8:00pm
About Flux Theatre Ensemble:
Since 2006, Flux has produced 20 productions and countless readings and developmental projects. The ensemble is made up of eleven Creative Partners composed of actors, directors, playwrights, and designers. Flux is the proud recipient of the 2011 Caffe Cino Fellowship Award, presented annually to an Off-Off-Broadway theatre company that consistently produces outstanding work. The company’s productions of Hearts Like Fists and Ajax in Iraq were chosen as “New York Times Critics’ Picks” and in 2008, nytheatre.com chose Flux Theatre Ensemble as one of their “People of the Year” saying “This rising theatre company had a hit in the New York International Fringe Festival with Other Bodies, written by artistic director August Schulenburg, and then went on to mount the fall’s most ambitious indie show, Johnna Adams’ The Angel Eaters Trilogy.” Over the years, Flux has received New York Innovative Theatre Award nominations for their productions of Jane the Plain, Sans Merci, Hearts Like Fists, Ajax in Iraq, The Angel Eaters Trilogy, The Lesser Seductions of History and Dog Act.
Flux Theatre Ensemble is a member of the Alliance of Resident Theatres/NY, the Network of Ensemble Theaters and the League of Independent Theatres.
Website: Click here.
2014, Events, Music, Photography, Residencies, Theater, Visual Art
La TRIFECTA – Loisaida Trimester Benefit Party
6:00pm
(M)others’ Politics Performances: A documentation of Jeca Rodríguez-Colón’s maternal characters captured by Ricardo Alcaraz, Ben Lundberg, Marlène Ramirez- Cancio, Linda Duvall, Mariángel Gonzales and Deborah Dudley. Curated by Alejandro Epifanio.
8:00pm
ZOETROPE: Excerpts of Part 1 and 2 by: Caborca Theatre Co. A glimpse of Caborca’s most recent work -developed here at Loisaida Center during our Theater Company. residency program.
9:00pm
Buscabulla (Spanish slang for troublemaker) is the music project of Puerto Rican designer and Brooklyn resident, Raquel Berrios and Luis Alfredo Del Valle.Heavily influenced by vintage Latin music like salsa gorda, Cuban psych and ’80s Argentinian rock, the project combines both electronic and live instrumentation.
DJ sets by: Gabo Lugo
Exhibition will open at 5:30pm. Entrance is FREE before 7:30pm.
Admission is $12 after 9:00pm. Keep your receipt for the after-party…
2014, Bilingual, Caribbean, Central America, Education, Latin America, Performance, Poetry, Politics
Ferguson/Ayotzinapa: CantoMundo Poets Read and Respond
The Loisaida Center
Monday, December 15, 6-8pm
Ferguson/Ayotzinapa: CantoMundo Poets Read and Respond
featuring: Yesenia Montilla, Darrel Alejandro Holnes, Rosebud Ben-Oni, and Urayoán NoelThis event brings together New York-based current and former fellows of the national Latina/o poets workshop CantoMundo (cantomundo.org/) to read from their work in solidarity with ongoing protests and mobilizations in and around Ferguson, Missouri, and the College of Ayotzinapa in Iguala, Mexico.Many of the poets reading are also participating in #CantoMundoLongestNight, a social-media offering of poems in honor of the countless black and brown bodies slain by state-sanctioned violence.
Darrel Alejandro Holnes is from Panama City and the former Canal Zone of Panamá. His poetry has been published in Poetry Magazine, The Best American Experimental Writing, Callaloo, The Caribbean Writer, The Potomac, MEADE, Lambda Literary, Assaracus, Weave Magazine, The Feminist Wire, The Paris American, Kweli, featured on The Best American Poetry blog, and elsewhere in print and online. He is the co-author of PRIME: Poetry & Conversations (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2014). He is a proud CantoMundo and Cave Canem fellow. darrelholnes.com
Yesenia Montilla is a New York City poet with Afro-Caribbean roots & CantoMundo Fellow. Her poetry has appeared in the literary journals: 5 AM, Adanna, Wideshore and others. She received her MFA from Drew University in Poetry and Poetry in Translation. Her first collection of poetry The Pink Box is forthcoming from Willow Books in Fall 2015.
Born to a Mexican mother and Jewish father, Rosebud Ben-Oni is a CantoMundo Fellow and the author of SOLECISM (Virtual Artists Collective, 2013). Her work is forthcoming or appears in POETRY, The American Poetry Review, Arts & Letters, Bayou, Puerto del Sol, among others. Rosebud is an Editorial Advisor for VIDA: Women in Literary Arts (vidaweb.org). Find out more at 7TrainLove.org
CantoMundo fellow Urayoán Noel is the author of the critical study In Visible Movement: Nuyorican Poetry from the Sixties to Slam (University of Iowa, 2014) and several books of poetry in English and Spanish, including EnUncIAdOr (Editora Emergente, 2014) and the forthcoming Buzzing Hemisphere/Rumor Hemisférico (University of Arizona). Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, he lives in the Bronx and teaches at NYU.
*The views and opinions expressed on this event are soley those of the participating poets, scholars and other contributors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of Loisaida Inc., Acacia Network and staff, and/or any/all contributors to this event.
2014, Children Friendly, Dance/Movement, Music, Performance, Residencies, Theater, Workshops, X-Change Express
My Body My World
My Body, My World
with actress and dancer, Veraalba Santa
Saturday, November 22nd
1:30 – 3:00pm
In “My body, My world” we will explore how our bodies move and react to our immediate and imaginary surroundings using fun and energetic movement exercises and music.
Ages 8-12
Veraalba Santa is currently an artist in residence at the Loisaida Center and part of Caborca Theatre Company.
2014, Bilingual, Children Friendly, Events, Family Activities, Music, Partners, Style, Visual Art, Workshops, X-Change Express
Making Music with Everyday Objects
Making Music with Everyday Objects
Saturday, November 22nd at 3:00pm
Join the amazing and dynamic musical duo Acopladitos for an interactive musical experience as you create your own musical instruments using recycled materials during an exiting music/art making session. This 90-minute workshop will be structured in the format of Loisaida Center’s one-time specialized workshop or talk program the X-Change Express.
Acopladitos will demonstrate how to make a variety of musical instruments using everyday objects, especially those found at home. They will share with the audience their playful approach to the idea of “sound explorations.” More than making your own instruments, Acopladitos will share some musical ideas to guide the audience through a creative composition process that the entire family can practice at home. The last portion of the talk consists of a “hands on” approach to music making where the audience will have the opportunity of playing the instruments.
Acopladitos is dedicated to teaching Spanish language through music and movement to young learners.
This events is open to a general audience, but will specifically benefit early childhood teachers and parents.
We hope you can join us and help us spread the word!
Click on flyer below to RSVP for this event:
About Acopladitos:
Acopladitos is a Spanish immersion music program for young children. The word “acopladitos” in Spanish can be translated to mean “being together in complete harmony” and refers to much more than just music. The program is designed to cultivate the child’s first musical encounters through singing, creative movement, music-making, games and dramatic play. A presentation by Acopladitos incorporates charming original songs with a repertoire of popular Latin American children’s songs. Designed and led by composer Angelica Negrón and ethno-musicologist Noraliz Ruiz, the program was created to fill a void in early childhood Spanish-language music education in NYC. This team of Brooklyn-based experienced educators and creative artists will engage the children in a collaborative and exciting musical experience that will nurture their artistic, intellectual, physical and social-emotional development. We are interested in collaborating with Loisaida Center in order to bring fun and interactive programming to the children of Loisaida and reach out to the community at large.
The Loisaida Center presents:
Excerpts of CABORCA Theatre Co.’s play
ZOETROPE: Part 1
Friday, November 21st, 2014
(POSTPONED) NEW DATE WILL BE ANNOUNCED SOON!
Zoetrope follows a Puerto Rican family over four decades between Lares, Puerto Rico and Harlem, New York. Divided into two plays, excerpts of part 1, the bilingual version will be presented. This bilingual version was developed during the company’s artists in residence program at the new Loisaida Center.
2014, Dance/Movement, Events, Family Activities, Festival, Film, Music, Partners, Partnerships, Performance, Theater, Visual Art
Muchas Julias
Muchas Julias / Many Julias
The first multimedia production by the new Loisaida Center!
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The new Loisaida Inc Center, in association with the Society of the Educational Arts, inc. (SEA), proudly presents: Muchas Julias / Many Julias as part of the Borimix: Puerto Rico Fest.In this multi-disciplinary event, art enlivens a space long known to harvest projects and services of great importance for the Latino community, the original Loisaida, Inc. building at 710 9th Street & Ave C, in the Lower East Side.
This time is the poetry of the great Julia de Burgos, whose centenary we celebrate this year, presented in five (5) distinct pieces representing different disciplinary approaches; in Muchas Julias / Many Julias visitors will stroll through the extensive premises of the new Loisaida Center to stop only at determined points and intimately experience the aesthetic pieces (from dance to theater, from film to installation), all inspired by the work of Julia de Burgos, one of Latin America’s greatest poets
Conceived by Yaraní del Valle, Muchas Julias / Many Julias is a site-specific montage that features the participation of artists and scholars such as: Oscar Montero, Deymirie Hernández, Gabo Lugo, Caborca Theater,Right Minded Creations, JecaRodríguez, Veraalba Santa and Tres Tristes collective.
Venue: 710 E 9th Street and Avenue C
Date: Saturday November 15, 2014
Time: 7:30 pm
(Presentations will begin at 8:00pm)
Price: $10 suggested donation (Help Us Grow)
Sponsored in part by:
