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Mangos With Chili Presents Beloved: A Requiem for Our Dead in the Bay Area Tonite & Nov. 15th

7 Nov 2009

MWC_Front_Vert2 Porque we remember our loved ones from our familias and community everyday and porque the mujeres that are involved in the creation of this project are beautiful and kick culo.

Mangos With Chili: the floating cabaret of QTPOC bliss, dreams, sweat, sweets & nightmares
proudly presents the premiere of:

BELOVED: A Requiem for Our Dead
because we refuse to forget you

Featuring:
Nalo Hopkinson
Charleston Chu
E. Rose Sims
SoliRose
Nico Dacumos
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Ms. Cherry Galette
and more

With video by Storm Florez, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Kortney Ryan Ziegler, and more

November 6th and 7th, 8PM
The Lab
2948 16th St
San Francisco, CA 94103
$12-16, no one turned away for lack of funds

November 15th, 8PM
Hechos en Califas Festival
La Pena
3105 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, CA
$12-16, no one turned away for lack of funds

In this highly anticipated premiere of the newest Mangos With Chili production, we invite you to join us at the crossroads for a night of conjuring, memory, mourning and celebration. Through elegies of story, song, dance, drag and more, the Bay Area’s noted and notorious queer and trans people of color performance crew will honor our erased, fallen and slain queer and trans people of color family lost to hate crimes, war, colonization, and genocide. We will celebrate our queer legacies and the ways we’ve found to survive through the beautiful resistance of memory, and whisper stories about grief, loss, healing, sweet darkness, and walking between worlds towards rebirth.

Beloved: A Requiem for Our Dead will feature the brilliance and blaze of renowned Caribbean speculative fiction storycrafter Nalo Hopkinson; multimedia invocation performance art heart wrench by playwright and poet Nico Dacumos; In Memoriam, a new collaborative dance theater work by Charlston Chu and Cherry Galette; ancestral prayer/spoken love letter by writer and theater artist Rose E. Sims; a mixed media jazz dance cabaret extravaganza by Charleston Chu, an autobiographical musical journey traversing the Middle East and African Diaspora by virtuoso trio SoliRose; the powerful truth renderings of queer Sri Lankan writer and performer Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha; and the premiere of Moorish Salt a burlesque-dance theater/ritual performance art piece by fusion dance artist and theater-maker Cherry Galette.

Mangos With Chili is a Bay Area based arts organization committed to showcasing high quality performance of life saving importance by queer and trans artists of color to audiences in the Bay Area and beyond. Founded in 2006 by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha and Ms Cherry Galette, Mangos With Chili has performed to sold out houses across North America, wowing audiences in world class theaters, underground performance spaces, bars, and campus halls, with their high intensity, breathtaking performance, politics, and storytelling craft, reflecting the lives and stories of queer and trans people of color, while making art that speaks out in resistance to the daily struggles around silence, isolation, homophobia, and violence that QTPOC face. Mangos With Chili is a fiscally sponsored project of the San Francisco based arts organization CounterPULSE, which provides space and resources for emerging artists and cultural innovators: www.counterpulse.org. Mangos With Chili is supported by the Horizons Foundation, the Astraea Foundation, and the generous support of our community of donors.

Both venues are wheelchair accessible. The show contains material of adult nature. Parental discretion advised. Please refrain from wearing scented products to ensure that audience members and performers with multiple chemical sensitivity can attend.

For more information:
mangos.with.chili@gmail.com
mangoswithchili.wordpress.com

La India, Celia Cruz, and Tito Puente sing Guantanamera

10:51 am By la Macha · Arts| Music · No Comments

20 Oct 2009

Speaking of PBS’s Latino Music series, last night’s show featured (among others) La India and Marc Anthony. I’d forgotten how much I love La India and really really hate Marc Anthony. It also reminded me of the very first time I heard India sing–with the incomparable Celia Cruz.

La India, Celia Cruz & Tito Puente – Guantanamera from http://chrysalide.vox.com/

NYC Event : Oscar Hijuelos and Esmeralda Santiago at the New El Museo del Barrio Tonight

6:53 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Arts| Events| New York City| literature · 1 Comment

20 Oct 2009

oscar-esmerelda_main

In collaboration with the New York Times, highlighting the ever-growing influence of Latinos on culture and literature, don’t miss a conversación with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Oscar Hijuelos (Dark Dude and Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love) and award-winning writer Esmeralda Santiago (When I Was Puerto Rican: A Memoir and Almost a Woman). Authors will share insights into their sources of inspiration, delve into the influence of culture on their works, and discuss the evolving use of language. Moderated by New York Times reporter Mireya Navarro.

Free admission. Reserve your spot here.

VL At The Cine: The Ministers

1:59 pm By BiancaLaureano · Arts · 4 Comments

19 Oct 2009

the-ministers-poster-2

***SPOILERS AHEAD***

Have you heard of the film The Ministers? I didn’t either until last Tuesday when John Leguizamo sent a tweet about the film. I immediately went to search for more information on the film and watch the trailer.

Once I realized that it was a new Franc. Reyes film, had an all-star cast of people of Color, and centered the stories of people living in NYC I knew I wanted to see the film. I very quickly began to realize that I had never heard of the film because I had not heard anyone talk about it nor had I seen any trailers. Marketing for the film was/is less than exceptional. All the more reason to have my time and money counted for on opening day.

As the week progressed and Friday got closer, lots of media was created online about how the film was not receiving any marketing as other films coming out the same day. One of the main contributors to the online community voices was Casper Martinez with Latino Film Chatter. Commentary went from anger to the lack of marketing for the film, to encouraging communities to see the film, to boycotting AMC theaters (specifically 42nd Street which is one of two theaters showing the film in NYC). The boycott did occur later in the evening on Friday, but I was not there to participate. You may view a video created by and with folks at Being Latino here.
Read more…

The Fiction of Garcia Marquez’s Putas Tristes Vs. The Reality of Polanski’s Rape of a Child

12:12 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Arts| Movies · No Comments

12 Oct 2009

2hd00go Filming of the movie version of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s book, Memoria de mis Putas Tristes, has been halted in Mexico due to a lawsuit brought by The Regional Coalition Against Trafficking in Women and Girls in Latin America and the Caribbean that says that the film will promote pedophilia.

“As a book, it does not have access to the most vulnerable people in society,” Coalition director Teresa Ulloa told The Associated Press. “Once they make the movie, it will be in movie theaters and later it will surely be on television.”

According to the film’s co-director and producer, Ricardo del Rio, the lawsuit led to government officials in the Mexican state of Puebla withdrawing funding.

New Online and Soon to Print Revista : Red Door NY

7:28 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Arts| Magazines| Media| New York City · 1 Comment

11 Oct 2009

rdhome Started by amiga Elizabeth Torres, the virtual revista features all art forms from visual art to music, film, performance and literature.
While not a Latino/Latin American magazine per se, the premiere issue features many Latino and Latin American artists including Excusado Printsystem (*Frente gráfico independiente) from Colombia and Costa Rican Poet, Jose Maria Zonta.

Check out Red Door NY here.

Red Door NY has been born, finally.

The initiative was created as an independent door to connect the community and to serve as a space for free expression in any field. To allow each and everyone of you to become the protagonists and the creators of opportunities, threading waters between New York and the world, in a timeless manner. Our goal? Rebuilding present. Leaving a footprint in the city and causing reactions. Wake up. It is time to exist. Reaffirm your origins, be proud of your culture, of your talent, of your fears, doubts, and emotions. Share them.

Urban intervention, poetry in everything we see and do, no dress code. The proposal of RDNY has been created as an approach of interaction. Information and rebirth through culture and technology, in each page, in each segment.

Take this space as an invitation to step out of the box, break the format and the royal run around, and take some action. Show us what you’re made of, how your life is changing others, give everyone a chance to come in and be a part of your projects, your dreams, your story.

The time has come to quit complaining about the big charade of past-due concepts, useless policies, traditions, formality, square fairy-tales. Throw them out the window and walk inside the red door. Undress code exposed.

Give us raw, fresh, clean, simple truth. Question identity. Intrepid Self Expression. Reinvention. Rebellion. Recklessness. Conscience. Visual Eloquence. (and all that good stuff). All we ask for is to finally see art frolicking in reality. We exist.

Elizabeth Torres.

30 Days Of Latino Heritage: Highlights from BAAD!’s BlakTino Series

11:00 am By BiancaLaureano · Arts · No Comments

9 Oct 2009

As the 30 Days of Latino Heritage continues (don’t forget to submit something to the tumblr site Maegan created!), highlights from the Bronx Academy of Art and Dance (BAAD!) BlakTino Series have been captured! BAAD!’s goal with the BlakTino Series is to represent the African and indeginous communities that are often forgotten/ignored/excluded in the Latino experience/history/heritage.

If you missed the first two programs, one of Queer BlakTino Cartoonists/Illustrators and Erika Lopez’s performance, check out the videos below which are both from GRITtv with Laura Flanders.

Queering The Lines of Cartoons features Jennifer Camper, Carlo Quispe, and Erika Lopez who were three of four artist on the panel. Ivan Velez, Jr. was not able to attend the interview but was present on the panel. Visit the Bronx News Network site to see fotos of the panel!

Below is a clip from the first part of Erika Lopez’s “Nothing Left But The Smell” one-woman show about her experiences as a Black-Puerto Rican Bisexual Artist and how she realized and coped with her new identity: Welfare Queen. Some language in the video is Not Safe For Work (NSFW).

Radio VL: Brownout’s Aguilas And Cobras

1:38 pm By BiancaLaureano · Arts| Music · 1 Comment

8 Oct 2009

brownout

When someone shares with me a band that is said to create “funk” music something very specific comes to mind. Often what comes to my mind is not exactly what I hear when I listen to a new album. In my mind I think heavy electric bass, brass, sharp drumming, and an overall “big band” vibe. Brownout’s new album Aguilas And Cobras is exactly this.

The album is not heavy on lyrical content, but it does have a great focus on the quality of the music and creating a new sound combining traditional beats with fresh ones. The first track “Con El Cuete” is a subdued introduction to the album, a good song, yet not the strongest. With minimal lyrics in the song, we get to hear an emphasis on each instrument from drums, to strings, to even a cow bell. The second track “Ayer Y Hoy” is strong on the Latin influenced sounds with the brass opening up the song and maintaining a fierce presence with the percussion. How can you not want to dance to such a song?

Sweet D’Cadencia at Terraza 7 Train Cafe, NYC Last Night

1:33 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Arts| Culture| Music| New York City| Women · No Comments

8 Oct 2009

Last night amigo Diego Liriko released his first poetry collection, Arte Bestial. Because of sleeping toddlers I missed the actual reading portion of the evening at Terraza 7 Train Cafe here in Queens, NYC. Pero I did arrive in time to catch Sweet D’Cadencia, a trio of mujeres mixing poesia y musica.

Sweet D’Cadencia Performing at the Release of Diego Liriko’s Arte Bestial from VivirLatino on Vimeo.

Sweet D’Cadencia, at Terraza (7) Train Cafe, Queens, NYC , October 7th, 2009

Sweet D’Cadencia Performing at the Release of Diego Liriko’s Book, Arte Bestial from VivirLatino on Vimeo.

October 7th, 2009, Terraza 7 Train Cafe, Queens, NYC

Sweet D’Cadencia Parte 3 Performing at the Release of Diego Liriko’s Book, Arte Bestial from VivirLatino on Vimeo.

He’s probably one of the greatest child molesting directors of all time

12:18 pm By la Macha · Arts · Comments Off

1 Oct 2009

No, for the most part, I don’t think men of any color make any particular effort to stand against gendered/sexual violence against women. But every once in a while, every once in a great great while, A Really Decent Dude comes along, and makes me believe (at least for now).

Tom Morello (of Rage Against the Machine glory) speaks:

And on a side note, Jillian Michaels? I haven’t a damn clue who you are–but You. Rock.

Older Entries

Link Cariño | Hissip: [...] Who’s your mama? [...] [...]

la Macha: I agree totally with you bubbles. [...]

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la Macha: gabriel--i don't agree with you that women have a submissive nature--but that's ok, I guess. I agree [...]

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