¡Now y Para Siempre! Afro-Latin@ Open Mic
In memory of Piri Thomas (September 30, 1928 – October 17, 2011)
Piri Thomas (1928-2011)
4:00pm-5:30pm
This final conference event dedicated to writer, poet and storyteller Piri Thomas, brings together poets, musicians, singers, and other performers from diverse artistic backgrounds in an open forum for the creative expression of afrolatinidad.
This final conference event dedicated to writer, poet and storyteller Piri Thomas, brings together poets, musicians, singers, and other performers from diverse artistic backgrounds in an open forum for the creative expression of afrolatinidad.
Emcees
Enmanuel Candelario is a graduate of Fordham University, where he majored in political science and urban studies. An alumnus of The Brotherhood/Sister Sol’s Lyrical Circle, he has won slam competitions around the country, including the highly regarded Urban Word competition, and has also been a facilitator and trainer of youth poets at Urban Word. A facilitator at BHSS, he is also a co-founder of The Peace Poets, a community based arts collective in New York City whose mission is to create a safe space for youth to express themselves and become leaders.
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Frank Lopez graduated from New York University with a B.F.A. in Film and Television. He has taught video production workshops in the Dominican
Republic, Cuba, and Singapore and has facilitated spoken word writing workshops throughout New York City high schools and community centers. His film, "Black Boys Don't Cry:Manhood in Urban America" got him a grant from The Ford Foundation to finish his new film, "The Diaspora" a film about young teens in Harlem tracing back their roots as they travel to different African and Latin American countries. Frank just got back from Ireland and Germany where he was teaching film in Dublin with NYU and touring Berlin with his spoken word rap crew, The Peace Poets. |
Invited Guests
El Conjunto Folklórico of Alianza Dominicana is a group comprised of fifty young people between the ages of six and twenty-three that receive training on Dominican folk dance, Dominican carnival and other popular expressive traditions. The Conjunto trains in and performs traditional social dances including Merengue, Pambiche, Valse, Polka, Mazurka, Chivo Samanes, Sarambo, and Merengue Redonde; and sacred and semi-sacred dances. The Conjunto also receives instruction in Dominican cultural history, including its multi-cultural history, as manifested through its traditional music and dance, an overview of folk and popular music and dance, and methodology for field research. The members of the Conjunto Folklórico serve as cultural ambassadors throughout the Northeast.
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The Legacy Circle Women's Drum Cypher (TLC-WDC) is a cultural arts empowerment project of The Legacy Circle. Founded by Manuela Arciniegas, TLC-WDC is an all-women's traditional musical group rooted in Afro-Dominican and Afro-Puerto Rican traditions. Our women are the next generation of NYC's most gifted drummers, singers, and dancers of Afro-Caribbean music, including Palos, Congos, Salves, Bomba and Plena. Our cypher makes music that celebrates the fiery, nurturing, defiant, yet wise touch that women have. We recognize that we possess feminine power that holds up our community, and honor the immense contributions women make everyday. Our performances are only part of our process of building sisterhood with each other and imbuing our audiences with joy and strength—women warrior style. Our members include: Nina Paulino, Kaila Paulino, Ines Cabassa, Julia Gutierrez-Rivera, Maria Eugenia Rivera, Julia Gutierrez-Rivera, Yelimara Concepcion, among others.
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Frantz Jerome has performed his poetry at an array of venues that include the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Performance Space 122, Summer Stage in St. Mary’s Park, the Nuyorican Poets Café, the Bowery Poetry Club, The New School, the Borough of Manhattan Community College, and at assorted other venues throughout New York City. He performs annually as a part of the arts activist group Poetic People Power, as well as with Massachusetts youth as a part of the youth-performance hip-hop theatre retreat Project 2050; now an ensemble of alumni named 2050 Legacy. He was also a featured poet in the publication Off the Subject: The Words of the Lyrical Circle of The Brotherhood/Sister Sol. He is currently a member of The Peace Poets and 2050 Legacy ensembles.
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Tato Laviera was born in Puerto Rico and has lived in New York City since 1960. A poet and playwright, he writes in English, Spanish, and Spanglish to produce works informed by popular culture, the oral tradition of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, and by the voices heard in El Barrio. His poetry and plays are linguistic and artistic celebrations of Puerto Rican culture, African Caribbean traditions, the fast rhythms of life in New York City, and of life in general. His work emphasizes the unity and common roots of African Americans and Puerto Ricans: “it is called Africa in all of us.” He has taught creative writing at Rutgers University and other educational institutions.
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Mariposa was born María Teresa Fernández is a freelance writer, actor, educator, visual artist and human rights activist. She is the author of Born Bronxeña: Poems on Identity, Love & Survival and has published articles and poetry in numerous national and international periodicals. A highly acclaimed performer she has appeared at venues as diverse as the Nuyorican Poets Café, the Joseph Papp Public Theater, the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture and the World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa. She has taught poetry workshops to elementary, middle school, and high school students throughout New York City.
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Anthony Morales is a writer/educator from the Bronx who has appeared on HBO's Def Poetry and toured the U.S. and Puerto Rico. He currently is an English facilitator at El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice in Brooklyn, NY. He has published three books, Story Avenue (2004), Chevere Cafre (2009), and Dice Queso (2010). Most recently, he was published in a Puerto Rican multimedia multi-genre journal, enlaorilla.com
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