new short film: dreams (sueños)

film still

Here’s a link to info about a new piece I’ve been working on: dreams (sueños). It’s a short film that I think of as a visual poem in three parts. It is about the negotiation of the neighboring cities of Miami and Havana, both physically and politically. It will be in the show, Space is the Place, this summer at Diaspora Vibe Gallery, in Miami.

cuban blogger

(from the New York TImes, March 6, 2008)

Yoani Sánchez, 32, and her husband, Reinaldo Escobar, 60, established Consenso desde Cuba , a Web site based in Germany. Ms. Sánchez has attracted a considerable following with her blog, Generación Y, in which she has artfully written gentle critiques of the government by describing her daily life in Cuba. Ms. Sánchez and her husband said they believed strongly in using their names with articles despite the possible political repercussions.

photo by Jose Goitia for The New York Times

zora neale hurston film on pbs

A documentary about Zora Neale Hurston will air this week on PBS.

	Zora Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun April 9, 2008 at 9 pm Check local listings Writer, cultural anthropologist, chronicler of folk roots and ethnic traditions, daughter of former slaves, Hurston was one of the most celebrated – and most controversial – figures of the Harlem Renaissance.

political theater about liberty city

– from the play “Liberty City,” now onstage at the New York Theater Workshop through Sunday, March 16

article online from the NYTimes

and a review from the NYTimes

In the play, Thompson plays generations of characters primarily based on herself, her family and the other African-Americans and Caribbean immigrants with whom they came in closest contact (and conflict) in the struggling, vibrant and politically charged Miami neighborhood of Liberty City from the late 1960s on.

Here are a couple of quotes I found intriguing from the article:

“too much political theater gets locked into preaching to the converted. But it doesn’t have to. As long as you use the central tool of empathy. That’s how you make good theater, and theater for people who may not know about the things you’re dealing with.”  – Jessica Blank

“What so much of the theater of politics is missing is the artistic part.” -April Yvette Thompson

It’s great that a play like this has been written and is now on stage. Now, when is it coming to Miami?

virtual caribbeans (this week in new orleans)

A Conference on Representation, Diaspora and Performance in and on the Caribbean

Tulane University, New Orleans, LA
February 28 – March 1, 2008

I’ll be leaving soon for the Virtual Caribbeans Conference in New Orleans, which has been organized by folks at Tulane University. I’ve been working hard on getting my presentation ready, and I’m looking forward to a great conference. My paper is titled, “Performance in the Archive: Re-imagining the Cuban Diaspora and Contemporary Cuban Art through the Performance-Based Photography of María Magdalena Campos-Pons and Marta Maria Peréz Bravo.” If you are so inclined, you can read part of the paper here. Any tips for my stay in New Orleans? Pass them along.

Among other exciting activities during the conference, I am especially excited about:

– seeing Annalee Davis’s film and discussing it with her and others

– witnessing a Carmelita Tropicana performance in-person

– meeting other people working on themes of art, migration, and the Caribbean