The Drums are Calling my Name / An essay by Nicolás in Making Caribbean Dance: Continuity and Creativity in Island Cultures
Dec
10
to Sep 26

The Drums are Calling my Name / An essay by Nicolás in Making Caribbean Dance: Continuity and Creativity in Island Cultures

Making Caribbean Dance: Continuity and Creativity in Island Cultures / Edited by Susanna Sloat Explore the vibrant and varied dance traditions of the Caribbean islands


To order click HERE / To read excerpt click HERE / To view table of contents click HERE

“An indispensable resource that belongs on the bookshelf . . . of any serious student of Caribbean music, dance, and general culture. . . . All of the contributions are useful and informative in their distinct ways.”—Dance Chronicle

 “In keeping with the themes of continuity and creativity, essayists reference racial and national groups’ ancestral roots and influences even as they enthusiastically promote and celebrate evolving choreographies, highly individualized performances, newly discovered traditions, and costumes and participants. Highly recommended.”—Choice

 “As a compendium of well-described and specific examples of dances that, onthe whole, are rarely seen or experienced outside their specific cultural settings, Making Caribbean Dance is an excellent reference source.”—Dance Research Journal

 “Susanna Sloat has done it again. Following on the heels of the success of Caribbean Dance from Abakuá to Zouk, Sloat’s new interdisciplinary collection extends the reach of dance scholarship to command the attention of all genres of forward-thinking students of the Caribbean.”—Joan Frosch, University of Florida

“Vivid portraits of important, rarely described corners of the Caribbean, revealed through voices both poetic and analytic.”—Catherine Evleshin, Portland State University

 Caribbean dance is a broad category that can include everything from nightclubs to sacred ritual. Making Caribbean Dance connects the dance of the islands with their rich multicultural histories and complex identities. Delving deep into the many forms of ritual, social, carnival, staged, experimental, and performance dance, the book explores some of the most mysterious and beloved, as well as rare and little-known, dance traditions of the region.

From the evolution of Indian dance in Trinidad to the barely known rituals of los misterios in the Dominican Republic, this volume looks closely at the vibrant and varied movement vocabulary of the islands. With distinctive and highly illuminating chapters on such topics as experimental dance makers in Puerto Rico, the government's use of dance in shaping national identity in Barbados, the role of calypso and soca in linking Anglophone islands, and the invented dances of dance-hall kings and queens of Jamaica, this volume is an evocative and enlightening exploration of some of the world’s most dynamic dance cultures.

 Use code AU1224 at checkout. Or order by phone, 800.226.3822. Discount valid until December 31, 2024. Standard shipping fees apply. Offer valid for individuals only and cannot be applied to bookstore or library orders.

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Banana Company Artwashes Its Bloody Legacy at Art Basel Miami Beach Chiquita has no place in the arts, let alone at an art fair with deep ties to Latin America
Dec
10
to Dec 10

Banana Company Artwashes Its Bloody Legacy at Art Basel Miami Beach Chiquita has no place in the arts, let alone at an art fair with deep ties to Latin America

Nicolás Dumit Estévez, Chiquito Banano (as part of USA Paradisiaca), performance presented in 2001 at Estrella Latina Restaurant, Queens New York / Presented with Crossing the Line, an exhibition curated by Valerie Smith for Queens Museum

Banana Company Artwashes Its Bloody Legacy at Art Basel Miami Beach Chiquita has no place in the arts, let alone at an art fair with deep ties to Latin America / Juanita Solano Roa and Blanca Serrano Ortiz de Solórzano

“Rachelle Mozman Solano’s fantastical video in which the founder of the United Fruit Company, Minor Cooper Keith, is infected with Panama disease, as is the banana monoculture worldwide? Have the fair organizers seen the 2008 May Day series by Andrea Chung, who currently has a solo show at the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, in which she erases farmers from vintage plantation photographs to give them a day off? Is anyone familiar with Nicolás Dumit Estévez’s brilliant, queer Latinx impersonation of “Chiquito Banano“? Shouldn’t the map of Miami be redesigned as a banana, as in Dominican York artist Yunior Chiqui Mendonza’s poignant “Bananhattan,” recasting New York City in the fruit’s image?” Hyperallercic, December 6, 2024

To read the full piece in Hyperallergic, click HERE

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A Handbook of Latinx Art / by Rocío Aranda-Alvarado (Editor), Deborah Cullen-Morales (Editor)
Dec
10
to Dec 10

A Handbook of Latinx Art / by Rocío Aranda-Alvarado (Editor), Deborah Cullen-Morales (Editor)

A Handbook of Latinx Art 

by Rocío Aranda-Alvarado (Editor), Deborah Cullen-Morales (Editor)

To purchase click HERE

A curated selection of key texts and artists’ voices exploring US Latinx art and art history from the 1960s to the present.
 
Is the first anthology to explore the rich, deep, and often overlooked contributions that Latinx artists have made to art in the United States. Drawn from wide-ranging sources, this volume includes texts by artists, critics, and scholars from the 1960s to the present that reflect the diversity of the Latinx experience across the nation, from the West Coast and the Mexican border to New York, Miami, and the Midwest.
 
The anthology features essential writings by Mexican American, Puerto Rican, Cuban American, Dominican American, and Central American artists to highlight how visionaries of diverse immigrant groups negotiate issues of participation and belonging, material, style, and community in their own voices. These intersectional essays cut across region, gender, race, and class to lay out a complex emerging field that reckons with different histories, geographies, and political engagements and, ultimately, underscores the importance of Latinx artists to the history of American art.

 

Table of Contents

Contents

Introduction 

FRAMING LATINX ART

The Latino Presence in American Art
E. Carmen Ramos, 2012

Synopsis of the Symposium on the Hispanic American Aesthetic: Origins, Manifestations, 
and Significance
Jacinto Quirarte, 1983

Wonder Bread and Spanglish Art
Luis Camnitzer, 1990

Zero Identity: Third Fragments
Papo Colo, 1991

Border Culture: The Multicultural Paradigm
Guillermo Gómez-Peña, 1990

Between Two Waters: Image and Identity in Latino-American Art
Mari Carmen Ramírez, 1991

The Other History of Intercultural Performance
Coco Fusco, 1995

MEXICAN AMERICAN AND CHICANO/A/X PERSPECTIVES

“Portraying Ourselves”: Contemporary Chicana Artists
Shifra M. Goldman, 1988

Indigenismo: The Call to Unity
Amalia Mesa-Bains, 1989

Twentieth-Century Latin American and Latinx Art in the Midwestern United States: 
Chronological Overview
Olga U. Herrera, 2008

The Con Safo Art Group (1968–76), San Antonio, Texas
Ruben C. Cordova, 2022

From Populist to Pop: The Graphic Arts of the Chicano and Puerto Rican Movements
Henry C. Estrada, 1999

Birth of a Movement: Thirty Years in the Making of a Site of Public Memory
Judith F. Baca, 2001

La Raza Cósmica: An Investigation into the Space of Chicana/o Muralism
Sandra de la Loza, 2011

¡Tenemos Asco! An Oral History of the Chicano Art Group
Sean Carrillo, Harry Gamboa Jr., Willie Herrón, Glugio “Gronk” Nicandro,
Humberto Sandoval, Joey Terrill, and Patssi Valdez, 2022

Axis Mundo: Constellations and Connections
C. Ondine Chavoya and David Evans Frantz, 2017

The Orphans of Modernism
Chon A. Noriega, 2008

PUERTO RICAN AND NUYORICAN HISTORIES

Puerto Rican Artists in the USA: Solidarity, Resistance, Identity
Susana Torruella Leval, 1998

Cayman and MoCHA: When the Formula Worked
Taína Caragol, 2022

Culture and the People
Ralph Ortiz (Raphael Montañez Ortiz), 1971

The Activist Legacy of Puerto Rican Artists in New York and The Art Heritage of Puerto Rico
Yasmin Ramirez, 2007

The Puerto Rican Equation: Art as Plebiscite for Survival, Struggle, and Sovereignty 
Juan Sánchez, 1998

The Possible Role for the Caribbean Artist in an Urban Setting
Jorge Soto, 1980

CUBAN AMERICAN VOICES

Dialectics of Isolation
Ana Mendieta, 1980

Milk of Amnesia/Leche de Amnesia
Carmelita Tropicana, 1995

Double Invisibility: Cuban Performance and the US Context 
Elvis Fuentes, 2008

Liminal Places
Teresita Fernández, 2023

DOMINICAN YORK VIEWPOINTS

The Island within the Island: Remapping Dominican York
Tatiana Reinoza, 2018

A Complicated Affair: Performing Life on the Margin between Art and Politics
Nicolás Dumit Estévez, 2011

NEW DIRECTIONS

“Does That Come with a Hyphen? A Space?” The Question of Central American–Americans in 
Latino Art and Pedagogy
Kency Cornejo, 2015

Afro-Latinx at NYU: How Multiple Facets of Black Latinidad Are Claiming Space. 
Yelaine Rodriguez, 2021

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New Essay published: Orlando Marin —The Last Mambo King Memorial That Danced Us All into Life
Jan
31
to Jan 31

New Essay published: Orlando Marin —The Last Mambo King Memorial That Danced Us All into Life

  • Google Calendar ICS

Published by Taylor & Francis in ANTHROPOLOGY NOW!

To purchase this essay click HERE

In this piece I narrate my experience attending the memorial for The Last of the Mambo Kings. This was a gathering in the Bronx of some of the luminaries of the Salsa and Mambo universe. 

Through my research for this essay, I learned that the meaning of Mambo is that of a conversation with the Gods, and that is how it felt for me to be at Marin’s memorial: a deeply spiritual coming together of community. 

I have access to 50 free digital copies and if you are seriously interested in reading this piece, please text me and I will share a copy with you while this offer lasts.

Published by Taylor & Francis in ANTHROPOLOGY NOW / The Last Mambo King Memorial That Danced Us All into Life on Volume 16, 2024 - Issue 3


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Performing the Bronx with Charles Rice-González  & Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel  / Queer presence in the Bronx
May
4
12:00 PM12:00

Performing the Bronx with Charles Rice-González & Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel / Queer presence in the Bronx

Left to right: Photo of Charles Rice-González / Courtesy of the artist 
Photo of Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel / Courtesy of the artist 

Presented as part of Historias with The Clemente and as part of Performing the Bronx

To join  this free experience and to received specific directions as to where to meet, contact Nicolás at indioclaro@hotmail.com or click HERE 

Sunday, May 4, 12 Noon, 2025 
Meet at BAAD! 2474 Westchester Avenue
Charles Rice-González and Nicolás convene with a group to activate LGBTQ+ space – outdoors in the open –through writing. This event is co-shaped by all participants as a ritual that honors the queer Bronxites who have been here before and who have courageously inhabited our neighborhoods. Taking this as a point of inspiration, all of those present give this experience tangible form through an altar in flux, to be infused with the writings that emerge, the devotions that arise, and any other offerings to this impermanent socio-emotional sculpture. 

Queer presence in the Bronx continues to inform the cultures, activisms and spirits of this part of New York City where many of those existing at the edges of society have played a central role in the struggle for social justice. Charles will guide us all into the herstories/theirstories/ourstories/histories whose roots run deep into the rich soil of our borough, and which have allowed many of us to flower.

What are the catalyst organizations, groups and individuals – some no longer existing or alive in physical form – who must be remembered and their impetus invoked into our now? 

Please bring a simple offering for the altar.

For directions to BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance click HERE
The closest train is the number 6 to Westchester Square in the Bronx. BAAD! and then walk a couple of blocks. 
 
Charles Rice-González, born in Puerto Rico and reared in the Bronx, is a writer, long-time community and LGBTQ activist, and co-founder of BAAD! The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance and an Associate Professor at Hostos Community College - CUNY. He received an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Goddard College. His debut novel Chulito (Magnus Books 2011) has received nearly a dozen awards including honors from the American Library Association and the National Book Critics Circle. His writing's been published in over a dozen journals and anthologies, and he co-edited From Macho to Mariposa: New Gay Latino Fiction. His play I Love Andy Gibb was published in Blacktino Queer Performance: A Critical Anthology, and Los Nutcrackers: A Christmas Carajo has been produced each year at BAAD! since 2004. 

His honors include a MacDowell Fellowship, Letras Boricuas Fellowship, a Lannan Foundation Fellowship, a PEN Writing as Activism Fellowship, the Lambda Literary Foundation's Dr. Betty Berzon Emerging Writer Award, an Audre Lorde scholarship from the ZAMI Foundation, and a Gay City News Impact Award for his activism and contributions to advancing the lives of LGBTQ people. 

In 1998, Charles co-founded, with award-winning choreographer/dancer Arthur Aviles, BAAD! - The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance is a cultural organization and theater that presents empowering works for women, people of color, and the LGBTQ community. 
 
He serves on the boards of the Bronx Council on the Arts and the National Association of Latino Art and Cultures, where he is currently chair of both. Website

This event will be documented through video and photographs. Those attending must be okay with this. 

To join this gathering, please contact Nicolás at indioclaro@hotmail.com  or click HERE

ABOUT: PERFORMING THE BRONX
Since 2015 Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel has invited a group of remarkable Bronxites to co-develop actions embedded in the day-to-day of our beloved home borough. The gestures that emerge are presented in private spaces, as well as in the Bronx's public realm, and focus on the roots that weave these visionaries with specific communities and neighborhoods in our part of the City. Performing the Bronx is an expansion of Nicolás’s ongoing  in honoring, recovering, reclaiming and remembering herstories/histories/theirstories of the area’s neighbors and  trailblazers that run the risk of being effaced by time, lost in the midst of neighborhoods in flux, or dismissed by dominant discourses that often position themselves at the center of the conversation. 

Past participants: Arthur Avilés, Bill Aguado, Benny Bonilla, Mili Bonilla, Caridad De La Luz ‘La Bruja’, Dr. Drum, Ana ‘ROKAFELLA’ García, Reverend Danilo Lachapel, Wanda Salamán, and Rhina Valentin

Performing the Bronx as a whole has been supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Casita Maria’s South Bronx Culture Trail 2020, and the Bronx Council on the Arts. It has also received love, space and support from Mothers on the Move, BronxNet TV, The Andrew Freedman Home, and BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance.

The 2025 chapters of Performing the Bronx with Lisa Ortega, and Charles Rice-González are presented with support from Historias, a multi-year programmatic initiative led by The Clemente in partnership with LxNY and supported by the Rauschenberg Foundation. Historias celebrates the transformative impact of Latinx communities in NYC through research, artistic interpretations, and public engagement.

 

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