Notes From A Native Daughter

Once, many, many years ago, I had the honor of playing Spider Woman / Spider Grandmother in Murray Mednick’s The Coyote Cycle. The culmination of performing this play meant we did seven acts through the night beginning at dusk and ending at sunrise. The Coyote, the Trickster, the Clown, and Spider Woman. The cycle of life, the story. The four elements. We had an audience. I stood eye-to-eye with an owl. Humbling.

As a native daughter, my sincere heart stands with Native Nations. We have one earth.

Their fight is our fight. Truly. It was an honor to march on Friday in Washington D.C. #WaterIsLife. Without water we don’t survive. None of us. None of this.

This episode is what I heard - their proclamation, their credo, the plea, the warning.

#WaterIsLife #NativeNationsMarch #IStandWithStandingRock #NoDAPL #NoPipelines #PeopleOverPipeline

I loved the movie Gladiator. Memory tells me, I went to see the film anywhere from 6 to 8 times on the big screen. I was mesmerized by it. Such a colossal spectacle in every single way – the music, the opening battle sequence, the costumes, the plot, the words, the vengeance, the colosseum battles, and the brilliance of Maximus Decimus Meridius, Marcus Aurelius, Commodus, Lucilla, Proximo, and Senator Gracchus.

#DayWithoutAWoman #IStrikeFor #Resistance

Alfonso Díaz, is the New York City arts, culture, and entertainment reporter and red carpet correspondent for the Colombian channel. As publicist he and I have worked in a variety of projects throughout the years. Put succinctly, debonair, in the truest sense of the word. Earning respect as a serious red carpet reporter is the most challenging part of his job. We talk about that, being out there when the lights are on and things happen that curtail the job. Glamour-drinks-and-drama. To honest Work.

#NTN24 #AlfonsoDiaz #TenemosQueHablar #Serious #Journalism #Latino #Español #RedCarpet #Reporter #Colombia #Noticias #Bilingual

In the realm of music and international arts relations, Claudia Norman is a legend. Period. Sweet as pie and as serious as any true diplomat out there Claudia is a risk taker and a champion of culture.

Some of her fierce credits including working with the legendary Sheldon Soffer, serving as Artistic Director of the Latino Cultural Festival at Queens Theater in the Park, Public Programming Producer for Lincoln Center Out of Doors and Midsummer Night Swing festivals, and La Casita, a festival celebrating oral traditions, poetry, hip-hop and global sounds. She’s served on many panels, worked with hundreds of artists from across the Northern and Southern American continent including the late and beloved Chabela Vargas. But goes beyond the region and one can say she has come across artists from all over the world. Her Celebrate Mexico Now Festival will be 17 this fall.

Art funding will be as hard today as it has always been, she says, and she’s optimistic. Me, not so much, at least not today. Notwithstanding, we agree, that art is the way.

#CelebrateMexicoNowFestival #Mexico #ArtsAndCulture #Women #Leaders #ArtsAdministration #Music #Dance #LivePerformacne #Love #Latino #LatinAmerican #Muslim

Arnaldo J. López is brilliant. Brilliant. His capacity to synthesize the underpinnings of almost any topic you present to him is uncanny. Now, all this brilliance I talk about, would never-ever-ever be spilled on you as condescension, which is what sets Arnaldo apart. Truly. Anyone that knows him will tell you that it’s so. And, one of the reasons I simply love him. He is dear to my heart for that and more...

I can bounce ideas off him and he takes them in. He listens. He makes sense of them and helps you navigate towards a conversation that is filled with depth and substance. And, those who know me well know I love deep and intense. Can’t help it.

This episode is about art, culture, artists, the structures that bind, build, and help the field stay afloat. We go deep and broad but it’s specific of the field and the reality that is creation, presentation, scale, access, identity and going at it in an ever changing financial and cultural landscape and now, a bellicose political climate.

#Art #Culture #Scale #Access #PregonesPRTT #LatinoTheater #NALAC #CulturallySpecificThetaer #Resistance #SOS #WaterIsLife #SaveTheInternet

Beatríz Ramos and Judy Mam rolled-out DADA for the digital age with DADA (dot) NYC. The original DADA movement, galloped onto the scene in the early 20th Century, to among other things, protest war and strife. Fancy that. DADA is stuff of myth for modern art history and beyond. Plenty has been studied, philosophized, and written about it.

But this is not that. It is and it isn’t. DADA (dot) NYC, is a platform where people can go draw and paint. What people draw is up to them. Beartíz imagined it as a collaborative rather than a competitive space. It is sort of like creating a Mandala. You put the time to create it, only, in the end, the symbol, the art does not get erased. Chances are someone else will come to your board and add on to it and the painting gets built together in a language without words.

We talk a lot in this episode 33, for an episode on invisible but palpable communication. But, no one is perfect...DADA (dot) nyc is for everyone. Go Look. Open up your heart. Draw. Resist.

#DADAnyc #resistance #art #artmatters #LanguageWithoutWords #TechandArts #TruthIsOutThere #WeAreStrongerTogether #Drawing #Community #NoDAPL #WaterIsLife

Powerful, determined, stand-up, a woman of her word, an award-winning filmmaker, actress, and director, Paola blows people away. She does, she’s got that something…I met her back when I was with my Falco Ink family as a film publicity and got the chance to do P.R. for her film Entre Nos.

I know her story very well. I wrote this piece for her book, The Ones Who Don’t Stay (Los Que No Se Quedan), for the Huffington Post. Her track record has enough substance for several episodes, from refugee camps in Kenya to immigration detention centers, Paola does not relent when it comes to immigrant rights. I also wrote this piece for the Huffington Post about her and the fabulous Gloria LaMorte, one of Paola’s creative and life sisters.

In this episode, we talk about the Women’s March. I asked her where her sense of duty comes from for the sake of those who don’t know her. Listen to her words. Hopefully, she’ll inspire you to stay the course and stand on simple but essential principles of humanity.

I, like her, and as stated in the Women’s March website in the Artists’ Table section, believe artists hold the power to humanize the most difficult of issues.

The work she and the women responsible for the Women’s March, have given us, the people of the world who believe that a better society is possible, a reason to stand against those trafficking with hate and demagoguery. Strength in numbers...

I for one, even in the darkest hour, hold to Anne Frank’s own words: Despite everything, I believe people are really good at heart.

#womensmarch #womenrightsarehumanrights #immigrantrightsarehumanrights ##resist #savetheearth #NoDAPL #cliamtechangeisreal #artmatters #

I marched with the Brick x Brick brigade. Brick x Brick is a public art performance that builds human “walls” against misogyny. We were a fabulous group of 120+ men and women and a marching band!

Brick x Brick Believes...

#womensmarch #womenrightsarehumanrights #brickxbrick #climatechange #artsaves #resistneofascism #lovetrumpshate

In this episode 30, I speak with the profoundly creative Sarah Sandman. My heart simply opened up to her as soon as I met her back in 2011 at Hostos Community College.

She works with big concepts. She creates experiences, through games and special assignments, where human capital is built and valued by doing the work.

Sarah was selected a 2015 TED Fellow and is Co-Director of Public Displays of Affection, a Brooklyn based agency engaged in works that ignite social and environmental causes through experiential design.

She found a serendipitous partner in award-winning costume designer Andrea Lauer, and together they developed the creative and political protest experience, brickxbrick. Two other partners came on board for Sarah and Andrea, TED Fellow, singer-songwriter, Kyra Gaunt; and TED Fellow and creative producer, Joey Foster Ellis.

Project description

The Brick x Brick group, now over 120+ people, will march next Saturday January 21, 2017, in Washington D.C. at the Women’s March.

The mission for the march

I’m marching with the Brick x Brick brigade next week at The Women’s March and am looking forward to it.

#womensmarch #brickxbrick #womenrightsarehumanrights #women #cliamtechange #blacklivesmatter #brownlivesmatter #alllivesmatter #wallagainstmisogyny #lovetrumpshate #resistneofascism

One of my favorite projects ever is Cinema Tropical. Equally a favorite of mine, is Carlos Gutiérrez, its co-founder and executive director. In this episode 29, I welcome him with sincere gusto. I admire him tremendously and love him with a bit of teenage innocence. We talk about life, fluid identity, film, and how and why Cinema Tropical champions Latin American cinema.

Cinema Tropical has matured holistically, fueled by Carlos’ admiration for filmmakers, using cinema as a tool to interpret the world, and his respect for the artistic, cultural, and civic voice of Latin America.

Carlos Aguilar of IndieWire published (December 26, 2016) “20 Latin Americans Making a Difference for American Independent Film Today, Meet the unsung heroes keeping Latin American film alive in the United States.” Great piece and Carlos is there, top left in the title image composite.

Next Friday, January 13, 2017, the 7th Cinema Tropical Awards. Visit the page for a full slate. Captivated by “Embrace of the Serpent” and “The Man Who Saw Too Much.”

#CinemaTropical #TropicalAwards #IndieWire #Film #independentfilm #LatinAmericanFilm #LatinAmericanfilmmakers #CarlosAguilar #USLatinos #LatinAmericans #Hispanics #Spanish #Portuguese #PanAmerican