The week that was!
Story Corps group
We had two terrific training sessions for local artists and
activists who want to be part of the Crisalida outreach team. The group jumped right in to the theater
games and storytelling exercises I gave them and then we looked at the Story
Corps do-it-yourself kit and discussed ways that we could bring this out to the
Coachella Valley. At a follow up meeting
I gave each person the assignment to do an interview with someone whose story
they’d like to hear. This is another
step in developing a story corps of the East Valley.
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| Plotting the workshop... |
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| The agenda... |
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| Theater game duets...words, voice, gesture... |
Among the participants was Maria (pictured below with her son Marco), a local poet who has deep involvement with the Purepecha community in Mecca. I am delighted that Maria will be doing a series of poetry/creative writing workshops with this vital and unique community for Crisalida in the coming weeks. Excellente!
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| Bill and Alma getting into it! |
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| The training crew... |
SAVE THE DATE - MAY
16TH
WHAT: East Valley Voices OUT LOUD: A Night of Poetry, Song,
Spoken Word and Music
WHO: Local songwriters, poets, hip hop
artists, spoken word artists, bands and dj’s, Produced by Crisalida and
Culturas Music and Art in partnership with College of the Desert, East Valley
Rep, and other East Valley groups.
WHEN: MAY 16TH 7 – 11PM
WHERE: Culturas Rancho Tenochitlan
50471 Polk St. Coachella,
CA 92236
Refreshment will be provided, bring
food for the table.
Interested in participating? PM David Gonzalez at the Crisalida Facebook
page HERE
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Meet Gina Chapa the Crisalida Project Manager
Behind every great project is a great project manager, and I
am beyond happy that Gina Chapa has signed on.
Gina is from the East Valley town of Thermal and has been a staunch
advocate for the people and land for most of her adult life. I first met Gina at the launch of
Crisalida at College of the Desert-Indio when she was the Constituent Services
Director for Congressman Ruiz. She
impressed me immediately as a “rubber-to-the-road” social activist with great
energy and a honed skillset. I never
dreamed Crisalida would find the perfect manager, but we did. Gina will be managing, coordinating,
co-visioning, and communicating to the Crisalida network of community partners,
artists, and others. We have Gina 20
hours a week for the duration of the project! Please reach out to Gina at gina@crisalida-arts.org
Culturas Music and Art Records Local Bands for Fundraiser
What are Hip Hop, RnB, Reggae, and Funk doing in
desert? Raising money, raising
awareness, that’s what. I was happy to
be a fly-on-the-wall for a day of live recording organized by Jon Becerra and
friends. They will be producing an
online album to promote local bands, and to raise funds for next year’s Synergy
Festival.
Enjoy these snapshots…
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| Members of the Hip Hop collective AMFM |
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| Jon Becerra and colleague... |
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| Awesome sound and recording by Eddie (last name coming!) |
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| Brainstorming future projects...Gina Chapa in center. |
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| Electric Lucy |
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| NEON says it all...bright, light, and welcoming! |
Leonardo Espinosa
Tells His Story, Part 1
It is a privilege to listen to an elder speak. The simple transmission of wisdom from lived
experience is a profound gift to those who hear it, to those who can learn from
it. Crisalida has adopted the motto from
Story Corps, (the brilliant national storytelling project founded by David
Isay) Listening is an Act of Love/Escuchar es Amar. That axiom was never truer as Gina and I sat
(along with Joe Mota and Nicole Sanchez from the Coachella Valley Housing
Coalition), in Leonardo Espinoza’s home in the Casas Uno housing project in
Coachella. With his adorable grandkids
peeking around the corner every few minutes Leonardo shared the opening
chapters of his story with us…why he came to America from Mexico in 1957, his
struggle to adjust, his heartbreak and loneliness, the friends and
opportunities that gave him hope, and the courage and strength that allowed him
to build a life, a family, a new home. After a few minutes it was clear that
Leonardo’s story could not be rushed, and could not fit within the 75 minutes
we had scheduled. At the end of the
session he agreed that we could come back for more interviews, and as a parting
gift he sang us this song. Enjoy
Leonardo, you’ll be hearing more from his life as an immigrant, a field worker,
an United Farm Workers organizer, and new American.
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| Leonardo, his granddaughter, yours truly. |
CVHC Casas community outreach
for Coachella Valley Housing Coalition
I will let the pictures do the talking here…just saying…
The East Valley Rep
is Born
It was a thrilling…no, historic, night at the Coachella
Valley Art Center in Indio – Desert Dreams, a new play by Laura
Araujo Salinas, received its first reading to inaugurate the birth of the East
Valley Rep, a theater company devoted to sharing the voices of the eastern
Coachella Valley. A full house welcomed
Artistic Director, Carlos Garcia to the stage where he introduced the East
Valley Rep, spoke about the EVR’s mission, offered concrete ways to get
involved, and then introduced the play.
The all-volunteer group of reader/actors did a terrific job bringing Ms.
Araujo-Salinas’ words to life. Given
that many of them drove 2+ hours to get to Indio for the reading, and that this
was a “cold” read done without the benefit of rehearsal, they gave dimension
and drama to the characters and situations.
After a short break with refreshments provided by Bill Shinsky
(founder/director of CVAC, and Crisalida) I moderated a spirited, and quite
useful 45 minute feedback session between the playwright, actors, and the
public during which many helpful nuggets were offered to Ms.
Araujo-Salinas. Crisalida will be
partnering with the EVR over the next year as they continue to grow, show, and
blow people’s minds with the power of live theater.
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| Artistic Director of EVR, Carlos Garcia |
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| Carlos Garcia, Laura Araujo-Salinas, dg. |
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| prepping the readers... |
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| Laura right before we started... |
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| Carlos giving an intro... |
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| All smiles at the end of a great evening. |
Meet Yreina Ortiz
Remember cutting out paper dolls? remember the joy of
scissors and construction paper? Remember the reveal of unfolding cut
paper? I do…it was magic holding those
round-edged little scissors, tracing lines, making objects…
Well the art of paper-cutting is alive and well in
Indio. Meet Yreina Ortiz a master
practitioner of the art of papel-picado, a traditional Mexican art form
practiced for centuries now updated with high-tech precision tools but
retaining all the soulful beauty of the craft.
I spent a breathtaking hour learning about Yreina’s art, watching her
design, cut, paste…and at the end she gave me a string of mariposas,
butterflies, the symbol of Crisalida. I
have asked Yreina to make mariposas out of wood for the van (tissue paper,
while wonderfully light and translucent is fragile after all), and to be a
workshop leader for Crisalida. She
showed me a book she made using paper cuts and photographs that tell the
stories her told her as a child – amazingly beautiful stuff. Visit Yreina’s website HERE. Again, enjoy!
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| Now THAT is what I'm talking about! |
Meet Francisco
Rodriguez
Meet Franciso Rodriguez Rodriguez, poet/writer and newly
minted community arts worker. CVHC
outreach director Joe Mota introduced Francisco to me and we hit it off right
away. I had asked him to bring some of
his writing to our meeting at a local café and quickly heard in his poetry a
probing mind and a distinct love of language.
Francisco will be writing a Poem of Praise based on Leonardo Espinosa’s
life story.
The Van – Moving on
Down the Road
Crisalida Van update
engine – check!
tires – check!
smog test – check!
registration and
plates – check!
The van is getting wrapped with a funky cool look as I write this.
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| ...one more tiny step on the way to greatness. |
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