DESERT
MIRAGE HIGH SCHOOL - COACHELLA
Meet playwright, actor, theater-maker,
and long-time dedicated theater teacher Carlos Garcia. Carlos and I
talked in the black box theater in Desert Mirage High School where he has
taught for the past ten years. Carlos spoke to me about the challenges of
being a Latino theater artist in a community that doesn't seem to value
theater, and especially theater that speaks in 3D matrix of bi-lingual
wordsmithing -- niether English, nor Spanish, but that multi-grounded/levitated
textual space that reaches across the cultural divide of the mono-lingual
monolith.
He has a dream...to create a Latino
Theater Company that creates, produces and performs bi-lingual theater that
reaches the people of the Coachella Valley, and beyond to the bi-cultural
communities that are a growing and vibrant reality in the US. To that end
we cooked up a reading of his play, La Mala, that will be done in the coming
weeks at the Coachella Valley Arts Center (see previous blog). We will do
a table read of the multi-character play with a bi-lingual cast of readers, and
an invited audience. A hearty discussion and dramaturgical session will
follow. Please check in on this blog for updates.
I will be giving performance workshops
for the advanced theater students at Desert Mirage HS in the coming weeks --
looking forward to that.
COLLEGE
OF THE DESERT - INDIO CAMPUS
On Thursday afternoon I visited Jacalyn
Garcia-Lopez's Art History class in the brand new Indio Campus of College of
the Desert. The lecture centered on the variety of ways that art
"functions" with special attention given to Maxine Greene's notion of
"awakening". I read some of my poetry, and showed clips of
Butoh dancing and images from Hiroshima, I performed part of my rhymed-verse
version of Sleeping Beauty and told the story of how I got into music therapy
(Geraldo Rivera played a major role). The students were vivacious,
curious and engaged. They said they would be happy to have me
return. Got to say that the students' curiosity got under my skin, in a
very good way. Congrats to COD/Indio for giving these people a place to
learn, and to Jacalyn Garcia-Lopez for making an intellectual and soulful space
that welcomes them, and makes them want to inquire.
GALILEE
CENTER - MECCA
How often do angels toss you a head of
cabbage? Rare, but possible, especially if you happen to drop into the
Galilee Center in Mecca on a Thursday afternoon when the weekly food
distribution pickup is about to open its doors to 900 needy people. Meet
Gloria Gomez and Claudia Castrorena, spiritual sisters, and the powerhouse duo
behind this booming organization that provides not only boxes of food, but
counseling, housing help, medical support, a hip thrift shop, and many other
much-needed things to the eastern most town in the Crisalida Project's
geographical area.
Gloria and Claudia started in Indio
with five bucks and a wish to help the poor. The result was the thriving Martha
Center, now running under its own steam, with new administration and a
multi-million dollar budget, and bouyed by the everlasting imprint of its
founders humble, serious, and deeply compassionate leadership. Several
years ago they decided that they needed to bring their special brand of
community work to the poor of Mecca, so once again with only five dollars they
began soliciting donations, reaching out to the people, and convincing one
person at a time that the impossible was indeed possible, that the most
helpless could be helped, that there was hope, that there was food enough, that
there were hands to carry, ears to listen, and a voice that would speak when
their voices were ignored.
This is the side panel of one of the
Galilee pick up vans that travel throughout the region retrieving donations.
The strength of their vision was/is
matched by the strength of their character and so the job gets done, one
cabbage at a time, one box of food at a time, one hug at a time.
We talked about trying out a mobile
concert stage on a Thursday afternoon in December, but first I want to
volunteer on the food line, to learn more, but more importantly to be
shoulder-to-shoulder with a couple of funky angels in Mecca.
See more at www.galileecenter.org
CULTURAS
MUSIC AND ART - COACHELLA
This giant dinosaur head is part of the
welcoming committee that greeted me at the board of directors meeting for
CULTURAS Music and Art, the Coachella arts non-profit responsible for the
vastly successful Synergy Festival. My GPS had to have been going
haywire, this endless strip of dusty empty land could not possibly be the
location for the board meeting...there were a few houses, a couple of trailers,
and one of those vast vistas that is equal parts terror and beauty. So I
called and Oralia picked up, "Was that you in the silver car that just
drove past?" "Yup." "Well turn around and come
on in." You never know what lies behind an open door, or down a
driveway. In this case it was the amazingly hip and inviting
studio/art-space/performance-space/cafe/anything-can-happen place known as Cafe
Tenochitlan, owned and operated by Ruben Gonzalez, and the meeting place of
CULTURAS.
The place is a marvel -- think the
outpost saloon in Star Wars meets an outsider art show -- a place filled with
provocative work, whimsy, brains, and especially soul. Just stepping out
my car I felt the power of art all around me, creativity bubbling all
around...sculpture, paintings, equipment, materials, collections, junk and
brilliance. So when I sat down at the table in the patio with the
CULTURAS board I was stoked to learn more.
This meeting was a planning session for
their upcoming Synergy Festival (November 15th in Coachella), so they were
looking at the line up of bands, reviewing proposals from vendors and
discussing marketing and other critical details. In attendance were:
Oralia "Yaya" Ortiz, Mario Garcia (spoken word artist), Ruben
Gonzalez, Pepe Rivera, Jack Rosales, Keila Cupil, Clarissa Camacho, and AZ (a
maker of hip hop tracks and owner of a studio in the valley).
I was asked to give an overview of
Crisalida and then fielded questions about the particulars of the
project. There was general excitement about collaboration, and I felt as
though I had landed in the arms of my tribe -- artists and activists who are
putting rubber to the road for their vision of a better community.
Mario offered to perform for us and
took the neon-ringed stage beneath the stars. His spoken word performance
was terrific, funky, fueled with passion and intellect. We have set up a
coaching session so that I can try to help him in preparation for the finals of
the Tilted Kilt Open Mic competition next Wednesday. We will meet at AZ's
studio so I will be able to hear the trax they have been producing. Both
AZ and Mario told me that their intention was to make music and studio space
that could/would support the community. Great young people standing up
for art and community. Dang.
SYNERGY FESTIVAL LINKS:
Volunteers and donations gratefully
accepted!
Check them out here:
Angels in America come in all shapes
and sizes, and languages, and abilities, and...
d.
