"RAISING THE SPIRIT: SELF-PORTRAITS PERFORMED" is an ensemble theater & performance piece with six African American men who are trying to repair their lives and spirit after incarceration, substance abuse problems, and the trauma of displacement after Hurricane Katrina. The piece has developed through a series of theater and performance workshops conducted by Jose Torres Tama.

With the support of a grant award from the Arts Council of New Orleans, Torres Tama initiated a residency program at the Ashe Cultural Arts Center to work with a number of African American men from the Living Witness Social Services program. Through a series of theater and movement workshops, he guided the participants in developing an ensemble piece comprised of improvised stories, movement, and rituals that explore their personal trials of redemption after drug addiction, and the effects of a troubled past on their present journey to reinvention.

The show will be accompanied by a short film documentary of the workshop process as filmed by Afro Cuban filmmaker William Sabourin O'Reilly. The film of "Raising the Spirit" documents the creation process, and it serves as a sort of anatomy of lives unfolding, as it captures the theater exercises that engaged the participants in revealing their secret selves.

This program is supported by a grant from the Louisiana Division of the Arts, Office of Cultural Development, Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, in cooperation with the Louisiana State Arts Council as administered by the Arts Council of New Orleans.