Jose Torres Tama & ArteFuturo Productions - New Orleans, LA Performance -Artist

This post-residency coverage is on the Atlanta project (April 23-28, 2001) presented by Alternate ROOTS and Projects South in partnership with the Arts Exchange, ART PAPERS, Mundo Hispanico, the Auburn Avenue Research Library and the Georgia Citizens Coalition on Hunger. Dios mio, que cantidad de colaboradores. If you can imagine these various organizations coming together, then, you can begin to picture the success that such a fruitful coalition forged. In my seven years of touring across the country and overseas, I have never had the privilege of experiencing such a genuine community effort involving such a variety of partners. I've been fortunate to have had successful projects, but never with this amount of presenting partners. It's the kind of project that you regret has to come to an end. I left Atlanta charged to continue with my pen as my sword, con mi espada de palabras y la pasion de un poeta bravo.

The diversity in ethnicity, gender and generations of the participants in attendance at the workshops and the performances was truly something rare as we had teens and adults form the African American and Latino communities and the community as a whole. Specially successful were the efforts made to reach out to the Latino community, and through the support of Susanna Brady, an Argentinean arts patron, the local Latino media responded with two radio interviews, where tickets to the performances were given away--ayy que rico-- and a feature story profiling the residency in Mundo Hispanico--que suave! As such, I rarely send out post-residency reports, but I have to make an exception. And by the way, I was meaning to send this out much earlier, but my computer problems and other touring demands added to the delay. Pues mejor ahora que nunca. Better late than never cyber-vatos--andale como una paloma loca en cyber-espacio.

The week began at the Auburn Avenue Research Library (in the heart of downtown Atlanta) where I presented a multi-media peformance analysis called Media and the American Mind, in which I address the media's manipulation of our collective psyches, the portrayals of Latinos and African Americans on TV and in Hollywood, and issues of cultural appropriation. Using slides form advertising and videotaped TV commercials, the objective is to analyze the seemingly benign TV commercials that we welcome into our living rooms and the ads that bombard us daily to discuss the effect such media has on race relations and issues of identity.

One commercial that prompted some interesting responses concerning cultural appropriation was a Budweiser beer commercial that ran during the Olympics. The setting for the opening scene is a Buddhist Temple--ayy que no--que si! Immediately, we see a young monk, who seems to be running late for the morning prayers, heading out of the temple to join about a dozen other monks sitting in the lotus position. They are engrossed in the act of chanting, but their prayers are disturbed by the sound of the BUD blimp flying above the tranquil mountainous landscape. The monks gleefully point up to the blimp--the symbol of the American global presence. From here the commercial cuts to other global sights (wonders of the world) like the Great Wall of China, above the head of a jogging bushman in the African plains, then, onto Western Europe, where the blimp is sighted at the Eiffel Tower, over a canal in Venice, etc. This blimp gets around amigos--que pendejada!

In order to stimulate the dialogue, I offered a counter scenario of a Bud commercial that would, perhaps, open within a church, showing the Christ figure coming off the cross to point towards the blimp outside or, even better yet, have himself a Bud after a heavy day of hanging on the cross. Porque no! Yes, because after all, the act of suffering for everyone's sins builds an unquenchable thirst--ayy caramba--que sacrilegious! Of course, such a commercial would never make it to the air. The point being that not much of a fuss was made by the usage of Buddhist monks (or actors pretending to be monks) to sell Budweiser beer because, well, this is not a Buddhist country. Our religious symbols were not inappropriately exploited for commercial purposes. When I have shown this commercial at some colleges across the country, there is often one or two faculty members who are Buddhist and find this commercial quite offensive--si pues, of course!

In the process, a very healthy discussion developed concerning the interpretation of media images and the choices made by corporate executives when selling their products, for if there was a Buddhist present at that board meeting when the decision was made to use the monks, he/she might have objected. But then again, what Buddhist would be working for Budweiser anyway? Nonetheless, without such representation, the cultural other's voice is not heard. Well, we hardly began to scratch the media surface before the time was up.

On Wednesday and Thursday evenings, two consecutive three-hour workshops were offered to the community at large and held at The Arts Exchange, an African American Community Arts Center in East Atlanta. Respectively entitled Improvisation and the Spoken Word and Exploring the Personal to Comment on the Political, these workshops are designed to unfetter the creative spirit and use performance techniques to tell one's story with text, symbolic movement, and improvisation. The workshops were attended by an inter-generational and ethnically diverse group of young people, middle-aged adults and mature adults. The diversity in ethnicity and age was a rare experience for me as a facilitator because quite often if there is ethnic diversity, it is of one age group such as teens, college students, or community adults and actors. I believe that a dynamic energy was forged with the participation of such variety in age differences, for the young inspired the old and vise-versa. Everyone gave of themselves to the process, resulting in a burst of unedited creativity.

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Participating youth in dramatic arts workshop called "Improvisation and The Spoken Word," conducted at The Arts Exchange, An African America Community Arts Center, in East Atlanta. (April 2001)
Photo © Charlotte Cameron, Director of The Arts Exchange

Being a big fan of Frederico Garcia Lorca's writings, I invoked his ideas of "El Duende," the Spanish word for magical dwarf or mischievous spirit--the muse, if you will. "El Duende's" presence was requested to come forth and unleash irrational mind or right side of the brain that is the catalyst to the creative process, but is often kept at check by the rational world that demands more use of the left brain--which helps us balance our check books. Garcia Lorca believed that great Flamenco happened when both the dancer and the guitarist were absorbed by "El Duende," possessed in the art-making moment to the point that they forgot themselves and became avatars of a new creative truth--que rico--me gusta "El Duende." Thus, he believed that great writing, poetic leaps, and art happened when "El Duende" was in the house.

Well, I am happy to report that "El Duende" came forth and made his presence known during both workshop nights of Wednesday and Thursday, April 25-26. After leading the group through some basic physical theatre exercises, creative leaps happened. The first night, a collective improvised poem was followed by vignettes of symbolic movement, whereby two performers told stories using their bodies and hands as narrative tools. Most memorable was the combination of totally converse movements by a woman in her mid twenties/thirties partnered with a young man. The woman moved in slow motion, with almost horror stricken movements, that was in contrast to the nervous erratic movements of the young man, who sat, stood up, and rolled around the stage--muy abstracto y dramatico!

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Participants in dramatic arts workshop called "Exploring the Personal to Comment on the Political in Performance," conducted at The Arts Exchange. (April 2001)
Photo © Jose Torres Tama

The second night "El Duende" was in full force as the group grew in numbers to about fifteen and in creative leaps. Towards the end of the evening, I invited everyone to perform a five-minute improvised dramatic childhood experience informed by the application of the various performing techniques that had been explored, including poetic prose, body movement, and emotional commitment. Above all, the most important aspect of these workshops is to create a safe and neutral space where you are free to express your inner-most fears or joys without judgement--in the safety of other creative souls. As such, unedited creative choices were encouraged to allow the improvisational spirit to reign.

The result was one of the most rewarding human experiences of shared histories that I have witnessed in such programs. The group went beyond the constraints of "a dramatic arts workshop" and arrived at a place where personal healing seemed to take place in the moment of the story-telling--muy profundo! One of the teenagers shared a dramatic life-transforming experience that occurred when he just twelve years old as his best friend was accidentally shot dead before his eyes. His friend's baby brother had been playing with a gun that was in the house and believed to be unloaded, but then, "boom" a bullet pierced the air and his friend was dead, collapsing before him with blood everywhere. The young man surrendered himself emotionally in retelling the story and moved us all by the genuine grief he expressed in then act of remembering.

Also, quite memorable was the tale of ROOTER Priscilla Smith whose story of losing a grammar school race became a metaphoric tale of intolerance. Her creative choices in the moment of improvised execution were brilliant as she used vivid characterizations, physical gestures, and a variety of voices to make her story come alive. Other gripping stories spoke of child molestation at the hands of an older cousin, the loss of innocence when child-hood friends are separated by distance, and the effects that divorce can have on a little girl. "El Duende" was dancing in the heads of all.

The Friday and Saturday night performances of $CASINOAMERICA$ were well-attended and the diverse audience took the emotional rollercoaster ride that drives this piece, reacting with raucous laughter at the comedic passages and pensive silences for the heavy drama. The post-performance discussion Saturday spawned an interesting conversation about the issue of gentrification that is explored within $CASINOAMERICA$, where I recall the Hoboken fires that brutally eradicated the Latino community from the downtown area for the building of condominiums. These fires took place in the late Seventies and early Eighties in Hoboken and Jersey City, NJ and in the Lower Eastside and the Bronx in New York--in Latino and African American neighborhoods. They are horrific examples of gentrification or as I like to call it "ethnic cleansing" in our home of the brave. A few Atlanta audience members in the group spoke of recent gentrification efforts forged by the city and developers that have displaced ethnic communities as part of "urban renewal,"--a very mucho scary euphemism!

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Latino youth participating in dramatic arts workshop called "Exploring the Immigrant Experience Through Theatre," conducted in Doraville, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta. (April 2001 at the Catholic Mission Church)
Photo © Jose Torres Tama

On Saturday afternoon, I drove out to Doraville to meet with a dozen Latino teens to conduct a performance workshop in Spanglish, Spanish, and English that addressed the immigrant experience through theater. Some of the teens were participants in a youth theatre program called "Teatro Juventud," organized by a Peruvian man named William Rodriguez at the Catholic Mission Church. I performed excerpts of two solo shows where I use the personal experience to comment on the dramatic culture clash encountered by Latino immigrants in the United States. After a few theatre exercises where I introduced the group to "El Duende," they shared their difficult stories of Latino teens not born in the USA.

One young girl spoke of her dramatic first months at school as a twelve-year old. She began suffering from anxiety disorders because she feared not being able to communicate. Learning English was enough of a daunting task, but having to deal with indifferent teachers intensified the situation. Another girl told of her daily high school confrontations with white girls who continuosuly commented on the new arriving "Mexicans" as taking over Atlanta like cockroaches--yes indeed el racismo esta everywhere. A young boy recently arrived from Colombia shared his anxiety about being in a strange new landscape where there were no sidewalks and people were not seen on the streets. To this young man, moving through the suburbs of Atlanta was like moving through a ghost town or an empty set in a Hollywood movie. He recalled that his Colombian town was riddled with strife, but people lived on the streets and not inside their cars.

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At the tender age of fourteen, he was in the United States to realize the dreams of his family back home, for his parents had saved up their money to send him here. They were still in Colombia while he was living in Doraville with his uncle. He was here to work and make something of himself for his family's sake. It was a dramatic real-life story of a young boy who was not in a position to enjoy the simple pleasures of adolescence. His social circumstance was forcing him to be an adult.

In all, the stories of these young people were quite moving and profound. They were looking to balance their fragile sense of self as newly arrived Latino immigrants in search of the American Dream while trying to belong to the larger culture without loosing their heritage. I felt privileged to have the opportunity to offer a creative release to their otherwise stressful lives. It reminded me of my own dramatic rites-of-passage as an immigrant child passing through the urban American cultural wars in segregated neighborhoods of New York and New Jersey, circa late Sixties and early Seventies. I can honestly tell you, my amigos, compatriots, compadres y comadres, that this was a rewarding experience, and it enriched my desire to continue to use the arts as a form of self-empowerment--y continuar con la lucha!

In development, is a Youth Performance Project where I will return to Atlanta and work with these teens to have them create an original and bilingual ensemble performance piece based on their personal experiences as immigrant teens in the USA--que chevere! Mr. William Rodriguez will be involved as a co-facilitator of these workshops.

Finally, there are many people to thank for this residency. To begin with, many y muchos kudos to Alice Lovelace, director of ROOTS whose great support and vision forged this cultural alliance; Jamie Badoud, executive director of ART PAPERS who graciously allowed me to stay at his quaint Southern home in the Kirkwood neighborhood and lent me his car (without wheels in Atlanta, I would have been at the mercy of MARTA); Susanna Brady, an Argentinean community maverick whose efforts generated great support from the Latino community and Mundo Hispanico; the folks at the Auburn Avenue Research Library for their state-of-the-art facility; Charlotte Cameron of the Arts Exchange where the workshops took place and the performances of "$CASINOAMERICA$" were housed in the spacious Paul Robeson Theatre; William Rodriguez, the Peruvian gentleman who brought in the Latino teens from Doraville to see the performances and assisted me in facilitating the workshops for his "Teatro Juventud"; Priscilla Smith who brought some of her absolutely fabulous and creative teens to participate in the workshops and see the performances; to Rajni who put the E-flyer together for the cyber space community; and Eleanor Brownfield at the ROOTS office, who fielded my numerous calls. For all those other folks whom I have not mentioned, please accept my thousand-and-one muchas mil gracias for your support.

Asta la prochaine, mes amis, y mucha suerte con la lucha!
(Sprench: a hybrid language composed of Spanish and French)
Translation: Until the next time, my friends, and good luck with the struggle!