Sharing the Spotlight: Mercedes Trelles in conversation with Maximo Rafael Colón

When: Saturday, November 16, 2:00 - 4:00 pm

Where: Teatro LATEA @ The Clemente

Sharing the Spotlight is presented with support from Historias, a multi-year programmatic initiative led by The Clemente in partnership with LxNY and supported by the Rauschenberg Foundation. Historias charts the transformative impact of Latinx communities in NYC through research, artistic interpretations, and public engagement. 

Teatro LATEA and Historias are pleased to co-present Sharing the Spotlight, a conversation series by emerging Latinx artists/photographers to run in tandem with the Borimix exhibition Maximo Rafael Colón: Storied Lens. For this series, Colón has extended an invitation to a select group of Latino photographers to share the spotlight in a series of artist talks where they will present and discuss their work.

This event will be the first talk of the series, an in-depth interactive conversation between Storied Lens co-curator, Mercedes Trelles (University of Puerto Rico), and exhibiting artist, Maximo Rafael Colón.  They will discuss Colón’s photo practice, his trajectory, the selection of photographs in Storied Lens and upcoming projects.

About the participants:

Mercedes Trelles Hernández is a professor of art history at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras campus, and an independent curator. She has written art criticism and edited several catalogues on the history of art in Puerto Rico. In 2015 she collaborated with Tate Modern, contributing an essay on Argentinean pop for The World Goes Pop. After spending three years as curator of the collection of the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, she has organized several independent exhibitions. She directed the Francisco Oller gallery from 2014 to 2018. 

Maximo Rafael Colón was born in Arecibo, Puerto Rico.  Colón is a New York based photographer who studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Colón's photography speaks to his concerns of social justice, activism, and cultural expression which encapsulates a wide range of interest in music, the human condition and making visible the people of our society who are often marginalized through discrimination and inequality. His primary medium is analogue photography, Colón also creates assemblages in the found object tradition.  His works have been exhibited in several venues throughout New York City and Puerto Rico and a number of his photographs form part of the Centro De EstudiosPuertorriqueños archives at CUNY Hunter College and of the permanent collection at the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

In 2015, Colón's photography was prominently featured in ¡Presente! The Young Lords in New York at The Bronx Museum of the Arts, El Museo del Barrio, and The Loisaida Center in Manhattan. Some of his photographs form part of the Centro De EstudiosPuertorriqueños archives at the City University of New York's Hunter College and his work has also been exhibited at the Museum of the City of New York, Bronx Documentary Center, New York Cultural Center and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. He is currently editing My Upside Down World: Deconstructing Photography, a five year digital project encompassing photographs from New York, Puerto Rico, Berlin, Mainz, Paris, Havana, and Toronto His works can be found in numerous publications, film documentaries and are part of many private collections.

Máximo Rafael Colón: Storied Lens

Opening Reception: Thursday, November 14 @ 6:00 - 9:00 PM
When: November 14, 2024 – January 15, 2025

Where: The Tamayo Gallery in Teatro LATEA @ The Clemente
107 Suffolk Street, NYC

Curators: Mercedes Trelles and Miguel Trelles

Artist: Máximo Rafael Colón

Máximo Rafael Colón: Storied Lens is presented with support from Historias, a multi-year programmatic initiative led by The Clemente in partnership with LxNY and supported by the Rauschenberg Foundation. Historias charts the transformative impact of Latinx communities in NYC through research, artistic interpretations, and public engagement. 

Join us for the XIXth Edition of BORIMIX: Nuyorican Splendor, celebrating the agency and the trailblazing trajectory of Puerto Ricans in New York. The BORIMIX Visual Arts Exhibition, Storied Lens, is co-curated by Mercedes Trelles and Miguel Trelles, and will feature the work of trailblazing photographer, Máximo Rafael Colón.  

"People are constantly going on about the flag. And that’s a starting point, a way of being proud. But I wish they would identify with the history."  

- Máximo Rafael Colón

This selection of photographs from photographer Máximo Rafael Colón’s vast oeuvre demonstrates Colón’s commitment to politics, portraiture, and the “cultural provocateurs”: the people who ignited and kept the flame of Puerto Rican culture in New York through institutions like Taller Boricua, the Nuyorian Poet’s Café and New York’s rich music and festival scene. The selection, from Máximo’s personal archive, also constitutes a love letter to analogue photography and the information rich, uncropped print that relies on the precise moment.

Harking from " la Villa del Capitán Correa",  Arecibo/Puerto Rico, Máximo Rafael Colón moved to New York at a young age.  He started his formal training in the "darkroom arts" at the School of Visual Arts and from the get go a unique trajectory started:  Colón's profound concern with social justice has been portrayed by documentary photographs of sit-ins, the emergence of the Young Lords and the clamor of Latinos demanding equal rights. His images capture a period of upheaval and political ferment reflecting an unwavering commitment  to Puerto Rican Nationalism and the struggle for the liberation of imprisoned Nationalists such as Carlos Feliciano, Andrés Figueroa Cordero, Lolita Lebrón, Rafael Cancel Miranda and Irvin Flores Rodríguez. 

Colón's work was featured in the landmark photographic exhibition, Dos Mundos (1973) organized by the Institute of Contemporary Hispanic Art. He has participated in various prestigious exhibitions, among them, !Presente! The Young Lords (2015) at the Bronx Museum, the Museo del Barrio and the Loisaida Art Center, as well as Ida y Vuelta (2017) organized by the Museo de Antropología, Historia y Arte UPR, CitiCien, 100 artistas 100 años del Jones Act (2018) at the Clemente Soto Vélez, Casa Ruth and Taller Boricua, and El sujeto develado (2019) at the Museo de Arte Dr. Pío López Martínez.

Check out our website calendar for Sharing the Spotlight, a conversation series by emerging Latinx artists/photographers to run in tandem with the Storied Lens exhibition. The talks will feature emerging photographers handpicked by Máximo Rafael Colón including Destiny Mata, Amy Ponce, Mario Rubén Carrión, Maylyn "Zero" Iglesias, and Jon Ferrer, and are co-presented by Teatro LATEA and Historias.

Heatwave: The Rise of Super Abuela

When: November 12 @ 4:00 - 5:00 PM

Where: Teatro SEA @ The Clemente

As part of Borimix 2024 programming, join us for a reading of Manuel Antonio Morán's new play, "Heatwave: The Rise of Super Abuela," set during the summer of 1969 in NYC. The play is part of the nationwide "Superhero BIPOC Project" of Theater Young Audiences-USA.

More info HERE!

The 14th Annual International Puerto Rican Heritage Film Festival Opening

When: November 14 @ 5:00 PM doors open, 6:00 PM red carpet, 7:00 PM event

Where: El Museo del Barrio

1230 5th AvenueNew York, NY

As part of Borimix 2024 programming, join us for the The 14th Annual International Puerto Rican Heritage Film Festival Opening honoring Lifetime Achievement Award to Iris Chacon!

Get tickets HERE!

La Meriendita: Call Me Roberto

When: November 12 @ 4:00 - 5:00 PM

Where: East Harlem Tutorial Program

As part of Borimix 2024 programming, join us for free story hour dedicated to children’s books, featuring "Call Me Roberto" by Nathalie Alonso, celebrating the life of Roberto Clemente. This event is in collaboration with the East Harlem Tutorial Program.

More info HERE!

Celebrating the Ancestors of Latino Poetry in New York: A Conversation and Performance

Date: November 8, 2024 @ 6:30 - 8:00 PM

Location: The Center for Brooklyn History

128 Pierrepont St, Brooklyn, NY 11201

More info and RSVP HERE!

The Clemente and Brooklyn Public Library, in partnership with the Library of America, are proud to present a series of three events this fall celebrating the NYC launch of Latino Poetry: The Library of America Anthology, edited by celebrated poet Rigoberto González. The series will engage new audiences through music, poetry, and performances. 

This series debuts the first thematic track for Historias Sembradas, Everyday Poetics: Ritual and Resistance, which explores the role Latinx poets have played a vital role in shaping diasporic identity, institution building, and community organizing. 

The work of New York poets José Martí, Salomón de la Selva, Julia de Burgos, Lourdes Casal, and Clemente Soto Vélez has shaped today’s thriving Latino Poetic tradition and our understanding of what it means to be American. These revolutionary voices represent a range of Latin American geographies and aesthetics, including themes of migration, anti-imperialism, latinidad, language and exile. Join us as we explore the lasting impact of their voices in a multi-dimensional program offered in celebration of the publication of the landmark anthology Latino Poetry: The Library of America Anthology.  

The event will feature a panel moderated by Latino Poetry contributor Edwin Torres with two scholars of Latino poetry in New York—Laura Lomas (Rutgers University-Newark) and Urayoán Noel (New York University). Torres will then lead a Poets Choir through an experimental performance of poems from the anthology in English and Spanish by all five of these poetic ancestors. 

Participants:

Laura Lomas teaches comparative American studies, Latina/o/x literature and culture, ethnic and immigrant literature of the United States and the Americas, women's writing, nineteenth century studies, and feminist and decolonial theory in the English Department and the Graduate Program in American Studies at Rutgers University, Newark. Lomas is author of Translating Empire: José Martí, Migrant Latino Subjects and American Modernities which received the Modern Language Association's Prize for best book in Chicana and Chicano and Latina and Latino Studies. She co-edited The Cambridge History of Latina/o American Literature. She has served as Director of the Women's and Gender Studies Program, co-founded the Latina/o Studies Working Group, co-founded the Immigrant rights Collective, and was Founding Faculty Director of a graduate level Cuba study abroad program at Rutgers University-Newark. She also serves on the Advisory Board of the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project, and on the Editorial Boards of Pasados, Hostos Review,  and of Periférica: Journal of Social, Cultural and Literary History.  

Urayoán Noel is a 2022 Letras Boricuas fellow and the author of eight books of poetry, most recently Transversal, a New York Public Library Book of the Year. Other work includes the LASA award-winning study In Visible Movement: Nuyorican Poetry from the Sixties to Slam, the durational performance Wokitokiteki, and, as translator, adjacent islands by Nicole Cecilia Delgado. Noel lives in the Bronx and teaches at NYU.

Edwin Torres is a NYC native and editor of The Body In Language: An Anthology. Poetry collections include; Quanundrum: i will be your many angled thing (American Book Award winner), Xoeteox: the infinite word object, and Ameriscopia. Multi-disciplinary collaborations with a wide range of cultural nomads have contributed to the development of his bodylingo poetics. He has performed worldwide and received fellowships from NYSCA, The Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Arts Mid-Hudson, and The DIA Foundation among others. Anthologies include; Latino Poetry, New Weathers: Poetics from the Naropa Archives, In The 21st Century: Poetics of Social Engagement, and Aloud: Voices from The Nuyorican Poets Cafe. He is currently an adjunct poetry professor at Columbia University.

Poets Choir: 

Luciann Berrios aka 2 feathers, is a six-time published poet with works in the US Library of Congress, women empowerment advocate, Reiki Master, internationally certified meditation guide and sound practitioner. She facilitates sound meditations for both group and private sessions as well as for a community grief support group in Queensbridge, NY. She is registered and accredited by Meditation Alliance International. 

Sheila Maldonado is the author of the poetry collections that's what you get and one-bedroom solo. She is a CantoMundo fellow and a Creative Capital awardee as part of desveladas, a visual writing collective. She teaches English for the City University of New York. 

E.J. McAdams is a poet, artist, and collaborator exploring language and mark-making in the urban environment using procedures and improvisation with found and natural materials. He has published five chapbooks and curated the Social-Environmental-Aesthetics reading at EXIT ART. His first full-length collection is LAST.

Yesenia Montilla is an Afro-Latina poet & a daughter of immigrants. Her work has been published in Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day, Prairie Schooner, Gulf Coast and in Best of American Poetry. Her first collection is The Pink Box. Her second collection Muse Found in a Colonized Body, was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award. 

Urayoán Noel is a 2022 Letras Boricuas fellow and the author of eight books of poetry, most recently Transversal, a New York Public Library Book of the Year. Other work includes the LASA award-winning study In Visible Movement: Nuyorican Poetry from the Sixties to Slam, the durational performance Wokitokiteki, and, as translator, adjacent islands by Nicole Cecilia Delgado.

K(Kristin) Prevallet is a poet, scholar, somatic practitioner, and performer. She is the author of six books including Everywhere Here and in Brooklyn, I, Afterlife: Essay in Mourning Time. She teaches for Bard College's Prison Initiative and is a poet in residence for The Poetry Clinic (trancepoetics.com).

Emanuel Xavier is author of several poetry books including Selected Poems of Emanuel Xavier and Love(ly) Child. His books have been finalists for International Latino Book Awards and Lambda Literary Awards and his work has appeared in Poetry, A Gathering of the Tribes, Best American Poetry, and elsewhere.

Tactics of Transmission

When: Saturday October 26 @ 2:45 - 4:00 PM

Where: The New School, Starr Foundation Hall 63 Fifth Avenue, Lower Level, NYC

Artists: Sofía Gallisá Muriente and Natalia Lassalle Morillo

RSVP HERE!

As part of the Vera List Center Forum 2024: Correct History* The Clemente is thrilled to be co-presenting the performance Tactics of Transmission, on October 26! Over three days, the VLC Forum 2024 explores the ways in which history and historiography invariably function as acts of correction and revision while examining some of the ideological mechanisms that drive them. Discursive strands come together to consider how historical narratives and ideological formations are created, edited, altered, and contested, including historical revisionism, whitewashing, and rehabilitation by state and other hegemonic political actors.

Since 2022, artists Sofía Gallisá Muriente and Natalia Lassalle-Morillo have researched Puerto Rican collections and holdings at the Smithsonian Institution, examining their histories of accession, how they live in off-site storage, and the possibilities for mediating their return to the people and places they belong to. On the occasion of the VLC Forum 2024: Correct History*, the artists’ performance lecture Tactics of Transmission reflects on their experiences as unruly colonial subjects navigating the imperial archive, as well as on the historical gossip, findings, and revelations from their research process. A series of films emerging from this project are exhibited in Cooper Hewitt’s Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial, on view November 2, 2024, through summer 2025.

The program is co-presented with the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center as part of Historias, a multi-year initiative exploring Latinx New York’s transformative impact on the city. Launching in fall 2024, Historias is a partnership with the Latinx Arts Consortium of New York, with lead support from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.

The Vera List Center Forum 2024 is presented as part of the center’s 2022–2024 Focus Theme Correction*. It is curated by Eriola Pira with Carin Kuoni, with research support by Ariana Kallinga and is convened with the support of Tabor Banquer, Re’al Christian, and Adrienne Umeh.

Public Space Open Studios Exhibition: Portals

When: October 23rd - December 12, 2024

Opening Reception: Wednesday, October 23rd @ 6:00 - 8:00 PM | Curatorial Walkthrough @ 7:00 PM

Where: Building-wide at The Clemente

Curated by: Tracey Fenix

Participating artists: Sabrina Barrios, Nube Cruz, Lucia Cozzi, Julia Justo, Miguel Martinez, Michael Pribich , Denisse Reyes, Xavier Robles, Gabrielle Vazquez, Elizabeth Velazquez, Erick Zambrano

The Clemente Public Space Open Studios: Portals features 10 artists who interrogate and mend ancestral connectedness through mixed-media fiber, new media and ecological interventions across diasporic intergenerational temporalities.

Portals, is curated by Tracy Fenix (they/she), a curator focused on the intersection between art, archives and ecological urban planning. 

Historias! Global Mashup: Afro Dominicano Meets Maraca Bruja

Date/Time: October 19, 2024 @ 7:00 PM dance lessons / 8:00 PM concert 

Location: Flushing Town Hall

137-35 Northern Boulevard, Queens, NY, 11354

RSVP HERE!

In-Person Tickets: $25 General Admission / $20 Seniors and Students w/ID 

The Global Mashup: “Historias” will bring together two New York-based Latinx bands from different genres and cultural backgrounds to explore the roots of their music and the New York influences that shape their work. The event features individual performances from each band, followed by a collaborative jam session, offering a rich musical exchange. In addition to the concert, there will be dance lessons and a moderated discussion led by poet and DJ Eliel Lucero in both Spanish and English. Audience members will also participate by sharing their own “Historias” on how Latinx music has shaped their lives in New York. 

This mashup celebrates the diversity within Latinx communities while highlighting the shared experiences of being Latinx in New York. By blending various musical traditions and personal stories, the event aims to reflect on how distinct cultures come together to form new and unique expressions in the city’s dynamic cultural landscape. The event will be live-streamed, and a short film will be produced to capture the performances and audience discussions. Drinks and food will be available for purchase, and don't forget your dancing shoes! 

Historias! Global Mashup: Afro Dominicano (Afro-Caribbean Soul) Meets Maraca Bruja (Colombian Gaita) is presented with support from Historias, a multi-year programmatic initiative led by The Clemente in partnership with LxNY and supported by the Rauschenberg Foundation. Historias celebrates the transformative impact of Latinx communities in NYC through research, artistic interpretations, and public engagement. 

Performing the Bronx: A Living Archive of NYC’s Most Iconic Borough

Date/Time: October 10, 2024 @ 6:30 - 8:30 PM

Location: BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance

2474 Westchester Avenue The Bronx, NY 10461

RSVP HERE!

Artist Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful invites a group of remarkable Bronxites to co-develop actions embedded in the day-to-day of our beloved borough. The gestures that emerge are presented in private spaces, as well as in the Bronx's public realm, focusing on the roots that weave these visionaries with specific communities and neighborhoods.

Performing the Bronx is also representative of Nicolás’s interest in honoring, recovering and reclaiming herstories/histories/theirstories of the area’s inhabitants that run the risk of being effaced by time, lost in the midst of neighborhoods in flux, or dismissed by dominant discourses that often position themselves at the center of the conversation.

Featuring Bronx artists:

• Arthur Avilés

• Bill Aguado

• Benny Bonilla

• Mili Bonilla

• Caridad De La Luz ‘La Bruja’

• Dr. Drum

• Ana ‘ROKAFELLA’ García

• Reverend Danilo Lachapel

• Wanda Salamán

• Rhina Valentin

• with Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel

Film was conceived and directed by Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful with video filming and editing by Geoffrey Jones.

Notes:

This event is being co-presented with support from Historias, a multi-year programmatic initiative led by The Clemente in partnership with LxNY and supported by the Rauschenberg Foundation. Historias celebrates the transformative impact of Latinx communities in NYC through research, artistic interpretations, and public engagement.

The Performing the Bronx chapters have been supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the Bronx Council on the Arts. The Drumming for and with Benny chapter was produced with Casita Maria as part the South Bronx Culture Trail Festival 2020. Funding for editing this video compilation was provided by the University of Texas at Austin. Performing the Bronx has also received love, space and support from Mothers on the Move, The Andrew Freedman Home, and BAAD!

Brooklyn Book Festival: Four Hundred Years of Latino Poetry

Date/Time: September 29, 2024 @ 4:00 - 5:00PM

Location: Brooklyn Book Festival Main Stage 

The Clemente and Brooklyn Public Library, in partnership with the Library of America, are proud to present a series of three events this fall celebrating the NYC launch of Latino Poetry: The Library of America Anthology, edited by celebrated poet Rigoberto González. The series will engage new audiences through music, poetry, and performances.

This series debuts the first thematic track for Historias Sembradas, Everyday Poetics: Ritual and Resistance,which explores the role Latinx poets have played a vital role in shaping diasporic identity, institution building, and community organizing.

The series at the Brooklyn Book Festival Main Stage features a panel on the Politics of Latino Poetry featuring Rigoberto González and Yesenia Montilla moderated by Urayoán Noel. 

More info and RSVP HERE!

When: Sept 28, 2024 @ 2:00 - 9:00 PM

Where: Outside of The Clemente on Suffolk St (between Rivington & Delancey)

RSVP HERE! 

We are thrilled to launch our groundbreaking initiative Historias with a vibrant block party on September 28th! This event will feature street performances, artist commissions, music, and public activations in partnership with Street Lab. The event will close with the debut of a special Historias commission Cuarto Oscuro, a live streamed four part performance created by Lucia della Paolera and Seth Tillett, projected on the Suffolk Street facade of the Clemente Center.

Full Schedule:

2:00 PM - 4:00 PM: Block Party 

Live vinyl music set by: dJ tres dos

Street Activations by:
Fabio Puentes: NYC Chilerican Solidarity & Resistance 

Revista Balam

Street Lab

Vanessa González: Parada: La Fiesta No Termina Aquí

Yanira Castro: Exorcism = Liberation

Qi Zone Wellness: Beads & Seeds for Social Justice. Providers are: Juan, Walter, Margarita, Carlos

Tai Chi demo by Walter Bosque, ex-Young Lord and Lincoln Detox visionary  

Maria Lupianez, Steve Ellis & Melanie Vote, Drawn Together*

House of Bones*

Laura Nova, Wishing Tree*

Natalia de Campos in collaboration with Thiago Szmrecsanyi: Artists Against Apartheid* 

Stacy Mehrfar: Photo Walk*

Linda Byrne & guest artist Abby Goodman: The Traveling Suitcase & The Art Cart*

*Denotes The Clemente Open Studios Participants

Community tables from:
Bluestockings Bookstore, Grand St. Settlement, District 1, Mutual Aid NYC, UnLocal, and more! 

Mutual Aid NYC: In collaboration with mutual aid organizer William Chan and the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Mutual Aid NYC will be collecting donations of urgently needed winter coats to help thousands of newly arrived asylum seekers and immigrants survive this winter. Additional items in need: children’s clothing of all sizes, under garments of all types (must be new), and metrocards. Gently used or new conditions only.

3:30 - 4:00 PM: Opening Remarks

The Clemente Studios Open to the public (4 PM) 

4:00 - 9:00 PM: Special Commissions and Performances

4:00 PM: Bulla en el Barrio, Musical Performance 

4:50 PM: Edwin Torres, The Historias Conduction: Ancestors of Latino Poetry

With a seven poet choir: Lydia Cortés, Sheila Maldonado, E.J. McAdams, Yesenia Montilla, Urayoán Noel, Kristin Prevallet, and Emanuel Xavier

5:10 PM: Jonathan Gonzalez, PRACTICE

6:00 PM: Intermission with DJ Tresdos

6:40 PM: Xenia Rubinos, Círculo de Voces

7:15 PM: Kiki & the Fellas* (replacement for Jesús Hilario-Reyes whose performance will be rescheduled for a later date due to unforseen circumstances)

8:00 PM: Closing Remarks 

8:15 PM: Historias Closing Commission debut

Lucia della Paolera and Seth Tillett: Cuarto Oscuro

9:00 PM: Event ends

When: Launches on September 28! On view through December 12, 2024

Where: The Clemente Artsy page

Curated by: Tracey Fenix

Participating artists: Flavia Souza, Linda Griggs, Allen Hansen, Patricia Cazorla, Nancy Saleme, Miguel Trelles, Chang-jin Lee, Katharine Finneran, Lisa Lebofsky, Laura Nova, Itziar Barrio, Nicole Parcher, Denisse Reyes, Erick Zambrano, Gabrielle Vazquez, Julia Justo, Lucia Cozzi, Michael Pribich, Miguel Martinez, Nube Cruz, Sabrina Barrios, Xavier Robles

In conjunction with The Historias Block Party and Open Studios, the 6th edition of Public Spaces Open Studios 2024 (PSOS24) will feature an online exhibition going live on The Clemente’s Artsy platform on September 28!

The exhibition, Portals, is curated by Tracy Fenix (they/she), a curator focused on the intersection between art, archives and ecological urban planning. 

More info HERE

¡Celebración! Latino Poetry and Music

Date/Time: September 25, 2024 @ 6:00 - 8:00 PM

Location: Brooklyn Public Library, Central Library

10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, NY 11238

The Clemente and Brooklyn Public Library, in partnership with the Library of America, are proud to present a series of three events this fall celebrating the NYC launch of Latino Poetry: The Library of America Anthology, edited by celebrated poet Rigoberto González. The series will engage new audiences through music, poetry, and performances. 

This series debuts the first thematic track for Historias Sembradas, Everyday Poetics: Ritual and Resistance, which explores the role Latinx poets have played a vital role in shaping diasporic identity, institution building, and community organizing. 

This first program takes place on the steps of the Brooklyn Public Library, with a live performance by Bobby Sanabria and readings by Emanuel Xavier, Darrel Holnes, Mariposa Fernandez, and others.

More info and RSVP HERE!

Join Teatro SEA and The Clemente as we celebrate Latiné Children’s Music at our annual Arte Pa’ Mi Gente Festival!

When: August 10th, 2024 @ 1-5 PM

Where: Suffolk St. between Rivington and Delancey, in front of The Clemente (outdoors)

Featuring: Teatro SEA's band El Avión (The Airplane), and other professional Latiné children’s musicians

Arte Pa’ Mi Gente brings together a lineup of Latiné children’s artists for a day of FREE family celebration. This year’s festival theme is Latiné Children’s Music Day, highlighting the importance of Latiné music created by and for children. 

The event will include a series of outdoor performances designed for families and folk of all ages. Featured guests include Musiquita with Blanca Cecilia González and Jesse Elder, The Mariachi Academy of New York, Children’s Choir of Holy Child Jesús Church-San Benito Jose Labre, El Trotamundos direct from Puerto Rico, The Bilingual Birdies, and Latin Grammy Nominee Flor Bromley.  

Admission is FREE!

More info HERE 

Ojos Caribe 10th Edition:
A Lens on Pride and Caribbean Heritage Month
When: June 28th @6:30pmm

Where: The Clemente

Ojos Caribe is a curatorial platform and itinerant video screening event celebrating the Caribbean. Join us for the 10th edition of Caribbean Pride and Heritage Month. This special edition delves into the nuanced experiences of queer bodies navigating the complex and polarized social landscapes of the Caribbean. Ojos Caribe presents video works from across the insular, continental, and diasporic Caribbean, exploring the intersection of queer identities with the region's pluricultural heritage.

Ojos Caribe embraces "Caribbeanness" as more than just geographical or political boundaries, viewing it as a broader, inclusive concept. Through nine previous editions, we have offered critical, cultural-political, and sensitive perspectives on the region. This edition continues that tradition by highlighting how queer experiences uniquely interact with and challenge the rich heritage and daily realities of the Caribbean.

Attendees will engage with Caribbean video art and participate in open conversations, fostering a deeper understanding of the political, bodily, spiritual, and territorial narratives that shape the Caribbean and its diasporas. Celebrate the diversity and resilience of Caribbean culture with us at Ojos Caribe 10th Edition.

Dept of Transformation: Un-familia-r

Workshop featuring Stephen Hanmer D'Elía and others. Hosted by Prem Krishnamurthy

When: Sunday, June 23, 4–6pm

Where: The Clemente, Studio 309, 107 Suffolk St

Limited to 20 people. Please RSVP here

How can we learn unexpected languages for communicating with ourselves and others? What formats can help to translate between the body and our perceptions in a playful way?

Join us for this special program with therapist, social worker, and policy maker Stephen Hanmer D'Elía, which helps DOT to transition from its Canal Projects library residency and inaugurate the micro-residency at The Clemente. Through a set of intra- and interpersonal exercises in different configurations, Stephen will introduce experimental tools for self-reflection, growth, and connection with our past. Stephen’s approach addresses the layered complexities of feelings and experiences, uncovering embodied personal capacities that are already at play. Opening up a space of experimentation, this event points towards the DOT’s future programs at The Clemente starting in Fall 2024, which focus on developing collaborative methods for creative practice and mutual learning.

Presented by The Clemente and Canal Projects

Stephen Hanmer D’Elía has worked and lived in over 20 countries throughout Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and North America supporting children and families impacted by trauma, violence, and conflict. Whether child welfare in New York city, post-conflict recovery in Liberia, or Afghan refugee assistance in Pakistan, Stephen has worked through the interconnected lenses of therapy, policy development, and program implementation. An encompassing theme throughout Stephen’s journey is the primacy of relationships—in every interaction, no matter how ephemeral, lies an opportunity for grace, healing, and connection.

Dept of Transformation: Reflecting Forward

Participatory talk and workshop featuring Tamara Sussman and others. Hosted by Prem Krishnamurthy

When: Saturday, June 15, 7–9pm

Where: Canal Projects, 351 Canal St

Limited to 30 people. Please RSVP here: [link]

Every good thing must come to an end, and an end can also be a beginning—a chance to rewrite the stories we’ve told ourselves and transform them into something new.

Join us for a special gathering to mark the close of the Groundwork library residency at Canal Projects and the start of DOT’s micro-residency at The Clemente. At this multi-modal participatory event, DOT’s Prem Krishnamurthy will share thoughts and findings that have emerged out of the activities of the past months: one-on-one conversations, gatherings with artists who have become therapists, a monthly reading group, and participatory events featuring a host of artists both at Canal Projects and elsewhere. As part of the event, artist-turned-clinical psychologist Tamara Sussman will prototype a workshop format for sharing cognitive behavioral tools to build models that can help pinpoint where we can make useful changes in our lives. Plus: who knows, there may even be some karaoke! 

Presented by Canal Projects and The Clemente

Tamara Sussman is a clinical psychologist and an Assistant Professor at the New York State Psychiatric Institute / Columbia University Medical Center. She conducts research examining how adverse childhood experiences influence inhibitory control, reward-related decision making and risk for substance use. She also provides direct treatment, and the focus of her clinical work is treating post-traumatic stress disorder. She believes that it is important to maintain a connection between basic research and clinical practice, as observations made during clinical practice can meaningfully hone research questions. Before becoming a psychologist, she made art, earning an MFA at Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, and exhibiting her installation, photography, and collage with Rosamund Felsen Gallery.

Sancocho Musical

Directed by: Juan Gutierrez

Genre / Type of Show: Cultural Exchange Concert – Puerto Rican Bomba and Plena and Colombian Bullerengue

Language: Spanish

Duration: 3hrs

Audience type: General audience

Artists/Features: Los Pleneros de la 21 (Puerto Rican Bomba and Plena Ensemble) and La Manga (Colombian Bullerengue Ensemble)

Synopsis:

LP21’s Sancocho Musical brings together diverse artists, musicians, and musical genres as chosen ingredients to create a swinging and jamming evening of live music, song, and dance that pleases the soul and satisfies your hunger to dance and participate in good music amongst friends, community, and family.

This 2024 version features La Manga, an all-female semillero de Música Colombiana led by Daniela Serna, a Colombian artist, educator, and Cultural Ambassador of Caribbean Oral traditions such as cumbia and bullerengue. La Manga’s mission is to share Colombian Culture, focusing on making a safe space for women to learn oral traditions while fostering educational spaces and cultural exchange centered on African and Indigenous ancestral knowledge.

Regarding the director:

Juan Gutiérrez is a Puerto Rican composer, musical director, percussionist, and founder of the nonprofit organization, Los Pleneros de la 21. Los Pleneros de la 21 has performed throughout the United States and has toured abroad to Puerto Rico and Russia. The group has served as a role model for other Plena ensembles. It has made Gutiérrez’s vision a reality by promoting the  ecognition, celebration, and practice of Afro-Puerto Rican music and dance.

About the Company

Los Pleneros de la 21 (LP21) is the premier East Harlem-based performing ensemble and non-profit community organization. LP21 was founded in 1983 by Juan J. ‘Juango’ Gutiérrez (National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellow, 1996) and the legendary Master Plenero, Marcial Reyes Arvelo. The ensemble

has pioneered the road for Bomba and Plena performances around NYC and continues to spread it globally for nearly 40 years.

Los Pleneros de la 21’s initiatives and programs are made possible in part with funding from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, NYC District 8 City Council Member Diana Ayala, Creatives Rebuild NY (CRNY), a project of The Tides Center, and generous contributions from individuals like you!

The Clemente Center in the spirit of celebrating “Boricuas de Corazón” is thrilled to continue collaborating with the National Puerto Rican Day Parade and its board of directors to bring this annual cultural event bridging the Puerto Rican contributions and legacies in the island and its diaspora to the Lower East Side. We are grateful for this year's support from our LES neighbors, Grand St. Settlement, for hosting us at their newly renovated facilities at 80 Pitt St. NYC, 10002

The event will start at 2:00 PM and there will be light refreshments served and music played.

Join us in sharing and celebrating from the expression, imagination, and creativity of three distinguished Honorees of this year’s National Puerto Rican Day Parade: Boricuas de Corazón:

📚Ana Teresa Toro - An award-winning author whose work delves into history, culture, and social justice through fiction and non-fiction.

🌌 Dr. Wanda Díaz Merced - A trailblazing sonic astrophysicist redefining how we explore the universe and advocating for inclusion in science.

🎭 Pedro Adorno and Cathy Vigo - The creative minds behind Agua, Sal y Sereno, preserving and promoting Puerto Rican art and culture for over 30 years.

All families and members of the community join us in this free event.

Any event inquiries email: info@theclementecenter.org

RSVP

Biography of the speakers

Ana Teresa Toro is a Puerto Rican writer and journalist dedicated to exploring, through fiction and non-fiction, topics related to the contemporary history of Puerto Rico, Caribbean, Hispanic American, and Latin cultures, colonialism, feminism, racism, and the word itself as a tool for social action. She is the author of the books: "Flora Animal" (poetry), "Cartas al Agua" (novel), "Las Narices de los Perros" and "El Cuerpo de la Abuela" (chronicles), "Un Cuerpo Propio: 40 Años de Taller Salud" (history) and "Vida, Patria y Verdad: Alejandro García Padilla in Conversation with Journalist Ana Teresa Toro" (journalism). She is co-author of the book "Somos Más: Crónicas del Verano del 19" (chronicle) and the book "Parir es Partirse" (essay). Her work has been compiled in anthologies in Mexico, Argentina, Germany, Venezuela, Colombia, the United States, Spain, and Puerto Rico. In 2023, she published a book of essays titled "Palabras para un Flamboyán".

Pedro Adorno and Cathy Vigo have worked tirelessly to preserve and promote Puerto Rican art and culture. They founded the collective Agua, Sol y Sereno (ASYS) and, for the past 30 years, have served as artistic directors for numerous theatrical works, artistic workshops, musical and dance ensembles, and more. They are the creators of the iconic “cabezudos” that are part of the Fiestas de la Calle San Sebastián and were featured in Bad Bunny’s opening performance at the 2023 GRAMMY Awards.

Dr. Wanda Díaz Merced, from Gurabo, Puerto Rico, completed a PhD at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, where she wrote a thesis on the use of audio to analyze astrophysical plasmas. She works with astrophysics, astroparticle, and gravitational wave phenomena using sound. She maintains active collaborations with universities and research centers in Paris, Leuven, Athens, the Polish Academy of Sciences, and the European Gravitational Observatory in Pisa, among others. Wanda also advocates for inclusion and has designed the first multisensory mainstream astrophysics and cosmology university course, which she teaches to students with disabilities. She has been recognized for her work in science equity, including mentions on the BBC's list of 7 trailblazing women in science alongside Marie Curie.

The Clemente is very proud to sponsor the first annual @elgritodeles and bomba and plena workshops for local youth in partnership with @dorrillinitiative!

When: Parade begins at 4:30pm / Festival begins at 5:30pm

Where: Parade starts on Columbia St. & Rivington St. / Festival takes place on 12th St. & Ave D

This community pride event contributes to highlighting the visibility and contributions of the Puerto Rican community and breathes new life into our cultural traditions. Join us as we come together to celebrate!

This program is supported in part by the Cultural Immigrant Initiative of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the New York City Council. 

More info HERE!