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MACLA PRESENTS / 2009 SPRING PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE |
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JANUARY 26 & 31 / JOSHUA WALTERS Workshop and Performance YOUTH POETRY WORKSHOP / JAN 26 / 6pm / free of charge / MACLA’s classroom Joshua Walters leads this writing and performance workshop, recognizing that a spoken word artist is both actor and playwright, poet and public speaker. Between hip hop theater, poetry slam, comedy, storytelling and seven years experience working with youth, Walters helps participants merge these very different yet complementary art forms. MADHOUSE RHYTHM / JAN 31 / Doors 7:30pm / Show 8pm / $7-10 sliding scale / No one turned away for lack of funds Walters’ one man show Madhouse Rhythm is an autobiographical collage based on his experience with mental illness. This humorous tale delves into the mind of a man in the throes of a psychotic breakdown. Walters fuses his personal experience with a mix of vital urban art forms including beatbox, spoken word, and hip hop theater. www.joshuaawalters.com |
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FEBRUARY 6 / LOS PALABRISTAS spoken word performance / FEB 6 / Doors 7:30pm / Show 8pm / $7-10 sliding scale / No one turned away for lack of funds Latino poets straddle the divides of language, culture, politics, economics, education and opportunity. Blending Spanish, English and mixed dialects Minnesota-based poetry collective Los Palabristas bring together common threads of defiance and social justice to create a space where artists are embraced by their communities. Poets Rodrigo Sanchez Chavarria and Lorena Duarte defy the myths surrounding Latino culture and clarify its unique struggle. myspace.com/palabristas |
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MARCH 21 / documentary film screening WHO DOES SHE THINK SHE IS? / Doors 6:30pm / Screening and performance 7pm / $5-7 sliding scale / No one turned away for lack of funds In a half-changed world, women often feel they need to choose: mothering or working? Who Does She Think She Is?, a documentary by Academy Award winning filmmaker Pamela Tanner Boll, features five fierce women who refuse to choose. Through their lives, the film explores some of the most problematic intersections of our time: mothering and creativity, partnering and independence, economics and art. The screening will be combined with a live performance in partnership with the Billy DeFrank LGBTQ center in which youth explore what it means to be "out" in society and broaden the meaning of their cultural, gender and sexual identities as LGBTQ. |
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MARCH 27 & APRIL 3 / YOUTH POETRY SLAM / Sign-ups 7pm / Show 7:30pm / $5-7 sliding scale / No one turned away for lack of funds When the words are in place, the type set and the ink dry there’s nothing left to do but SLAM! For two days youth poets compete for a slot at the Brave New Voices international Youth Slam Championship. A round of semi-finals (March 27) determines the qualifiers and a final bout (April 3) decides which poets will represent San Jose on the national stage. MACLA will help send this 4-member team to Brave New Voices in Chicago the week of July 14-18. Come to perform or to catch the show and help us show the windy city what San Jose is made of. |
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APRIL 12 – 18 / ROBERT KARIMI Performance Artist in Residence / Show dates 4-16 & 4-18 / Doors 7:30pm / Shows 8pm / $7-10 sliding scale / No one turned away for lack of funds Frustrated by the looming spectre of war with Iran, performance artist Robert Farid Karimi seeks out divine intervention in the form of sainted pop star Freddie Mercury. Part documentary theater, part rock concert, Farid Mercury tells the story of Iranian/Guatemalan Robertito who must face the demons of the Iranian Hostage Crisis, Patriot Act, and Iran-Iraq War, all the while balancing the Chicano Punk Rock Scene, his search for a wrestling champion, and the death of his Iranian grandmother. Karimi brings his national search to San José, home to one of the largest Iranian communities in the country and discovers the Freddie Mercury inside us all. Early in the week Karimi leads a series of community workshops on identity and performance as part of a residency made possible with the support of the National Performance Network. Later in the week MACLA presents Farid Mercury, directed by Brian Freeman and co-commissioned by MACLA, La Peña, and Kaotic Good. National poetry slam champion and Def Poetry Jam performer, Karimi received the Illinois Arts Council fellowship for excellence in New Performance Forms in 2006. He directs film/theater and teaches workshops about comedy, mixed race issues, performance, and cross-cultural spirituality. He has collaborated with Laurie Carlos, Guillermo Gomez Peña, and Freestreet Theater in Chicago. A UCLA graduate, he has trained with Plasticene, 500 Clown, and Second City. Informed by the methods of Spolin and Boal, Karimi believes in the power of humor to engage audiences to find the joy within their personal chaos. This program is supported in part by a grant from the NPN Performance Residency Program. Major contributors of NPN include the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency), MetLife Foundation, and the Nathan Cummings Foundation. www.kaoticgood.com |
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APRIL 23 / READING AND Q&A WITH AUTHOR STEPHANIE ELIZONDO GRIEST / Doors 7:30pm / Reading 8pm / $5-7 sliding scale / No one turned away for lack of funds Growing up in a half-white, half-brown town and family in South Texas, Stephanie Elizondo Griest struggled with her cultural identity. Upon turning thirty, she ventured to her mother’s native Mexico to do a little root-searching and improve her “Tarzan Lite” Spanish. She stumbled upon a burgeoning social movement that shook the nation to its core. Her latest book Mexican Enough chronicles her journey, from the narco-infested border town of Nuevo Laredo to the highlands of Chiapas. Join us to hear a travel log that finds her sneaking into prison, meeting with resistance fighters, investigating the murder of a prominent gay activist, rallying with rebels in Oaxaca, and interviewing scores of migrant workers and the families they were forced to leave behind. Travel companions include a Polish thief, a Border Patrol agent, and a Dominatrix. Part memoir, part journalistic reportage, MEXICAN ENOUGH illuminates how we cast off our identity in our youth, only to strive to find it again as adults—and the lessons to be learned along the way. www.aroundthebloc.com |
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JUNE 5 / SUMMER SLUMBERFEST ’09, a 24 hour international open mic / 7pm to 7pm the following day / $5-7 sliding scale / No one turned away for lack of funds Here’s how we do it: live satellite video chat, projectors rigged to laptops, and an unbroken stream of black coffee. Live performance from all over the world is beamed onto the walls. Musicians and poets from all over the Bay Area grace our stage. Artists can speak any language or reside in any nation. The only rule is that someone has to be performing something every waking second for exactly 24 hours. Join us for a mad marathon of art and community, making the world a little smaller by expanding our horizons. Hosted by World Slam Champion Mike Mcgee. Anyone who stays for the full 24 hours earns honorary poet laureate of San Jose status. |
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