[altroots] Re: Jose Torres Tama in Alaska Youth Project at OUT NORTH NPN Site

Dear arte aficionados, poets, activists, presenters, cyber publico and
ROOTERS:

Ay caramba, this is your friendly neighborhood performance artist coming
to you in an almost sleepless state from the Northern most point of the
50 states in Anchorage, Alaska, land of the midnight sun.  It is daylight
at midnight sol en la media noche, and it looks much like the five
o'clock hour would in most parts of the country--que chevere, but very
weird.  This is the furthest that I have been from New Orleans without
out being in a foreign country--mucho strange amigos.

Pero aqui estoy and here I shall remain for the next two weeks as I have
completed my first week of a three-week residency project at OUT NORTH
CONTEMPORARY ART HOUSE, the National Performance Network site in
Anchorage run by the dynamic duo of Gene Dugan and Jay Brause.  I am
developing another "Youth Performance Project" in collaboration with
Seattle video artist Kelly Wilbur.  We are working with a diverse group
of Anchorage teens that include African Americans, Philipinos, Native
Alaskan, Jewish, Latino and American teens.  It is a lively group of
fifteen teens from ages 12 to 16 gathered to explore the effects of media
on their identity and their sense of place as Alaskan youth.  The project
is called "Images of Youth," and the residency will culminate in an
original performance piece written and performed by the young
participating on Saturday, June 29, 2002.

In addition, I have performed two shows of "$CASINOAMERICA$" at OUT NORTH
and another at the even more remote site of Kenai, Alaska, where I
performed for the Alaska Arts Alliance.  The performance in Kenai was
presented to arts educators from across the country, the lower 48, and I
presented a workshop exploring the methodologies I employ in working with
at risk, immigrant and homeless teens.

Below are the details and a poem on the Alaskan absence of night.  It
will be a long three-week day for me in this magical place called
Anchorage as there is no night to be found.

ciao cyber gente,

Jose Torres Tama - http://www.torrestama.com
or just call me Bond... Juan Bond from her Majesty's
Secret Salsa Service with a license to transport
subversive performance art across state lines!


13 lines for the Alaskan sun at night

nearing midnight again and mountain sentinels
with eagle heads and postcard hats of snow cap perfection
frame Anchorage like five in the afternoon
and my wolf without night is a missing poster child
because a coyote looks silly howling at the sun
and the absence of darkness offers no respite for a duende poet
forcing my nocturnal bohemian soul to seek refuge
behind thick burlap bedroom curtains and cotton blinders for the eyes
I imagine vampires must avoid Alaskan summers in their summit
because without night to feast the lower 48 is better play
for who can say "out all-night drinking blood 
until the morning curved my appetite"



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
June 17, 2002 
OUT NORTH CONTEMPORARY ART HOUSE  IN ALASKA
PRESENTS 
PERFORMANCE ARTIST JOSE TORRES TAMA?S
YOUTH PERFORMANCE PROJECT & $CASINOAMERICA$
Jose Torres Tama treads that dangerously vague turf of performance art
gracefully... with dexterity and daring. ---The Village Voice (New York)
Torres Tama is both a versatile writer who can be lyrically evocative as
well as bitingly humorous, and an impressive performer. ---The
Philadelphia Inquirer 
From June 10 ? 29, Out North Contemporary Art House in Anchorage, Alaska
is sponsoring a three-week residency by New Orleans performance artist
Jose Torres Tama. Within this time, the artist will develop a Youth
Performance Project with a diverse group of teens from Anchorage area
schools and introduce them to the genre of performance art as a medium
for self-expression.  Torres Tama will be collaborating with Seattle
video artist Kelly Wilbur to have the teens explore "Images of Youth" and
their sense of place as teens in the remote state of Alaska.
Through daily three-hour workshops conducted by the artist, the
participating youth will be guided through the process of creating an
original ensemble performance piece based on their personal experiences. 
The workshops focus on the development and writing of monologues, poems,
and ensemble improvisations.
The students are encouraged to "tell their story" as they define
themselves against a backdrop of popular culture in their search for the
American Dream.  Video artist Kelly Wilbur will instruct the teens on the
development of video as an art form as well as instruct them on the
process of documenting the workshops.  With Ms. Wilbur's guidance the
participating teens will create video shorts that will be fused with the
actual performance piece, incorporating video as an integral element of
the final ensemble performance.
The workshops take place from 10AM - 1PM at the Out North Theatre
facility located at 1325 Primrose in Anchorage.  The project will
culminate in a public performance of the teens? original performance
piece on Saturday, June 29 at 7PM at the Theatre.  For ticket information
call (907) 279-8099.
Also, the artist will perform his NEA award-winning and critically
acclaimed solo $CASINOAMERICA$ which explores the proliferation of
casinos and gambling as a metaphor for life in postmodern America. 
Combining symbolic movement and bilingual prose with exaggerated personae
and rituals of fire, the artist creates a relentless one-hour verbal and
visual performance collage that is intensely dramatic, politically
charged and hilariously absurd.  The $CASINOAMERICA$ performances will
also take place at OUT NORTH THEATRE on Friday and Saturday, June 14 - 15
at 7PM. Call (907) 279-8099 for reservations.
In 1996, the National Endowment for the Arts awarded Torres Tama a
"Regional Artists Project" Grant to develop $CASINOAMERICA$, and he is
the recipient of a 1999 Louisiana Theatre Fellowship.
Torres Tama is a contributing editor to Art Papers, a national arts
magazine published in Atlanta, and he has written for the Chicago New Art
Examiner, The Mexico City Times, and Urban Latino Magazine in New York. 
Visit his web site at WWW.TORRESTAMA.COM to learn more His performances
and lectures have been presented at numerous venues and universities
including Performance Space 122 in New York, NY; DiverseWorks in Houston,
TX; The Center for the Arts in Tucson, AZ; and Duke, Cornell, Spelman,
University of Michigan, Arizona State West and Rutgers Universities.
Torres Tama's performance work has been featured on National Public
Radio's All Things Considered and Latino USA.
UPCOMING SUMMER TOUR 2002:
Miami, FL: Tigertail Productions, ARTEMIS and Abriendo Puertas
Three-week "Youth Performance Project" Residency from July 8 - 27
New York, NY: The Nuyorican Poets' Cafe
"In Exile Close to the Equator" Performances from August 22 - 25 & 29 -
Sept. 1

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