Experimental charlas, una mezcla de conversatorios virtuales, sobre historia, arte, feminismo, comunidad y autodeterminación – Conversations about history, art, feminism, community and self-determination.
EastSide Arts Alliance and NAKA Dance Theater Present:
Rapera, Trabajadora Cultural, Maestra y Artista: Chhoti MAA
RAZA Studies Maestro, Cultural Worker, Danzante: Sergio Arroyo
Chicana Movement Artist y Directora de la Mezcla: Vanessa Sánchez
Tuesday August 17th @ 7pm
Artists and thinkers present excerpts from their literary and artistic work to discuss how their practice is woven into the power of the community.
Rapera, Trabajadora Cultural, Maestra y Artista
Chhoti Maa was born in Guanajuato, Mexico. She is a migrant, cultural producer, educator and organizer based in Huichin, Oakland, California. Chhoti started making music in 2007 in Richmond, VA. Since then, Chhoti Maa has performed, collaborated and taught in Peru, Puerto Rico, China, US, Cuba, Spain, Qatar, U.A.E., Ghana, Sweden, Canada, Mexico and multiple Indigenous nations. Their music is rooted in hip hop, neufolk, r&b, cumbia and oral tradition. It is bilingual, transgenre feels about decolonial living, red medicine, queerness, migrant empowerment, indigeneity, love, pain and radical sisterhood. The latest project Caldo de Hueso was released in 2019 with the support of Women’s Audio Mission and Joyful Noise. The album was co-produced with long time collaborators beto guapoflaco & Keith Avelino Hernandez. It featured artists like Howard Wiley, Kymberly Jackson, Carlo Ignacio, Ivan “el acordionista” Flores, Gera Omar Marin, Verenice Portela and Chhoti’s grandma. It was mixed and mastered by Victoria Fajardo, Kelley Coyne and Jessica Thompson. Caldo de Hueso is available for purchase on bandcamp in these formats: vinyl, cd and digital. Chhoti Maa is currently working on their third album with the support of Zoo Labs. The project will be released in 2021
Chicana Movement Artist y Directora de la Mezcla
Vanessa Sanchez is a Chicana-Native dancer, choreographer and educator who focuses on community arts and traditional dance forms to emphasize voices and experiences of Latina, Chicana, and Indigenous womxn and youth. Based in San Francisco, she is a 2019 Dance/USA Artist Fellow, a recipient of the 2019 New England Foundation for the Arts National Dance Production Grant and holds a BA from SFSU. Sanchez is the founding Artistic Director of La Mezcla, a rhythmic ensemble of womxn of color that explores historical narratives and challenges social injustice through tap dance, Mexican zapateado and Afro-Caribbean rhythms. Her production “Pachuquísmo,” an all-female tap dance and Son Jarocho performance about the 1943 Zoot Suit Riots, received the Isadora Duncan Award for Outstanding Production and will tour through 2022. Sanchez works to ensure accessibility to quality arts training and performances while teaching and mentoring youth and young adults of color. She created the program "Connecting Communities with Funders," a free series that connects Bay Area-based BIPOC, culturally-based dancers and artists with grant organizations, and continues to engage with the community through on-site performances and workshops. Sanchez received the Hewlett 50 Arts Commission grant for her upcoming work “Ghostly Labor,” a percussive piece that explores the legacies of female labor in the US-Mexico Borderlands, set to premiere in 2023. She is currently a Dance Lecturer at UC Santa Cruz and an artist in residence at Brava Theater.
RAZA Studies Maestro, Cultural Worker, Danzante
Sergio Arroyo, son of immigrant parents, was born in San Francisco and has lived and worked in the Oakland community for over 20 years. Sergio began organizing for educational and social justice issues at the age of 15. He Co-Founded the Raza Leadership Program in 2000 at the Spanish Speaking Citizens’ Foundation in an effort to address the under-representation of Raza (Latinx) youth in community leadership programs across Oakland. The program was centered on Raza history and civic engagement. His work to give voice and knowledge to young people set him on a path in education and has been teaching Raza Studies across OUSD schools since 2007. Sergio is currently a teacher at MetWest High school and has collaborated with the school district as a contractor with the OUSD Department of Equity, Latino Student Achievement Task Force, and the OUSD Sanctuary Task force providing educational training to adults working with Oakland youth.