GUSH

In 2018 Gerald Casel led Dancing Around Race, a community engagement residency in the Bay Area that examined issues surrounding racial equity in dance. Using a systems thinking approach, choreographers, educators, writers, funders, and curators were invited to discuss issues that contribute to racial inequity. Some guiding questions for the Dancing Around Race conversations included: What obstacles get in the way of racial equity? What does it look/feel like to have racial equity in dance? What does the future look like? How do we get there? Three public gatherings with guest speakers modeled after the long table discussion were held throughout the year. The project has expanded to include a gathering of over 60 dance educators at the University of Utah, which focused on whiteness in higher education. The group discussed how systemic racism shows up in higher education, and how capitalism, patriarchy, white supremacy, and settler colonialism restrict the possibility of shifting power dynamics.

Casel will be joined by Rebecca Chaleff, Sammay Dizon, Kimani Fowlin, David Herrera, Yayoi Kambara, Kate Mattingly, Raissa Simpson, and Tria Blu Wakpa to hold space for this unique gathering during GUSH, paying particular attention to how systemic racial inequity is playing out during this pandemic. Moderated by Bhumi Patel, we will be asking how and where we go from here as well as sharing thoughts on imagining an alternative future that is equitable and just.
Dancing Around Race was initially supported by HMD’s Bridge Project (Hope Mohr Dance) and included Zulfikar Ali Bhutto with special guests Aruna D’Souza, Barbara Bryan, and Thomas F. DeFrantz.

Registration/Ticket required for Dancing Around Race. Upon signing up, you’ll receive an email with online access instructions.

May 28, 4-6pm

Feature Artist Practice – Not About Race Dance with GERALDCASELDANCE

For this occasion, GERALDCASELDANCE will discuss the process of making Not About Race Dance, which is a collaborative choreographic response to the unmarked predominance of whiteness in US postmodern dance. The work cites Neil Greenberg’s Not About AIDS Dance to connect the silence around the AIDS epidemic and the unacknowledged racial politics of postmodern dance. Occupying a space defined by white artists, it contests the structural endurance of whiteness in postmodernity by disidentifying with the white cube activated by Trisha Brown’s Locus and asks how difference can be made visible through choreographic structures that do not traditionally make space for brown and black bodies. Whiteness is the “not race” that the work exposes as a durable history and dominant social structure perpetuated through contemporary dance practices.

Gerald Casel will be present to hold a Q&A with his artistic collaborators: Aron Altmark (media and lighting design), Rebecca Chaleff (dramaturgy), Tim Russell (sound design), and Audrey Johnson, Kaia Makihara, and Karla Quintero (dancers).

May 29, 4-5pm

This event will be hosted on Zoom, click to join.

It will also be streamed on Facebook, click to view. 

Feature Artist Practice – NAKA Dance Theater

José Navarrete and Debby Kajiyama will present excerpts of BUSCARTE (Searching for You). BUSCARTE is a performance that contemplates the forensic anthropology findings in the case of the 43 students from Ayotzinapa Teachers’ College who were forcibly disappeared in Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico in 2014. The ongoing search for the students has led to the discovery of other mass graves that reveal the epidemic proportions of the hidden violence. The work contemplates the effect of the trauma of forced disappearance on ever-widening circles in the community.

May 27, 6-7pm

This event will be hosted on Zoom,
click to join.

It will also be streamed on Facebook
click to view. 

NAKA Dance Theater shares a virtual conversation with Rosa-Linda Fregoso & members of Mujeres Unidas y Activas.

This event will be hosted on Zoom
in SPANISH with ENGLISH interpretation
click to join.

It will also be streamed
on Facebook (SPANISH only)
click to view.*

As part of NAKA Dance Theater’s BUSCARTE Project and in association with Mujeres Unidas y Activas, we will have the honor of a virtual conversation with Professor Rosa-Linda Fregoso to discuss gender and racial violence and cultural politics in the Americas. She is a Professor of Latin American & Latino Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is the co-editor of Terrorizing Women: Feminicide in the Americas (co-edited with Cynthia Bejarano, Duke University Press, 2010). We will also discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on gender-based violence in our communities.

Professor Fregoso will be joined by Mirna Ruiz, Monica Gonzalez and Miriam Guillen, who manage the crisis line at Mujeres Unidas y Activas.

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Plática virtual con Maestra Rosa-Linda Fregoso y miembras de Mujeres Unidas y Activas

Miércoles 27 de Mayo a las 1-2pm.

Esta conversación será en español con interpretación en inglés.

Como parte del Proyecto BUSCARTE de NAKA Danza Teatro y en asociación con Mujeres Unidas y Activas, tendremos el honor de establecer una conversación virtual con la profesora Rosa-Linda Fregoso para discutir temas como la violencia racial y de género y las políticas culturales en las Américas. Profesora del departamento de estudios Latinoamericanos y Latinos de la Universidad de California, Santa Cruz. Es co-editora del libro: Aterrorizando a las Mujeres: Feminicidio en las Américas, el titulo en ingles es:Terrorizing Women: Feminicide in the Americas (co-editado con Cynthia Bejarano, Duke University Press, 2010). También se discutirá el tema de la pandemia de COVID-19 y el incremento de la violencia de género en nuestras comunidades.

La profesora Fregoso se unirá a Mirna Ruiz, Mónica González y Miriam Guillén, quienes administran la línea de crisis en Mujeres Unidas y Activas.

This event will be hosted on Zoom
in SPANISH with ENGLISH interpretation
click to join.

It will also be streamed
on Facebook (SPANISH only)
click to view.*

“The Case of the 43 Disappeared Students of Ayotzinapa”
A virtual conversation with Omar Garcia

This event will be hosted on zoom
in SPANISH with ENGLISH interpretation:
click to join.

It will also be streamed
on Facebook (SPANISH only)
click to view.

This conversation will be in Spanish with English interpretation.

Omar García Velásquez is a survivor of the events of September 26, 2014 which occurred in Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico. Since that date, he has been a powerful organizer and advocate in the search for the missing 43 students from Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers College. He is a leader in the fight for justice for the people who were wounded or assassinated that night. Velásquez has been a spokesperson for the movement for almost three years, and has participated in forums and conferences in Mexico and at least 15 other countries around the world about the Ayotzinapa 43 movement. Two of the most impactful international tours he helped mobilize were the #Caravana43 held in March 2015 in 50 cities in the United States, and the #EuroCaravana, which toured 18 cities in 11 European countries between April and May 2015. Garcia played an important role in building solidarity networks for the movement. He is currently studying Law at the University of the Cloister of Sor Juana in Mexico City, and continues his activism for Human Rights.

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Los 43 estudiantes desaparecidos de Ayotzinapa
Una conversación virtual con Omar García.

Viernes 29 de mayo, de 7 a 8 p.m.
Esta conversación será en español con interpretación en inglés.

Como parte del Proyecto BUSCARTE de NAKA y en asociación con EastSide Arts Alliance, tendremos una conversación virtual con Omar García, sobreviviente de la masacre de estudiantes del 26 de septiembre de 2014 que ocurrió en Iguala, Guerrero, México. Desde esa fecha, ha sido un eminente organizador y defensor en la búsqueda de los 43 estudiantes desaparecidos de la Escuela Normal Rural Raúl Isidro Burgos de Ayotzinapa. Omar ha sido portavoz del movimiento durante casi tres años y ha participado en foros y conferencias en México y en otros 15 países sobre el movimiento de los 43 estudiantes de Ayotzinapa. También Omar jugó un papel importante en la construcción de redes de solidaridad para el movimiento. Actualmente estudia Derecho en la Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana en la Ciudad de México, y continúa su activismo por los Derechos Humanos.

Omar compartirá una breve reseña del estado actual del caso de los 43 estudiantes de Ayotzinapa, las órdenes de arresto contra ex altos funcionarios que fabricaron la “Verdad Histórica”, y una perspectiva sobre cómo la violencia, la desaparición forzada, los femicidios y otros problemas sociales continúan impactando al pueblo de México bajo la administración actual. Esta conversación será moderada por Arnoldo (Colibrí) García del comité de apoyo por Chiapas, con sede en Oakland que organiza solidaridad y concientiza sobre el movimiento Zapatista.

This event will be hosted on zoom
in SPANISH with ENGLISH interpretation:
click to join.

It will also be streamed
on Facebook (SPANISH only)
click to view.