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Stone Yucayeque Exhibit Review
Stone Yucayeque: Old San Juan’s 500-Year History on Display at The Clemente
The Clemente's current group exhibition, Stone Yucayeque (El Yucayeque de Piedra), includes the works of twenty-eight artists that tell a complicated, yet enthralling story of an iconic and historic place in Borinquen (Puerto Rico): the city of Old San Juan.
The exhibition recognizes the 500 years since the fortified stone city's founding in 1521 by Spanish colonizers and pays homage to the Taínos by using a word from their language, Yucayeque, which means village or city. With work by Puerto Ricans and non-Puerto Rican artists alike, this exhibition is nostalgic, romantic, and, most importantly, political, conveying the complex history of the archipelago of Puerto Rico. Old San Juan is the oldest continuously inhabited post-European contact settlement under US jurisdiction, the second oldest in the entire Western Hemisphere, and located in the oldest colony in the world. As such, the exhibition acknowledges both its current and past history, its place in the land of the Tainos, its culture and people, and the enslaved Africans who built this fortified city.
Puppet Fringe 2021
Puppetry Journal: On the Fringe
The excitement, energy, talent, and warmth of the community of puppeteers and of New York City were on full display at the International Puppet Fringe Festival NYC. There were 13 shows listed as on-site performances presented August 11 to 15, 2021. Six reviews are included in this issue. Thanks to all the performers at the Fringe.
Talks, Workshops & Panels:
In and Out of Focus: Adal Maldonado & Miguel Algarín
The Clemente and LATEA mourn and celebrate two LES/Loisaida pillars of the Nuyorican aesthetic. Their trans-formations allowed for our utopian imaginings of overlapping downtown art traditions where the 'invisible is possible and the impossible is visible'.
Three-part virtual event consisting of video presentations followed by a moderated dialogue and Q&A with scholars, writers, artists, and activists from across the Puerto Rican archipelago and New York building power from a state of permanent crisis. Organized by The Clemente in partnership with #PRSyllabus and the support of CUNY GC Center for the Humanities.
Accent on Patria?: Sounding out ancestries in the work of Jean Michel Basquiat
Conversation with historians Ayana Legros and Yasmin Ramirez to discuss the significance of Jean Michel Basquiat’s articulations of Puerto Rican and Haitian ancestry through his art. WATCH HERE.
Performances, Arts & Playlists:
Breathing History: Chapel of Reflection Exhibition by Diógenes Ballester
The seminal Puerto Rican artist discusses his 2020 solo show at The Clemente’s Abrazo Interno Gallery through a reflection on the exchanges of the Afro-descendant Diaspora between French people and immigrants from the former colonies exposed to the transnational world.
Diogenes Ballester is a visual artist, educator, and writer. who works in different artistic media including painting, printmaking, drawing, new media, and installation art and is recognized as a master of encaustic painting and printmaking. He has received numerous honors for his artistic work and has exhibited widely in the United States, Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.
End the Debt! Decolonize! Liberate Puerto Rico! Scroll
An artistic response to Hurricane María which tells a story of struggle and resistance to U.S. colonialism in Puerto Rico and its diaspora. This pre-cinematic technology employs continuous moving images, performed with an original song by Papel Machete. The hand-illustrated scroll is over 170 feet long and 3 inches wide, and was developed over fifteen months. The piece was created by artists from AgitArte and Papel Machete, in collaboration with Estefanía Rivera, Crystal Clarity, Rachel Schragis, and Emily Simons.
The scroll piece made its NYC debut as part of the When We Fight, We Win! / ¡Cuando Luchamos, Ganamos! 2018 exhibition at The Clemente’s Abrazo Interno gallery, which featured over 40 artists, cultural organizers and collectives whose work bolsters people’s movements and builds solidarity across place, culture and struggle.
Clemente Artists - Open Studios 2018
Take a look at what diverse resident artists were up to in 2018.
Selections from Borimix 2020: Bori-Ayiti: Tree of Visions
The Haitian film/video shorts/performances that form part of “Bori-Ayiti: A tree of visions” transport Puerto Ricans, all Antillians and many Latin Americans from the Caribbean shore, to a place as likely to be familiar as it is likely to be unknown to most.
Artistic encounter between Dymy Chouloute and Awilda Sterling
Screening of Dymy Chouloute's Washing followed by a retrospective of what inspired this Haitian young filmmaker to create this piece and provoke the audience into understanding where a revolution comes from and how it can create real change. Screening of Awilda Sterling's Lacks criticality followed by a retrospective of how her heritage and training inspired her to use her body as an instrument of expression and communicate a "storm".
Tanama, a female Haitian superhero, is the new creation of Anthony Louis-Jeune, creator of Djatawo -first male Haitian superhero- will meet La Borinqueña, a Puerto Rican female superhero created by Edgardo Miranda-Rodríguez. Moderated by Iris Morales.
The Clemente in Puppetry Journal
Live in New York City. Puppetry Performed in Unconventional Spaces. By Cheryl Henson.
ARTICLES & ESSAYS:
