Conversation & Screening

Sancocho LIVE: Essential Infrastructure

Thu, Jun 25, 2020

7:00 PM–9:00 PM

The third and final session of Sancocho Live looked at cultural projects created before the COVID-19 pandemic that were already addressing our state of crisis with intersectional approaches that are now more important than ever. We asked, how have cultural workers responded and been prescient to the fundamental needs of their communities in the face of state abandonment? Artists, scholars and activists from diverse backgrounds answered by sharing their on-going work, beginning with a live poetic performance by Urayoán Noel and a series of commissioned videos.

The first of these videos showcased the work of PATBA (Parceleras Afrocaribeñas por la Transformación Barrial), an organization made up of AfroCaribbean women from the neighborhoods of San Antón, Saint Just and Los Mirtos in Carolina, who have taken over a shuttered school in their community with the mission of rehabilitating and reinhabiting it.

The following video was produced by LIIT, the Itinerant Lab for Theater Research, a group that has been meeting since November 2018 led by writer and artist Aravind Adyanthaya, director of the experimental art space Casa Cruz de la Luna in San Germán. Their video is included in the full transmission below.

The final commissioned video shared a process of long-distance collaboration in times of pandemic by the fellows of La Práctica, a program of Beta-Local, an artist-run, non-profit organization that works as a support structure for Puerto Rican cultural workers. Participants drafted a manifesto collectively as part of a writing and editing workshop imparted by Adrián Flores Sancho, Costa Rican writer and past collaborator of the organization. La Práctica is made up by: Laurie de Jesús, Cristóbal Guerra, Andrea Narváez, Andrea Ottenwalder, Raúl Porro y Anamarie Sierra Pagán.

The discussion continued with a Q&A hosted by writer and scholar Ed Morales, who interviewed Frances Negrón Muntaner and Ana Sepúlveda from the project Just XChanges about their initiatives circulating alternative currencies in Puerto Rican communities, Mariana Reyes from La Goyco, a school turned community cultural center in Machuchal, Santurce, and Dania from Espicy Nipples, a transfeminist media collective based in the southern part of the island that was at the frontlines of the grassroots response to the earthquake swarm that began in December of 2019. Later, the creators of the commissioned videos also joined the conversation and answered questions from viewers.

To wrap up the Sancocho Live series in style, this final virtual jangueo was broadcast live from La Goyco, where queer rockstar Macha Colón performed with artist Lío Villahermosa, born and raised in the Machuchal neighborhood, and a group of friends.

How have cultural workers responded to the fundamental needs of their communities in the face of state abandonment?/ ¿De qué forma han respondido los trabajadores culturales las necesidades fundamentales de sus comunidades en respuesta al abandono estatal?

Join us for “Essential Infrastructure,'” the final event in a 3-part virtual event series “Sancocho Live: Catastrophe, Resistance, & Joy” which brings together scholars, writers, artists, and activists to think about how “non-essential” communities, workers, and institutions are responding to the intersecting catastrophes of the present. Drawing inspiration from Pedro Pietri’s concept of the “aesthetic sancocho” each event will consist of short video presentations, followed by a moderated dialogue (open to Q&A) with Puerto Rican cultural workers in the island and the diaspora. We will end with a virtual jangueo where DJ’s set the mood and participants can continue building together.

***NOTE: you must register here on Eventbrite to receive the Zoom link***

** Events will be fully bilingial with English & Spanish interpretation by Babilla Collective **

PROGRAM

Video Presentations: Beta-Local,Laboratorio Itinerante de Investigación Teatral, La Conde,

Intervención Poetica: Urayoan Noel

Dialogue moderated by Libertad Guerra and Ed Morales with JustXChanges, La Goyco, Espicy Nipples

Jangueo Virtual con Macha Colón

This series of events is co-sponsored by The Clemente Soto Velez Cultural & Educational Center in partnership with #PRSyllabus and the Center for the Humanities at The Graduate Center, CUNY as part of theThe Puerto Rico Syllabus project from the Seminar on Public Engagement and Collaborative Research.