REPRESENTA!
Bilingual Theatre for the Hip-Hop Generation,
Co-commissioned by the San Francisco International Arts Festival, La Peña Cultural Center, GALA Hispanic Theatre, New Jersey Center for Perfroming Arts and NPN.New Jersey Performing Art Center
"Sacred Circle Cafe"
March 15, 2008
One Center Street
Newark, New Jersey 07102
Box Office (Toll-Free): (888) 466-5722
www.njpac.org
TIX AVAILABLE By phone or Online
"This is where Hip-Hop generation storytelling is headed in the new Millennium."
Danny Hoch, actor, writer, OBIE Award Winner
“True cross-cultural theater, inventive and full of energy. A window into the fascinating contradictions and complexity of modern day Cuba.â€
Dan Hoyle, Fulbright Scholar, writer/performer of Tings Dey Happen
"Funny, incisive, poignant, and informative."
Howard Junker, ZYZZYVA Magazine
“An amusing array of naive activists, street hustlers, obnoxious tourists, wannabe thug rappers, and self-styled revolutionaries… "
Sam Hurwitt, East Bay Express
"A deep and personal story of friendship [told] from the perspectives of immigrants, and the characters they parody. And funny!â€
Valerie Bustos, El Centro Su Teatro
"REPRESENTA! is an honest, nuanced portrayal of the complexities of
individual aspirations and ideal vantage points characteristic of the many
who legitimately search for identity and validation in larger competing
national ideological, political, economic and cultural projects." James
Early, the Smithsonian Institution Washington DCREPRESENTA! brings together the vision of writer/performer Paul S. Flores and Cuban rapper Julio Cardenas developed and directed by Danny Hoch in a fiercely incisive commentary on terrorism, immigration, Cuba, U.S. foreign policy, Bay Area lefty culture, New York after 9/11 and pan-Latino identity. Setting itself apart from other spoken-word performance, REPRESENTA! is bilingual theatre which combines spoken-word poetry with character portrayals that are simultaneously hilariously entertaining and provocative. A diverse and funny show with excellent supertitle translation for non-Spanish speakers who also want to learn more about contemporary Cuban culture.San Francisco hip-hop spoken word poet, Flores, travels to Cuba in 1996 looking for revolutionary solidarity at the Cuban Hip-Hop Festival. He finds that Hip-Hop in communist Cuba is thriving while the economy is in a chokehold. When the SF poet meets one particular Cuban rapper, Cardenas, who is looking for the "come up", more access, more attention, more validation and accolades for his art, two revolutions collide: Cuba and Hip-Hop. While the main characters try to reconcile this paradoxical relationship over a ten year period, one's desire for a future in Hip-Hop is directly juxtaposed with the other’s desire for a future for the Revolution.
This is my new book
LA MEZCLA: Poems, Traditions, Writings
(Please read my blog to see how you can get it for free, and subscribe!)..
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..ALONG THE BORDER LIES by Paul S. Flores 2003 PEN OAKLAND NATIONAL LITERARY AWARD WINNER about the San Diego/Tijuana border. TO ORDER, please send me a message with number of copies requested.
I met the one who has brought me all that I need
Hip-Hop Latino en El Foro Alicia, Mexico DF: (L-R) Ariel Fernandez (Cuba), Paul Flores (California), Intifada (Puerto Rico) Bocafloja (Mexico)
Los Rakas, Michel Maza, Amy Winehouse, Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra, Bad Brains, The Roots, Ice T (OG), Ise Lyfe, Rafael Casal, Charanga Habanera, Dj Sake-1 mixes FANIA!, Erica Badu, Tego Calde, Celia Cruz, ya tu sabes, and I have to admit I have a Freestyle hangover from 1987.
All films by Leon Ichaso "El Super" "Crossover Dreams" "Piñero" "Sugar Hill" "Azucar Amarga" "El Cantante"--The video from Reset Collective "La Princesa Blanca" is HILARIOUS. Can-Can.
Whatever my 3 year old son is watching: Sesame Street, Teletubbies, Dora and pretty much all of PBS. Dang. Be real.
Republic of Poetry by Martin Espada, Lost in the City and The Known World by Edward P Jones, BOMB Magazine. Hot writers: Percival Everett, Ed Vega, Willie Perdomo, Zoe Valdes, Guillermo Cabrera Infante (RIP), Madison Smartt Bell, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Roberto Bolaño, Louise Erdrich, ,Juan Felipe Herrera 187 Reasons Mexicanos Can't Cross the Border
Love to: Tamaya, My mother Patricia, mis abuelos Enrique and Olga Flores-Garcia, my son Santos, My friends Albert Quintos, Bamuthi, Norman Zelaya, Darren de Leon, James Kass, Will Frank, Rafael Casal, Jerry Quickley, Willie Perdomo, Danny Hoch, Julio Cardenas, Marc Pinate, Amalia Ortiz, Tomas Riley, Isaias Ridriguez, Leticia Hernandez, Kamilah Forbes, Clyde Valentin, Culture Clash, John Santos, Marcus Shelby, Melissa Lozano; Mentors: Quincy Troupe, Victor Hernandez Cruz, Juan Felipe Herrera, Tony Garcia, Abel Lopez, Elia Arce, Sylvia Sherman, George Stoya, Guillermo Gomez-Pena, Baraka Sele, Linda Lucero, Brent Beltran Calaca Press, and Benito Santiago.