What is all this craziness? Well, amar is a community of activists, artists, musicians, writers, filmmakers, and other funky people from the los angeles area who are down for creating an egalitarian movement involving people from all different sorts of neighborhoods, racial groups, and economic backgrounds. If you're down for the cause, then you'll be treated as an equal in our eyes no matter how society treats you. Most of us are inclined towards raising political awareness through art, be it related to global ills like imperialism, poverty, war, genocide, racism, sexism, religious conflict, environmental destruction and the heinous misuse of resources, etc, or more local issues like the ongoing plight of the south central farmers and the recent ICE immigration raids that have lead to the deportation of hundreds. There is a lot of crazy stuff going on in the world and while it would be easy to respond to with cynicism or defeatism, it would definitely not be as rewarding as resisting in even the smallest way.
But hey, if mixing your politics and and your art aint your bag but you are still into what we're doing, then don't fret beause we still have love for you and you can still definitely get down with us as long as you believe in equality and respect and all of those fun things that they should teach more often in public schools instead of having us memorize all 50 state capitals over and over again. Then again, that's what amar means to me, but what does it mean to you? If you're one of the 400 million spanish speakers in the world, then it may just mean "to love"... and that is, simply put, what we're here to do.
On top of all the events listed in the upcoming shows section, there are some more benefit shows, film festivals, teach-ins, political events, etc. currently in the works, so please... like jb would say: get up, get into it, get involved! At the moment we are in serious need of some dedicated individuals who are willing to collaborate with us in establishing a cultural force in LA that demands equality for all socially or economically subjugated groups and does so primarily through artistic expression and cultural events.
Yes, it's art and it's music and it's dialogue and you may think that those things alone cannot change the course of our society, but history has proven otherwise... all we need to do is look back at the tropicalistas in Brazil in the 60's, Fela Kuti's kalakuta republic in Nigeria in the 70's and 80's, jazz counterculture in the United States in the 20's, the bulk of punk music, revolutionary hip-hop, and let's not get started on folk. Resistance has always been tied to art, because it is an art form in itself. It is our hope to continue the evolution of that art and learn from our past.
One of our short-term goals is to start setting up workshops to educate the community about issues ranging from global to local matters. If you would like to be involved in the process of developing a workshop at one of our shindigs or know someone who you think would be good for the part, please message us or call the number below.
If you're already part of an organization and you'd like to work with us, just let us know! We are all one community and we must resist and create together regardless of the distinctions of race/class/creed that we've been conditioned to think are legitimate reasons to separate ourselves from others. It was reaffirmed to me earlier thismonth at the oaxaca benefit show that these barriers are purely superficial, and the deepest connections between people come not from what sort of life they were born into, but what they choose to spend that life doing. We have chosen to resist, and we are not alone in that choice.
el pueblo unido jamas sera vencido.
paz y justicia,
andres of {amar}
[email protected]
(626)354-1207
"art is not a mirror held up to reality,
but a hammer with which to shape it"
- burtolt brecht