TaÃna Asili carries on the tradition of her ancestors, fusing present and past struggles into one poetic song-voice. She is a puertorriqueña vocalist, poet, visual artist, educator, activist and mother from Philadelphia, PA and Albany, NY. Her newest artistic work is with her live band, TaÃna Asili y La Banda Rebelde, soulful vocals laid over a unique infusion of rock, neo-soul, reggae, hip hop, and Afro-Caribbean sounds. The band's eclectic style represents the diversity of its band members, who have origins in Puerto Rico, Sicily, Greece, Brazil and Tanzania. TaÃna Asili carries a fire breathing voice of rage and resistance to venues, festivals, conferences and political events across the country. She weaves resistance, love, anti-colonialist struggle, ancestral remembrance, and more into a unique and unforgettable vocalization style.TaÃna is a winner of the 2005 “Transformation Award†given by the Leeway Foundation each year to a select few of women artists who profoundly use their work towards social change. TaÃna has shared the stage with artists such as Ursula Rucker, Sonia Sanchez, Pamela Means, Dead Prez, Immortal Technique and Tyrone Hill of The Sun Ra Arkestra. She can be witnessed in Scene and Not Heard, a documentary about women and hip hop culture in Philadelphia, also featuring Bahamadia and Monie Love. She was voted Albany’s “2006 Best Poet†in The Metroland, Albany, NY’s premier alternative news weekly. As a part of the Puerto-rock band Ricanstruction you can hear her vocals blow on their album “Love and Revolution.†TaÃna is now working with La Banda Rebelde on their debut album “Mama Guerrilla,†to be released in 2008 on the Rebel Army Media label.
History
TaÃna’s performance history and experience is as eclectic as her artistic work. Starting as a singer classically trained by a local Peruvian opera singer, TaÃna later found punk rock, and for eight years wrote and sang songs of rage and resistance with Antiproduct, touring the country several times and putting out four albums internationally. During this time, she fell in love with spoken word, and together with her brother, Victorio Reyes (now lead vocalist of Broadcast Live), created the spoken word group, Rebel Poets. Since that time she has sung soulful back-up vocals for numerous bands, eventually becoming her newest artistic project, TaÃna Asili y La Banda Rebelde.
TaÃna is dedicated to using her art as a tool for social transformation. Not only is her art politically conscious, but it is based in the concrete organizing she is in involved in, working in political prisoner liberation, prisoner rights, democratic education, indigenous rights, environmentalist, and holistic health movements for over 10 years. However, TaÃna’s main revolutionary, activist and artistic work involves raising her child... her best poetic inspiration.
Education
In addition to performance work TaÃna facilitates poetry workshops. She began her artistic educational work in Philadelphia at Taller Puertorriqueño, a Puerto Rican cultural center based in North Philadelphia, where she taught local Puerto Rican youth about the current struggle and resistance movement in Vieques, Puerto Rico, using poetry and drawing as their expressive voice. TaÃna has since taught poetry writing workshops for both children and adults, including the co-facilitation of a poetry workshop series in a women’s correctional facility in PA and refugee support center in NY. She has her MA in Transformative Language Arts from Goddard College..
