Queens Theatre in the Park (QTP) announces the Chase 2010 Latino Cultural Festival, which will take place from July 29 to August 8 at Queens Theatre in the Park. This is the 14th year of the festival, which will feature 13 events including music, dance, comedy, spoken word, film, and family-friendly performances, such as a concert by Leon Gieco, a pop-folk musician who has been called the Argentine Bob Dylan; Carlos Varela, one of Cuba's most talented and emblematic artists; Colombia folk musician Jorge Velosa, who will perform his creation, a new musical style called carranguero music; and singer Susana Baca, who has been instrumental in the international popularity of Afro-Peruvian music. This year's participants hail from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, the United States, and Venezuela.
Queens Theatre in the Park's Chase 2010 Latino Cultural Festival includes:
Thursday, July 29, 2010 Contra Tiempo, Urban Latin Dance Theatre
Friday, July 30, 2010 Tribute to Yomo Toro, Music
Saturday, July 31, 2010 FREE - Pistolera - Moona Luna, Music
Saturday, July 31, 2010 America nos, Comedy
Sunday, August 1, 2010 Tango y Vida, Music and Dance
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 Alejandro Caceres Dance Company
Wednesday, August 4, 2010 FREE - Film - Al otro lado
Wednesday, August 4, 2010 FREE - Open Mic Night / Bonafide Rojas
Wednesday, August 4, 2010 FREE - Milonga - Los Chantas Tango Quartet
Thursday, August 5, 2010 Leon Gieco - opening act Claudia Acuña, Aquiles Baez and Lucia Pulido
Friday, August 6, 2010 Carlos Varela, Music
Saturday, August 7, 2010 Jorge Velosa, Music
Sunday, August 8, 2010 Susana Baca, Music
"The Chase Latino Festival is the Theatre's signature program. It represents everything our Theatre strives to be in terms of reflecting and celebrating the cultural legacies of the communities living in our Borough, and inviting international, national and local artists to showcase their work at our venue. Despite the severity of the economic situation, this Festival continues to flourish, due in large part to its many supporters and sponsors, and of course, the curatorial vision of the Festival's artistic director, Claudia Norman, who has brought over 200 companies and artists to perform at the Festival since its inception in 1997," said Jeffrey Rosenstock, Executive Director of Queens Theatre in the Park.
"As the only multidisciplinary Latino festival in New York, we always seek to represent - in 9 days- the diversity of Latino and Latin American culture. I think it's important to bring artists to the US from abroad as well as local artists and expose audiences to past, present and future through live performances. This year's schedule includes the contemporary voices (dance commission, young poets from the boroughs, film), the traditional and popular forms (tango, milonga, urban dance, comedy troup), the legends (Yomo Toro, Leon Gieco, Susana Baca, Jorge Velosa) , and the new generation of singers and songwriters (Carlos Varela, Pistolera, Lucia Pulido, Claudia Acuña, Aquiles Baez)," said Claudia Norman, Artistic Director of the festival.
Thursday, July 29, 2010 at 8pm
Contra tiempo, Urban Latin Dance Theatre / Dance (Los Angeles, California)
Contra tiempo is a dynamic, Urban Latin Dance Theater Company founded in 2004 by choreographer Ana Maria Alvarez. The company fuses Salsa, Afro-Cuban,West African, Hip-Hop, and abstract Dance-Theatre, to create an invigorating blend of physically intense and socially astute performance. While the company's performances are consistently electrifying and impactful, what sets the company apart is its unique relationship to its own community and its dynamic work with young people.
Tickets $35 at door, $30 advance, $28 multi-show
Friday, July 30, 2010 at 8pm
Tributo a Yomo Toro / Concert (New York/Puerto Rico)
Yomo Toro, master of the cuatro (Puerto Rico's 10-stringed, guitar-like instrument) has been a beloved cultural icon and musical maestro for more than thirty years. A resident of New York City since 1956, he has in fact never lost his jibaro spirit and his delightful presence has pleased thousands of fans of all ages throughout the world. His spectacular playing, dexterity and originality have astounded audiences throughout his lengthy and varied career. In this concert he will have special guests.
Tickets $25 at door, $20 advance, $18 multi-show
Saturday, July 31, 2010 at 2pm
Pistolera (Moona Luna) / Family Performance (New York)
Moona Luna is the new musical project brought to you by the Latin-Alternative group Pistolera. Inspired by the birth of her first child-during the making of the last album-Pistolera's lead singer and songwriter Sandra Velasquez now brings us family-friendly songs in Spanish and English that continue the band's tradition of positive messages and toe-tapping beats. Fans of all ages have already enjoyed Pistolera's music; Moona Luna continues the party with songs that are educational and inspiring to girls and boys--and their parents!--everywhere. Moona Luna is the first female-led bilingual band of its kind, but most of all, it's fun, fun, fun! A bailar!
Tickets FREE
Saturday, July 31, 2010 at 8pm & 10pm
America... nos / Comedy (Ecuador/Peru and Colombia)
America nos is a new comedy produced by Jorge Toledo, based on the journeys that South American immigrants phase every day to arrive to the US. With the participation of the comedians Julio Cesar Herrera from the soap opera "Betty La Fea" (Ugly Betty), Andres Garzon (El Cholito) and Paola Poggo (Vivos).
Tickets $25 at door, $20 advance, $18 multi-show
Performed in Spanish
Sunday, August 1, 2010 at 7pm
Tango y Vida / Dance (Argentina/New York)
Tickets $35 day of, $30 advance, $28 multi-show
Six dancers, seven musicians, a singer and an actor present the tango live on stage. In a seductive revue that is Tango y Vida, Tango and Life, these International Artists embody the heat , the energy, the controlled abandon that is the Argentine Tango. A truly multi-cultural experience.
Tickets $35 at door, $30 advance, $28 multi-show
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 7:30pm
Alejandro Caceres Dance Company / Dance (Chile)
For this year's commissioned dance piece, a co-commission and co-presentation with LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, contemporary choreographer Alejandro Cáceres was born on January 13th, 1968 in Santiago de Chile. His work has been characterized for establishing collaborations with other artists and for the mixture of the different disciplines he has studied, such as theater, dance, music and martial art.
Tickets FREE
Wednesday, August 4, 2010 at 7pm
Bonafide Rojas / Open Mic (New York)
A poet and musician, Bonafide Rojas is the author of "Pelo Bueno: a day in the life of a Nuyorican Poet" (Dark Souls Press, 2006). He is the 2002 Slam This! Champion and has been on two National Poetry Slam teams, NYC/Union Square 2002 & Wicker Park 2003. He has appeared in Russell Simmon's "Def Poetry Jam" Season 4 and has been published in the anthologies: "Bum Rush the Page: a Def Poetry Jam" (Three Rivers Press, 2002), RoleCall: "A Generational Anthology of Social and Political Black Literature and Art" (Third World Press, 2002), The "Centro Journal" (Hunter College, 2001), Blu Magazine's Puerto Rico Issue, The Hostos Review, The Acentos Review, Columbia's Roots and Culture, NYU's Calabash Journal and was a featured poet in Lincoln Center's La Casita: Home for The Heart, 2009.
Tickets FREE
Wednesday, August 4, 2010 at 7:30pm
Al otro lado / To the Other Side / Film (Mexico)
(Natalia Almada, US/Mexico, 2005, 66 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Like many in Sinaloa, the drug capital of Mexico, 23-year-old Magdiel faces two choices to better his life: trafficking drugs or illegally crossing the border into the United States. Yet Magdiel has a special talent that could be his ticket out: composing corridos - ballads about the narcotics underworld and illegal immigrant life. For over 200 years corridos have been Mexico's musical underground newspaper and the voice of those rarely heard outside their communities. From Sinaloa, Mexico, to the streets of South Central and East L.A., Al Otro Lado explores the world of drug smuggling, immigration and the corrido music that chronicles it all.
Tickets FREE
Wednesday, August 4, 2010 at 8pm
Los Chantas Tango Quartet / Milonga-Dance (New York)
Los Chantas Tango Quartet, in collaboration with the dancers Jennifer Wesnousky and Daniel Raphael, will be performing this night of milonga that, by definition, is a tango dance party. This form of social dance was born in Buenos Aires and has become extremely popular in New York City and around the world. During a milonga three to five songs are played in a row followed by a short musical break to give dancers a chance to find new partners. Wesnosky and Raphael (very well know tango instructors), will be giving a "fast course" for audiences dancing tango for the first time. Los Chantas Tango Quartet is a multinational tango ensemble based in New York City. Their repertoire draws from the great Argentine tango tradition from the guardia vieja to the present. The group has been playing in milongas, clubs, theaters, and other venues in and around New York since its inception in 2002.
Tickets FREE
Thursday, August 5, 2010 at 8pm
Leon Gieco / Concert (Argentina) with opening act Claudia Acuña / Aquiles Baez y Lucia Pulido
Leon Gieco is a pop-folk music composer and interpreter known for mixing popular folkloric genres with Argentine rock, and for lyrics with social and political connotations. This has led to him being called the Argentine Bob Dylan.
Tickets $25 at door, $20 advance, $18 multi-show
Friday, August 6, 2010 at 8pm
Carlos Varela / Concert (Cuba)
Cuban singer/songwriter Carlos Varela is considered one of the most talented and emblematic Cuban artists of his generation. Born in Havana on April 11, 1963, he began his music career playing the drums in his school's rock band and composing his first songs. He soon joined the Nueva Trova movement of Cuban singer songwriters and began performing in theaters and small venues in Havana and other cities throughout Cuba. This marks the first time in eight years that the festival will present artists traveling from Cuba.
Tickets $30 at door, $25 advance, $23 multi-show
Saturday, August 7, 2010 at 8pm
Jorge Velosa / Concert (Colombia)
Jorge Velosa is a Colombian folk music composer. His music is from the Andean region of the country, but its influence is felt throughout the nation. Velosa created a new musical style called carranguero music, which represents the dreams and hopes, words, and soul of popular art.
