Second Annual Young Artist Showcase Comes to Casita Maria In NYC

Casita Maria Center For Arts & Education is proud to present Bambula/Re-remember, our 2nd Annual Young Artist Showcase! This multidisciplinary exhibition will include art created by participants in Casita Maria's after-school arts education program during the 2018 - 2019 academic year.

Families and community members are invited to our Family/Community Celebration with food and music by DJ Delaceiba on Thursday, March 28, 2019; 5:45 - 7 p.m., celebrating the opening of the exhibition, which will be on view March 28 - May 10, 2019.

Register today at: https://www.casitamaria.org/events#event=24997167

For this exhibition, the Young Artists of Casita Maria tapped into their ancestral legacies, including traditions from The Americas and Caribbean. Throughout the year, they have focused on the process of remembering these cultures and people through their artmaking.

Our word for this process originated in the Kongo, a former African kingdom located in West Central Africa, and is still heard among many of these cultures: Bambula, or re-remembering. The Young Artists have been remembering forgotten cultures by studying myths and legends as well as tapping into their rich art history.

"Bambula is a rhythm and dance in Bomba, [a traditional Puerto Rican dance form]. It's also a word found throughout the Caribbean and Latin America as well as parts of the US. The word is Kongo and it means 'to re-remember.' It's the process of reconnecting with one's collective ancestral unconscious in order to re-remember who one is in order to find peace and balance," says Alex Lasalle, Community Educator, and Musician.

Latin America and the Caribbean students are bringing back the forgotten world by focusing on art, symbolism, and culture. To re-REMEMBER where we come from and remember who we are.

"Casita Maria...teaches our kids' values, about art, about music, about drawing...these activities keep kids away from trouble and teach them to know how much more they can do through art and music - they can speak out through painting, they can find a voice through writing poems, they can express themselves through art...I feel safe when [my child is] here. [When] I am at work I know she's in good hands," says a Casita Maria Parent of Program Participant.

"For my daughter to be able to express her whole self through drawing, through writing, through poems and now with the piano, it's priceless and beautiful! She is learning and enjoying everything she does here...In here, she finds herself!" says Casita Maria Parent of Program Participant

"This exhibition is a community celebration of youth voice and youth choice," says Gail Heidel, Director of Creative Arts Programs.

"Art is healing, art inspires us, art helps us to feel resilient and alive. In this exhibit, Casita Maria Young Artists get to share what they can authentically create," says Vanessa Tricoche, Director of Programs.

Supported by NYC Department of Youth, Community Development and NYC Department of Cultural Affairs and Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Inc.

Casita Maria Center For Arts & Education is the first and oldest Latino 501(c)(3) charity in NYC, founded in 1934. The South Bronx-based community arts and educational organization presents diverse, contemporary visual and performing arts and education programming for all ages.

Learn more at: https://www.casitamaria.org/