Brooklyn Gypsies Collective and The Performing Garage Present !OYE! FOR MY DEAR BROOKLYN

Writer and actor Modesto 'Flako' Jimenez performs his autobiographical and uncompromising collection of poetry, Oye Para mi Querido Brooklyn (Listen For My Dear Brooklyn.) Hiding out in his abuelita's bathroom, Flako, a young Dominican man, escapes into the memories of losing his culture and self to the gentrified blocks of Bushwick. Oye For My Dear Brooklyn is performed in both English and Spanish through a series of poems, video projections, and music. Lyrical and savage, Flako's poetry is populated with immigrants, drug dealers, condoritos, tiguerasos, mothers and sons, all asking the same question, "What's my moral worth?"

Playing at the Performing Garage Oct 7-16
Preview: Thurs Oct 6 @ 8pm
Opening: Fri Oct 7 @ 8pm
Sat Oct 8 @ 8pm
Sun Oct 9 @ 3pm
Tue Oct 11 @ 8pm
Wed Oct 12 @ 8pm
Thur Oct 13 @ 8pm
Fri Oct 14 @ 8pm
Sat Oct 15 @ 8pm
Sun Oct 16 @ 3pm

Tickets are $25/ $15 with Student ID and available at: http://theperforminggarage.org

Run time: 60min, no intermission

Warning

This performance is intended for a mature audience. IT CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE AND CONTENT. The performance will include flashing light.

Brooklyn Gypsies is an eclectic artist collective made up of New Yorkers both native and immigrant to our city. We present annual showcases of new works of theater, dance, poetry and film that spark dialogues on critical issues of immigration, economics, and urban survival. We curate a mix of established and emerging artists and give them a platform to explore complex issues in a stimulating environment. Brooklyn Gypsies is a playground to celebrate and share what is unique about Brooklyn's converging arts communities.

Los "Brooklyn Gypsies" es un colectivo de artistas ecléctico formado por Neoyorquinos tanto nativos como inmigrantes a nuestra ciudad. Presentamos espectaculos anuales de nuevas obras de teatro, la danza, la poesía y el cine. Estos programas forman diálogos en temas críticos de la inmigración, la economía, el cambio climático, y la supervivencia urbana. Creamos una mezcla de artistas establecidos y emergentes para darles una plataforma para explorar temas complejos en un entorno estimulante. Los "Brooklyn Gypsies" es un lugar de recreo para celebrar y compartir lo que es único acerca de las comunidades de artes convergentes de Brooklyn.

Writer/Performer Modesto Flako Jimenez, Director Artem Yatsunov, Production Manager Skye Morse-Hodgson Video Kevin Torres, Thomas Kavanagh & Skye Morse-Hodgson, Lights Daniel Kent, Sound Drew Weinstein, Music Marcus Bowers, Sets Michael Minahan, Dramaturgy Deidrea Hamid, Props/Costumes Cinthia Candelaria Marketing Antonia Lassar, Nick E Finn Social Media Olander Big O. Wilson

Modesto Flako Jimenez is a Dominican-born, Bushwick-raised theater director, writer, poet, actor, producer, and educator. ATI & HOLA Award Winner, NY Times and Wall Street Journal profiled, "Flako" is best known for original productions and three signature festivals - Ghetto Hors D'Oeuvres, One Catches Light, and Oye! Avant Garde Night! - produced with his company Brooklyn Gypsies Collective. Flako has appeared on TEDxBushwick, Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Favorite: Early Shaker Spirituals (Wooster Group), Last Night At The Palladium (Bushwick Starr/3LD), Yoleros (Bushwick Starr/IATI theater), Conversations Pt.1: How To Make It Black In America (JACK). Take Me Home (3LD/ Incubator Arts Project). Upcoming: Oye For My Dear Brooklyn (The Performing Garage), Furry by WilLiam Burke (Bushwick Starr), Samara by Richard Maxwell (Soho Rep; dir. Sarah Benson). Modesto received the 2016 Princess Grace Award Honorarium in Theater.

"[Modest Flako Jimenez's] engagement of the audience veers from intense one-on-one questioning to fiery Spanish-English soliloquies that are half-shouted at the city itself, as if author Junot Díaz were cast as Travis Bickle from "Taxi Driver." - The Wall Street Journal (review, Take Me Home)

"Modesto Flako Jimenez and Brooklyn Gypsies offer the theatre's first Spanish-language play, a drama about forced migration" - American Theater Magazine (profile, Yoleros)

"[Bushwick Starr] has also joined with Modesto Jimenez, a poet and performer who has lived in the neighborhood since the early 1990s, for his Brooklyn Gypsies nights, which bring born-and-bred Bushwick artists together with recent arrivals." - The New York Times.

"Bushwick needs people like Flako [and Brooklyn Gypsies] to bring us closer and help us understand." - Bushwick Daily.

About The Performing Garage

The Performing Garage has been The Wooster Group's permanent home and performance venue since the Group's beginning, and all of their work has been developed there. The Garage was bought in the early 1970s when Soho was still an empty warehouse district being re-inhabited by artists. The Wooster Group owns and operates it as a shareholder in the Grand Street Artists Co-op, which was originally established as part of the Fluxus art movement in the 1960s. Before the formation of The Wooster Group, The Performance Group developed and produced work at the Garage. From 1975-1980 the two groups shared the space. Prior to The Performance Group founding The Performing Garage, 33 Wooster Street was a metal stamping/flatware factory.

Photo Credit: Aaron Radio Silence

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