Hostos Center Present Eric Aviles' WHERE YOU FROM? WHAT YOU BE ABOUT?

Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture presents "Where You From? What You Be About?" a solo performance by Eric Avilés created as an artistic response to his cousin's assassination by a rival gang member in Chicago. Winner of the 2018 New York Innovative Theater Award for Outstanding Full Length Script and nominated for Outstanding Solo Performance, the play delves into the connection between poverty, racism, and gang violence.

Set in Chicago's historically Puerto Rican neighborhood of Humboldt Park and directed by Chicago native Edward Torres, the performance moves seamlessly through time frames in a coming-of-age journey that revolves around a cousin's funeral. The cousin's death, due to a shooting by a rival gang member, becomes the catalyst for one man to confront a buried truth while facing the effects of growing up surrounded by poverty, violence, and the need for healing. Alongside Avilés' solo performance, which embodies characters past and present and, at times, infuses humor to drive home the more salient themes, there are video projections and a live DJ.

"Where You From? What You Be About?" was a phrase commonly used in the 1980s in the disenfranchised communities in Chicago. The questions are meant to uncover with which gang someone may be associated. Avilés himself, who found his way out of the Chicago gang culture, received a call in the middle of the night from his aunt informing him that an unidentified assailant with a pistol killed his cousin. At his cousin's funeral, the casket was decorated with gang mementos. The death spawned a sense of urgency in Avilés, which led to his writing "Where You From? What You Be About?" to address how poverty perpetuates crime and violence, and to show that there are impoverished youth who seek a better way of living.

The gang culture of claiming your neighborhood, causing community divisions, still exists in Chicago today. By telling the story of how one man and his family reconciles the death of a family member due to gun and gang violence, Avilés seeks to help answer such questions as: How do communities come together to help our youth? How do we create peace in marginalized communities?

The performance takes place on Friday, March 20, 7:30 PM in the Repertory Theater at Hostos Community College, 450 Grand Concourse at 149th Street in the Bronx. Reserved seating is $10, and $5 for seniors and students. Tickets can be purchased at 718-518-4455 or www.hostoscenter.org. The box office is open Monday to Friday, 1 PM to 4 PM and two hours prior to performance.

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