Program
Artists
- CONTRA-TIEMPO
- Ana Maria Alvarez artistic vision, creative instigator, director, choreographer, community organizer
- Jannet Galdamez cielo
- Kati Hernandez celeoshun
- Ruby Morales be(e)
- Jasmine Stanley-Haskins see see
- Alék G. Lopéz pi
- Maria I. Garcia ethereal grace
- Edgar Aguirre jelik’ laj b’alam
- Jose Jose Arrieta Cuesta fe
- Meena Murugesan video projection designer, creative collaborator
- Maximiliano Urruzmendi Technical Director
- Tuce Yasak Lighting designer in collaboration with Maximiliano Urruzmendi
- Rashaan Carter composer, sound designer, musician
- Anaïs Maviel composer, vibration vocalist, musician
- Robert “Bobby” Wilmore musician
- Daniel Penilla dramaturge
- David Israel Reynoso costume designer for performers
- Jaymee Ngernwichit Costume designer assistant for performers
- Halei Parker Costume designer for Celeoshun
- Emily Orling visual design consultant
- Peter Volk set and prop fabrication/design
- holly johnston responsive body ecologist, set and prop fabrication/design, embodied dramaturgy contributor
- Maritxell Carrero Production Manager
- Juan “Co-eL” Rodriguez production assistance
- Ariela Conde apprentice and understudy
- Felicia “Onyi” Richards healer, priestess
- Steve Tolin caña prop fabricator
About this Performance
CONTRA-TIEMPO's ¡azúcar! is a courageous naming of, confrontation with, and intentional obliteration of the often unspoken undercurrent of anti-Blackness in latinidad. Questions are continuing to drive the process as we begin to understand the complicated history of sugar and the messages from our ancestors. What does it feel like to individually and collectively heal, what does it move like? Twenty brilliant artists and collaborators take audiences through a journey of Celia Cruz’s vibrations, unearthing history embedded in our bodies. Through ¡azúcar!, we explore ancestral wisdoms about a plant that once aided in our healing, used as a way to sweeten medicinal concoctions, now extracted, refined, and used as weaponized poison. This courageous work is rooted in and inspired by the sacred feminine, personal narratives of food, labor, community, sabor, and explorations of “familying” and healing as practices.
The LA Phil Humanities Initiative is generously supported by Linda and David Shaheen.
Programs, artists, dates, prices, and availability subject to change.