Barbara Smith Conrad, 79

Barbara Smith Conrad, Singer at Center of Integration Dispute, Dies at 79
by William Grimes, The New York Times, May 24, 2017

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Emilio Navaira, 53

Emilio Navaira, Tejano Star, Dies at 53
by Daniel Victor, The New York Times, May 22, 2016

Guy Clark, 74

Guy Clark, a King of the Texas Troubadours, Is Dead at 74
by Bill Friskics-Warren, The New York Times, May 17, 2016

Alicia Grullón reenacts Wendy Davis's Texas filibuster at BRIC

Alicia Grullón performs Filibuster
at BRIC House
(all photos: Eva Yaa Asantewaa)

It began with a pair of pink Mizuno Women’s Wave Rider 16 Running Shoes. On June 25, 2013, Texas State Senator Wendy Davis stood for 11 hours in these pink sneakers, filibustering against a restrictive abortion bill and creating history. Bronx artist Alicia Grullón will recreate this piece of history in its entirety (in an identical pair of pink Mizuno shoes) from 10am until 9pm Wednesday, April 13 at BRIC House.

--posted by BRIC Art Blogger, March 25, 2016

When, with the anti-abortion bill HB60, a defiant Texas legislature wedged itself between women and their physicians, State Senator Wendy Davis took a stand--literally--hour by hour, speaking truth to power. Her 11-hour embodied act of principle was not a stunt, and neither was Filibuster, Alicia Grullón's reenactment of this historic and remarkable effort, presented as part of the BRIC House exhibition, Whisper Or Shout: Artists in the Social Sphere.

I spent just one half-hour, yesterday, seated in front of Grullón on the porch at BRIC, but each of those thirty minutes hit hard. One particular story cited in the letters Davis/Grullón read concerned an expectant couple told their baby was severely ill and would not survive. Day and night, the mother lived with anguish that her child might die inside her before she could ever see and hold her.

"I was petrified that my baby was going to die while I was asleep," she wrote. "We decided to have labor induced. We were informed that it really wasn't possible." Why? Because her health insurance was provided by her employer, a faith-based firm.

"Knowing that your daughter is dying is heartbreaking," she wrote. "It feels as if your soul is ripping apart."

But the legislators who heedlessly wandered in and out of the Texas chambers as Davis read these words and other testimony had no interest in real life, just the pandering politics of so-called "pro-life."

Grullón read from another protesting letter: "I've seen the 1950s, and I don't want to go back there."

I witnessed only a short part of Filibuster--neither Grullón's first reenactment nor her first filibuster, as you can read here--but I know the physical, mental and emotional discipline required to perform it must have been enormous. As a woman of color, Grullón committed to this challenge to underscore the impact of retrogressive social policies on women and families of color and the need for us to be at the forefront of movements for social justice.

The exhibition Whisper or Shout: Artists in the Social Sphere continues through May 1 in the Gallery at BRIC House. Click here for information.

BRIC House
647 Fulton Street, Brooklyn
(directions)

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"Boyhood" disappears Latino/as from Texas!

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by Grisel Y. Acosta, Latino Rebels, February 9, 2015

Art and social justice: MacArthur winner Rick Lowe in Dallas

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Johnny Winter, 70

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Polendo's Juárez in transition: "Never mention hope. Say 'I'll do it!'"

Theater Mitu's Justin Nestor
in Juárez: A Documentary Mythology
below: Aysan Celik

Bill Clinton got lots of mileage from the name of his Arkansas hometown-- Hope. But the people of Mexico's Ciudad Juárez--infamous for entrenched government corruption and murderous drug cartels--would prefer that their city be known for tough determination rather than anything as passive as hope. That's one message from Juárez: A Documentary Mythology, a play conceived and directed by Theater Mitu's artistic director Rubén Polendo (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater through January 19).

Drawn from numerous interviews--including conversations with folks in El Paso, right across the US border--Juárez might remind many of Anna Deavere Smith's award-winning documentary monologues. But here, the profusion of real-life personalities--factory workers, activists, artists, counselors, journalists, academics and more--are channeled through six white actors, all handsomely expressive in the spoken and sometimes sung material. Unfortunately, an aggressively didactic approach--text and visuals packed with statistics and touching upon complex issues--threatens to unbalance the delicate connection between a New York audience and the Mexicans and Texans whose lives and perspectives we learn about. Still, from the start, Polendo--a son of Juárez who has family there--wins our sympathy for a city he believes can be restored to the safety and beauty remembered from his youth.

Juárez is, the play says, "emblematic of what the rest of the world is going to look like." It is "a laboratory for the future." As Alfredo Corchado's recent article for The Dallas Morning News indicates, recovery will be no simple process. But Juárez: A Documentary Mythology offers one way to remind Americans that all our fates are bound together.

Performances by Denis Butkus, Aysan Celik, Adam Cochran, Ryan Conarro, Michael Littig and Justin Nestor

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater
224 Waverly Place, Manhattan
(map/directions)

La frontera: Artists address immigration issues and violence

A Vale of Terror, Transcended
Artists Explore Immigration, Border Issues and the Drug War
by Laura Tillman, The New York Times, January 2, 2014

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