MusicUnitesUS

At a time when many artists have been forced into a sudden pause due to the pandemic, it’s really important to us that for this project we engage local artists from different art disciplines in a creative process that pushes us all to reimagine what making something together means at a time of distance and isolation. We are very grateful to Brandeis University and MusicUnitesUS for making possible this creative opportunity during this historic moment. Since its inception, Balún has been nurtured from this type of interdisciplinary collaborations and for our residency and concert film, we want to highlight this and celebrate the incredible work that many local artists are doing on the island.

At the core of this project is the distance between spaces, those emotional and those physical, and it feels particularly meaningful that through this project we’re all able to come together in the same space to record this film. We're beyond excited because through this project for MusicUnitesUS we’re able to come closer to those that were far away from us and to build new bridges that connect not only to our shared past histories but to the present reality of the island while pushing forward to the new possibilities of tomorrow.

February 8, 2021

Check out Residency Documentarian April Ginns' interview with Angélica Negrón and Noraliz Ruiz for her weekly WBRS radio show BIG INDIE ENERGY!

February 4, 2021

Introduction

Playing a Balún show in San Juan back in 2005 involved so many DIY (*do it yourself) tasks: from creating a flyer in Microsoft Paint to hand-delivering those flyers at local shows to distributing among band members a pack of CD-R’s to burn our most recent EP, to buying from a major t-shirt factory the shirts that were going straight to a friend’s screen printing machine. During the evening of the show, we would also be there stamping with a bold marker the hands of strangers and friends that came to hear us as well as taking turns at the merch table. That DIY perspective became the band’s philosophy for the last fifteen years, and most of our projects involved little external participation/delegation. 

When the pandemic turned our Brandeis residency into a virtual event, we knew that if we wanted to create something special, we were going to need external help. In our initial conversations, while we tried to conceptualize the project, the name of Gisela Ramos Rosario came up… we have known her from Balún’s very beginnings. I (Nora) can’t recall when I met Gisela, but I am certain that it was during a Súperaquello show… Súperaquello was a local Puerto Rican band that we adored; also an important Balún influence. We attended most of their performances and got to play with them in memorable shows (such as the band’s first farewell show in 2004). Gisela did not play in Súperaquello but she was always around them (fast-forward to 2016 when she released the documentary  La Emergencia based on the band’s trajectory).

Although we met Gisela through Súperaquello, her performance persona Macha Colón, became an influential act in the local scene while Balún relocated to New York and played less often in San Juan. Although we did not have the chance to share the stage with Macha (until a Santurce es Ley show in 2016); Gisela is an important role model for us and inspiration as someone who is actively doing bold creative work on the island amid all the difficulties presented to artists and cultural workers in Puerto Rico.  Macha as a music act became in San Juan a symbol of queerness, empowerment, musical creativity, collaboration, and for us almost a motherly figure- a person that has known us for almost twenty years, and it was about time to collaborate with Gisela. So here we are in front of our most ambitious project to date, with the challenges and limitations of a pandemic that also didn’t allow us to bring our beloved NY-based collaborators Shayna Dunkelman and Darian Thomas, intentionally seeking external help and willing to explore new ways of doing the Balún work...

Although we will share more details about our experience with Gisela in another entry, we wanted to share the above lines as a prelude. Gisela's first magic act for this project was recruiting a cadre of wonderful local artists. In this section, you will get to know some of the extraordinary Puerto Rican artists that met us at this Punto de Encuentro...

Jimena Lloreda Droz

Jimena Lloreda is a freelance artist who specializes in costumes, puppetry, comics, and political art. Jimena holds a bachelor's degree in visual arts from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus. From 2012-2017 Jimena led artistic workshops in the U.S., Taiwan, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. She attended an internship program at Bread and Puppet Theater (Vermont) and traveled to Taiwan in 2015 as part of an artistic residency with Dream Community (Taipei) where she built floats, costumes, and masks for different communities. She fell in love with that island and decided to stay and work as an English teacher. In 2016 Jimena came back to her "nest" in Puerto Rico to give birth. She also reconnected with her life routine in San Juan– sharing with her mother, father, and brother, to whom she owes what she is now. In November 2017, after hurricane María hit Puerto Rico, her son Orion was born, and with him Jimena's interest in parenting and psychology. Jimena continues working on her exhibitions and theatrical presentations, however, she decided to focus on the series "disfraz del doble"  (costume of the double), a series of full-body works that are a reflection of each other and symbolize emotions, and La Arruga: a comic art project founded in 2017 where the biographical is mixed with themes of psychology, intimate relationships, and self-help. Jimena is currently pursuing a master's degree in Psychological Counseling at the Carlos Albizu University in San Juan. Instagram: @jimenalloreda, @laarruga

Note from Balún

Jimena created three iconic masks that are integral to the visual realm of Punto de Encuentro. Jimena surprised us with her clever and sensible  selection of quotidian materials (organic and inorganic) that connect in many ways to objects that are reminiscent of memories and symbols that we associate with our upbringing in Puerto Rico. You will get to see Jimena's artwork in detail during the concert film, but we can assure you that in her artistic mind plantain peels, wooden hangers and cleaning cloths can result in fantastic and mysterious creatures that acquired their own personality, gestures, and were fully brought into life by a group of superb movers/dancers.

Israel Franco-Müller
Lighting Design

Israel Franco-Müller (San Juan, Puerto Rico) is a designer of scenic arts (scenography, costumes and lighting for theater, film and television). Franco-Müller has developed an international career, and has participated in prestigious festivals and theatrical houses, among them: Teatro Círculo in New York and Escena Latina in Puerto Rico, serving as resident designer in both. He is an active member of the Association of Academics of the Spanish performing arts. He currently teaches in the Drama Department of the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Puerto Rico. Among his publications are «El Catálogo Escenográfico», (“The Scenographic Catalog") and several articles available in the Repository of the University of Puerto Rico. He is an avid believer and practitioner of "light playwriting,” a concept  that he develops and puts into practice both in his designs and in the collective "Watts". His designs have been presented in New York, Georgia, Washington D.C., Almagro, Madrid, Murcia, Santiago de Compostela, Barcelona, ​​Edinburgh, Medellín, Calí, Juárez, Chihuahua, among other cities. www.israelfrancomuller.com

Camila M. Pérez Vázquez
Lighting Assistant

Graduated from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras with a Bachelor's degree in drama. She was part of the Watts collective, The Luminescence of Art and the RGBWhite collective. Camila is a member (dancer)  of Areyto National Folkloric Ballet Company in Puerto Rico, where she also collaborates with lighting and set designs. She has traveled to New York along with lighting designer Israel Franco Müller to work at  Teatro Círculo company and to Miami with the Areyto ballet company. She currently works as an assistant and technician with the Creative Scenic Design Company. Instagram: @camila.perezvaz

Pati Cruz
Camera

Was born queer and raised Catholic in Puerto Rico. The Catholic aspect slowly disappeared, the queer remained. They spent some years in New York, then other years in Cuba; and have learned to live with these opposite realities. A professional nomad until they find a piece of mountain to settle down. Pati is now back in Puerto Rico trying to live, writing and making movies. vimeo.com/paticruz

Edrimael Delgado Reyes
Mover / Choreographer for Balún’s song La nueva ciudad

Founding leader of the La Laboratoria Boricua de Vogue (Boricua Vogue Laboratory). Edrimael creates cultural events and rehearsal spaces for the LGBTQ+ community based mainly on the exploration of vogue as a discipline and other contemporary and Afro-Caribbean movement techniques. Instagram: @edri_tuhermana  @laborivogue

Giovanna Sosa Santos
Mover

Giovanna obtained a bachelor’s degree in performing arts with a concentration in dance at the University of the Sacred Heart, Puerto Rico.

She is an experimental dance artist who focuses her dance making in rhythmical, improvisational and traditional dances from Puerto Rico, specifically Bomba Puertorriqueña. Currently developing several interdisciplinary projects, the artist questions are invested in the process of knowledge production by afro-Caribbean ontologies of the body. Her actual research is motivated by the sound perceptions that the body can grasp from the musical instruments, songs, corporeal relationships, and the eventual reminiscences left in the space where the bodies performed. Giovanna’s aim is to create cultural appreciation and navigate possibilities in the making of culture and its practice.

Most recent original audiovisual: vimeo.com/470408503 Vimeo: vimeo.com/giovannasosa

Aneek Uhuru
Mover

Caribbean artist, educator and communicator. Certified Yoga Teacher at the School of Mystic Arts, Holistic Coach, Coordinator of the community project Puerto Rico Reverdece en Bienestar y Salud, and collaborator in the artistic platform PISO Proyecto. She is dedicated to researching and facilitating comprehensive holistic health practices, working primarily with meditation techniques and dance-movement therapy. pisoproyecto.com

Rosalyn Iannelli
Guest musician, cello

Rosalyn Iannelli, a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has been a cellist with the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra since 1980. Iannelli obtained the position of Principal Assistant Cellist in 1984 and served as Interim Principal Cellist sporadically for a total of 6 years. Throughout her career, she has participated in many chamber music ensembles. She has recorded in many albums of Puerto Rican popular singers, including artists from the past and contemporary stars.

Nubia Marina García- Meléndez
Mover, güiro player

She began her music formation learning Puerto Rican bomba at an early age. Nubia holds a bachelor's degree in Music and Modern Languages ​​from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus. She is currently studying classical vocal performance with the Puerto Rican soprano Zulimar López.

She has worked as a bomba dancer in the folkloric group Cimiento de Puerto Rico and as a teacher of bomba dance at the Escuela de Bomba and Plena Rafael Cepeda, both directed by Dr. Modesto Cepeda Brenes. Nubia has participated as a percussionist in various projects such as: Open Music by ProArte de Puerto Rico, the Puerto Rico Opera Theater and the San Juan Children's Choir. As a singer she has performed in the Lyric Opera Studio of Weimar, the Coralia Concert Choir, the San Juan Philharmonic Choir and the Puerto Rico Opera Choir. She is the founder of the Bomba group Son de la Peronía, a group dedicated to interdisciplinary projects and community workshops.

Nubia is currently a music professor in the San Juan Children’s Choir where she teaches Puerto Rican music, percussion and Puerto Rican cuatro. In her music career, she is committed to cultural projects that serve communities at risk.

Facebook: Son de la Peronía / Instagram: @nmg.5 (Nubia García)

Luis Santiago-Bartolomei
Guest musician, tiple

He was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico and has been involved in music since he was six years old. Luis holds a Bachelor of Arts with a major in music from the University of Puerto Rico and a Master of Composition for Audiovisual Media from the Conservatori Liceu in Barcelona, Spain. He is a Puerto Rican cuatro and tiple player, violist and composer. Although his professional life has taken him to other paths, he has never separated himself from music making. linkedin.com/in/luissantiagobartolomei/

Miguel J. Muñoz
Guest musician, cuatro and bomba barrel drum

Miguel is a Puerto Rican composer and percussionist. He completed a master’s at the Liceu Conservatory in Barcelona, Spain. Miguel is based in Puerto Rico and works as a percussionist and freelance composer. His latest works include sound design and original score for Lisa Loomer’s Living Out (Casa Ajena) and Emilio Rodriguiezes Gentefrikation, premiered at Teatro Prometeo in Miami. He also worked in the award winning short film “La Ráfaga'' (The Gust) which received various awards such as, Best LGBTQ short, Best Actor, both at the Rincón International Film Festival and best Sound and Music at FEEDBACK LGBTQ+ Toronto Film Festival. Miguel also collaborated as Audio Supervisor in the short film “Letra” and is currently working as sound designer and composer on the 2021 premiere short film “Magda” and the theatrical play “El Huevo del Gallo”.

Daniela Fabrizi
Costume Design & Maker/ Wardrobe Consultant

Inspired by her travels and artisan work, Daniela Fabrizi is a lover of clothing and textiles. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, and of Argentine paternal descent, she has cultivated a particular interest in Latin American textile techniques. Daniela began her career in Puerto Rico, she later moved to New York where she continues to grow and develop as a freelance artist in this field, taking her to work in other places such as New Orleans, Hong Kong, London and France. Her work experience ranges from film, styling, theater and television to textile projects with the community which led her to create her own independent projects. These initiatives are inspired by sustainability and zero waste awareness, being her main intention to recycle different materials, objects and fabrics, reusing and redecorating them to give them a new life. Projects: Feria Calle, an event that supports artists who use recycling and recovery of materials as the main action in their practice; Tejedorxs de Magias, workshops that seek to rescue textile traditions from the reuse of materials; Garbagia is a project that celebrates the authentic life of upcycling and, finally, her brand as a designer and textile artist, Le Chat Costumier. Instagram: @lechatcostumier

Dama Estrada
Set Stylist/ Wardrobe Consultant

A native of Patillas, Puerto Rico, Dama is Elisa and Roque's 13th child, a true daughter of Yemayá and street celebrity. She loves to swim and ride her bike. Music and art are her passions; in short, she's too busy enjoying life.

January 17, 2021

I just wanted to share with you some thoughts about the wonderful experience we had recording the video on Friday and Saturday. I am still feeling the energy and the excitement of creating this project with such a superb group of people. Friday was a long day with setup of audio and lights, props, and a dress rehearsal. Yesterday we had the “official” recording. The building where we recorded (located in Río Piedras-college town of our alma mater) is located in front of a public plaza, so at the very last minute we decided to make an announcement on social media and invite our followers to listen to the concert from the outside. The people that worked with the lights also illuminated that public open space. To our surprise, people responded to the call and arrived at the plaza carrying their foldable “beach” chairs. They stayed throughout the show cheering for us, clapping and dancing.

Here in Puerto Rico there is an 11 pm curfew; concerts and cultural events are not taking place… hopefully you’ll get to see in the video how happy was the crowd experiencing live music for the first time in months.

This project really impacted the work of around two dozen cultural workers that were inactive, it involved mask makers, dancers, a choreographer, a string trio composed of members of the PR Symphony, a costume designer, an art installation, and on the technical side: lights and audio technicians, and cameras.

I can only say that the title of the residency could not be more appropriate to describe the creative process, we all worked in one direction because music unites us.