We are all related
Donation protected
Who we are
We are young artists living in NYC.
This gofundme campaign will support us in joining a social arts residency centered on youth and climate. The residency takes place in February 2020 in the Yucatán, in partnership with the local Mayan community. Room and board for this 11-day residency are included in the invitation, but in order to participate, we need to raise money for our airfare and lost wages.
We hope that our participation will support the collaborative intention of the residency: to bear witness to youth and nature across our unique cultures. We are youth with Latin American roots and bilingual proficiency in Spanish and English.
We both have experience in traditional theatre practices, as well as backgrounds in devised, or co-created, theatre. We are also members of an NYC-based practice group in Social Presencing Theater. (SPT, link here ).
Resources
We need to raise $3000, or $1500 for each of us
$600 - for lost wages ($300 a week, for two weeks) x two
$700 - round-trip airfare NYC to MID x two
**Or if you would be willing to donate your airline miles, please let us know!
$200 - incidentals (such as meals, ground transportation, and luggage on each travel day) x 2
Geovanny’s statement:
I was born in Tlaxcala, México and raised in Jackson Heights, Queens (NYC) since the age of two. I am a theatre artist, studying to work professionally. I approach acting and storytelling by integrating embodied and devised performance practices, alongside my prior experience in sports and health sciences.
I began practicing SPT in April 2018. I believe that SPT can help us to discover a deeper meaning, or ways of going further, amidst even the simplest of tasks. These discoveries can generate a healthy lifestyle for working with more challenging events or situations in life.
I recently facilitated a devising process to create a play with other young people -- some were studying theatre, others had interests in math or science. I found that SPT supported our creative work, while also offering discoveries for personal growth and group dynamics.
I am excited to attend the residency in the Yucatán so I may build upon these learnings, while also sharing my knowledge of ensemble collaboration and my experience with non-verbal and visual communication. I also look forward to sharing my love of photography at the residency (link here ), creating and documenting for myself and others.
This gofundme campaign will support me in joining this unique residency, practicing SPT and creating art with other young people. It is a special opportunity -- my first chance to collaborate this way in my home country of México.
Isabel’s statement:
I was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. I came to the US four years ago, when I was 17. My dream is to be an actress. I’m studying theatre with an acting concentration.
Alongside theatre, I work as a dental assistant. I also recently began preparing and sharing holiday treats authentic to my native country.
I adore the work of Frida Kahlo (link here ). She is a big role model of empowerment for women in the Latino community. The way she turned her pain into art has always fascinated me. That is why I was so excited when I learned that Frida is celebrated and published by the hosting organization for the social art studio in the Yucatán, La Vaca Independiente (link here ).
SPT has helped me improve myself as a performer. SPT practices help me to connect with myself, the earth, and with others. It is an important tool to be present in the moment, which delivers a more authentic performance.
My most recent project in practice-based-research demonstrated how useful SPT can be for the performing arts. I collaborated with other theatre students to put together a devised performance where we used SPT practices as a base for creating something from scratch. I believe social art can help people understand themselves in different levels: it helps them get in touch with themselves, their thoughts, and their bodies.
This gofundme campaign will support me as I dig deeper into learning more about this amazing practice. I also hope to collect more data so I may continue my research on SPT.
Want to Know More About Our “WHY”? Read on! …
Potential of Youth
The money raised will empower us to share our unique identities and cultures, as well as our felt-experience of migration across geography and hierarchy. We aspire to explore new ways we might mend and heal our intercultural, intergenerational, and global social fabric.
From the invitation: “Our planet’s life-supporting system is experiencing major transformations calling for radical shifts at every level of our society. Young people are increasingly presented with disruptive challenges and changes (techno-economic; relational-political; environmental and/ or cultural-spiritual), emphasizing that the current outcomes and solutions we create and produce to this world must fundamentally change. If new ways of thinking, doing, feeling and being are required– then, social art forms can play a role in making visible the intangible dimensions of our individual and social experience. In this work, we let go of the view of an individual artist to embrace art as a ‘social phenomenon.’ ”
Need and Impact: Local to Global
The need for this work is apparent in NYC; our systems are reimagining ways to see, feel, and act in authentic partnership with the Latinx community. The Mayor's office conducted their first survey and report on Latino health in 2017; it makes visible the many obstacles and inequities experienced by our communities, and it offers insight into the dynamics of NYC’s social field (link here ).
We will document our experience so we may share with our local community upon our return, in formal and informal spaces.
We are deeply inspired by the endeavors of La Vaca Independiente to uplift the Mayan community's perspective on youth and climate in the upcoming social arts studio. We aspire to co-facilitate a local social arts residency on the theme of youth and climate in NYC. We are in discussion with previous collaborators, theatre makers Heather Huggins and C. Julian Jiménez (also known as J. Julian Christopher), about ways we might collaborate, ideally in partnership with another NYC creative community that centers the voices of marginalized youth.
Thank you
We hear a clear call to realign with the rhythm of the earth.
We are all related.
We are young artists living in NYC.
This gofundme campaign will support us in joining a social arts residency centered on youth and climate. The residency takes place in February 2020 in the Yucatán, in partnership with the local Mayan community. Room and board for this 11-day residency are included in the invitation, but in order to participate, we need to raise money for our airfare and lost wages.
We hope that our participation will support the collaborative intention of the residency: to bear witness to youth and nature across our unique cultures. We are youth with Latin American roots and bilingual proficiency in Spanish and English.
We both have experience in traditional theatre practices, as well as backgrounds in devised, or co-created, theatre. We are also members of an NYC-based practice group in Social Presencing Theater. (SPT, link here ).
Resources
We need to raise $3000, or $1500 for each of us
$600 - for lost wages ($300 a week, for two weeks) x two
$700 - round-trip airfare NYC to MID x two
**Or if you would be willing to donate your airline miles, please let us know!
$200 - incidentals (such as meals, ground transportation, and luggage on each travel day) x 2
Geovanny’s statement:
I was born in Tlaxcala, México and raised in Jackson Heights, Queens (NYC) since the age of two. I am a theatre artist, studying to work professionally. I approach acting and storytelling by integrating embodied and devised performance practices, alongside my prior experience in sports and health sciences.
I began practicing SPT in April 2018. I believe that SPT can help us to discover a deeper meaning, or ways of going further, amidst even the simplest of tasks. These discoveries can generate a healthy lifestyle for working with more challenging events or situations in life.
I recently facilitated a devising process to create a play with other young people -- some were studying theatre, others had interests in math or science. I found that SPT supported our creative work, while also offering discoveries for personal growth and group dynamics.
I am excited to attend the residency in the Yucatán so I may build upon these learnings, while also sharing my knowledge of ensemble collaboration and my experience with non-verbal and visual communication. I also look forward to sharing my love of photography at the residency (link here ), creating and documenting for myself and others.
This gofundme campaign will support me in joining this unique residency, practicing SPT and creating art with other young people. It is a special opportunity -- my first chance to collaborate this way in my home country of México.
Isabel’s statement:
I was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. I came to the US four years ago, when I was 17. My dream is to be an actress. I’m studying theatre with an acting concentration.
Alongside theatre, I work as a dental assistant. I also recently began preparing and sharing holiday treats authentic to my native country.
I adore the work of Frida Kahlo (link here ). She is a big role model of empowerment for women in the Latino community. The way she turned her pain into art has always fascinated me. That is why I was so excited when I learned that Frida is celebrated and published by the hosting organization for the social art studio in the Yucatán, La Vaca Independiente (link here ).
SPT has helped me improve myself as a performer. SPT practices help me to connect with myself, the earth, and with others. It is an important tool to be present in the moment, which delivers a more authentic performance.
My most recent project in practice-based-research demonstrated how useful SPT can be for the performing arts. I collaborated with other theatre students to put together a devised performance where we used SPT practices as a base for creating something from scratch. I believe social art can help people understand themselves in different levels: it helps them get in touch with themselves, their thoughts, and their bodies.
This gofundme campaign will support me as I dig deeper into learning more about this amazing practice. I also hope to collect more data so I may continue my research on SPT.
Want to Know More About Our “WHY”? Read on! …
Potential of Youth
The money raised will empower us to share our unique identities and cultures, as well as our felt-experience of migration across geography and hierarchy. We aspire to explore new ways we might mend and heal our intercultural, intergenerational, and global social fabric.
From the invitation: “Our planet’s life-supporting system is experiencing major transformations calling for radical shifts at every level of our society. Young people are increasingly presented with disruptive challenges and changes (techno-economic; relational-political; environmental and/ or cultural-spiritual), emphasizing that the current outcomes and solutions we create and produce to this world must fundamentally change. If new ways of thinking, doing, feeling and being are required– then, social art forms can play a role in making visible the intangible dimensions of our individual and social experience. In this work, we let go of the view of an individual artist to embrace art as a ‘social phenomenon.’ ”
Need and Impact: Local to Global
The need for this work is apparent in NYC; our systems are reimagining ways to see, feel, and act in authentic partnership with the Latinx community. The Mayor's office conducted their first survey and report on Latino health in 2017; it makes visible the many obstacles and inequities experienced by our communities, and it offers insight into the dynamics of NYC’s social field (link here ).
We will document our experience so we may share with our local community upon our return, in formal and informal spaces.
We are deeply inspired by the endeavors of La Vaca Independiente to uplift the Mayan community's perspective on youth and climate in the upcoming social arts studio. We aspire to co-facilitate a local social arts residency on the theme of youth and climate in NYC. We are in discussion with previous collaborators, theatre makers Heather Huggins and C. Julian Jiménez (also known as J. Julian Christopher), about ways we might collaborate, ideally in partnership with another NYC creative community that centers the voices of marginalized youth.
Thank you
We hear a clear call to realign with the rhythm of the earth.
We are all related.
Fundraising team (2)
Geovanny Guzman
Organizer
East Elmhurst, NY
Isabel Vasquez
Team member
