WomenArts is proud to announce that it has formed a partnership with San Francisco’s Brava for Women in the Arts to support the creation of new works by women artists. Brava is one of the oldest and largest professional non-profit performing arts organizations serving women artists in the U.S. For almost 40 years, Brava has been dedicated to cultivating the artistic expression of women, LGBTQIA, people of color, youth, and other underrepresented voices.
about Olga Talamante in May 2024
Brava has become a hot-bed of creativity because it offers its resident artists rehearsal and performance spaces, grant-writing assistance, and fiscal sponsorships, as well as marketing and technical support. WomenArts President Martha Richards noted, “Brava is home to so many visionary artists. I feel the energy of its artistic community every time I go to a performance there.”
WomenArts is co-sponsoring five of Brava’s artist projects during 2024 and plans to support additional projects over the next three years.
So far this year, WomenArts has provided support for three projects at Brava led by Latina artists:
- ¡Golondrina! A Funkloric Odyssey through California by Liliana Herrera that celebrated the contributions of California’s original inhabitants through song, dance, and storytelling. (May 2024)
- Chicanísima! A 25-minute opera by Carla Lucero about the life and work of legendary Chicanx leader and LGBTQ+ activist, Olga Talamante in the U.S., Mexico, and Argentina. (Commissioned by Quinteto Latino – May 2024)
- Paradise – A bilingual play by Tere Martinez about wealthy real estate developers buying inexpensive land in Puerto Rico and then evicting the locals. (Performed in Puerto Rican Spanglish and co-presented with La Lengua Teatro en Español. September 2024)
11 Reflections: San Francisco
The final two projects that WomenArts is sponsoring at Brava during 2024 will be presented during October – Andrea Assaf’s 11 Reflections: San Francisco on October 4 and 5, and Kat Evasco’s Be Like Water on October 18, 19, and 20.
11Reflections: San Francisco has been created in collaboration with Golden Thread Productions, and it is part of Eleven Reflections on the Nation, a national series of performance works devised by Andrea Assaf that explore the Arab-American experience in a post-9/11 world. In each participating city, Andrea Assaf asks local artists and community members to contribute stories about their post-9/11 experiences.
In 11 Reflections: San Francisco, local artists, accompanied by acclaimed Syrian opera singer Lubana Al Quntar and Turkish composer/violinist Eylem Basaldi, will invoke the art, poetry, music, and power of Middle Eastern art to create a space for mourning, community and joy as resistance.
If you are interested in creating a version of 11 Reflections in your community, or if you have videos or other creative work to share about your post-911 experiences, please visit Art2Action’s webpage about 11 Reflections for more information.
11 Reflections: San Francisco
Created and directed by: Andrea Assaf
Co-produced by: Golden Thread Productions, Brava for Women in the Arts, and Art2Action and in collaboration with Aviva Arts and WomenArts.
When: Friday and Saturday Oct 4 – 5, 2024 at 7 p.m.
Where: Brava Main Stage, 2781 24th Street, San Francisco, CA 94110
Prices: $25 – $100 (Sliding Scale – No one turned away for lack of funds)
More Info & Tickets: https://www.brava.org/all-events/11reflectionssf
Be Like Water
Be Like Water, is a work-in-progress from playwright and Brava Artist in Residence, Kat Evasco. It explores the mental health impacts of anti-immigrant rhetoric & policies on undocumented families. It tells the story of a Filipina-American family of four women, as they learn how to move like water around obstacles to find their pathways to freedom.
Kat Evasco is an award-winning writer, theater-maker, filmmaker, and cultural strategist committed to honoring and celebrating the experiences of immigrants, women and LGBTQ communities. She toured nationally with her auto-biographical solo show, Mommy Queerest, which was about discovering that both she and her mother were gay.
Also, Evasco has served as the Senior Program Director at the Center for Cultural Power, leading the design and implementation of their Disruptors Fellowships for emerging television writers of color who identify as transgender, non-binary, disabled, or undocumented/formerly undocumented.
Be Like Water (A Work-in-Progress)
Created by: Kat Evasco
When: Friday and Saturday Oct 18 & 19, 2024 at 7:30 p.m.
Where: Brava Main Stage, 2781 24th Street, San Francisco, CA 94110
Prices: $15 – $50 (Sliding Scale)
More Info & Tickets: https://www.brava.org/all-events/belikewater
Be Sure to Vote!
The Americans for the Arts Action Fund has put together a variety of voting resources in the ArtsVote 2024 Election Resource Hub. They are encouraging all artists to take a pledge to vote early and to encourage other people to vote. They have helpful fact sheets about the voting deadlines in each state, as well as information about congressional voting records on legislation affecting artists.