Hunts Point has its own shows
Photo by Hanan Tabarra
Performers Saul Silva and Maceo Cabrera Estevez on stage.
By Hanan Tabbara
htabbara@hunter.cuny.edu
It would be easy to mistake the BankNote building, with its vast bulk and turreted tower, for a factory or an armory, but when a visitor stepped inside on a recent evening, what she found was the glow of dozens of candles lighting a studio space for a celebration of the works of black and Latino artists.
Maceo Cabrera Estévez was performing a one-woman in the former sewing shop that is now home to the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD!).
“I walked into a warehouse, a run-down building that looks like a factory on the outside. But it was actually really nice on the inside,” said Jose Ivey, who had come to the 70-seat theater for the first time to view BAAD!’s BlakTino Performance series.
“We don’t have to travel to Manhattan to see real theater,” said Ruben Thomas, a Hunts Point resident and a volunteer at this year’s BlackTino series. “We have it right here in our back yard,” he said.
They’re an “Off Off Broadway for those of us who can’t afford to go downtown,” said Thomas, who is also the host of the Ruben Thomas Program on WPNT, the Point’s low power radio station.
At the fifth performance of this year’s series, the small audience made a big noise, clapping and whooping when a vivacious Barbarita Perales, the main character in the play AMOR CUBANO: In a bottle, a tube and a small packet, strode on stage, wearing a low cut, peach-colored, beaded dress.
“We’ve been going through some very hard times all over the world,” said Barbarita, as she opened the show leaning into a peacock-backed golden chair. “I want to make a difference,” she said, pointing to the audience, who laughed at her heavy Cuban accent. “I want to give something too,” she continued as the laughter swelled, now mixed with clapping.
Written and performed by Estévez, the play takes the form of an infomercial in which Barbarita distills Cuban love (“the greatest love in the world”) in a bottle, a tube and a small packet and markets it as a perfect solution for the world’s problems.
The play relies on humor and political satire to send its message: Make love not war!
Afterwards, Jose Ivey said that he wasn’t prepared for the politics in the play when he walked into the theater. He was especially surprised when the character Lieutenant Rodriguez, also played by Estévez wearing an army uniform, walked solemnly on stage. “I was told I’d be saving the world without hurting nobody,” she said. “No one told me my enemies were little kids who looked like my brothers and sisters.”
She wept for the children who have died as a result of the Iraq war. Falling to the ground, she says she has learned that she “was not protecting America” but instead “was killing souls,” including her own.
“The soldier part really shook me up,” said Ivey.
Director Eric Avilés said that he wanted the play to remind people to laugh and love in difficult times. “How many days do some of us go without laughing?” he asked.
Estévez, who is from Brooklyn but now lives on the West Coast, said she hopes her play will convince people that they can make changes in the world. We want to “inspire” people “to think and want to change” their world, Estévez said.
The BlakTino Performance Series came out of an experiment aiming to “bring two cultures, the black and Latino cultures, and juxtapose them to see where they overlap,” explained BAAD! co-founder, Charles Rice-Gonzalez. “It is inclusive but not a free-for-all,” he added, calling it a celebration of the works of black, Latino and the “other inos,” namely “the Chinos (Chinese) and Pinos (Philipinos).”
Saying that it’s “exciting” to create “community dialog” and push for “social justice” through the arts, Rice-Gonzalez, added that the stigma associated with living and performing in the Bronx is weakening. As their work gains media attention, “artists are feeling proud of creating and performing in the Bronx,” he said.
The BlakTino Performance Series is one of four festivals held at BAAD! Every spring, BAAD! presents the Boogie Down Dance Series. BAAD! ASS WOMEN celebrates the works of women artists annually. Every July, OUT LIKE THAT! celebrates artists from the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender communities.