INTERVIEW: It’s time to ‘Celebrate Mexico Now’
Photo: Créssida Contemporary Dance will perform Friday, Oct. 11 at 7 p.m. as part of the Celebrate Mexico Now festival. Photo courtesy of CMN / Provided with permission.
The Celebrate Mexico Now festival will bring its 16th year of programming to various venues in New York City, Oct. 7-13. The events are focused on a wide array of artistic endeavors, including music, dance, fine art, lecture, photography, cuisine and film.
Celebrate Mexico Now first came to the Big Apple in 2004, thanks to curator and producer Claudia Norman. This year she will oversee such diverse programs as an exploration of the connections between Mexican artists and the Harlem Renaissance; the opening of Lamentable Tierra (Sorrow Land), a photography exhibition of Mexico’s lost rural landscape; and a performance by multidisciplinary artist Maya Burns, among other events.
“It’s the centennial of the Harlem Renaissance,” Norman said in a recent phone interview. “So we are going to do a presentation on very important artists who were part of the Harlem Renaissance back then.”
The musical aspect of the festival is always a highlight for audience members. For the past 16 years, Celebrate Mexico Now has been a platform for emerging artists, many of them going on to impressive careers in the music industry.
“Music has been a very successful project for the festival, so every year we introduce new artists to New York audiences,” she said. “So they know that even though that they are not familiar with the artist, in the past 16 years the artists who have premiered or debuted in New York with the festival have become major artists. The audiences are always looking forward to who is coming next, and why we are choosing those artists is basically part of the reason a lot of people keep following us.”
This year music will be provided by the Maya Burns Trio Friday, Oct. 11 at 9:30 p.m. and 11 p.m. at Terraza 7 in Elmhurst, Queens. Burns grew up in Ensenada, Mexico, and her music combines ranchero, rock, folk, funk and jazz.
Celebrate Mexico Now has even commissioned the creation of a new work that will be a binational collaboration between a Mexican choreographer and a New York-based composer. The resulting work will be performed by the Créssida Contemporary Dance company Friday, Oct. 11 at 7 p.m. at the Little Theater at LaGuardia PAC in Long Island City, Queens.
“People can expect the festival being a platform for the presentation of new work and the introduction of new artists into the New York scene,” Norman said.
Another interesting aspect of the fest deals with the many indigenous languages found in Mexico. This topic is actually one that the United Nations has decided to shine a light on; the international governing body made 2019 the “Year of Indigenous Languages.”
Celebrate Mexico Now’s contribution will be a multidisciplinary program Thursday, Oct. 10 at 7 p.m. at the Center for Fiction in Brooklyn. The event is called On Translation: A Celebration of Indigenous Voices. There will be a screening of the documentary 68 Voices, 68 Hearts, followed by a panel discussion featuring filmmaker and 68 Voices, 68 Hearts creator Gabriela Badillo; Américo Mendoza-Mori, Quechua and Spanish professor at the University of Pennsylvania; and Mirian Masaquiza, social affairs officer at the Indigenous Peoples and Development Branch of the UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
“For us, it was very important to find a project that can talk about [indigenous languages],” Norman said. “For us to inform and educate people that as of today there are 68 active indigenous languages, it is something which is crucial for the dialogue [between] communities, not only living in the U.S. but even in Mexico as well.”
Norman added: “For us, it’s very important to showcase that the festival is not only about Mexican artists, but about Mexican culture and the importance the young generation and emerging artists have on reinterpreting tradition.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywodoSoapbox.com
Celebrate Mexico Now, produced by Claudia Norman, will run in several venues Oct. 7-13 in New York City. Click here for more information and tickets.
