Community art, music, and dance workshops
Free community events featuring art, music, and dance workshops alongside local street vendors and artisans.
Leader
Camilo Quiroz-Vazquez
Location
50 Goodwin Pl Brooklyn, NY 11221
About the project
A series of workshops that feature traditional dance and drumming techniques hosted by local community gardens, public parks, including the Goodlife Garden, Maria Hernandez Park and Highland Park. These events are free, open to all ages and approach teaching in a communal way that centers tradition. The goal of these events is to share knowledge in a de-centralized way, there is no one person who leads these workshops. All attendees are welcome to share their knowledge and cultural wisdom creating space for dialogue amongst community members. Workshops focus on the history of Afro-Indigenous traditions present throughout Latin America in order to build a more aware community.
We will also focus and guide participants on the history of the public spaces they are inhabiting and give them agency to reimagine how they can interact with other public spaces in the community. Through conversation we will develop actionable lists of community initiatives that we can carry on in the future.
The Steps
- Confirm dates with artists
- Confirm vendors
- Reach out to local community
- Begin community conversations about needs
- Actualize the event
Why we‘re doing it
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Why we are doing this:
-These workshops are intended to teach and maintain the Afro-Indigenous traditions found throughout Latin America. While these traditions are common place in their ancestral lands, it can be difficult for immigrants or people in the diaspora to find spaces willing to allow them the freedom to practice and pass down their traditions.
-These workshops not only teach musical and artistic skills, they teach the history and origins of these traditions and amplify the pre-European rituals present in Africa and Latin America.
-Creating safe spaces. While attempting to do some of these workshops in public spaces, the organizers and members of these workshops who we will be collaborating with, have been harassed or asked to leave by police. These acts of aggression create a stigma around these communities and traditions. We will be working to find safe and inviting spaces that are open to the public free of harassment. We want to reimagine public parks as a place where programing happens
-We want to get away from the idea of “venues,” meaning a place for hire that serves as a one time meeting place for an activity and focus on the idea of “community spaces” that people are invested in beyond individual workshops. By hosting regular events we will mix art and agriculture which is how many of these traditions came to be in the first place. We want participants to engage with the gardens and parks we will be working with beyond these workshops and will be promoting active participation in the beautification efforts of both the garden, parks and the surrounding community.
-We also want people to know the history of the gardens and parks they will be working with so that they understand the labor that goes into creating a community space. We also hope to inspire and guide participants towards reimagining how they can use public space and how they can come together to create their own gardens or community spaces.