BUILDING COMMUNITIES, SUSTAINING ARTISTS
SOUTH BRONX CULTURE TRAIL
The Bronx Revolution and the Birth of Hip Hop (2013), Photo: Joe Conzo Jr.
Paseo (2012), Photo: Alan Watson
The South Bronx Culture Trail engages artists, scholars, and community members in developing a physical and virtual trail connecting sites that played a significant role in spawning the rich cultural history of the South Bronx. The initiative also includes intergenerational performances, exhibitions, dance parties, the gathering and dissemination of oral histories, a website, and guided tours of the Culture Trail.
The South Bronx Culture Trail works to preserve the remarkable history of the neighborhoods that gave rise to Mambo, Salsa, and Hip Hop, and to celebrate the cultures and individuals of the South Bronx. The South Bronx Culture Trail was launched to record the memory of a community—one that has given rise to resilient traditions of art, activism and celebration.
RECENT PROJECTS
Graphic Cyphers at Times Square; Photo: Maria Baranova @TSqArts
GRAPHIC CYPHERS / SEPTEMBER 2016
Anne Nguyen / Compagnie par Terre & Yugson
A new work by Anne Nguyen for 20 NYC dancers made in The Bronx, NYC commissioned by Dancing in the Streets and Crossing the Line Festival 2016
Extending the tradition of the Hip-Hop cypher – the circle of dancers that surrounds the ever changing soloist – Anne Nguyen’s new work Graphic Cyphers maintains the intimacy and dynamism of close audience proximity to the dancers, yet constantly changes their perspectives and viewpoints as the dancers shift positions and levels.
The work featured a new generation of Urban dancers from around NYC, including members of the It’s Showtime NYC project, and was made in the streets of the Bronx and hosted by the Bronx Museum of the Arts. Performances took place in the streets of the South Bronx and at the Museum on Friday September 23, and in Times Square on Sunday September 25.
Anne Nguyen collaborated on this project with Yugson, an award winning Urban dancer based in Paris, France who also created the score for this new work.
Graphic Cyphers at Times Square; Photo: Maria Baranova @TSqArts
SOUTH BRONX CULTURE TRAIL ADVISORY COUNCIL
Arthur Aviles
Tina Ramírez
Bill Aguado
Alex Aponte
Anna Arraya Colon
Antonio Sergio Bessa
BG183* (Tats Cru)
Benny Bonilla
Américo Casiano
Alvan Colon Lespier
Marcos A. Crespo
Robert Crespo
Elizabeth Figueroa
Ricky Flores
GrandWizzard Theodore Livingston
Elena Martínez
Jorge Popmaster Fabel Pabon
Al Quiñones
Angel Rodriguez
Rosalba Rolón
Rafael Salamanca, Jr.
Bobby Sanabria
Robert Sancho
Lisa A. Sorin
Eric Soto
Dave Valentin
BG183 performs in The Bronx Revolution and the Birth of Hip Hop, Photo: Joe Conzo Jr.
Elena Martinez leads Trolley Tour of the South Bronx Culture Trail , Photo: Elaine Delgado
PAST PROJECTS
CINEMUSICA CITY / OCTOBER 2014
The South Bronx Culture Trail Festival, Cinemusica City!, was a two-night celebration of the cultural legacy of historic South Bronx concert halls and movie theaters that offered a look into the future generation of talented Bronx youth.
Along with reanimating long-forgotten South Bronx cinemas and concert halls with larger than life projections of vintage footage from music greats such as Tito Puente, La Lupe, Grandmaster Flash and GrandWizzard Theodore, Cinemusica City! culminated in a night at the movies with Latin Music and Hip Hop films, and live performances by BB Bronx and NeNe Ali.
THE BRONX REVOLUTION AND THE BIRTH OF HIP HOP / OCTOBER 2013
The Bronx Revolution and the Birth of Hip Hop was a multimedia work created and directed by Joanna Haigood in collaboration with hip hop pioneers—DJ GrandWizzard Theodore, photographer Joe Conzo Jr., M.C. Grandmaster Caz, graffiti artist BG183 of Tats Cru, and Rokafella—who described their personal relationship to hip hop through spoken word, through their distinct media, and through their interaction with a video landscape by the arts collective 3_Search, which included projected images of the South Bronx in the 1970s and ‘80s by Joe Conzo Jr. and Henry Chalfant. The production culminated in a dance cipher followed by Melle Mel’s and Grandmaster Caz’s rousing rendition of The Message.
Paseo was a roving site-specific performance by choreographer Joanna Haigood and music director Bobby Sanabria that celebrated the Hunts Point and Longwood sections of the South Bronx and their astounding contribution to Latin music. With performances by over 80 dancers, musicians, poets, actors, and community members, the neighborhoods’ fire escapes, stoops, and sidewalks came alive with Latin music and dance, stickball games, and street scenes evoking the vibrant street life and cultural vitality of the neighborhood between 1945 and 1970. Joanna Haigood received a Bessie Award for PASEO as "an outstanding production of a work stretching the boundaries of a traditional form.”
SOUTH BRONX CULTURE TRAIL is co-produced by Dancing in the Streets and Casita Maria Center for Arts & Education. Its first two years were made possible in part by a generous grant from the Rockefeller Foundation’s NYC Cultural Innovation Fund. Additional support for Paseo was received from the MAP Fund, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Con Edison and Smartwater.
