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Event
Wounds of the Izote
The San Francisco International Arts Festival (SFIAF), The Performing Arts and Social Justice Major of the University of San Francisco (USF) and the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN) invites the public to participate in the creative process for the development of a new play by SFIAF artist-in-residence and USF faculty member, Paul S. Flores. The readings will be directed by Michael John Garces of Cornerstone Theatre in Los Angeles (see biography, attached).
"Izote" is a bilingual (English/Spanish) play that weaves together the story of three generations of one family who lived through the horror of the US funded El Salvadoran Civil War and its aftermath; the subsequent refugee migrations to the United States, the resulting formation of immigrant gangs in California cities and their impacts on the US and Central America.
"Izote" follows the story of Mama Nieves Carbajal and her son Placas in different time periods and locations as they struggle to save their families from the cycle of violence.
In San Salvador, when her husband is disappeared by government troops during the Civil War, Mama Nieves sends her three sons into exile in the United States as part of a wave of refugees, and receives them back years later as deportees.
After ten years in prison, Placas returns to San Francisco to reunite with his young son (who has just been arrested) in hopes of saving him from a life of gang violence. Placas narrates his familys struggle with state sponsored terror, organized crime and gang violence. But is it too late to save his son?
The readings of Izote will be followed by a conversation between the artists and the audience to obtain critical feedback on the development of the play.
Mondays Reading is part of USFs commemorations for the victims of the El Salvadoran Civil War, including the 20th anniversary of the assassination of six Jesuit priests at the Central American University, who were murdered along with their cook and her daughter, on this day November 16, 1989.
Paul Flores was commissioned by SFIAF and CARECEN to write "Izote" because of his experience and expertise in bilingual Latino performance, theatre about youth culture, juvenile offenders, borders and a myriad other issues that Izote will confront (see biography, below).
Paul S. Flores (Playwright) is a published poet, novelist, playwright, international spoken word performer and University of San Francisco Performing Arts and Social Justice instructor. Raised on the Tijuana/San Diego border, issues of immigration, border experience, and Latino identity are central to his work. He is primarily recognized as a trailblazer in new Latino performance arts as both an artist and producer. In 1996 Flores co-founded the poetry performance ensemble Los Delicados with whom he has recorded the CD Word Descarga on Calaca Press (2000). He is founding artistic director of Chicano Messengers of Spoken Word and author of the novel Along the Border Lies (awarded the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles National Literary Award in 2003). A theater artist specializing in hip-hop and bilingual performance, Flores co-wrote De/Cipher (2001) and No Man's Land (2002) with Marc Bamuthi Joseph, The Fruitvale Project (2003) with Elia Arce, and Fear of a Brown Planet (2005) directed by Tony Garcia. His most recent play is REPRESENTA!, a bilingual hip-hop theater project co-commissioned by the San Francisco International Arts Festival and La Pea Cultural Center, written and performed with Cuban rapper Julio Cardenas and directed by Danny Hoch. REPRESENTA! premiered at the Hip-Hop Theater Festival: Bay Area and the SF International Arts Festival in May 2007, and is currently on tour to the GALA Hispanic Theater in DC, Abrons Art Center NY, NJPAC and Lehigh University PA. Flores has also performed his solo work across the United States and internationally including the National Hip-Hop Festival in Havana and America Libre Hip-Hop in Mexico City. His television work includes being a featured artist on Season Four of Russell Simmons Presents: Def Poetry on HBO.
In addition to playwright, poet and performer, Flores is a highly respected youth arts development specialist, whose expertise in urban youth programs is recognized nationwide. For the last twelve years he has mentored teen poets as the former Program Director of Youth Speaks. His services in this area have also been sought by organizations throughout the country including Tigertail Productions (Miami), Multicultural Education and Counseling in the Arts (Houston), El Centro Su Teatro (Denver), Miracle Theatre (Portland) and South Division High School (Milwaukee), among many others. Flores currently facilitates and develops curriculum for Oakland public schools on gang and violence prevention through the Spanish Speaking Unity Council and the City of Oaklands Measure Y Anti-Violence Campaign. This latter assignment recently led Flores into working directly with incarcerated youth at San Franciscos Youth Guidance Center and Alameda Juvenile Hall where he has adapted the program to emphasize alternatives to gang membership.
As a result of his work as an artist and youth arts specialist Flores has been an invited lecturer/speaker to over one hundred high schools and universities including Stanford University, Brown University, University of Georgia, University of North Carolina, Colorado State, UC San Diego, Macalester College and University of Wisconsin.
Paul Flores holds an MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University, has twice been awarded the National Performance Network Creation Fund and recently received a San Francisco Arts Commission Individual Artist Commission and is one of the first ever recipients of the Center for Cultural Innovation Individual Artist Grant.
Michael John Garcs (Director) has directed at a number of prestigious American houses such as New York Theatre Workshop, Woolly Mammoth Theater, Second Stage, Yale Repertory Theatre and INTAR. He currently serves as the Artistic Director of Cornerstone Theater in Los Angeles, and has won acclaim for the plays he has written and directed involving marginalized communities, such as Los Illegals, which featured the stories of undocumented immigrants in Los Angeles. He recently directed Marc Bamuthi Joseph in the Break/s. He also co-directed The Falls by Jeffrey Hatcher with Bill Rauch at the Guthrie Theater for Cornerstone.
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LocationCentro del Pueblo
474 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
United States
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