Event

Karla Lara, Jazz Singer From Tegucigalpa, Honduras

A singer is said to be a performer and author. S/he is part of an extensive diverse art movement that believes in the need to create song with identity, history, and rhythm. With the pride of being part of a new generation that builds dignity and strength, the artist helps in the construction of a just society we all deserve.

To speak of Karla Lara is to tell the story of many women, or perhaps it can be more precisely her intention for many women to see themselves in her and in her songs. In the harsh reality of Honduras, contrasted with hope and happiness, Karla helps in the struggle for international women's rights with the perseverance required for this counter-cultural and anti-patriarchal challenge.

She began singing in 1985 with the Choir of the National Autonomous University of Honduras and with the musical group "Rascaniguas ". In 1988 she left Honduras to form part of to the musical group " Cutumay Camones " from El Salvador, a musical group that was very important in the revolutionary music scene during the war of liberation of the Central American sister nation.

Karla took a musical break after the birth of her fourth child. Envisioning a routine life as a worker, homemaker and wife calming her impetus, she realizes that song and struggle from this social position is not something that can be dispensed with easily. In 2002, she reclaims her artistic occupation, normally kept for men, and continues to challenge the masculine and macho world through veracious song with strong political, social, and human content.

In December 2004, she presented to the public her first compact disc WHERE WALK, which brings together many of the issues that had come to be part of her repertoire.

From that time until now, she has sung in various venues ranging from remote villages of the countryside to the urban dwellings of the inner cities. Karla has also participated in various sites across the globe including the major metropolitan centers of the United States and Europe, as well as numerous venues across South America, the Caribbean, and in Africa for the World Social Forum in Dakar, Senegal in 2011. She has collaborated and shared the stage with many people throughout her career,
including artists from Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Mexico, Ecuador, Chile, Argentina and Cuba.

In December 2008 she submitted her second album, BEFORE THE BRIDGE, which she hopes will help to build identity, and allow us to feel our shared humanity through stories and characters placed in the setting of an impoverished community. By creating a sense of belonging through her music, Karla helps us develop a new way we conceive our participation in the construction of a different citizenship.

That same year Karla felt obliged by the call to participate in a Hunger Strike against Corruption started by the brave Fiscal Ministers of Honduras. She joined the strike and voluntarily deprived herself of the right that is wrongfully denied to the vast majority of the world, until the strike ended after 38 days. Although the goals of the strike were not fully achieved, an important social organization, the Broad Movement for Dignity and Justice, was born out of this act of protest.

Following the military coup on June 28, 2009 and throughout the following years, Karla has exhaustively shared her solidarity work with the people in resistance. She exemplifies the brave struggle of her people resisting not only the coup, but all forms of militarization, violence and oppression.

In July 2013, she recorded eight songs that collect stories of the resistance struggle and published the album "REMIND", which compiles tracks produced individually and adding those who collect the women's rights issue of her previous productions. She is currently preparing the material for her fourth album with songs written for an acoustic version.

In late October and November 2013, Karla made an artistic and political tour in Germany, Holland, Ireland, Italy and Spain, to sing and tell the story of Honduras. She was also honored by ArtCorps in the United States with the Creative Artist Award for her career in art and resistance struggles.

Karla is a very politically active person. She is part of the National Network of Human Rights Defenders in Honduras and is involved in political and cultural activity. She can be seen as a working artist, journalist and feminist, in a country where resistance in her artistic life has always been tied to political life in Central America.

Location

TaborSpace (View)
5441 SE Belmont
Portland, OR 97215
United States

Map is loading...

Contact

Owner: PCASC

On BPT Since: Jul 17, 2011

Portland Central America Solidarity Committee

Event

Location

Categories

Contact