If you could bottle the charisma and the talent of Venezuelan-born singer, dancer, artist and storyteller Migguel Anggelo, you'd get a taste of what it's like to open your senses, relish in the beauty of your surroundings, and most importantly have a no-holds-barred approach towards sharing your craft with the world.
How do you find the extraordinary in the ordinary? What makes a performer truly come alive on stage?
After recently watching Brooklyn-based, Venezuelan-born, singer, dancer, artist and storyteller, Migguel Anggelo perform "Between Dreams / Entre Sueños" to a sold-out crowd at Joe's Pub at the Public in New York, I was reminded of how life can imitate art and art can imitate life.
A narrative work that's unapologetic and compelling, addressing immigration, maturation, abandonment, isolation and triumph is not a tale that's easily told. Yet Cecilia M. Fernandez, writer and journalist, shares her story "Leaving Little Havana: A Memoir of Miami's Cuban Ghetto," as if sharing easy conversation a with collection of friends with parallel experiences.
Rich Villar, the Puerto Rican/Cuban author of the poetry collection "Comprehending Forever," has been waging a war with words since he was young, supported in battle by teachers and parents who saw poetry as a vital competent of a well-rounded education.
Spanish Harlem, also known as "El Barrio" or East Harlem, is known for being the point of origin for a number of notable people: singer Marc Anthony, musician Frankie Cutlass, rapper Cam'ron, actor Al Pacino, rapper Tupac, poet Willie Perdomo, and bookstore owner Aurora Anaya-Cerda, who is the founder of La Casa Azul Bookstore.
Coyoacan-born artist Frida Kahlo moved in surrealism and magic realism - though she once stated, “I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.” She created paintings that celebrated Mexican, Amerindian and indigenous tradition, while at the same time capturing her sorrow, her honesty and her hope. To understand her work is to understand her life.
