ARTners & Kalpulli Xihuacoatl

 PRESENTS ARTgrove Dia de Los Muertos

Sunday, October 29, 2023, Located at District 56, 8230 Civic Center Dr. Elk Grove, CA

Altar Makers 

ARTgrove Vol 8 - Dia de Los Muertos 2023

Reposted blog article by Teresa Gutierrez | Nov 3, 2021, |

This is a celebration of the Mexican traditional cultural holiday Dia de Los Muertos, where we honor our dearly departed with altars displaying photos and all of their favorite items, along with a cultural Azteca blessing and festivities.

 “Dia de Los Muertos,” a first-of-its-kind cultural creative event put on by ARTners nonprofit in Elk Grove, CA, and sponsored by the City of Elk Grove, Elk Grove Arts Commission, Elk Grove Diversity and Inclusion Commission, and SMUD. The event occurred at Old Town Plaza in Old Elk Grove. The event was well accepted, with approximately 1000 attended on October 29, 2023. We received so much gratitude from the community, thanking ARTners for contributing to our community culturally and creatively. The artwork was reviewed and received many compliments. Also, the vendors, performers, and DJ received many compliments.

Meaning: Dia De Los Muertos is a Mexican traditional holiday that has evolved from Indigenous rituals, and throughout the centuries, it has been infused with religion and regional traditions. It is currently observed in Mexico, the United States, and globally. 

How we celebrate: Families build “altares” (altars) to welcome the spirits of our loved ones back to the earthly realm, providing “ofrendas” (offerings) such as fragrant marigolds and incense,  Pan de Muerto, and objects they enjoyed while living among us. Also, “Calaveras and calacas” were placed on altars to represent those who passed. 

 

Latino Center of Art & Culture Presents City of Altars

Introducing some of the lead artists for City of Altars. These are the incredible people responsible for teaching the beautiful art of making an altar, and here's a little about them.

Stan Padilla is a multimedia artist, indigenous educator, and cultural activist.

Alpha Bruton is an artist/curator/ research and development consultant for the Sojourner Truth African Heritage Museum. My current work examines cultural signs and symbols and their use of interpretation. 

J. Andrea Amezcua Porras / yAyA;  is an IndigeQueer 2Spirit Chicana de Coahuiltecan decent. yAyA is an Interdisciplinary artist, curator & producer. They create performance work as storytellers, poets, actors, and directors. 

Luis Ramon Campos Garcia (Lurac) is a multidisciplinary artist, graphic designer, cultural worker, educator, and migrant from Mexico City who is interested in cultural diversity and how it can enrich the human experience. Mr. Campos Garcia studied at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México before coming to Sacramento and earning his B.A. in Studio Art at CSUS. 

As a Chicano of Teenek, Otomi, and Lipan Apache descent, Jesus has dedicated his life to learning the traditional medicine of his community while utilizing art as a tool for healing. Jesus is an LMFT working in the Sacramento region with survivors of various traumas. 

Shonna McDaniels is the Founder and Director of the Sojourner Truth Art Museum (founded in 1996). McDaniels is a professional artist/teacher/muralist and community activist. She has an extensive background in art instruction and mural design. She has studied under some of the finest professors in the Los Rios Community College network and master artists in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Soy danzante por amor. My name is Natalia Itzali Serrato and I am an Aztec Dancer with Grupo Telpochkalli de Sacramento. La cultura cura.

Make sure you're following Sol Collective, Taller Arte del Nuevo Amanecer, The Washington Neighborhood Center, and the Sojourner Truth African Heritage Museum so you can sign up for these workshops!

#latinoart #latinocenter #cityofaltars #dayofthedead #Diadelosmuertos #exploresacramento #sacramento365 #altarmaking #sacramentoartists

"Kwanzaa Festival of Life, Community, and Culture."

 A message from Shonna McDaniel's Executive Director of SOJO Museum invites community altar makers to participate in the "City of Altars." 

Kwanzaa is Celebrated December 26 -January 1 - Sojourner Truth African Heritage Museum will host a workshop on Tuesday, December 26, with the installation of Kwanzaa Altars and judging will happen on December 29, during the "Kwanzaa Festival of Life, Community, and Culture." 

The Kwanzaa Festival of Life, Community, and Culture is a week-long celebration that honors the achievements of the Black community and provides support. It occurs from December 26 to January 1 at the Sojourner Truth African Heritage Museum.

On Friday, December 29, the festival is dedicated to Ujamaa, "Cooperative Economics," which is celebrated at the Florin Business Complex. Over 100 African-American businesses and vendors participated in this event.

On Saturday, December 30, there will be a celebration at the African Marketplace. Celebrating Nia (Purpose) is to make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community to restore our people to their traditional greatness.

On December 31, Kuumba will be celebrated with various creative arts projects and performances catering to the youth.

(This falls on a Sunday, but most activities will happen on Saturday; TBD ceremonies will happen.)

January 1, Imani, is our day of faith. A special ceremony will be held to bring a close to our week-long celebration of life and a closing reception for the City of Altar Installation, a Day of Rest.

 Along with the Seven Principles(Nguzo Saba) and the seven days of Kwanzaa, seven symbols ortable implements are used to celebrate the holiday. These seven items are arraigned in an area set up as a 

Kwanzaa altar or table in the home.

The seven symbols of Kwanzaa are:

Mkeka (m-KAY-kah): The Mat

A mat is woven of fabric, raffia, or even paper. The Mkeka is essential because the other holiday implements rest upon it.

Symbolizes the experiences, culture, achievements, and sacrifices of our ancestors upon which our lives are built.

Kikombe cha Umoja (kee-KOHM-bay cha oo-MOH-jah): The Unity Cup

Representing family and community unity. When the Unity cup is filled with water, juice, or wine, a little bit is poured out as a reminder and respect for our ancestors. The cup is then passed around and shared with those gathered, each taking a sip.

Mazao (mah-ZAH-oh): The Crops

The fruits and vegetables that are the result of the harvest. Bananas, mangoes, peaches, plantains, oranges, or whatever might be the family favorites. The Mazao are placed on the Mkeka and are shared and eaten to honor the work of the people it took to grow them.

Kinara (kee-NAH-rah): The Candleholder

The Kinara holds the seven candles representing our African ancestors that symbolize the Nguzo Saba. The Kinara is placed on the Mkeka and holds the Mishumaa Saba (the seven candles).

Mishumaa Saba(mee-shoo-MAH SAH-ba): The Seven Candles

Seven candles representing the seven principles of Nguzo Saba are placed in the Kwanzaa Kinara. The colors of the candles are red, green, and black, which are the colors of the Bendera (or African Flag).

Muhindi (moo-HEEN-dee): The Corn

Represents the children (and future) of the family. One suke (ear) of corn is placed on the Mkeka for each child. If no children are in the family, one suke is still placed on the Mkeka to symbolize the community's children.

The Muhindi also represent the Native Americans, the land's first inhabitants. Without whom, there would be no corn, also known as Maize. It is used to acknowledge and respect their contribution to the culture and ancestors of African Americans.

Note: A single ear of corn can also be known as Vibunzi. Indian Corn is sometimes used.

Zawadi (zah-WAH-dee): Gifts

Kwanzaa gifts are given to children that will make them better people. The gifts should always include a book, video, or other educational item to educate and inform the child. There should also be a gift known as a "heritage symbol." Something to remind the child of the glory of the past and the promise of the future.

Since Kwanzaa is a relatively new holiday, you, your family, and your community can use great creativity to observe Kwanzaa. The area in your home where you set up the Kwanzaa altar or table can be decorated in the same spirit as other holidays. Create posters and banners to hang on the walls, and add African sculptures or other artwork to the display. Many crafts and decorations can be created by the children of the home to be used in your Kwanzaa display.

The City of Altars, Capital Region Creative Corps, and City of Sacramento Office of Innovation & Economic Development partly fund this project.  

The Latino Center of Art & Culture announces the “City of Altars.”

 www.thelatinocenter.org

We are excited to announce our partnership with our sister organizations for the program called "City of Altars." Thanks to support from the City of Sacramento's (@saccityarts) Capital Region Creative Corps Program with funding from the California Arts Council (@calartscouncil), the City of Altars consists of a collaboration between five leading arts organizations in the Sacramento and Woodland communities, including Latino Center of Art and Culture, Sol Collective, Taller Arte Nuevo Amanecer, Washington Neighborhood Center, and Sojourner Truth Museum African Heritage Museum.

Together, we will activate our spaces throughout the fall of 2023 to honor our respective customs relating to Día de los Muertos and Kwanzaa. Collectively, we will shine a light on the issues that most impact our communities through the sacred practice of altar-making. Community members will be invited to create altars through workshops and will be encouraged to exhibit at our annual events.

Follow each of us to stay informed about this exciting project.

@Sac_LCAC

@Solcollective

@tanawoodland

@thecenter916

@sojomuseum

#cityofaltars #diadelosmuertos #kwanzaa #sacramento #woodland #arts #culture

#Sacramento365 #dayofthedead #cityofaltars

Capital Region Creative Corps Grant

What: City of Altars, a program by the Latino Center of Art and Culture

When: 2023-2024, a bulk of the activities will take place from September to December 2023

Where: multiple sites throughout the region.

Overview: The Latino Center of Art and Culture was granted $117,000 through a Capital Region

Creative Corps grant. The grant's scope allows us to bring in organizational partners to strengthen our programs around Día de los Muertos. The goal is to work alongside sister organizations that will host social justice-driven workshops while co-creating altars alongside members from their organization and the community. 

These sister organizations would also select lead altaristas and artists (5-7 total) who would develop their own cohorts of about 10-15 emerging artists. The goal is to leverage the altar, a sacred artistic practice, as the medium through which our community members share the issues that impact our collective communities.

Kwanzaa is Celebrated December 26th -January 1st - Sojourner Truth African Heritage Museum will host a workshop on Tuesday, December 26th, with the installation of Kwanzaa Altars and judging will happen on December 29th, during the "Kwanzaa Festival of Life, Community, and Culture." 

The Kwanzaa Festival of Life, Community, and Culture is a week-long celebration that honors the achievements of the Black community and provides support. It occurs from December 26 to January 1 at the Sojourner Truth African Heritage Museum.

On Friday, December 29th, the festival is dedicated to Ujamaa, "Cooperative Economics," which is celebrated at the Florin Business Complex. Over 100 African-American businesses and vendors participated in this event.

On Saturday, December 30th, there will be a celebration at the African Marketplace. Celebrating Nia (Purpose) is to make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community to restore our people to their traditional greatness.

On December 31, Kuumba will be celebrated with various creative arts projects and performances catering to the youth. (This falls on a Sunday but most activities will happen on Saturday, TBD ceremonies will happen)

January 1, Imani, is our day of faith. A special ceremony will be held to bring a close to our week-long celebration of life and a closing reception for the City of Altar Installation, a Day of Rest.

YaYa Porras - Berkeley Poetry Festival 1999

https://www.facebook.com/BerkeleyPoetryFestival/

YaYa Porras reading at the Berkeley Poetry Festival in 1999. The event was held the first weekend of October at the University Art Museum and Sculpture Garden.

J. Andrea Porras / yAyA is a Queer, 2Spirit, Coahuiltecan descendant Chicana, madre of JAH’Sol Amaru, cultura cura curator, producer, intersectional artist, practitioner; with over 25 years experience in performance, organizing, facilitation, grant making, grant reviewing, philanthropy, and mentoring. Porras began their performative journey as a roller skating waiter edutaining and serving up Tex-Mex campo to mesa cuisine at her family’s local Bordertown haven/ restaurant. Amezcua’s was located in their beloved barrio and birthplace of San Felipe, Del Rio Tejas.

They have been offering intersectional multimedia arte between edutainment and story sharing, storytelling ceremonias through solo and collaborations for over 25 years.. Porras brings viewers into the past, present, and future via Charcoal Foot Travels spoken palabra and improvs, teatro y movimiento as relative and guest upon Sacred Indigenous Lands 4 decades and counting. They are self and community-funded and an honored culture bearers via commissions, grants, invitations, research, and opportunities. Porras también curates visual exhibitions, creates site specific installations, ritual performance, teatro y flor y canto movimiento. Most recently Current Classy Broadway Curatorial Resident in Oak Park, Sacramento.

Porras earned their B.A. from California State University Sacramento, Theater Dance, and Cultural Anthropology Departments, where they specialized in Black, Indigenous, and Chicano/Theater. They focused on acting, improv movement, playwriting, producing, and video documenting. Porras dedicated their early years at CSUS to recruiting hundreds of first-generation students from Sacramento high schools. They were recruited by the Education Opportunity Program as a student teachers/peer mentor in Ethnic Studies, Acting, Chicano Theater, Cultural Anthropology, and African-Caribbean dance. Simultaneously, Porras spent years as an artist in residence at elementary and middle schools in Sacramento, funded by The Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission. They studied, taught, performed, and participated in Inter-Tribal ceremonies as Caribbean Danza Mexika traditional dancers predominantly connecting and building in Northern California across the Southwest and later in Cuba, Mexico, Africa, and NY.

They crossed over from teaching artists and community cultural producers to Arts administrators and philanthropy focus in joining the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission. They served as the city's Arts Education coordinator and later Co-founded, Directed, and Facilitated a Roots, Altars, and Movement course at World Arts Space. The WAS project brought together 8 artists for 8 weeks, 8 hours a day, offering free and accessible Arte y Cultura. An intergenerational community Artist and apprentice residency/ building relations with 100 emerging youth artists through an all-immersive arts training safe space embedded in the community of Oak Park in the Summers of 2004/ 05.

Porras also served as a community development organizer with Mutual Housing of California. In their 4 year term, they created civic leadership engagement and arts and cultural revival pop-up workshops in multiple incredibly diverse and intergenerational family-subsidized housing communities they served throughout the Sacramento region. Later came the call to action as manager, community, and art gallery curator at Taller Arte del Nuevo Amanacer, founded by Malaquias Montoya and Carlos Jackson and directed by Maceo Montoya. TANA is based in the rural community of Woodland, CA. Mentored by Malaquias, and leading an amazing and talented mentee /student/ artist staff, they collectively recruited and grew new generations of political poster makers on the satellite location for the University of California at Davis Chicana/o Studies Department.

Porras recently exited their 5-year role as Arts Grant Specialist for the California Arts Council, where they managed a portfolio totaling approximately $9 million in funding per year. Currently, they stand for love, dignity, and transformation as an agent for BIPOC communities as a member of the Caltrans Office of Race and Equity, Native American Liaison Branch Headquarters. They are a 2004 NALAC Leadership Institute graduate and an invited peer for the 2017 Advocacy Leader Institute. They are currently attending IAIA as a student in the Native American Art History certificate program. Porras, co-founded Movimiento Molcajete (1997) Contemporary Indigenous Teatro Co. & MA Series Arts (2018), a 501c3 non-profit MA Series Arts nonprofit 2018: dedicated to supporting performance, research & practice by women y queers of color, honoring the full spectrum of cultural and gender identities.

Berkeley Poetry Festival

Since 1998, the Berkeley Poetry Festival has honored activist writers by creating space for performance and presenting a lifetime achievement award. In 2013,  Sharon Coleman and I, MK Chavez, took over organizing the festival. We dedicated ourselves to building an equitable event by uplifting the voices of BIPOC, LGBTQI+, and other writers who experience systemic violence and oppression. 

It was with great heartache that we read the bold public letter written by two anonymous sexual assault survivors who are calling for accountability and healing from transgressions committed by former lifetime achievement award recipient Rafael Jesús González. You can read their letter here:

In 2015, we honored Rafael Jesús González because of the key role that he has played in our community as a leader and mentor. The Berkeley Poetry Festival Lifetime Award is not an award that can be retracted because it is an acknowledgment and an event that has already occurred. However,  we are extremely hopeful that because of his background,  Rafael Jesús González will step up as he has against other injustices and violence in the community and the world and do the work that must be done.

 

We know our community is hurt and in need of healing, and we are committed to supporting a process that honors the survivors in whatever way we can. Berkeley Poetry Festival celebrates the survivors' work and words and acknowledges that the burden should not be on survivors to do this necessary work. 

To support the requests, we commit to: 

• We will remove the celebration and centering  of Rafael Jesùs Gonzalez from Berkeley Poetry Festival social media and future promotional materials, including the list of past lifetime achievement award recipients, to hold space for the healing work that is ahead (no later than Monday, August 21, 2022)

• Rafael Jesùs Gonzalez will not be included in future Berkeley Poetry Festival events. 

Berkeley Poetry Festival also acknowledges the work of LA DASS  , which makes the invisible visible while holding values that seek to humanize and heal.

The Ceremonial Circle Blessing "THE PASSING OF THE FLAMES"

 The Tarble Art Center is a wonderful location to find my true center. I began my personal journey in linking fragments of the past, connecting sketchy memories of the two women that have shaped my path, and are propelling me on to the next plateau of my artistic explorations. Sallie Alpha Betta, mother of Thomas Bruton my father,  and Crecy Ivory mother of Lois Lorraine my mother.

 On the property of Anita P. Lowe Auburn CA-

The question is how to reconstruct this outdoor installation, into an indoor gallery?

Construction – The purification ceremonies are generally built with great care, and with respect for the environment and for the materials being used. Many traditions construct the purification ceremonies in complete silence, some have a drum playing while they build, and other traditions have the builders fast during construction.

Artist Assistant, Master’s candidate Shawn Fairchild, contributed misfired ceramics from his studio, to repurpose in the creation of the “passing of the flames”.

Placement and orientation of the structure within its environment are often considered to facilitate the ceremony's connection with the spirit world, as well as practical considerations of usage. We began building by finding the center of the gallery, 9’ 4 ½ ‘ from the wall.

Rituals and traditions associated with sweating vary regionally and culturally. Ceremonies often include traditional prayers and songs. In some cultures drumming and offerings to the spirit world may be part of the ceremony, or a sweat ceremony may be a part of another, longer ceremony.   wanted an atmosphere of Zen, during the construction, students needed to feel, and play, with the paper, clay, slip, cracked pots, fabric.

 Undergraduate- Garrett Goben- Studio Drawing

Orientation – The door may face a sacred fire. The cardinal directions may have symbolism in the culture that is holding the purification ceremonies. The structure may be oriented within its environment for a specific purpose. 

The purpose here is to recreate the "THE PASSING OF THE FLAMES".

To transfer or bestow one's role, position, responsibilities, etc., to someone else. 

My grandmother is unable to stand long enough to cook such a large meal, so she's passing the torch to us to make Thanksgiving dinner this year.

Artist Assistant, Master’s candidate Shawn Fairchild
Undergraduate- Garrett Goben- Studio Drawing
Stephanie Aarons (music major)

Grandmother’s Circle -Tarble Art ECenter

Tarble Art Museum

 2010 Ninth Street on the campus of Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, Illinois

Nov. 9 - Dec. 15, eGallery

Grandmother’s Circle -

A Tribute to Crecy's People and to Sallie Alpha:

 An Installation by Alpha Bruton

Alpha Bruton’s installation is a simulation of a ceremonial purification circle, in which objects and images are selected to “serve as cultural mirrors and the sites in which they are situated serve as part of a broader cultural commentary.” The artist has examined cultural signs and symbols and their use or interpretation. She believes that objects in the public sphere serve to communicate and reinforce certain cultural narratives, hierarchies, and social mythologies.

A painter and an installation artist, Bruton synthesizes aspects of theater, sculpture, and other two-dimensional forms. Her work has been exhibited in numerous venues internationally, Berlin, Canada, Mexico, Chicago, New Jersey, Baltimore,  in California (Auburn, Fresno, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento).

Guest artists, contributors to the installation, Caryl HenryAlexander, LA Happy Hyder, Talver Germany Miller, Antia P. Lowe, J. Andreas Porras., Myths Stories, and Living Tradition with the Visual Arts Development Project in Auburn California.

Bruton is the Tarble Arts Center’s 2013 Arts-In-Education artist-in-residence and will be in residence at four area schools between Nov. 11 through Dec. 13. The residency is funded by the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, by participating schools, the Coles County Arts Council, and Tarble membership contributions. The Tarble Arts Center, a division of the College of Arts & Humanities, is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.

Diana Bruton, telling our story of eight generations of the "Crecy, Sallie" women, a research project that has taken a decade of compiling for a publication.