New Genre Festival features workshops, performance art
By JAMES D. WATTS JR., 02/28/2009
Jose Torres Tama, a performance artist from New Orleans, will be part of the New Genre Festival in Tulsa. Courtesy
Jose Torres Tama watched the American Dream shatter into pieces at the hand of a merciless creature named Katrina.
Torres Tama is a performance artist who has lived and worked in New Orleans for years, and who was caught in the catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
"It's one of the landmark traumatic events," he said, during a phone conversation as he was traveling to Tulsa to take part in Living Arts of Tulsa's New Genre Festival.
"I know a lot of artists have been drawn to doing work that deals with Katrina and its aftermath," Torres Tama said. "But I think I'm the only one who was actually there, experiencing that situation firsthand. I've talked with a lot of my colleagues, and all them talk about getting out of the city early.
"You could literally see all manner of civility breaking down in front of you. People were on TV begging for food and clean water — the basic necessities of life. And where were the people who were supposed to help them?"
Torres Tama is making his third trip to the New Genre Festival, which opened Thursday and continues through March 10. His piece combines video, music, theater, costumes, masks and fire to present the phantasmagorical experience of those left behind in the wake of a hurricane, who were more or less abandoned by the government.
"One of the most cogent comments I heard about the Bush administration's handling of Katrina and its aftermath was from Ted Koppel," Torres Tama said. "He drew a parallel between the cronyism of the Bush White House and the portrayal of the East German government in the film 'The Lives of Others.' Both were concerned more with party loyalty and cronyism than finding the best people to do the jobs necessary."
Torres Tama's other project for the New Genre Festival is one of the more ambitious undertakings in the event's history. He will conduct a weeklong workshop, beginning Monday, working with local visual and performing artists — and anyone else who wishes to participate — to create a performance art work that will premiere March 7 at the Nightingale Theater.
"This was an idea Steve (Liggett, Living Arts executive director) had," Torres Tama said. "He was wanting to find ways to bring in more local participation, because over the years the proposals from local artists for New Genre have been dwindling. So he thought a community-oriented residency would be a way of serving the community while generating some new work."
The workshop's theme is one that has informed much of Torres Tama's own work: "Home and the American Dream Mythology."
"There remains a very strong idea that the American Dream is still possible," he said. "Of course, exactly what that dream entails is something that we're still working out. But it is a very interesting idea, that this concept of 'United States' with all its complexities and troubles, all its successes and potentials, still can be a model for people's aspirations."
Workshops
The "Home and the American Dream Mythology" workshops will be 5 to 9 p.m. Monday-Friday at the Nightingale Theater, 1416 E. Fourth St. Participation is free, but reservations are requested. Call 585-1234 for reservations or more information.
THE CONE OF UNCERTAINTY: NEW ORLEANS AFTER KATRINA
By Jose Torres Tama
When: 8 p.m. Saturday
Where: Nightingale Theater, 1416 E. Fourth St.
Tickets: $15 adults, $10 students. Call 633-8666