Ollin Imagination

As a response to the aggressive military recruitument of youth of color
Ollin Imagination presents: RAFI'S ANTI-WAR EXPRESSIONS

About the Performance
Rafi’s Anti-War Expressions/Workshop was created as a response to the aggressive military recruitment of youth of color. Part one of Rafi's Anti-War Expressions is a Nuyorican response to the war communicated through spoken word, theater and music. The artist, Rafael Landrón, delves into the life of a Nuyorican veteran who shows his perspective on everything from cuchifritos to mango trees. Rafael also delves into the minds of a young mother of color and an inner city young man, who find themselves searching for opportunities and a better future by joining the military.

About the Workshop
Part two of the Expressions is devoted to a 90 minute interactive and experiential workshop, that engages the students to feel, reflect and dialogue about the direct effects of the current war in their lives. The workshop culminates with the youth's creation of their own "expressions of resistance." Students are also supplied with fact sheets about the effects of the war, on the military myths, and on how they can contribute to the anti-war movement.

About the Artist
Rafael Landrón, is a Nuyorican artist, writer, and educator native of Queens, NY, who has performed in numerous venues including the Bowery Poetry Café, Nuyorican Poets Café, Carlito’s Café, Teatro la SEA, and many others. Deeply impacted by the start of the war in Iraq, Rafael felt powerless with the knowledge that thousands of innocent lives were going to be lost. He began to write what he calls “expressions of resistance to end the war.” Rafael hit the streets in front of the UN to recite his anti-war poetry prior to the beginning of the war. These pieces later developed into “Rafi’s Anti-war Expressions,” which premiered in June of 2005 at Teatro Los Kabayitos/SEA. Rafael hopes that his artistic anti-war expressions stimulate dialogue, inspires others to use their creativity to end this war, and most importantly, that it raises consciousness about the aggressive military recruitment of Latinos and other people of color into the military.

About the Workshop Facilitators
Tania Romero, born in New York City, but raised in Guayaquil, Ecuador, has dedicated more than eight years to working with children and youth. She is a graduate from Hunter College School of Social Work, in where she majored in Community Organizing and Plannning. She is also a mother, poet, dancer, activist, educator, and high school college counselor. She has spent the last four years practicing and learning about popular education. Through this work, she has been incorporating social justice and activism into education. She is founding member of Ollin Imagination, and participant of the Mexica dance group, Cetiliztli Nauhcampa Quetzalcoaltl in Ixachitlan.

Luz Schreiber was born in New York City and raised in Mexico. Her passions include: poetry, cooking, laughing hard and dancing with her three year old daughter. She is currently a member of Atl Tlachinolli, a Mexica dance group and also teaches first graders Mexica dance in an after school program in Spanish Harlem. Luz has an interest in all dance forms. She is an organizer for Ollin's annual Dance for Peace Festival that takes place in the summer, and is also founding member of Ollin Imagination.

To bring Rafi's Anti-War Expressions to your community, school or organization e-mail: ollinimagination@yahoo.com