Public Program

SALSA - A TALE OF DISCOVERY, BLOOD, RHYTHM, AND IDENTITY Heritage in Motion is a performative workshop series that allows participants to experience the richness that is the Latin diaspora through the lenses of dance and movement. Salsa: A Tale of Discovery is the third event in this four-part series conceived by Raul Orlando Edwards. This performance lecture will explore the history, social background, and musical development of Latin culture's most widely recognized music and dance: SALSA! Participants will be invited to engage in an interactive and dynamic conversation about the many influences that are present in salsa dancing - including Cuban, European, African, and more. This event is free and open to the public, advance reservations are not required. Raul Orlando Edwards is the Executive Director for Arts of Tolerance at Rice University’s Boniuk Institute for Religious Studies. He is also the creative entrepreneur behind Strictly Street Salsa, FLAMART (Featuring Latin American Music and Art), and Houston’s Afro-Latin Festival. Reinaldo Costa is a dancer and teacher who works closely with Edwards at Strictly Street Salsa and with the Afro-Latin Festival. He has studied and performed across North America, including Cuba and Mexico. Heritage in Motion is presented in conjunction with the curatorial […]

Organized by Rafa Esparza and Risa Puleo Through a series of conversations, the Brown Artist Retreat:Houston will unpack the words “BROWN,” “ARTIST,” and “RETREAT,”  centering Houston and South Texas-based artists in a one-day workshop. Click here to register. Deadline to register is April 2, 2019, at Midnight. DiverseWorks and the organizers Risa Puleo and Rafa Esparza welcome anyone who has a “kinship” with brown as an identifier. “Brown” is a term that circulates in conversations between people who are indigenous to the Americas, as well as from the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia and across the globe. We look forward to a conversation where we can think together across national and regional borders to discuss our shared experiences. Many of us in the global south come in all shades of skin tones, which is why “kinship” is the term that we hope brings everyone together. One of the topics we hope to explore together is the inadequacies and limitations of language in describing our experiences in the world. In describing our experiences as brown, we hope for coalition building across nationalities and various diasporas as part of the futures we imagine together. The Brown Artist Retreat was developed by […]