Conjured by Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel

With actions by Luis A. Lara Malvacías with Jeremy Nelson, Priscilla Marrero with Ferran Martín, and Larissa Velez-Jackson

Presented with La Academia Desposeída

Those wishing to attend MUST arrive at the Governors Island ferry terminal by 6:00 PM. The address is Battery Maritime Building, 10 South Street (Lower Manhattan). Please dress in black.

In Wicca, Drawing Down the Moon, which is also the title of a classic publication by Margot Adler, points to the practice of invoking the Goddess as symbolized by the moon, and hence inviting her to enter the High Priestess. In the case of this nocturnal curation, Nicolás asks three Latinx dancers to raise energy from the Earth and to send it up to Spirit or Life Force, whatever their own personal understanding of this concept might be. The three actions in question are meant to be kindled during the night, and within the echoes and reverberations of New York City’s urban web of noises, sounds, creatures, and energies. This program arises from Nicolás’s belief that what is referred to as Art today initially served a spiritual purpose, that is, before devolving into a profession, tradable objects–corpses– and consumable/ marketable events; a spectacle. With this in mind, all three movements in Lifting Up the Moon are meant to return art, in whatever modest ways this might be possible, back into the sacred, especially at a time when patriarchy and capitalism are acting upon a necrophiliac agenda, and when the call is to resist and honor GAIA and creation/emanation, including its satellite the Moon.

All those willing to attend are asked to dress in black, so to blend into the night as we traverse the waters by way of the Governors Island Ferry

Larissa Velez-Jackson (LVJ) is originally from Newark, New Jersey, lived in New York City for twenty years and now lives in Middletown, NY. Called “an adroit physical comedian” who “seems to be questioning entrenched conventions of contemporary performance” states The New York Times. LVJ is a choreographer, movement educator and multi-platform artist of Boriqua-Italian descent who developed their own improvisation performance practice called the Star Pû Method. As the artistic director of LVJ Performance Co., LVJ’s productions involve movement, digital and vocal sound, storytelling and intergenerational community practice. They created a band Yackez with their spouse, Jon Velez-Jackson and recently launched the YouTube ASMR personality, Dr. Absurd Joy. LVJ is an ongoing cancer survivor of multiple myeloma and is an advocate of the healing potential of art and body/mind practice.  Website

Since 2011, Martín and Marrero have been creating works that range in film and live performance mediums. They have collaborated in their research interests of bringing conceptual and experimental art to low-income and marginalized communities. Together, they bridge the conversation between performance art and the dance theater worlds. Their improvisational practice is inspired by nature, dérive (Situationist concept), the relationship between the body and objects, ceremonial dynamics, and the environment. They inquire about bringing awareness to our spaces, and discovering ways to bring humor, charm, and character while inviting the spectator to participate in the conversation.

Ferran Martín is an interdisciplinary artist originally from Valencia, Spain. He is recognized for his work as an experimental sculptor with a focus on the public realm and performance. His work has been exhibited at Greene Naftali (NY), Daniel Silverstein (NY), Newman & Popiasvhilli Gallery (NY), Farside (Miami), Dorsky Gallery (NY), Roger Smith Gallery (NY), Greenberg Van Doren Gallery (NY), Sala de Arte Publico Siqueiros (Mexico City), Arte Veintiuno (Madrid), The Empty Circle (NY), Proyectos Raúl Zamudio (NY), Ethan Cohen Gallery (NY) amongst others. His work has been presented in St. Moritz Art Masters Festival 2011, Yeosu Art Festival (Korea) 2010, Beijing Biennale 2009 and the Bronx Museum of Art’s AIM program (NY).

Priscilla Marrero (ella/she) is an experimental choreographer, performer, teaching artista, and mamá of Cuban roots. She is a passionate storyteller and loves to discover new ways to collaborate with transdisciplinary artistas through live performance, filmmaking, or educational gatherings. She has presented her collaborations in the Musée Dapper, The Empty Circle, BAAD!, Miami Light Project, Inkub8, Movement Research at Judson Memorial Church, Van Cortlandt Park, The Interior Beauty Salón, Inwood Hill Park, y más. She graduated from Florida International University with a BA in Performance and Choreography (2009) and an MFA in Experimental Choreography from the University of California, Riverside (2022) for her research practice on La Pelvis. Websites: Martín / Marrero

Luis A. Lara Malvacías is a Venezuelan New York based trans-disciplinary artist whose body of work includes the creation of events with a great focus on movement practices. Constantly questioning preconceived ideas of choreography and modes of production and presentation, Luis A. explore the interaction between dance, design, installations, sound, and the visual arts and looks into ideas of transformation, multiplicity, authorship and the role of the audience. Besides choreographing and performing, Luis A. also designs and creates the costumes, sets, and the visuals for his works.

Creating solos, duets and group work performed and shared from conventional venues to more unconventional spaces worldwide, Luis A. work is currently presented under Luis Lara Malvacías / 3RD CLASS CITIZEN. Luis A. has been an Artist-in-Residence in several institutions in New York, as well as many countries in Europe, received a 2006 NYFA Fellowship for choreography, and is the recipient of grants from the Jerome Foundation, MAP, the Danish Arts Council, and Arts International, amongst others.

Jeremy Nelson is a dancer, choreographer, teacher who has danced in the works of Siobhan Davies, Stephen Petronio, David Zambrano, and Luis A. Lara Malvacías, amongst others. He has taught classes and workshops worldwide and presented his own choreography in New York and internationally in Europe, South America and Asia. For the last over 10 years he has been collaborating with Luis A. Lara Malvacías on an ongoing series of improvisational duets, performed in Amsterdam, Barcelona, New York, Los Angeles, and Berlin. He is a Full Arts Professor in NYU Tisch’s Dance Department and a recipient of a NY Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award and a 2004 Guggenheim Fellowship for choreography. 

Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel treads an elusive path that manifests itself performatively through creative experiences that he helps unfold within the quotidian. He has exhibited or performed at Madrid Abierto/ARCO, The IX Havana Biennial, PERFORMA 05/07/21, IDENSITAT, Prague Quadrennial, Pontevedra Biennial, Queens Museum, MoMA, Printed Matter, P.S. 122, Sculpture Center, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance BAAD!, Hemispheric Institute of Performance Art and Politics, City as Living Laboratory, Princeton University, Anthology Film Archives, El Museo del Barrio, Center for Book Arts, Longwood Art Gallery/BCA, The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Franklin Furnace and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Nicolás has received mentorship in art in everyday life from Linda Mary Montano, a historic figure in the performance art field.

Residencies attended include P.S. 1/MoMA, CEC ArtsLink, The Performance Project, Soaring Gardens, Jentel, Henry Street Settlement/Abrons Arts Center, Center for Book Arts, Lower East Side Printshop, Artists Alliance Inc., Yaddo and MacDowell. Nicolás has curated exhibitions or programs for El Museo del Barrio, Leslie Lohman Museum of Art, Bronx River Art Center, Franklin Furnace, Elizabeth Foundation Project Space, Artists Alliance Inc., Art in Odd Places and The Institute of Art, Religion and Social Justice at Union Theological Seminary in New York, as well as for the Filmoteca de Andalucía in Córdoba, Spain. Publications include Pleased to Meet You, Life as Material for Art and Vice Versa (editor), One Person at a Time (editor), Induced Labor, and For Art’s Sake, among others.

Nicolás holds an M.F.A. from Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, where he studied with Coco Fusco, and an M.A. from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. He recently served as a senior lecturer and social practice artist in residence in the Art and Art History Department at The University of Texas at Austin and was a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow in Washington, DC. In 2025-26 Nicolás will serve as a Teaching Scholar in Residence at CUNY Graduate Center’s SPCUNY (Social Practice) Department. He is the founding director of The Interior Beauty Salon, an organism living at the intersection of creativity and healing. Born in Santiago, Dominican Republic, Nicolás was baptized as a Bronxite in 2011. Website

ACADEMIA DESPOSEÍDA / STORM & DRUNK:  A "Dispossessed Academy" is a cultural and artistic project organized by Storm and Drunk and performed and curated by Raisa Maudit and Andrés Senra. It proposes the creation of a virtual and physical meeting space in different sessions for the construction of collective, accessible, and transdisciplinary knowledge through processes of artistic creation and thought. These processes include current reflections on the paradigm shifts that have occurred in the early decades of the 21st century, which are marginalized or excluded from institutional and official realms of contemporary thought and art.

The Dispossessed Academy aims to address emerging practices in seemingly diverse fields of knowledge such as biotechnology, philosophy, performance, architecture, ecology, history, arts, mysticism, metaphysics, performative rituals, and magical thinking. These practices are reflected in the artistic production of a series of agents, collectives, art spaces, and national, local, and international artists who reframe the relationships between community artivism and the otherness of the dispossessed, the interspecies relationships that build caring communities with the planet, the questioning of the human as an anthropocentric discourse, feminist and spiritual practices that work from mysticism as a creative impulse, text and archive as forms of artistic and plastic practice, magic and ritual practices that propose the creation of communities of affection and individual and collective transformation through performance and its documentary recording, the relationships between art and healing in relation to the spaces we inhabit, whether physical or virtual, queer feminism and postcolonialism as streams of thought that are articulating networks of questioning historical global hierarchies through horizontal and collaborative artistic practices. The Academy is part of the Independent Spaces Grants Program of the Madrid City Council

In the different sessions, the following entities and artists are participating: Interior Beauty Salon, Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles, Anna Gimein, Ruth Montiel Arias, Priscilla Marrero & Ferran Martín, Luis A. Lara Malvacías, and Larissa Velez-Jackson. Website

 The Interior Beauty Salon was conceived by Nicolás (A.K.A. Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo) in 2017 in The Bronx, NY, to serve as a space where that which is not necessarily seen or manifested in tangible ways, is seeded, nurtured and given room to grow safely. This includes processes melding art, ritual, ceremony, rites of passage, and healing. Some of the channels deployed include writing, listening, talking, moving, drawing, journaling, contemplating, meditating, breathing and performing. The Interior Beauty Salon was born out of the urgency to re-shift the focus from the external and the extraneous in contemporary society and instead to place attention on the very depths of who we might ultimately be. As such, those who partake of the Salon’s offerings, whether as individuals or groups, engage with Nicolás, its Founding Director, in developing rites of passages, constellating pressing questions, writing for holistic purposes, creating meaningful ceremonies, and opening up to ways of being that take into account the impermanence yet the relevance of our presence in this dimension, which you may call life or give it any other name that you may wish. Website

Roca Umbert 
Carrer d'Enric Prat de la Riba, 77, 08401 Granollers, Barcelona, Spain

Date: Thursday, June 26  
Time: 6 p.m.  
Location: Arts Space (La Miranda Room)

Laia Solé , artist in residence at Roca Umbert, offers an opening of the research process “Allò que no va ser: descartes i phantasmagories”, a project about artistic ideas and practices scorned or interrupted by interferences of life or the system. Solé invites the  performer  and curator Nicolás Dumit-Estévez, with whom she has worked and wandered through the Bronx and Upper Manhattan, to share her “great successes and famous failures”. 

Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel 's career manifests itself performatively through creative experiences intertwined with everyday life. He has been a resident and has received grants from institutions such as PS1/MoMA, Yaddo, Smithsonian Institution, Hispanic Society of America, and MacDowell. Linda Mary Montano, an iconic figure of performance, has been his mentor in art and everyday life. Nicolás is the founder and director of The Interior Beauty Salon, a living organism located at the intersection of creativity and care. Born in Santiago de los Treinta Caballeros in the Dominican Republic, he was baptized in 2011 as a  Bronxite: citizen of the Bronx. 

Laia Solé Coromina  is an artist, researcher and educator. She is a resident at the Espai d'Arts Roca Umbert in Granollers. Her work has been exhibited at the Sala Zero of the Espai d'Arts a Roca Umbert (Granollers, 2025), at the Drawing Center (New York, 2015), at Cuchifritos Gallery (New York, 2016), at the Chirivella-Soriano Foundation (Valencia, 2015), at Arts Santa Mònica (Barcelona, ​​2011), among others. She has a degree in Fine Arts from the University of Barcelona (2000), and a doctorate from Teachers College at Columbia University in New York (2018). She is currently a professor at the University of Vic.  

for more information and to attend click HERE / To learn more about  Roca Umber clcik HERE

Ecologies of the Senses explores the threshold where meteorological dynamics intertwine in an ever-changing process, a feedback loop that configures a relational framework essential for sustaining life. It invites us to cross the threshold—where the measurable and the intuitive meet—to reimagine our relationship with the natural rhythms that surround us and, ultimately, constitute us.
The activities explore how we inhabit space when space itself is reconfigured, inviting artists and creators to design contemporary rituals that translate meteorological phenomena into sensorial languages, contaminating boundaries between the material and the intangible, between science and imagination, between data and memory, between climate impact and the intimate perception of the world.
Ecologies of the Senses is carried out within the framework of the Thousand Years of Skies program.

ACTIVITIES – 10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Visit to the meteorological section of the Fabra Observatory led by meteorologist Alfons Puertas, where we will learn about the effects of meteorological phenomena in the city of Barcelona.

WORKSHOP – Invisible Meteorological Landscape
We will learn to build projects with Arduino to build meteorological technologies to explore different invisible physical and environmental phenomena, exploring the uses and possibilities of these instruments for the creation and implementation of interdisciplinary projects.
Led by the creator Sandra Huerto.
A second session of this workshop will be held on Saturday, June 28 (10 a.m. to 2 p.m.), for those who want to expand their knowledge and be able to create or implement it in an artistic project.
The second session will not be held at the Observatory, a space to be defined.

PERFORMANCE
Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel
Corpo-Cosmic Approaches / Earth, Water, Fire and Air
Nicolás convenes a group to delve into a series of somatic practices that initially propose an introspective investigation of four elements present in our bodies: earth, water, fire, and air. These presences are invoked from the context of the Fabra Observatory gardens and investigated internally through a guided, very subtle process. The impetus of this approach is to invite us to intuit and activate the connections we are called to continually forge in order to maintain homeostasis at the physical, mental, emotional, and/or spiritual—and planetary—levels. The session eventually moves from the personal to the collective, using conversation as a means to delve into the practice of deep listening—offering our full attention to the person sharing, without judging, advising, questioning, or interrupting. This method helps us receive messages openly, including the emotions they bring with them.  Corpo-Cosmic Approaches / Earth, Water, Fire and Air  seeks to inhabit the gardens of the Fabra Observatory to travel from the micro to the macro in the cosmos that houses us and that we house within us.
Bio: Nicolás www.interiorbeautysalon.com

Presentation of the project "Solarigrafies del Observatorio Fabra" by Jordi Bofill Cunillera, a craftsman of experimental analog photography, specialized in solarigraphy: instagram.com/photosensitiveexperiences 

FREE ACTIVITY PRIOR REGISTRATION WITH LETTER OF INTEREST
REGISTRATION FORM

IMPORTANT:
Due to limited spaces, a €10 deposit is required to formalize registration. This amount will be refunded once attendance is confirmed on the day of the event.

Target audience:
Contemporary artists, creators, researchers, and other artistic disciplines seeking to incorporate science and technology into their creative work, as well as those interested in exploring new forms of expression that address environmental issues.

Presented as part of Historias with The Clemente and as part of Performing the Bronx

To join  this free experience and to received specific directions as to where to meet, contact Nicolás at indioclaro@hotmail.com or click HERE 

Sunday, May 4, 12 Noon, 2025 
Meet at BAAD! 2474 Westchester Avenue
Charles Rice-González and Nicolás convene with a group to activate LGBTQ+ space – outdoors in the open –through writing. This event is co-shaped by all participants as a ritual that honors the queer Bronxites who have been here before and who have courageously inhabited our neighborhoods. Taking this as a point of inspiration, all of those present give this experience tangible form through an altar in flux, to be infused with the writings that emerge, the devotions that arise, and any other offerings to this impermanent socio-emotional sculpture. 

Queer presence in the Bronx continues to inform the cultures, activisms and spirits of this part of New York City where many of those existing at the edges of society have played a central role in the struggle for social justice. Charles will guide us all into the herstories/theirstories/ourstories/histories whose roots run deep into the rich soil of our borough, and which have allowed many of us to flower.

What are the catalyst organizations, groups and individuals – some no longer existing or alive in physical form – who must be remembered and their impetus invoked into our now? 

Please bring a simple offering for the altar.

For directions to BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance click HERE
The closest train is the number 6 to Westchester Square in the Bronx. BAAD! and then walk a couple of blocks. 
 
Charles Rice-González, born in Puerto Rico and reared in the Bronx, is a writer, long-time community and LGBTQ activist, and co-founder of BAAD! The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance and an Associate Professor at Hostos Community College - CUNY. He received an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Goddard College. His debut novel Chulito (Magnus Books 2011) has received nearly a dozen awards including honors from the American Library Association and the National Book Critics Circle. His writing's been published in over a dozen journals and anthologies, and he co-edited From Macho to Mariposa: New Gay Latino Fiction. His play I Love Andy Gibb was published in Blacktino Queer Performance: A Critical Anthology, and Los Nutcrackers: A Christmas Carajo has been produced each year at BAAD! since 2004. 

His honors include a MacDowell Fellowship, Letras Boricuas Fellowship, a Lannan Foundation Fellowship, a PEN Writing as Activism Fellowship, the Lambda Literary Foundation's Dr. Betty Berzon Emerging Writer Award, an Audre Lorde scholarship from the ZAMI Foundation, and a Gay City News Impact Award for his activism and contributions to advancing the lives of LGBTQ people. 

In 1998, Charles co-founded, with award-winning choreographer/dancer Arthur Aviles, BAAD! - The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance is a cultural organization and theater that presents empowering works for women, people of color, and the LGBTQ community. 
 
He serves on the boards of the Bronx Council on the Arts and the National Association of Latino Art and Cultures, where he is currently chair of both. Website

This event will be documented through video and photographs. Those attending must be okay with this. 

To join this gathering, please contact Nicolás at indioclaro@hotmail.com  or click HERE

ABOUT: PERFORMING THE BRONX
Since 2015 Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel has invited a group of remarkable Bronxites to co-develop actions embedded in the day-to-day of our beloved home borough. The gestures that emerge are presented in private spaces, as well as in the Bronx's public realm, and focus on the roots that weave these visionaries with specific communities and neighborhoods in our part of the City. Performing the Bronx is an expansion of Nicolás’s ongoing  interest in honoring, recovering, reclaiming and remembering herstories/histories/theirstories of the area’s neighbors and  trailblazers that run the risk of being effaced by time, lost in the midst of neighborhoods in flux, or dismissed by dominant discourses that often position themselves at the center of the conversation. 

Past participants: Arthur Avilés, Bill Aguado, Benny Bonilla, Mili Bonilla, Caridad De La Luz ‘La Bruja’, Dr. Drum, Ana ‘ROKAFELLA’ García, Reverend Danilo Lachapel, Wanda Salamán, and Rhina Valentin

Performing the Bronx as a whole has been supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Casita Maria’s South Bronx Culture Trail 2020, and the Bronx Council on the Arts. It has also received love, space and support from Mothers on the Move, BronxNet TV, The Andrew Freedman Home, and BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance.

The 2025 chapters of Performing the Bronx with Lisa Ortega, and Charles Rice-González are presented with support from Historias, a multi-year programmatic initiative led by The Clemente in partnership with LxNY and supported by the Rauschenberg Foundation. Historias celebrates the transformative impact of Latinx communities in NYC through research, artistic interpretations, and public engagement.

Presented as part of Historias with The Clemente and as part of Performing the Bronx

To join  this free experience and to received specific directions as to where to meet, contact Nicolás at indioclaro@hotmail.com or click HERE 

Revolutionary Boricua Lisa Ortega guides Nicolás through some of the sites that she, together with neighbors and activists around Southern Boulevard, have regained access to for community purposes. Once condemned, padlocked or out of reach for collective use, some of the lots that Lisa and Nicolás will visit with you are today playgrounds, vegetable gardens and sports courts. This walk on March 30th in the South Bronx evolved from conversations about tourists’ buses, mostly with Spanish visitors, arriving in the area and stopping by for a quick selfie at “The Bronx” mural on Westchester Avenue where the popular Double Discount department store used to be.  What brings people from outside to this section of our borough still perceived by those not from here as a “ghetto”? How does a tour for Bronxites look like and what benefits will it yield in terms of remembering and honoring those who have done the work? 
 
One specific story that prompted this walk was shared with Nicolás by Lisa, and it relates to an unhoused person sleeping below “The Bronx” mural. This person was threatened to be removed because of an outsider’s call to the police so tourists could use the backdrop for their “I was there” selfies.  What does it mean to reclaim spaces for communities in a South Bronx that even some of its local politicians have been giving the green light to developers to gentrify…because as Nicolás heard someone say “…it is “cheap”? How do communities in this culturally vibrant area of our city continue to hold onto the spaces reclaimed and keep them RADICAL?
 
Lisa Ortega is a revolutionary Boricua, Mother of 4, Grandma of 5. She is a recovering addict being clean for 35 years and has been organizing for 31 years. She is a devout atheist and anarchist. She believes strongly that "people power" will ultimately bring about a full revolution...replacing politicians, police, and all other forms of oppression." Organizing is not an option but a way of life". Liberation of all is the final destination. 

This event will be documented through video and photographs. Those attending must be okay with this. 
 
To join for this walk for Bronxites on March 30, 12 noon and to get directions as to where to meet, please contact Nicolás at indioclaro@hotmail.com  or click HERE
 
ABOUT: PERFORMING THE BRONX
Since 2015 Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel has invited a group of remarkable Bronxites to co-develop actions embedded in the day-to-day of our beloved home borough. The gestures that emerge are presented in private spaces, as well as in the Bronx's public realm, and focus on the roots that weave these visionaries with specific communities and neighborhoods in our part of the City. Performing the Bronx is an expansion of Nicolás’s ongoing  interest in honoring, recovering, reclaiming and remembering herstories/histories/theirstories of the area’s neighbors and  trailblazers that run the risk of being effaced by time, lost in the midst of neighborhoods in flux, or dismissed by dominant discourses that often position themselves at the center of the conversation. 
 
Past participants: Arthur Avilés, Bill Aguado, Benny Bonilla, Mili Bonilla, Caridad De La Luz ‘La Bruja’, Dr. Drum, Ana ‘ROKAFELLA’ García, Reverend Danilo Lachapel, Wanda Salamán, and Rhina Valentin
 
Performing the Bronx as a whole has been supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Casita Maria’s South Bronx Culture Trail 2020, and the Bronx Council on the Arts. It has also received love, space and support from Mothers on the Move, BronxNet TV, The Andrew Freedman Home, and BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance.
 
The 2025 chapters of Performing the Bronx with Lisa Ortega, and Charles Rice-González are presented with support from Historias, a multi-year programmatic initiative led by The Clemente in partnership with LxNY and supported by the Rauschenberg Foundation. Historias celebrates the transformative impact of Latinx communities in NYC through research, artistic interpretations, and public engagement.

Nooncrawlers

December 15, 2024, 12:00-2:00 PM

Luis A. Lara Malvacías & Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel 

At 12 noon, meet the individual designated to pick you up outside Whitlock Subway Station (6 Train), Bronx, NY. Please see map below.

According to local mythology the Bronx River has been inhabited by an array of creatures, ranging from giant beavers to large snapping turtles. Some have been confirmed, while others remain in the imaginary of the place. The most recent sightings have involved José the Beaver, named after José E. Serrano, the Congressman who has supported the revitalization of the Bronx River. On December 15th, two queer entities will materialize to meet you by the Bronx River Greenway and take you on a noon walk of this bucolic as well as postindustrial site. The emphasis is on making visible through movements-based embodiments some of the different non-human inhabitants, fictional or otherwise, who have called the Bronx River home. These actions find inspiration in the materials used by these creatures when building nests, dams and refuges, and include branches, stones, and leaves among others.Wear layers to accommodate the temperamental weather.

 To RSVP, click HERE

To access a map to this site, please click HERE

NOONCRAWLERS is an action which is part of Bodies of Water / Fluid Improvisations Along the Bronx River, a program conceived and produced by Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful, with individual actions co-created with Arantxa Araujo, Andrés Senra,Luis A. Lara Malvacías, and Priscilla Marrero & Ferran Martin.

The series of actions is dedicated to the late Nancy Wallace. “She…[Nancy]…helped transform a watery graveyard for automobiles, tires and appliances into an urban greenbelt for New York City and Westchester County” The New York Times

About Bodies of Water/Fluid Improvisations Along the Bronx River points to the connections between bodies, as in human and non-human ones–such as Rivers–, as well as to concepts of interbeing, interconnectedness, and interdependence with all beings. Similarly, it brings to light ecological and social justice issues regarding colonial histories, environmental racism, and extractive capitalism while issuing a call for individual and collective stewardship and care for all bodies of Water. During four gatherings in different points along the Bronx River, improvisations centered on flow, water, compassion and deep listening are meant to unfold for invited participants, or perhaps unsuspecting audiences and wanderers attracted by a sight inspiring wonder and contemplation.

Bodies of Water/Fluid Improvisations Along the Bronx River / Background: The Bronx River has been a constant presence for Nicolás since he moved from the Dominican Republic to New York City in 1991. His first job was in the Fordham Road section with the Bronx River Restoration Project and it entailed engaging the aquatic subject through art classes. In 2011 he was baptized by Bill Aguado and Susan Newmark in Drew Gardens. The sacramental was water from the Bronx River and the intention was that of a rite of passage into Bronxhood. Three decades after his first connection with the Bronx, and in a rapidly gentrifying borough, Nicolás is proposing to approach the Bronx River from the perspective of elderhood and aging.

Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful was awarded a New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) Support for Artists Grant (Bronx, NY) to support his creative work. Sponsored by The Action Lab, this award is funding Bodies of Water/Fluid Improvisations Along the Bronx River. Through New York State’s continued investment in arts and culture, NYSCA has awarded over $80 million since Spring 2023 to over 1,500 artists and organizations across the state.

Bodies of Water/Fluid Improvisations Along the Bronx River copyrights 2022 Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful / with copyrights for individual actions equally shared with each collaborator.

Luis A. Lara Malvacías

I am a dancer/choreographer/ teacher and trans-disciplinary artist whom body of work have focused on ideas of transformation, multiplicity and authorship and the role of the audience in dance performance. My research and process reflect my experience as part of the larger diaspora of Latinx brown queer immigrant artists. My projects explore the interaction between dance, design, videos, installations, sound, and the visual arts, questioning preconceived ideas of choreography, production and presentation. My work is presented under Luis Lara Malvacías / 3RD CLASS CITIZEN. I have also danced in the work of David Zambrano (Brussels), Mark Tompkins (France), Espacio Alterno Dance Company in Caracas, and in New York in the works of choreographers Yoshiko Chuma, Jeremy Nelson, Margarita Guergue. and in my own work. Performing with the John Jasperse Company at the Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales de Bagnolet in Paris in 1996, I won the Group Performance Award. I have been in creative residences at Le Pacific in Grenoble (France) and Labor Gras in Berlin (Germany) and was a 1998/1999 and 2002/2003 Movement Research’s Artist-In-Residency. I have received grants from, among others, the MAP Rockefeller Funds and The Jerome Foundation, and was the recipient of a 2006 NYFA Fellowship for choreography. I have taught classes/workshops in more than 20 countries over the past 25 years. I was a full time professor at UC Riverside between 2016 and 2023; currently I teach at the Dance department at the New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, teaching in the Fall semester. Internationally, I regularly teach and present work in many countries in Europe, South America, North America and Asia. I have also created work for repertory companies in Venezuela, Italy and the USA and for students at Texas Christian University, Stephen’s College, University of Madison, SEAD – Salzburg, the NSCD in Leeds, England and The School of Modern Dance in Copenhagen.

Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel treads an elusive path that manifests itself performatively through creative experiences that he helps unfold within the quotidian. He has exhibited or performed at Madrid Abierto/ARCO, The IX Havana Biennial, PERFORMA 05/07/21, IDENSITAT, Prague Quadrennial, Pontevedra Biennial, Queens Museum, MoMA, Printed Matter, P.S. 122, Sculpture Center, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance BAAD!, Hemispheric Institute of Performance Art and Politics, City as Living Lab, Princeton University, Anthology Film Archives, El Museo del Barrio, Center for Book Arts, Longwood Art Gallery/BCA, The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Franklin Furnace, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Nicolás has received mentorship in art in everyday life from Linda Mary Montano, a historic figure in the performance art field. Nicolás holds an MFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, where he studied with Coco Fusco; and an MA from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. He recently served as a Senior Lecturer and Social Practice Artist in Residence in the Art and Art History Department at The University of Texas, Austin; and was a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow in Washington DC. He is the founding director of The Interior Beauty Salon, an organism living at the intersection of creativity and healing. Born in Santiago, Dominican Republic, Nicolás was baptized as a Bronxite in 2011.

THIS ACTION HAS BEEN POSTPONED DUE AN UNEXPECTED ANGELIC ENCOUNTER. NEW DATE AND TIME: DECEMBER 15TH, 2024, 12 NOON. MORE DETAILS SOON.

Nightcrawlers

Luis A. Lara Malvacías & Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel 

According to local mythology the Bronx River has been inhabited by an array of creatures, ranging from giant beavers to large snapping turtles. Some have been confirmed, while others remain in the imaginary of the place. The most recent sightings have involved José the Beaver, named after José E. Serrano, the Congressman who has supported the revitalization of the Bronx River. On the evening of December 5th, two queer entities will materialize to meet you at the Whitlock 6 train subway station to take you on a night walk along the Bronx River and some of its “archeological” post-industrial sites. The emphasis is on making visible the different non-human inhabitants, fictional or otherwise, who have called this place home. Wear layers to accommodate for the temperamental weather and consider bringing an umbrella in case of precipitation. Travel lightly with only what you absolutely need, since lost items will be almost impossible to retrieve in the darkness.

To RSVP click HERE

To access a map to this site please click HERE

Nightcrawlers is an action which is part of Bodies of Water / Fluid Improvisations Along the Bronx River, a program conceived and produced by Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful, with individual actions co-created with Arantxa Araujo, Andrés Senra,Luis A. Lara Malvacías, and Priscilla Marrero & Ferran Martin.

The series of actions is dedicated to the late Nancy Wallace. “She…[Nancy]…helped transform a watery graveyard for automobiles, tires and appliances into an urban greenbelt for New York City and Westchester County” The New York Times

About Bodies of Water/Fluid Improvisations Along the Bronx River points to the connections between bodies, as in human and non-human ones–such as Rivers–, as well as to concepts of interbeing, interconnectedness, and interdependence with all beings. Similarly, it brings to light ecological and social justice issues regarding colonial histories, environmental racism, and extractive capitalism while issuing a call for individual and collective stewardship and care for all bodies of Water. During four gatherings in different points along the Bronx River, improvisations centered on flow, water, compassion and deep listening are meant to unfold for invited participants, or perhaps unsuspecting audiences and wanderers attracted by a sight inspiring wonder and contemplation.

Bodies of Water/Fluid Improvisations Along the Bronx River / Background: The Bronx River has been a constant presence for Nicolás since he moved from the Dominican Republic to New York City in 1991. His first job was in the Fordham Road section with the Bronx River Restoration Project and it entailed engaging the aquatic subject through art classes. In 2011 he was baptized by Bill Aguado and Susan Newmark in Drew Gardens. The sacramental was water from the Bronx River and the intention was that of a rite of passage into Bronxhood. Three decades after his first connection with the Bronx, and in a rapidly gentrifying borough, Nicolás is proposing to approach the Bronx River from the perspective of elderhood and aging.

Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful was awarded a New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) Support for Artists Grant (Bronx, NY) to support his creative work. Sponsored by The Action Lab, this award is funding Bodies of Water/Fluid Improvisations Along the Bronx River. Through New York State’s continued investment in arts and culture, NYSCA has awarded over $80 million since Spring 2023 to over 1,500 artists and organizations across the state.

Bodies of Water/Fluid Improvisations Along the Bronx River copyrights 2022 Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful / with copyrights for individual actions equally shared with each collaborator.

Luis A. Lara Malvacías

I am a dancer/choreographer/ teacher and trans-disciplinary artist whom body of work have focused on ideas of transformation, multiplicity and authorship and the role of the audience in dance performance. My research and process reflect my experience as part of the larger diaspora of Latinx brown queer immigrant artists. My projects explore the interaction between dance, design, videos, installations, sound, and the visual arts, questioning preconceived ideas of choreography, production and presentation. My work is presented under Luis Lara Malvacías / 3RD CLASS CITIZEN. I have also danced in the work of David Zambrano (Brussels), Mark Tompkins (France), Espacio Alterno Dance Company in Caracas, and in New York in the works of choreographers Yoshiko Chuma, Jeremy Nelson, Margarita Guergue. and in my own work. Performing with the John Jasperse Company at the Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales de Bagnolet in Paris in 1996, I won the Group Performance Award. I have been in creative residences at Le Pacific in Grenoble (France) and Labor Gras in Berlin (Germany) and was a 1998/1999 and 2002/2003 Movement Research’s Artist-In-Residency. I have received grants from, among others, the MAP Rockefeller Funds and The Jerome Foundation, and was the recipient of a 2006 NYFA Fellowship for choreography. I have taught classes/workshops in more than 20 countries over the past 25 years. I was a full time professor at UC Riverside between 2016 and 2023; currently I teach at the Dance department at the New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, teaching in the Fall semester. Internationally, I regularly teach and present work in many countries in Europe, South America, North America and Asia. I have also created work for repertory companies in Venezuela, Italy and the USA and for students at Texas Christian University, Stephen’s College, University of Madison, SEAD – Salzburg, the NSCD in Leeds, England and The School of Modern Dance in Copenhagen.

Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel treads an elusive path that manifests itself performatively through creative experiences that he helps unfold within the quotidian. He has exhibited or performed at Madrid Abierto/ARCO, The IX Havana Biennial, PERFORMA 05/07/21, IDENSITAT, Prague Quadrennial, Pontevedra Biennial, Queens Museum, MoMA, Printed Matter, P.S. 122, Sculpture Center, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance BAAD!, Hemispheric Institute of Performance Art and Politics, City as Living Lab, Princeton University, Anthology Film Archives, El Museo del Barrio, Center for Book Arts, Longwood Art Gallery/BCA, The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Franklin Furnace, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Nicolás has received mentorship in art in everyday life from Linda Mary Montano, a historic figure in the performance art field. Nicolás holds an MFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, where he studied with Coco Fusco; and an MA from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. He recently served as a Senior Lecturer and Social Practice Artist in Residence in the Art and Art History Department at The University of Texas, Austin; and was a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow in Washington DC. He is the founding director of The Interior Beauty Salon, an organism living at the intersection of creativity and healing. Born in Santiago, Dominican Republic, Nicolás was baptized as a Bronxite in 2011.

Remoras

Arantxa Araujo & Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel 

Meeting place: you can send us off or walk with us. Meet us at the base of the post-industrial sculptures at the Concrete Park Plant / Bronx River between Westchester Avenue and Bruckner Boulevard. To access a map to this site, please click HERE

Two figures mimicking water creatures walk along the banks of the Bronx River, their shimmering outfits drawing attention to their mission to care for this ancient being and to invite others to do so. They task themselves with retrieving debris, fastening it to their bodies, and eventually using all items collected to generate a mandala. The action concludes with the recycling of this burdensome harvest. This artwork serves to raise awareness to consumption and its impact on aquatic ecosystems. It also raises questions as to what happens when previously out of reach areas, like some of those around the Bronx River, open up to the public and it realizes its responsibility for stewardship.

Remoras is an action which is part of Bodies of Water / Fluid Improvisations Along the Bronx River, a program conceived and produced by Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful, with individual actions co-created with Arantxa Araujo, Andrés Senra, Luis A., and Priscilla Marrero & Ferran Martin.

The series of actions is dedicated to the late Nancy Wallace. “She…[Nancy]…helped transform a watery graveyard for automobiles, tires and appliances into an urban greenbelt for New York City and Westchester County” The New York Times

About Bodies of Water/Fluid Improvisations Along the Bronx River points to the connections between bodies, as in human and non-human ones–such as Rivers–, as well as to concepts of interbeing, interconnectedness, and interdependence with all beings. Similarly, it brings to light ecological and social justice issues regarding colonial histories, environmental racism, and extractive capitalism while issuing a call for individual and collective stewardship and care for all bodies of Water. During four gatherings in different points along the Bronx River, improvisations centered on flow, water, compassion and deep listening are meant to unfold for invited participants, or perhaps unsuspecting audiences and wanderers attracted by a sight inspiring wonder and contemplation.

Bodies of Water/Fluid Improvisations Along the Bronx River / Background: The Bronx River has been a constant presence for Nicolás since he moved from the Dominican Republic to New York City in 1991. His first job was in the Fordham Road section with the Bronx River Restoration Project and it entailed engaging the aquatic subject through art classes. In 2011 he was baptized by Bill Aguado and Susan Newmark in Drew Gardens. The sacramental was water from the Bronx River and the intention was that of a rite of passage into Bronxhood. Three decades after his first connection with the Bronx, and in a rapidly gentrifying borough, Nicolás is proposing to approach the Bronx River from the perspective of elderhood and aging.

Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful was awarded a New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) Support for Artists Grant (Bronx, NY) to support his creative work. Sponsored by The Action Lab, this award is funding Bodies of Water/Fluid Improvisations Along the Bronx River. Through New York State’s continued investment in arts and culture, NYSCA has awarded over $80 million since Spring 2023 to over 1,500 artists and organizations across the state.

Bodies of Water/Fluid Improvisations Along the Bronx River Ó 2022 Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful / with copyrights for individual actions equally shared with each collaborator.

Arantxa Araujo is a queer Mexican transdisciplinary artist with a background in neuroscience. Her work is fundamentally feminist and meditative, rooted in bio-behavioral research and technology. Araujo employs the metaphor of the neuron to explore the intricate connections surrounding the body, transforming incoming influences into video, photography, sculpture, and installation. Performance art serves as the core of her practice, processing and conveying complex information across neuroscience, biology, philosophy, spirituality, and cultural heritage. Addressing themes of identity, immigration, and community from a queer immigrant feminist perspective, Araujo challenges societal norms and advocates for diverse expressions. She highlights narratives of resilience and belonging, celebrating the transformative power of community and self-discovery. Her work has been exhibited at notable venues including the Brooklyn Museum, Leslie-Lohman Museum, Grace Exhibition Space, and The Queens Museum (NYC), as well as RAW and Satellite Art Fair (Miami), Illuminus Festival (Boston), and SPACE Gallery (Pittsburgh). Araujo has received numerous awards, including the Franklin Furnace Fund, BAC and LMCC grants, and support through residencies such as the Leslie-Lohman Museum Artist Fellowship. She holds an MA in Motor Learning and Control from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a BA in Theater Studies from Emerson College.

Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel treads an elusive path that manifests itself performatively through creative experiences that he helps unfold within the quotidian. He has exhibited or performed at Madrid Abierto/ARCO, The IX Havana Biennial, PERFORMA 05/07/21, IDENSITAT, Prague Quadrennial, Pontevedra Biennial, Queens Museum, MoMA, Printed Matter, P.S. 122, Sculpture Center, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance BAAD!, Hemispheric Institute of Performance Art and Politics, City as Living Lab, Princeton University, Anthology Film Archives, El Museo del Barrio, Center for Book Arts, Longwood Art Gallery/BCA, The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Franklin Furnace, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Nicolás has received mentorship in art in everyday life from Linda Mary Montano, a historic figure in the performance art field. Nicolás holds an MFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, where he studied with Coco Fusco; and an MA from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. He recently served as a Senior Lecturer and Social Practice Artist in Residence in the Art and Art History Department at The University of Texas, Austin; and was a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow in Washington DC. He is the founding director of The Interior Beauty Salon, an organism living at the intersection of creativity and healing. Born in Santiago, Dominican Republic, Nicolás was baptized as a Bronxite in 2011.

Dear Friend,

I have been around for more than 150 million years. I am glad to see you approach my waters and I ask that you please treat them with care. Any plastic left on my banks ends up polluting not only myself and the beings that I house, but the oceans as well. Plastic straws, bags, bottles –plastic anything– harms me and all my friends, the turtles, fish, frogs, birds... I love to play with the big snapping turtles that live in my waters. During the past few decades there has been a great effort to reclaim me and to allow me to thrive again. I have gone from being an open dumpster where appliances and cars used to be tossed, to a thriving ecosystem where you can see a diversity of creatures come back, including beavers. Your future and mine are tied together. 

With love, 

The Bronx River

Bring your problems to Grace Exhibition Space on November 8 / Remembering El Consultorio / As part of CENTRAL, a performance program curated by Pancho López for Grace Exhibiton Space

For more information click HERE

Remembering El Consultorio / Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel with everyone present and willing at Grace Exhibition Space

I recall hearing in the Santo Domingo of the 1980s of a bar-nightclub called El Consultorio, one which worked as a consultation space, in the fashion of a therapist or psychiatrist office. I was kind of too young to visit, but read about it in the paper. People would gather there during the wee hours to vent their big personal problems through an open mic. The person with the most daunting challenge would be gifted by the house with a drink. Almost 40 years later, I use the 30 minutes allocated to me at Grace Exhibition Space to invite those in attendance to share with each other some of the vicissitudes that we have been undergoing since the pandemic and through the USA election. I include myself, and will open the mic for some daring people present to go public with our dilemmas. I initiate and close this action with an invocation for individual and collective healing; a clamor.

With Remembering El Consultorio, I bring back the essence of a far-gone space, as well as contest the condescension with which therapeutic approaches to artmaking have been usually treated until now—when they have suddenly become fashionable and palatable to the Art industry. This is to remember that what it is known as Art today, had its origins and intrinsic connections to spirituality, religion, ritual and the impetus to bring wholeness, to appease and /or to thank that who is larger than oneself.

I dedicate this humble 30 minutes of venting and healing at GES! to Sonia Silvestre, to the Mother, and to all of my Mothers.

Remembering El Consultorio copyrighs 2021 Nicolás Dumit Estévez

Let Her In

Priscilla Marrero, Ferran Martín & Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel

11-2-2024, 3:30-5:30 PM / Meet us outside West Farms Square–East Tremont Avenue Subway Station (2/5 trains), Bronx, NY

To RSVP, click HERE

Part performance, part participatory experience and part action, Let Her In is a collaborative movement by choreographer Priscilla Marrero, sculptor Ferran Martín, and Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel that recognizes the need to build more bridges in our divisive political climate. This triad of creatives structures their improvisation at different parts of the Bronx River, grounding their walk along the banks of this flowing being. Ferran brings in some of his mirrored-cubes titled Mirror, Mirror, with which he has worked with in the past, and that offer the possibility of concealing our identities, while reflecting back the landscape that surrounds us. Let Her In invites those in attendance into the realms of play, relaxation, daydreaming, and love for the only fresh water river in the City of New York. At least two drops in every glass of the water we drink in our metropolis comes from the Bronx River.

Let Her In is an action that is part of Bodies of Water / Fluid Improvisations Along the Bronx River, a program conceived and produced by Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful, with individual actions co-created with Arantxa Araujo, Andrés Senra, Luis A., and Priscilla Marrero & Ferran Martín.

The series of actions is dedicated to the late Nancy Wallace. “She…[Nancy]…helped transform a watery graveyard for automobiles, tires and appliances into an urban greenbelt for New York City and Westchester County” The New York Times

About Bodies of Water/Fluid Improvisations Along the Bronx River points to the connections between bodies, as in human and non-human ones–such as Rivers–, as well as to concepts of interbeing, interconnectedness, and interdependence with all beings. Similarly, it brings to light ecological and social justice issues regarding colonial histories, environmental racism, and extractive capitalism while issuing a call for individual and collective stewardship and care for all bodies of Water. During four gatherings in different points along the Bronx River, improvisations centered on flow, water, compassion and deep listening are meant to unfold for invited participants, or perhaps unsuspecting audiences and wanderers attracted by a sight inspiring wonder and contemplation.

Bodies of Water/Fluid Improvisations Along the Bronx River / Background:

The Bronx River has been a constant presence for Nicolás since he moved from the Dominican Republic to New York City in 1991. His first job was in the Fordham Road section with the Bronx River Restoration Project and it entailed engaging the aquatic subject through art classes. In 2011 he was baptized by Bill Aguado and Susan Newmark in Drew Gardens. The sacramental was water from the Bronx River and the intention was that of a rite of passage into Bronxhood. Three decades after his first connection with the Bronx, and in a rapidly gentrifying borough, Nicolás is proposing to approach the Bronx River from the perspective of elderhood and aging.

Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful was awarded a New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) Support for Artists Grant (Bronx, NY) to support his creative work. Sponsored by The Action Lab, this award is funding Bodies of Water/Fluid Improvisations Along the Bronx River. Through New York State’s continued investment in arts and culture, NYSCA has awarded over $80 million since Spring 2023 to over 1,500 artists and organizations across the state.

Bodies of Water/Fluid Improvisations Along the Bronx River Ó 2022 Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful / with copyrights for individual actions equally shared with each collaborator.

Ferran Martín is an interdisciplinary artist originally from Valencia, Spain. He is recognized for his work as an experimental sculptor with a focus in the public realm and performance. His work has been exhibited at Greene Naftali (NY), Daniel Silverstein (NY), Newman & Popiasvhilli Gallery (NY), Farside (Miami), Dorsky Gallery (NY), Roger Smith Gallery (NY), Greenberg Van Doren Gallery (NY), Sala de Arte Publico Siqueiros (Mexico City), Arte Veintiuno (Madrid), The Empty Circle (NY), Proyectos Raúl Zamudio (NY), Ethan Cohen Gallery (NY) amongst others. His work has been presented in St. Moritz Art Masters Festival 2011, Yeosu Art Festival (Korea) 2010, Beijing Biennale 2009 and the Bronx Museum of Art’s AIM program (NY).

Priscilla Marrero (ella/she) is an experimental performing + teaching artista and a first-generation Cubana-Americana. She is a passionate storyteller and loves to discover new ways to collaborate with transdisciplinary artistas through live performance, filmmaking, or educational gatherings. She has presented her collaborations in the Musée Dapper, The Empty Circle, BAAD!, Miami Light Project, Inkub8, Movement Research at Judson Memorial Church, Van Cortlandt Park, The Interior Beauty Salón, Inwood Hill Park y más. She graduated from Florida International University with a BA in Performance and Choreography (2009) and MFA in Experimental Choreography from the University of California Riverside (2022) for her research practice on La Pelvis.

Since 2011, Martín and Marrero have been creating works that range in mediums of film and live performance. They have collaborated in their research interests of bringing conceptual and experimental art to low-income, and marginalized communities. Together, they bridge the conversation between performance art and the dance theater worlds. Their work together brings awareness to spaces that perhaps are challenging to speak about and discover ways to bring humor, charm, and characters that will invite others to participate in the conversation.

Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel treads an elusive path that manifests itself performatively through creative experiences that he helps unfold within the quotidian. He has exhibited or performed at Madrid Abierto/ARCO, The IX Havana Biennial, PERFORMA 05/07/21, IDENSITAT, Prague Quadrennial, Pontevedra Biennial, Queens Museum, MoMA, Printed Matter, P.S. 122, Sculpture Center, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance BAAD!, Hemispheric Institute of Performance Art and Politics, City as Living Lab, Princeton University, Anthology Film Archives, El Museo del Barrio, Center for Book Arts, Longwood Art Gallery/BCA, The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Franklin Furnace, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Nicolás has received mentorship in art in everyday life from Linda Mary Montano, a historic figure in the performance art field. Nicolás holds an MFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, where he studied with Coco Fusco; and an MA from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. He recently served as a Senior Lecturer and Social Practice Artist in Residence in the Art and Art History Department at The University of Texas, Austin; and was a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow in Washington DC. He is the founding director of The Interior Beauty Salon, an organism living at the intersection of creativity and healing. Born in Santiago, Dominican Republic, Nicolás was baptized as a Bronxite in 2011.

Let the River In

Andrés Senra & Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel

Meet us outside the 6 train / Whitlock Avenue Station / Street Level / Outside Caribbean restaurant / Participants should be ready to dress up and wear makeup (provided)

Those seeking to join must RSPV by clicking HERE

This gathering will be filmed and photographed

This gathering engages camouflaging and mimicry as a survival strategy commonly used by non-human animals and plants to blend in with their surroundings. By emulating the predominant colors, shapes and patterns within their ecologies, these wise beings observe without being observed, ensuring their survival while also– sometimes–attracting other beings. Inspired by this phenomenon, participants in Let the River In are invited to inhabit a limited square footage around us along the banks of the Bronx River. The idea is to become deeply familiar with all elements we are in contact with, and from there to transform ourselves by way of fabric and makeup into the place one is embedded in. This embodiment can become an exercise in oneness with all. It is also a movement into the sensuality of the living world and a celebration of bodies, including that of the Bronx River.

Nicolás thanks Lin Wang Gordon for teaching him the square footage practice.

Let the River In is an action that is part of Bodies of Water / Fluid Improvisations Along the Bronx River, a program conceived and produced by Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful, with individual actions co-created with Arantxa Araujo, Andrés Senra, Luis A. Lara Malvacías, and Priscilla Marrero & Ferran Martin.

The series of actions is dedicated to the late Nancy Wallace. “She…[Nancy]…helped transform a watery graveyard for automobiles, tires and appliances into an urban greenbelt for New York City and Westchester County” The New York Times

About Bodies of Water/Fluid Improvisations Along the Bronx River points to the connections between bodies, as in human and non-human ones–such as Rivers–, as well as to concepts of interbeing, interconnectedness, and interdependence with all beings. Similarly, it brings to light ecological and social justice issues regarding colonial histories, environmental racism, and extractive capitalism while issuing a call for individual and collective stewardship and care for all bodies of Water. During four gatherings in different points along the Bronx River, improvisations centered on flow, water, compassion and deep listening are meant to unfold for invited participants, or perhaps unsuspecting audiences and wanderers attracted by a sight inspiring wonder and contemplation.

Bodies of Water/Fluid Improvisations Along the Bronx River / Background: The Bronx River has been a constant presence for Nicolás since he moved from the Dominican Republic to New York City in 1991. His first job was in the Fordham Road section with the Bronx River Restoration Project and it entailed engaging the aquatic subject through art classes. In 2011 he was baptized by Bill Aguado and Susan Newmark in Drew Gardens. The sacramental was water from the Bronx River and the intention was that of a rite of passage into Bronxhood. Three decades after his first connection with the Bronx, and in a rapidly gentrifying borough, Nicolás is proposing to approach the Bronx River from the perspective of elderhood and aging.

Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful was awarded a New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) Support for Artists Grant (Bronx, NY) to support his creative work. Sponsored by The Action Lab, this award is funding Bodies of Water/Fluid Improvisations Along the Bronx River. Through New York State’s continued investment in arts and culture, NYSCA has awarded over $80 million since Spring 2023 to over 1,500 artists and organizations across the state.

Bodies of Water/Fluid Improvisations Along the Bronx River Ó 2022 Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful / with copyrights for individual actions equally shared with each collaborator.

Andrés Senra is a transdisciplinary artist, PhD in Philosophy and Art Theory, and holds a BA in Biology with a Master’s degree. He is also a curator based in Queens, New York. His latest works revolve around the concept of human communities as ephemeral ecological assemblages, where political, economic, and social tensions in the contemporary world are embodied. In recent projects, Senra has addressed issues such as economic and LGBTIQ+ migration, the consequences of climate change on our lives, the archive as an artwork, and the political and affective history of the queer community in 1990s Madrid. His latest work delves into identity as a fluid process, constantly under construction, presenting queer, non-binary, and gender-fluid utopian communities through sci-fi visual narratives. These identities are portrayed as fluctuating political and ecological assemblages, combining human and non-human elements, as well as human-technology entanglements. Senra's work defends sexual dissidence and embraces the figure of the monster, hybridization, and post-gender politics through speculative sci-fi, offering new ways to rethink the contemporary world.

Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel treads an elusive path that manifests itself performatively through creative experiences that he helps unfold within the quotidian. He has exhibited or performed at Madrid Abierto/ARCO, The IX Havana Biennial, PERFORMA 05/07/21, IDENSITAT, Prague Quadrennial, Pontevedra Biennial, Queens Museum, MoMA, Printed Matter, P.S. 122, Sculpture Center, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance BAAD!, Hemispheric Institute of Performance Art and Politics, City as Living Lab, Princeton University, Anthology Film Archives, El Museo del Barrio, Center for Book Arts, Longwood Art Gallery/BCA, The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Franklin Furnace, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Nicolás has received mentorship in art in everyday life from Linda Mary Montano, a historic figure in the performance art field. Nicolás holds an MFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, where he studied with Coco Fusco; and an MA from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. He recently served as a Senior Lecturer and Social Practice Artist in Residence in the Art and Art History Department at The University of Texas, Austin; and was a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow in Washington DC. He is the founding director of The Interior Beauty Salon, an organism living at the intersection of creativity and healing. Born in Santiago, Dominican Republic, Nicolás was baptized as a Bronxite in 2011.

Performing the Bronx / A Living Archive of New York City’s Most Iconic Borough This film premieres at Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance BAAD!

October 10, 7 PM

2474 Westchester Ave, Bronx, NY 10461

https://www.baadbronx.org

To purchase tickets click HERE

Arthur Avilés, Bill Aguado, Benny Bonilla, Mili Bonilla, Caridad De La Luz ‘La Bruja’, Dr. Drum, Ana ‘ROKAFELLA’ García, Reverend Danilo Lachapel, Wanda Salamán, and Rhina Valentin, With Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel

Nicolás invites a group of remarkable Bronxites to co-develop actions embedded in the day-to-day of our beloved borough. The gestures that emerge are presented in private spaces, as well as in the Bronx's public realm, focusing on the roots that weave these visionaries with specific communities and neighborhoods.

Nicolás dedicates this film to the late Bronx community advocate and activist Martha J. Watford

This event is being co-presented with support from Historias, a multi-year programmatic initiative led by The Clemente in partnership with LxNY and supported by the Rauschenberg Foundation. Historias celebrates the transformative impact of Latinx communities in NYC through research, artistic interpretations, and public engagement.

The Performing the Bronx chapters have been supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affair in partnership with the City Council and the Bronx Council on the Arts. The Drumming for and with Benny chapter was produced with Casita Maria as part the South Bronx Culture Trail Festival 2020. Funding for editing this video compilation was provided by the University of Texas at Austin. Performing the Bronx has also received love, space and support from Mothers on the Move, BronxNet TV, The Andrew Freedman Home, and BAAD!

A video conceived and directed by Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful / Video filming and editing: Geoffrey Jones / Still photography: Argenis Apolinario, Elias Rischmawi, and Rafaelina Tineo Performing the Bronx copyrights 2015-present, Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful