* Above, Califas byka culture, via Mexico, in the Bronx. By C. Alvarez Montero.
And just like that, Postopolis DF is set to start. Tuesday June 8 is the opening day of the free offerings of talks and interviews at the Eco museum, until Saturday, June 11. Check out this previous post for all the details. And check out the whole schedule at the main Postopolis site, where all the events will be streamed live.
I'm so impressed by the line-up and the ability of the many organizers to make this come together. Now here are my guests. I think they reflect general concerns in my own work: subcultures, bilingualism, transnationalism, youth, modes of violence, modes of resistance, justice, contemporary art, and the wide giant scope of human sexuality. The urbanism of D.F. is the unifying glue.
On Tuesday, I sit down with Ali Gadorki, an OG figure in the Mexico City punk/alternative scene. Ali is a founding member of the ground-breaking all-female band Las Ultrasonicas (previously blogged here) and now leads the Kumbia Queers, another all-ladies group Ali created with a set musicians from Argentina. Ali is also known as Ali Gua Gua, her DJ handle. We'll be discussing the history and development of punk in Mexico City, queers in punk, women in punk, and everyone's new fixation: crate-digging for cumbia from the streets and the south south south south.
Keep reading ...
On Wednesday, I interview Carlos Alvarez Montero, a photographer based between D.F. and New York. Carlos's work in photo and video focuses on transnational cholo culture. He's photographed "Cholocolombianos" in Monterrey, cholos in Michoacan, and guadalupanos in New York City. Carlos is a documentarian whose sensibility and respect for his subjects shines through in his images. We'll be looking at and talking about his work and the themes grappled within it. I'm also looking forward to hearing how he immerses himself in the scenes he shoots.
On Thursday, I'm pleased to be having Eréndira Cruzvillegas in for a chat. Cruzvillegas is currently a Special Speaker for Freedom of Expression at the Comision de Derechos Humanos del Distrito Federal. If you imagine the human rights organ of Mexico City as some kind of institutional push-over, think again. The CDHDF holds enormous political and moral sway over the many rights issues that afflict the capital, in youth rights, health and reproductive rights, prisoners' rights, in water rights, sex workers' rights, in indigenous rights, in free speech and news media rights, and beyond. (In 2008, the commission's report on the News Divine case resulted in the prompt firing of city's police chief and attorney general.) Cruzvillegas's CV is formidable. Be prepared to think seriously about the everyday ramifications of your rights in a megacity of such proportions.
Friday, we're taking the intellectual challenges up a notch. Members of the team behind El Espectro Rojo (Cuauhtemoc Medina, Mariana Botey, and Helena Chavez) will join us to discuss their practice at the cutting edge of critical theory in contemporary Mexican art. We'll focus especially on the recent Mexico pavilion at the Venice Biennale, which the Espectro Rojo team curated. Teresa Margolles's installation using the blood of victims from Mexico's narco war expresses an "eruption of necropolitics in the art sphere," Botey told me in an interview last year. Let's unpack that, shall we?
Saturday, for the Postopolis closer, Gabriela Jauregui takes the mic. Gabriela is a true binational subject, living and writing between Los Angeles and Mexico City (her hometown); it shows in her work. She recently earned a doctorate in comparative literature at USC, and is the author of "Controlled Decay," an accessible and refreshing collection of poems that glides smoothly between borders, languages, and literary textures. We'll talk about the topics for which we both share deep loves: the L.A.-D.F. links in literature, art, and pop. Before the Postopolis closing party, I do hope she agrees to read her fantastic poem inspired by the Mexico City metro, such a muse that it is.
Intersections stays dark till the events kick off. (Meantime, keep following my updates on news out of Latin America at La Plaza.) See you there!
* Image above via the collective La Famila Dub, which includes Alvarez Montero.
