Performing the Bronx: A Living Archive of NYC’s Most Iconic Borough

Artist Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful 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.

Performing the Bronx is also representative of Nicolás’s interest in honoring, recovering and reclaiming herstories/histories/theirstories of the area’s inhabitants 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.

Featuring Bronx artists:

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

Film was conceived and directed by Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful with video filming and editing by Geoffrey Jones.

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 Affairs 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, The Andrew Freedman Home, and BAAD!

1. Ana ‘ROKAFELLA’ Garcia & Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful, Befriending the Pavement, 2020
   Photo: Argenis Apolinario / Courtesy of Nicolás
2. Arthur Avilés & Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful, A Gentle Act of Men in Hunts Point, 2015
   Photo: Rafaelina (Dhyana) Tineo / Courtesy of Nicolás
3. Rhina Valentin & Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful, The Metropolitan Portal, 2020
   Community played by Michael Max Knobbe / Spirit played by Master Percussionist Angel Rodríguez
   Photo: Argenis Apolinario / Courtesy of Nicolás

Host or Publisher BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance