#steinhardtglobal

by Jing Dong

Today is the third day of San Sebastian Festival. The traffic in the morning going into Old San Juan is not as heavy as in the first two days, but there are more people than before in the cafe I go for breakfast near our hotel. The atmosphere is still quite relaxed. Don’t be surprised if you meet these friends on the way.

Artisans’ Market

Artisans’ market is a big part of the San Sebastian Festival. There are hundreds of booths in the city. Business people there are not just souvenir sellers. There are many serious local artisans displaying their best works. Starting from noon time, in Old San Juan, artisans’ markets and bars are packed with people. I followed Deborah to the best artisans’ market located in the beautiful courtyard of Museo de las Americas. She showed me many interesting local goods. Her favorite one is a pottery booth which is quite popular on social media. All the cups and mags there are handmade using safe materials. The glaze on the pottery was made by the artisan himself. He also explains that he pays decent wage to people who work for him. When we are at his booth at 1pm, his most popular items, cup-shaped earrings, are already sold out. It seems like he is running a quite successful and heathy social enterprise.

I also found local sweets very attractive. They are good looking and have all kinds of flavors. Gofil is a type of traditional corn candy filled in colorful paper cones. Cremitas de Coco is a type of crisp coconut candy. It is light and fragile. There are also soft candy cakes made of coconut with flavors of milk, almond, and guava among others. Resisting them is really really hard.

There is a booth displaying beautiful traditional toys such as Yoyo, Onda, Trompos, Valero, and Gallitos. There are several booths selling traditional instruments like Guiro, Maraca, and local Cuatro. We also find many interesting handmade kitchenware: a wooden ware used for pressing mashed plantain into pieces, a wooden mortar and pestle for grinding food, and coconut shell cups.

There are many artists in the market too. Several booths belong to mask makers. I see many kinds of materials used by them in mask making as shown in the pictures. One artist uses soft sponge to make very light masks that can be immediately put on by people celebrating on the street. Small sculptures of religious figures are also very common in the market. The most popular ones are the Three Kings, and of course the famous San Sebastian with arrows in his body.

Artisans’ market is a great place to learn about local culture. During the festival, local artisans are able to share their crafts and works with visitors face to face. It is a nice experience that I can meet with people who make the things I eat and use.

Deborah and I talked about the kind of old fashioned market where people sell things their make or grow by themselves. This kind of pre-industrial experiences now are rare and expensive. Often in farmers’ market, groceries are much more expensive than in supermarkets. The farmers’ market is now something luxurious. The power of chain grocery stores and highly developed logistics networks make our choices very limited and identical. Fruits and vegetables that are too fragile to be transported across states are gradually disappearing. In Puerto Rico, where 85% of its food comes from outside the island, it is not easy to find a variety of vegetables. The selections of vegetables in local restaurants are often even worse than in NYC.

Street Art

My new discovery in Old San Juan today is this abandoned building with a black-and-white Puerto Rican flag painted on its door. There are also sixteen important local graphic artists’ images painted on the facade of the building. A poster on the wall explains this project to visitors. In fact, the whole building is a political manifesto made by local graphic artists in 2016. As a reaction to the economic, political and social crisis of Puerto Rico, the artists are questioning their national identity, the power of the US, and most urgently PROMESA (the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act).

Today when Deborah pointed out this building to us, I did not realize that it was such an important political move of local artists. After knowing what this was all about, I think about how Deborah and other people we met have talked about this issue many times in the past several days. I’m very impressed by that the radical political proposition is so well expressed through the art, and has influenced many people. This is another great example of how art functions in Puerto Rican society. This kind of art is happening everywhere in Puerto Rico, like what we saw on the streets and in the markets of Rio Piedras, and in Papel Machete’s performance.

There is also another type of painting that we see a lot on the streets. Those are abandoned houses painted in bright and elegant colors. They seem like brand new buildings from the distance, but are actually torn down by the hurricane or by time. Some of them only have trash inside. Some of them don’t have roofs. The colorful paintings have covered up the reality to serve the need of the festival. The abandoned houses are well disguised so that tourists don’t have to feel scared when they walk by these buildings. It makes sense because most tourists don’t expect to see ghost houses when they come to enjoy a festival. When we saw the beautifully painted streets in Yauco, I felt that it benefits the local community by bringing in more consumers, and that it also satisfies visitors eyes. Generally speaking, those houses look good, although the owners don’t necessarily like the aesthetics. The paintings become a part of their life and their reality. But how should I perceive the painted ruins? Do they serve local people or the opposite?

Enjoying the Festival

After the afternoon studio, several people from the mask group go to Plaza Colón for drinks and live music. Savanah and Sara have got their giant sangria kits. Deborah, Si-Yeung, and I stay loyal to Medalla, a light local beer being sold on almost every street. We are lucky to see a fantastic musicians group named Taller Palenque performing bomba music and mountain music. Deborah talks about the distinct life style of the mountain people. People in the audience are dancing with the band. They even have invited a lady from the audience to dance bomba on stage. I’m so excited to see live bomba performance happening in front of me.

There is a group of people going to the La Perla stage for Sebastián Otero’s performance. Sebastián has become the star for our NYU group! There are also many circus performances happening outside El Bastión during the festival.

Mask & Puppetry Workshop

Now let’s take a look at today’s Mask & Puppetry workshop. The major task today is to prepare for tomorrow’s showcase performance. Our group already had a structure and major materials yesterday, so today we are focusing more on blocking, timing, and details. The run-through has already taken shape. 

The first emphasis of our rehearsal is practicing with objects. Because we use a lot of objects in our performance, it is important to get familiar with them to avoid being “hijacked.” (Deborah) For example, I need to hang a fish to a hook held by Asha. In the rehearsal process, we discovered that the fish line could get stuck to the hook. The solution we found was to cover the hook with silver tape, so that the surface of the hook becomes smooth. We also learned how to use different sizes of cloth to create illusions for different scenes. This is my first time using cloth in the way Deborah uses it. It is very impressive and full of imagination. I’m not explaining what the cloth is used for because that way it would become a spoiler for tomorrow’s showcase. There are more surprising objects to be discovered tomorrow!

Another aspect we spent a lot of time on is how we move through the space, and how we pass each other. The basic principle is that we need to make sure no one is blocking other people’s way. It was never a problem when we acted before, but now we have masks on and have very limited sight. I am only able to see a small area in front of me. Another principle with masks is that we need to be aware of where our masks are facing. It is not interesting to see the profile of a mask. Besides that, we should also try to bring more air when we move in the space to create a sense of fluidity. Meanwhile, the balance and composition of the stage image is also very important to keep in mind. Thanks to the teaching of Deborah, I now have a sense of how to work with masks.

by Ellie Harrison

(paradegoers with umbrellas following the start of the rain)

The San Sebastian Festival - or SanSe for short - seems to an outsider like a huge party; as one member of our group put it, “this is like Mardi Gras on steroids!” What many people may not realize, however, are the rich cultural and historical traditions surrounding the festival that have given way to the highly populated, multistage madness that one sees today. 

Every year on January 20th, the Catholic Church holds a feast day to celebrate the life of San Sebastian, an early Christian saint and martyr. Sebastian, despite normally being portrayed as tied to a tree and shot with arrows, did not die of this cause; rather, he was clubbed to death after trying to warn the Roman Emperor at the time, Diocletian, of his sins. Saint Sebastian is the patron saint of archers, the plague, and soldiers.

(San Jose Church on Calle de San Sebastian in Old San Juan) 

The Festival of San Sebastian was started in the 1950s by Father Juan Manuel Madrazo, the priest of the San José Church on Calle de San Sebastian. The San Jose Church, pictured above, is the second oldest church in the Americas - we walked by this church on the day we visited La Perla with Tito Otero but did not go inside. Father Madrazo instituted this festival to celebrate the life of Saint Sebastian on his feast day as well as to raise money to repair the church. In 1970, it was instated as an annual event, and over the past 50 years, the festival has grown in size and in notoriety until it has reached today’s proportions, with over 200,000 people frequenting Old San Juan to listen to music, mingle with local artists, eat delicious (mostly fried!) food, and party. The SanSe of present day runs from the third Wednesday to the third Sunday every year, and shows off many aspects of Puerto Rican culture and heritage. It officially starts today, Thursday, January 17, with a parade and opening ceremony.

Through Deborah’s mysterious connections (I swear, between her and Rosa Luisa, they know everyone on the island!), the masks group was offered a space in the parade. Deborah was additionally generous enough to extend that offer to the physical theatre group, with the condition that they also “mask up”. As assigned blogger for the day, I declined the offer to put a mask on but agreed to accompany the group through the parade. We arrive for the parade around 4:30 pm, stepping out of the doors of El Cascaron and immediately into the line up. 

(the fearless Macanuda directing her fellow masks to suit up and get into formation)

Deborah immediately began maneuvering everyone participating into two lines and organizing them from shortest to tallest. Behind our group, men and women in stilts were laughing and joking, swinging each other around with effortless balance that I could only hope to ever achieve. Directly in front of us, there was a band and men wearing capes and masks (see below).

(our parade buddies - not pictured: the large metal box that was being dragged along the ground to hype everyone up)

These men were LOUD, and I loved every minute of it. Definitely the hype squad of the parade. They were dancing and singing and screaming and getting up in people’s faces, and taking lots and lots of photos with people. It seemed like we were milling around in what could perhaps be best termed “somewhat organized chaos” for a while, but eventually there was some unseen signal, a trumpet went off, everyone cheered, and we were off! By this point, it had begun to drizzle, but I don’t think anyone minded, least of all the masks people - it cooled everything down and those masks and heavy clothes get hot regardless of the outside temperature. 

(traditional Vejigante mask)

As we walked alongside the folks in masks, I was struck by how strange it was to have so many cameras turned on me. I was taking lots of pictures, and for every picture I took, I’m sure that at least 10 were taken of me just because I was walking “in” (a very loose word, to be clear) the parade. People kept jumping in and out of the parade, dancing in the middle of the street, and grabbing parade members (including our masked friends!) to take pictures. As I have been throughout most of this trip, I was warmed by the sense of love and community as we traveled along our route. It seems like all of these community events that we attend, particularly those pertaining to Puerto Rican culture and heritage, are filled with passionate people who share a level of affection and camaraderie that it doesn’t seem like we often see in the continental United States.  

(the tables have turned - the photographers become the subjects)

I also couldn’t help feeling like I should’ve worn a mask to be walking in the parade - the people in masks were totally transformed and some people who had been nervous about dancing in public prior to putting the mask on were suddenly dancing and mime-ing freely and exuberantly. We slowly walked through the streets, and every part of the experience was overwhelming in the best way: the colorful sights, the mouthwatering smells of food, and the rhythmic music. I honestly wasn’t even paying attention to the rain, although at this point it had become more of a sprinkle than a drizzle. Eventually, we reached the plaza of San Sebastian, where the paraders circled a few times and settled in to watch the opening ceremony, which was entirely in Spanish and, as a result, somewhat challenging for me to understand as someone who does not speak the language. What I did find interesting, though, was that there are SO many people here who love the arts, and who are committed to creating, maintaining, and preserving space for the arts within the different communities in the city of Old San Juan. We’ve seen this throughout our entire trip with the different people we’ve worked with, but this festival really cemented that idea for me. When I brought it up later in the day with a Puerto Rican friend, he responded, “Well yeah, we’ve been through a lot... we need to find some way to express it.”

(close up of Asha in her mask, Kate/Jess/Lauren in training masks)

Wednesday January 16, 2019.

Having been the blogger for the day carried an unexpected weight to the role. I was a bit on edge to ensure I was covering every aspect of the day and I felt that weight again as I stared at a spinning wheel attempting to exporting my video blog out of iMovie.

I had the special privilege of covering our partial day off, and attempted to check in with members of the group to find out how they spent their mornings. Then in the afternoon we met with Antonio González Walker who led us on a walking tour through Río Pedras. As he guided us through the city and to the Plaza of Mercado of Río Pedras, he spoke of the abandonment facing the city but how there are also many people still trying to rebuild the city. One way people are trying to rebuild is through their art and engaging their art with the community.

We also had the opportunity to speak with two directors on their process in creating: Gisela Rosario Ramos (the director of the documentary Recetario) and Kairiana Nuñez (the director of Espírita Santa(liz).) Hearing how they approached their work and challenged traditions was exciting, and something I hope to incorporate in my future artistic endeavors.

Here’s to pushing boundaries, asking questions, creating, mixing mediums, and telling stories!

And the adventure continues, this time with more community collaborations! Since there are two posts for this day, my post will focus mainly on our first half of the day (see Si Yeung's post below for more specifics on our workshops with the local students in Yauco!)

On Sunday, January 13, our group woke up extra early to board a bus to Ponce, which is about an hour and a half drive from San Juan. On our sleepy and slightly bumpy ride up through the mountains, we watched through our windows as the terrain changed from tropical and humid to mountainous and...well, it was still very humid (I have photos of my poofy hair to prove it!) Regardless, we mentally and emotionally prepared ourselves for what we expected would be a very long but incredibly rewarding day full of art, conversation, learning, and fun (and indeed it was!).

At 10:30 am, our bus pulled up to Antonio Martorell’s studio. As soon as we walked inside, we all began to express our collective awe and wonder of the space before us with gaping mouths, as we were quite speechless (Sidenote: for those of you who aren’t familiar with him, Antonio Martorell is an interdisciplinary artist who is quite famous in Puerto Rico--he does mostly visual work, but has also written plays and has done some work with documentaries, too. In short, he is incredible and an inspiration to all of us!).

I have seen works of art at museums and art galleries before, but never in my life had I seen what I saw on this visit. My surroundings became full of colors, ideas, and even physical manifestations of feelings. There were so many shapes and patterns and textures—it was a full-on sensory experience.

As we walked through the space, Antonio encouraged us to simply observe and take everything in for ten minutes before taking pictures, so that we could take advantage of the present moment and of the experience. As I did so, I was reminded of an earlier time in my life when I allowed myself to take the time to fully observe my surroundings, and to let my curiousity take over and not feel guilty about it; spending a few extra minutes lingering behind on class trips to museums and zoos as a child allowed me to absorb more information and be more connected to the exhibits. By allowing my curiousity to take over in Antonio's studio, I could feel myself becoming more connected to the space and to the works of art, too.

After familiarizing ourselves with the space, Antonio invited us to gather around in a circle to have a conversation together, and to ask him questions about his work and his life. Though I am sure each one of us has many pages of wisdom and quotes written down from that conversation, I am aware that I can't include all of that information into one blog post. However, there are a few pieces of information that I think should at least be highlighted here. The first involves Antonio's description of his view on the purpose of art, and how we, as artists, can be affected by it. He reminded us that art should be enjoyed, and that the experience of engaging with art involves learning. So, when we create or engage with art, we should try to remember to not treat it as work or a struggle, but instead as an opportunity to gain new perspectives and take in the beauty and sensation of an artistic work. In other words, "knowledge is pleasure."

Another takeaway I have from our conversation with Antonio involves his advice for us on following through with our artistic dreams and endeavors. He reminded us that the "most important quality in an artist is awareness." He believes that art arises when people start to become aware of their surroundings and of happenings in the world, and that art is a way to communicate one's responses to all of these things. He also emphasized an important note on the connection between an artist and their work: "you transform the object, and the object transforms you." According to Antonio, it is almost as if the artwork's purpose is to inspire change and introspection within the artist. There is no need for the artist to impress or compete; there exists a beautiful and honest relationship between the artist and the artwork, and it is that relationship that brings out the beauty in both of them.

After our heartfelt conversation with Antonio, we proceeded to the next phase of our visit, which involved a tour of his studio and a workshop. As we passed through the space, we learned a bit more about our host and about his projects. A few pieces that come to mind include his collection of pieces commemorating the 2,975 people who died in Hurricane Maria, in addition to the numerous masks and portraits that filled the space on the walls and on the ground.

Once we finished the tour, we headed outside to his backyard and workstation, so that we could begin our workshop. He demonstrated to us our task: roll paint onto the designated recycled objects, and then stamp/stomp the object onto the fabric squares that we were each given, either using our hands or our feet. Though things certainly got a little messy, the stains on our clothes were well worth it! We took turns rolling the red, black, and white paint onto squished water bottles, paper cups, and metal-like cursive letters (and for some of us, our gym shoes!), and then stamping the objects onto our pieces of fabric.

We also created a group mural together, each adding our own personal touch to the work. Antonio helped us figure out where to add certain colors and shapes, and even had the idea for Asha, Quenna, and Kate to stamp the bottoms of their shoes as a way to frame the entire piece.

After taking a few group photos and exchanging final thoughts and hugs, we said our goodbyes to Antonio and his studio assistants as we boarded the bus to head off to our next activity of the day in Yauco.

About a half an hour drive from Ponce, Yauco is a small yet vibrant city closer to the west coast of the island. As we arrived, we were greeted by Rafael Mejía, Executive Director of Art, Culture, and Tourism of the City of Yauco and Director of Teatro Ideal. Rafael and a few other community members gave us a tour of Yauco, stopping at community hotspots such as the set of stairs painted by students from the Magnet School of the Arts Ernesto Ramos Antonini, and a strip of homes that were painted in bright colors by the community and by local commissioned artists. We learned that the community in fact plans to continue painting more homes in bright colors, as it has become a way for the community to come together and curate their own space.

Following the tour and a short stop at a local historic site/museum, we then made our way over to the local theatre to greet the students from the Magnet School who we would be working with that afternoon. The workshops we led were based off of themes that we have learned from our puppetry, physical theater, and Theater of the Oppressed work with Alejandra, Rosa, and Deborah. We spent about two hours interacting with middle school and high school students through these activities, and we enjoyed every single minute of our time there (Amy pointed out in a later conversation that we all were smiling and very joyful the entire time...I think it is safe to say that we enjoyed pretending to be animals just as much as the students did!). In this space, we not only were facilitators; we were also learners, and we did our best to give each other the space to facilitate and learn simultaneously, so as to avoid creating unnecessary power structures in that environment.

After the workshops ended and we took our final group photo, our NYU group and the community members from Yauco all headed over to a local restaurant to celebrate a successful day of arts learning and educating.

All in all, Sunday was a day certainly full of colors, community, and creativity (not to mention a two for one sangria deal to top it all off!). I cannot wait to see how else we engage with and learn from our collaborators here in Puerto Rico.

We began our day with a ride to a Southern city Ponce to visit Antonio Martorell, a prolific Puerto Rican artist. We visited his house, which is full of his original artworks, created individual and collective artworks, and talked with Antonio about his philosophy and his thoughts and inspirations behind different artwork. It has been a fruitful and amazing experience.

After our visit to Antonio’s house, we then went further to a southwestern town called Yauco. We boarded a trolley for a city tour in Yauco. In the tour, we visited many artworks, mostly murals, of the project Yaucromatric, an urban art project that transforms abandoned places and neighborhood with artistic work. 

There are paintings on walls of buildings all around downtown Yauco, as well as in the community of La Cantera on the Yaucano hill, where macro-mural was put onto the wall of the residents.

The colorful mural ‘Brisa Tropical’ brings liveliness to the community and also to the attracted lots of tourists to the area. As explained by our guide, the project Yaucromatric has involved many Puerto Rican artists aiming to revitalize the community with art.

Besides the tour on murals, we also visited the El Centro de Arte Alejandro Franceschi, an early 20th century heritage in Yauco. The interior design was delicate and showed a wealth lifestyle by the time.

After the trolley tour around Yauco, we headed towards El Teatro Ideal where we will conduct a workshop with students from the Magnet School of the Arts Ernesto Ramos Antonini who study dance, music and theatre. Our cohort was divided into four groups to conduct different theatrical activities related to the physical theatre and mask studio, as well as Theatre of the Oppressed. Each of us put what we have learnt in the studio into practice. To apply things that we just learnt into practice has been nervous challenge to us. Nevertheless, we enjoyed very much playing and doing theatrical activities with the students. We facilitated theatre activities like mirroring, verbal language vs gesture, portraying emotions with eyes closed and with minimal use of facial expression, etc. After each activity, we explained the rationale of the activity, in an attempt to connect theatrical literature and theories with the contents of the workshop.

Today, we watched our peers try on each other creations. Watching everyone create a character with intention was a great experience.  I felt like I was sitting in the director’s chair.  Looking at what works and what doesn’t work to create something that translates to others is an art in itself.  Watching my classmates make choices was also added an element of surprise.  Our creative processes in making the masks are as unique as our fingerprints. This also includes the choices we make once the mask is on.  

Taking a step back and letting go of this thing I created gave insights we hadn’t considered.  Antonio Martorell stated that “our art should be like if we’re parents to children, we have to create it and let it go and do its own thing.  If we can’t do that then we’ve failed as artists and parents.”  Every facilitator has stressed letting it go. Its been the overarching theme.  Allow your art to be democratic and have a voice of its own.  

So today I leave you with some snippets of the trust we built with each other by letting go and allowing others to give life and become an extension of what we created.