$Pay What You Wish
In collaboration with our friends at El Museo del Barrio, we’re excited to kick off the inaugural edition of Cumbe Café.
We are honored to welcome dance artist, educator and arts administrator Sita Frederick and esteemed visual artist Manny Vega!
Though they express themselves through different mediums, the body and mosaic, both Sita & Manny draw from the rich culture and history of the Afro-Latinx people of the Caribbean as a source of inspiration. Join us as Sita responds in movement to one of Manny’s pieces. Then stick around as they deep dive into a conversation about their creative processes as well as the racial, political and social implications of making work through an Afro-Latinx lens.
Sita Frederick (Artistic Director, Areytos Performance Works) is a choreographer, performer, arts administrator and teacher based in New York City. After graduating from Swarthmore College, Frederick performed with Bessie-winning choreographers Jawole Willa Jo Zollar of Urban Bush Women and Merian Soto, co-founder of Pepatian. In 2003, Frederick and visual artist José Miguel Ortiz co-founded Areytos Performance Works, a multi-disciplinary performance company that presents innovative contemporary dance-theatre rooted in Caribbean traditions and the principles of social justice.
From 2007-2010 Frederick produced a body of work reinterpreting Afro-Cuban, Salsa and modern in "Maletumba II," "What Do You Dance On?", "Sirenas" and "Bembé, Salon, y Calle". Frederick’s newest series explores the convergence of Gaga and Guloya, two African based Dominican traditions and the politics of black identity in the Dominican Diaspora, with site specific "Comparsa G" and work-in-progress "Batey y Macorix: Senderos de Carbón/Carbon Pathways" presented by the Hostos Center for the Arts and Culture with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation’s NYC Cultural Innovation Fund.
Frederick has received support from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, Bronx Action Lab, Puffin Foundation, Aaron Davis Hall’s Fund for New Work, Harlem Dance Foundation, and Swarthmore College.
Presenters of her work include Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center/Kumble Theater, Aaron Davis Hall/Harlem Stages, Pregones Theater, Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, Pepatian@Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out, Congress on Research in Dance, University of Texas in Austin, Cornell University, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, among others. In May of 2012, Frederick completed a Master of Fine Arts in New Media Art and Performance at Long Island University, Brooklyn
Manny Vega is an American painter, illustrator, printmaker, muralist, mosaicist, and set and costume designer. His work portrays the history and traditions of the African Diaspora that exist in the United States, the Caribbean, and Latin America.
Manny was born in the South Bronx in 1956, the same year his parents migrated from Puerto Rico. With encouragement from his mother, he explored various forms of crafts and art making as a child.
In 1976, after a failed attempt to study art at Pratt Institute Manny turned to local grassroots arts institutions to pursue his interest in the arts. El Museo Del Barrio, Taller Boricua and the Printmaking Workshop were the places where Manny evolved and contributed to the making of an active art scene within the communities of East Harlem and the Bronx. The Mexican murals of Diego Rivera and David Siqueiros had an impact on Manny and inspired his interest in public art and murals.
The themes of his art work were reflections of his own life; popular music and dance, the day to day experiences of his neighbors, and his personal interest in his own heritage and spirituality. Manny was able to create art upon request and catered to the times by producing dance posters, album covers, t-shirt designs, and public murals. He also evolved as a visual arts instructor for the schools and institutions in New York City.
In 1984, Manny visited Salvador, Bahia, where he immersed himself and was inspired by the culture of Carnival. He became a member of a spiritual community with origins in West Africa that preserves traditional rituals that celebrate the alchemy of the world and its people. The spiritual practice, Candomble became a new source of inspiration for interconnection with people and communities.
In 1997, Manny was awarded a commission to design artwork for the 110th Street train station in East Harlem. This project became the springboard for his advancement in the fabrication of classic Byzantine style mosaics. Since then Manny has selected this medium of art as a strategy for the permanency of public art because of its resiliency. Through this medium of art, the life stories depicted are preserved long into the future.
“The most precious gift that I can share with the world, is to remind everyone, that I taught myself whatever I wanted to learn, and with the same human traits as everyone else… a sense of wonder, curiosity, will, courage and patience, I have created my own renaissance, and in doing so, I welcome yours as well.”