sii agua sí
Remembering the Waterways in Yelamu
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Honoring the 5,700 Indigenous Ancestors Buried in the Cemetery at the Mission Dolores
OCT. 23, 2021 (4pm-9:30pm)
Outdoor Latinx + Indigenous Dance Festival
STREET CLOSURE! Decolonizing the Mission Creek Corridor on 18TH STREET
(between Church St. and Dolores St.)
sii = water (Ohlone Ramaytush)
Since 2014, FLACC has provided a platform of visibility and inclusivity for over 60 resistant, queer, indigenous, and hybrid choreographers of the Latinx diaspora who cross cultural, physical, and aesthetic borders of tradition to abstraction. To adapt to the obstacles of Covid 19, our 8th annual Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreographers will host several artists from different disciplines to support our curatorial theme "sii agua sí" in our first outdoor festival along the Mission Creek/18th Street Corridor in Yelamu.
FLACC 2021: sii agua sí (water water yes) - "sii" is the Ohlone word for "water." In memory of the blocked and soil-filled waterways that once flowed in this region and in honor of the 5700 local Indigenous ancestors buried in the cemetery at the Mission Dolores, FLACC is centralizing the voices and themes of the land-based site in collaboration and solidarity with local Ohlone leaders, SF Parks, Dance Mission Theater and other community partners. Through community rituals, live performance installations and historical talks, sii agua si is symbolically re-filling the site with water (sii) to bring awareness and healing to a painful history of cultural genocide and ecocide that seeps beneath the streets of the Mission District.
With a temporary mural by local artists to guide the audience in the daytime and installing multiple video projections of water to visually define performance and ritual spaces at night, the festival will take place within a watery landscape. Water blessings, land acknowledgements, invocations, traditional and contemporary dances, ofrendas and live musical collaborations will take place in various sites along the path to honor our human and non-human ancestors.
By re-imagining the natural creeks, lagoons and waterways in sii agua sí, FLACC honors the former natural landscape and its ancestors who fell victim to ecocide and genocide due to industrialism and colonization. FLACC acknowledges the attempted extermination of Ohlone Ramaytush, Miwok, Mutsun, Chochenyo, Rumsen, Muwekma and the surrounding original people. This festival is an opportunity for their descendants to share practices that promise to restore waterways and honor their ancestors. Through a long-term relationship building process, FLACC hopes to bring allies of religious, cultural and educational institutions within the neighborhood into a space of action and solidarity among Indigenous landback and water rights movements. The festival aims to grow capacity within contemporary Latinx arts communities to support Indigenous led healing.
The Laguna Dolores was near the Misión Dolores (formally known as Mission San Francisco de Asis), and Mission creek flowed on the 18th street side of Dolores Park in front of Mission High School. The 18th Street closure is the the area where the Chutchui Village once thrived.
Featured Artists and Culture Bearers:
Gregg Castro(Ohlone Ramaytush)
Kanyon Sayers-Roods (Ohlone Mutsun and Chumash)
Costanoan Rumsen Carmel Tribe Hummaya Singers and Dancers
Violeta Luna(US/MX)
Kevin Gaytan(MX/US)
Mariana Sobral(Argentina/US)
FLACC Community Dancers:
Alex Escalante, Hugo Quintero, Carmina Márquez, Juliana Mendonca, Liz Boubion,
Nicole Maimon, Sabrina Baranda, Stephanie Hewett, Stephanie Sherman, Xedex Olivas
Creekwater Sound Artist & DJ:
Ras K'Dee (Dry Creek Pomo) Audiopharmacy collaborator
(the sound of water will replace the sound of buses and cars on 18th Street from 2-7pm)
Muralists:
Adrian Arias(Peru/US)
Pancho Peskador(Chile/US)
Video Projection:
Ben Wood(England/US)
Panel Discussions:
Spanish interpreter on Zoom with Andreina Maldonado
What does it mean to be Two Spirit on Ohlone Land?
Wednesday Oct 13, 5pm-6pm PST
Panel Discussion with Weaving Spirits organizers on
Remembering Water in sii agua sí
Thursday, October 21, 6pm PST
Ohlone Story Keepers Discuss Belonging to Water, to Land, to People
Gregg Castro(Ohlone Rammaytush)
Kanyon Sayers-Roods(Ohlone Mutsun & Chumash)
Carla Muñoz(Costanoan Ohlone-Rumsen Carmel Tribe)
Curators and Organizers:
FLACC’s founding artistic director and lead curator, Liz Duran Boubion, invited a team of local Latinx and indigenous curators and organizers who will guide the festival vision, follow Ohlone Protocol, centralize the voices of indigenous culture bearers, while building alliances with Latinx contemporary dance artists. The curation team includes:
Kanyon Sayers-Roods (Ohlone Mutsun Culture Bearer)
Snowflake Calvert (Two spirit Yaqui, Raramuri and Tzotzil Mayan Dancer)
Stephanie Sherman (Choreographer and Latin American Studies Scholar)
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FLACC's Artistic Director: Liz Duran Boubion(US/MX)
FLACC’s Managing Director: Zoë Klein (Colombia/US)
FLACC’s Production Manager: Emelia Martinez Brumbaugh (US/MX)