Celebrate Mexico's Wide Scope of Mexico's Contemporary Culture - 10/14-22

In this 14th edition, Celebrate Mexico Now's multi-disciplinary nature yields a comprehensive cultural picture of the passions and concerns that underscore the complexity of Mexico as country and diaspora. >From October 14 to October 22, 2017, the festival will showcase a wide range of events featuring literature, theater, film, culinary arts, and music at major venues throughout the city; many of them free of charge.

Celebrate México Now! offers an exclusive glimpse into how the work of today's Mexican artists and intellectuals reflect on and reshape Mexican identity in an evolving global context. "This year the festival presents contemporary projects celebrating iconic figures of Mexican culture (Frida Kahlo, Juan Rulfo and Pedro Infante) along with the new voices from an emerging and vibrant generation of filmmakers, writers, musicians, and of course, all tied in with the delicious and sophisticated cuisine of Mexico," says the festival's Founder and Executive Director, Claudia Norman.

In 2017, the festival brings emerging and established artists from Guadalajara, Mexico City, Puebla, Oaxaca and Los Angeles to partner with cultural institutions across New York City from The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens. "We are overjoyed to announce that Celebrate Mexico Now! is also spreading beyond New York for the first time with the performance of some of the festival's most cherished and exciting artists at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and at the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC," concludes Norman.

Saturday, October 14: The festival opens at The Metropolitan Museum (1000 Fifth Avenue, NYC) with a two-part program. At 2:00pm, MET's experts join Tembembe Ensamble Continuo to show how art and music have evolved through Mexico's history in an interactive gallery-based exhibition for the whole family.

At 7:00pm, Tembembe Ensamble Continuo, a band that explores, recreates and promotes the links between the Hispanic Baroque guitar and traditional Mexican, Latin American rhythms, will perform a show that involves music, song and dance. The ensemble will recreate the festive spirit of Fandango, both contemporary and traditional.

Sunday, October 15, 2:00-4:00pm: A Mexican Brunch with Mezcal and a Live Performance From Sweet Electra at Guadalupe Inn (1 Knickerbocker Ave. Brooklyn) where Chef Garcia offers a menu that celebrates his heritage and highlights the diverse flavors in Mexican cuisine. For brunch, this means huevos rancheros, huevos con chorizo, enfrijoladas gratinadas con pollo, chilaquiles rojos con huevos, tacos, pancakes, ceviche and pairing with Mezcales de Leyenda and mezcal Pelotón de la Muerte, featuring a live performance by Sweet Electra.

Monday, October 16, 7:00pm: at NYU's King Juan Carlos of Spain Center (53 Washington Square South, NYC), the festival will commemorate the 100th anniversary of Juan Rulfo's birthday, one of the finest novelists and short-story masters of 20th-century Latin American literature and an extraordinary photographer, with the NY premiere of the documentary 100 years with Juan Rulfo: A Wanderer. Juan Carlos Rulfo found the film's inspiration from five photographs and the search for where in Mexico his father took them. Professor Pedro Ángel Palou will also present the book "El Llano en llamas, Pedro Páramo y otras obras (en el centenario de su autor)", co-written with professor Francisco Ramírez Santacruz.

Tuesday, October 17, 7:00pm: the panel Mexican Contemporary Composers: Challenges in the XXI Century at National Sawdust (80 N 6th St, Brooklyn) features Mexican composers, Marcela Rodriguez and Paola Prestini, who share their thoughts on gender and diversity in contemporary composition and the exclusion of women composers from the symphonic repertoire.

Wednesday, October 18, 7:00pm: The School of Visual Arts (209 E 23rd St, Studio 502, NYC) hosts the festival's movie night with a selection of shorts from the Morelia International Film Festival, the Mexican version of Sundance. The screening of five award-winning short films, ranging from animation to documentary, will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers.

Thursday, October 19, 7:30pm: At the David Rubenstein Atrium of Lincoln Center (Broadway between 61 & 62 St) music comes courtesy of Ampersan, one of the most promising bands of the new generation of Mexican musicians. For their New York City debut and as part of their #Ampersan10Años tour, the group presents a journey through Mexico and Latin America's folkloric forms with experimental and sound explorations.

Thursday October 19 & Friday, October 20, 7:00pm: National Sawdust (80 N 6th St, Brooklyn) begins its Season 3 opera works with the New York premiere of "Las cartas de Frida", ópera de toilette, Mexican composer Marcela Rodríguez's take on the texts of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo.

Saturday, October 21, 6:00pm & 8:30pm: ID Studio Theater (311 East 140th St, Bronx) welcomes Pedro Infante, Cien Años Pienso En Ti. Seven classic songs of the universally adored Mexican actor and singer, who died in 1957, will be part of this one-act play adaptation for 3 actors that offers a new twist on the life of Mexican immigrants living in the US.

Sunday, October 22, 3:00pm: Celebrate México Now! wraps up with Paisajes Sonoros a live performance at Queens Museum (Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens) With original videos set to original compositions, Paisajes Sonoros is a multimedia performance by Mexican composers Carlo Nicolau, violin, Vicente Rojo Cama, electronics, and Vanessa García Lembo, video artist. It features amplified violins and electroacoustic sounds, instruments, musical textures, ambiences, and images, telling us a timeless story that goes from an urban industrial setting to different corners of the world and the outer space of our imagination.

Award-winning curator and producer Claudia Norman of CN Management, recognized internationally for her expertise in contemporary Mexican arts and culture, has assembled an eclectic and thrilling palate of featured projects, including world premieres, US debuts, and cross-cultural collaborations. Since 2004, Celebrate México Now! has presented nearly 300 artists at over 60 venues in New York, establishing itself as the country's premier platform for contemporary Mexican arts and culture.

An independent festival, Celebrate México Now! has received several official mayoral proclamations from the City of New York, as well as special recognition by numerous Mexican institutions.

Special thanks to Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes of México (FONCA) for their support.

More info: www.mexiconowfestival.org

Facebook: www.facebook.com/MexicoNowFestival

Twitter: @mexiconowfest

Instagram: @mexiconowfestival