Urbano Project Announces Bilingual Music, Art and Activism Series at Libreria Donceles

Urbano Project has announced a series of bilingual salon-like gatherings to be held at Librería Donceles, a participatory art installation and meeting place for the community.

Events include a celebration of Puerto Rican Poet Julia de Burgos (2/17), artist talk with Chilean-American Poet Marjorie Agosín (2/25) and Raúl Gonzalez (3/22), a Book Arts Workshop in the Age of Alteration with Denise Delgado and Sara Rivera (3/3), Resistioke! Singalong (3/11), and Printmaking with artists from Providence's AS220 (3/18).

More events, presented in partnership with local organizations, will be announced throughout the winter.

Librería Donceles, a socially engaged art project consisting of a bookstore of more than 10,000 used books in Spanish, is open Monday-Friday, 1-6pm and Saturday, 10-2pm, at Urbano's Gallery space, 29 Germania Street (The Brewery Complex) in Jamaica Plain, through March 31. Visit www.urbanoproject.org or call 617.983.1007 for more information.

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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 7:00-9:00PM

NOCHE DE HOMENAJE A JULIA DE BURGOS

Poet Glaisma Perez Silva and guitarist Gian Carlo Buscaglia pay homage to Julia de Burgos (1914-1953), Puerto Rico's most illustrious poet, on the anniversary of her birth. Burgos was an outspoken civil rights activist whose poems engage themes of feminism and social justice.

Hosted by Center Without Walls and Luis Edgardo Cotto, director of Egleston Main Streets.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 7:00-9:00PM

NOCHE DE NUEVA CANCIÓN

Puerto Rican singer-songwriter Fernandito Ferrer is a young pioneer among a new breed of singer-songwriters in Puerto Rico. Born in San Germán, Ferrer draws inspiration from the Nueva Trova giants of the 70's whose songs were a cornerstone of Latin American protest music of that era. His percussive guitar technique and impressive vocal abilities, together with the use of subtle yet powerful melody and poetic imagery, puts his home-grown music in a much wider context. His style is best compared to the works of Tracy Chapman, Ani DiFranco, Antonio Cabán Vale, Silvio Rodríguez and Nick Drake. Hosted by Center Without Walls and Luis Edgardo Cotto, director of Egleston Main Streets.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 12:00-2:00PM

CHILEAN-AMERICAN AUTHOR MARJORIE AGOSÍN

Visiting Artist Marjorie Agosín is a poet, human rights activist and literary critic. Her work inspired by the theme of social justice, the pursuit of remembrance, and the memorialization of traumatic historical events both in the Americas and in Europe. Join us for an artist talk and a public reading.

SATURDAY, MARCH 4, 3:00-6:00PM

BOOK ARTS WORKSHOP IN THE AGE OF ALTERATION

Join Sara Rivera and Denise Delgado for a book arts workshop within Librería Donceles. They have set aside texts from the collection and will lead participants through an interference with these books, changing them linguistically, narratively and physically as a way to experiment with ideas and materiality. The language and history of Latin America, dystopian narratives and mapping processes, along with other themes, may emerge from this activity. The end product of the workshop will be a set of sculptural, altered artist books that will again become part of Librería Donceles, perhaps to be shelved in an entirely different section than where they started. Co-hosted by JP Reads.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8, 6:30-8:30PM

GRUBSTREET WRITERS OF COLOR MEETING

Interested in attending? Contact Jonathan Escoffery at jonathan@grubstreet.org

SATURDAY, MARCH 11, 12:00-2:00PM

RESISTIOKE!

Sing together, resist fear, welcome all - Resistioke! is live-band, group karaoke with a twist: We'll be singing (with you!) pop tunes that respond to our politically divisive times. Hosted by ResistArts.

SATURDAY, MARCH 18, 3:00-6:00PM

PRINTMAKING WORKSHOP WITH AS220

Join Providence-based Artist and AS220 Artistic Director Shey Rivera, along with AS220 Youth Artists for an activism and silkscreening workshop. AS220 is an artist-run organization committed to providing an unjuried and uncensored forum for the arts for its surrounding communities.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 7:00-9:00PM

ARTIST RAÚL GONZALEZ

Visiting Artist Raúl Gonzalez has developed a working practice of painting, illustration and writing since growing up between El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. His most recent work was found in the book Lowriders in Space, written and illustrated with author Cathy Camper was nominated for the 2016-2017 Texas BlueBonnet Award. During this artist talk, Raúl will discuss how he became an artist and his process for creating characters for the books he co-creates and illustrates.

FRIDAY, MARCH 24, 7:00-9:00P

BILINGUAL STORYSLAM -- IMMIGRANT STORIES OF WORK & LABOR

Join JP resident Andrea Atkinson and other regional storytellers for narratives of work, labor and the immigrant experience. This program is bilingual and participatory, welcoming stories from our guests. Hosted by One Square World in celebration of Suzanne Skees' My Job: People at Work Around the World.

SATURDAY, MARCH 25, 4:30-6:30PM

PRE-TEXTS: DORIS SOMMER WITH LIBRERÍA DONCELES

Pre-Texts is an arts-based training program for teachers of literacy, critical thinking, and citizenship, join Doris Sommer, Director of Cultural Agents and Professor at Harvard University for an introduction to this method using books from the Librería Donceles collection.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12, 7:00-9:00PM

ONE EGLESTON SQUARE VISIONING DINNER

One Square World will host a bilingual dinner and visioning session for a variety of representatives of the Egleston neighborhood. During this event, guests will present ideas for preserving diversity and increasing sustainability and justice in our community. This event is invite only, if you're interested in attending please email Andrea Atkinson (andrea@onesquareworld.org).

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ABOUT LIBRERIA DONCELES

"Librería Donceles is a project that seeks to respond to two important phenomena in the urban landscape of the U.S: the phasing out of the bookstore and the invisibility of the Spanish language" says artist Pablo Helguera. "Amidst the upheaval caused by many important social and economic events in the 21st century, the demise of the physical bookstore might be a small footnote. Yet it is important to think about the cause of these events. We live in a society that while everyday being more interconnected through social media is less invested in the physical experience of holding and reading a book. And yet it is widely acknowledged that bookstores serve as important gathering places for a community where meaningful interactions can take place."

ABOUT URBANO

Urbano Project brings together urban youth and professional artists to ignite social change through place-based participatory art and performance projects. Together we foster future generations of creative and civic leaders committed to social justice. Urbano's 2016-2017 curatorial theme, 'The Commons | The Other,' addresses themes of racial, ethnic, cultural and urban identity and representation that are embedded in our society.