Rainbow Warriors: Performance & Dance Series at UC Riverside

University of California-Riverside

Department of Dance & The LGBT Resource Center present the

Rainbow Warriors: Performance and Dance Series

A hybrid of in person and online workshops, presentations, and demonstrations by local, national, and international LGBT+ rainbow warriors. This series features artists, artist-scholars, cultural workers, activists, and healers whose work engages Black people, Indigenous people, people of color, migrant and refugee communities. Invited presenters include Shash Yázhí Charley, Lenard Foust, Odaymar Cuesta, Rey del Westside y El Panadero, and Paula Chaves Bonilla.

This event is supported by the Highlander Empowerment Referendum. Additional sponsorship for Odaymar Cuesta provided by the Holstein Family and Community Chair in the Department of Religious Studies. Coordinated by Fabiola Ochoa Torralba, Critical Dance Studies Phd student.

May 27-June 17, 2022

Thursdays and Fridays

HYBRID: IN PERSON AND ONLINE – free and open to the public

Register for any of the events at this link: https://ucrrainbowwarriors.eventbrite.com

Friday, May 27, 2022

In-Person, INTS 1111 @ UC Riverside

10-11:30 am (PDT)

Shash Yázhí Charley

Water & Fire: Self Healing for LGBT+ Folks and Kin

RESERVATIONS FOR THIS ENGAGEMENT ARE NOW CLOSED

This workshop will give support around shielding your energy from negativity. You will learn practices that will ground, center, and balance your spirit. Participants must register in advance and are asked to bring a white candle along with any protection such as a necklace, medicine bag, bracelet, etc.

Shash Yázhí Charley, comes from the Diné (Navajo) nation in New Mexico. The lineage that runs through Shash Yázhí’s blood are of leaders, healers, traditional care takers, activists, and teachers. As a consultant with a background in organizing, training, fundraising, facilitation and program development: all with an emphasis on healing and wellness. Shash Yázhí is from the Diné/ Nashashí - bear clan born by the Bit'ahnii - folded arm peoples clan and maternal grandfather is Tódich'ii'nii - bitter water clan/ paternal grandfather is Naakai dine'é - Mexican clan. For the last 30 years Shash Yázhí’s passion has centered on inter-generational work with a focus on youth and elders from all communities especially the two spirit/LGBTQIA. Experience with indigenous communities has also empowered Shash Yázhí to practice movement work that integrates spirit and connection to the heart in order to strengthen the impact of organizing work.

Free Parking Link: https://app.parkmobile.io/venues/ucr-event-parking/events/122240

Access code: 160530

Thursday, June 2, 2022

Presenter ONLINE

IN PERSON Studio Space @ ARTS 300 @ UC Riverside

Remote participation available via ZOOM

4-6 p.m. (PDT)

Lenard Foust

Gay and African American: Hip Hop Industry Dance Workshop

Participants will be discussing current industry professional practices and explore identity within these practices. Workshop is open to all levels and to the general public.

Lenard Foust is based in NYC/ATL. He started his career with the Albano Ballet Dance Company in Hartford, CT, then went on to tour nationally and internationally as a dancer, with the Ultimate Michael Jackson Experience and UberSoca Cruise. A Fulbright Scholar in China, Lenard earned his MFA in Dance and a graduate certificate in World Performance Studies from the University of Michigan. Lenard is excited to continue pursuing performing in Musical Theatre Shows, Movies, Music Videos, and more. As well as continue teaching as an Assistant Professor at Alabama State University BFA Dance Program. Instagram https://www.instagram.com/ellejaymoves/

Free Parking Link: https://app.parkmobile.io/venues/ucr-event-parking/events/122241

Access code: 902443

Friday, June 3, 2022

In-Person, HMNSS 1500 @ UC Riverside

2-3:30 p.m. (PDT)

Odaymar Cuesta

Words that Move: Afro Transfeminismo // Afro Transfeminism

A bilingual Spanish and English conversation with Odaymar Cuesta on spirituality, freedom, body experiences, healing and feminist praxis. They will present on their creation of a multidisciplinary community installation that centers trans non binary immigrants. Participants will be invited to contribute to an altar that pays tribute to Afrotransfeminism and the antagonism that is a part of feminist growth. Through this work, they reaffirm the uniqueness and magnificence of trans non binary indigenous black bodies and the roles they have had and will continue to have in feminism. Bring comfortable clothes, fruit and water for snacks, and something to put on the altar.

Krudas Cubensi, also known as Las Krudas, is an activist hip-hop group with black feminist, queer and vegan politics. Born in Cuba in the 1990s, Krudas Cubensi is part of the Caribbean diaspora in the United States since 2006.

Additional sponsorship provided by the Holstein Family and Community Chair in the Department of Religious Studies.

Free Parking Link: https://app.parkmobile.io/venues/ucr-event-parking/events/122242

Access code: 531577

Friday, June 10, 2022

Online

10-11:30 a.m. (PDT)

Rey del Westside y El Panadero

Cuir Latinidad: A Demonstration and Talk on Drag King Performance

Cuir Latinidad is a project that reconnects our cultura and our queerness as a way of selfcare. We combined our connections to our own separate cultural family traditions and cuisine bringing this fusion together. In this project we will be exploring queerness through movement, story telling and recipe sharing.

El Rey del Westside is a Chicano/Tejano cultural worker. He founded Echale Books in 2017 to help promote literacy, especially bilingual literacy in his hometown, the Westside of San Antonio. He has been a cultural worker and community organizer for over 12 years, working in areas of racial justice, food Justice, and queer liberation.

Panadero is a drag king. His character is developed around his strong admiration for his parents. He combines his Dad's norteño style, his mom’s coastal rhythms, and his background in folklorico. Through Drag Performance he reconnected with their background and rediscovered his identity. Sharing his roots is a way to connect to others and show the strength in migration through land and gender.

Friday, June 17, 2022

Online

9:30-11 a.m. (PDT)

Paula Chaves Bonilla

Fugitive Landscapes: Migrant Performance Strategies

A lecture by Paula Chaves Bonilla on their artistic research. They investigate social phenomena in a journalistic way – censorship and resistance, gender issues, art in a neoliberal-capitalist context – and the transformation of these findings into performances or radical activist initiatives. They will be talking about the politics and aesthetics of their work which attempts to create fugitive landscapes where non-normative ways of living, relating and perceiving are imagined, plotted and rehearsed.

Paula Chaves Bonilla aka as La ChicaScratch is a Colombian theatre director, choreographer, performer, writer and activist based in Amsterdam. They studied contemporary dance, theatre and circus in New York, Bogota and Berlin and later obtained a bachelor's degree in Choreography at the School for New Dance Development in the Amsterdam University of the Arts. Currently they’re doing a master's in ‘Ecologies of Transformation’ at the Sandberg Institute. Chaves Bonilla’s artistic research investigates social phenomena in a journalistic way – censorship and resistance, gender issues, art in a neoliberal-capitalist context – and transforms her findings into theatrical performances. Their radical politics and aesthetics attempt to create fugitive landscapes where non-normative ways of living, relating and perceiving are imagined, plotted and rehearsed.