Noricua: performing the living city

Performance with Edwin Torres, Libertad Guerra and Monxo Lopez (members of the spanic attack artist collective, New York).

Libertad Guerra is a founding member of Alamala Press and conceptual coordinator for the ‘Spanic Attack collective, for which she has produced books, films, and independent CD's. A keyboardist by tradition and by choice. Ms. Guerra holds an MA in psychological anthropology and has been a guest speaker at anthropology and psychoanalysis symposia in New York, Québec, and Galicia. She lives and is an activist in the South Bronx where she hosts the Bronx Salon, a platform for public discussion of urban issues in the private environment of a regular house.

Monxo López is a political philosopher by day, designer of intrigues by night. He has taught history and political science at Hunter College and Lehman College (NYC). As a writer, he has won prizes for his short stories, and is a freelance columnist for the Spanish-language press, but most of his life he's defined himself as a guitarist. As part of different projects, he has strummed, plucked, and soloed in México, Boston, New York, Perú, Puerto Rico, and France. His classical training merges with his vast experience in rock, nueva trova, and postpunk. Sonic enthusiast and recording engineer, he's the arranger and composer of soundtracks for films (some seen, some as yet unseen). Guitarist and leader of the band objet petit a (opa). One of the vegetative brains behind ‘Spanic Attack,' Monxo is in charge of contacting and liasing with musicians affiliated with the project. He is also the one consulted on all matters of sounds and melodies, though he is losing his hearing. Doctoral candidate in political philosophy at the CUNY Graduate Center. His Manifieste Impertinent was published in the city of Montréal in 2000. He has presided and presented at sociology and politics symposia in Portugal, Canada, and New York. A driver for the homeless, an art critic, and a social researcher, his quest is to experience all available instances of urban amalgam.

Edwin Torres is a bilingual poet since 1988 and mingles the textures of poetry with vocal and physical improvisation, sound-elements and theater. His live performances create organic landscapes that exist beyond language. His introduction to poetry was through The Nuyorican Poets Cafe and The St. Marks Poetry Project. His debut CD Holy Kid (Kill Rock Stars) combines poetry with music, sounds and homemade tapes, and is included in the exhibition The American Century Pt. II at The Whitney Museum Of American Art. Torres is the recipient of a fellowship from The Foundation For Contemporary Performance Art. His media assault has transpired on MTV’s Spoken Word Unplugged and The Charlie Rose Show, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, New York Magazine. In NYC he regularly collaborates with multi-arts collective ‘Spanic Attack, and has performed at many venues like The Guggenheim Museum, CBGB's, Tonic, my mother’s kitchen, P.S. 122, WFMU Radio, Lincoln Center, The Museum Of Modern Art.