Love is never too late.

I know it’s almost April, but I would be remiss if I didn’t share Rio Yañez’s 2012 crop of valentines amazingness.

Happy Valentine’s Day to all of my friends and lovers! El Rio’s Valentine’s Day Cards are back in the ring to take another swing! This is the 6th year of my cards and it’s turned into my longest running project. Enjoy!

As always, please post these cards on the pages of your online friends, real life enemies, booty calls, baby daddies, friends with benefits, people you’re stalking on facebook, and people you would be stalking on Google + but don’t want to go through the hassle of signing up with a new social network. 

Poco a Poco Radio!

My papi and I have a brand new BILINGUAL radio show on WLUW 88.7 FM, Poco a Poco Radio. The show airs every Sunday from 1:30-2:00PM CST and can be listened to live on the radio or online at http://wluw.org.

If you missed last week’s show (the first episode) you can listen here:

And today tune in, to hear our LIVE interview with the incredibly talented, hilarious, and inspiring Elma Placeres Dieppa (@mzelma), Director of Latism Chicago.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with Latism… you should be… #LATISM stands for Latinos in Social Media.

For more updates follow Poco a Poco Radio on Facebook & Twitter

Escobar-Morales

Artist Statement and Bio
Escobar-Morales is a team comprised of Maya Escobar and Andria Morales. The two artists, based in Chicago and Philadelphia respectively, have been working together over the Internet since 2010. They produce digital media and performance art that explores the role of self-representation in visual culture and its ability to deconstruct ingrained ideological conventions. By locating their performances online where they are free from restrictions of time and place, Escobar-Morales is able to concurrently enact multiple personas while simultaneously creating a unified hybrid self.

Maya Escobar was born in Chicago, IL in 1984.  Andria Morales was born in 1982 in New York, NY.  Escobar received a BFA from the School of the Art Institue of Chicago (2007) and an MFA from Washington University in St. Louis (2009); Morales received a BA from the University of Pennsylvania (2004) and an MFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University (2008).

Valentines Day LOVE from El Rio

You them saw and loved them last year…
Check out the new crop of Valentines by El Rio.

and as always:

Happy Valentine’s Day to all of my friends, lovers, and drunken makeout partners! El Rio’s Valentine’s Day Cards are back for 2011 like a Sir Mix-A-Lot song! This is the 5th year of my cards and it’s turned into my longest running project. Enjoy!

As always, please post these cards on the pages of your online friends, real life enemies, booty calls, baby daddies, and friends with benefits. – El Rio

Help Maya Help Lolo and Raise Awareness for Domestic Violence

Please support Maya Chinchilla in her efforts to raise $3,000 to send her partner Lolo, her mother Lolita and her daughter to Mexico to reunite with family they lost 34 years ago. Maya wants to use this experience to fight domestic violence and child abuse as well as create spaces for healing and support from our community. For more information about their story go here.

Instead of a birthday party this year with your help I am throwing a fundraiser for Lolo and her family to reunite with her 4 brothers and sisters that were kidnapped from her mother 34 years ago. This is the only thing I want for my birthday so please help make my wish come true!

So far for our silent auction we have:

-Warriors tickets donated by Lisa Marie
-a print and several goodies by artist Rio Yañez
-3 life coaching sessions valued at $100 each by Carmen Iñiguez & Colibri Coaching
-Burlesque class or performance at an event by Cherry Galette
-A meal for two at Lubaos Supper club donated by Irina Contreras and Nico Dacumos
-Dvds of the films ‘Pura Lengua’ and ‘Viernes Girl’ directed by Aurora Guerrero
-A dozen LadyCakes Cupcakes made by Anayvette Ladycakes Martinez

* ANd special Guests!

We will have yummy apetizers and we will be selling Sangria and asking for a $5-20 donation at the door. Please invite your friends and we are still taking auction donations and any other offerings you can think of!

Please share far and wide! More details to come!

Wonder Women Residency: New News is Old News

2011 is going to be a good year.  I can feel it already.  In addition to our upcoming presentation at the 2011 PCA/ACA Conference this April, Andria and I were also accepted to the Wonder Woman Residency at the _gaia studio, in New Jersey. Curated by Maya Joseph-Goteiner and Doris Caçoilo, this year’s theme is: New News is Old News.

New News is Old News
In our society, the importance of news has shifted; some would argue that it has been elasticized or else devalued. As the blogosphere replaces the daily newspaper as the purveyor and distributor of breaking news, the reporting of events is no longer filtered by the journalist/editor. Instead the voice of news is replaced by a dynamic exchange of information.

Already, online, the same article that has appeared black on white in the early print edition has been updated, corrected or even replaced on the web. Newspaper stories no longer fit the Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition of news as “a report of recent events: previously unknown information.” In many respects, we have created an endless source of updated information online, a bottomless pit of patter. We cannot possibly consume all the news and commentary published online, and while few people have the time to read the entire newspaper, even fewer can keep up with the minute-to-minute updates via Twitter, blogs, online publications, and RSS feeds.

A residency that focuses on the ways in which news is presented, represented, distributed, and modified within the space of the web…  hmm…  can you think of anything more perfect for us?

So what are we doing?

I won’t spill all the beans yet, but here is an excerpt from our preliminary proposal:

Our project takes its cue from the recent Buy Life Digital Death campaign, where celebrities volunteered their virtual lives (activity on Twitter and Facebook) with the goal of raising $1 million for children and families in Africa and India affected by HIV/AIDS. We were fascinated by their use of highly stylized, seductive images of Kim Kardashian (and other participating celebrities) lying in a coffin, and the role these images play in the dissemination of news coverage surrounding this HIV/AIDS campaign.

Almost immediately following Digital Death’s inception, images of  a “dead” Kardashian started appearing in news stories everywhere from CNN to Gawker. Now layered with multiple levels of  history and meaning, screenshots of the sultry Kardashian lying in a coffin, continue to be re-distributed on personal blogs, Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter pages…

Stay tuned for more project updates here and on Are You My Other?

AM + ME Open Studios

AM and I visit each other’s Studios on Are You My Other?

AM studio

ME Studio

Ian Weaver, The Black Knights of the Black Bottom, and Are You My Other?

On the afternoon of November 18, 2010, on the Island of Facebook, history was made…

in response to the Fat Free Elotera post:

Ian Weaver: I take ALL the credit for this (and future) collaborations between these two exceptional artists….! [just needed to make sure I put in that legal boilerplate stuff, just a formality]

Andria Morales: No doubt! We are eternally grateful to the prolific genius of Ian Weaver for the inspired notion of pairing us together.

Maya Escobar: YES!!! So true- we are Are You My Other? because of this Fine Man. We keep trying to figure out just how to pay homage… Latina Black Bottom promo girls? Just saying 🙂

Ian Weaver: By commenting on my post you have in effect given me the legal authority to profit in part from any future performances, lectures, presentations, and sales of related merchandise. I will work out the percentages later with my BB lawyer, but for conversation sake, let’s just say if you perform jointly at, say, the Mattress Factory or the Renaissance Society that I will net 33.33% of profits from said performance.

Again, I will get my BB lawyer to draw up the papers

Andria Morales: Did we just get served??? So much for the We ♥ BB Knights campaign…

Ian Weaver: Nooooo! You haven’t been served! I can’t do that online; you will be formally served in person presently (I think someone is at your door; delivery guy??? Flowers By Irene???)

Maya Escobar: I think a cut of all “BB profits” is totally fair and should be required.. LOL.. “profit” what an interesting concept… “to make money from art”… am I dreaming? But hey Ian if you can work us in to an of the aforementioned “performances, lectures, presentations, and sales of related merchandise” and oh “performances at, say, the Mattress Factory or the Renaissance Society” Are You My Other? would be eternally grateful.

Ian Weaver: Done! I am on the phone with Hamza was we speak. I will work the Pittsburgh angle after the holidays.

And seriously, fantastic work by both of you! I got on the blog; really interesting! I am having Maya present in my spring Research class for artists, and if I had the dough I would fly you out Andria and have you guys co-present. But, that would blow my transfer student’s minds!

Andria Morales: I think Maya and I meeting each other in person would blow OUR minds. Lets start a fundraiser!

Maya Escobar: Wow, wow, wow!!! Is it okay with the two of you if I screen-shot this convo and re-post? Ian, I am going to try to see if there are any opps to lecture in other SAIC departments that week so that we could get funding for Andria to come in.

Andria Morales: Summon your internet powers

Ian Weaver: GO FOR IT! I AM OPEN TO IT!!

Critical Mixed Race Studies on iTunesU

Camilla Fojas, Director of Latin American and Latino Studies at DePaul University

If you missed the Nov 5-6, 2010 “Emerging Paradigms in Critical Mixed Race Studies” conference or any of the keynote talks or the welcoming address, you can now download the videos here via iTunesU.

• November 5th Welcoming Remarks by DePaul’s Liberal Arts & Sciences Dean Charles Suchar and conference organizers Camilla Fojas, Wei Ming Dariotis, and Laura Kina.
• November 5th Keynote Address by Andrew Jolivette “Critical Mixed Race Studies: New Directions in the Politics of Race and Representation”
• November 6th Keynote Address by Mary Beltran “Everywhere and Nowhere: Mediated Mixed Race and Mixed Race Critical Studies”
• November 6th Keynote Address by Louie Gong “Halfs and Have Nots”

And here are links to recaps of the conference on Laura Kina’s and Jonathan Reinert’s blogs.

more soon…