South African acrobats fly high in Children’s Theatre production of ‘Moya’
By Myah Goff,
18 days ago
The Twin Cities art scene this weekend will spotlight a mix of acrobatics, activism and visual storytelling. From a South African-inspired circus performance at the Children’s Theatre to murals preserved from the 2020 George Floyd protests and photography by Latinx immigrants at the University of Minnesota, these shows explore themes of community, identity and resilience.
Moya 2023 at The Teatro at Montecasino in Johannesburg, South Africa. Credit: Joan Ward
Circus show blends acrobatics and South African music
The Children’s Theatre Company is presenting “Moya,” an acrobatic show by the South African Zip Zap Circus . The production combines acrobatics with jugglers, unicycle dancers and gumboot dancers set against the backdrop of Cape Town and accompanied by Josh Hawks’ original South African pop score.
Directed by Brent Van Rensburg, co-founder of Zip Zap Circus School, “Moya” is inspired by the life of performer Jacobus Claassen, who ran away from home as a teenager and lived on the streets of Cape Town before joining the circus in 2009. The cast also features gymnast Luqmaan Benjamin, unicyclist Matthew Risk and Vuyani Lottering, who began juggling in Nyanga, South Africa.
Date: Through October 20
Time: 7 p.m. Thursday-Friday, 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 5 p.m. Sunday
Free in Color Arts, Youth Painters, Until the Color of Your Skin is the Target, 2022. CVS, 1010 W. Lake St. Credit: Easton M. Green
Art show highlights community murals from George Floyd protests
The Katherine E. Nash Gallery at the University of Minnesota is presenting “Art and Artifact: Murals from the Minneapolis Uprising.” The exhibition showcases a selection of the plywood murals that adorned the Twin Cities in 2020 in response to George Floyd’s murder.
Curated by Amira McLendon , the exhibit includes a community-created mural led by artist Seitu Jones in St. Paul and a piece created at Gordon Parks High School by Khalique Rogers and Asha Cadeey titled “We Matter, Protect Us, Love Us.”
The exhibit is part of Leesa Kelly’s Memorialize the Movement collection, which includes over 1,000 pieces documenting the protests and its impact on the community.
Latinx immigrants share their stories through photography
The Quarter Gallery at the University of Minnesota is presenting “Viewfinder / Miradores,” a photography exhibit showcasing the work of 11 Latinx immigrant artists. The show, organized by Serpentina Arts , a Latinx artist collective founded by Minneapolis artist Maria Cristina Tavera in 2019, provides a platform for artists to share both their visual work and the personal stories behind it.
Sebastian Alfonzo , program manager at Serpentina Arts and co-curator of the exhibit, said the project initially began as an oral history initiative.
“Our goal was to collect these photographs and develop these hour-long conversations with the artists just to build this collection of oral history and photography,” Alfonzo said. “The fact that it’s a show is really wonderful and sort of exceeded my expectations.”
Alfonzo’s background in filmmaking and photography informs his work with Serpentina Arts, an organization founded to address disparities in grant funding for Latinx artists in Minnesota. He credits Jessica Lopez Lyman , a professor of Chicano and Latino studies and an adviser on the project, for encouraging its expansion into a full exhibit.
The exhibit highlights immigrant photographers from Mexico, Venezuela and Columbia, most of whom are members of Serpentina Arts. Alfonzo, who is originally from Valencia, Venezuela, noted that the focus on immigrant artists developed naturally during the process.
“Once we started to think about who would be on the project, we realized that all of these photographers are immigrants,” he said. “It seemed crazy not to address that or think about that as we wrote the questions.” These in-depth conversations with the artists reveal the technical and creative processes behind each piece, creating a dialogue between the images and their narratives.
Curated by Lyman, Tavera and Alfonzo, “Viewfinder / Miradores” amplifies immigrant voices in the Twin Cities art scene. It provides a space for artists to reflect on their experiences, while showcasing the diversity within Latinx art.
“When I moved here in 2004, there was a pretty rigid notion of what a Latinx person looked like,” Alfonzo said. “There weren’t many Venezuelans here, at least not that I met, so I felt like Latinx wasn’t as broad of a category as it is now, and I think we still need to do more work to understand the cultural differences within our community.”
“Latinx art isn’t one thing,” he said. “It’s concert photography, portraits, landscapes, abstract imagery, multimedia work, street photography — all of this is displayed intentionally to paint that picture of diversity within our community.”
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