EcoCultura Initiative Shines Spotlight on Local Climate Issues
Miami, Oct. 23, 2019 – Miami Dade College’s (MDC) MDC Live Arts announces EcoCultura — a series of performances featuring dynamic dance, theater, spoken word, and music events that spark action, advocacy, and dialogue around local environmental challenges. For nearly three decades, MDC Live Arts has presented innovative, revelatory artists who offer audiences the opportunity to discover fresh perspectives and new forms of expression. This season’s EcoCultura proudly continues the tradition.
“With the climate crisis unraveling before our eyes, we at MDC Live Arts have deeply considered how our work reflects and responds to the environmental challenges we’re facing,” said Kathryn Garcia, MDC Live Arts’ Executive Director. “EcoCultura centers on the arts as a catalyst for social change by engaging audiences in discourse, building alliances with local partners, and activating pathways for MDC students to lead the way in climate advocacy.”
MDC Live Arts’ EcoCultura season opens Nov. 15 -17 with renowned animation artist and performer Miwa Matreyek. At the cross section of fantastical cinema and classic theater, Matreyek’s new work, Infinitely Yours, weaves together dreamy interpretations of current climate headlines, including destructive weather systems, the uncontrolled spread of pollution, and the loss of natural habitats. Matreyek will also perform Myth & Infrastructure, an animated world of oceanscapes, cityscapes, and domestic spaces that she traverses in surreal scenes of light and color. Matreyek presents Infinitely Yours as a very special preview of the upcoming full-length piece that she will begin touring internationally in January 2020.
The Live Arts Lab Alliance (LALA) Artist-in-Residence Program returns at the start of the spring 2020 semester, welcoming a new cohort of locally-based professional artists who’ve been selected to create new works addressing environmental issues. LALA proudly supports artists by providing space, community, and context within which to explore ideas and produce art. Throughout 2020, LALA artists will regularly participate in cohort gatherings and engage in workshops, conversations, and community activations.
This spring, Emmy Award-winning writer/director/activist Josh Fox will visit MDC Live Arts for an intensive two-week residency and performance run of his acclaimed one-man show, The Truth Has Changed. Fox uses his master storytelling skills to trace his own personal arc from the events of 9/11 to present-day America. From his experiences as a first responder during 9/11, to his groundbreaking reporting on fracking, to Hurricane Sandy, the sweat lodges of Standing Rock, and beyond, Fox offers EcoCultura audiences a complex, funny, and dynamic landscape in which — The Truth Has Changed.
In honor of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day in April 2020, MDC Live Arts will cap off its 2019-20 season with an arts-meets-environmental-activism celebration at Matheson Hammock Park. The event will feature National Water Dance, a renowned “movement choir” dance project founded by Miami-based choreographer Dale Andree that will be performed simultaneously across the United States — from Puerto Rico to Hawaii, from Alaska to New York — the day of the festival. National Water Dance utilizes dance as a vehicle for social change and mobilizes communities to join together in movement for the planet. Since its inception in 2014, National Water Dance has become one of the nation’s top eco performing arts projects.
Throughout its 2019-20 season, MDC Live Arts will also offer EarthTalks, a speaker/film series of educational and community-building conversations on topics exploring the climate crisis and the ways in which the arts community — audiences and creators working together — can build positive change. As a compliment to EarthTalks, MDC Live Arts will present the EcoCultura Challenge, a framework for empowering MDC students to become community leaders and models of sustainable living. The EcoCultura Challenge offers students a checklist of green-friendly, community-building activities, including beach clean-ups, energy conversation activations, and waste reduction group projects. The community will be able to follow the students’ progress on social media — encouraging, supporting, and joining them in their efforts to become responsible stewards and role models.
MDC Live Arts 2019-20 Season:
Miwa Matreyek
Glorious visions in animation and performance weaving together narratives of humanity and nature Friday, November 15 at 8 p.m. / Saturday, November 16 at 8 p.m. / Sunday, November 17 at 3 p.m.
MDC Live Arts Lab at Miami Dade College Wolfson Campus
300 NE 2nd Ave., Building 1, Miami, FL 33132
Ticket/info link: www.mdclivearts.org
>> Click here for photos and for video.
Live Arts Lab Alliance (LALA)
MDC Live Arts commissions new works from Miami artists to respond to local environmental issues
Residency: January – December 2020
Accepting applications beginning on October 4, 2019
Application deadline: November 17, 2019
Info link: www.mdclivearts.org
>> Click here for photos and video.
Josh Fox and The Truth Has Changed
A nationally acclaimed one-man show exploring the connection between the events of the last decade in America and the progression of the climate crisis
Thursdays through Saturdays, March 12-14 & 19-21, 2020 at 8 p.m.
Sundays, March 15 & 22, 2020 at 3 p.m.
MDC Live Arts Lab at Miami Dade College Wolfson Campus
300 NE 2nd Ave., Building 1, Miami, FL 33132
Ticket/info link: www.mdclivearts.org
>> Click here for photos and video.
Earth Day Celebration
An arts-meets-environmental-activism bonanza featuring National Water Dance
Saturday, April 18, 2020 at 3 p.m.
Matheson Hammock Park
9610 Old Cutler Road, Coral Gables, FL 33156
Info link: www.mdclivearts.org
>> Click here for photos and video.
EcoCultura
Info link: www.mdclivearts.org/ecocultura/
>> Click here for photos and video.
Stay tuned to www.MDCLiveArts.org for EcoCultura season announcements and updates throughout fall 2019 and spring 2020.
To purchase tickets and learn more about the 2019-20 MDC Live Arts Season, call 305-237-3010 or visit mdclivearts.org.
MDC Live Arts is Miami’s most eclectic performing arts series. Created in 1990 as Cultura del Lobo, MDC Live Arts has a celebrated history of bringing extraordinary national and international performing artists to Miami. The annual series presents today’s most exciting artists and designs meaningful engagement between these artists, the students of MDC, and the greater community. MDC Live Arts seeks artists from across the globe who push boundaries and honor traditions relevant to Miami’s diverse community and aims to offer audiences opportunities to discover new ideas, perspectives, and forms of expression. For more information, please visit www.mdclivearts.org.
The programs of MDC Live Arts Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council; the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners; the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture; the National Endowment for the Arts; National Performance Network (NPN); the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. MDC Live Arts is a Partner of the National Performance Network (NPN). Major NPN contributors include the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
MDC Live Arts Contact: Lisa Palley, Palley Promotes, 305-642-3132, lpalley@bellsouth.net.