In her first post for Welcome2TheBronx, Vanessa Ferreira (aka Vanessa Chica to most of us) brings us a new play, Soledad Speaks, which opens up downtown this week.
With over 20% of the Bronx’s population of Puerto Rican decent, AND the fact that poets Merriam Rodriguez and JF Seary are Bronxites, this is sure to be of major local interest to many.
Read what Vanessa has to say about the piece:
The Universe has brought me the opportunity to work as the stage manager for the production of Soledad Speaks, at a time that I needed to become involved in something spiritual, something magical. I needed to observe the sharing and the love that goes on during the rehearsals.
The laughter, the breakdowns, the tears. For this I am grateful.
As I sit and watch and listen to each piece of “magic” I feel connected, Inspired transported back into time and catapulted into the future while remaining in the present.
Embracing their emotions, there is no lack of goose-bumps.
Their stories are my grandmother’s stories, my mother’s stories, my stories, your stories.
They have devoted and sacrificed endless hours of creating and practicing, digging deep into their souls simply because there is a need, a need for these stories to be heard.
These stories are our stories, our forgotten stories. Let’s hear them.
Vanessa Ferreira (Vanessa Chica)
Soledad Speaks is spoken word theater at its best. This evolutionary and revolutionary stage play is created, curated, and directed by award-winning writer, Linda Nieves-Powell, and features the poetry of four dynamic female poets; Merriam Rodriguez, Maria Rodriguez, Peggy Robles-Alvarado, and JF Seary. The journey begins during the seventeeth century on the Island of Puerto Rico and ends in modern day New York City. By revisiting the colonization of an Island and the effects on its women, and their journey from slavery, to rebellion, to freedom, Soledad Speaks’ pays homage to those who came before us in the hopes of understanding how their legacy has defined who we are today.
Soledad Speaks
Theater IATI located at 64 E. 4th street NYC
Oct 8th-13th
www.soledadspeaks.com
#soledadspeaks
