About this Event
Through interviews with Latina lesbian elders—writers, chefs, artists, lawyers, lovers, parents, and leaders—poet Denice Frohman will listen to and create a poetic tapestry from these stories of love, family, and sexuality. Trained by Columbia University's Center for Oral History through her work as a Baldwin-Emerson Fellow, Denice will also work with archival collections to research queer Latina history.
The title Esto No Tiene Nombre honors that history by taking on the name of a revolutionary Latina lesbian magazine created by the bicultural writer tatiana de la tierra in the 1990's. Mindful of the lessons of pandemic—that life is fragile and that our survival depends on the collective—Denice hopes to build meaningful relationships with these beloved elders, adding their memories and insights to a larger human archive which far too often leaves Latinx queer elders out.
Denice partners with queer Latino theater-maker Alex Torra (director/co-creator) to synthesize the remembrances and histories of the elders with her own discoveries, developing a story arc and weaving them into a one-person show. Trans Puerto Rican sound artist Nic Rodriguez-Villafañe (musical collaborator) scores the piece, bringing the stories to life in a moving portrait where sound meets verse.
About the Artists
Denice Frohman is a poet, performer, and educator from New York City. A Threshold Fellow at Headlands Center for the Arts, she’s received support from CantoMundo, the National Association of Latino Arts & Cultures, Leeway Foundation, Blue Mountain Center, and Millay Colony.
Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The BreakBeat Poets: LatiNext, Nepantla: An Anthology for Queer Poets of Color, ESPNW and elsewhere. A former Women of the World Poetry Slam Champion, she’s featured on hundreds of national and international stages from The Apollo to The White House. She lives in Philadelphia.
Alex Torra is a Miami-born, Philadelphia-based director, performer, producer, and educator. He is the Co-Founder and Resident Director of Team Sunshine Performance Corporation, where he serves as one of the company’s primary administrators and has directed all of the company’s full-length works including PUNCHKAPOW, JAPANAMERICA WONDERWAVE, HENRY IV: YOUR PRINCE AND MINE, and THE SINCERITY PROJECT (parts 1 and 2), and ¡BIENVENIDOS BLANCOS! OR WELCOME WHITE PEOPLE!. Alex is also an Associate Artist and former Associate Artistic Director of Pig Iron Theatre Company, where he has worked as Performer/Creator and Creative Producer on many of the company’s works over the last 10 years. Alex has received fellowships from the Independence Foundation, the Philadelphia Live Arts Brewery, the Princess Grace Foundation (the Grace Le Vine Theatre Award), Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and NY's Drama League. He received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and his M.F.A. in Directing from Brown University. Alex currently serves a Visiting Assistant Professor of Theatre at Swarthmore College, where he directs often and teaches Solo Performance and Acting.
Nic Rodriguez-Villafañe is a nonbinary, Florida raised, Philly based Boricua. They are a writer, educator, DJ and brujx. For more than a decade they have served the community as a social justice organizer and researcher. A former Leeway Foundation Arts & Change grant recipient, their writing has been featured in The Gordian Review, Philadelphia Inquirer and N.A.S.W. Journal. Nic holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Rutgers University and is currently a PHD candidate at University California at San Diego in Theatre and Drama Department. They are a co-editor for Sana, Sana: Latinx Pain and Radical Visions for Healing & Justice which will be published by Common Notions Press in the Spring of 2023. As a true Scorpio sun/Aries moon, Nic has a million passion projects, but their main love is rooted in deep, watery poems.
Esto No Tiene Nombre is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Christ Church Neighborhood House, 20 N. American Street, Philadelphia, United States
USD 15.00 to USD 25.00
