The Barber of East L.A.

The Barber of East L.A.

Visions and Voices: The USC Arts & Humanities Initiative

Friday, April 11, 2008; Saturday, April 12, 2008

University Park Campus
Ground Zero Coffeehouse

Free. RSVP is requested. To RSVP for Friday, April 11, click here. To RSVP for Saturday, April 12, click here.

Don’t miss the first full-length production by Butchlalis de Panochtitlan, a sketch-driven, multimedia ensemble that explores stories of love, loss, work and play in L.A.'s queer-of-color communities.

Friday, April 11, 7-9 p.m.

Saturday, April 12, 6-8 p.m. (The opening of the Hector Silva Retrospective will follow).

Butchlalis de Panochtitlan (BdP) explores the queer-of-color neighborhoods of Los Angeles and its suburban peripheries. In The Barber of East L.A., directed by MacArthur Fellow Luis Alfaro, the furious foursome calls Chicano history into question while tipping its hat to the Chicano punk scene and the rise of such grassroots spaces as Self Help Graphics. Framed historically by the Chicano Moratorium against the Vietnam War, the death of Ruben Salazar and the impending election of Ronald Reagan to the White House, The Barber of East L.A. weaves outsider narratives into a striking tapestry and honors BdP’s predecessors by sharing these local histories as they collide with mainstream and underground records.

The event will be presented as part of the series "Records y Recuerdos: Music and Memory in Queer in East L.A." Additional events include:

• Revoluciones Per Minute. Tuesday, October 30
• Eastside Stories: Queer Latina/o Art and Activism in East L.A. Thursday, March 6
• A Hector Silva Retrospective. Saturday, April 12, through Tuesday, May 20

Organized by Karen Tongson (English and Gender Studies) and Raquel Gutierrez (Center for Feminist Research). Co-sponsored by the One National Gay & Lesbian Archives, the LGBT Resource Center, the Popular Music Project at the USC Norman Lear Center and Make/shift Magazine.