Thank you to everyone that has donated and helped us reach our goal! With your help, we have raised $4,110 to help fund the expansion of our Carcelera Project. With your feedback, we are continuing to imagine the impact of this project and we are excited to begin designing the educational curriculum. We are still actively accepting donations above.
Clinard Dance has a history of engaging community to foster continued curiosity in the art of Flamenco, while providing safe spaces to explore ideas of place, belonging, and how the creation of art can provide solace and create change within a community. We use flamenco as a starting point and a tool to explore and create interdisciplinary work because flamenco has always been a tool for community and personal expression; air grievances and express displeasure in what's happening in society – it is a means of social expression to elicit change. Through Flamenco we can connect with other means of expression that excite social change; Hip Hop, Rap, Jazz, Blues, Footwork, and Tap – among others. Flamenco is ever evolving, because of this it naturally lends itself to collaboration and connection with contemporary performance styles. The interplay and similarities in these expressions formed the basis and the idea for the Carcelera Project.
Video credit: Erin Turney
What is the Carcelera Project? It is rooted in community, history and the idea that artists create change. “Carcelera” is a flamenco style of singing and dancing. Lyrics are related to and of prison and prisoners’ issues in Roma culture; the form is upwards of 500 years old and has continued to evolve through flamenco history. Listen here to an example of the historical form. The first creative seed came from meeting Hip Hop artist King Moosa through Illinois Prison Project’s Director of Education Renaldo Hudson. These relationships naturally aligned and were forged through Wendy Clinard’s personal work in chaplaincy. Through the Carcelera Project we have created five original dance and music compositions over the past 2 years. See a timeline below of our performances and partnerships:
-Summer 2022 in conjunction with Night Out In The Parks performed in Back Of The Yards Park, Sherwood Park/Englewood and part of El Paseo’s Harvest Festival. Partnered with Precious Blood Ministries.
- Summer 2023 in conjunction with Night Out In The Parks performed in Back Of The Yards Park, Sherwood Park/Englewood and Fosco Park/Pilsen. Partnered with Precious Blood Ministries and Heartland Alliance’s Fully Free Campaign (an effort to end perpetual punishment post incarceration).
- University of Chicago’s Arts and Public Life’s Greenline Performing Arts Center this November 2023. Click here to watch our talk back with artists moderated by Mike Allemana (guitarist and ethnomusicologist).
-Summer 2024 this project returns to Back Of The Yards, this time at Davis Park on Aug 10th in conjunction with Back Of The Yards Neighborhood Council’s Back to School event as well as Dvorak and Fosco Parks in Pilsen.
Links: https://fullyfree.org/, https://www.pbmr.org/, https://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/events/night-out-in-the-parks, https://artsandpubliclife.org/
Click the link below to listen to King Moosa rap to bulerias.
Clip of a rehearsal session between King Moosa and Diego Alvarez.
Click the link below to learn more about King Moosa’s story, his work, and his affiliations with Clinard Dance.
