Tune in to Lumpen Radio 105.5 FM for Sala: A Living Room of Ideas, a live radio broadcast presented by Silvia Inés Gonzalez, the administrator of POCAS (People of Color Artist Space). The program features members of Marimacha Monarca Press, Selva Zafiro Luna and Sarita Maritza Hernández, with curators of the Amigas Latinas Forever exhibition, Amanda Cervantes and Jose Luis Benavides, talking about archives and what it means to be culture keepers of queer stories.
How do we define archives and what is the importance of reclaiming or revisiting the concept of archives? How do queer archives help create spaces for resilience and transformation? What are the connections between the work of Latinas Amigas and Marimacha Monarca Press? How do art practices help us stay in communion/community as we navigate rage, resilience, joy, and resistance?
Marimacha Monarca Press (MMP) is a queer & trans familia artist collective based in Chicago’s South Side since 2017. While located in the McKinley Park clock tower, MMP travels across Chicago to provide workshops in printmaking, seed paper making, piñata making, book-binding, and zine-making as a means of self publication, communication, and reflection. Working alongside themes of queerness, race, language, migration, accessibility, and visual storytelling, MMP’s hope is to illustrate and illuminate the power of collective histories.
Amanda Cervantes is a Chicago-based queer visual artist, curator, and writer. They center their artistic practice on exploring queer temporalities, family histories, and personal archives through image making. Cervantes has exhibited at the Gerber/Hart Library and Archive, Art at a Time Like This, Chicago Art Department, Ontario College of Art and Design, and Terrain Biennial.
Jose Luis Benavides is a Latinx and queer photographer, moving image maker and lecturer for the City Colleges of Chicago. Working primarily with a range of personal archives, his work explores issues relating to gender, sexuality, culture, and migration. His work has been exhibited at the Gerber/Hart Library and Archives, the Chicago Art Department, and the International Museum of Surgical Science.
Sala is an ongoing talk series anchoring the stories of artists in Chicago through topics such as grief, labor, immigration, and movement building. The multimedia project, now in its second season, includes radio interviews, public programming, and an archival self-published zine. It is supported by Hyde Park Art Center’s Artists Run Chicago Fund as part of Art Design Chicago.
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An initiative of the Terra Foundation for American Art in partnership with artists and organizations across the city, Art Design Chicago is a series of events and exhibitions that highlight the city’s artistic heritage and creative communities.
