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THANK YOU!

Our third edition of the festival was a blast and we feel thankful for the reception, participation and beautiful words we have received from you all.

We wanted to say THANK YOU.

We had 10 days of joy showing the work of 45 artists, international and local in 5 different venues in London and we received more than 2K people from different backgrounds and cultures… and of course Latinxs.

ENCUENTROS is the word that defined this edition of the festival, encounter of different generations, art expressions and cultures. We had a fabulous Luzmila Carpio, singing in Quechua to all ages and languages at the Milton Court, Barbican Centre. Drums and dance gathering LatinAmerican and Africa in a Bullerengue workshop and jam session with Mbilla Arts. We created a fantastic atmosphere expressing poetry in different ways: recital, dance and music at Latinx Poetics in Motion, 4 poets and open mics showed off the talent, Somos Chichas showed a performance worked with the drumming group Witchas Collective. In partnership with Rockfeedback, we proudly presented the twice Grammy-nominated and Polaris Prize-winning artist, Lido Pimienta. The Richmix was full of colours and rhythms with tropical jazz of Colectiva, hip hop of Desta French and the art exhibition of the afrocolombian artist Lilophilia and music by DJ Amancai. The premier of Salsa y Control, a performance directed by Venezuelan actress Gledys Ibarra. A thoughtful conversation with writers Yara Rodrigues and Jessica Sequeira about their new work. And of course a Big Bang party at Jazz Cafe, Candela Viva take over with Ms.Nina, Dj BushBBY and Dj Manuka Honey put everyone to dance all night long.

Our programming partners are fantastic and we feel absolutely proud of this collective work with Literary South, Movimientos, Cine Latino and Amalgama. We would like to give a special thanks to Candela Viva and its funder Janin Pineda for instigating that late party show.

Special thanks to the venues RichMix, Gnome House, Kings Place, Jazz Cafe and special thanks to the Barbican team who were absolutely inclusive and took us through a very interesting production, programming journey that taught us a lot!… Finally special thanks to our support organisations Café Los Hermanos, Instituto Cervantes for their constant support and a new collaboration that we hope to continue in the nearly future, Mbilla Arts. Finally, all of this was possible thanks to the funding of the Arts Council.

The most special ones, all the audience that made this festival a great fun and success, THANK YOU.

We hope to come back soon with more!

Tere Chad

Last summer we had the opportunity to meet artist Tere Chadwick in one of her solo exhibitions here in London. ‘In My Dreams,’ her solo exhibition at Zari Gallery in which she showcased a serie of surreal figures ambiguously positioned somewhere between physical space and dream.

Chilean artist María Teresa Chadwick Irarrazaval is co-founder of the ‘Latinos Creative Society’ at the University of the Arts London and founder of ‘Alter Us’, a multidisciplinary collective focused on challenges created by Anthropocene; Sustainability, Connection, Individualism, Capitalism, Nature vs Tech.

Tere promotes Latin-American art and culture abroad, she came to London looking for a change in her live and found a cosmopolita society where art had a place to be created and seen. She has recently been shortlisted for the Sustainability First Art Prize.

She wanted to share with us an interview she had with Adam Feinstein, biographiest of Pablo Neruda and specialised in Latin American literature.

 

Would you like to volunteer with us?

Hello, we are on the search for enthusiastic volunteers to welcome into our small festival family. We are looking for help in areas that are now becoming more popular and that require creative and fresh ideas: online communication.

We are a small team working to create visibility of the work of women in arts. This is a small organisation that was born in 2019 and we are hoping to keep active and creative during this challenging time, specially in culture and arts sector.

What will you gain from this volunteering?

  • A chance to make a difference and help a small project to grow with your input.
  • Communication and marketing skills.
  • Opportunity to see your ideas becoming a real in a project.
  • Develop your CV.

Please let us know if you would be willing to volunteer at least 8 hours per week. We are flexible with the hours and everything will be remotely:

Communication Coordinator:

  • Update website.
  • Collaborate with Newsletter.
  • Help to increase and monitor the newsletter stats.
  • Increase press contacts.
  • Oversees and manages social media presence together with the Marketing Team and Director.

Requirements:

  • Good verbal and written communication skills in English. Spanish or Portuguese will be a good plus but not required.
  • Creative and team player.
  • Experience using Mailchimp and WordPress.

Reporting to:

Director

Please send us your CV and cover letter to our email: [email protected]

¡Gracias!

Our Wall at London Mural Festival

We have curated 3 artists to participate at the London Mural Festival creating a colourful 12 Mts mural to reflect the nature and culture of Latinamerican artists.

The mural is a collaborative work made by 3 LatinAmerican artists dedicated to women and nature. Vanesa Moncayo (Colombia), Janin Pineda (Colombia) and Tiz Creel (Mexico) used different elements of the Latinamerican culture to create a colourful piece in the middle of Goswell Road, EC1V 7DB.

Vanesa Moncayo (@Vane_MG) was inspired by the innocence and strength of the Woman. She mixed natural aspects of the colombian culture with an urban style to reflect her experience in London. Janin Pineda (@_janiru) based her composition on women’s and nature’s cycles to represent the origin of life using elements from pre-Colombian culture. Tiz Creel (@Tizcreel) took inspiration from the magical realism of Mexico to tell a story of magic and life. 

This mural is part of the London Mural Festival, a new festival in London that welcomed over 150 artists from around the world, painting 50 plus large-scale walls across the capital.

The mural will be up for a couple of months, don’t miss it!

Supported by: Arts Council, Global Street Art and the Mexican Embassy in London.

 

Introducing… FLAWA at Home

We’ve gone digital!

In response to Covid-19 restrictions, we’re very excited to announce the re-launch of some of our FLAWA 2020 events as part of FLAWA at Home, the online festival edition.

The following online events will be streamed worldwide via Zoom:

Q&A with Natalia Cabral: Increasing Gender Inclusivity in the Film Industry

Poetry Night: Latinx Poetry at Home with FLAWA

Conversation with Ariana Harwicz & Gabriela Cabezón Cámara: The Role of Translation (event in Spanish)

Talk: Sofia Clausse on The Intersection of Nature and Art + Q&A

View all events and sign up to join us here.

 

Female-directed Brazilian films to watch in lockdown

FLAWA volunteer and Brazilian filmmaker, Chaiana Furtado has pulled together a fantastic list of Brazilian films from female directors that you can stream from home – for free.

We’ll be updating the list as we go, so please do check back each week.

Here are 11 short films to brighten up a lonely day. Click on each title to watch.

 

Short Films

 

Batuque na Cozinha (Kitchen Beat)
Anna Azevedo, 2004 (Brazil) 18 mins

Aunt Eunice, Aunt Doca, Aunt Surica. The history of samba goes through the backyard, the kitchen and the lives of these women who ran the Portela Samba School, where the greatest stars once danced.

 

Diva
Clara Bastos, 2016 (Brazil) 18 mins

Camila moves into Bella’s boarding house, where she gets to know the life and soul of the drag queens who live there in this stylised short fiction film.

DIVA Clara Bastos, 2016 (Brazil) 18 mins

 

Torre (Tower)
Nádia Mangolini, 2017 (Brazil) 18 mins

Four siblings recount their childhood memories in this four-part animated film centred around the brutal disappearance of their father during the Brazilian military dictatorship. Delicate drawings and subtle animation techniques bring us face to face with the reality of a régime which destroyed men, women and children, reliving the story of a country through that of one single family.

 

Cores e Botas (Colours & Boots)
by Juliana Vicente, 2010 (Brazil) 15 mins

Joana has the same dream as all young Brazilian girls in the ’80s: she wants to be a Paquita, a dancer on Xuxa’s TV show. Her family is wealthy, and will support her. However, there is a problem. She is black, and Xuxa never had a black Paquita on her team.

 

 

Meninas (In)visíveis ((In)visible Girls)
Isabela Aleixo and Karla Suarez, 2018 (Brazil) 18 mins

(In)visible Girls looks at the experiences, stories and perceptions of girls who are serving in a detention center for adolescents in Rio de Janeiro. Made by women united by the desire to talk about the invisibility of incarcerated girls, it uses imagination and sensibility to portray its subjects without showing their faces.

 

Superbarroco
Renata Pinheiro, 2008 (Brazil) 17 mins

Pinheiro builds a world of illusions which mix and interfere with reality, portraying the longing for something that no longer exists or that never existed, in the already perplexed consciousness of a lonely man.

 

Projeto 68 (Project 68)
Julia Mariano, 2008 (Brazil) 13 mins

Rio de Janeiro, 1968. The student movement leads the biggest demonstrations against the dictatorship, growing since the death of student Edson Luís and peaking at the Hundred Thousand Parade. With images by Glauber Rocha, Silvio Da-rin, Arnaldo Jabour and photographs by Pedro de Moraes and Evandro Teixeira, Project 68 travels back in time through image and sound.

 

Jegues (Donkeys)
Chris Agnese and Gil Chagas, 2015 (Brazil) 15 mins

The donkey, the great labourer of the dry Sertão planes of northeast Brazil used to work side by side with the northeastern man, a tireless, mild-mannered worker with unshakable persistence when it came to harvesting the lands. They became brothers, mirroring one another. Today, with progress and easy access to credit, the donkey has been abandoned, replaced by motorcycles, left to wander the fields and roads where he has become one of the main causes for traffic accidents in the region.

Jegues (Donkeys)Chris Agnese and Gil Chagas

 

Sem Coração (Heartless)
Nara Normande, Tião, 2014 (Brazil) 26 mins

Léo goes to spend the holidays with his cousin who lives in a fishing village. There, he meets a girl who goes by the nickname Heartless.

Sem Coração (Heartless)Nara Normande

 

Luna and Cinara
Clara Linhart, 2012 (Brazil) 15 mins

Luna and Cinara go to the movies. An intimate and heartwarming look inside a household in Rio de Janeiro’s upper-class Leblon neighbourhood.

 

Na esquina da minha rua favourite com a tua (Wherever our favourite streets meet)
Alice Name Bomtempo, 2017 (Brazil)

Helena went to the cinema and there she met Tainá. Everything that happened afterwards was just an almost, but, for some reason, it wasn’t. Or maybe it was. This short film is a pastel-soft story of queer courting. Password: esquinas

FLAWA 2020 postponed

FLAWA supporters,

Thank you for your enthusiasm and patience during these uncertain times.

As I’m sure you’re aware, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge effect on the arts and hospitality industries and some of the world’s most famous festivals have had to be cancelled or postponed.

As the FLAWA Team, we are responsible for the welfare of our audience and artists. We’ve thought long and hard about this, and considering the circumstances, it is with extreme sadness and that we will postpone the Festival of Latin American Women in Arts until later in the year.

Please don’t be disheartened. Looking out for everyone’s health and safety, especially those who are most vulnerable, does not mean you won’t hear from us. FLAWA ensures our commitment to the work of women through other media in the interim, so keep an eye and an ear out on social media and on our website. We are with you through these sensitive times!

We will keep monitoring the situation and government measures and keep you updated on any developments. We hope you stay safe and healthy, following preventive measures from your local authorities, and using this time for reflection and recuperation, where possible.

We will be back soon, to celebrate life and health and art 🌻

Con mucho cariño,

The FLAWA team

FLAWA – Launch party with Riobamba

#FLAWA2020 returns in May 2020 and to get you warmed up we’ve put together a night of female power at global arts space, EartH (Evolutionary Arts Hackney). It’s set to be a lively night of Latin American pride, fashion, feeling and groove! 🥳🌻

Come and dance with us in celebration of Latinx women in arts, with Riobamba whizzing from NYC to bring joy and resistance in a futuristic club set, stylish angel Princess Prada wooing us on the mic with her high-drama reggaeton performance, and our beloved London-based DJ and visual artist Bushbby on decks. 🤩

The evening will raise money for the next instalment of the Festival of Latin American Women in Arts, a not-for-profit that aims to elevate and celebrate the work of Latin American women in the UK capital.

More info on the artists:

Riobamba‘s rowdy, deeply researched live sets reflect nightlife’s power as a site of joy and resistance, amplifying connective tissues between YouTube clips, bodega soundtracks, and noise hyperreality, “suped up with a twisted, industrial gnarl” (Complex). The Fader has called her production work “a radically self-expressive piece of futurism that stands against a single, boxed-in definition of what Latinx club music can be.”

Princess Prada is a London and Stockholm-based Latinx artist. Her lyrics portray the hassles and intrigues of a flamboyant Latin American art scene obsessed with getting somewhere in the international contemporary art scene. A voice that talks of crappy day-jobs, filling out art forms, vertical vs transversal love relations of a sapiosexual leaning towards the horizontal.

BUSHBBY – Artist and DJ Bushbby channels the sounds of her Colombian heritage to bring Afro-Latin grooves and Carribean heat to UK dancefloors.

Tickets available here

Join us to this happy launch party 🙌🏽🌻

FLAWA’s Latinx Literary Fanzine is now available

There is still a long path to gender parity in the literary world – not to mention the artistic world in general – but with FLAWA festival and this fanzine we are adding our star to the constellation of initiatives that womxn are doing around the world.
Silvia Rothlisberger, Literary South

 

Edited by FLAWA Literary director, Silvia Rothlisberger of Literary South, the Latinx Literary Fanzine is a physical collection of the literary events from FLAWA festival 2019.

 

Featuring works from the eight female and gender diverse Latin American poets who performed during the festival, a short interview with each artist, poems created during the festival workshop and highlights from the two literary Q&As, this zine is also invigorated by new works of illustration by Mitucami Mituca and Francesca Tiley.

 

We launched the zine in September at the Bread & Roses, with an open mic poetry session and music from FLAWA collaborator  DJ Amancai. Guests also enjoyed a fascinating Literary South interview with Brazilian author Luiza Sauma about her second novel ‘Everything You Ever Wanted’. You can listen back to the episode, which covers privilege, depression, online dating, being a millennial in the literary sphere and science fiction, below.

 

We also sold copies at the wonderful London Spanish Book & Zine Fair in early October, alongside friends from La Tundra, De Lujurias y Musas, Feminist Library, LAWRS, El Ojo de la Cultura and many, many more.

 

 

Listen back to the Literary South interview with author Luiza Sauma here:

 

 

This weekend catch us here

We will be at the festival El Sueño Existe in Machynlleth 

This year the festival is focused on feminism and Mexico.

We will be speaking on Saturday 17th at 7:15pm at Victor Jara’s room about Latin-American Women in Arts and the way of using arts to make changes.

If you are around join us to this talk and lets get together to discuss about it and more.

Visit the website of the festival for more information: https://elsuenoexiste.wordpress.com

See you there!