Album Release We Have Iré Original Cast Recording
Music by Yosvany Terry
Words by Paul S. Flores
Featuring DJ Leydis, Christin Eve Cato, Denmis Bain and Ramón Ramos Alayo
Meet the Artists at a LIVESTREAM EVENT on Facebook (@miamilightproject) on September 18, 2021, at 7:30 pm EDT – featuring the Making-Of video by filmmaker AMÍLCAR NAVARRO.
WE HAVE IRÉ was created by poet, performance artist, playwright PAUL S. FLORES with original music by Grammy-winning alto saxophonist, percussionist, composer YOSVANY TERRY.
WE HAVE IRÉ was recorded in May 2021 at the Samurai Hotel Recording Studio in Queens, New York, by Terry’s quartet, consisting of first-call New York musicians: JAVI SANTIAGO (piano), MATT BREWER (bass), and MARK WHITFIELD, JR. (drums/percussion), with a special-guest turn by legendary Cuban diva XIOMARA LAUGART. Additional recording was done in June at Patio de Ochún Studio in Alameda, CA.
The original cast recording was co-commissioned by Miami Light Project, National Performance Network (NPN), Pregones/PRTT and MACLA/Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana.
Paul S. Flores is one of the most influential Latino performance artists in the country and a nationally respected youth arts educator. He creates plays, oral narratives, and spoken word works about transnationality and citizenship that spur and support societal movements that lead to change.
Flores’ work has played all across the United States and internationally in Cuba, Mexico, and El Salvador. His commissions have come from the California Arts Council, Creative Capital, La Peña Cultural Center, MACLA, MAP Fund, Pregones Theater, National Association of Latino Arts and Culture, National Performance Network Creation Fund, National Endowment for the Arts, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, the San Francisco Arts Commission, Creative Work Fund, Hewlett and Gerbode Foundation, Youth Speaks, the San Francisco International Arts Festival, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts among many others. Flores is also known for playing professional baseball for the Chicago Cubs before moving to San Francisco and becoming co-founder of the Latino poetry performance group Los Delicados, as well as co-founder of Youth Speaks/Brave New Voices: National Teen Poetry Slam, an HBO Def Poetry Slam poet, a PEN award-winning novelist, and a 2015 Doris Duke Artist.
“We Have Iré” explores the real lives of Afro-Cuban and Cuban-American transnational artists living in the United States, and their influence on and experience with American culture. “On The Hill: I Am Alex Nieto” brought San Francisco communities together divided by gentrification and police violence. “PLACAS: The Most Dangerous Tattoo” was based on testimonies of members of MS-13 in California barrios as they attempted to rebuild their lives through laser tattoo removal and therapy. “YOU’RE GONNA CRY” documents the demographic shift of The Mission District after the “dot-com” boom. “Representa!,” chronicles what happens when Chicano spoken word poet Flores and Cuban rapper Julio Cardenas meet in Cuba at the Havana Hip-Hop Festival.
Flores moved to San Francisco in 1995. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, San Diego; and holds an MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. He teaches Hip-Hop Theater and Spoken Word at USF, San Francisco State University, and the Prison Arts Project at California Medical Facility in Vacaville State Prison. He lives in San Francisco with his children.
To request materials in accessible format and accommodation to attend an event, please contact Eventz Paul at 305.576.4350 or email us, at least five days in advance to initiate your request.
Made with ♥ in Miami by Fulano
We are accessible and assistive listening devices are available. To request materials in accessible format and accommodation to attend an event, please contact Eventz Paul at 305.576.4350 or email us, at least five days in advance to initiate your request.
Eventz Paul is currently the Technical Director and Productions Manager at Miami Light Project. He has been a part of this organization since 2011. He participated in Miami Light Project’s first class of the Technical Fellowship Program held at The Light Box. He joined this program hoping to improve his existing theater skills. He received training from experts in the industry that mentored and further his theater technical skills. Now, he has successfully used his professional knowledge and has had the opportunity to work with various arts organizations and venues throughout Miami including Miami Theater Center, National Young Arts Foundation, the Colony Theatre and many more. He has become an instructor and conducts audiovisual classes to incoming technical fellows.
Beth Boone has been the Artistic & Executive Director of Miami Light Project since 1998, developing critically acclaimed artistic programs that have asserted the organization as one of the leading cultural institutions in South Florida. These programs include: the establishment of Here & Now, South Florida’s most respected commission and presenting program for community-based artists; premiere presentations of internationally acclaimed; pioneering historic international cultural exchange with Cuba; and the creation of The Light Box at Goldman Warehouse, a multi-use performance and visual art space in Miami’s Wynwood Arts District. She previously served as Associate Director of Development for Florida Grand Opera, Deputy Director for the Department of Cultural Affairs at Miami Dade Community College, Wolfson Campus, co-founded an Off Broadway theater company (New York Rep), and served for six years as a Program Associate in the Arts & Culture Program of the AT&T Foundation. She received a B.A. in Fine Arts from the College of Charleston in South Carolina, and a MFA in Theater Arts from Brandeis University in Boston, MA.