La Pocha Nostra: A Handbook for the Rebel Artist in a Post-Democratic Society 2020022732, 2020022733, 9780367338213, 9780367338206, 9780429322105

Table of contents :
Cover
Half Title
Endorsement
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of contents
Special thanks
Preface
Chapter 1 “Pochology” in a post-democratic society: A book introduction
Planetary Pocha
The People: Pocha History as Legacy of Dismemberment
Pedagogy
Participation
References
Chapter 2 Soundscapes for dark times: A border pedagogy for resistance: An introduction
The Genesis of Our Ideas
Track: Nortec collective, Tijuana, 2003
A Brief History of the Pocha Method
Tracks: Classic songs by The Jesus and Mary Chain, Echo & the Bunnymen, Antony and the Johnsons, and the ...
The Post-Democratic Era
Tracks: A mix of Mexican hip-hop bands, AKWID, Cartel de Santa and Gran Silencio, any border town, 2011–2017
What is the New Pocha Playlist?
Tracks: Scratch and mix from classical European composers and Native American drumming to Chicano hip hop, ...
Chapter 3 The 2019 Pocha Nostra Manifesto for a “Post-Democratic Era”
Chapter 4 What to expect from a Pocha workshop
Chapter 5 Important notes to producers and workshop facilitators
The Call for Participants and the Selection Process
Identifying and Preparing the Space in Advance
The choice of space
Lighting
Sound equipment and live music
The Prop and Costume “Pop Archeological” Station
The Hospitality and Rest Station
The Dilemmas of Having Occasional Visitors
Chapter 6 Notes to workshop participants
Chapter 7 Radical pedagogy for a post-democratic society: A pedagogical introduction
From the Borders of my Identity to the Community of Rebel Artists …
A Chicano Quantical Journey of Crossing and Queering Borders and Envisioning New Frontiers – Radical Pedagogy Episode ...
The Format of Our Pedagogical Exercises
Our Teaching Approach
The Exercises
Chapter 8 Performance exercises, rituals, and games to cross borders
Section 1: “Hands-On” Physical and Perceptual Exercises
Physical Warm-Ups, Stretching and Breathing Exercises
The monkey-breathing dance
Context and Objectives
Facilitation
Process
Expansion
The glitch dance
Context and Objectives
Facilitation
Process
The skeleton dance
Context and Objectives
Facilitation
Process
Expansion
Collective choreography
Context and Objectives
Facilitation
Process
Expansion
Perceptual Exercises
Working in the dark
Context and Objectives
Facilitation
Part 1: Walk in the dark
Process
Expansion
Part 2: Forming communities in the darkness
Facilitation
Process
Expansion
Running blind
Context and Objectives
Facilitation
Process
Expansion
The gaze
Context and Objectives
Facilitation
Process
Expansion
Creative Indian wrestling
Context and Objectives
Facilitation
Process
Part 1: Basic Indian wrestling (10 minutes)
Part 2: Defying gravity with Indian wrestling (10 minutes)
Part 3: Creative Indian wrestling (10 minutes)
The Aikido/chess game
Context and Objectives
Facilitation
Process
Expansion
Poetic ethnography
Context and Objectives
Facilitation
Part 1: Forming partners and clarifying instructions
Process
Part 2: Multi-sensorial exploration of the human body
Facilitation
Process
Part 3: Handling and manipulating another human body while in performance mode
Process
Human puppets and dancing doppelgangers
Context and Objectives
Facilitation
Process
Expansion
Section 2: Exercises to Generate Performance Material and Living Images
Activating the “prop archaeology bank”
Context and Objectives
Facilitation
Process
Expansion
Creating tableaux vivants
Context and Objectives
Facilitation
Series 1: One-on-one: Constructing a live image on someone else
Process
Expansion
Series 2: Collaborative tableaux vivants
Facilitation
Process
Expansion
Series 3: Group creations: Instant “living museums”
Facilitation
Process
Staging your conceptual funeral and rebirth
Context and Objectives
Facilitation
Process
Expansion
Creating and inhabiting your post-apocalyptic home and barrio
Context and Objectives
Facilitation
Process
Expansion
Human collective altars
Context and Objectives
Facilitation
Process
Expansion
Guerilla interventions into multiple spaces (indoors/outdoors)
Context and Objectives
Facilitation
Process
Expansion
Compositional triptychs
Context and Objectives
Facilitation
Process
Expansion
Lowrider Chicanx biomechanics
Context and Objectives
Facilitation
Process
Part 1: Collective sculpture
Part 2: Teaching the cyborg how to move like a human
Expansion
The Pocha catwalk
Context and Objectives
Facilitation
Catwalk 1: The different body catwalk
Process
Catwalk 2: Creative catwalk with primary look
Process
Catwalk 3: Catwalk with Photo Karaoke
Process
Section 3: Conceptual and Poetic Exercises, Opening Spaces of Inquiry
Poetic introductions
Context and Objectives
Process
Poetic exquisite corpse
Context and Objectives
Facilitation
Process
Expansion
Daily questions on performance art and group discussions
Context and Objectives
Facilitation
Process
Option 1
Option 2
Expansion
Group discussions
The illustrated body
Context and Objectives
Facilitation
Process
Expansion
Forty performance actions pulled out of a hat
Context and Objectives
Facilitation
Process
Expansion
Radical psychomagic acts for personal change
Context and Objectives
Facilitation
Process
Our planet as human body
Context and Objectives
Facilitation
Process
Expansion
Magical chess
Context and Objectives
Facilitation
Process
Section 4: The Infamous Pocha Nostra “Jam Sessions”
Basic jam session
Context and Objectives
Facilitation
Process
Step 1: Five minutes
Step 2: Ten minutes
Step 3: Ten minutes
Step 4: Ten minutes
Expansion
Strategy 1
Strategy 2
Strategy 3
Strategy 4
Strategy 5
“Stop-and-go” jam session
Context and Objectives
Facilitation
Process
Expansion
Advanced jam session
Context and Objectives
Facilitation
Process
Suggestions for livening up the jam session
Expansion
The ultimate jam session
Facilitation
Process
Section 5: Refining Your Performance Personas
“Stylizing” your performance persona
Context and Objectives
Facilitation
Process
Expansion
Activating your performance persona
Context and Objectives
Facilitation
Process
Expansion
Section 6: Devising a Pedagogical Public Performance
Discussing the nature of the performance material
Context and Objectives
Facilitation
Process
Choosing the performance event format
Context and Objectives
Facilitation
Process
Determining the final roles of the workshop participants
Context and Objectives
Facilitation
Process
Section 7: Producing and “Rehearsing” the Final Performance
“Rehearsal” mode
Production mode
Activating the performance environment
Context and Objectives
Facilitation
Process
Activating production mode
Context and Objectives
Facilitation
Process
12–1 PM production meeting
1–3 PM performance design crew works
3–5 PM performance crew preparations
5–6 PM, personal rituals and meal break
6–7 PM, transition into performance mode
7–7:30 PM, group ritual
8 PM, performance begins!
Tongues
Section 8: La Pocha Nostra Pedagogical Matrix for Workshops
Day 1
Welcome
Hands-on and Perceptual Matrix Section
Break
Conceptual and Creative Matrix Section
Day 2
Hands-on and Perceptual Matrix Section
Break
Conceptual and Creative Matrix Section
Day 3
Hands-on and Perceptual Matrix Section
Break
Conceptual and Creative Matrix Section
Day 4
Hands-on and Perceptual Matrix Section
Break
Conceptual and Creative Matrix Section
Day 5
Hands-on and Perceptual Matrix Section
Break
Conceptual and Creative Matrix Section
Day 6
Day 7
Break
Day 8
Break
Day 9
Break
Day 10
Chapter 9 With love from the trenches: Further techniques and reflections from Pocha and our partners in crime
Section 1: Candid Conversation Amongst La Pocha Nostra Members on the Specific Challenges we are Facing in a ...
TRACK 1: Pocha productions in the throes of the Trumpocalypse
TRACK 2: Extreme survival, reinvention, and the nude body
TRACK 3: Anarchic utopias and pedagogical urgencies
TRACK 4: Blind nationalism and the redemptive gift of radical hospitality
TRACK 5: The closing rituals of La Pocha Nostra
Section 2: Some Advice for Emerging Performance Artists
Section 3: Cities of the “Apocalypse”: Producing Self-Sustainable Creative Zones. Athens, Greece; Tijuana, Mexico; and …
Chronicle 1: Athens in flames! Being under the ruins of the European Union financial crisis
Chronicle 2: Tijuana in war! Being in the trenches of the US anti-immigrant laws and the drug cartels’ insidious violence
Chronicle 3: Costa Rica flooded! Avoiding drowning in the turbulent waters of repressive Catholic morality
Section 4: “Rituals for Devising Resistance”: A Pocha Performance Menu
Section 5: Making the Most of Your Beautiful Arrests
Section 6: The Unnoticed City: Urban Radical Interventions Against Invisible Bodies
Section 7: How to Use Voice in the Pocha Nostra Method
Relationship to self
Relationship to the space and others
Relationship to technology
Relationship to writing
Chapter 10 Sound outs for radical inclusion
: Poetry and testimony unleashed by the Pocha method
Section 1: Poetic/Performance Texts Generated by Workshop Participants
Section 2: My Transformation From Prima Ballerina to Deviant Performance Artist
Section 3: Artaud on Steroids: My Journey from Actor to Performance Artist
Section 4: The Ecosexual Manifesto 3.0
Section 5: About A Joint Methodology and Educational Experience with LA Pocha Nostra and Vestandpage
Section 6: You, You’Re my Undigested Trauma: A Feminist Manifesto Before #Metoo
Section 7: On The Impact of New Technologies in Live Art: The Necro-Techno Complex
References
Section 8: Letter to a Radical Mom
Section 9: “It is Time for Us” and “Notes from a Revolution Yet to be Witnessed”
It is time for us
Notes from a revolution yet to be witnessed
Section 10: Staging for Inclusion: Working with the Nude Body
Section 11: The Anti-Manifesto 2018 (An Example of a Collective Group Performance Text)
Index