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Admittedly, I had trouble believing honeymoon vacation packages how outward honeymoon vacation packages aggressive behavior and civilized pleasantries go hand-in-hand, a prejudice that Leonardo suspects is embedded in the cultural definition of manhood, one that he has investigated through honeymoon vacation packages performance honeymoon vacation packages art (he s also a sculptor and painter). His predisposition is to deconstruct hyper-masculine role models and icons in the American popular zeitgeist.
Starting from how he was taught honeymoon vacation packages to be a man, Leonardo delves in to debrief the tangents that prevent masculinity from being more inclusive, honeymoon vacation packages lucid and human according to 21st century societal norms and beyond.
Leonardo s athletic work is part of the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston s Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art exhibition , a survey of the contributions of black performance artists from the 1960s to the present and over three generations, on view through Feb. 15.
It s customary for new music presenter Musiqa to partner with CAMH to organize informal recitals that connect artistic genres. A Loft Concert set for Saturday will premiere Leonardo s The Arena, an event that steps outside of so many conventions, away from the CAMH and into a boxing ring.
The Arena is a 30- to 45-minute piece depending on the stamina of the performers that fuses improvisatory percussion with Greco-Roman wrestling. It takes place at the Progressive Amateur Boxing Association in collaboration with Project Row Houses .
Leonardo grew up in Queens, N.Y., in a culturally diverse area in a Latin household rich with Dominican and Guatemalan roots. The unmovable, unbreakable, unshakeable machismo his family adopted created an emotional gap between Leonardo and the male figures in his family.
Early in his practice, Leonardo decided that to properly critique his subjects he had to do it from the inside out. As he became fascinated with hero figures, sports personalities and virile archetypes, he resolved to approach honeymoon vacation packages his study from an experiential point of view.
I always immerse myself entirely in the world I set out to decipher, he explains. When I was doing work in boxing, I was training as an amateur boxer. When I was working in wrestling, I was training in wrestling.
honeymoon vacation packages Leonardo tests himself in some of the most tense environments. In Mexico, he trained at the Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre , which claims to be the oldest professional wrestling organization in the world, and promotes a number of televised events. In New York, he got in shape at Gleason s Gym in Brooklyn , a boxing institution responsible for producing such fighters as Mike Tyson , Muhammad honeymoon vacation packages Ali and Gerry Cooney.
honeymoon vacation packages I am not posing as a boxer, fighter or wrestler, he says. I am not trying to mimic them. I am trying to become them. It allows me to understand what it means to be held up to a heroic status, such that I can figure out what the belief systems are around this particular masculine ideal.
Many wrestling fans recognize Leonardo as El Conquistador , the capped, masked pugilist who advanced far into this part performance, part sports, part entertainment realm. Even though he knows he has to keep a safe distance so he can parse what s happening honeymoon vacation packages with the keen eye of an artist and the methodical brain of a thinker.
In these type of sports, there s something in these men that triggers both the aggression and the hero complex and propels them to prove themselves on the main stage, Leonardo says. To gain a sense of belonging, we test each other with violence and aggression and this becomes the manly ritual that permits us to bond.
The percussionists honeymoon vacation packages job is to offer something that will breathe a sense of what s a part of the culture honeymoon vacation packages of this activity, he explains. The second role is to twist that out of shape. The music will set the atmosphere as if the event is very conventional, honeymoon vacation packages and then destabilize the environment and open it up to possibilities through improvisation.
That means the music will not mimic what s happening in the ring. Rather, it s a conversation that proffers meaningful commentary alongside the work, whatever that happens honeymoon vacation packages to be at that moment in time. Though there have been rehearsals, percussionists Craig Hauschildt, Alec Warren and Blake Wilkins are prepared to go with the flow.
The Arena is Leonardo s first piece with live music. As he reaches beyond his own comfort zone within his style of performance art, The Arena also follows a desire to produce event spectacles whose environment is as important as the action.
With their support for charities ranging from the arts to healthcare, these Charlie s Angels are some of Houston s most charming. Love their charity? Show them with your vote. The winner receives $2,500 for her favorite nonprofit.