S2 Ep1: Episode 85 | Carlos Gutiérrez, Executive Director Cinema Tropical
33m Jan 07, 2018
33m
S1 Ep84: NFAND Episode 84 | Liz Torres and Hector Gerardo, executive director & founders 1Freedom
30m Dec 24, 2017
30m
S1 Ep83: NFAND Episode 83 - Luis Fernando Coss, Peri | writer, veteran journalist, professor, co-founder 80grados.net
42m Dec 17, 2017
42m
S1 Ep82: NFAND Episode 82 | Alex Rodríguez, sound designer, Hostos alumnus
This episode 82, is a conversation/interview with the great Howard Jordan and Alex Rodríguez, and it was recorded as part of the Hostos50 Oral Collective. I’m still editing and re-editing interviews. The more time passes the more I realize the project is more profound than I ever thought, with more to show than I ever thought. I’ve heard so many incredible stories from people who thought they s...
30m Dec 10, 2017
30m
S1 Ep81: NFAND Episode 81 | María Torres, dancer, choreographer
NFAND Episode 81 | Maria Torres, dancer and choreographer I was a dancer once, so my love and respect for dancers is a bit biased. But so be it, the discipline dancers have is mostly unrecognized and misunderstood. It’s not all games and play at the ballet. Dancers dance. Dancers arrive early for class. Dancers can count, can change the accent of their physical move just to make it fun. Dancer...
36m Dec 03, 2017
36m
S1 Ep80: NFAND Episode 80 - Frank Marrero, filmmaker, director, media pioneer
IN SPANISH Episode 80 - After the storm no Puerto Rican is the same, at least I’m not. I am me, always deep, intense, reflecting, but something is different. A puzzle gets assembled piece by piece. Big stories are made up of pieces of lore. I realized that with Frank, I’m looking to put together something I’m not sure what it is. I think maybe after memories of what Puerto Rico once was or had....
47m Nov 26, 2017
47m
S1 Ep79: NFAND Episode 79 - Verónica Sanchis Bencomo, Founder Foto Féminas, Photographer
Who can put a price on memories? Pictures are precious for this very reason I suppose. We hold on to moments of moments. It is one of the ways in which we can capture time. In this is the age of citizen journalism and citizen photography, who and what is the real deal? Amateurs and Pros meet at junctures of action and practice. There is so much to see. How it turns out is that most famous image...
24m Nov 19, 2017
24m
S1 Ep78: NFAND Episode 78 - Malín Falú, journalist, radio personality, Puerto Rican media pioneer
Pride of ancestry comes in the form of poise. Such is Malín Falú. Incredibly poised. A Puerto Rican lady from the town of Santurce who apparently, according to her, came to this world with a bent for conversing with people. She explains that when she was a young adolescent she was asked what she liked to do and her response was, “I like talking to people.” And, she made a career out of it. Mal...
28m Nov 12, 2017
28m
S1 Ep77: NFAND Episode 77 - Marlena Fitzpatrick, musician, activist, director, writer, musical theater advocate Local 802
Episode 77 - #Poetsforpuertorico was a hit. Willie Perdomo, thank you, thank you, thank you. The room was packed. A historic night for the spoken. Without a doubt. A vitamin room. A space for solidarity and Comedores Sociales de Puerto Rico. Poet Cynthia Dewi Oka is off the charts. Her ode to Puerto Rico was like few I’ve ever met, for anyone or anything. The wound penned to slash the jugular. ...
31m Nov 05, 2017
31m
S1 Ep76: NFAND Episode 76 - Willie Perdomo, acclaimed Poet
This is a different time. I know it’s not specific enough, but it’s specific enough for you to understand. The colossal breakdown of morals and decency in government agency looks to me like we’re trapped and on track towards a worldwide holocaust. I said it once before in this Letter to the President, we, the people, we have nowhere else to run…but millions are, we’re moving in circles because ...
10m Oct 29, 2017
10m
S1 Ep75: NFAND Episode 75 - Congressman José E. Serrano, Representing 15th District
This one is for Hostos Community College, the South Bronx, and Puerto Rico. Thank you to the Congressman.
36m Oct 22, 2017
36m
S1 Ep74: NFAND Episode 74 Part II - Bobby Sanabria, Salsa Meets Jazz for Puerto Rico with Bobby Sanabria Multiverse Big Band
For those of you who don’t know, Bobby Sanabria is a master percussionist and musician. Straight from his bio, “drummer, percussionist, composer, arranger, recording artist, producer, filmmaker, conductor, educator, activist, multi-cultural warrior and multiple Grammy nominee.” Boom. Or as Ricans would say on the street, “una jodienda.” Bobby has a benefit concert on October 23rd at the old Vi...
31m Oct 19, 2017
31m
S1 Ep73: NFAND Episode 73 Part I - Bobby Sanabria, Salsa Meets Jazz for Puerto Rico with Bobby Sanabria Multiverse Big Band
For those of you who don’t know, Bobby Sanabria is a master percussionist and musician. Straight from his bio, “drummer, percussionist, composer, arranger, recording artist, producer, filmmaker, conductor, educator, activist, multi-cultural warrior and multiple Grammy nominee.” Boom. Or as Ricans would say on the street, “una jodienda.” Bobby has a benefit concert on October 23rd at the old Vi...
31m Oct 19, 2017
31m
S1 Ep2: NFAND Episode 72 - Rhina Valentín, artist, producer, mother, TV host - OPEN
Episode 72 | Uptown Manhattan has Rhina Valentin. For the past 11-years she has given creatives here a platform to be heard and seen from her weekly Friday show on Bronxnet, OPEN. Maybe this is why she is called La Reina del Barrio. She is from El Barrio, but the “Queen” part we didn’t get to talk about that part. Nonetheless, in this episode La Reina del Barrio talks about motherhood, moving c...
49m Oct 15, 2017
49m
S1 Ep1: NFAND Episode 71 - Yaraní del Valle, EcoKit Puerto Rico, actress, activist, producer
María Relief Effort Initiative: Yaraní del Valle is fierce. I’ve seen her sing her heart out. Etched in my mind. A unique interpreter she is. Bella. It is no coincidence that Yaraní, alongside Lady Onion, Aris Mejias, Lady Lanchonete, Isabel Gandía, and artist-activist Jeca Rodriguez created the EcoKit duffle initiative, Puerto Rico Eco Kit. The backstory of how the three of us are connected i...
50m Oct 14, 2017
50m
NFAND Episode 70 Part II - Pete "Bariman" Miranda, baritone saxophone, master musician
Pete Miranda is one of the sweetest, coolest, funniest cats around. I've known him years from working in the Latin music circuit. For those of you who don't know who he is, Pete is a legend. Really. New York City and diaspora history in full glory. Here is a Boricua from Manatí who ended up playing with the Machito and Tito Puente orchestras. Pete is a natural storyteller and his candidness is ...
25m Oct 08, 2017
25m
NFAND Episode 69 Part I - Pete "Bariman" Miranda, baritone saxophone, master musician
Pete Miranda is one of the sweetest, coolest, funniest cats around. I've known him years from working in the Latin music circuit. For those of you who don't know who he is, Pete is a legend. Really. New York City and diaspora history in full glory. Here is a Boricua from Manatí who ended up playing with the Machito and Tito Puente orchestras. Pete is a natural storyteller and his candidness is ...
25m Oct 08, 2017
25m
NFAND Episode 68 - Rosalba Rolón, Artistic Director Pregones/PRTT - relief drive for artists - OCTOBER DRIVE
Rosalba Rolón is an actress, dramaturge, writer, producer, lyricist, grant writer, mentor, leader, and the world is a better place because she is in it. God is my witness. Like so many, soon after María passed the questions became, what can we do to help? And thousands have activated to do just that, help. There are numerous and beautiful initiatives and coalitions taking root all over the lan...
27m Oct 04, 2017
27m
NFAND Episode 67 - Howard Jordan & Humanitarian Cheat Sheet
Episode 67 is the great Howard Jordan - he's a perfect match for today's times and Puerto Ricans. Fierce and gracious both, the Mayor of San Juan. It appears true the administrations don't care if we die. It is so grotesque and real, it's unbelievable. So much so that you don’t believe it at first. Rats working behind the scenes, colluding, arguing, imposing bureaucratic paperwork before human...
56m Oct 01, 2017
56m
NFAND Episode 66 - Danny Rivera en Collores
Dad sent me this video back in March. Danny en Collores...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWhTLcis5T4 If you are Puerto Rican then you know El Valle de Collores by Puerto Rican poet Luis LLornés Torres. Mrs. Higuera, one of my school's Spanish teacher from Cuba, assigned us to memorize el Valle De Collores for Spanish class. We had to stand in front of the room and recite out loud. I loved it,...
2m Sep 23, 2017
2m
NFAND Episode 65 - Aris Mejias, actress and clothing designer - Skin Onion
Going indie as a designer was not in her plans. Necessity came knocking and she took her sewing skills and put them into action creating Skin Onion in 2012. Lady Onion, as I now call her, is also an actress and appears in the upcoming (October 26) Puerto Rican film Sol de Media Noche, starring opposite Pedro Capó. Though we talk about the film a little bit in this conversation, our exchange ce...
35m Sep 17, 2017
35m
NFAND Episode 64 | Bill Aguado, art leader, Bronx legend
Episode 64 | Five small community-based arts organizations: BronxArtSpace, Dominican York Proyecto GRAFICA, En Foco, Inc., Literary Freedom Project, and Puerto Rican Institute for Development of the Arts make up the Urban Arts Cooperative - UAC. Bill Aguado, is spearheading the endeavor. Bill’s career is ample deep. This beautiful article by David González of The New York Times says it best. ...
25m Sep 10, 2017
25m
NFAND Episode 63 - Adriana Teresa Letorney, Founder | CEO Visura
Episode 63: In the eye of the beholder. Photography. Silence. Song of Myself. A worldwide network and a one stop shop for creatives and media producers. Visura. For better or for others (her own words). Her purpose. A beauty. Family.
41m Sep 03, 2017
41m
NFAND Episode 62 - Fernando Guzzoni, Chilean filmmaker
Chilean filmmaker Fernando Guzzoni is a poet. His film Jesús is a powerful coming of age film with a different bent. Inspired by a true event Fernando writes to slash your viser off your face. Jesús is raw, real, beautiful, and devastating. This is the story about boy that mirrors the Chile of today and the cities we all live in. Fernando is a profound thinker and cares about a lot of things. I...
20m Aug 27, 2017
20m
NFAND Episode 61 - Kim Sanabria, Professor ESL
I have spent most of this summer editing. Listening again, to all the people I spoke with this past year and who make up the Hostos Community College community. I spent another chunk of time editing interviews with people close to Evelina López Antonetty, the Puerto Rican leader who established United Bronx Parents. And I’ve devoted another slot of time to just reading history and pondering how...
21m Aug 20, 2017
21m
NFAND Episode 60 - Melissa Rendler-García, global public health and policy consultant
This is episode 60. One of the awesome things about doing this podcast/program for the past sixty-weeks has been the chance to speak with and listen to a lot of wonderful people. It’s kept me present to the fact that there is a lot of goodness despite all the social and political parasites and white supremacists, here and abroad, who with their ignorant and retrograde intellect, insist on bring...
45m Aug 13, 2017
45m
NFAND Episode 59 – Manny Vega, painter, illustrator, printmaker, muralist, mosaicist
Talk about real. Manny Vega is super real. Legit all the way. All the way. Praise the Lord. Before recording our conversation Manny showed me this spectacular book he’s been working on for 4-years. It’s a fantastical sight of black ink drawings over brown paper. The light blue leather bound of the book, a little less than a meter in size, has about 80 pages, each one a drawn world filled with...
39m Aug 06, 2017
39m
NFAND Episode 58 - George Emilio Sánchez, Chairperson and Professor, Dept. of Performing and Creative Arts College of Staten Island (CUNY)
In a few words. Here in this share, George Emilio Sanchez talks about being committed to social justice and its fusion with the creative arts. At a time when the relevance of the Humanities is being questioned, George gets doing it and from its very fringes. He teaches not just at Staten Island College helping to spread good, but throughout a wide network. Best advice he can give, “Listen, list...
27m Jul 30, 2017
27m
NFAND Episode 57 - Bronislaw Czarnocha aka Dr. C, Professor of Mathematics
I’ve been thinking about Math lately. The course that we must all take and that many of us, later in young adult life think it’s useless, only it isn’t. In many ways it’s true, the saying, youth is wasted on the young. But I digress. Dr. C is all heart-and-soul. I hope you catch that when you listen to his share in this episode 57. He’s from Poland and teaches mathematics at Hostos. For him, m...
24m Jul 23, 2017
24m
NFAND Episode 56 – Rosary Solimanto, interdisciplinary artists activist
Have you ever gone under water searching for silence? Do you focus on staying under a bit longer to think and to feel the peace? Or, do you grow desperate and go for air? Are you thankful you can come up for air? Do you go out there and live? For Rosary Solimanto going down under was not a choice. She was living her life and suddenly, she was thrown into the water to drown. She could see the l...
36m Jul 16, 2017
36m
NFAND Episode 55 - Jose Morales (aka Fofito), promoter, producer, owner of La Respuesta
'Tis the summer of Despacito... There’s this music club/performance space/art space in Santurce, Puerto Rico called La Respuesta, that mostly presents the local indie rock scene. I learned about La Respuesta in 2008 when I was down in the island for a season working publicity for several local films. One of the films, La Mala needed a place for a party and my friend Nadia Barbarossa, who was p...
18m Jul 09, 2017
18m
NFAND Episode 54 - Hon. Fernando Ferrer, iconic New York City Leader and American Politician
For episode 54 I wanted to bring back the Hostos Oral Collective. Perhaps because I’m searching left and right for people who’ve gone out and made a difference, perhaps because of the symbolism of the weekend celebrations, perhaps because I can’t stop thinking about the South Bronx and everything that’s happened there...by now I’ve heard over 150 stories about Hostos and the Bronx, los puertorr...
22m Jul 02, 2017
22m
NFAND Episode 53 - Rosie Berrido, bilingual acting and diction coach, actress
Sitting down with a vocal coach is a humbling thing. In this conversation both of us demonstrate our Spanglish sharpness, other than that she’s the pro. Rosie holds the distinction of being one of the audiobook voices for the United States Library of Congress. Take that. Rosie has rules, one hundred of them! In our conversation, we really only got to level one, but it’s worth the listen for our...
32m Jun 25, 2017
32m
NFAND Episode 52 - Jane Gabriels, artist, writer, poet, cultural champion
This is episode 52 and Jane Gabriels as a guest is sort of poetic. Wasn’t planned. NFAND began as an experiment to save my life and the journey has been bountiful, but more on that some other time. For now, know that Jane and I are kindred in spirit and professional action. But she’s a Jane of all trades with prowess who masters her crafts. Her free style has made her a dancer, poet, performanc...
48m Jun 18, 2017
48m
NFAND Episode 51 - Angel Manuel Soto, filmmaker, La Granja
I struggled to watch Angel Manuel Soto film La Granja (The Farm, Happiness is Hard) not because it was bad, but because it was so good. He had me at minute three. Bravo to him. The film is a scathing socio-political commentary. To me, the consequence of depraved corruption. In this make believe dystopian realm, La Granja’s brazen punch, if you have any humanity in you, is that it’s true. This s...
24m Jun 11, 2017
24m
NFAND Episode 50 - Charlie Vázquez, author, editor, Director Bronx Writers Center
Charlie is an autodidact. He knows what he knows because he taught himself. And he’s sharp and witty and he reads, reads, and reads. I asked him how he became a writer and he went off on a story, many stories, connected stories about his life’s journey into the literary realm. It is his way of life. From song lyricist to phantasmagorical and literary terms Charlie goes at everything or has beca...
51m Jun 04, 2017
51m
NFAND Episode 49 - Fran’ Ferrer, music producer
This is a Spanish language episode with an English intro. My background is imbued in music. My entire life has been informed sort of like a doll cut out from the Latin music scene in its many forms. Though I cannot sing or play an instrument to save my life, my Dad gave me no choice but to learn to love music and I’m all the better and privileged for it. I’ve absorbed the arts and culture from...
50m May 28, 2017
50m
NFAND Episode 48 - Jorge Merced, actor, activist Associate Artistic Director Pregones/PRTT
An actor prepares… After a ten-year hiatus, Jorge Merced returns to reprise the role of “Loca” la de la Locura in El Bolero Fue Mi Ruina - El Bolero Was My Downfall - the brave character created by Puerto Rican author Manuel Ramos Otero. In a nutshell, I would say the play is a confession of sorts, an admission of actions of sins based on love, desperation, defeat, marginalization, and the un...
35m May 21, 2017
35m
NFAND Episode 47 - Lew Levine, professor of English
A good teacher can change you forever. Like my 11th-grade math teacher Ana. Something about how she taught opened me to the magnificence of Algebra. My awakening made me yearn for homework. I asked for more of it, I couldn’t get enough. By the time my high school graduation came, I no longer felt like I didn’t have a brain for math, which really dented in my self-esteem for years. But I did ha...
41m May 14, 2017
41m
NFAND Episode 46 - Rokia Diabi, student and aspiring lawyer
Comes in Rokia Diabi. A young woman and student with a promising future. The power of her promise nested in her dream of becoming a lawyer some day. She's so sincere. Goodness. Rokia has seen a lot, suffered a lot, but she overcomes. Here is a woman's story, a student's story, a snippet of an urban tale in globalized times. #IamAnImmigrant #HumanRights #Education #NYC #Hostos50 #CUNY
30m May 07, 2017
30m
NFAND Episode 45 - Wallace Edgecombe, a k a Wally - Cultural icon
I stand with the students and allies of the University of Puerto Rico. For the next four weeks, I will share full episodes of the Hostos50 Oral Collective. As the repulsive PROMESA proposes to slash funding from the UPR there is no better time than to share what I have been privileged enough to document for the past eight months. The antithesis of the long-term consequences of a city without ...
29m Apr 30, 2017
29m
NFAND Episode 44 - Hostos50 Oral Collective - Tere Martínez, playwright and professor
If the legendary Puerto Rican educator, writer, and patriot Don Eugenio María de Hostos were alive today, I wonder what he’d think of the community college in the South Bronx named after him, that no one thought would make it. Alas. Just this past Thursday, Eugenio María de Hostos Community College launched its 50th Anniversary Season. I can't help but believe that Don Eugenio would be proud ...
25m Apr 23, 2017
25m
NFAND Episode 43 - Julia Solomonoff, filmmaker, producer, screenwriter and director
Julia Solomonoff rocks. She’s cool, serious, candid, and it appears like she glides from one great thing to another great thing. At it for many years, Julia has some really beautiful credits. As director, those include, The Last Summer of la Boyita (produced by Almodovar, winner of over twenty international awards) and Hermanas (participant of Sundance and Berlinale Talent Campus labs and premi...
26m Apr 16, 2017
26m
NFAND Episode 42 - Joseph and Gloria La Morte, creative producers and filmmakers
Joseph and Gloria La Morte are a special husband-and-wife creative duo. They’ve etched a place for themselves in the creative economy. Combined, Joseph and Gloria have produced films, documentaries, web series, public service announcements, special segments, edited features, written screenplays, and acted; and are parents to Emile. Good people. For years they’ve been part of my artistic and pr...
59m Apr 09, 2017
59m
NFAND Episode 41 - Javier E. Gómez, actor, producer, journalist
Javier started his career in communications way back when his parents built him a playhouse, that at one point he turned into a studio news station. He wrote scripts and broadcasted the news. I can picture him clearly, little, doing his thing. He read the papers everyday at 8:00 p.m. with his parents. His love for news is a way back thing. Good it is. A consummate professional in the field of ...
46m Apr 02, 2017
46m
NFAND Episode 40 - Daniel Maldonado, filmmaker
Episode 40. Towards the end of our conversation Daniel Maldonado says that “dealing with rejection is soul crushing and it never ends...it’s about managing expectations."In this matter, I feel Daniel’s next of kin. What do you say? Doesn’t the match make us usable, strong, and mature if you meet it in the eye? Every down-and-up a swallow. Standing. Daniel Maldonado is steady like that, like an...
39m Mar 26, 2017
39m
NFAND Episode 39 - Maria Nieto, writer and producer
Maria taught herself how to write in formulas, that’s the Hollywood way, and she takes to it. She’s working on a couple of horror and Sci-Fi scripts. Maria has a whole lot of profound and sensible things to say about being, writing, surviving, the politics of the day, and she’s a good listener. How we got to talking about loss and mourning I’m not sure, but we did, and I thank her for it. The ...
33m Mar 19, 2017
33m
NFAND Episode 38 - Native Nations March - MNI WICONI
Once, many, many years ago, I had the honor of playing Spider Woman / Spider Grandmother in Murray Mednick’s The Coyote Cycle. The culmination of performing this play meant we did seven acts through the night beginning at dusk and ending at sunrise. The Coyote, the Trickster, the Clown, and Spider Woman. The cycle of life, the story. The four elements. We had an audience. I stood eye-to-eye wit...
8m Mar 12, 2017
8m
NFAND Episode 37 - #DayWithoutAWoman #IStrikeFor
I loved the movie Gladiator. Memory tells me, I went to see the film anywhere from 6 to 8 times on the big screen. I was mesmerized by it. Such a colossal spectacle in every single way – the music, the opening battle sequence, the costumes, the plot, the words, the vengeance, the colosseum battles, and the brilliance of Maximus Decimus Meridius, Marcus Aurelius, Commodus, Lucilla, Proximo, and ...
5m Mar 05, 2017
5m
NFAND Episode 36 - Alfonso Díaz, Senior Entertainment Correspondent NTN24
Alfonso Díaz, is the New York City arts, culture, and entertainment reporter and red carpet correspondent for the Colombian channel. As publicist he and I have worked in a variety of projects throughout the years. Put succinctly, debonair, in the truest sense of the word. Earning respect as a serious red carpet reporter is the most challenging part of his job. We talk about that, being out ther...
34m Feb 26, 2017
34m