Meet the Artist: Folk Arts for Change and Resistance – June 8

Meet the Artist: Folk Arts for Change and Resistance

Tuesday, June 8, 6:30 PM

Join us for a FREE online panel discussion and audience Q&A with two incredible creators in our Living Traditions family: Donato Raimondo and Alli Arocho. Panelists will discuss their creative practice and their grassroots work for justice and cultural preservation in their communities.

Donato Raimondo

Utah’s South Sudanese refugee population includes both families and young men orphaned during decades of civil war. Many of the orphans, known as the Lost Boys, make clay toys, especially cattle, as a way to remember the cattle culture that is their heritage. Others continue to craft colorful traditional beadwork such as belts, necklaces, rings and earrings. Under the leadership of artist and DiDinga tribe advocate Donato Raimondo, some of the money the community raises by selling their arts is being used to help build a traditional school in Donato’s home village of Loudo. Donato also works with his tribal community to create video and audio documentation of traditional dances and songs to preserve and share DiDinga heritage with future generations.

Alli Arocho

Alli Arocho is an artist and folklorist from Borikén (Puerto Rico). Her work represents an attempt to capture and reconnect with her Puerto Rican heritage in the context of the diaspora that she embodies. Alli experiments with acrylic paints, and mask-making out of coconuts and clay. She leans into her own diasporic nostalgia and shares familiar stories that allow her to connect with other displaced borinqueñes and latinxs from all over. Most influential to her art, however, is the studying of Bomba music and dance, as well as the existence of the vejigante folkloric character, which are symbols of her culture’s 500+ years resistance to assimilate to foreign colonizing powers.

Meet the Artist: Sustaining Creativity + Q&A – June 22

Meet the Artist: Sustaining Creativity + Q&A

Tuesday, June 22nd, 6:30 PM

Join us for a FREE online panel discussion and audience Q&A with three dynamic artists in our Living Traditions family: Kalani Tonga-Tukuafu, Marla Love, and Sonali Loomba. These artists and community builders will speak about their efforts in protecting, nurturing, and innovating their creative practice throughout a difficult pandemic year.

Kalani Tonga-Tukuafu

Currently serving as the Director of Pasifika Enriching Arts of Utah, a resource based springboard for Pasifika Art & Artists, Kalani’s work contemplates the ways in which marginalized communities interact with mainstream culture. She and her collaborators work to tell the stories of Pacific Islander immigrants’ contributions to the state of Utah and its vibrant inclusivity.

Marla Love

Marla Love, an artist of exceptional skill, specializes in Mexican Day of the Dead art, a passion she shares with her mother Rocio Mejia, a local expert in Día de los Muertos traditions. Her art celebrates the belief that the souls of the dead return each year to “eat, drink and be merry” with their living friends and family and she enjoys sharing this traditional affirmation of life with her Utah neighbors.

Sonali Loomba

Sonali Loomba is an exponent of Indian Classical Dance Kathak and a known instructor, performer and choreographer. She has undergone professional training under Internationally acclaimed Guru Hari and Chethana from Bangalore, India for several years before she started her own dance institution, Kaladharaa Dance School in Utah which aims to preserve and promote this ancient art form through medium of training and teaching art enthusiast of all age groups from community.