TWO NEW PUBLICATIONS (ROUTLEDGE, 2020)
2020
Gómez-Peña Unplugged: Texts on Live Art, Social Practice and Imaginary Activism
By Guillermo Gómez-Peña
Edited by Emma Tramposch & Balitronica Gómez
PURCHASE HERE
Gómez-Peña's featured author profile
Gómez-Peña Unplugged is an anthology of recent and rewritten classic writings from Guillermo Gómez-Peña, a figure who stands alone as unique and groundbreaking in the history of performance art, and as the Artistic Director of transdisciplinary performance troupe La Pocha Nostra.
Throughout this collection, Gómez-Peña tackles literature, theory, pedagogy, activism and live art in an eclectic mix that demonstrates how the process of writing is simultaneously a performative exercise in embodied language. The writing stands as a call for action utilizing what Gómez-Peña terms ‘imaginary activism’ and ‘radical citizenship’; it invites the reader to embrace a borderless, polygendered, cross generational and race literate ethos. This timely anthology comes straight from the heart of a troubled Trump-era United States and a crime cartel ridden Mexico. Artists and writers are prompted to engage in radical performance pedagogy within the civic realm and to think of themselves as public intellectuals and ‘artivists’ participating in the great debates of our times.
By encouraging emerging artists and writers to wildly imagine their practice beyond the normative art world and academia, this book is a fundamental read for scholars and students of performance art, political theatre, cultural studies, literature, poetry, activism and race and gender politics.
Gómez-Peña Unplugged is being published in dialog with La Pocha Nostra: A handbook for the rebel artist in a post-democratic society (Written by Gómez-Peña and Saul Garcia-Lopez & edited by Paloma Martinez-Cruz). The brand new manual offers a reworked outline of La Pocha Nostra’s interdisciplinary pedagogical practices developed over the past ten years & combined with this Anthology offers the reader deep insight into the literary, pedagogical and artistic practices of Gómez-Peña and La Pocha Nostra.
La Pocha Nostra: A Handbook for the Rebel Artist in a Post- Democratic Society
By Guillermo Gómez-Peña & Saul Garcia-López
Edited by Paloma Martinez-Cruz
PURCHASE HERE
La Pocha Nostra: A Handbook for the Rebel Artist in a Post- Democratic Society marks a transformation from its sister book, Exercises for Rebel Artists, into a pedagogical matrix suited for use as a performance handbook and conceptual tool for artists, activists, theorists, pedagogues, and transdisciplinary border crossers of all stripes.
Featuring a newly reworked outline of La Pocha Nostra’s overall pedagogy, and how it has evolved in the time of Trump, cartel violence, and the politics of social media, this new handbook presents deeper explanations of the interdisciplinary pedagogical practices developed by the group that has been labelled “the most influential Latino/ a performance troupe of the past ten years.”
Co-written by Guillermo Gómez- Peña in collaboration with La Pocha Nostra’s co- director Saúl García-López and edited by Paloma Martinez-Cruz, this highly anticipated follow- up volume raises crucial questions in the new neo- nationalist era. Drawing on field experience from ten years of touring, the authors blend original methods with updated and revised exercises, providing new material for teachers, universities, radical artists, curators, producers, and students.
Informed by a border perspective that intersects with the politics of embodiment and intersectional identities, exercises are designed to take readers right into the heart of radical performance. The authors use a series of practical exercises, honed in workshops offered worldwide, to help create challenging art & artivist interventions that transcend the boundaries of nation, generation, language, gender, racial identity, and traditional hierarchies of instruction.
This volume also includes contributions from influential artists, producers, poets, and activists in the field, including Reverend Billy & Savitri D., Dragonfly, Annie Sprinkle & Beth Stephens, Micha Espinosa, Francesca Carol Rolla, VestAndPage, Praba Pilar, L. M. Bogad, Balitrónica, Juan Ibarra, Michèle Ceballos Michot, and Emma Tramposch, exemplifying the emerging innovations of company members, collaborators, and workshop participants engaging with Pocha Nostra techniques. The book is complemented by the new book Gómez- Peña Unplugged: Texts on Live Art, Social Practice and Imaginary Activism (2008– 2020) .