Since 1995, Jose Torres Tama has been touring across the country with solo shows that thrive on a fusion of spoken word prose, bilingual poetry, rituals of fire, symbolic movement, and exaggerated personae, creating spectacles that are visually dynamic and politically charged. Add to this cauldron a heady dose of hilariously absurd observations on consumer culture and you have a unique vision coming from a New Jersey/New York bred Ecuadorian-born brujo performance artist based in New Orleans.

The recipient of a Louisiana Theater Fellowship, he has also received a "Regional Artist Project" Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to develop $CASINOAMERICA$, his acclaimed piece examining a culture that glorifies greed. His performances have been presented in Mexico, Eastern Europe and extensively across the USA at venues such as Performance Space 122 in New York; El Centro Cultural de la Raza in San Diego, CA; DiverseWorks in Houston, TX; Tigertail Productions in Miami, FL; The Arts Exchange in Atlanta, GA; Cornell, Duke, Louisiana State, Dillard, Spelman, and Rutgers Universities. As an arts educator, he is dedicated to working in minority communities with Latino and African American teens through his Youth Performance Projects that introduce performance art and poetry as a means of self-empowerment.

These projects have been profiled on National Public Radio and supported through grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Performance Network, and the Philip Morris Foundation. Youth Performance Projects have been realized at centers such as MECA in Houston, TX; The Walker's Point Center for the Arts in Milwaukee, WI; and the Center for Cultural Exchange in Portland, ME. In addition, he is a contributing editor to ART PAPERS, a national arts magazine published in Atlanta for which he writes a column on performance art and politics, and he has written for the Chicago New Art Examiner, The Mexico City Times, and Urban Latino Magazine published in New York. His poetry has been published in From A Bend in The River, an anthology of 100 New Orleans poets and in the Mesechabe Surregional Press.

Jose Torres Tama - ArteFuturo Productions

1329 St. Roch Street, New Orleans, LA 70117
504.948.4607 jose(at)torrestama(dot)com

www.torrestama.com