SRO Crowd for "Salud"

I'm delighted to report the crowd was standing-room-only at the National Museum of Mexican Art on Friday night for the debut of Salud, Radio Arte's summer project in which youth explored issues related to health and the Latino immigrant community. You can hear some samples of their work if you click on the Salud link. The link will probably be pretty raw, since I gather those samples were from their first week on the job.

On Friday night I was impressed with their use of ambient sound, especially the tinkle of a bell to let us know the paleta man was coming down the street. Back of the Yards Latin ska sensation Los Vicios de Papa is sampled in another of the novelas. You can hear the sample used in the novela on the band's My Space page by clicking the link for "sentado en la banca."
The Brady Girls were there with their mom and at least one of their little sisters.

Latinos Progresando's Teatro Americano ensemble also performed the theater piece they've been working on all summer. Honestly, I found the piece a bit long and uneven--they're not in Teatro Vista's or the Albany Park Theater Project's league yet--but they also wrote and performed an hour-long show with a large cast in just seven weeks, so I'll cut them some slack. Two Big Picture 08 grads were in the cast, so it was extra fun to see Back of the Yards so well represented.

By the way, APTP made debut at the Goodman's Latino Theatre Festival on August 12. If you scroll down on the link you will find a synopsis of the work they performed and a video clip of Henry Godinez talking over stills from the performance.