ABSTRACT

In September 2015, artists of AgitArte and Papel Machete collaborated with El Puente and self-taught quilter Sylvia Hernandez (Brooklyn Quilt Girl) to develop and present a Cantastoria (picture story-telling) using a quilt that traces the history and development of the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) from slavery to mass incarceration and the killing of black and Latinx men and women by police in the United States (Figure I.1). The bilingual piece includes an adaptation of the 28 29song “Lamento De Concepción” by Afroboricua composer Tite Curet Alonso and was first performed with El Puente’s For the Movement Youth Theater Collective in the community of Los Sures (Southside of Williamsburg, Brooklyn), a predominantly Latinx and Spanish-speaking community (Figure I.2). Many creative and intentional choices such as Conga drums, spoken word, call and response, and storytelling using imagery were made in developing the piece to allow the communities most impacted by police violence and the PIC to locate themselves within the performance. The Cantastoria toured with the book, When We Fight, We Win! to over 20 cities in the US and Puerto Rico.