Everyday People Everyday Action

HISTORY OF THE PROJECT

Cultura in Pilsen is a nonprofit Spanish-speaking literary journal and convening organization based in Pilsen. Cultura brought Akito to Pilsen in late 2017, and hosted an exhibition of his photos taken of Pilsen in early 1990's. Akito was warmly received by Pilsen and broader Chicago, as Clinard Dance presented a work in progress of a new piece we are creating about everyday people/everyday action that incorporates Akito's photos. (see articles below)

Tsuda lived in Chicago in the early ‘90s, and captured the nuances and small triumphs of daily life in Pilsen in his photographs. This eventually lead to a published book called Made Me Better Than Before. His lack of English only enhanced his sincerity and curiosity: these provided the trust needed to photograph poetic, ordinary, beautiful moments in Pilsen.

Clinard Dance’s deep roots in Pilsen date back to 1999 (see Reader article below from April 2018). Both Akito’s photos and approach speak to our artistic mission, which deals with people’s place in the world; their sense of belonging. It is Tsuda’s artistic worldview and brief but life-changing interlude in Pilsen that inspire this project entitled "Everyday People/Everyday Action".

Akito's photos of the tailor shop, the shoemaker, and the smiling lady at the laundry tug at the heart. They inspire the percussive footwork of flamenco, inviting the rhythms of the sewing machine, the washers/dryers, and the complex sounds taken from the shoemaker. People's everyday repetitive actions/sounds are the percussive fuel for establishing both the tempos and original score by The Flamenco Quartet Project and choreography by Wendy Clinard. The work will incorporate various influences, drawing on hip hop, beatbox, flamenco and classical Spanish, as they seek to tell a story about everyday people doing everyday actions, and celebrate, articulate, and magnify the understated beauty of the ordinary.

In April 2018, the Center for East Asian Studies, Clinard Dance and Cultura in Pilsen hosted a photo exhibit and interdisciplinary performance at the University of Chicago, and a second exhibit and performance was held at The National Museum of Mexican Arts. Both events were free. In March 2019 Clinard Dance was invite to Oberlin College in conjunction with their Breaking Boundaries in Flamenco Symposium where they shared yet another iteration of the work.

Participants (Past & Present)

Marija Temo — Guitarist
Steve Gibons — Violinist
Christopher Courtney — Hip Hop Dancer
Yuri Lane — Beatboxer
Wendy Clinard — Dancer
Jose Moreno — Guitarist
Marisela Tapia — Dancer
Marfil Keller Alemañ — Dancer
Camilo Rihcón — Musician
Christine Shallenberg — Lighting Designer
Akito Tsuda — Photographer

Reviews of Everyday People Everyday Action and Akito Tsuda’s photo exhibition

“Flipping through Tsuda's book, Pilsen Days, last week at Pleasant House Pub on Halsted, Clinard pointed excitedly to a picture and described it as "so hydrating for your eyes." She often makes a sound or hand gesture, dispensing with words altogether, to get at what she wants to say.”
— Dmitry Samarov, Chicago Reader

“Works like Tsuda’s are not only significant in their artistic merit, but will become necessary records of the ever-evolving neighborhoods that make up this city.”
— Matthew Shenoda, Dean of Academic Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Columbia College Chicago

“Akito always had a gift for engaging people, nature, and the environment, using the camera for what it is: a conduit, or passport, that connects the heartbeat of humanity across the world.”
— John H. White, Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist, Columbia College Chicago

“But what comes through most clearly in Tsuda’s work is the joy of his subjects, their pride and happiness in the pleasures of family and everyday life.”
— Mark Brown, Chicago Sun Times

“During his most recent visit, Tsuda was reunited with longtime Pilsen residents, some traveling from out-of-state to see him. At one event, attendees attached printed copies of Tsuda’s photos onto a large map of Pilsen, retracing the photographer’s steps and the community’s memories.”
— Mia Sato, Chicago Mag

Premiere Program

Premiere of Everyday People Everyday Action
National Museum of Mexican Art
November 24th, 2-5pm

Program

2:00-3:00 — Today’s event opens with artists sharing a piece from their traditional art forms
so you'll see how the various traditions and disciplines work as a whole in
the collaborative premiere of Everyday People Everyday Action

3:00-3:30 — A moderated artist talk-back and discussion with today’s performers

3:30-4:30 — We will conclude with a reception and community map making
with Akito Tsuda in partnership with the JDef Peace Project

Everyday People Everyday Action

Inspired by Japanese photographer Akito Tsuda, Clinard Dance has developed an interdisciplinary performance based on Akito’s photos of Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood in the early 1990’s.

Throughout the performance, Akito’s photography returns to animate the disciplines of dance (hip hop and flamenco) and music (flamenco, beatboxing, Son Jarocho and violin). Here, the background and foreground, the past and the present, continuously shift in and out of focus. Photos of the neighborhood tailor shop, shoemakers, and a smiling face at the laundry come together to excite flamenco's percussive footwork, articulating and flourishing the ordinary rhythms of sewing machines, laundromat washers and dyers, and the whole range of sounds taken in while walking down Pilsen’s 18th street. People’s everyday and repetitive actions/sounds fuel and drive the performance's choreography and tempo.

Everyday People Everyday Action is like a collaged snapshot, a painting of movements and sounds, of history and place. It is work that portrays everyday people and their everyday actions as they celebrate ordinary and everyday beauty.

Performers: Marfil Keller Alemañ, Wendy Clinard, Chris Courtney, Steve Gibons, Yuri Lane, Camilo Rihcón, Marija Temo

Light design and projection: Christine Shallenberg

Sound design: Gene Nemirovsky

Photos: Akito Tsuda

Special thanks: Michael Baldwin, Damian Barta, Erin Cwikala, Rie Katayama, Jennifer and Moises Lomeli, Jeff Maldonado / JDef Peace Project, Daisy and Karla Morales, Antonio Ortiz, Sergio Reyes, Magdalena Rodriguez, Sophia Clinard Rubio, Avis and Jeff Shapiro, Debby Storms, Andres Tapia

Our funders: Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation

"There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people." --Vincent Van Gogh