Queer Latinx musicians, including DJ Cocteautwinks, will headline part of the Broad’s summer art series “Now We’re Here” in June. Photo: The Broad
Queer Latinx musicians will headline part of the Broad’s summer art series “Now We’re Here” in June.
The series is connected to the museum’s exhibit “This is Not America’s Flag,” which examines and questions the complex meanings and symbolism of the United States flag, citizenship, and national identity.
In “Now We’re Here,” artists will celebrate their roles and identities in today’s artistic and sociopolitical landscape, the joys and struggles of self-defining their place, citizenship and national identity, and the individual ways they arrived at this moment in their journeys, according to a press release.
“Now We’re Here” will include neo-Sufi jazz minimalism, short films, electronic music, rap and hip hop, among other formats.
The series will take place June 18, Aug. 27, and Sept. 24. Tickets are $25.
Here are the queer Latinx musicians who will perform June 18.
- DJ Cocteautwinks (Aka Mino Sanchez) is a Los Angeles-based Nicaraguan-American artist and DJ born and raised in San Jose. His work in Microsoft Paint, hand-drawn clothing, and on the decks is imbued with reverence and nostalgia for 1990s style and queer-alternative perspectives on music, animation, and other media. He spins vinyl at Chardogay, Hard Boyle, and A4D Night.
- Niña Dioz, originally from Monterrey, Mexico, is possibly Mexico’s first openly queer rapper. Dioz’s music documents her struggles coming up in the scene as well as the long journey to reclaiming her confidence and power.
- féi hernandez is a trans, Inglewood-raised, formerly undocumented immigrant author of the full-length poetry collection “Hood Criatura.” Their poem and film “Our Lungs Your Wings” was commissioned by The Broad for their World AIDS Day 2021 commemoration. They were born in Chihuahua, Mexico.
- Xandra Ibarra is an Oakland-based interdisciplinary artist from the US-Mexico border of El Paso-Juarez. Ibarra works to address abjection and joy and the borders between proper and improper racialized, gendered, and queer subjects. She co-curated The Broad’s feminist Latinx performance series En Quatro Patas.
- Mariachi Arcoiris de Los Angeles is possibly the world’s first and only LGBTQ+ mariachi band. The band’s Natalia Melendez is possibly the first transgender female musician in the history of mariachi.
- Rubby was born in the Dominican Republic and raised in Washington Heights, New York. This multicultural background takes audio files on an eclectic journey, from dembow to pop and techno. He burst into the scene in 2017 with his single and self-produced music videos such as “Confiesa” and “No Mas,” where he deconstructed notions of Latinx masculinity, queer identities in urban vs. rural spaces, and traditions of homosexuality. His first EP, “Pajaro Malo,” was released February 2021.
