Dancing Cantos Exhibit, NELA (2016)

In Dancing Cantos of an Evicted Pueblo, the Northeast Los Angeles Alliance (NELA) transforms the community room at Avenue 50 gallery into an action hub for creative action that address the ill effects of gentrification on the neighborhood directly outside of the galleries walls. An exhibition framework that includes installations and archival material highlights the groups performative actions, visual strategies and community organizing efforts while setting the stage for a continuous activation of the exhibition space throughout the duration of the exhibit. Work parties with local residents, a panel discussion, cultural programming, and workshops will build toward a culminating event in which “artwork” will literally be taken off the gallery walls and inserted into the local landscape. Opening night will include a procession and performance of “Testimonios del Barrio” a work that represents NELA’s commitment to centering the voice of those most affected by the changes brought by gentrification.

The Northeast Alliance is a group of local Northeast Los Angeles Residents

committed to witnessing and documenting the changing socio-economic

landscape of NELA. The group is committed to understanding the full effect of

gentrification on immigrant, working class and poor communities and addressing

these effects through education, organizing, visual and performing arts and

ongoing scholarship. Recognizing that many of the narratives defining

gentrification are not coined by the immigrant, working class and poor

communities it profoundly affects, Northeast Alliance is non-complacent in

challenging those prevailing narratives by presenting and recording voices of

those who are not heard.