CHULITA VINYL CLUB X #BOSSBABESATX PRESENT:
EL DISCO ES CULTURA: Performing and Preserving Cultural Identity Through Musical Archives
On October 18 from 6 PM to 8:30 PM at Texas State University’s Brazos Hall in San Marcos, Texas, Chulita Vinyl Club and #bossbabesATX will host “El Disco Es Cultura: Performing and Preserving Cultural Identity Through Musical Archives” as a part of our collaborative installation and pop-up library “VOLUME.” This event is free and open to the public.
— ABOUT THE PANEL AND PERFORMANCE —
Chulita Vinyl Club (CVC) launched in 2014 out of Austin, TX with the context of providing a space for empowerment and togetherness as a collective of women-identifying and nonbinary DJs. Spanning seven national chapters they bring together a community of vinyl loving folks under the belief that el disco es cultura and have established a strong coalition deliberately choosing to only play vinyl with the goal of activating a musical archive that might not otherwise be shared in the age of digital DJs.
Using this concept as a launching off point, CVC performers and scholars Ana Cecilia Calle, Erin Gentry and Xochi Solis, and Texas State graduate student Evaliza Fuentes gather to discuss musical histories and collections as the framework for preserving and perpetuating cultural narratives, as well as the broader impact of archiving outside of the institution and how the methods of chronicling experiences and objects is attached to power.
Preceding and following the panel discussion, join CVC Austin for a live set. While there is no music genre policy in CVC, you can expect anything from your favorite Tejano éxitos, chicano soul-dies, and cumbia jammers to sixties girl-group tunes and disco and funk gems. It’ll be an evening of good tunes, good tunes, good tunes celebrating vinyl culture and the opportunity to enjoy and preserve a piece of history.
The EL DISCO ES CULTURA panel will occur in tandem and in collaboration with BossBabes ATX's and Chulita Vinyl Club’s exhibition, VOLUME hosted by The Center for the Study of the Southwest (CSSW) and the Center for Texas Music History (CTMH) at Texas State University. VOLUME will be open from Sept. 8, 2018 to Dec. 7, 2018.
— MEET THE PANELISTS —
Ana Cecilia Calle
Calle is a Colombian Ph.D student at The University of Texas at Austin researching Latin American literature and cultures. Ana has always been interested in how people use music, records and media as a way to identify with society. Her journalism work has been published in Colombian magazines Arcadia, Diners and El Malpensante. She co-authored El Bajo Alberti, a children’s picture book published by Penguin Random House in 2014. By night, Ana spins records with Chulita Vinyl Club, a womens vinyl collective with chapters in Texas and California.
Erin Gentry
Gentry is a native of Mexico, was raised in the United States, and has been living and working in Austin since the late 1990s. Erin has extensive professional experience in youthwork, bilingual education, and program design and project management, and has been involved in the creation and development of several small non-profit organizations, where she specialized in strategic planning, organizational development, and meeting facilitation. Her nationally recognized work for Arthouse at the Jones Center’s youth education programs impacted the lives of hundreds of young artists and educators. Erin holds a bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies from St. Edward’s University, in Austin, TX, and a master’s degree in American Culture Studies from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio, where she wrote about intersections of gender, contemporary art, and urban space. She has also completed graduate coursework in museum studies and information studies. She has been an active member of MASS Gallery since 2011.
Evaliza Fuentes
Fuentes is a graduate student at Texas State University-San Marcos in the Department of History with an emphasis on public history. She attended The University of Texas at Austin and received a BA in history. In 2013, she completed an MSIS from Texas State University-San Marcos with her quantitative study, “Spanish Language Music Consumption in Central Texas: Taste and Preferences.” Her academic and career goal is the preservation and conservation of Musica Tejana. She is originally from Brownsville, Texas.
Xochi Solis
Solis is an Austin, TX based artist and community organizer sharing her studio time between Texas and Mexico. In the studio she works with multilayered collaged paintings constructed of hand-dyed paper, paint, vinyl, plastics, and images from found books and magazines. Solis considers the repeated act of layering in her work to be a meditation on color, texture, and shape. She feels that her practice brings her a greater awareness of the visual intricacies found in her immediate natural and cultural environments. As an accomplished artist and leader in her community with over 15 years of experience, Solis is enthusiastic about continuing to transform her practice as a cultural producer into a vehicle for active citizenship and civic responsibility. In addition to her studio practice, she manages and spins records with Austin chapter of Chulita Vinyl Club and sits on the programming committee of #bossbabesATX.
— ATTEND THE PANEL / VISIT “VOLUME” —
“VOLUME” is free and open to the public within the Texas State University Brazos Hall’s gallery from September 8, 2018 to December 7, 2018. The opening reception for the installation’s prints will be held on October 11, 2018 from noon to 2 PM. The panel’s discussion and performance “El Disco Es Cultura” will be held on October 18, 2018 from 6 PM to 8:30 PM.
Throughout Fall 2018, the installation will morph and change as the collection of donated prints, vinyl and zines grow, so come through once, twice, three times—as much as your heart desires. :)
— CONTRIBUTE TO “VOLUME” —
Throughout Fall 2018, #bossbabesATX and Chulita Vinyl Club will accept donations of vinyl, zines and prints from the community to preserve history and the things that matter to us as artists. To contribute to VOLUME’s collection with your own donation, simply drop off items at any upcoming #bossbabesATX event between now and November 15. You can also schedule a drop-off by emailing thebabes@bossbabes.org or send donations to 4810 Oak Cliff Dr. Austin, Texas 78721.
— MEET THE PRODUCERS AND PARTNERS —
#bossbabesATX (Austin, Texas): amplifies and connects women and nonbinary creatives, entrepreneurs and organizers through nonprofit event series, showcases and personal/professional development programs. They create intersectional, interdisciplinary programs and initiatives that catalyze multi-industry coalitions, share crafts and provide the community with practical and emotional resources. Currently their programs provide a platform of visibility, outreach and financial opportunity to 1000+ emerging women and nonbinary creatives, entrepreneurs and organizers per year. On top of that goodness, more than 10,000+ community members per year attend their showcases, markets and dialogues—and in the last three years, their programs generated an additional $1million for the Austin economy. @bossbabesATX / bossbabes.org
Chulita Vinyl Club (Texas + California): launched in 2014 out of Austin, TX with the context of providing a space for empowerment and togetherness as an all-girl, all-vinyl club for self-identifying women of color. Now a national movement, they believe identity markers can sometimes be limiting, and while their priority is maintaining the mission of fostering a safe space for self-identifying women of color, they also aim their focus on highlighting those of mixed-heritage and those that identify as part of a marginalized community combining narratives to speak crucially about intersectional identities. Each Chulita identifies with their own identity. They are not to be classified as one nationality or culture; they can present as brown, black or white and all shades in between, and come in a wonderful variety of shapes and sizes. Within CVC they individually identify with the following: Latinas, Tejanas, Chicanas, Xicana, Afro-Latina and many more. The unifying denominator is that they come together over the belief that EL DISCO ES CULTURA and they believe that is worth preserving and perpetuating. Through their performances nationwide, they have established a strong coalition deliberately choosing to only play vinyl with the goal of activating a musical archive that might not otherwise be shared in the age of digital DJs. @chulitavinylclub / chulitavinylclub.com
The Center for the Study of the Southwest at Texas State University (San Marcos, Texas): engages faculty and students in the richness and diversity of Texas, the Southwestern United States, and Northern Mexico via curriculum development, public outreach, and research that give focus to intercultural studies through examining the region's people, institutions, history, art, and physical and cultural ecology. txstate.edu/cssw
The Center for Texas Music History at Texas State University (San Marcos, Texas): is a unique program focusing on the preservation and study of Texas and Southwestern music history. With an emphasis on how Texas music reflects the rich history and tremendous cultural diversity of the Southwest, the Center for Texas Music History offers graduate and undergraduate courses, along with a variety of research and publishing projects all aimed at helping Americans better understand our unique and diverse cultural heritage through music. @ctrtxmusichistory / txstate.edu/ctmh