Open Auditions for Artists-in-Residence Project

During the summer of 2017, while artists-in-residence at Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana, CA,  Angel Nevarez and Valerie Tevere  began research toward a new project that builds upon their interests combining time-based media with songwriting, vocalizing, and civic participation.

They began their process with the question: How might we sing our way through the transformation of place?

While in-residence Nevarez and Tevere learned stories of spaces in Santa Ana, both inhabited and boarded up, of immigrant-owned entities that passed through generations only to be pushed out by rising rents and revitalization plans. Downtown Santa Ana, historically a thriving commercial area catering primarily to Mexican and recent immigrant communities, is now shifting its identity for potential newcomers. The stories of Santa Ana are the stories of Sunset Park in Brooklyn, of Boyle Heights in Los Angeles, of Pilsen in Chicago – neighborhoods where real estate speculation supersedes communities.

With this in mind, Nevarez and Tevere have written a song.

The artists invite Santa Ana residents to join in this multi-layered work. Auditions for musicians and vocalists will be held on July 9^th and 10^th, 2018. Looking for amateurs and professionals alike.