Guest Artist Performs "Aliens, Immigrants, and Other Evildoers"

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José Torres-Tama

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – New Orleans performance artist José Torres-Tama will perform his one-person show Aliens, Immigrants, and Other Evildoers at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 4, in Hillside Auditorium (room 206) on the University of Arkansas campus. 

Drawn from interviews with workers in several American cities, the piece uses ritual, impersonation and sci-fi imagery to convey the stories and experiences of Hispanic immigrants in the United States.

In honor of Hispanic Heritage month, the piece is underwritten by the university's Artists and Concerts series, the department of drama, and La Oficina Latina. Admission is free.

Aliens was developed through a National Performance Network Creation Fund award and with the commissioning support of Multicultural Education and Counseling through the Arts in Houston, the Ashé Cultural Arts Center in New Orleans and Grupo de Artistas Latino Americanos Hispanic Theatre in Washington, D.C.

Torres-Tama is a National Endowment for the Arts award recipient for his multidisciplinary performance work and a Louisiana Theater Fellow. In April 2013, he was awarded a National Performance Network Creation Fund to develop the ALIENS Taco Truck Theater Project, and was nominated for a United States Artists Innovative Theater Fellowship in 2012.

He explores the Latino immigrant experience, the underbelly of the American Dream mythology and New Orleans Creole history through spoken word poetry, critical essays, visual arts, photo documentation and performance art. Torres-Tama has toured nationally and internationally since 1995 and has been a regular contributor to NPR's Latino USA since 2006.