Maria Mar in the Poetry Botanica
Three Muses with Music, the last performance of the Poetry Botanica for 2008
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The last performance of the Poetry Botanica was entitled Three Muses with Music, and it integrated visual art, performance, poetry and music. The three muses are:
- Artist Tanya Torres, who painted the fresco in the background and offered her art in a beautiful interactive installation.
- Maria Mar, creator of the Poetry Botanica,who performed and offered several interactive installations, and
- Corazon Tierra, creator of The Vessel Goddess performance.
Three happy women honoring the Goddess Mother Creatress.
Photo by audience member Noemi Cardona.
Maria Mar
The Dream Alchemist
Maria Mar singing
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This photo is evidence of the latest, and perhaps the most extraordinary miracle in my life. For more than 40 years I was unable to sing. I could not carry a tune, fly in melody or retain a melodic pattern. In this photo you can witness my first singing in public during the last performance of the Poetry Botanica, entitled Three Muses with Music. Imagine my joy when people in the audience thanked me for the healing power of my singing voice! If I was able to sing, I can do anything, and so can you!
Photo taken by audience member Noemi Cardona.
Maria Mar
The Dream Alchemist
Offerings to All Our Ancestors, Art installation by Maria Mar
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This photo shows one of my art installations at the Poetry Botanica, an interactive offering to All our Ancestors, created with audience participation and honoring the Ancestors of the four main races with black, red, white and yellow grains. Consider this: for many, many years I used to say: "the only thing I can do with my hands is write, because I can't do any visual art." Today I do 3-D art installations, illustrations, book covers, designs, and watch for the make-up and costumes, all done by me.
Photo taken by audience member Noemi Cardona.
Maria Mar
The Dream Alchemist
Audience member dancing to honor the Ancestors
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In these photo you can enjoy audience member, Raquel Rivera, dancing in honor of All Our Ancestors. Raquel is a singer, author and scholar.
This photo and the photos that follow, tell the story of how the audience got involved in the magical performance of the Poetry Botanica. Since I was a little kid, I used to create participatory poems and games and prepare presentations for our family reunion. My life purpose at birth was to become an artist-shaman and offer people a place to heal and transform themselves through the arts. It took many years, because this is not an ordinary career. When I began to study, I had never heard about being a shaman. I struggled between psychology and theater, never finding my place. But now I have found it, and it is such a beautiful place! I am blessed that I can create a magical realm where the community comes together to heal, celebrate and nurture their souls.
Photo taken by audience member Noemi Cardona.
Maria Mar
The Dream Alchemist
Audience member dancing to the Ancestors
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Migdalia Santiago, healer, social worker and author is dancing to the Ancestors in the last poem of the Poetry Botanica. Ay, Tembandumba! is a poem by Maria Mar that includes a ceremony to honor All Our Ancestors. The audience dances, places the bags with offerings that they created at the beginning of the activity, and show their respects to our African Ancestors and to the Ancestors of all the races, represented by black, red, white and yellow grains. The flowers and other offers were brought by audience members also. Art installation and concept by Maria Mar.
This photo was taken by audience member Noemi Cardona.
Maria Mar
The Dream Alchemist
The Poetry Botanica, New York, December 2008
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This photo tells many stories. I will tell mine, but include something of the other artists represented here.
The Poetry Botanica offers a place where people come together as a community to heal, celebrate and transform themselves through art. This was my soul's purpose at birth. It wasn't easy to figure out or develop. It has taken me many years to integrate all my talents, experience and skills, but I am finally living my dream! In these photos you will fill the powerful magic generated at our events.
The fresco in the background is the creation of artist Tanya Torres. Tanya Torres is an extraordinary woman and artist who used her art to transform her life and as a complimentary healing mode to emerge from her experience of cancer as a stronger woman and better artist. Tanya's images of women's bodies has a poweful healing effect in women.
At the Bomba drums (barriles), Norka Nadal and Dan Maldonado. The barriles are used to play the Bomba, an Afro-Puerto Rican traditional rhythm that allows the community to express its experience, feelings and personality through dance, in gestures that the drummers follow. This dance is so powerful that the white slave-owners prohibited it during what was called the "Black Code" in the Caribbean and other regions. Norka Nadal, the Priestess of Bomba, is a master drummer, dancer, singer and teacher of this powerful tradition that is quickly spreading to the multicultural USA scene.
Central installation by Maria Mar.
Photo by audience member Noemi Cardona.
Maria Mar
The Dream Alchemist