Drumming With and For Benny: Performing the Bronx Archive
The video piece 'Drumming With and For Benny' (2020) by Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel is included in the 'Outside Lineage' series, which investigates themes of resistance through twelve videos that question linear time and imperial concepts of inheritance. It was showcased during the South Bronx Culture Trail Festival in 2020, hosted by Casita Maria Center for Arts & Education. Focusing on Benny Bonilla, a pivotal percussionist and educator in the Bronx's Puerto Rican community, the work features a performative dialogue in Longwood and Morris Park. It includes insights from musicians like Richie Bonilla, Eddie Palmieri, Joe Bataan, and Bobbie Sanabria, as well as community voices and youth from Casita Maria. Drumming serves as a living archive, conveying memory through collective engagement, and reinterpreting legacy as a dynamic, shared experience. This project is part of Estévez Raful's ongoing 'Performing the Bronx' initiative. Originally from Santiago, Dominican Republic, Estévez Raful became a Bronx resident in 2011 and has shown his work at MoMA, Queens Museum, and El Museo del Barrio, benefiting from mentorship by Linda Mary Montano.
Key facts
- The work 'Drumming With and For Benny' was created by Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel Atrib in 2020.
- It was presented as part of the South Bronx Culture Trail Festival, organized by Casita Maria Center for Arts & Education.
- The work is part of the 'Outside Lineage' series, which includes twelve videos.
- It honors Benny Bonilla, a percussionist and educator in the Puerto Rican community of the Bronx.
- The piece features testimonies from Richie Bonilla, Eddie Palmieri, Joe Bataan, and Bobbie Sanabria.
- It took place in the neighborhoods of Longwood and Morris Park in the Bronx.
- The work is part of the artist's long-term project 'Performing the Bronx'.
- The artist has exhibited at MoMA, Queens Museum, and El Museo del Barrio, among others.
Entities
Artists
- Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel Atrib
- Benny Bonilla
- Richie Bonilla
- Eddie Palmieri
- Joe Bataan
- Bobbie Sanabria
- Linda Mary Montano
- Coco Fusco
- Ailton Krenak
- Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
- Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui
Institutions
- Casita Maria Center for Arts & Education
- South Bronx Culture Trail Festival
- MoMA
- Queens Museum
- El Museo del Barrio
- Printed Matter
- P.S. 122
- Sculpture Center
- Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD!)
- Hemispheric Institute of Performance Art and Politics
- Princeton University
- The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian
- Franklin Furnace
- Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
- P.S. 1/MoMA
- CEC ArtsLink
- Yaddo
- MacDowell
- Tyler School of Art, Temple University
- Union Theological Seminary
- The University of Texas at Austin
- Social Practice CUNY
- Leslie Lohman Museum of Art
- Bronx River Art Center (BRAC)
- Elizabeth Foundation Project Space
- Artists Alliance Inc.
- Art in Odd Places
- Korea Art Forum
- The Institute for Art, Religion and Social Justice at Union Theological Seminary
- Filmoteca de Andalucía
- Longwood Art Gallery/BCA
- Center for Book Arts
- Anthology Film Archives
- The Bee Friendly Trust
- City as Living Laboratory
- Henry Street Settlement/Abrons Arts Center
- Lower East Side Printshop
- Jentel
- Soaring Gardens
- The Performance Project
- Madrid Abierto/ARCO
- IX Havana Biennial
- PERFORMA
- IDENSITAT
- Prague Quadrennial
- Pontevedra Biennial
Locations
- Bronx
- Longwood
- Morris Park
- New York City
- United States
- Santiago
- Dominican Republic
- Philadelphia
- Córdoba
- Spain