Pandora's Box Is Open

In a Whisper   (A media voz)  is a mix of fiction and documentary that follows the life of two filmmakers throughout their native Cuba and their years as immigrants witnessing the gradual erosion of their ignorance beneath the millstone of migration. The film starts as a thoroughly Cuban piece of migration literacy. Still, it turns into the story of any vibrant woman who migrates to Europe and finds herself in a resistance position to pursue a dream. The film produces a memory for the Cuban community, thus enabling to fathom the collective soul of their adopted countries. Precisely, the visual letters unveiling what is non-visual, the cardinal points that mark the perimeter of their utopia, while linking the invisibility of the migrant subject to the dominant voyage that always initiates with the rights acquired by birth.  The testimony of the audio-visual letters between the two filmmakers is both cheerful and poignant. The migration experience seen through th...

This is where we are at in our "great-again" America and its pseudo-patriotism. The establishment and their proselytes are pissed off because Colin Kaepernick is Nike's new "Just Do It" spokesman—that means I'll be only wearing Nike sneakers from now on to support the "Dream Crazy" slogan of this campaign carrying a serious message of racial equality and social justice. A flag (American or from elsewhere) is just a piece of waving dirty rag if the ideals it represents are betrayed by the actions of our "elected" officials. We need more role models, doers, and makers like Colin Kaepernick, more challenging corporations like Nike and fewer Republicans like the pathetic trumpet blowing shit in the White House. Longtime ad agency Wieden and Kennedy is on the money with this 2-minute spot titled "Dream Crazy" filled with inspirational scenes of young athletes facing adversity in pursuing their dreams. It also features Shaquem Gri...

Visionary musicians are no less visionary because they have to learn the canon. Nigel Kennedy is an inspiration of what classical music should be if we don't want to confine it to a museum. He's full of twists and turns like the unique stories in the masterful One Thousand and One Nights. I love the Arabic undertones in this unprecedented interpretation of the museum piece.

In the world of divas (and divos) most are princes and princesses, but few are genuinely Kings and Queens. Aretha Franklin was THE QUEEN. She did all there's to do in music with her voice, which remained unchanged during her six-decade recording career.   Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin had the key that the rest of Pop and Classical divos and divas alike wanted to find to open the door to eternity. Little did they know that the key was custom made without replica by her Creator. R-E-S-P-E-C-T  

In the world of divas (and divos) most are princes and princesses, but few are genuinely Kings and Queens. Aretha Franklin was THE QUEEN. She did all there's to do in music with her voice, which remained unchanged during her six-decade recording career.   Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin had the key that the rest of Pop and Classical divos and divas alike wanted to find to open the door to eternity. Little did they know that the key was custom made without replica by her Creator. R-E-S-P-E-C-T  

I come across many people who want to change the world yet they haven’t figured out how to change themselves for the better; writers who think that you write for a formulaic reader when in reality if you cannot write from the core about what makes you come alive daily your writing will always be voiceless and cosmetic. In a moment when I find it exhausting to look at the outside world for inspiration, I’m looking inward and writing up a storm as I listen to Oprah.  

Poet, author, and visual artist Orlando Ferrand discusses with host Rhina Valentin his new book of poems "Star Witness" and the launching of "The Bronx Memoir Project Volume 2," an anthology of personal narratives he contributed to as a memoirist and creative writing coach. Both books are available on Amazon. "Star Witness" can also be purchased at Barnes & Noble brick and mortar and online bookstores.

This is a clip from the public program of "Like a Domino Tale." This is a nonprofit project that explores personal narratives of older adults and their daily interactions within the program activities at Morris Senior Center in the South Bronx, NY. 2017 SU-CASA artist, Orlando Ferrand, recorded senior participants in his series of workshops at this model facility during a period of six months while they shared their life experiences and the strength it took to become the extraordinary individuals they are today.

It’s very challenging to write about the arts in the 21 st century, particularly about music and dance as creative disciplines, as praxis. I must admit, however, that Adorno’s dissection of the social dimension of art through aesthetics as a discipline (1) continues to inform and contextualize my notion of art and culture, especially music, in ways that no other critical theoretician could ever do. After all, he was not only the luminary who conceived critical theory but also the greatest philosopher of music who ever lived. As a multidisciplinary artist myself, I’m grateful for the opportunities I had to showcase my work in the performing arts during the last two decades of the 20 th century when cultural and philosophical ideas framed by the avant-garde were resurrected and regarded if not as an aesthetics of permanence (2) at least as a referential vocabulary resisting the annihilation of all isms by postmodernists (3). After the year 2000, however, the skepticism, agnostici...

I'm very thankful to Elyssa Goodman for the invitation to read some of my latest non-fiction creations at the renowned Miss Manhattan Reading Series on Monday, October 5, 2015 at 7j:45 PM in the East Village, the place I call home. It was in the island of Manhattan where my cosmopolitan roots as an immigrant teen from Cuba grew stronger. And since I was born in an island, I wasn't new to the assumption that islanders are inevitable sailors who are never satiated, who are always looking for adventure, who prefer the constant change that water brings to their relentless coastal confinement.  Many years have passed since I arrived in New York City. Nevertheless, I continue to be haunted by its ever changing geography. I always new I was predestined to become a New Yorker, for it wasn't until I came of age here that I acquired a sense of identity never compromised with anything other than my need for self-realization and the pursue of happiness and freedom. Th...

September Bronx Writers Center Dispatch: Orlando Ferrand

A well written script is usually the best foundation for a good production. "The Jump" is a jewel. This short epitomizes the art of short film making. A short, like its predecessor, the short story, attains at reaching a level of poetic discourse woven into a mundane story. Why are we so awestruck? Because this movie touches man's visceral need to transcend gravity in its most concrete and abstract nuances while leaving us at the end with a sense of absolute freedom and joy. Bravo!!!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  Contact: Phil Cardone Phone: 718-931-9500 x33 E-Mail: phil@bronxarts.org Web: www.bronxarts.org BCA CELEBRATES 25 YEARS of BRIO on WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4th  with Twenty-Five New BRIO Winners for Artistic Excellence at the  2014 Award Presentation at Longwood Art Gallery @ Hostos  (May 16, 2014 – Bronx) Twenty-five Bronx artists are the 2014 recipients of BCA’s prestigious Bronx Recognizes Its Own (BRIO) Award for artistic excellence. An award reception and networking event will be held on Wednesday, June 4th at 5:45pm at Longwood Art Gallery at Hostos Community College. The June 4th event marks the 25th anniversary of BRIO, and is one of many activities scheduled for that evening’s Bronx Trolley First Wednesday Arts & Culture Tour at the Longwood Art Gallery @ Hostos, along with a number of free trolley activities along the South Bronx Cultural Corridor. BRIO winners, past and present, are invited to socialize and netwo...

DEAR READERS, IN SPANISH, SPREAD THE WORD... Open Your Keepsake Box and join us, as we embark in a two-hour  journey  through songs that have impacted our lives, recollections of early childhood memories, places we've been to, family and friends who nurtured us, the grandmas, the moms, the dads, the aunties and the uncles, the smells we registered, the clothes we wore, the first love, the first dance, the first fall, the beloved departed, the fears, the tears, the joy, the happiness and unhappiness...Mixed it all up and own it, retell it, rescue it from oblivion, so you can embrace your own beginnings and re-create your destination. After all, we are our own memories in the nuances of images and words. Therefore, we have the power to rewrite them. Learn how to fictionalize real people and events in your life, and trim your story in pursue of a compelling and empowering memoir. EN ESPAÑOL, corre la voz ... ABRA EL COFRE DE SUS RECUERDOS y únase a nosotros, mientr...

I didn't find out that Gabriel Garcia Marquez had passed until I got home in the evening of April 17, 2014. I have to say, I've been avoiding visiting social media sites; they destroy my ability to keep the focus on my creative endeavors, and I no longer watch TV because I have a lot to read and reread. My phone had lost its charge, so I didn't browse the Internet for my dosage of news either on the train. When I got home at around 7:00 PM, I checked my Gmail account and found out about the death of the Nobel laureate through one of my students. I’m teaching a creative writing workshop that focuses on how to write effective short stories by mastering the craft of the genre; the essentials. Needless to say, Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a name my students have become acquainted with by now, since I rejoice in sharing literary references that can aid them in their short story journey. Today, I happened to mention in class “La Viuda de Montiel” , one of Garcia-Marquez short...

Two Panel Discussion Sessions with Award-Winning Writer Orlando Ferrand Moderated by Robert F. Cohen Two Panel Discussion Sessions with Cuban Writer Orlando Ferrand, Moderated by Professor Robert F. Cohen, Director of the Book-of-the-Semester Project, Will Be Hosted by HOSTOS COMMUNITY COLLEGE OF THE CTY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK ON APRIL 26, 2012 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   APOLOGIA by Orlando Ferrand PRLog (Press Release)  -  Apr 24, 2012  - Bronx, New York, April 24, 2012:  "Apologia:  Cuban Childhood in My Backpack" (PublishAmerica 2011) by award-winning Cuban writer and multidisciplinary artist Orlando Ferrand―resident of New York since 1992―was selected as the Book-of-the- Semester at Hostos Community College of the City University of New York. With over 30 years of sustained professional practice in the Arts and Letters, Orlando Ferrand has received numerous scholarships and awards in the U.S. and abroad, including the 2011 Artist...