CREDITS

we have Iré

ARTIST STATEMENT | Paul S. Flores 

Iré is Lucumi (Yoruba) for the good fortune we experience when our lives are in balance. Some of the most talented Cuban musicians and dancers in the world live, practice, and perform in my hometown of San Francisco. We hear a lot about immigrants who struggle to cross the border from Mexico into the United States. The immigrants in We Have Iré are also artists, and their unique arrivals to the U.S. have not been told as often. 

We Have Iré is also my personal story about my connection to Cuba, where my family is from. The celebration of music dance and poetry in the piece is due to the feeling of homecoming and belonging when someone finds their “tribe.”

We Have Iré is a bilingual, multimedia, musical theater project which benefits from the tremendous expertise, accomplishments, and “iré” of all the collaborators. The strength of this work is this unique ensemble of artists from different disciplines collaborating on a play.  Latinx Theater is growing in the United States. However, Black Latinx experiences are still not represented equally on stage. We hope to open the conversation about Afro-Caribbean immigrants to humanize and complicate the immigration issue.

I feel so fortunate to develop and present my work with Rosalba, Alvan, Jorge, Arnaldo at Pregones Theater, un teatro perfecto para artistas bilingües como nosotros.  This is my second production here.

I love Pregones so much. Thank you so much for giving our stories a home. 

Paul S. Flores
Creator and Writer of We Have Iré

 

Director | Rosalba Rolón

The experience of directing  We Have Iré, has given me an opportunity to collaborate with Paul S. Flores, a writer and spoken word artist whose talent and accomplishments I have admired for years. Yosvany Terry, and a whole collection of talented professionals at the top of their game. These individual stories were translated for the stage and told-performed by a mix of actors, dancers, musicians, and entertainers. An inspiring experience. An excellent creative team with a lot of Iré. I celebrate this latest iteration, a cast recording of the first order.

Rosalba Rolón


Artist Bios

  • Paul S. Flores

    Shaped by his experiences growing up near the Mexican border, Paul S. Flores (Christian) creates plays and oral narratives that touch on the immigrant story and spur societal movements. Flores’ recent play On The Hill: I Am Alex Nieto brought San Francisco communities together divided by gentrification and police violence. He performed for the first time in Cuba in 2001 and has presented multiple times in Havana, Mexico and El Salvador. His plays include REPRESENTA!, You’re Gonna Cry, PLACAS, Pilgrim Street, and We Have Iré

  • Rosalba Rolón

    Rosalba Rolón is Artistic Director of Pregones + Puerto Rican Traveling Theater, a New York company focused on the creation and performance of original musical theater and plays rooted in Puerto Rican/Latino cultures. With Pregones, she has toured more than five hundred US cities and eighteen countries. Favoring the art of stage adaptation in ensemble settings, her work includes Harlem Hellfighters On A Latin Beat, Dancing In My Cockroach Killers, The Red Rose and ¡Guaracha! among numerous others.

  • Yosvany Terry

    Since his arrival in New York in 1999, Cuban saxophonist, percussionist, composer Yosvany Terry has been making a difference in contemporary music. His innovative work, a unique confluence of Cuban roots music and jazz. He recently received the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival Commission for Noches de Parranda and the Harlem Stage commission to write the music for the opera Makandal. His albums include the Grammy Nominated New Throned King, Today’s Opinion, Ancestral Memories, and We Have Iré Original Cast Recording

  • DJ Leydis

    Born and raised in Cuba, DJ Leydis combines contemporary hits with a distinct fusion of Latin flavors, R&B classics and roots reggae. She was involved in the inception of the Cuban Hip-Hip Movement and has organized some of Cuba’s most respected events and programs. She co-founded Omegas Kilay, a Havana based Hip hop Theater Collective and co-created Cuba’s first all-female DJ Mixtape. She has worked with Erykah Badu, Questlove of the Roots, and other iconic US artists.

  • Ramón Ramos Alayo

    Ramón Ramos Alayo (Monchi) is a dancer, teacher, choreographer, and the founder and artistic director of the Alayo Dance Company and CubaCaribe. As the principal dancer with Danza del Caribe and Narciso Medina Contemporary Dance Company, he has performed in Cuba, Europe, Canada, Belize and the United States.
    Ramos was selected by the Cuban government to study dance in Santiago de Cuba at age eleven, which led him to earn a masters degree in contemporary and folkloric dance and dance education from the Havana’s National School of Art. He was. Since moving to California, he has performed with Robert Henry Johnson, Kim Epifano, Sara Shelton Mann, Joanna Haigood/Zaccho Dance and Robert Moses’ Kin.

  • Christin Eve Cato

    Christin Eve Cato (Nené) is a native New Yorker with a background in performing arts and production. Christin received her MFA in Playwriting at Indiana University. She is also a graduate of Fordham University, and Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School for Music and Art and the Performing Arts. Cato is affiliated with the New York theater companies, Pregones/PRTT (ensemble member); INTAR Theatre (UNIT 52 ensemble member); Hip-Hop Theatre Company, Rhymes Over Beats (producing member).

  • Denmis Savigne Bain

    Denmis Savigne Bain (Jony) is originally from Santiago de Cuba. He has expertise in Afro-Cuban dance, folklore, ballet, jazz, modern dance, contemporary ballet, hip-hop and singing. He is a principle dancer for Havana Nights Dance Company and has choreographed for Kenny Ortega, Siegfried and Roy, Emilio Estefan, Manuel Mendive, Havana Nights Dance Company and the Latin Grammy’s. He is the owner of Cuban Rhythm and Rumba Dance Studio in Vallejo, CA.

  • Eli Jacobs-Fantauzzi

    (Filmmaker) is graduate of UC Berkeley, he received his MA degree from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Eli is an award-winning filmmaker and currently directs FistUp.TV a production company that documents people’s stories from around the world as a way to expand community awareness around issues of social responsibility, and cultural identity. His work has circulated through the National Broadcast: Free Speech TV, Teaching Channel, PBS and Vibe Magazine. His latest documentary film Bakoso: Afrobeats of Cuba received national broadcast on PBS in 2021. He is the co-founder of Defend Puerto Rico a multimedia project designed to document and celebrate Puerto Rican creativity, resilience, and resistance. Eli curates the Annual Fist Up Film Festival in the Bay Area, California. His dedication to his craft is deeply connected to his commitment to social justice and the belief in the transformative power of film.

 

Cast Interviews

 
 

Paul S. Flores

Rosalba Rolón

Yosvany Terry

DJ Leydis

Xiomara Laugart