Brick Aux presents
Immigrants Welcome Here: A Fundraiser Market
Vendors, Performances, Drinks, and A Raffle! We’re raising funds for our Exponential Festival show más que un pétalo!
at Brick Aux – 628 Metropolitan Ave
December 3, 2023
2:30-6pm
$10 (suggested donation – no one turned away for lack of funds)

At this event immigrants are at the forefront!

más que un pétalo is excited to be a part of Exponential Festival and a recipient of the NYFA Women’s Fund grant, to bring you all the best production possible, we need to raise some additional funds to cover expenses that came up recently. Through this event we will aim to raise $2000.

20% of this will be donated to Voces Latinas, an NYC based organization working to reduce the rate of HIV transmission and violence among immigrants by empowering, educating, and providing leadership and advocacy trainings which enable Latinos to have a voice and to make healthier decisions for them and their families.

The remainder will go towards stipends for artists working on our show to make sure we can bring you the best possible version of más que un pétalo in January 2024.

Starting at 2:30pm, vendors from folks who paint to those who sell jewelry will be selling items for purchase. Interspersed throughout the event, we will have performances ranging from poetry to performance art. There will be a cash bar and raffle! Follow our instagram linked here for updates on vendors, performers and raffle prizes!

There will be a raffle ($5 per ticket!) with prizes such as Broadway tickets, a resume review session, and more!

The suggested entry fee is $10 although no one will be turned away for lack of funds!

Más que un Pétalo (More than a Petal) by Salomé Egas, is a 60-minute interdisciplinary theater show deconstructing the Ecuadorian immigrant experience in the United States. Using theater, dance, textile arts, music and stop-motion, the performance invites audiences to experience the immigrant journey of an Ecuadorian native flower, “Tauzhu Sisa”. The flower, clad in a costume made of skirts hand-sewn by the artist, exposes how colonization and extractivism have affected Ecuadorian land and Indigenous peoples, ultimately making her travel north. Affected, she sheds her petals (skirts) as play on the game “loves me, loves me not.” As each petal is “plucked”, a new word labeling immigrants such as “welcomed” or “not welcomed” is revealed. Eventually, the flower realizes that these labels carry the same weight of being desired and then rejected by a nation and its peoples – a constant emotional rollercoaster. The flower is left to rediscover her worth beyond the “petals”- a symbolic representation of the labels placed on immigrants. The piece takes the audience on a journey of self-acceptance and radical self-love, uplifting immigrant narratives.

The show will run for 6 nights at the Brick Theater in January 2024 as part of the IX edition of the Exponential Festival. Performances will be accompanied by compelling stop-motion projections and set design by Annie del Hierro-Jost, and original music by Julián Velasco, both Ecuadorian artists.

The first draft of the script was inspired by the playwright’s personal immigrant journey and informed by data from the American Immigration Council, “Map the Impact”. In 2022, its first workshop was part of the “New American Fellows Showcase”, sponsored by the American Immigration Council, the Brooklyn Arts Council, and with the support of the Ecuadorian American Cultural Center and MOtiVE Brooklyn. In 2023, Egas developed the final script of the show as part of her “Narrative and Culture” Fellowship at The Opportunity Agenda”s Narrative Lab. The final shows are created with support from: NYC Women’s Fund for Media, Music and Theater by The City of New York Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment in association with the New York Foundation for the Arts.

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The Brick is a 501(c)(3) non-profit. We rely on the generosity of our patrons. Consider giving a tax-deductible donation today to help make The Brick a sustainable hub of experimental performance for many years to come. Donate Here or Join Our Patreon

Mask Policy: The Brick strongly encourages but does not require masks for audience members. We are in ongoing conversation with our artists and audiences as we continue to adapt our covid policies and it is subject to change at any time. Thank you.

A Note on Accessibility: The Brick has trigger warnings posted in the space for each show for you to check if you so choose. If you would rather ask questions in advance of being in the space or would like to enter in advance of house opening due to our seating not being assigned, please reach out to theresa@bricktheater.com.