Letter
May 2016
N.Y.C.
Dear friend,
The Mary Magdalene Celebration is an event that Raquel Z. Rivera and I, Tanya Torres, have celebrated in different forms since around 2006. This year I will exhibit my Mary Magdalene paintings and other new work. Raquel will sing her songs dedicated to Mary Magdalene. And more creative people to join us!
Yarisa Colón, poet and bookmaker; Corazón Tierra, dancer; Olga Huraira Ayala, artisan; Migdalia Santiago, writer, healer and reiki master; Mercedes Molina, doll maker; Lulu García, botanical products and reiki master; Xiomara Evans and Marni Rice, Dance Theater Company; María Mar, writer, artist and mystic; Myrna Nieves, writer and poet; Elsie Deliz Fonseca, jewerly artisan and visual artist; and the event's Madrina (Godmother) Minerva González, visual artist. And more!
The evening will start with a space full of red. Red paper flowers, red table covers, you in red! There will be a mini-crafts fair, free reiki and a zone with giant red flowers where you can become the Magdalene and take photos. Walk around the space, experience the art, receive a short reiki session, and enjoy the beautiful original work created by the crafters, artists and writers.
The program starts with Corazón Tierra, who will envelope us in the veil of the Magdalene with her Dance of the Heart. Xiomara Evans and Marni Rice will follow with Magdala: Stories of the Net and the Sea, a beautiful dance-theater piece of which they will share the first act. The event culminates with the music of Raquel Z. Rivera and Ojos de Sofía, her beautiful songs composed for Mary Magdalene and inspired by readings, inspirations, longings and many talks in my old studio. The last song is an invitation for everyone to join the dance. We will hopefully also have our friend Alexandra, who will perform her ancestral Puerto Rican Bomba dance.
An altar with 7 candles, one for each song offered, will be the focus as the singing starts. I will light each candle as Raquel begins a song. When guests arrive, prior to the singing, they might place prayers or objects on our creative altar, to be blessed by the love, peace and joy of the evening.
Who Celebrates Mary Magdalene With Us? The Mary Magdalene Celebration is attended by creative, spiritual women and men who love experiencing art as a transformative event/object. People whose homes are shrines, and whose lives are laboratories for the expansion of their souls. People who seek unique experiences that are made especially for them, by people with their own values. Women and men who work intensely, deeply care about their mission in the world, and who make a difference by striving to be the best versions of themselves that they can be.
This is what Mary Magdalene represents for us and why we celebrate life, art and creativity as personified by this mythical character. And You are invited.
Join us on July 22, 6-9 p.m. at the Julia de Burgos Cultural Center, 106 street and Lexington Avenue in NYC. RSVP at Magdalene.org, and bring all your best friends!
I send you Love, Peace, Joy and Magdalene Blessings,
Tanya
