Rosa Evangelina (Beltrán)

she/they

MFA2 Interschool Schools of Music and Critical Studies VoiceArts + Creative Writing

Live vocal performance of excerpts from restos/remains, a poetry memoir centering on conversations with younger selves based on an excavation of personal journals. The project, begun in the first month of quarantine in 2020, activates textual remains to create an asyn(c)chronological roadmap to the present.

The project investigates representations of self in the context of diasporic identity, early childhood immigration, and bilingualism. What voices and traces of language resonate over time and spaces traversed? Where are the boundaries between a prayer and a poem, a seance and a song? What narratives do parts of the self across time invoke about one’s life experiences? What other possible narratives exist? How does archeology, translation, and re-writing of personal narrative transmute suffering? Into what?

A full-length performance of the project will be presented as a VoiceArts+Creative Writing Graduation Thesis Recital on May 7th, 5pm in the Wild Beast.