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Amiguitos: The Singing Lizard
Nickelodeon’s Parents’ Picks #1 Party Entertainer in Washington, DC, The Singing Lizard (aka ) is moving kids to the beat of an entirely new genre: Electro-Kindie is music the whole family can enjoy! One of the first artists to combine original and traditional children’s music with electronic, pop, and dance genres, The Singing Lizard relishes pushing boundaries. What began as a single song written for her brother’s firstborn unexpectedly set The Singing Lizard on a track to becoming one of DC’s favorite kindie musicians. Since then, The Singing Lizard has delivered more than 300 high-energy performances for crowds ranging from private parties of a few dozen to an audience of a thousand excited families. She has performed at the National Cherry Blossom Festival, the US Senate’s Holiday Party, the US Capitol, various markets, festivals, mainstream clubs, and fundraisers throughout North America.
Liz is a stand out on stage, connecting with kids and parents alike. Her personality exudes energy, love, and inclusion. Just watch all the kids line up for a hug from The Singing Lizard and you will truly understand the connection she creates with her audience. Adults make up some of Liz’s most loyal fans, thrilled that she has inspired their children by gently encouraging the shy and channeling the exuberant to imagine, dance, and learn. Put on your dancing shoes and turn up the volume because kids’ music just got a whole lot cooler!
Sept. 11 Commemoration at La Peña
Free/Donations Encouraged
Sept. 11 Commemoration at La Peña
Since the coup in Chile in 1973, Sept 11 has been commemorated as a day of struggle against the forces of fascism, imperialism, and neo-liberal ideology. The 2001 implosion of the World Trade Center and the government propaganda that successfully blamed the attack on Muslim extremists has ushered in a new age of government surveillance, a radical curtailing of civil liberties, the exponential increase of dirty wars, and a new era of US imperialism.
This Sept. 11, join the La Peña community for a potluck gathering, ritual altar with Gonzalo Hidalgo, a photo-presentation direct from Chile with Hector de Cunco, and an art installation entitled Chilean Blues by artists Cristian Muñoz, Pancho Pescador, Teodoro Saveedra, Ximena Soza, Sarah Siskin, Thomas Jones, Stephanie Hooper Guillermo Navarrete-Davis, Buggsy Malone, and Antv Antinao.
Performances by:
Galo Paz, Ximena Soza, Mariela Herrera, Maria De La Rosa, and a Latin Jazz quartet featuring Mario Cuba on tenor saxophone, Sebastian Monreal on guitar Elisa Duran on bass and Pedro Maquiavelo on latin percussion.
We play originals and also some classics tunes.
The commemoration will be held in conjunction with the Art Installation, “Coversaciones Cósmicas” centering around converging and diverging understandings of both the internal and external cosmos in relation to the global de-colonial diaspora. “Conversaciones Cósmicas” serves as a continuation of the need to honor and commemorate the lives of those those lost during the 1973 coup d’etat and the terror followed.
6:00pm – Potluck
7:00pm – Photo-presentation with Hector de Cunco
8:00pm – Ceremony of Gratitude
8:30pm – Performances and open mics
9:30pm – Ritual procession
A Fiscal Year End Update From Executive Director Kristen Sbrogna
A Fiscal Year End Update
From Executive Director Kristen Sbrogna
La Peña’s fiscal year runs September 1 – August 31, and I’m pleased to share that after finalizing our financial statements, La Peña reports a surplus! For those of you familiar with our financial situation, this is big news for us, and reflects a turnaround to a new phase of stability, renewal, and smart growth.
I would describe the sentiment in the air at La Peña as one of hopefulness. We had a year full of “transition” and change, but we also accomplished a lot, and the result is a renewed center, a new restaurant, and new projects on the horizon. At our core we are still an organization committed to arts and social justice, rooted in Latin American culture.
In addition to stabilizing our budget in 2014, La Peña completed phase 1 of our Building our Future capital campaign. We raised $100,000 to fund renovations to the café, bathrooms, and lobby, and to purchase new sound and lights systems for the theater.
Our financial success is in large part due to our ability to adapt to the new fundraising climate. Between 2010 and 2012, La Peña reduced its budget by more than a third (from approximately $750,000 to approximately $450,000) due to the loss of a few large corporate grants. The necessary result was a multi-phase restructuring. The final phase, reflected in the graph below, shows the final implementation of the restructuring in 2014.
Despite the savings in staff expenses, our impact on the community has not been compromised. In 2014, La Peña added many regular free and low-cost programs in our lounge while maintaining close to the level of La Peña presents shows in the theater. This slight decrease is reflected in the dip in artist fees from 2013 to 2014 seen below.
The artist fees are still impressive: they surpass those in 2012 when the staff budget was more than double what it is now. In addition, the distribution of total artist fees is over less shows overall, meaning artists are being paid more on average per show than in 2013. This is largely because at the beginning of 2014 we restructured our financial agreement for our shows to give artists a higher percentage of the door net.
The graph below shows our mission-based categorizations for our La Peña presents programs.
*In addition to the more than 140 La Peña presents shows included above, in 2014 La Peña hosted over:
46 2nd Gen events
750 classes, workshops, and summer camps (15-20 individual classes/week)
123 community free or by-donation events (mostly in our lounge)
97 rentals
26 Saturday morning family programs
Ensuring we are on a sustainable path will take a little more time “in the black,” but I am confident that as we move forward we will continue to secure our financial footing and expand our programs. As we approach our 40th year, La Peña is as strong as ever!
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