Manxs Americanxs is a gathering group of Latinx women and non-binary cultural workers in the NY metropolitan area. Our practices focus on issues of culture, immigration, identity, colonial scars, ancestral healing, social justice, and art. Since 2018, through the initiative of artist Bel Falleiros, we have been making space to be together in a circle and bend time. During over 20 gatherings, we spent time caring for and nourishing each other with food, stories, healing practices, and a ‘found kinship' in our complex, different yet similar experiences.
The gathering group has survived the pandemic and the hard winters, and together we keep craving 'the next time' when we can all be together. ‘Manxs’ so far has brought together Puerto Rico, Peru, Brazil, Ecuador, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Nicaragua, Colombia, Chile, New York, and Miami. We realized together that we could create fertile ground in the city's arid, non-natural rhythms. Like a seed waiting to sprout, Manxs Americanxs was born.
Thus far, we’ve shared laughs, tears, doubts, and advice over mezcalitos, sopas, pão de queijo, and maracuya juice, among many other meals. We talked about ‘home’, ‘earth’, ‘center’, and ‘identity’, going from the most mundane issues to its most existential questions. We learned more about ourselves and each other by listening to the diversity of our voices. And we found home in our 'sister stories’. Over the past almost five years, we have gathered in different settings: indoors, outdoors, in improvised and more structured spaces, and now here at ChaShaMa.
Manxs Americanxs is an ongoing project that grows over care, time, and necessity. Following this premise, the space at ChaShaMa will be one of joint creation and growth, intertwining our cultural disciplines (artists, curators, arts administrators, art historians, journalists, anthropologists, immigration lawyers…) and opening the space to other partner groups in the city and the general public. Throughout this time, we will host gatherings, screenings, workshops, an exhibition, healing sessions, and spaces of conversation that aim to connect us further.
We hope that this shared space will serve as a new beginning for encounters, friendships, collaborations, connections, and an expanded community: to be in circle.
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