Sor Juana Festival 2009

The National Museum of Mexican Art, In Collaboration with Various Texas Organizations Presents The 2009 Texas Sor Juana Festival

A Tribute to Mexican Women Austin • Dallas • Fort Worth • Houston • San Antonio March – May 2009 The National Museum of Mexican Art, in collaboration with The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), Museo Alameda, Arte Público Press, Esperanza Peace and Justice Center, Multicultural Education and Counseling through the Arts (MECA), The Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC), Talento Bilingüe de Houston (TBH) and various women’s organizations will host the 2009 Texas Sor Juana Festival, A Tribute to Mexican Women.

The Sor Juana Festival returns to Texas to celebrate its 3rd anniversary. This year, the NMMA is proud to announce the expansion of the Festival to include our new partners: Artes de la Rosa in Fort Worth, Children’s Museum of Houston, Discovery Green in Houston, Latino Cultural Center in Dallas and Mexic-Arte Museum in Austin. The Sor Juana Festival has become the largest Latino performing arts festival in the country.

Currently, the festival is divided into two seasons: March through May in Texas and April through June in Chicago/Milwaukee with plans of further expansion into other cities. The Sor Juana Festival is a multidisciplinary festival that honors one of Mexico’s greatest writers, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, a 17th-century Mexican nun who valued the education of women.

Sor Juana was a celebrated playwright, mathematician and poet in her own time and considered to be the first feminist of the Americas. Through this unique festival, we celebrate the legacy of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and pay tribute to the rich artistic accomplishments of Mexican women from Mexico and the United States.

The festival includes: culinary arts, dance, film, literature, music, theater, and visual arts and takes place at different venues throughout the Texas cities of Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio, Texas.

This year’s Sor Juana Festival is going to be the largest and most diverse to date. NMMA is thrilled to be working with such dedicated and distinguished cultural institutions throughout Texas, that share our vision of recognizing the many contributions that Mexican/Mexican American women have made to the arts, our community and our lives.

Audiences will be amazed by the 2009 Texas Sor Juana Festival’s stellar line-up, which not only includes well established names such as: Vikki Carr, Girl in a Coma, Lila Downs, Eugenia León and Tania Libertad but also highlights local gems like: Gina Chavez, Graciela Limon, Norma Zenteno and Tammy Gomez while introducing artists from other parts of the country like Monica Palacios and Patti Vasquez.

"This festival is dedicated to the countless women in our lives and throughout history that were never able to live out their dream, a dream Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz fought for: a women’s right to education, to learn, to grow and live her dream. We hope this festival, in some ways, honors the dream they were never able to fulfill.” – Jorge Valdivia, Festival Director / Director of Performing Arts, NMMA.

For the schedule of events, please visit:
www.nationalmuseumofmexicanart.org
or download the online brochure at:
http://www.nationalmuseumofmexicanart.org/downloads/SorJuana_FNL.pdf

About the National Museum of Mexican Art:

On December 5th, 2006, the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum changed its name to the National Museum of Mexican Art in recognition of its 20th Anniversary and its status as the largest and leading Mexican cultural institution in the U.S. The Museum remains a not-for-profit, non-governmental organization.

The NMMA is the largest Latino Arts organization in the U.S. and the only Latino museum accredited by American Association of Museums. The NMMA presents Visual Arts Exhibitions, Performance Festivals, and Education Programs to more than 200,000 annually including 60,000 K-12 students. 90.5 FM Radio Arte is the Museum's youth-driven bilingual public radio station committed to advancing the voices of a multi-layered society through socially conscious journalism, media literacy, training and programming.

The Museum's hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. Admission is free. For information call 312-738-1503 or visit the NMMA's web site www.nationalmuseumofmexicanart.org 1852 W. 19th Street Chicago, Illinois 60608