Radio Healer: Artists

Artists

Radio Healer is directed by: Cristóbal Martínez and Randy Kemp

Radio Healer is produced by urbanSTEW

Radio Healer is an art project in residence at Pueblo Grande Museum, Phoenix, AZ

Contact Information: Cristóbal Martínez, phone - 480-291-4475, email - cristobal.m.martinez@gmail.com

Cristóbal Martínez is a digital media artist, and Media Arts and Sciences Ph.D. student at Arizona State University. Cristóbal is a Chicano “tecno” cultural worker who researches and collaborates with indigenous communities to establish folkloric practices of digital media.

While drawing inspiration from his Northern New Mexican mestizo heritage, Cristóbal expresses XicanIndio metaphors and stories through his media art. He creates culturally responsive social spaces that are tangible, embodied, and culturally situated toward indigenous ways of being. As part of his digital arts practice, he develops media theories that extend indigenous knowledge systems. He uses these theories to ground the creation/expression of digital tools for the exercise of cultural and rhetorical sovereignty by indigenous peoples.

His works include music compositions such as Count, commissioned for modern dance at the Bonnie Bird Theatre at the Laban Centre in London, and multimedia operettas such as La Gran Barrera, performed at Gammage Auditorium in Tempe, AZ. Cristóbal co-directs the performance art production titled Radio Healer. This production is also co-directed by artist Randy G. Kemp (Choctaw Euchee-Creek). Radio Healer examines the relationships between indigenous tribal life, and technological paradigms. This work has been performed and presented to local and international audiences.

A member of the Burning Wagon Art Collective directed by John Jota Leaños, Cristóbal's compositions include music for the opera Imperial Silence. He has completed the score for three acts titled Act I: Los ABCs: Que Vivan los Muertos!, Act II: Dead Time Stories with Mariachi Goose and Friends!, and Act III: DNN: The Dead News Network. Imperial Silence has premieried at museums, galleries and festivals that include the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, and 2007 Festival de Cannes, World Theater, Monterey Bay, CA, Brava Theater, San Fransico, CA. and Mission Cultural Center, San Francisco, CA.

Randy Kemp (Choctaw-Euchee-Creek)

Randy is an Alumnus of the Katherine K. Herberger College of Arts at Arizona State University, recipient of a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree specializing in Painting. Before coming to ASU, Randy earned an Associate of Arts degree from the reputed Bacone Junior College in Muskogee, Oklahoma. There he studied under the artistic leadership of prominent American Indian artists: W. Richard West, Sr., Solomon McCombs and Ruthe Blalock Jones. His artwork has been exhibited in museums, galleries and private collections throughout the world. “My work includes both the traditional flat, two-dimensional depictions of tribal life, as well as works in contemporary Indian themes and views.”
Design and painted a wall mural (7’x 50’) entitled “Morning Star” for Native American Connections with the help of 30 volunteers from Make a Difference Foundation in the greater Phoenix area. A founding member of the Mayo Clinic Hospital “Sonata del Sol” music program, providing flute music for Palliative Care patients and families. He was selected by the Big Brothers Big Sisters foundation of Arizona, the Casino Arizona and the Salt River Pima and Maricopa Indian Community to design and paint a 10-foot tall fiberglass replica of a Fender Stratocaster guitar for “GuitarMania”. The guitar name Tribalcaster: Tribal Language Rocks! As a member of Actor’s workout Inc., created a one-man show of “I will fight no more, forever” the incredible anti-war speech of Chief Joseph (Nez Perce), a story of triumph and tragedy. He traveled to Australia (Aboriginal/Korrawinga) and New Zealand (Maori/Taranaki/Puniho Pa) communities as a part of an Indigenous Cultural and Arts exchange program through Scottsdale Community College (adjunct instructor). Film projects include acting credits in a short film by Doug Howard, “Chief” filmed on the Pima Indian reservation. Additionally, a self-directed video/film short “Metropolitan Rezervation” in partnership with PBS television series “We Shall Remain”, a citizen storytelling program.

Robert Esler

Dr. Robert Esler holds degrees from the University of California - San Diego, Yale University and the Cleveland Institute of Music. He currently teaches at Scottsdale Community College as well as other courses in music history and technology in the Phoenix area. Dr. Esler is a trained percussionist and has been a member of several chamber ensembles and orchestras throughout the world. He performs regularly with the Phoenix ensemble, Crossing 32nd Street, which has been hailed as one of Phoenix's best new classical music ensembles. He is a performer on several albums for the Canteloupe, CIEM, Rochester University Press and Tzadik labels. Dr. Esler is also one of a few percussionists ever featured in a full length documentary to be released in the next year. The film documents one of Dr. Esler's renegade performances in the Alaskan tundra. Dr. Esler is an author of numerous articles for the ICMA (Int. Computer Music Assoc.) and is currently producing an article for a book to be released next year. Currently, Dr. Esler is also part-time faculty at Arizona State University, Polytechnic.

Maritza Montiel Tafur

Maritza Montiel Tafur is a fifth-generation Arizona native. She has a B.A. in Religious Studies from Northern Arizona University where the focus of her studies was in Mesoamerican religions. She has lived and studied extensively throughout Mexico where her focus was in the sacred ritual calendar, the tonalpoualli and in Mexican traditional healing practices, curanderismo. Her dance training is in Flamenco and Spanish dance and has also participated in Aztec dance and ceremony. She has studied under the mentorship of several flamenco masters including Lea Vivante and Pablo Rodarte. She was a member of Pablo Rodarte Dance Espana and co-director of Dance Espana, Albuquerque. Maritza has appeared as a guest artist with companies and venues throughout the Southwest including: Maria Benitez’s Cabaret Theater, as a soloist in the 2008 summer production of El Pintor (Santa Fe, NM); as a soloist/choreographer for Teatro Nuevo Mexico, with the New Mexico Symphony(Albuquerque, NM); and as a soloist with Miel Amarga at El Mesón, a flamenco tablao (Santa Fe, NM). Maritza earned a Masters in Occupational Therapy from the University of New Mexico and published, A review of curanderismo and healing practices among Mexicans and Mexican Americans, in 2009. She is currently employed by the Creighton Elementary School District in Phoenix, Arizona and works with children diagnosed with developmental and learning disabilities.

Lisa Tolentino

Lisa Tolentino is an experimental musician/percussionist and experiential media designer pursuing a Media Arts and Sciences PhD in the Arts, Media, and Engineering Program (AME) at Arizona State University. Her research focuses on developing embodied and digitally mediated learning scenarios that support constructive social interaction for students with exceptional needs. Prior to ASU, Lisa earned her BS in Computer Science and MA in Contemporary Percussion Performance from the University of California, San Diego. While in California, she performed regularly as a member of the redfish bluefish percussion group, under the direction of Steven Schick; and the Pakaraguian Kulintang Ensemble, an indigenous Southern Philippine gong ensemble. Her music has been heard worldwide in performances at the Agora Festival in Paris; Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella Series; Ensenada, Mexico; the La Jolla Music Society’s Summerfest; CalArts’ Dog Star Orchestra (directed by Michael Pisaro); Phoenix Experimental Arts Festival; and Tempe Center for the Arts. Her recordings can be found on Mode Records and in an upcoming documentary about Alaskan composer John Luther Adams. Currently, Lisa actively performs with Phoenix's premier contemporary music ensemble, Crossing 32nd Street.

Current contributing artists include:

Zarco Guerrero (Chicano): Mask Maker and Mexican Street Theater

Former contributing artists include:

Alvis Robertson (Lakota) and the Phoenix Oyate Singers: Grass dance and drum circle leader

Ryan McFadden: American Indian Flutes, Essay, Video Documentary

Aileen Mapes: Contemporary Dance Performance

Janie Ross: Contemporary Dance Performance

Jordan Golding: Audio Engineering, Design, and Circuits

Fabio Fernandes: Technical Support

Sam Anderson (Navajo): American Indian Dance

Monty Walters (Navajo): American Indian Dance

mac n. zie: Graphic Designs

Jessica Mumford: Contemporary Dance Performance

Stjepan Rajko: Contemporary Dance Performance and Software