SECOND ENTRY

City of Dreams
Blog #2
David Gonzalez

Listen to a sample:

City of Dreams is a reality. We premiered the show on November 11th at the world-famous La MaMa Theater in New York City to wonderful applause and appreciation, and last night we received our first standing ovation. What a journey. I have been visioning, writing, composing, recording, and producing this for ten years, and now we are here. I don't know what it is in human psychology that causes us to categorize and pigeonhole people, but we do. I suppose that we simply need to keep our mental file cabinets in good order, even when the filing system doesn't fit. For many years I have been known as a family and kid-centered artist. I am, and continue to be happily engaged in the creation of exciting and meaningful works for young audiences. However, there has always been another voice within me -- a contemporary poet wrestling with cultural identity and the quest for self-realization. In City of Dreams I have given life to that voice.

Together with my fantastic musicians and collaborators I have been "wood-shedding" the piece -- not just the poetry, but the music, the arrangements, the video, the lighting, the overall concept. Poetry and music have sat together since the beginning of time -- just think of The Last Poets, Ken Nordine, Utah Phillips, Bob Holman, and Sekou Sundiata, not to mention the Greek Chorus, however this particular mix of Latin Jazz, these poems, this extraordinary hi-tech video treatment are breaking new ground. One woman called the experience of City of Dreams "profoundly healing". Comments like this one give me hope to go on.

The show begins with this invocation:

Forces of creation
Here is my wish,
Re-new the receptors of this reptilian brain,
Re-transmit the chemistry of your enchantments,
I will close my eyes, surrender,
Take in air,
And direct my breath.

From here Bobby Sanabria and the band launch into funky back-beat groove over which I recite a love poem to the soundscape of the city -- from "shuffling cards and a three point swish" to "the beeps on the EKG, and you and me, and you and me", and then we're off for ninety minutes of burning Afro-Cuban jazz, video-poetry, and the best lyrics I can conjure.

I feel deeply grateful to the peeps at the Clarice Smith PAC for their support. I can't say enough how much this commission means to me. Dreams do come true.