How the First Person Arts Festival moves us forward

First Person Arts is gearing up for its 17th annual festival, running November 4 through 17. But the festival has aged well and still has some tricks up its sleeve, upholding storytelling while stretching the limits of the art form. Festival offerings will include an educational component, with workshops ranging from examining and celebrating transgender and gender-nonconforming identities to learning how to morph your story into an online dating profile. Of course, there will be a lineup of more traditional fare, featuring storytelling aficionados like comedian Felonious Munk.

The umbrella theme for this year is “Overcoming,” and all of the workshops and performances engage with what it means to confront something and come out on the other side. And while the festival as a whole strives to imagine (and perhaps manifest) a future that is bright and triumphant, contributing artists, like director Gabriela Sanchez, are using their platform to give voice to oppressed people of the present.

Pa’lante premiere

In her third collaboration with First Person Arts, Sanchez will be directing the world premiere of Pa’lante, a devised work showcasing the stories of a diverse group of Latinx performers (including her mother). Along with looking at the individual experience of each artist, Pa’lante is shaped by the engagement of the five senses, looking at the symbiotic nature between the sensual and the cultural and how senses evoke memory. It all combines to showcase Latinidad, a term that refers to the vibrant shared culture of Latin peoples but defies essentialism.

Sanchez and her team are giving voice to the stories of Latinx people, something the up-and-coming director does with her own organization, Power Street Theatre Company. But she also has her eyes on the ripple effect of narrative. “I’m very interested in how do we tell first-person stories, [and] how does the process become about an ensemble or a collective? How do we find collective power to stand in our truth and share [that truth]?” Sanchez sees the macro in the microcosm.

A world in a word

There are a number of results that Sanchez is hoping for. She sees this collaboration with First Person Arts as a means to bring still-too-little-seen Latinx cultures to larger platforms, but she also recognizes the opportunity to broaden the horizons of the audiences.

“I want people to walk away having learned something new about Latinidad or these actual people [on stage] that may mirror someone that they may know, or someone in their community, or even a passerby,” Sanchez says. She hopes “that folx grow empathy, understanding, and also curiosity… to want to learn about new cultures outside of their own.”

The festival marches steadily towards its 20th year, but executive director Jamie Brunson continues to find a sense of urgency and necessity in the art of storytelling. "There seem to be a number of pressing social issues that cycle through the world regularly in dangerous waves,” she says. “I've come to the conclusion that we may never end racism, violence, intolerance, tragedy — but we can keep sharing the compelling true stories of people who triumph over these realities.” Partnerships like the one between First Person Arts and Sanchez might not be a cure-all for an ailing society, but they do reflect an exchange of ideas and a desire for systemic change.

In Lantinx culture, pa’lante is a popular phrase meaning “forward.” Whether a rallying cry or a statement of time’s inevitable linearity, it’s a macro in the microcosm. A world in a word. Forward.

The 2018 First Person Arts Festival runs November 4 through 17 at venues throughout Philadelphia. For more information, tickets, and the full lineup, visit online.