Bridge Works: Raquel Acevedo Klein and Melinda Gonzalez

Vocalist and musician Raquel Acevedo Klein integrates visual art and music to express stories of resilience and regrowth in post-María Puerto Rico that have been undermined by media sensationalism. Raquel will be in conversation with anthropologist and cultural activist Melinda Gonzalez.

Bridge Works opens a window to artists’ studio practices then intersects their process with intimate conversations with leading Brooklyn creatives. Connecting insights between artists whose voices are both parallel and divergent, Bridge Works amplifies the creative space as a generative space for community building. These first episodes will air on Brooklyn Arts Council’s Facebook Live and feature 2020 grantees.

Bios

Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, Raquel Acevedo Klein is an active conductor, vocalist, instrumentalist and visual artist. She conducts for the Grammy Award-winning Brooklyn Youth Chorus. She has premiered works by Philip Glass, John Adams, Louis Andriessen, Nico Muhly, Caroline Shaw, Paola Prestini, Bryce Dessner, Missy Mazzoli, Shara Nova, and Aleksandra Vrebalov, to name a few. Raquel has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Radio City Music Hall, Town Hall, BAM, St. Ann’s Warehouse, Celebrate Brooklyn!, National Sawdust and elsewhere. She has recorded and performed with the likes of Alicia Keys, Glen Hansard, Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, The National, Grizzly Bear, John Legend, The Knights, NY Philharmonic, and Mariinsky Orchestra among others.

In response to the COVID-19 crisis, Raquel launched MUSIC on the REBOUND: an online festival designed to bring people together through live events and support artists affected by the pandemic. Since the festival's launch in March, Raquel has banded together with Claire Chase, IONE, and International Contemporary Ensemble to host world-wide singing events that have reached over 4,600 voices from all 7 continents (including the Antarctic) and 30+ countries. Music on the Rebound is being inducted into the Library of Congress and has been covered by the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Hyperallergic and OperaWire, among other publications.

Melinda González is a PhD Candidate at Louisiana State University in the department of Geography and Anthropology, pursuing a doctorate in Anthropology. Melinda’s dissertation research focuses on community organizing across the Puerto Rican diaspora in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. She is interested in how hyper-marginalized populations (trans people, single moms, and individuals with disabilities) deal with environmental crisis and come together to organize and effect political change. Melinda has also been engaged in collaborative ethnographic writing and research on feminist anthropological approaches to creating research methods for anthropologists with disabilities and single parents in the academy. She is also a performance / spoken word poet that has performed internationally. You can find her on Instagram at @lapoetaguerrera.