Meet Juan(ito) Doe is a project by artist Ricardo Gamboa in collaboration with Free Street Theater and supported by the Joyce Foundation, and the National Endowment of the Arts. Meet Juan(ito) Doe involves writer-performers from Chicago's Mexican diaspora collecting stories through events, parties, workshops, etc. that will serve as the basis of a multimedia production debuting in September 2017 t
hat will provide portrait of growing up, surviving, and thriving while being brown and down in Chicago. Meet Juan(ito) Doe is by and for the city of Chicago, specifically the omni-present but under-represented Mexican immigrant and Mexican-American communities. Chicago’s population is one-third Latino with over 80% of that population being of Mexican descent. Gamboa conceived Meet Juan(ito) Doe to fundamentally debase notions of artistic legitimacy as well as pose elemental questions about how we can think of art and art-making, ownership and the objectives of art. ABOUT RICARDO GAMBOA
Ricardo Gamboa is an award-winning artist, activist and academic working in his native Chicago and New York City creating radically politicized work. In Chicago, Gamboa is a member of the Southside Ignoramus Quartet and Free Street Theater, resident playwright at Chicago Dramatists and founding adult creative partner of the controversial politically charged ensemble The Young Fugitives. In New York City, he is a fellow of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics’ EmergeNYC program and member of the New York Neo-Futurists. He is pursuing his doctorate degree at New York University’s renowned American Studies program and is a Critical Collaborations Fellow (2016-2018) at the Tisch School of the Arts where he also received his M.A. Gamboa has won several awards including a Joyce Award, MacArthur Foundation International Connections Award, etc. He has worked with over 5,000 young people in the hemisphere. In addition to Meet Juan(ito) Doe, his current projects include his underground live news show and podcast "The Hoodoisie," and his genre-bending, ground breaking webseries about 4 gay Latino doctoral students that are also witches "BRUJOS." ABOUT FREE STREET THEATER
Founded in 1969 by Patrick Henry, Free Street Theater is dedicated to creating performance by, for, and with a wide-range of participants. As one of the the first racially-integrated theater companies in Chicago, Free Street has a long history of creating work that addresses pressing social issues from diverse points of view. Free Street Theater is an Arts Partner in Residence at The Chicago Park District and receives funding support from After School Matters, The Alphawood Foundation, The Leo S. Guthman Fund, The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, The Illinois Arts Council- A State Agency, The Illinois Humanites Council, The Joyce Foundation, The MacArthur Funds for Art and Culture at the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, The Reva and David Logan Foundation, The Chicago Community Trust, and many generous individuals.
