David Antonio Cruz: green,howiwantyougreen

green,howiwantyougreen is an experimental operatic performance piece based on the last 11 poems by the Spanish poet Federico García Lorca, Sonnets of Dark Love, which were banned for 50 years following his assassination in 1936. Featuring four voices, a reader, and a musician, the bilingual Spanish and English libretto fuses references to popular culture, queer slang, and Latino and Black gay culture to explore love and desire in dark places.

green,howiwantyougreen is performed by David Antonio Cruz, Jennifer Jade Ledesna, Diego Carvajal Peñaranda, Lisa Strum, and the musician and composer Daniel de Jesus. The text is written by David Antonio Cruz with music by Daniel de Jesus. The performance will be followed by a talkback with Carla Acevado-Yates.

David Antonio Cruz was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1974 and received a BFA in painting from Pratt Institute and a MFA from Yale University. He attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and completed the AIM Program at the Bronx Museum. Cruz had solo presentations at the Monique Meloche Gallery in 2019 and 2021. His work is in the collections of El Museo Del Barrio, Institute of Contemporary Art, 21c Museum Hotels, and Pierce & Hill Harper Arts Foundation. Cruz lives and works in New York City, where he is the assistant professor of visual arts at Columbia University. Recent residencies include the LMCC Workspace Residency, Gateway Project Spaces, BRIC Workspace Residency, Neubauer Faculty Fellowship, and Tufts University. He also won a Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Award.

Carla Acevedo-Yates was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and has worked as a curator, researcher, and art critic across Latin America, the Caribbean, and the US. She is the Marilyn and Larry Fields Curator at the MCA Chicago, where she recently curated Forecast Form: Art in the Caribbean Diaspora 1990s – Today, the MCA presentation of Duane Linklater: mymothersside, and Entre Horizontes: Art and Activism Between Chicago and Puerto Rico. Previous exhibitions at the MCA include Carolina Caycedo: From the Bottom of the River and Chicago Works: Omar Velázquez.

In-Person Attendance
Masks are strongly encouraged and available at check-in for those who would like to wear one. Please note that some event performers may choose to perform without a mask. The Foundation reserves the right to update this policy if community levels of COVID-19 increase significantly. Read our full COVID-19 Health & Safety Guidelines. Guests are encouraged to register in advance.

The Poetry Foundation’s events are completely free of charge and open to the public. This event will include CART captioning and ASL interpretation. For more information about accessibility at the Poetry Foundation, please visit our Accessibility Guide.