Celebrate this year’s Luminaria Contemporary Arts Festival with URBAN-15! Join our illuminated ensemble at the Espee Pavilion with two performances, 9:30pm and 11pm!
With all new costumes, music and choreography in the works, URBAN-15’s performance will once again bring an element of contemporary performance art for audiences of all ages to enjoy!
Join us, on Saturday Oct. 18!
URBAN-15′ s ensemble has become known for producing some of the most spectacular and memorable performances throughout Luminaria’s history. In 2023, the ensemble was joined by Little Amal, the 12-foot tall puppet of a Syrian refugee child, where she playfully chased dancers and drummers in illuminated costumes before being lullabied to sleep by a moving poem recited by Chara Marie Booker. In 2024, attendees were awe-struck by an incredible collaboration between the “Laser Wizard” Tim Walsh and the URBAN-15 ensemble as Walsh casted lasers onto the entire north facade of the Alamo Dome! Viewable from miles around, the URBAN-15 group afterward heard reports of motorists being captivated by the spectacle as they drove down I-37.
Join the URBAN-15 ensemble during their annual Día de Los Muertos Procession at Elmendorf Lake Park. Carnaval de Los Muertos is a magical spectacle of motion, imagery, sound, and color. The dancers in their costumes of embedded lights and the glowing banners personalized with photos, proceed in an illuminated procession that evokes floating spirits passing through our city.
URBAN-15 has appeared as Carnaval de Los Muertos since 1985; where they have offered a sense of the ethereal space between life and death. As a metaphor of today’s current events in which reality is easy to lose grasp of, this procession of impressionistic apparitions carries both the pain and joy of this era.
URBAN-15’s proud tradition of presenting the Manhattan Short Film Festival continues this October! Join us on one of our four screening dates on September 26th & 27th OR October 3rd & 4th!
Screening films around the globe, the Manhattan Short has proudly become one of the nation’s first GLOBAL film festivals since its inception in 1998. The festival is one of very few that allows you, the audience, to be the judge by giving the opportunity to fill in voting cards at the end of every screening. In 2024, the Gold Medal for best film went to Irish film “Room Taken”. The best actor award went to Thomas Coumans for his role in the French film “Alarms”.
Join us this Fall at URBAN-15 for a new set of high-caliber international films!
URBAN-15 and Jacque Salame are proud to present “Happy Birthday Mom”, Salame’s groundbreaking, multidisciplinary dance performance, premiering at 8pm on Saturday, August 30th at URBAN-15 Studios (2500 S. Presa). This powerful production was Directed by Salame and co-written by Eli Rios, Chrystal Alexander, and writing consultant Joyous Jimenez Windrider, and delves into the complexities of family, loss, and the urgent need for reform in our justice system. Tickets are available at https://dojour.us/e/58786-happy-birthday-mom.
HBDM uses a unique blend of original music, animation, dialogue, spoken word and dynamic choreography by Rosie Torres, Jonathan Estrada Sologuren and Salame, to tell the emotional story of a mother who discovers her son is missing on her birthday. She encounters a harrowing experience during her search for him that sheds light on systemic issues affecting communities of color. The narrative invites audiences to reflect on the implications of justice and the experiences of those often marginalized.
“ROSEMARY CATACALOS: ON THE LIFE AND WORK OF AN AMERICAN MASTER”
Edited by Jim LaVilla-Havelin and Maha Ahmed
The Unsung Masters Series / University of Houston
Gemini Ink, URBAN-15, and University of Houston/Unsung Masters announce a book launch event of “Rosemary Catacalos: On the Life and Work of an American Master”.
This celebration will include readings by contributors to the book – including Naomi Shiab Nye, ire’ne Lara Silva, and Jim LaVilla-Havelin. Refreshments and books for purchase will be available.
The seventeenth volume in the Unsung Masters Series, this book brings together a brilliant selection of poems by Rosemary Catacalos, alongside essays, memoirs, appreciations and more by scholars, friends and admirers of the poet. Catacalos, who died in 2022, was the first Latinx Poet Laureate of Texas. Introduction by Naomi Shihab Nye.
Contributors include Michael Anania, Anel I. Flores, Carmen Tafolla, ire’ne Lara Silva, Reginald Gibbons, Arthur Sze, Anis Shivani, Maha Ahmed, Cary Clack, Betsy Schultz, Bett Butler, Joël Dilley, Graciela Sanchez, Mike Greenberg, and Jim LaVilla-Havelin.
About Rosemary Catacalos:
• Born in 1944 – passed in 2022
• 1986-1989: director of the Literature Program at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center – expanded the Annual Texas Small Press Book Fair into the San Antonio Inter-American Book Fair
• 2003-2012: Executive Director, Gemini Ink, Literary Arts Center
• 2013: Named the first Latina Poet Laureate for the State of Texas
Sign up for a Drum Along with URBAN-15 at this year’s Make Music Day, a vibrant and inclusive celebration of music held annually on June 21st! This free, city-wide event, coordinated by Texas Public Radio and the City of San Antonio’s Department of Arts & Culture encourages musicians of all ages, skill levels, and genres to share their music in public spaces.
Join the rhythmic celebration with URBAN-15 as we lead a Drum Along + Open Drum Jam at Texas Public Radio HQ and immerse yourself in the world of percussion! This unique opportunity starts with a guided drum-along session led by our drum ensemble, followed by an open drum jam where everyone is invited to join in, regardless of experience.
Take part in the communal joy of making music together under the open sky! This sign up is for the 7:00 PM – 8:15 PM slot. Be sure to enjoy all the free music classes hosted at TPR throughout the day!
Come Celebrate the Official Release of
Tales of Lost Southtown, a novel by Erik Bosse
Join author Erik Bosse as he reads selections from Tales of Lost Southtown. This new novel published by FlowerSong Press examines loss as seen through the lens of gentrification as it has impacted the older neighborhoods of San Antonio. The book maintains a tone of warm humor and an appreciation of the absurd, allowing this collection of interconnected stories to catch a glimpse of a hopeful future amid a prevailing era of uncertain change.
There will be a conversation facilitated by Lisa Cortez-Walden, Ph.D. There will also be an opportunity to purchase copies of the book.
This event is free and open to the public.
Saturday, June 7th, 2025. 4pm – 6pm.
URBAN-15 Studio at 2500 S. Presa
Join URBAN-15’s annual celebration of the Summer Solstice at the San Antonio International Airport! The performance, choreographed and performed by URBAN-15 Artistic Director Catherine Cisneros, celebrates the longest day of the year under artist Christopher Janney’s solar/sound sculpture “Passing Light”. This transparent multi-colored plexiglass installation is designed to cast stunning colored shadows into the Parking Nave at the airport. Once a year, at 2pm Central Time, on the Summer Solstice, this multi-colored shadow grid pattern aligns perfectly with black-line grid painted on the floor for less than a minute as the Sun passes directly overhead. The audio aspect of the installation is a 56-speaker “spatial sound” composition. It consists of long harmonic, mellifluous tones (harp, vibe, acoustic guitar) reverberating off of the hard concrete surfaces of the garage, similar in effect to music in a stone cathedral. This performance will be free to watch live in person, as well as via livestream at URBAN-15’s Facebookand Instagram pages.
Cisneros’ choreography incorporates the changing colors penetrating the environment. Her movements are designed to bring a ceremonial awareness of our planet’s humble travels within a celestial clock, evoking the elaborate rituals performed by the ancient Egyptians, Aztecs, Celts, Mayans, Hindis, Incas and others to make visible the moment of solar zenith.
The Summer Solstice is the longest day of the year, respectively, in the sense that the length of time elapsed between sunrise and sunset on this day is a maximum for the year. In the Northern Hemisphere, the longest day of the year (near June 20/22) is when the Sun is farthest North. In the Southern Hemisphere, winter and summer solstices are exchanged. The Summer Solstice marks the first day of the season of summer. – Eric Weissten’s “World of Astronomy”
Join URBAN-15 at the majestic Confluence Park at 1pm CST on Saturday, May 31, for a spectacular day of celebration at the San Antonio River Foundation’s Pollinator Tea Party! Attendees will enjoy an all new piece by URBAN-15’s Dance and Drum Ensemble created in celebration of this event. Come out to learn how URBAN-15’s ensemble has created original choreography and musical compositions inspired by the pollinators that surround us every day!
The Pollinator Tea Party will occur on Saturday, May 31, from 10am – 2pm CST, andis a free, family-friendly, zero-waste event that celebrates pollinators through immersive nature-based activities, environmental education, and sustainable practices during the spring Monarch Butterfly migration. Guests will be treated to performances and hands-on experiences including butterfly releases,recipe scavenger hunts, and a Critter Café!
URBAN-15 announces their Dance Ensemble will once again participate in Global Water Dances, a biennial multinational and community-oriented event that takes place at different water-related sites around the world. The Ensemble’s performance will be filmed at Padre Park with a piece evoking the flow of water along the San Antonio River. This video performance will premiere at youtube.com/GlobalWaterDances/streams on Saturday, June 14, 2025, as part of a streamed video collage made up of a hundred performances.
This year’s performance is once again choreographed by URBAN-15’s Artistic Director Catherine Cisneros. It is a collaboration with Sister Martha Ann Kirk of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word. The two have participated in Global Water Dances since 2017, with this piece marking their fifth year of participation.
Global Water Dances connects and supports a global community of choreographers and dancers to inspire action and international collaboration for water issues through the universal language of dance. It is a biennial event, taking place every other year. The first event took place in June 2011 where 57 locations came together for a 24 hour movement around the world. For more information about Global Water Dances, please visit globalwaterdances.org .
At the heart of Global Water Dances is a deep understanding that both WATER and MOVEMENT are connecting forces in our world. Global Water Dances promotes unity and togetherness through movement, using the arts to transform awareness into action on the local and global scales. Every event shares a structure where dancers around the world perform the same movements to the same music, on the same day, near bodies of water, from ocean beaches to plaza fountains. This creates a unifying global experience that transcends language and sends a synchronized global message of urgency and hope.
“Our work is about connection,” says Global Water Dances Artistic Director Vannia Ibarguen, “between body and planet, art and action, local and global: Dance helps us tell the story of water in ways people can feel—and remember.”
Now more than ever, we need artists to tell stories that move people into action. Global Water Dances mobilizes artists as leaders in the conversation about protecting water, empowering them as catalysts for change. Choreographers initiate collaborations with community groups, Indigenous leaders, scientists, youth, and environmental organizations to create impactful events that ripple far beyond the performance day – inspiring ongoing advocacy, education, and collaboration in the communities the events touch.
Since its launch in 2011, Global Water Dances has been organizing and promoting this event every two years; events are free and open to the public. They are also recorded and live-streamed to boost the visibility and to make it possible for anyone, anywhere, to witness and participate.
Global Water Dances is an effective platform for advocacy, education and empowerment, impacting thousands and reminding us that water is life – and that art can move people to action.
URBAN-15
