Lysa Flores in Latina Dance Project

I always stress the things I will miss when I go out of town. This weekend I will be missing Lysa Flores performing with her trio at the aptly titled Latina Dance Project at the Bootleg Theater in the neighborhood adjacent to where I currently call home, Historic Filipinotown.

This event features an array of locally based dance and movement artists performing choreographed new works to Lysa’s music.

My girlfriend and I went down a few weeks ago to check out Lysa perform live at the organic punk rock girl empowerment camp known otherwise as Ladyfest LA. We were the oldest participants in the audience at the Chuco Justice Center in Inglewood. I really wanted to see Lysa perform in this environment and it was such a treat to see all these young teenage girls vibe off her music. It is so gratifying to see young female-bodied folks discovering new underground feminist aesthetics and practices that don’t conform to messed up societal expectations. The way the light goes on behind their eyes that another world is truly possible. It helps when the shit rocks and Lysa Flores, with backup from Jaguares bassist (and baby daddy) Marcos Renteria and fly LA percussionist, Fredo Ortiz, fucking rocked.

I caught up with Lysa and asked her what she was working on next and she mentioned this dance performance coming up. What an interesting concept—cross-disciplinary collaboration! Stuff like this enables Lysa’s artistic and autonomous sustainability outside an unmerciful commercial market that makes unfair demands on women.

I have to admit that I am a big Lysa Flores fanboi. Her music puts a big shit-eating grin on my face, which is funny to me now because back in my identity politicking daze I could not wrap my head around her music. I guess mostly because I don’t like nor can I appreciate Ani DiFranco and Lysa used to do a lot of fucked up acoustic guitar strumming songs that just struck my lesbian nerves the wrong way. Now I love “Beg, Borrow and Steal” which is a song from the best Latino film ever, Miguel Arteta’s Star Maps. Remember Lysa’s role as the tortured daughter of a creep pimp? Soul-crushing.

(Lysa Flores performs at Pinta tu Propio Mundo, San Francisco, 2007)

Late last year I had the pleasure of being on a poetry bill curated by my friend, Leticia Hernandez Linares, that put me side by side with Lysa in San Francisco. It was the Pinta Tu Propio Mundo event and she blew away the crowd with her cherry red Stratocaster and songs about being a Mexican white girl. I thought to myself: Self, why isn’t Lysa Flores fucking world famous? Oh, the injustice.

Try and catch Lysa and friends at Bootleg this Saturday, February 7 if you can swing it. I will be preparing for the Mistaking Planes for Stars event happening Monday at Galeria de la Raza in the Mission District of San Francisco. Tell a friend if you can.