First Ever Kimera Festival Introduces the Brazilian Culture of Open Arms to UWS This Week

Kimera Festival — the first ever NYC celebrations commemorating the Brazilian Chimera — are being planned for the Upper West Side this summer, with the first one kicking off later this week on July 15.

The festivals are planned for one Saturday a month, with the second slated for August 19, the third on September 23, and the fourth on October 18, all starting at 2 p.m. The Kimera festival is hosted by two non-profits, the W. 111th Block Association and the International Brazilian Opera Company (IBOC). Events are free, outdoors and open to the public. The money to put the festival together was achieved by fundraising, and IBOC has budgeted $100K to pay the artists and staff for the year. The organization is volunteering their time with pro bono hours, and the festival will be held at W. 111th street in Morningside Heights.

Kimera comes from the name Chimera, which according to Greek mythology was a monstrous fire-breathing hybrid creature composed of different animal parts from Lycia, Asia Minor. It is depicted as a lion, with the head of a goat protruding from its back and a tail that might end with a snake's head. “A chimera is a creature of two or more kinds that are put together and this beast that is improbable and imaginative. The festival is a lot around that philosophy or celebrating these improbable combinations of people and things and culture,” Athena Azevedo, IBOC Executive Director and co-founder of Kimera Festival said.

One example of a Chimera is at the Peace Fountain at Morningside Heights. The 40-foot sculpture of an angel — part human — part bird – stands firmly in the center of the garden. “[The sculpture] is about the balance of peace and the balance of good and evil, as well as how that’s a constant dance and story in of itself,” Azevedo said gazing at the sculpture. “It creates that imagination of where we can go in terms of ourselves.”

To Azevedo, the Chimera means a lot. “I believe we are in the age of Kimera. I think that we are all struggling as a culture and society at large in this conversation dialogue around diversity. But if we really look at each other, we can see that we are inside of each other even in our differences,” Azevedo said.

Founded in 2013, IBOC’s mission is to develop a new repertoire of opera music by combining the work of Brazilian and international artists and to provide a platform for new artists to emerge. The diversity of cultures represented at the Kimera festival are Brazil, Malta, Mozambique, China, Canada and the U.S. to name a few.

Not only does IBOC prioritize diversity in cultures at the festival, but also diversity in the music itself. “We really emerged out of a need as a non-profit for there to be more diversity in opera. Ten years ago, we noticed that there wasn’t a lot of opera development companies from stories to composition component,” Azevedo said.

“I realized that there was a great opportunity in the opera world because they were doing works that were like 100 years old of operas. I thought that the opera scene could benefit from having more of the pop music culture,” Joao MacDowell, artistic director of IBOC and co-founder of Kimera festival added.

This festival will mainly have pop music, world music, jazz, with an idea that comes from opera that is about storytelling. “It is about telling stories even if the stories are not linear, they can be dreams and free association, but there is a storytelling structure behind it,” MacDowell said.

The music tells the story through melody an audience member pointed out from listening to MacDowell’s first operas. “Oh, I get it. So, in traditional Italian opera everyone dies, but in Brazilian opera life goes on after death,” Azevedo recalled. “It’s not a tragic end and the curtains close, it’s about how the spirit transcends.”

All the music performed in the Kimera festival will be original works. “No cover bands,” MacDowell said. “It’s much more of a challenge to be writing your own material and then also trying to connect that material in a way that tells a story — that I think is very unique and powerful. And I think we need more opportunities for people to create. I am looking forward to seeing the Brazilian percussionist, Karegato perform.”

IBOC has developed six operas since founding in 2013 and performed in two different countries. The non-profit takes pride in the 64 international artists that they have sponsored. “Our artist and career development program emerged from the need of foreign artists to have artist visas and sponsorship to continue working in the U.S. We are very conscious of that when working with the W. 111th Street Association which the community has many immigrants that have lived here so there are a lot of stories from residents around here,” Azevedo said.

The W. 111th Street Association formed in the 1970s and has had several incarnations over the past half-century, but always maintained a great appreciation for the unique and historic block and its residents.

Azevedo is Portuguese American. Her father came from the Azores Islands. Azevedo was introduced to Brazilian music and culture after spending some time in Rio de Janeiro listening to diverse music and samba. Azevedo used to sing in the choir and used to do filmmaking and photography for a branding agency before working full-time with IBOC. “When I came to New York, I got engaged with the Brazilian opera company because I miss the Brazilian community. I fell in love with their way of being in the world, their openness to people and their hospitality. What I learned from being in Brazil is that they really embrace differences of people and backgrounds,” Azevedo said.

The long-term dream of Dan McSweeney, co-founder of Kimera festival, is to make Kimera Festival extend from river to river: connecting East Harlem to Central Harlem to Morningside Heights. “We feel that geographically this neighborhood has a lot of care for storytelling and the power of it to be a way of keeping peace and balance,” Azevedo said.

The W. 111th block is the perfect spot for the Kimera festival because of its storytelling and music history nearby. The Hungarian Pastry Shop located at 1030 Amsterdam Avenue is on the block that has a tradition of storytellers where a lot of books have been written and scholarly research have been done there. And the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in the same block located at 1047 Amsterdam Ave. has a history of classical and choral music.

“[The festival] is about bringing together the street music and the operettic music and classical together and finding a space,” Azevedo said.

The festival is part of IBOC’s goal to further community engagement in the neighborhood. “The festival is really about having a slice of New York in that it’s very diverse our city. All New Yorkers are hyperlocal and omni cultural at the same time. You could even say that it’s a reflection of our larger country and larger world that we live in right now. No matter who you are you have a lot of selves that you bring to the table when you walk into the room,” Azevedo said.

One each festival day, IBOC will have two 5-15 minutes slots for community members to tell stories orally on the microphone. Submissions are open and they can be sent to christina@brazilianopera.com. People can learn more about the festival at www.kimerafestival.com.

When asked what people will get out of this festival, Azevedo responds with “I think they are going to get joy. We want to get people dancing. I hope people have fun and that they can connect to their neighborhood.”

Schedule:

July 15:

Open (Kids Village, Games, Resource Fair, DJ): 12 PM

Karegato (Percussionist, Brazil): Vivencia 4-5 PM

Emily Keating (Singer Songwriter, USA): No Drama Club 5:30-6:30 PM

Hugo Sanbone (Multi-instrumentalist, Brazilian Jazz, Brazil): Yemanjá Project 7-8 PM

August 19:

DJ: 2-4 PM

Renan Henrique (Guitarist, Brazil): Immigrant Rock 4-5 PM

Carol Rio (Samba music specialist, Brazil): Mind Games 5:30-6:30 PM

Jessica Gelinas (Singer/songwriter, Canada): Season’s Change 7-8 PM

September 23:

DJ: 2-3 PM

Lucas Cypriano (Jazz piano, Brazil): No Frontiers 3-4 PM

Davinia Pace: (Pop Vocalist, Malta) Divine Me 4:30-5:30 PM

Daniel Belquer: (Electronic Music, Brazil) Drama Queen 6-7 PM

October 28:

DJ: 2:00 PM

Hugo Vaz (Performance Artist and Songwriter, NYC) The Kimera Challenge 3-4:30 PM

Yunxuan Zhu: (Tenor, China) Rose Boy 5:00-6:00 PM

Luan Barbosa: (Percussionist, Brazil) Samba-Pop 6:30-7:30 PM