Taína Asili carries on the tradition of her ancestors, fusing present and past struggles into one poetic song-voice. She is a puertorriqueña vocalist, poet, visual artist, educator, activist and mother from Philadelphia, PA and Albany, NY. Her newest artistic work is with her live band, Taína Asili y La Banda Rebelde, soulful vocals laid over a unique infusion of rock, neo-soul, reggae, hip hop, and Afro-Caribbean sounds. The band's eclectic style represents the diversity of its band members, who have origins in Puerto Rico, Sicily, Greece, Brazil and Tanzania. Taína Asili carries a fire breathing voice of rage and resistance to venues, festivals, conferences and political events across the country. She weaves resistance, love, anti-colonialist struggle, ancestral remembrance, and more into a unique and unforgettable vocalization style.
Taína is a winner of the 2005 “Transformation Award” given by the Leeway Foundation each year to a select few of women artists who profoundly use their work towards social change. Taína has shared the stage with artists such as Ursula Rucker, Sonia Sanchez, Pamela Means, Dead Prez, Immortal Technique and Tyrone Hill of The Sun Ra Arkestra. She can be witnessed in Scene and Not Heard, a documentary about women and hip hop culture in Philadelphia, also featuring Bahamadia and Monie Love. She was voted Albany’s “2006 Best Poet” in The Metroland, Albany, NY’s premier alternative news weekly. As a part of the Puerto-rock band Ricanstruction you can hear her vocals blow on their album “Love and Revolution.” Taína is now working with La Banda Rebelde on their debut album “Mama Guerrilla,” to be released in 2008 on the Rebel Army Media label.
History
Taína’s performance history and experience is as eclectic as her artistic work. Starting as a singer classically trained by a local Peruvian opera singer, Taína later found punk rock, and for eight years wrote and sang songs of rage and resistance with Antiproduct, touring the country several times and putting out four albums internationally. During this time, she fell in love with spoken word, and together with her brother, Victorio Reyes (now lead vocalist of Broadcast Live), created the spoken word group, Rebel Poets. Since that time she has sung soulful back-up vocals for numerous bands, eventually becoming her newest artistic project, Taína Asili y La Banda Rebelde.
Taína is dedicated to using her art as a tool for social transformation. Not only is her art politically conscious, but it is based in the concrete organizing she is in involved in, working in political prisoner liberation, prisoner rights, democratic education, indigenous rights, environmentalist, and holistic health movements for over 10 years. However, Taína’s main revolutionary, activist and artistic work involves raising her child... her best poetic inspiration.
Education
In addition to performance work Taína facilitates poetry workshops. She began her artistic educational work in Philadelphia at Taller Puertorriqueño, a Puerto Rican cultural center based in North Philadelphia, where she taught local Puerto Rican youth about the current struggle and resistance movement in Vieques, Puerto Rico, using poetry and drawing as their expressive voice. Taína has since taught poetry writing workshops for both children and adults, including the co-facilitation of a poetry workshop series in a women’s correctional facility in PA and refugee support center in NY. She has her MA in Transformative Language Arts from Goddard College.
Make sure to catch Taina Asili y la Banda Rebelde this Saturday during the Black And Latino Gay Pride 09' then, you should get your fix of the Ameros during the evening.
Happy Birthday! Had a great time today. So here's how it's going to work, we need to hang out more, because everytime we hang out, Rebecca loves me more! Enjoy a free download of "Name Your Price for Freedom" when you join our email list. .. ..
Hi Taina, thanks for the comment. I do searches on different web sites regarding the cave to see what peoples experiences were here. That is how I came across your profile. Thank you for your kind words and I am glad you enjoyed your visit and seem to love this wonder of nature as much as we do. We currently came to myspace in hopes to further promote the cave and its beauty. thanks again.
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