PHLAFF 2024 Opening Weekend Celebration SPECIAL PRESENTATION & CONVERSATION: Esto No Tiene Nombre: The Film by Denice Frohman

Are you as pumped for Week Uno of PHLAFF 2024 as we are? Get ready for our PHLAFF 2024 Opening Weekend Celebration kicking off our in-person programming on Thursday, May 30th, 2024. We are honored and so excited to close the evening with a special presentation and conversation with Denice Frohman, writer and performer of Esto No Tiene Nombre.

About Esto No Tiene Nombre

Esto No Tiene Nombre is a one-woman show that centers the oral histories of Latina lesbian elders. Written and performed by poet Denice Frohman, the play is told through a series of vignettes that traces lineages of Latina lesbian activism, expression, and desire. Guided by first person stories from pre-Stonewall police raids in Philadelphia to first kisses, Esto No Tiene Nombre places Frohman in conversation with a myriad of elders — barbers, lovers, activists and chefs — to explore their interiority and her own. In other words: how we love, who we love, and how we survive.

The show borrows its name from the first Latina lesbian magazine founded in the 1990s by Colombian poet, editor and activist, Tatiana de la Tierra, who wrote extensively about Latina sexuality and desire.

The archival interviews featured in Esto No Tiene Nombre are a culmination of a year-long project where Frohman traveled the country conducting over 20 oral history interviews as part of the project, I See My Light Shining: Oral Histories of Our Elders. The project was curated by acclaimed author and 2020 MacArthur Fellow Jacqueline Woodson.

Esto No Tiene Nombre made its debut in Philadelphia, presented by Intercultural Journeys in June 2023.

Esto No Tiene Nombre was supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. The project was also supported in part by the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Charlotte Cushman Foundation, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Southwest Airlines, and the Surdna Foundation through a grant from the NALAC Fund for the Arts Grant Program. Additional support has been provided by Independence Public Media Foundation and Silicon Valley Bank Foundation.

About Denice Frohman

Denice Frohman is a poet and performer from New York City. A Pew Fellow and Baldwin-Emerson Fellow, she’s received support from CantoMundo, Headlands Center for the Arts, the National Association of Latino Arts & Cultures, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The BreakBeat Poets: LatiNext, Nepantla: An Anthology for Queer Poets of Color, The Rumpus and elsewhere. A former Women of the World Poetry Slam Champion, she’s featured on hundreds of stages from The Apollo to The White House. Recently, she debuted her one-woman show, Esto No Tiene Nombre, centering the oral histories of Latina lesbian elders. She lives in Philadelphia.

You can learn more about Frohman and her work by visiting her website at https://www.denicefrohman.com/.

What can you expect on MAY 30th?

You can read about this event by checking our Week Uno Schedule on our website. The screening of Esto No Tiene Nombre: The Film will begin at 7:00 PM EST at Caplan Recital Hall, 17th Floor, Terra Hall, 211 South Broad Street @ University of the Arts. Viewers who want to tune in virtually can also join us through our Eventive platform (grab your virtual tickets here!).

The film screening will be followed by a conversation with Writer/Performer Denice Frohman, Director Alex Torra, and Production Designer Nia Benjamin moderated by Michelle Angela Ortiz. Tickets to enjoy our evening of in-person programming can be purchased here!

We can’t wait to see you soon!