Artful Evening: My America: A Performance Lecture by Julio César Morales

Join San Francisco-based artist Julio César Morales for a performance lecture exploring the intersections of music, migration, identity, and cultural resistance. Drawing from his multidisciplinary artistic practice, Morales will examine the influence of music, underground subcultures, and hybrid cultural forms throughout the Americas. Beginning with the histories of Mambo and Cumbia and their impact on popular music in the United States, he will trace how musical genres, slogan, myths, and collective rituals shape cultural identity across borders. And be sure to wear your dancing shoes! At the conclusion of the lecture, Morales will DJ a dance party celebrating music as a powerful form of cultural expression and collective resistance. The artistic practice of Julio César Morales employs a range of media and visual strategies to explore issues of migration, underground economies, and labor, on personal and global scales. He works by whatever means necessary, from watercolors and neon to immersive installations and reenactment. His artwork has been shown at venues internationally and is included in private and public collections across the U.S. and Europe.