Quetzal Beats: Incantations of the Isthmus – Trip Hop, House and Home(s) Across América Central

Join Quetzal Beats for a bilingual (Spanish/English) experimental sonic and trip-hop performance weaving poetry, music, movement, sound, and visual storytelling. Centered on a bilingual improvisational poem and collage work by Pau Ix Xofi, the 40-minute performance explores Central American world-making, home, and the lived experiences of women and femmes while grappling with the histories and ongoing violence of mestizaje. Incantations of the Isthmus is a process of reconnection to indigeneity as a query, embodied through movement, the haiku, sound technologies, land and its visual language(s), and a set design that evokes home as an ephemeral space of love, ancestral knowing, return and belonging amidst genocide and displacement. Featuring original songs by Pau Ix Xofi, live DJ-ing and audio design by the Central American Sound Archive (CASA), and visuals and set design by Pau Ix Xofi + Flores + Abi Mandalas, the performance invites audiences to consider the Indigenous and anti-colonial histories, identities, and lived experiences that shape and complicate understandings of Latinidad in El Salvador and broader Central America. A 20-minute facilitated conversation follows the performance.