March 5th, 2008 - Puerto Rican Dialogue: High School Student Discussion
Click on Image to enlarge
Website: MySpace -  ¡Humboldt Park NO SE VENDE!

March 8th, 2008 - Between Western and California Movie Premiere
Graphic Designed by: Tamara Robbins

Location: Humboldt Park Field House, 1400 N Sacramento Blvd, Chicago, IL

Time: Doors Open @ 7:45 PM & General Viewing @ 8:00PM

Website: MySpace - Between Western and California - The movie
"Deciding that Latino Fanaticism would hinder his opportunity in the 'high art' world, Jacob Ruiz, abandons his family, friends, and the Puerto Rican community of Humboldt Park in hopes of attaining commercial success as a painter. On a rare return to his old neighborhood, Jacob discovers that those he left behind are planning a resistance against the people whose recognition he seeks Geno Quinnones means business. A bodega owner in the community, he will not be run off the sushi bars and over-priced condos without a fight. Geno vows with his life, that he will not bear witness to the removal of the community's flags on Division Street. He's ready to wage a war against the developers, with the help of Jacob For Cookie, the battle for Humboldt Park is moot. Support and a reliable father for her child are a more practical issue. Jacob is failing her and their son by her measure, and she swears not to allow him success, of any kind unless he makes things right-immediately Jacob regrets none of what he left in Humboldt Park, but will have his life changed by what happens in his absence. Jacob will have to choose between his own life and of those who reside, Between Western and California."

March 7th, 2008 - April 26, 2008 - Crime Against Humanity
A play by poet and activist Michael Anthony Reyes Benavides and former Puerto Rican Political Prisoner Luis Rosa, directed by Michael Anthony Reyes Benavides

A National Boricua Human Rights Network and Batey Urbano Production

Imagine 27 years of your life living in a space 6 feet by 9 feet. Imagine being confined in isolation with no human contact. Imagine the shakedowns, the strip searches and the complete disregard for your humanity. Crime Against Humanity is a play based on the real life experiences of fourteen Puerto Rican political prisoners who spent more than two decades in prisons for seditious conspiracy—two of whom are still incarcerated. Crime Against Humanity brings us into the U.S. prison system in a way no other play has, focusing on the politically motivated use of isolation, selective punishment, sensory deprivation and disproportionate sentences.

Written by poet and activist Michael Anthony Reyes Benavides and former Puerto Rican political prisoner Luis Rosa, the play confronts the physical and mental torture these prisoners endured for more than 27 years. We gaze into their cell and experience the loss of parents, the transition of children into adulthood and feel the physical brutality and torture of a government out to make an example of them. We see them as they refuse to be victimized and objectified, confronting their hardships and adversities while maintaining their dignity, and upholding their humanity.

Reyes Benavides spent hours interviewing the former Puerto Rican political prisoners, and through extensive written correspondence, the two remaining political prisoners Oscar López Rivera and Carlos Alberto Torres. Through the play, we hear from their own mouths, their own words, exactly what it means to be a political prisoner in the United States.

Crime Against Humanity is produced by the National Boricua Human Rights Network and Batey Urbano. These two organizations hope to use this performance piece to raise consciousness and gain support for the campaign to free the remaining Puerto Rican political prisoners.

“By using theater as a tool of resistance, we hope to reach out to those sectors that are often ignored by traditional activist outreach. We want our families, our brothers and sisters and our community to come out and see what these prisoners endured, many of them for almost 20 years, two of them for more than 27″ (author and director Reyes Benavides).

For more information contact:
Michael Anthony Reyes Benavides at reyespoetry@gmail.com or (773) 606-4014.

January 6th, 2008 @ 3:00PM by Division and California
Dia De Los Reyes Magos a.k.a Three Kings Day
Come down to Division street to celebrate "The Three Kings Day". There will be music and games and grab something to eat at one of the many great restaurants on Division Street.