Wounded Splendor

Inspired by recent sojourns to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, the rain forests of Costa Rica, the glaciers of Alaska, and the length of the Hudson River, storyteller/poet David Gonzalez’s new multi-media production brings together images from our world near and far, poetry and monologues inspired from interviews with activists and experts in the environmental movement, and the music of composer and pianist Daniel Kelly. Wounded Splendor celebrates the beauty of nature and advocates for Earth stewardship and active preservation in our times of rampant pollution and environmental destruction. “My wish is to cause people to reflect on the natural world, to reconsider their place within it, and their responsibility to it.”

Wounded Splendor was originally commissioned by University of Maryland’s Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center as part of an in-depth community engagement project for their 2008 – 2009 season titled “Performance as Politic/Artist as Activist”.

David Gonzalez and the Poetic License Band: City of Dreams

In this project, Latin jazz meets spoken word in a production exploding with passion, intelligence and energy. Created and produced by poet/musician/performance artist David Gonzalez, City of Dreams brings a quintet of New York’s hottest Latin Jazz musicians setting Gonzalez’s compelling poetry like a diamond in a mambo/funk music box. Mr. Gonzalez' poems and stories start with personal history and cultural identity, then expand to the search for transcendence, and his mission toward planetary consciousness and compassion. The band heats it up with sacred Yoruba chants, mambo-flavored house grooves, funk, and metal-tinged rock. Hispanic Magazine says, “At once cutting, reverential, and deeply insightful, Gonzalez’ words resonate with a broad audience, while the music keeps hips swaying. City of Dreams is one of the season’s best.”

City of Dreams was commissioned by the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland and developed at La MaMa, ETC, in New York City, with additional support from Montgomery County Community College.