edited by: Audaz Productions
Bimbo Rivas post mortem prints - Interview with Mauricio
Mauricio Trenard is our screen printing teaching artist and “restaurador” of the three decades old screens.
A series of extant and unpublished prints by the great Loisaida poet, playwright, community organizer, and sweat equity activist Bittman ‘Bimbo’ Rivas. Better known for his poem, for the foundational poem ‘Loisaida’ which coined the term, Bimbo Rivas also was a gifted print-artist. His family entrusted Loisaida Inc with a handful of his original tattered screens, part of a much larger body of work, and we took upon ourselves to restore them, and stitch them into the evolving archive that forms part of our community’s memory; the prints represent part of the invisible creative drive of our neighborhood, and we hope can offer a higher-resolution image of the body of work that Bimbo Rivas legated to us all.
Carlos “Chino” Garcia, is Bimbo’s best friend and collaborator in many staple neighborhood projects - from experimenting in eco-urban initiatives, cultural organizing through street performances, to the foundation of CHARAS/ El Bohio community center- the duo has countless contributions to the lore and life-blood of Loisaida /LES.