Kimi Eisele

This program uses collaboration and learning among University of Arizona (UA) journalism students and Nogales-area high school students to produce stories about the borderlands using data gathering and multimedia tools such as: 360 video and photography, drone video, audio podcasting, and mapping. Through the program UA student trainers mentor high schoolers in Ambos Nogales to produce their own stories about their community, training youth in digital media, oral history interviews, and other media skills. The project aims to increase intercultural competencies and cross-border understanding among all students involved, as well as create opportunities for community interaction and change. Multi-generational activities–youth interviewing elders and Nogales “heroes”–aim to reinstating pride and appreciation for the community.

Lead artist: Dr. Celeste González de Bustamante
celesteg@email.arizona.edu

Dr. Celeste González de Bustamante is Associate Professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Arizona and an affiliated faculty member of the UA Center for Latin American Studies. She holds a PhD in history at the University of Arizona, and her research interests include: the history of news media in Mexico and the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, and violence against journalists in Mexico and Latin America. Her course “Reporting the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands,” takes journalism students on a weekly basis to Ambos Nogales. Her work has been published in numerous academic journals. She is the current co-head of the Border Journalism Network/La red de periodistas de la frontera.

This exploratory program supports research on musicians and music venues in Ambos Nogales. A collaboration between DJ Dirtyverbs and BorderBeatz, it aims to create opportunities for young musicians and DJs and amplify border sounds in Nogales and beyond. A research phase of the program piloted in Summer 2018.

Lead Artists:  DJ Dirtyverbs (logan@dirtyverbs.com) & Gustavo Lozano (borderbeatz@gmail.com)

DJ Dirtyverbs uses cumbia and global bass as a lengua franca to connect communities and cultures on the dancefloor. Dirtyverbs (aka Logan Phillips) got his start playing backyard parties and mezcal speakeasies in Cuernavaca, Mexico in 2007, after falling in love with cumbia sonidera in Querétaro in 2003. Born and raised in the Arizona-Sonora borderlands and now based in Tucson, Arizona, Dirtyverbs has been a resident DJ at Tucson’s historic Hotel Congress since 2012 and is lead organizer and host of El Tambó (“Best Danceparty,” Tucson Weekly). He DJ’s and hosts at a number of Arizona’s keystone cultural events, including the All Souls Procession and the Rialto Theatre’s New Years Eve Party, leading both events annually since 2013. In addition to DJing, Logan Phillips works as a writer, educator and performer.

Gustavo Lozano is a musician, producer, and educator in Nogales, Arizona. He mentors young musicians through production studio program at EdOptions High School. He offers classes in basic music theory, technique and musicianship skills for guitar, piano, drums and voice; and leads and coordinates music sessions about recording techniques, songwriting and music production. He encourage commitment, discipline and originality in order to create unique songs, and is responsible for preparing and directing school presentations from the rock band and producing students original songs. He is the director of Borderbeatz, an equipped recording studio audio recording, mixing & mastering, songwriting/artist development, session musicians, music production & arrangement. As part of Soundscapes, he’s offering 5 hours a week of free studio time to young Nogales artists.