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10 Years of Singing and Painting the Magdalene


Mary Magdalene by Tanya Torres

This year we will celebrate Mary Magdalene once again on July 22, ten years after the first time Raquel, I and a group of friends gathered in Raquel's apartment to sing the Seven Songs of Praise she created inspired by the Magdalene. At the time, the music was in its early stages. I had a few small paintings done since 2005, and was finishing a larger one. It was not yet a project. It was just a very important feeling.

Why the Magdalene? It is a question we get asked often. We each discovered Mary Magdalene in different ways, but our individual interests found a meeting point through our creative practices.

At the time, we used to take long walks in the park, and our conversations would shape our dreams and connect the things we were learning. It was a pleasure and a relief to be in the company of a kindred soul who understood. The Magdalene was our inspiration, our muse. In her we found answers to our spiritual quests, our artistic longings and our intellectual ambitions.

When I get asked the question, why Mary Magdalene? I think back to the beginning, to the young woman who found in Her her own colors, and an echo of what a woman could be and what Christianity should have been. She was, for me, the invitation and the gate to a spirituality where imagination and creativity were celebrated. A spirituality that is build through art and freedom. A self-created spirituality for all those who don't believe in anything but believe in the redeeming power of the creative act.

And the first time we celebrated the Magdalene, we sang. We only had our voices and our hands, and the songs that Raquel wrote, and her 3 notes in the accordion. And we had a feast and we had each other. Because that's all the Magdalene requires: a great love, a great heart, some fire and someone to share it with.

Come share in the feast, this July 22, 2017, at El Barrio Art Space (99th street, between 2nd and 3rd Avenues) starting at 12:00 midday with The 21 Magdalenes Art Exhibition, The Magdalene Fair, The Red Tent, the play Mandala: Stories of the Net and the Sea, and the Mary Magdalene Celebration, which this year will take place in the same spirit as the first time: with our voices united in song for the Magdalene. Join us?

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Tanya Torres  
Art for Love, Peace and Joy

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