Magically realistic: Jose Torres Tama brings his special brand of performance art to Out North for three shows this weekend, starting tonight.

The monthly Poetry Parley at Out North on Wednesday evening celebrated the Irish poetic voice. Opening the evening was local poet John McKay, who for 30 minutes read a number of Irish-imbued works, including some that brought us close to 19th century Irish immigrants to America who fall into sympathy with Mexican fighters. Then followed eight of us (including McKay) each reading a couple or three of the works of the Irish poet W.B. Yeats.

When it was all over, the man who is the main act at Out North this weekend, Jose Torres Tama, walked into the theatre's gallery space and Poetry Parley room and gave the patrons, still in their seats, a free preview.

Tama is a solid performance artist who brings not Ireland but Latin America to the stage. He told us he was a devoted follower of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and the magical realism found in so much Latino literature. Tama performed a couple of works, including a poem by Pablo Neruda which he recited first in Spanish, then in English while playing a hand-percussion instrument like a shaker in perfect time to the poem's rhythms. His first piece was sharply political and delivered with satirical fire.

In a top hat and garments adorned with emblems, kerchief and other items that are riffs on the Stars and Stripes, Tama carries the energy and form of a Latino street clown-poet, the wise fool cutting through the chaff. But he's also something of a fire-eating chaperone to the spirit world.

Earlier this month, Tama led a free five-day workshop at Out North for visual artists, dancers, performance poets and others that was discussed here. That was followed by a performance on March 14.

I think it's important for us as artists to contend with the issues of our times. I think if we consider ourselves as intellectuals or people of conscience, we have to address the issues of our time and support art that matters.
-- Tama quoted in The Homer Tribune, a piece by Katie Emerick

This weekend's show--at 7 p.m. tonight and Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday--is called "The Cone of Uncertainty: New Orleans after Katrina," written and performed by Tama, who said he lived in New York (originally from Ecuador) and now makes his home in New Orleans. (Tickets available online through Out North, or call 279-3800.)

People still ask me, why does it matter to tour this piece about something that happened over four years ago. It's old, but not in terms of its ramifications on a country and its universal content. It's an epic story of people abandoned during a period of tragedy. [more from the Emerick story in Homer Tribune]