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"United States of Amnesia" daringly confronts past & present: ArtsXchange, Academy Theatre to host artist José Torres-Tama for performances & workshops
- ArtsXchange
- Jul 17
- 3 min read
Updated: 7 days ago
ArtsXchange, in collaboration with the historic Academy Theatre in Hapeville, will welcome revolutionary artist and performance poet José Torres-Tama for a powerful residency that bridges history, memory, and movement.
A bold and unflinching voice in performance art, Torres-Tama will offer three performance
workshops and three showings of his searing multimedia solo performance, United States of
Amnesia: In a System that Seduces You to Forget, Dare to Remember.
WORKSHOPS:
Workshop Tickets
ArtsXchange Member - Free
Pay what you can tickets - Free +
General Admission -$10
Participants will explore performance ritual, spoken word, and the role of collective memory in resistance. These sessions are open to all levels and invite artists, organizers, educators, and truth-tellers to engage creatively with their histories and communities.
Workshop with José Torres-Tama (at ArtsXchange)
Mon, Sep 08, 2025
6-9 PM
ArtsXchange, 2148 Newnan St, East Point, GA 30344, USA
Workshop with José Torres-Tama (at ArtsXchange)
Wed, Sep 10, 2025
6-9 PM
ArtsXchange, 2148 Newnan St, East Point, GA 30344, USA
PERFORMANCES:
Performance Tickets
ArtsXchange Member - Free
Pay what you can tickets - Free +
General Admission -$15
In the satirical, genre-bending show, he channels a “shamanistic time traveler” to conjure the past and expose the present. United States of Amnesia connects the dots across centuries — from the Three-Fifths Compromise and Indian Removal Act to Operation Wetback and Zero Tolerance immigration policies — tracing a brutal through line of dehumanizing legislation that exploits Black, Brown, and Indigenous labor. Through humor and radical remembering, Torres-Tama calls out the hypocrisy of the colonial settler system and demands an awakening from the induced amnesia of empire.
United States of Amnesia | José Torres-Tama Performance (at ArtsXchange)
Fri, Sep 12, 2025
7 PM
ArtsXchange, 2148 Newnan St, East Point, GA 30344, USA
United States of Amnesia | José Torres-Tama Performance (at ArtsXchange)
Sat, Sep 13, 2025
7 PM
ArtsXchange, 2148 Newnan St, East Point, GA 30344, USA
About the Artist
José Torres-Tama is an Ecuadorian-born interdisciplinary provocateur of Quechua indigenous descent. He is an award-winning performance and visual artist; published playwright and poet; photographer and journalist; and arts educator with the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans. Among many awards, he has received a Louisiana Theater Fellowship, three NPN Creation Fund Awards, and a
MAPFUND Grant award for his Taco Truck Theater diverse ensemble on wheels.
From 2006 to 2011, he contributed post-Katrina commentaries that aired on NPR's Latino USA. He exposed the myriad human rights violations Latin American immigrant reconstruction workers endured while heroically contributing to the resurrection of the flooded port city of New Orleans. United States of Amnesia was developed through National Performance Network Creation Fund Award, and co-commissioned by the Ashé Cultural Arts Center in New Orleans and GALA Hispanic Theater in Washington, DC.
About ArtsXchange
ArtsXchange is a cultural facility founded in the Black arts tradition that empowers artists, social justice activists, and creative entrepreneurs to engage communities through the transformative power of the arts. The pillars of our programming are Visual Arts, Literature and Literacy, and Land Conservation. We serve our communities through workshops, exhibitions, concerts, health and wellness classes, films, performances, and community gardens. Our resident studio artist program supports emerging, mid-career, and established artists by providing affordable creative spaces. As cultural stewards, we foster resilience within our communities as a gathering, sharing, and organizing space. We make the arts
accessible to individuals traditionally excluded from creative industries, responding directly to community needs through partnerships and collaborations with like-minded arts organizations, social justice advocates, and people-led initiatives. For more information, visit ArtsXchange.org, or follow on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
About Academy Theatre
The Academy Theatre is the longest running professional theatre in Georgia. Founded in 1956 by Frank Wittow, the Academy pioneered a number of developments in Atlanta’s professional theatre community including the first professional theatre in the South to be integrated, and the first Southeastern Shakespeare Festival.Academy has premiered over 400 new plays and has, in addition to mainstage audiences exceeding 500,000, reached over 2 million children and 200,000 adults through its outreach programs alone. Today, the Academy Theatre continues its outreach work to people without a theatrical voice, incubates new theater companies, produces mainstage works, and remains a vital component of the Southeast’s theater community. For information, visit academytheatre.org.