The DAM! Series
DAM! Celebrates Nature, Art, Structure & Sound with two free performances in March presented by immersive creator Pamela Martinez / Teletextile featuring local artists
Pamela Martinez, local composer, and sound artist is presenting two free and open-to-the-public sonic art performances at two San Antonio dams this March. Each performance explores water as a carrier of culture throughout our city with a rotating cast of collaborators to create sound and ceremony under the name Teletextile. These performances are sponsored by the City of San Antonio Department of Arts & Culture.
A celebration of nature, infrastructure, and performance, this free public series seeks to bring awareness to local waterways and their importance in cultural connection. The inaugural event for the series took place last October at the Espada Dam in collaboration with the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park and highlighted the historical landmark as well as the acequia system created there during Spanish colonial times.
Two new events in the series happen in March and highlight the infrastructure around the water. The first event occurs on Saturday, March 4th at Lake Elmendorf’s 19th Street Dam at 5:00 pm with two acts. The first act, dubbed Transformation, is a 30-minute immersive performance where the audience is invited to walk into the labyrinth dam's teeth and experience a collaborative interpretation of transformation as it relates to the different states of water and a person’s ability to transform. Martinez remarks “When I look at a dam, I see an opera house. The majestic stage is set for the drama that is our lifeblood in the inevitable overflowing of water.” The second act, Our Power Together, invokes the power that humans, nature, and music can make together to carry and hold the culture like the water in the dam. Our Power Together features an original score from Teletextile’s Pamela Martinez music for percussion, horns & choral elements.
The second event takes place Saturday, March 25th, starting at 5:30 pm at the Roosevelt Flood Control Tunnel Outlet Park. The sonic experience will begin with musicians floating on kayaks on the San Antonio River for a reprisal of Our Power Together. The second act, dubbed Flow, will invite guests to parade with singers and musicians along the river up to the floating pavilion above the river and the unseen three-mile water tunnel beneath their feet. As a conclusion to the artistic experience, there will be a repeat rendition on the park’s pavilion of Martinez’s composition DAM! A Song of Water that was performed at the Spanish Colonial Mission which originally opened the event series in October.
Both performances are about an hour long and free to attend, but guests need to RSVP via Eventbrite to reserve a program and obtain any need-to-know details before the show. Guests can also upgrade their ticket by 1) Buying a digital download of the music being made and recorded for the project and 2) reserving a seat, though walking will still be a part of both performances.
Note To Audience:
Performances will be inside of the dams and near the San Antonio River. There will be wet areas and guests are encouraged to dress appropriately in closed-toe or waterproof shoes with traction, especially for Lake Elmendorf’s 19th St Dam. For safety reasons, performances will be rescheduled if there is rain because the event will be held inside of the dams.
EVENT SCHEDULE:
Lake Elmendorf’s 19th Street Dam
Sat March 4th, 2023 from 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm
3700 W Commerce St, San Antonio, TX 78207 Google Map Link to exact location
Roosevelt Tunnel Outlet Park
Sat March 25th, 2023 from 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm
655 Lone Star Blvd, San Antonio, TX 78204 Google Map Link to exact location
Echoes Geo Map Audio Experience
Teletextile has created a listening experience for guests to explore leading up to the events. In order to listen to the audio collage participants must download the Echoes app which enables audio mapping via GPS. Through the DAM! audio tour different spaces will trigger different sounds on your phone’s speaker. Headphones are preferred for the full audio experience. Near the dam, the tour is meant for walking, but participants can keep listening to and from the drive home as the audio expands to Highway 1604. This audio piece includes interviews about water’s nature, field recordings of the San Antonio River, and music written and recorded by Pamela Martinez for The DAM! Series. Many of these recordings were created with the local community at the inaugural event at Espada’s DAM! on October 9th, 2022. Those who wish to experience this unique audio tour can listen here via the Echoes app.
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Lake Elmendorf Dam - March 4, 2023
Roosevelt Tunnel Outlet - March 22, 2023
Photo by Chris Castillo
San Antonio Missions presents DAM! A Song of Water at Espada Dam by Pamela Martinez/Teletextile on October 9, 2022
News Release Date: September 13, 2022
Contact: Chantelle Ruidant-Hansen, 210-612-5725
Contact: Pamela Martinez, 320-336-0655
SAN ANTONIO — Join us for an exploration of sound and ceremony at the historic Espada Dam. This free public event invites participants to preview new musical works by composer Pamela Martinez, create audio field recordings with artist Mark Menjivar, sit in a sound bath meditation at the San Antonio River or drop in for all morning nature painting and water ceremony.
San Antonio Missions National Historical Park hosts Artist Pamela Martinez, recipient of the 2022 Individual Artist Grant in the Performing Arts from the City of San Antonio, in the debut Teletextile’s DAM! Series. This series includes three immersive performances inspired by the Espada Dam and Espada Acequia system from the San Antonio River. The first performance in the series will be “DAM! A Song of Water” at the Espada Historic Dam. Individuals will have the opportunity to learn about the history of the dam, sneak preview new music by Pamela Martinez for her spring performances, set intentions for themselves and our communities with a water ceremony, learn about field recording, and record the sounds around the Espada Dam with our audio gear.
“DAM! A Song of Water” will take place Oct. 9, 2022, from 10:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. outdoors. Registration and parking are at Acequia Park, 8500 Mission Pkwy, San Antonio, TX 78223 with activities in the surrounding areas. Admission is free, please RSVP through Eventbrite. Participants should be prepared to walk between the different stations of the event, a half mile radius. Individuals or partners can reserve an audio recorder via this form for a 30 min time slot that includes a 15min orientation of the technology. Please bring your own wired headphones if possible. All ages and levels are welcome. We encourage participants to bring refillable water bottles.
EVENT SCHEDULE:
10:30 a.m. Espada DAM! Musical Opening & Meditation with composer Pamela Martinez/Teletextile, a welcoming from San Antonio Missions National Historical Park, and land acknowledgment and blessing by an elder of the Tāp Pīlam Coahuiltecan Nation.
11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. Drop-in Personal Water Ceremony and Group Sound Meditation and Field Recording Instructions with Mark Menjivar
11:00 a.m. Field Recording Reservation 1
11:45 a.m. Field Recording Reservation 2
12:30 p.m. Field Recording Reservation 3
The DAM! Performance Series is an original music theater work that highlights our waterways in San Antonio, TX. It was specifically inspired by the Espada Dam as a historical landmark the acequia system created in Spanish colonial times. The kickoff event at DAM! - Espada Dam Oct 9, 2022, will be followed by the two performances happening in Spring 2023: DAM! - Lake Elmendorf (March 4, 2023) and DAM! - Roosevelt Tunnel Outlet (March 22, 2023, on World Water Day). Teletextile’s goal for DAM! is to give our community new ways to interact with local historic landmarks and the natural environment around them, while highlighting the rich history of San Antonio’s central, south and west-side neighborhoods. Teletextile will include the following artists for DAM! - Espada: Mark Menjivar, Tanesha Payne, Meredith Shuman, Zach Sokoloski and Olivia Roybal.
Creation of this work was made possible in part by an award from the Department of Arts & Culture of the City of San Antonio.
ABOUT PAMELA MARTINEZ
Pamela Martinez is a musician in healing, immersive performer and creator, reiki master, and composer specializing in deep listening, sound baths, and sonic expressions with a bachelor’s degree in Music Education from Berklee College of Music in Boston. She is a San Antonio native who spent the last 18 years performing and creating primarily in Brooklyn, NY, but she has recently begun calling the River City home again. Pamela created The Teletextile Ritual Arts Ensemble, a cast of rotating collaborators that weaves together a tapestry of music, movement, reiki, and other healing rituals to create a mixture of performance and wellness practice. Martinez has worked with The Park Ave Armory, REDCAT: Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater, Brooklyn Greenway Initiative, Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, The Tobin Center, SAY Sí, Trinity University, UTSA, The Parks Foundation, The River Foundation, Jump-Start Performance Co, The McNay Art Museum, Luminaria Contemporary Arts Festival, and Blanton Museum. Martinez passes on the craft of music and wellbeing by teaching and leading workshops at the Southtown Music Studio (SATX) located at Mercury Project Contemporary Art Space.
Learn more at www.teletextile.org, and on Instagram and Facebook
ABOUT THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America’s 423 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Learn more at www.nps.gov, and on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.
Learn more at www.nps.gov, and on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.