Chicken sushi

This is a partial video documentation of the creation's process of 'Chicken Sushi.' Carmelita Tropicana rehearses with the director and performs for the camera, offering fresh and funny reenactments in each scene. Carmelita introduces herself as "[...] I am Carmelita Tropicana. Miss Lower East Side 1985. Beauty Queen and Famous Night Club Entertainer [...]," to later telling her adventures and stories about the Lower East Side. She cooks up a special meal for the audience, which includes black beans, paprika, and chicken. While she sings in Japanese and Spanish, the transcultural serendipities of migration come together in her performance.

Alina Troyano (a.k.a.Carmelita Tropicana) is a Cuban-born performance artist, playwright, and actor who has presented work internationally, from el Museo del Barrio in NYC to Hebbel am Ufer in Berlinches Her book, 'I, Carmelita Tropicana: Performing Between Cultures' includes plays, monologues, performance art pieces, and short stories. In Tropicana's work humor and fantasy become subversive tools to rewrite history. Tropicana's performances plays and videos have been presented at venues such as the Institute of Contemporary Art in London, Hebbel Am Ufer in Berlin, Centre de Cultura Contemporanea in Barcelona, the Berlin International Film Festival, the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, the Mark Taper Forum's Kirk Douglas Theater in Los Angeles, and El Museo del Barrio in New York. She has received numerous awards including the prestigious Anonymous Was a Woman and fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts as well as an Obie for Sustained Excellence in Performance.