Crossfade LAB
Crossfade LAB is an event series that presents intimate conversations about art, identity, and social justice with some of the most thought-provoking Latinx and Latin American artists of our time.
Since 2016, Crossfade Lab has presented the work of artists who crossfade–that is, artists who find the unexpected points of connection in our world and who animate political and cultural ideas in new and public ways.
Crossfade LAB takes its name from a DJing technique of crossing and merging two music tracks into one new “mixed” track. It uses the crossfade as a metaphor for a kind of social thinking that celebrates in-betweenness and mixing without erasing.
Crossfade LAB is hosted by 2016 MacArthur Fellow and cultural writer Josh Kun.
Crossfade LAB is organized by CALA Alliance. Organizing curators for Crossfade LAB are, Julio César Morales Executive Director & Co-Chief Curator, MoCA Tucson and Josh Kun, Professor and Chair in Cross-Cultural Communication, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California.
“Crossfading is not just about music but a new kind of social thinking and social action. Crossfading is about listening to the borders, the edges; crossfading is about refusing the myth that any of us are single inputs, refusing to believe the myth of closure.”
Past Events
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Carlos Martiel and Xenia Rubinos
November 2022
The eleventh volume of Crossfade LAB featured a special meeting between Cuban-born, Mexico City and New York-based performance artist Carlos Martiel and New York-based Xenia Rubinos. Moderated by MacArthur Fellow and Crossfade LAB co-curator Josh Kun, the evening mixed emotionally charged performances that underscored the lived realities of Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color with soulful Caribbean-inspired jazz melodies. The fusion of sound and political image transported audiences across the dynamic geographies of the Americas, from Cuba to Puerto Rico, New York to Phoenix, underscoring the often-political realities that exist while traversing space and place as people of color.
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Guadalupe Maravilla and Alex Anwandter
March 2022
The tenth volume of Crossfade LAB featured a special meeting between New York-based multidisciplinary artist Guadalupe Maravilla (U.S./El Salvador) and Grammy Award-nominated artist Alex Anwandter (Chile). Moderated by MacArthur Fellow and Crossfade LAB co-curator Kun, the evening blended meditative healing sound waves and sculptural installations with vibrant, emotionally charged electro-pop ballads and melodies. The fusion of sound and image moved audiences across the dynamic geographies of the Americas, from Chile to El Salvador, New York to Phoenix, underscoring the often-political realities that exist while traversing space and place.
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Teresita Fernández and San Cha
November 2021
The ninth iteration of Crossfade LAB featured a special meeting between celebrated visual artist and MacArthur fellow Teresita Fernández and rising music and performance star San Cha. Moderated by author and Crossfade LAB co-curator Josh Kun, the evening experimented, agitated, and shimmered, blending installations and sculptures with cumbias and telenovelas—a mix of sound and image that transported audiences across geographies of the Americas, from Cuba to Jalisco, the Bay Area to Miami, New York to LA.
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La Santa Cecilia and Dolores Dorantes
October 2019
The eighth edition of Crossfade LAB staged a special meeting between celebrated Grammy-winning Los Angeles band La Santa Cecilia, and Mexican poet, journalist, and writer Dolores Dorantes. Moderated by cultural writer and MacArthur Fellow Josh Kun, the evening followed words and music across the verses and line breaks of the Americas, from Olvera Street to Ciudad Juárez and El Paso, and from celebrations of love and family to the violence of war, separation, and disappearance.
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Daniel Alarcón and Javiera Mena
April 2019
The seventh edition of Crossfade LAB staged an intimate dialogue between Chilean musician and recording artist Javiera Mena and Peruvian-American novelist and Radio Ambulante founder Daniel Alarcón. Moderated by Crossfade Lab co-curator and MacArthur Fellow Josh Kun, the evening moved across the U.S. and Latin America, mixing fiction with reporting, songs with stories, and podcasting with synth-pop.
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Lido Pimienta and Carolina Caycedo
October 2018
The sixth edition of Crossfade LAB presented a conversation between Colombian Canadian musician Lido Pimienta and London-born, Los Angeles-based Colombian artist Carolina Caycedo. The evening featured participatory performances exploring themes central to both Pimienta’s and Caycedo’s work: land and rights, resistance and representation, and performance that challenges the work of power.
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Carla Morrison and Natalie Diaz
October 2017
The fifth edition of Crossfade LAB featured acclaimed Arizona Mojave poet Natalie Diaz and two-time Latin Grammy award-winning Mexican songwriter and musician Carla Morrison. The event was an experimental mix of words and music, exploring the connections between desire and love, land and family, and traditions that bend, bear witness, and sometimes break.
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Nao Bustamante and Helado Negro
May 2017
The fourth edition of Crossfade LAB staged an experimental encounter between the internationally-known multi-disciplinary artist Nao Bustamente and the acclaimed musician and recording artist Helado Negro. Calling on immigrant geographies that run from Mexico to Ecuador– and span California, South Florida, and Brooklyn in between– both artists have used performance, masquerade, and wit to re-imagine Latinx aesthetics, history, and politics.
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Julieta Venegas and rafa esparza
January 2017
The third edition of Crossfade LAB presented an intimate conversation between Grammy award-winning Mexican musician Julieta Venegas and multidisciplinary Los Angeles artist rafa esparza. The evening explored themes that move across the work of both Venegas and esparza: love and land, memory and masks, and the many ways songs and art can help our bodies to make sense of, and survive, history.
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Rita Indiana and Calexico
October 2016
The second edition of Crossfade LAB welcomed Dominican-born writer, composer, and performance artist Rita Indiana and the Tucson, Arizona-based band Calexico. Whether through music or literature, live performance or composition, the Caribbean or the U.S. Southwest, both artists have paid keen attention to issues of national tradition and the borders of identity, while delving into the roles of mythology, popular culture, and cultural heritage in how everyday people survive and thrive amidst precarious conditions.
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Tania Candiani and Guillermo Galindo
April 2016
The first edition of Crossfade LAB featured Mexican visual artist Tania Candiani and experimental composer Guillermo Galindo discussed cutting-edge experiments in music, sculpture, electronic media, and their ideas about sonic borders. The event featured immersive performances by Galindo (from the Border Cantos Project) and the indigenous electro-acoustic collective Radio Healer (Phoenix).