Photo: Crichton Atkinson

FLAKO JIMENEZ

Modesto “Flako” Jimenez is a Dominican-born, Bushwick-raised, multi-hyphenate artist. As a poet, playwright, educator, actor, producer, and director his work exists in and explores the intersections of identity, language, mediums, cultures, and communities found in his personal life and beyond.

Flako’s focus is using his art to address the social and political changes affecting the Latin American communities in his Bushwick neighborhood. His current project, Taxilandia, draws on his nine years of experience driving a taxicab in NYC and his documentation of conversations with passengers, residents, locals, and immigrants to the neighborhood. With his theater company Oye Group, he is now working with companies all over the country, including La Jolla Playhouse and New York Theater Workshop, to develop local versions of Taxilandia specific to different cities. The piece is devised in three phases, beginning with a series of virtual salons with local artists whose work intersects with gentrification. Once public gathering is allowed, the final phase will include live presentations and an interactive gallery.

Flako is best known for original productions and three signature festivals – Ghetto Hors D’Oeuvres, One Catches Light, and Oye! Avant-Garde Night! – produced with his company Oye Group. Flako has appeared on TEDxBushwick, Early Shaker Spirituals (Wooster Group), Last Night At The Palladium (Bushwick Starr/3LD), Yoleros (Bushwick Starr/IATI theater), Conversations Pt.1: How To Make It Black In America (JACK). Take Me Home (3LD/Incubator Arts Project), Richard Maxwell’s Samara (Soho Rep.), Kaneza Schaal’s Jack &. (BAM/On The Boards). HOLA Best Ensemble Award Winner for 2015. ATI Best Actor Award Winner for 2016, HOLA Outstanding Solo Performer for 2017, and 2016 Princess Grace Award Honorarium in Theater. In 2018 he became the first Dominican-American Lead Artist in The Public Theater Under The Radar Festival with his show Oye For My Dear Brooklyn.

When not working on his own artistry, Flako is passionate about empowering youth to become the next generation of poets, playwrights, and performers, and has been teaching theater/poetry in NYC Public Schools for over 10 years. In 2015, he founded Shake on the Block, a 7 week Shakespeare workshop for teens. For the last 8 years ¡Oye! Group has run a poetry workshop on structure and style at Abrons Art Center and in the Brooklyn Public Library in Williamsburg for Teens and adults.

Currently, Flako is working on Margarita, Mercedes y Dementia, a multi-disciplinary memory play exploring the relationships between matriarchy and ancestors, familial bonds and inherited trauma, and how our own identity can impact our mental health.