Joaquín La Habana is a queer singer, dancer, actor and drag artist.
Early life and education Joaquín La Habana was born in Havana, Cuba. In 1966 he emigrated to the US, studying music and dance at Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts (1967–1971) and Boston Conservatory at Berklee (1969–1971), with teachers such as James Truitte, Geoffrey Holder, Talley Beatty and others.
Career In the early 1970s La Habana moved to New York, where he took small roles as a dancer on Broadway and in musical films such as Hair and The Wiz. At the same time, he began to explore the genre of drag, and for a short period lived a female identity in his everyday life.Documentary film Joaquín by Serge Raoul, 1972. He performed in the Palm Casino Revue and at Studio 54 with numbers alluding to artists such as Josephine Baker.Cobler, Veretta, New York Underground 1970–1980, 2004. La Habana worked with the queer theater avantgarde of La MaMa E.T.C.,At La MaMa La Habana contributed the choreography to Joseph Blunt/Joseph Renard: Get Out! (1974), and performed as part of the "Cockroach Chorus". La Mama Archive, Get Out! with artists such as Charles Ludlam and Jack Smith. La Habana starred in the queer experimental film Love Thing.
Since 1981, La Habana has lived in Berlin. He performed with the Chez Nous theater, performed in stagings of La Cage aux Folles, and in various films of Rosa von Praunheim, notably City of Lost Souls.Interview with Joaquín La Habana on the artistic research site We're In This Together, conducted in winter 2020/21.
In the 1990s he started working on a series of performances exploring his Afro-Caribbean heritage, which he presented in venues such as Ethnological Museum of Berlin, Haus der Kulturen der Welt and Werkstadt der Kulturen, as well as in the frame of Karneval der Kulturen.
La Habana practices as a Santéria priest and regularly teaches workshops and classes in Afro-Caribbean music and dance.Rossbach De Olmos, Lioba (2014). "CaribBerlin: Multiple Paths in the Religious Life of a German Oricha Priest". Timm, Rauhut, Kummels, Rinke: Transatlantic Caribbean. Dialogues of People, Practices, Ideas. Transcript: Bielefeld, 231-232.
Selected filmography 1972: Joaquín (documentary) by Serge Raoul 1978: The Wiz by Sidney Lumet 1979: Hair by Miloš Forman 1980 (2012): Love Thing by Michael Mannetta 1981: Fort Apache, The Bronx by Daniel Petrie 1983: City of Lost Souls by Rosa von Praunheim 1984: Horror Vacui by Rosa von Praunheim 1984: Drama in Blond by Lothar Lambert 1986: A Virus Knows No Morals by Rosa von Praunheim 2007: The Art of Seduction by Bernhard P. Beutler 2013: Joaquín La Habana – Living Between Worlds (documentary) by Bernhard P. Beutler 2017: Survival in Neukölln by Rosa von Praunheim
References
Further reading Larrain, Gilles, Idols, 1973. Cobler, Veretta, New York Underground 1970–1980, 2004. Male Performance, 1986, edited by Norbert Kosmowski and Ronald Dittrich.
External links
Birds of Paradise Can Fly, recording of an artist talk at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, . Joaquín La Habana, portrait on the homepage of his management. Interview with Joaquín La Habana on We're in this together Clips from various performances on YouTube