Aire Libre
ABOUT AIRE LIBRE
Aire Libre is a dance-based video project that examines toxic air and soil pollution in Los Angeles County and its disproportionate effect on lower-income communities of color living amid the heavy industry, infrastructure, and polluting facilities that underpin our capitalist, fossil-fuel-based economy.
Aire Libre is a collaborative project led by artist Erin Cooney that brings together East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, CONTRA-TIEMPO Activist Dance Company, poet Rocío Carlos, and vocalists Carmina Escobar and Joung-A Monica Yum.
In 2022, several East Yard members participated in oral history interviews with artist Erin Cooney, and many went on to take part in the project’s writing workshops led by Rocío Carlos, an LA-based poet who grew up near Exide Technologies. In the workshops, East Yard participants wrote personal narratives about how air and soil pollution has affected them and their families. Based on these materials, Rocío wrote the project screenplay, which is a combination of this adapted material and original poetry.
Aire Libre was filmed in December of 2023. Many East Yard members appear in the production to tell their stories. Dancers from CONTRA-TIEMPO Activist Dance Theater, founded by Ana María Alvarez who directed the choreography during production in collaboration with the dancers themselves, appear performing at significant community locations, including the iconic 6th Street Bridge in Boyle Heights, Bandini Park beneath the 710 freeway in Vernon, the residential streets of East LA, and the concrete banks of the LA River. CONTRA-TIEMPO's dance performances in Aire Libre materialize the interconnectedness of our bodies with the air we breathe and the ground we tread.
Extreme vocalist Carmina Escobar poignantly scored the video work, and vocalist Joung-A Monica Yum’s extended vocal technique is powerfully featured alongside a pumping oil well.
The footage documents a range of environments—from transportation hubs along the I-710 Corridor, including ports, freeways, and rail yards, to industrial zones comprising warehouse complexes, refineries, and oil derricks—as well as the residential areas and parks situated within these industrial and manufacturing landscapes.
Exide Technologies, which has contaminated the soil with arsenic and lead and is associated with higher rates of cancer in nearby communities, figures prominently in the piece.
Aire Libre is on exhibit at the Torrance Art Museum (TAM) from March 29 through May 24, 2025. Aire Libre will also be publicly projected onto various industrial sites within affected communities represented by East Yard. These guerrilla-style projections will aim to shine a light on the perpetrators of environmental harm while symbolically reclaiming and reoccupying these spaces of extraction through the vibrant presence of dancers’ bodies and the faces of community members.
ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE IN LOS ANGELES
Map of suspended expansion project
(courtesy of LA Metro)
(Illustration/Diana Molleda)
In their own words
Aire Libre was born from a collection of interviews—oral histories delivered by East Yard members, residents of Central LA communities including East LA, Bell, Huntington Park, Compton, Lynwood, Long Beach, and others. These individuals tell the stories of their families, their homes, and their livelihoods battling the pollution and environmental racism plaguing their bodies and their land.
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AIRE LIBRE FILM Credits
Director + Producer - ERIN COONEY
Screenplay (original + adapted from East Yard oral history interviews and workshop writings) - ROCÍO CARLOS
Director of Photography - MASON BROADWAY
Lead Camera - MASON BROADWAY
Secondary Camera - ADRIAN MARTINEZ-TOBÓN
Video Editing - MASON BROADWAY
Audio/Sound Recording - ADRIAN MARTINEZ-TOBÓN
Sound Design and Composition - EYTAN ROSENMAN and SEAN KAWANAMI
Sound Engineering and Mixing - EYTAN ROSENMAN
Live Vocal Scoring - CARMINA ESCOBAR
Featured Live Vocal Scoring - JOUNG-A MONICA YUM
Primary Narrator - ROCÍO CARLOS
Featured Narrators - JESSICA ANTONIO-ULLOA, HONEY BIZARRO, DIMAS DONIS, and GUADALUPE VALDOVINOS
Dance Choreography + Direction - ANA MARÍA ALVAREZ
in collaboration with
CONTRA-TIEMPO Dancers
EDGAR AGUIRRE
JANNET GALDAMEZ
JASMINE STANLEY
East Yard Members Featured in Aire Libre
JESSICA ANTONIO-ULLOA
HONEY BIZARRO
DIMAS DONIS
GUADALUPE VALDOVINOS and her son THADDEUS DIAZ
East Yard Members who gave oral history interviews and/or participated in personal narrative writing workshops
KIMBERLY AMAYA
JESSICA ANTONIO-ULLOA
HONEY BIZARRO
DIMAS DONIS
JACKIE ESPINOZA
ANDREA LUNA
DIEGO MAYEN
ALBERTO MONTES
CARINA SANCHEZ
GUADALUPE VALDOVINOS
Oral History Interviewer of EYCEJ members - ERIN COONEY
Leader of Personal Narrative Writing Workshop with EYCEJ members - ROCÍO CARLOS
Subtitle Translations (Spanish-English/English-Spanish) - LAURA CORTEZ
Research - ERIN COONEY, RUTH LEE, and JOY YANG
Oral History Transcription - RUTH LEE and IAN WANG
Aire Libre Project Website Design - RUTH LEE
News footage courtesy of
ALERTCALIFORNIA/UCSD, via KTLA 5 NEWS (January 7, 2025)
ASSOCIATED PRESS (January 10, 2025)
FOX 11 LOS ANGELES (January 7, 2025)
Special thanks to
EAST YARD COMMUNITIES FOR ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE (EYCEJ)
MARK! LOPEZ, EYCEJ’s Eastside Community Organizer & Special Projects Coordinator
GUADALUPE VALDOVINOS, EYCEJ’s Operations Director.
Special thanks to
CONTRA-TIEMPO ACTIVIST DANCE THEATER
ANA MARÍA ALVAREZ, Founding Artistic Director
JANNET GALDAMEZ, Company Member & Programming/Rehearsal Director