Nia Andrews at TreePeople (photo by Adam Corey Thomas)
Every month we gather with our local heroic environmental stewards of TreePeople to love on live music and hot tea along a ridge trail of the Santa Monica Mountains. Once we’ve held time together to share in meaningful art, warm tea, (sometimes) a sunset, and good conversation, TreePeople’s eco educators then split us into three different hiking groups for peoples of all ages and abilities to learn more about the native ecology and history of these mountains.
For our first moonlight hike of the spring we’re trying something very new and exciting… our first ever quadraphonic performance. Marco Bárcena, current councilmember and former Mayor of Bell Gardens, will be joining us in the round at Coldwater Canyon Park for an immersive and improvisatory quad performance for synthesizer. Maybe you’ve seen his surprise cameo in a differentchairs video that went viral, seen him at the skatepark, marched against ICE with him, or been to one of his many outdoor concerts in Ford Park, and since learning about his community activism and civic advocacy we’ve been kind of obsessed.
Marco created "La Soñadora", a virtual quadraphonic modular synthesizer to create live soundscapes for Atención Plena's meditations, an outdoor series he began in 2023. La Soñadora consists of over 200 interconnected sound modules used to generate sounds alongside field recordings of Ojai, San Pedro Friendship Bell, Los Angeles/Rio Hondo Rivers, and native percussion instruments. Marco morphs and manipulates these sounds through 4 independently modulated panners resulting in an immersive surround sound experience that he’s bringing to TreePeople to share with us. Despite La Soñadora's complex architecture, it was inspired by minimalist instruments such as "singing" or quartz bowls, bells, flutes, and sounds of fire, water, wind, and nature.
It’s a privilege and an honor to invite Marco to this month’s Friday Night Moonlight Hike, please keep up with all the inspiring civic and community work he does in Bell Gardens, and as always… bring a blanket, pour some tea, and bliss in.
Check-in begins at 6:30pm, music shortly after 7pm, and we split into our hiking groups promptly at 8pm. Parking is limited so we ask that you please rsvp with us in advance.
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Marco Bárcena is a Mexican electronic music artist from Bell Gardens and founder of Atención Plena, a group that has collaborated with artists and meditation teachers to offer outdoor meditations since 2023.
Marco graduated from UC Berkeley and was twice Mayor of the City of Bell Gardens where he championed rent stabilization, increased arts programming, and built parks and recreation facilities for underserved immigrant communities. Marco believes in the democratization of sound design tools and supports open source software and free education for all.
Born in 1973 from the hopes and dreams of a teenager, TreePeople is now one of the largest environmental organizations headquartered in Southern California.
They have inspired, engaged, and supported more than 3 million people to take action for our environment by planting and caring for more than 3 million trees in our local forests, mountains, parks, and our neighborhoods. Through on-the-ground research and educational programs, TreePeople shares knowledge with policymakers, students, educators, and communities around the world.
After fires burn, TreePeople reforests. When schools are covered in concrete, TreePeople creates green schoolyards. When communities experience food insecurity, TreePeople distributes fruit trees. When California is drought-stricken, TreePeople designs solutions to capture rainwater. As the world faces increasing threats from a more hostile climate, TreePeople helps create actionable solutions.