BARRIO INDEPENDENT PRODUCTIONS (BIP)
About
Barrio Independent Productions is a Not-for-Profit Corporation/501(C) 3) dedicated to presenting multi-media arts and cultural-events serving as a cultural bridge between all genres of artistic expression that reflect the traditions and improve the values of our Caribbean and Latin communities.
BIP works to promote a deeper understanding of cultural pride by offering opportunities to experience artistic bilingual productions to Spanish speakers and other audiences to promote diversity.
As writers, directors and actors BIP’s members create and produce original content, as well as the development and production of plays and films written by emerging Latin playwrights and filmmakers. Our work is created through a Latinx and Caribbean lens; Spanish and English share the stage because that’s how our audiences live.
Dramaturgically on our theatrical and films productions, we center mental health, migration, labor, gender, and identity—naming systems that shape our lives and inviting audiences to confront uncomfortable truths. Programming turns these values into action.
Frenzy Fest, our flagship, amplifies underrepresented independent theater-makers and indie filmmakers while pairing performances with clinician-led talkbacks, reducing stigma and strengthening community care.
BIP also trains, mentors and hires youth Latin crew with intention of educating and inspiring a new generation of creative. Our Elders’ Acting Workshop preserves cultural memory, combats isolation, and models resilience.
Although BIP was formally registered in 2020, BIP began producing and presenting artistic and cultural events as a group in 2017.
Programs
Frenzy Fest & Frenzy Short Film Fest Since 2019
Frenzy-Fest, our main annual project, the first psychological theatrical-cinema festival in East Harlem, is a bilingual competitive festival focusing on social and psychological vulnerabilities serving to increase awareness and empathy about the stigma of mental health. The selected plays must reflect some form of a “Frenzy” episode.
Elder Workshops Program since 2018 / Reactivation of Memory Through Art Workshops" Acting, Dance and Sing
This program is specifically designed with its main focus on the development of the participant’s capacities making use of the techniques of representative art. The seniors encouraged to reminisce about their past years, reflect on accomplishments, as well as unrequited dreams. Through theatrical games, singing songs and dancing, that serve as an integrating and disinhibiting agent, we will gradually enter the world of the imaginary, where each student will walk at their own pace within the group context while they prepare to live the experience of being on the stage achieving perhaps a lifelong dream… to be able to sing or dance or act like an artist. At the end of the period, some years the final goal it’s to make a Showcase in a theater, fashion show with costumes designed by the elders and other years a short film with the seniors as protagonists.
Social & Cultural Event
Our community is extremely important. Part of our social commitment is to include free educational, social, and cultural-artistic events in our programming, as well as fundraising events to support the community during times of crisis. Some examples of this are: book presentations, forums, educational talks on mental health and theater, online screenings of documentaries and films, etc.
Theater & Cinema Productions
BIP’s aesthetic with Re-imagined classics and contemporary works, reclaim the canon by placing Caribbean and Latinx experiences at the core of history.
Our theatrical productions and filming are clear, brave, and bilingual. We build from real life using realistic theater, then lift select moments with a light touch of magical realism—heightened, never escapist. We treat the stage like a public forum: our stories are tools for change; our style is a strategy, and inclusion is practice, not promise.
This is how programming meets mission: we change who tells the story, who the story is about, and who the story is for. Our approach is community-first and direct—we widen the circle so more Latinx voices are seen and heard, then weave learning into powerful performances through talkbacks, partnerships, and narratives that reveal structural inequities. We don’t lecture; we stage. And through that staging, we move audiences—shifting what they know, feel, and do.
We measure success by artistic excellence and impact: expanded access, artist advancement (credits, touring, remakes), and durable partnerships (schools, senior centers, local businesses & agencies). The result is a resilient platform where artistic rigor and community healing reinforce each other—pushing Caribbean and Latinx narratives from the margins to the center of New York’s independent theatrical culture, bilingually, boldly, and with purpose.