Category: news

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from my boy Gabe.. Support Youth and Oak Hill

Please join us Wednesday, December 10th for a poetry reading by youth at Oak Hill.

From 5 to 6pm next Wednesday, poets will share their original work with invited guests. This will be a unique and exciting opportunity to hear directly from incarcerated DC youth who have a lot to say, and a lot of insight into the world around them.

Those interested should RSVP to Gabriel at gfeldman@seeforever.org, so that their names can be put on the security clearance list. SPACE is LIMITED, so please RSVP soon if interested, and only if you really think you can make it.

Again, it’s Wednesday, December 10th from 5-6pm at Oak Hill Youth Center (Laurel, Maryland–about 30 minutes from DC.) Details will follow for those who RSVP. There are some very powerful pieces being read, and you won’t regret making the trip!

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check this artist: Barkley L. Hendricks

hendricks

First of all big ups to Google Reader because without it I would have never found out about this artist. I was reading John Keene’s blog J’s Theater and the a painting in his post caught my attention because it looked like a Kehinde Wiley ( I won’t link him, there is plenty of info out there about himyou can find it) , but it was actually a portrait done by Barkley L. Hendricks check out more of his work here . The similarities are pretty striking… check out the Fela portrait here to see how striking the similarities are; I like how keene put it on his blog. He said that “His (Hendricks) DNA is all up in Wiley’s and others’ work. ” Apparentely, The Studio Musuem after (w)rapping the Kehinde Wiley show put up Barkley L. Hendricks show and it will be up through March 15, 2009, get more info here

Big ups all the way around to Google Reader, John Keene for posting to J’s Theater, Sarah Ball for her article Battle of the Brushes of Urban Portraiture or Urban Outfitters , and the curators at the The Studio Museum of Harlem for their research in finding and showing Barkley L Hendricks.

Sources for this post.

http://jstheater.blogspot.com/

http://www.newsweek.com/id/169158

http://nasher.duke.edu/galleries/main_gallery/?cat=1&offset=0&pic_id=1

http://www.studiomuseum.org/barkley-l-hendricks-birth-of-the-cool/

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/barkley_l_hendricks/index.html

http://www.newsweek.com/id/169158

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RIP Lawrence Wheatley

RIP Lawrence Wheatley, Jazz Pianist
RIP Lawrence Wheatley, Jazz Pianist

Sometimes I feel like “going fishing,”

Like life is just a can of worms.

A lonely musician, sitting here wishin’

You’d listen, but on my own terms.

—Lawrence P. Wheatley

Looking in The Post this afternoon I was a little blown to hear about the passing Jazz Pianist, Lawrence Wheatley. I only recall having heard him play once and before i could a chance to rap to him he had gotten up from the piano and walked out the door.

According to this article he apparently was a poet and called himself the “Bard of Bebop.” I would really have loved to talk to him about the INTERSECTION of jazz and poetry and how he negotiated  that INTERSECTION in his work, if at all.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/19/AR2008111903942.html

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/display.php?id=12577

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/display.php?id=12577

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breath of life+Tomasz Stanko

Breath of Life: a conversation about black music, a blog by Kalamu and Mtume ya Salaam did this really awesome piece on this Polish trumpet player that I have been digging on for quite sometime now, Tomasz Stanko.

I am not going to say to much more about it, but i think the following quotes speak volumes not only about the reach, influence and impact of African American culture in general, but jazz in particular.
go over to Breath of Life and read the piece and go out pick up some of Stanko’s music…you won’t be disappointed. While you are over there check out the archives, these brothers are having some really important and sharp convo about not just music by people of African descent but music in general.

The message was freedom. For me, as a Polish who was living in Communist country jazz was synonym of Western culture, of freedom, of this different style of life.
—Tomasz Stanko

I find all attempts to confront and to be against inherited reality to be natural ones and the desirable ones. It’s life. To explore and to learn you can start from any point, it could be as well here and now. If you like jazz you don’t necessary need to know what was in the past, which includes my music. It all depends on one thing – the sensibility of he listener.


Myself, I’ve always been a mix of two extremes:

– Obsession for the innovation

– Love for classically understand concept of tradition and “beauty”. By “beauty” I mean the same approach and esthetics we find in Balthus’ paintings.


I’ve never distinguished between my desire for advance which guided my life and my love of mainstream and modal jazz of Trane and Miles or Chet Baker’s moods. I’ve always listened to diverse music: from Nancy Wilson to Brazilian samba to Keith Jarrett. My sound was inspired by very traditional trumpeter Buck Clayton, who has never played anything close to modern jazz but I was able to incorporate his colors, ambiance and his unique “dirty sound” into my own vocabulary. Free jazz has always been for me a philosophy of life, my way of life. It’s something which determines my personality and who I am; not necessarily what music I play. I love Cecil Taylor stuff but Taylor’s inspirations have never precluded me from listening to say, pop music. After all jazz is primary about the tolerance.
—Tomasz Stanko

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as if…

Some of us needed another reason to vote for Barack Obama…Brother E (Ethelbert Miller author of E-Notes), sent me a note today about the Presidential Candidates Policies on the Arts.
Although i don’t necessary look to leaders on this scale to really be advocates for the arts, i do think it is significant when an elected official (stolen, presumptive or otherwise) takes a position , even if it is just in rhetoric. I think just hearing it said can on that kind of platform can reinvigorate local arts communities, and give us (artists and culture workers) the leverage we need to lean on our local governments….
Anyway enough, blahblah from me read this, and forward

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RIP Dr. Barbara Ann Teer: 1937-2008 – Founder of National Black Theatre

Rest In Peace Dr. Barbara Ann Teer 1937 -2008

courtesy of UPTOWNflavor

Dr. Barbara Ann Teer, Founder and visionary of the National Black Theatre Inc, made her transition peacefully at home Monday, July 21, 2008 .
Dr. Teer was an icon in the healing art of Black Theatre. Leaving behind a lucrative show business career in 1967, she came to Harlem in 1968 and founded the National Black Theatre (NBT). This began a 40-year passion that changed the cultural landscape of the theatrical world. She created a new cultural art form by blending cultural appreciation, performing arts and community advocacy.
In 1983, she expanded that vision with the purchase of a 64,000 sq ft building located at 125 Street & Fifth Avenue. There she created a thriving cultural and business complex housing the largest New Sacred Yoruba Art collection in the western hemisphere. Through a commitment to her vision and purpose, the National Black Theatre is a world-class institution that inspires cultural transformation, social change, human re-development, historic relevance, and futuristic innovation. Throughout her life, she was always on the cutting edge as the world paced one step behind her trail blazing vision and provocative stage productions.
As a former dancer, actress, producer, director, writer, cultural entrepreneur, and more recently officially an African Chieftain, she has won countless awards and received numerous Honorary Doctorate Degrees. However, what mattered most to her was spiritual, self-empowerment. She was known for providing a cultural incubator and training forum for artists in all walks of life. Her commitment through the National Black Theater was to offer an alternative learning environment where she attracted people from around the world whose work she impacted and showcased.
Dr. Barbara Ann Teer loved Harlem and took a stand for it against the odds. As much as she loved Harlem, she loved her birth home, East St. Louis , Illinois . Dr. Teer leaves in spirit and love two children: Sade and Michael Lythcott and a host of long-term staff, friends and family.
Owens Funeral Home will host her transition in New York . She will be released in perpetuity when returned to her home town for her interment with her family who preceded her.
In her own words: “The only thing you can take to the bank is love.”
Love is the currency, the vibratory frequency that Dr. Teer’s spirit leaves for us to continue. She’s given the world her legacy as a treasure chest of authentic, unprecedented achievements that will stand forever as a tribute to her vision and tireless work. Now and forever more, her legacy and love will live on to impact generations to come.