around my way: Good art for a good cause

More good art for a good cause here in the Anacostia Arts District! read below:

Stories and Migrations: Concurrent Exhibitions Raise Awareness and Funds Photography by  Antoine Sanfuentes and Ann Curry of NBC and Deborah Terry of International Lifeline Fund.

Friday January 22nd at 7pm marks the opening at Honfleur Gallery of
Stories, an exhibit of photographic stories created by three artists to
help raise awareness and funds for relief efforts in  African nations.
Stories features documentary photography created by Antoine Sanfuentes in
a 2008 visit to East Goma with NBC’s Ann Curry covering topics such as
children soldiers of Africa, education and rape.  Works by Ann Curry will
be presented from the same trip, alongside Deborah Terry’s images of
Sudanese and Ugandan refugees and conflict victims as well as multimedia
presentations of the grassroots work done by International Lifeline Fund.
Proceeds from this exhibition and the opening night fundraiser will go to
support International Lifeline Fund.

Concurrently, Terry will be exhibiting at The Gallery at Vivid Solutions,
also in Historic Anacostia, with a solo exhibition entitled Migrations,
illuminating the lives of two disparate groups at odds in the Darfur
conflict;  nomadic herders known as Janjaweed, and the refugees displaced
by them.

About the Artists:
Antoine Sanfuentes is an Emmy award wining producer and the Deputy Bureau Chief for NBC news in Washington, DC.  He has traveled extensively with Today show’s Ann Curry in Africa, several times to Darfur.  In February
2008, Sanfuentes and Curry traveled to war-torn Eastern Congo to report on
the situation there. Over the course of a week in and around Goma, Congo
the team covered the atrocities and the perpetrators of a conflict that
has claimed more lives than in World War II.  Sanfuentes’ pictures
document that journey including a visit to a so called “rape hospital”
where entire wards are dedicated to survivors of brutal rapes. An
interview with Rebel commander General Nkunda who now sits in a jail cell
in Rwanda for crimes his forces committed against the Congolese and
finally, the youngest casualties of this conflict, the children. The team
visited UNICEF’s secluded child soldier rehabilitation center.

Deborah Terry is the Vice President and Creative Director of International
Lifeline Fund, based in Washington DC. In 2005, she helped found ILF with
her partner Daniel Wolf in memory of his father, the late Professor George
Wolff.  Rising from humble beginnings in Washington DC, Terry started
shooting photography in the late 1980’s. She moved to New York to pursue a
career in fashion photography. From fashion, she expanded her creative
ability to music photography, working for various records labels in NYC.
More recently she has turned to a more personally fulfilling undertaking,
focusing on the challenge of uncovering the desperate plight of refugees
and other impoverished peoples while capturing the simplicity and grace of
their everyday life.  Her development work dovetails with her photography
as she sheds light on some of the least known issues and challenges of
these conflict zones.

The International Lifeline Fund
is a not for profit international relief
and development organization dedicated to water & sanitation issues,
microenterprise and fuel efficient technologies.  “The International
Lifeline Fund seeks to reduce human misery and environmental destruction
in the lesser developed world through programs and activities that
generate the greatest possible impact at the lowest possible cost.”

Honfleur Gallery is a contemporary art space located in the Historic
Anacostia. Opened in 2007, it maintains a rigorous schedule of exhibitions
and programming that focuses on cutting edge contemporary exhibitions by
living artists from the USA and abroad.

The Gallery at Vivid Solutions
is a photography and digital arts
exhibition space that is dedicated to showcasing and supporting
established contemporary artists as well as aspiring local Washington,
D.C. talents.

ARCH Development Corporation
Both galleries are projects of the ARCH Development Corporation whose
mission is to act as a catalyst for cultural revitalization, primarily in
the historic Anacostia neighborhood by creating a home for arts & artists,
cultural organizations, and compatible businesses as a means to fulfill
its objectives of community-based economic development and sustainable
living neighborhoods.

For further inquiries, please contact Briony Evans Hynson, Creative
Director at 202-536-8994 or arts@archdc.org

Honfleur Gallery
1227 Good Hope Road SE
Washington DC 20020
www.honfleurgallery.com

The Gallery at Vivid Solutions
2208 Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE
Washington DC 20020
www.vividsolutionsdc.com

around my way:Anacostia Foto Week Events: Nov 7- 14!!!

Fotoweek Anacostia: November 7th - November 14th
Fotoweek Anacostia: November 7th - November 14th

Honfleur Fotoweek Poster 2009

Click either the image or the link for more info

Tickets Still Available! Silent Auction + Reception hosted by Senator Al and Franni Franken to celebrate the kick-off of DCFotoWeek in Anacostia and the opening of Owen Franken : A Photography Retrospective. The Senator will be drawing his famous free-hand map of the US to be auctioned off during the event. Tickets are $25 – email bferraro@archdc.org or call 202-365-8392.

A preview of Owen Franken’s, “A Photography Retrospective” at The Gallery at Vivid Solutions is free and will open at 6:30 pm.

Saturday, November 7 – Saturday, November 14: (all openings at 7PM on the 7th)

Honfleur Gallery, 1241 Good Hope Road SE

Women Photojournalists of Washington: Including works by Astrid Riecken, Allison Shelley, Abby Greenawalt, Ashely Twiggs, Algerina Perna, Amanda Lucidon, Andrea Bruce, Carol Guzy, Gabriela Bulisova, Jamie Rose, Katie Falkenberg, Laura Pohl, Melina Mara, Sarah L. Voisin, and Yanina Manolova.

Alternative Art Space, 2200 MLK Ave SE

BK Adams’ and Steven M. Cummings’ I AM ART: Presenting an experimental installation with interactive components.

Gallery at Vivid Solutions, 2208 MLK Ave SE

Owen Franken, A Photography Retrospective: Owen has traveled to over 100 countries and covered everything from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the culture of food and wine in his home city of Paris.

This is a great excuse to check out Anacostia for the first or the hundredth time. Come on over!

(text courtesy of And Now, Anacostia)

thinking of….

“finally, I come to believe in loss as a way of knowing.”
-Sekou Sundiata from “Open heart”

For some reason on these rainy days
I feel a loss i cannot easily assign
words to -when i feel loss i turn
to poetry and more often than not
when I think poetry and loss
I think of Sekou Sundiata…
that’s all i have to say about that

around my way: Big Chair Coffee sighting

Big Chair Coffee on MLK is getting closer to opening... penda... on Twitpic

photo courtesy of http://twitpic.com/g4dvh
Almost a year ago now my parents and I were thinking about opening a coffeeshop franchise (GreenBerry’s) in River East preferably in downtown Anacostia, we have not given up on the idea but the timing just was not right for that type of venture for us.
Shortly after we shelved the idea i was happy to hear that another enterprising business person is moving forward with plans to open Big Chair Coffee (pictured above) at 2122 MLK Ave. Despite not being the first to the River East market with a coffeeshop/cafe, i am super excited about this and provided that the service and offerings are up to par, i will be supporting it regularly in fact it may become my office away from the office.

check out some other pics from the And Now, Anacostia blog