Hispanic Cultural Society and Library of Congrss present Jonathan B. French’s “Unexpected Faces in Unexpected Places” Tuesday October 12th at Noon- 1pm in the Pickford Theatre
DC:POETRY: Praise for Tony Medina’s “My Old Man Was Always On the Lam”
Please check out Tony Medina’s (friend and mentor) latest collection of poems My Old Man Was Always On The Lam.
Happy Birthday Trane (Repost from Sept 23, 2008)
Anyone who knows me how important John Coltrane is to me. On his birthday I am always pushed to think about what it means to be an artist and how to “be a force for good”.
Rather than try to wax further poetic about it I am going to link you to a little blog i wrote and to a website that published one of my poems about Trane.
I hope it is inspiring….
Renée Stout: The House of Chance and Mischief, Sept. 11 – Oct. 30, 2010
Renée Stout, Party at the House of Chance and Mischief, 2010, acrylic on panel, 30” x 24”
Renée Stout: The House of Chance and Mischief
September 11 – October 30, 2010
Washington DC – Hemphill opens Renée Stout: The House of Chance and Mischief on Saturday, September 11, 2010, with a public reception from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. The exhibition will remain on view through October 30, 2010.
In recent years, the contemporary art audience has often appeared more interested in opening receptions and art parties than in looking at art. But, of course, some parties are more meaningful than others. Renée Stout’s exhibition, The House of Chance and Mischief, is that party.
The House of Chance and Mischief is based on a recurring dream of Renée Stout’s, in which she is walking through a familiar house and suddenly encounters a door that leads to new and mysterious rooms. Stout understands the house of her dream to be a metaphor for the self, and the newly revealed rooms to represent an expanding awareness of a world inside and outside of that self.
Her dream, the challenges of friendship and family, and current events comprise the content of Stout’s fourth exhibition at Hemphill. The show is a cacophonous party where guests peer into the lives of the characters developed throughout Stout’s oeuvre. She presents a body of expertly rendered images and carefully manipulated objects, creating various tableaux that also speak as a personal narrative. Her work blends cultural heritage, personal mythology, and social responsibility from the perspective of an African-American woman. Utilizing imagery from African traditions, popular culture, and personal politics, she delineates pathways among cultures, communities, and individuals. Stout’s open creative process continually introduces new possibilities for her role as observer, trickster, healer, and artist.
In April 2010, the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA, awarded Renée Stout the David C. Driskell Prize, which recognizes Stout’s original and important contribution to the field of African-American art. Please join us to congratulate Renée and to party in The House of Chance and Mischief.
Gallery Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. and by appointment
On September 16, 2010, at 2:00 p.m., Renée Stout will participate in the panel discussion Performance in/of Contemporary African American Art, with Jefferson Pinder and Kevin Cole, moderated by Dr. Laurie Frederick Meer. This event is part of the Performing Race in African American Visual Culture Symposium, September 15 – 16, organized by Yale University and the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora (www.driskellcenter.umd.edu).
Graywolf Press and CAS51 invite you to join us as we celebrate the publication of Skin, Inc.
Thomas Sayers Ellis was born and raised in Washington, D.C. His previous poetry collection, The Maverick Room, was awarded the John C. Zacharis First Book Award. Ellis teaches at Sarah Lawrence College and in the Lesley University low-residency MFA program, and he is a faculty member of Cave Canem. A photographer and poet, he currently divides his time between Brooklyn, New York, and Washington, D.C.
Everywhere With Roy Lewis events…
Please join us for the final two public programs for Everywhere With Roy Lewis
On Exhibit through Saturday, September 11, 2010 at PGAAMCC’s Gallery 110
Gallery Hours: Tuesday-Saturday 10am-6pm &
Thursdays 10am-7pm
As We See It: A Conversation with Black Photographers
Thursday, August 26, 7-9pm
and
Preserving Your Family’s Photographic Legacy
Thursday, September 2, 6-8pm
Please RSVP!
Parking is limited. Street Parking Available. Additional Parking available at the Bunker Hill Fire Station, 3716 Rhode Island Avenue, Brentwood, MD 20722— cross the street and walk 1 ½ blocks north to the Gateway Arts Center.
Art openings this Friday July 30: News from the Anacostia Arts District: Honfleur, Vivid and Arch Openings
Click on the image to zoom inMontreal Musings
So I just came back from my first visit to Montreal and I must say that I loved it…if it wasn’t so damn cold up there most of the year, I think I definitely could live there…anyway…
I was fortunate enough to be there during the International Jazz Festival, it was an amazing experience to say the least. Although I loved the city and a few of the many cultural and culinary delights that i was able to experience while I was there, I must admit that the We Want Miles exhibit at theMusée des beaux-arts de Montréal was the highlight of my trip. A testament to the quality of this exhibit I think is in its ability to engaging and hold the interest of even a non “jazz head”, my girlfriend. I don’t want to spoil it for those of you who are already planning on going up there to check it out, so I am not going to say too much about it, because that is not really the point of this post. i will simply say that it is definitely one the best museum experiences that I have ever had and I did not know anything about Miles Davis before the exhibit I would definitely feel like I got not only an education on Miles Davis, but an Introduction to American Music and Culture…”bringing me closer to the point (rock dis funky joint)”..a few days ago i was reading Jazz Times at B&N and on the last page, Nat Hentoff had a piece about the We Want Miles exhibit.
Hentoff asks the question as to why jazz is not treated as “a fine art in any of the other museums around the country (the U.S.).” Hentoff also begs the question why events and programming beyond musical concerts have yet to take place in our great museums, such as MoMA and the like.
This is a serious question… Although Hentoff does not directly raise the question, I think he suggests enough such that this reader would further question why the American Fine Art establishment have not allowed the jazz and its practitioners to move out frame of entertainer and into being aesthetes or experts. Even here in DC, we see how jazz is used to set the mood, to be background or maybe even to give the appearance of intellectual depth, inclusive or progressive thinking, yet no serious engagement of the artform or the life of its practitioners beyond the realm of entertainer.
It is my hope that Nathalie Bondil will take up Hentoff on his challenge to invite museum directors from the United States up to Montreal to show them how it’s done.
check out Hentoff’s article here
around my way: art galleries
We have just as many art galleries in Anacostia as they do on H Street NE (and we have had them for a while). Come check us out too, look here.
get educated..Cornel West Theory
Filmed by Jati Lindsay
Directed by DJ UNDERDOG
Management Edward G. Robinson
etc