Anya M. Wassenberg's Blog: Art & Culture Maven, page 120
December 6, 2014
A Toronto Holiday Tradition: Theatre Columbus Presents The Dog & The Angel December 11 to 30 2014
From a media release:
The Dog & The Angel by Martha Ross,
presented by Theatre Columbus
December 11 - 30, 2014
Showtime 7:30pm
Evergreen Brick Works - Toronto
The tradition of outdoor theatre returns this season with The Dog & the Angel by Martha Ross, writer of the Multi Dora Award-nominated The Story. Featuring: Leah Cherniak, Paul Rainville, Michael Rinaldi, Courtenay Stevens, Jennifer Villaverde & Connie Wang
Tickets & Show Schedule
Directions & Shuttle Schedule
A play about one family’s annual holiday party run amok; the dog is in a coma, the christmas tree angel is missing and the litigious neighbours threaten to crash the party. Featuring an all star cast, six local choirs and George, the golden doodle.
Written by Martha Ross
Directed by Jennifer Brewin
Music Direction by John Millard
THE TRADITION
Each year, Theatre Columbus produces an outdoor processional plays at Toronto’s Evergreen Brick Works during the December holidays.
These winter shows explore the role of myths and fables in modern life. Our themes are light and darkness, loneliness and community. We visit old traditions and aim to create news ones, inspired by and about contemporary life. Winter theatre is a combination of cross-country skiing, tobogganing, the sleigh ride, and a hockey game. It is about moving and being together; we march into the darkness and generate light.
Theatre Columbus introduced outdoor winter theatre to Toronto in 2011, at the Evergreen Brick Works. Jennifer had directed, written or produced 12 such shows at the Caravan and for Peter Hinton’s inaugural season at the NAC. Our first show in Toronto was Martha Ross’s The Story, which premiered at the Caravan. It drew strong audiences and garnered great reviews and six Dora nominations, including one award for directing. The Brick Works invited us to present winter shows for the next four years. They provide rehearsal, construction and performance space, as well as limited advertising, and a home-base for the winter show.
THE EXPERIENCE
•Show begins at 7:30pm
•Running time is one hour
•Audiences travel 1km over uneven terrain
•Hot chocolate for sale before the show
•Plenty of bon fires throughout the show
•Heated washrooms are on site
Important Tips!
•Dress warmly, no kidding!
•Wear suitable boots for wet and cold
•Thick socks!
•A good hat that covers the ears
•In the event of rain, the show will be performed indoors
VIDEO: A short story about Theatre Columbus' winter theatre tradition at Toronto's Evergreen Brick Works. Filmed during a performance of Haley McGee's play, "Weather the Weather" in December 2013
The Dog & The Angel by Martha Ross,
presented by Theatre Columbus
December 11 - 30, 2014
Showtime 7:30pm
Evergreen Brick Works - Toronto
The tradition of outdoor theatre returns this season with The Dog & the Angel by Martha Ross, writer of the Multi Dora Award-nominated The Story. Featuring: Leah Cherniak, Paul Rainville, Michael Rinaldi, Courtenay Stevens, Jennifer Villaverde & Connie Wang
Tickets & Show Schedule
Directions & Shuttle Schedule
A play about one family’s annual holiday party run amok; the dog is in a coma, the christmas tree angel is missing and the litigious neighbours threaten to crash the party. Featuring an all star cast, six local choirs and George, the golden doodle.
Written by Martha Ross
Directed by Jennifer Brewin
Music Direction by John Millard
THE TRADITION
Each year, Theatre Columbus produces an outdoor processional plays at Toronto’s Evergreen Brick Works during the December holidays.
These winter shows explore the role of myths and fables in modern life. Our themes are light and darkness, loneliness and community. We visit old traditions and aim to create news ones, inspired by and about contemporary life. Winter theatre is a combination of cross-country skiing, tobogganing, the sleigh ride, and a hockey game. It is about moving and being together; we march into the darkness and generate light.
Theatre Columbus introduced outdoor winter theatre to Toronto in 2011, at the Evergreen Brick Works. Jennifer had directed, written or produced 12 such shows at the Caravan and for Peter Hinton’s inaugural season at the NAC. Our first show in Toronto was Martha Ross’s The Story, which premiered at the Caravan. It drew strong audiences and garnered great reviews and six Dora nominations, including one award for directing. The Brick Works invited us to present winter shows for the next four years. They provide rehearsal, construction and performance space, as well as limited advertising, and a home-base for the winter show.
THE EXPERIENCE
•Show begins at 7:30pm•Running time is one hour
•Audiences travel 1km over uneven terrain
•Hot chocolate for sale before the show
•Plenty of bon fires throughout the show
•Heated washrooms are on site
Important Tips!
•Dress warmly, no kidding!
•Wear suitable boots for wet and cold
•Thick socks!
•A good hat that covers the ears
•In the event of rain, the show will be performed indoors
VIDEO: A short story about Theatre Columbus' winter theatre tradition at Toronto's Evergreen Brick Works. Filmed during a performance of Haley McGee's play, "Weather the Weather" in December 2013
November 30, 2014
Tix on Sale Now: Sony Centre For The Performing Arts presents the Return of Louise Lecavalier May 29 & 30 2015
From a media release:
Sony Centre For The Performing Arts presents
the Triumphant Return of
Louise Lecavalier in
SO BLUE
After a sold-out run at last summer’s Luminato Festival
Tickets On Sale Now!
Two Performances Only May 29 & 30, 2015
“Lecavalier is arguably Canada’s foremost female contemporary dancer. Now she shows herself to be a formidable choreographer as well.” Montreal Gazette
TORONTO - The Sony Centre For The Performing Arts is proud to present the return of SO BLUE, choreographed and performed by Louise Lecavalier, joined by Frédéric Tavernini after a highly acclaimed and sold-out run at the Fleck Dance Theatre last summer.
Physically, Louise Lecavalier is an arresting composite of David Bowie and Tilda Swinton, and in the world of contemporary dance, she is as iconic as both. The Montréal native began her career at 18 with Le Groupe Nouvelle Aire, where she met choreographer Édouard Lock. With Lecavalier as his main muse, Lock created La La La Human Steps. Many of the troupe’s seminal works— including Human Sex, New Demons and 2—were defined by her remarkable power and presence. Lecavalier also figured prominently in Lock’s collaborations with Frank Zappa and, fittingly, Bowie with whom she performed a duet at a benefit for the London Institute of Contemporary Art.
SO BLUE, first presented in Düsseldorf in late 2012, marks her volcanic emergence as a choreographer.
The first 30-minutes of SO BLUE features Lecavalier in a perilous solo with a vibrant, swirling soundtrack composed by Turkish-born Montrealer Mercan Dede. Joined by Frédéric Tavernini for the second half, their raw, shared energy reaches dizzying heights.
“An intoxicating marriage of performance brilliance, ritual and feverish musical push . . . by the end of it we are all in a transcendent state together. There are few performers who can take an audience on this kind of journey – Lecavalier has proved over and over again, and she does once more with So Blue, that she is one of them.” The Dance Current
Lecavalier joined La La La Human Steps in 1981 to perform in Oranges becoming and remaining the face of the company until 1999. In 1985, Lecavalier was the first Canadian artist to win a Bessie (Dance and Performance) Award in New York. In 1999, Lecavalier was the first recipient of the Jean A. Chalmers Award, as well as the inaugural Prix de la danse in Montreal in 2011.
In March 2014 Lecavalier’s company, Fou Glorieux, was awarded the 29th Grand Prix du Conseil des arts de Montréal, recognizing the achievement of Lecavalier as an ambassadress for Montreal’s artistic vitality, as well as for her legendary contribution to contemporary dance.
Lecavalier was also awarded the highest distinction in the realm of performing arts in Canada as one of 2014’s winners of the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards, and was praised as “one of this country’s most admired and respected contemporary dancers, who continues to dazzle the public and expand the boundaries of her art.”
Sony Centre For The Performing Arts presents
SO BLUE
Choreography by Louise Lecavalier
Performed by Louise Lecavalier and Frédéric Tavernini
May 29 & 30, 2015 @ 8pm
BLUMA APPEL THEATRE
St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, 27 Front Street East
All Tickets $75 (Ticket prices do not include service and delivery fees)
Tickets can be can be purchased in person at the Sony Centre Box Office,
1 Front Street East, over the phone at 1-855-872-SONY (7669) or online at www.sonycentre.ca
Sony Centre For The Performing Arts presents
the Triumphant Return of
Louise Lecavalier in
SO BLUE
After a sold-out run at last summer’s Luminato Festival
Tickets On Sale Now!
Two Performances Only May 29 & 30, 2015
“Lecavalier is arguably Canada’s foremost female contemporary dancer. Now she shows herself to be a formidable choreographer as well.” Montreal Gazette
TORONTO - The Sony Centre For The Performing Arts is proud to present the return of SO BLUE, choreographed and performed by Louise Lecavalier, joined by Frédéric Tavernini after a highly acclaimed and sold-out run at the Fleck Dance Theatre last summer.
Physically, Louise Lecavalier is an arresting composite of David Bowie and Tilda Swinton, and in the world of contemporary dance, she is as iconic as both. The Montréal native began her career at 18 with Le Groupe Nouvelle Aire, where she met choreographer Édouard Lock. With Lecavalier as his main muse, Lock created La La La Human Steps. Many of the troupe’s seminal works— including Human Sex, New Demons and 2—were defined by her remarkable power and presence. Lecavalier also figured prominently in Lock’s collaborations with Frank Zappa and, fittingly, Bowie with whom she performed a duet at a benefit for the London Institute of Contemporary Art.SO BLUE, first presented in Düsseldorf in late 2012, marks her volcanic emergence as a choreographer.
The first 30-minutes of SO BLUE features Lecavalier in a perilous solo with a vibrant, swirling soundtrack composed by Turkish-born Montrealer Mercan Dede. Joined by Frédéric Tavernini for the second half, their raw, shared energy reaches dizzying heights.
“An intoxicating marriage of performance brilliance, ritual and feverish musical push . . . by the end of it we are all in a transcendent state together. There are few performers who can take an audience on this kind of journey – Lecavalier has proved over and over again, and she does once more with So Blue, that she is one of them.” The Dance Current
Lecavalier joined La La La Human Steps in 1981 to perform in Oranges becoming and remaining the face of the company until 1999. In 1985, Lecavalier was the first Canadian artist to win a Bessie (Dance and Performance) Award in New York. In 1999, Lecavalier was the first recipient of the Jean A. Chalmers Award, as well as the inaugural Prix de la danse in Montreal in 2011.
In March 2014 Lecavalier’s company, Fou Glorieux, was awarded the 29th Grand Prix du Conseil des arts de Montréal, recognizing the achievement of Lecavalier as an ambassadress for Montreal’s artistic vitality, as well as for her legendary contribution to contemporary dance.
Lecavalier was also awarded the highest distinction in the realm of performing arts in Canada as one of 2014’s winners of the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards, and was praised as “one of this country’s most admired and respected contemporary dancers, who continues to dazzle the public and expand the boundaries of her art.”Sony Centre For The Performing Arts presents
SO BLUE
Choreography by Louise Lecavalier
Performed by Louise Lecavalier and Frédéric Tavernini
May 29 & 30, 2015 @ 8pm
BLUMA APPEL THEATRE
St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, 27 Front Street East
All Tickets $75 (Ticket prices do not include service and delivery fees)
Tickets can be can be purchased in person at the Sony Centre Box Office,
1 Front Street East, over the phone at 1-855-872-SONY (7669) or online at www.sonycentre.ca
Kaki King: New Record & Groundbreaking Multimedia Performance - January 9 2015 in New York City
From a media release:
Kaki King Presents Landmark New Work, "The Neck is a Bridge to the Body"
ACCLAIMED GUITARIST/COMPOSER TEAMS WITH GLOWING PICTURES FOR INNOVATIVE MULTI-MEDIA PERFORMANCE
Everybody Glows: B-Sides & Rarities
Short Stuff Records - November 4, 2014
Highline Ballroom, New York City
January 9, 2015
• Buy the album
• Get concert tickets
Kaki King’s groundbreaking new work, The Neck Is A Bridge To The Body, sees the renowned guitarist/composer joining forces with visual performance pioneers Glowing Pictures to construct an innovative multi-media production in which The Guitar itself takes centerstage. The Neck Is A Bridge To The Body debuted at Brooklyn’s BRIC House Ballroom in March 2014, and will tour extensively in 2015. An album featuring the music from the show will also be released in 2015.
The Neck Is A Bridge To The Body lays bare The Guitar’s inner life and protean power, its incalculable possibility and perpetual presence in our deepest unconscious. The hour-long production places the focus directly on The Guitar itself, the Instrument serving as an ontological tabula rasa in a creation myth unlike any other ever presented.
King and Glowing Pictures – known for their work with such artists as Animal Collective, David Byrne & Brian Eno, Beastie Boys, and TV On The Radio – have reconceived The Guitar as a screen for a remarkable range of new digital projections. Luminous visions of genesis and death, unexpected textures and skins, are cast onto a Ovation Adamas 1581-KK Kaki King Signature 6-String Acoustic guitar customized specifically for this production. The Guitar gradually evolves, taking on a living, breathing existence of its own, complete with friends, family, and complex skeletal, muscular and nervous systems. Provocative and moving, surprising and beautiful, The Neck Is A Bridge To The Body is Kaki King at her visionary best, as ever deconstructing and redefining the role of solo instrumental artist though virtuoso technique, outsized imagination, and boundless humanity.
“The Guitar is a shapeshifter,” King says, “something that plays all types of music and really fills all kinds of roles. It’s not always the six-string guitar that we all know and love. I’ve been playing guitar for more than 30 years. It’s who I am and if anything, this project has made me even more familiar with it.”
Everybody Glows: B-Sides & Rarities by Kaki King
In other news, Kaki recently released Everybody Glows: B-sides & Rarities, out November 4, featuring a collection of outtakes, demos, covers, live versions and never before heard recordings culled from scratched demo CDs, long forgotten hard drives, and the fuzzier corners of her memory. The collection reveals the evolution of her songwriting while offering a glimpse of a young guitarist doing daring things on her instrument
before she grasped the significance of any of it. The album comes with a track-by-track explanation of each song, along with liner notes written by her biggest supporter and fan: her father.
Hailed by Rolling Stone as “a genre unto herself,” Kaki King is a true iconoclast, a musician/artist whose singular body of work stands tall amongst the easily formatted. The past decade has seen the Brooklyn-based guitarist/composer record six extraordinarily diverse and distinctive LPs (the most recent being 2012’s Glow), perform with such icons as Foo Fighters, Timbaland, and The Mountain Goats, contribute to a variety of film and TV soundtracks (spanning Golden Globe-nominated work on Sean Penn’s Into The Wild to scoring – and appearing in as guitar-playing hand double – the acclaimed 2007 drama, August Rush), and play to an increasingly fervent fan following on innumerable world tours.
An astonishingly active artist, King has maintained a diverse and busy schedule lately. In addition to The Neck Is A Bridge To The Body, she has been performing nationally accompanied by NYC-based string quartet ETHEL, and performed a Carnegie Hall premiere of a classical piece commissioned by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang.
Kaki King Presents Landmark New Work, "The Neck is a Bridge to the Body"
ACCLAIMED GUITARIST/COMPOSER TEAMS WITH GLOWING PICTURES FOR INNOVATIVE MULTI-MEDIA PERFORMANCE
Everybody Glows: B-Sides & Rarities
Short Stuff Records - November 4, 2014
Highline Ballroom, New York City
January 9, 2015
• Buy the album
• Get concert tickets
Kaki King’s groundbreaking new work, The Neck Is A Bridge To The Body, sees the renowned guitarist/composer joining forces with visual performance pioneers Glowing Pictures to construct an innovative multi-media production in which The Guitar itself takes centerstage. The Neck Is A Bridge To The Body debuted at Brooklyn’s BRIC House Ballroom in March 2014, and will tour extensively in 2015. An album featuring the music from the show will also be released in 2015.
The Neck Is A Bridge To The Body lays bare The Guitar’s inner life and protean power, its incalculable possibility and perpetual presence in our deepest unconscious. The hour-long production places the focus directly on The Guitar itself, the Instrument serving as an ontological tabula rasa in a creation myth unlike any other ever presented.King and Glowing Pictures – known for their work with such artists as Animal Collective, David Byrne & Brian Eno, Beastie Boys, and TV On The Radio – have reconceived The Guitar as a screen for a remarkable range of new digital projections. Luminous visions of genesis and death, unexpected textures and skins, are cast onto a Ovation Adamas 1581-KK Kaki King Signature 6-String Acoustic guitar customized specifically for this production. The Guitar gradually evolves, taking on a living, breathing existence of its own, complete with friends, family, and complex skeletal, muscular and nervous systems. Provocative and moving, surprising and beautiful, The Neck Is A Bridge To The Body is Kaki King at her visionary best, as ever deconstructing and redefining the role of solo instrumental artist though virtuoso technique, outsized imagination, and boundless humanity.
“The Guitar is a shapeshifter,” King says, “something that plays all types of music and really fills all kinds of roles. It’s not always the six-string guitar that we all know and love. I’ve been playing guitar for more than 30 years. It’s who I am and if anything, this project has made me even more familiar with it.”
Everybody Glows: B-Sides & Rarities by Kaki King
In other news, Kaki recently released Everybody Glows: B-sides & Rarities, out November 4, featuring a collection of outtakes, demos, covers, live versions and never before heard recordings culled from scratched demo CDs, long forgotten hard drives, and the fuzzier corners of her memory. The collection reveals the evolution of her songwriting while offering a glimpse of a young guitarist doing daring things on her instrument
before she grasped the significance of any of it. The album comes with a track-by-track explanation of each song, along with liner notes written by her biggest supporter and fan: her father.Hailed by Rolling Stone as “a genre unto herself,” Kaki King is a true iconoclast, a musician/artist whose singular body of work stands tall amongst the easily formatted. The past decade has seen the Brooklyn-based guitarist/composer record six extraordinarily diverse and distinctive LPs (the most recent being 2012’s Glow), perform with such icons as Foo Fighters, Timbaland, and The Mountain Goats, contribute to a variety of film and TV soundtracks (spanning Golden Globe-nominated work on Sean Penn’s Into The Wild to scoring – and appearing in as guitar-playing hand double – the acclaimed 2007 drama, August Rush), and play to an increasingly fervent fan following on innumerable world tours.
An astonishingly active artist, King has maintained a diverse and busy schedule lately. In addition to The Neck Is A Bridge To The Body, she has been performing nationally accompanied by NYC-based string quartet ETHEL, and performed a Carnegie Hall premiere of a classical piece commissioned by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang.
Latin Contemporary Dance: Vanguardia Dance Festival December 5-6 2014 in Toronto
From a media release:
Vanguardia Dance Projects
Vanguardia Dance Festival 2014
December 5-6, 2014
Harbourfront Centre, Toronto
• Get your tickets
Vanguardia Dance Festival 2014, “A View on Latin America,” showcases 9 contemporary dance artists/companies representing different Latin American countries, living in Canada. Co-directed and Curated by Norma Araiza and Olga Barrios.
Program A – December 5
Mateo Galindo (Colombia)
Arsenio Andrade (Cuba)
Mariana Mangevil Alvarez (Mexico)
John Henry Gerena (Colombia)
Alejandro Roncería (Colombia) – Guest Artist
Program B – December 6
Diana López (Mexico)
Victoria Mata (Venezuela)
José Carret(Cuba)
Sur Theatre (Argentina)
Alejandro Roncería (Colombia)- Guest Artist.
Arsenio Andrade / KasheDance
Congo Laye
An invocation and tribute to his ancestors and mother Africa. Congo Laye is a dance work in three parts, with music by Conjunto Folklorico Cutumba. Choreographed using contemporary Afro-Cuban dance techniques, it draws on the African-Cuban Yoruba heritage, drawing on the sensuality and raw primal power of both males and females.
John Henry Gerena
Bermejo
War and violence are present in the everyday world, but despite the desperation, suffering and hopelessness people are still dancing and enjoying life. Bermejo is an abstraction of that: the blood-drenched Earth, the colour of violence nuanced by the will of the people to be happy, and the continued fight for life.
Victoria Mata
Memory Lane
Memory Lane is based on a real-life interpretation of the dancer’s embodiment of cultural memory and migration from South America to Canada. The movement vocabulary is inspired by the lasting sensations of home and the negotiations we undergo to keep cultural memory alive in our day-to-day as culturally
hyphenated Canadians.
Diana Lopez Soto
Esencia Humana (Human Essence)
An exploration of dance and performance as a means to connect with inner spirit. In the process, studying forces that complete our human essence. Entities such as desire, anger, loss, passion, envy and others that, although beautiful and necessary, can overcome our conscious and subconscious mind, making spirit blind to its life purpose. This piece focuses on Desire.
Sur Theatre
Diaspora
A commemoration of Argentina’s ‘disappeared.’ During the 1970s in Argentina, the military carried out brutal tortures and thousands of students and dissidents disappeared. To this day, mothers of the Disappeared walk the Plaza de Mayo carrying pictures of their dead in silent protest. This piece uses an empty picture frame as a symbol of those who were made to vanish, while the tango lyrics express the pain and solitude of exile for those who survived.
Mateo Galindo Flores
Vanishing Point
Vanishing Point is a meditation on the things that separate us from world events, and from participating in meaningful discussion. It contemplates the effect of perspective on the dissemination and representation of information, ultimately asking what intervenes or obscures as we try to frame an accurate understanding of what is happening in our world. It is an open invitation for the audience to shape their experience of the performance – to act not only as passive witnesses but creative partners whose perspectives play a vital role in the evolution of the work
Mariana Mangevil Alvarez
Cosmología Azteca
Inspired by the Aztec culture and religion found in the ancient stone codex. This piece represents four deities who are associated to the cardinal points and the seasonal changes. Retracing the footsteps and space formations from pre-Hispanic dances, this dance explores and combines these rhythms with neoclassical and contemporary styles for a touch of a modern perspective. The music and dancers will take us to the pre-Hispanic era and revive our ancestors.
Jose Carret
Evasion sin Limite (Escape without limits)
Relate the search for a way out. Human beings, searching throughout the space for new beginnings, for new hopes, for a better future.
Alejandro Ronceria
My Hundred Years of Solitude
My Hundred Years of Solitude explores history, identity, and the ties that bind land and people. What does it mean to be displaced and how do we interpret it? Is it a state of transition or a permanent space we inhabit? How does it shape a body, a culture? What does it mean to survive, to adapt and is there a process of transformation?
Performer: Mariana Mangevil Alvarez
Artistic Direction: Diana Lopez Soto
Costume: Diana Lopez Soto
Music: 'Waltz' from The Godfather; Nino Rota
Rosy from Diana Lopez Soto on Vimeo.
Vanguardia Dance Projects
Vanguardia Dance Festival 2014
December 5-6, 2014
Harbourfront Centre, Toronto
• Get your tickets
Vanguardia Dance Festival 2014, “A View on Latin America,” showcases 9 contemporary dance artists/companies representing different Latin American countries, living in Canada. Co-directed and Curated by Norma Araiza and Olga Barrios.
Program A – December 5
Mateo Galindo (Colombia)
Arsenio Andrade (Cuba)
Mariana Mangevil Alvarez (Mexico)John Henry Gerena (Colombia)
Alejandro Roncería (Colombia) – Guest Artist
Program B – December 6
Diana López (Mexico)
Victoria Mata (Venezuela)
José Carret(Cuba)
Sur Theatre (Argentina)
Alejandro Roncería (Colombia)- Guest Artist.
Arsenio Andrade / KasheDance
Congo Laye
An invocation and tribute to his ancestors and mother Africa. Congo Laye is a dance work in three parts, with music by Conjunto Folklorico Cutumba. Choreographed using contemporary Afro-Cuban dance techniques, it draws on the African-Cuban Yoruba heritage, drawing on the sensuality and raw primal power of both males and females.
John Henry Gerena
Bermejo
War and violence are present in the everyday world, but despite the desperation, suffering and hopelessness people are still dancing and enjoying life. Bermejo is an abstraction of that: the blood-drenched Earth, the colour of violence nuanced by the will of the people to be happy, and the continued fight for life.
Victoria Mata
Memory Lane
Memory Lane is based on a real-life interpretation of the dancer’s embodiment of cultural memory and migration from South America to Canada. The movement vocabulary is inspired by the lasting sensations of home and the negotiations we undergo to keep cultural memory alive in our day-to-day as culturally
hyphenated Canadians.Diana Lopez Soto
Esencia Humana (Human Essence)
An exploration of dance and performance as a means to connect with inner spirit. In the process, studying forces that complete our human essence. Entities such as desire, anger, loss, passion, envy and others that, although beautiful and necessary, can overcome our conscious and subconscious mind, making spirit blind to its life purpose. This piece focuses on Desire.
Sur Theatre
Diaspora
A commemoration of Argentina’s ‘disappeared.’ During the 1970s in Argentina, the military carried out brutal tortures and thousands of students and dissidents disappeared. To this day, mothers of the Disappeared walk the Plaza de Mayo carrying pictures of their dead in silent protest. This piece uses an empty picture frame as a symbol of those who were made to vanish, while the tango lyrics express the pain and solitude of exile for those who survived.
Mateo Galindo Flores
Vanishing Point
Vanishing Point is a meditation on the things that separate us from world events, and from participating in meaningful discussion. It contemplates the effect of perspective on the dissemination and representation of information, ultimately asking what intervenes or obscures as we try to frame an accurate understanding of what is happening in our world. It is an open invitation for the audience to shape their experience of the performance – to act not only as passive witnesses but creative partners whose perspectives play a vital role in the evolution of the work
Mariana Mangevil Alvarez
Cosmología Azteca
Inspired by the Aztec culture and religion found in the ancient stone codex. This piece represents four deities who are associated to the cardinal points and the seasonal changes. Retracing the footsteps and space formations from pre-Hispanic dances, this dance explores and combines these rhythms with neoclassical and contemporary styles for a touch of a modern perspective. The music and dancers will take us to the pre-Hispanic era and revive our ancestors.
Jose Carret
Evasion sin Limite (Escape without limits)
Relate the search for a way out. Human beings, searching throughout the space for new beginnings, for new hopes, for a better future.
Alejandro RonceriaMy Hundred Years of Solitude
My Hundred Years of Solitude explores history, identity, and the ties that bind land and people. What does it mean to be displaced and how do we interpret it? Is it a state of transition or a permanent space we inhabit? How does it shape a body, a culture? What does it mean to survive, to adapt and is there a process of transformation?
Performer: Mariana Mangevil Alvarez
Artistic Direction: Diana Lopez Soto
Costume: Diana Lopez Soto
Music: 'Waltz' from The Godfather; Nino Rota
Rosy from Diana Lopez Soto on Vimeo.
Off Broadway: Our Lady of Kibeho Now Extended Through December 14, 2014!
From a release:
Off Broadway:
Our Lady of Kibeho
Now Extended Through December 14, 2014!
by Katori Hall; directed by Michael Greif
• Buy tickets
DO YOU BELIEVE?
In 1981, a village girl in Rwanda claims to see the Virgin Mary. Ostracized by her schoolmates and labeled disturbed, everyone refuses to believe, until the impossible starts happening again and again. Skepticism gives way to fear, faith, and fate, causing upheaval in the school community and beyond. Based on real events, Our Lady of Kibeho is the second production of Olivier Award-winning playwright Katori Hall’s Residency at Signature. (Image: Nneka Okafor in Our Lady of Kibeho. Photo by Joan Marcus.)Running Time: 2 hours 30 minutes, with one intermission
Our Lady of Kibeho contains use of a strobe light as well as smoke, fog, and haze effects
Tickets: 212-244-7529
Signature Theatre Company
The Pershing Square Signature Center
480 West 42nd Street
New York, NY 10036
OUR LADY OF KIBEHO Trailer from Signature Theatre on Vimeo.
November 26, 2014
The Nile Project Collective: Aswan CD & U.S. Tour Through Spring 2015
From a media release:
Loving Listening, Subtle Flow: The Nile Project Meshes the River’s Many Sounds, Calls for New River-Based Conversation
• Tour begins January 15, 2015 in Gainesville, FLA, including
• March 19, 2015 New York, NY, Rubenstein Atrium - Lincoln Center,
• March 20, 2104 New York, NY, Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts - Pace University with LiveSounds
• For additional dates, check their website
“Music is a language,” exclaims Ethiopian sax player and Nile Project musician Jorga Mesfin, “and in the Nile Project, the conversation is about love.” The love of craft, of place, of the river that connects eleven countries and millions of people.
The passion and affection spring forth via one of the tightest cross-cultural collaborations in history. Forged over weeks of carefully calibrated workshops and participatory composition, the Nile Project Collective members hail from all along the great river, from its sources beyond Lake Victoria to its delta in Egypt.
They have learned each others’ traditions well enough to create substantive music together, work that goes far deeper than mere meet-and-greet jam sessions. An ensemble of a dozen musicians will tour the US in January-May 2015.
To craft this music, Egyptian and Ethiopian artists have mastered each others’ wildly different modal systems. A Burundian bassist has become the foundation within head-spinning Ugandan rhythms. Instruments that parted ways millennia before are reunited and pushed into new tunings, new places. Love songs and lullabies
have crossed geography and language barriers to forge new songs and new, close friendships.
Creating together, with the role of lead and soloist rotating among the players, the Collective has crafted emotionally stirring, musically complex pieces that weave together over the course of a concert into one long and shifting composition. This work serves as a rallying point to draw more and more people from more and more places into a meaningful conversation, where love and art intertwine with politics, history, ecology, and commerce.
Yet it all starts with sound, and with listening. “In the end, it is all about learning to listen,” reflects Egyptian singer and Nile Project musician Dina El Wedidi. “I think that is what we all took away from this, whether it is the participants or the audience. Listening is the basis for understanding.”
The Nile Project 2015 US Touring Ensemble
Mohamed Abo Zekry: Despite his tender years, this oud player has a stunning command of his instrument, as well as an open ear for other forms, skills that got him a recent album deal with Harmonia Mundi.
Alsarah: Based in Brooklyn, this soulful Sudanese singer and ethnomusicologist’s songs have won high praise from roots-music tastemakers like Songlines Magazine.
Michael Bazibu: A member of Uganda’s leading traditional music and dance company, Ndere, for the past 17 years, Bazibu plays several traditional Ugandan stringed and percussion instruments with virtuosic grace.
Hani Bedair: When the biggest stars in the Middle East need daff (hand drum) or riq (traditional tambourine), they call Bedair, whose percussion skills have also earned him a teaching position at several respected Cairo institutions.
Nader El Shaer: Born in the culturally rich town of Port Said, Egypt, El Shaer taught himself accordion and ney, only to fall in love with the tones of the kawala (end-blown cane flute) and its role in Arabic classical music.
Dina El Wedidi: With experience that spans Arabic classical music, edgy theater, and street protest, this young singer has most recently worked with Brazilian heavyweight Gilbert Gil on her debut album.
Meklit Hadero (select appearances only): Co-founder of the Nile Project, this American-based Ethiopian singer frequently digs deep into soul and hip hop, but never loses sight of her roots.
Jorga Mesfin: This self-taught sax player meshes jazz with Ethiopia’s wealth of musical forms and ideas, both as a respected band leader and favorite sideman for greats like Mulatu Astatke.
Kasiva Mutua: Kenyan percussionist and singer Mutua may have learned drumming from her grandmother, but has developed her own knack for powerful Afropop beats. Her expressive playing can tell a story on its own, or keep a band perfectly in the pocket.
Sophie Nzayisenga: The first female master of the Rwandan traditional zither (inanga), Nzayisenga learned at her internationally acclaimed father’s knee before setting out to make the instrument her own.
Dawit Seyoum: Known for his flexibility, Seyoum rocks both the krar and the bass krar, the six-string powerhouse harps at the heart of much of Ethiopia’s music.
Steven Sogo: Burundi’s leading bassist, this multilingual multi-instrumentalist can play anything with strings, including the umiduri, Burundi’s answer to the birembau. Add to that Sogo’s wonderful voice, and it’s easy to see why he was named a World Bank musical ambassador.
Selamnesh Zemane: Hailing from a long line of unique culture bearers in Northern Ethiopia, this young singer has brought her traditions to collaborations with indie darlings like Debo Band and The Ex.
The ensemble flows from a larger collective of musicians—most of whom are young and work across genres—that in turn arose from a long, thoughtful recruitment and collaboration process. The Nile Project strived to include musicians from many different cultural communities along the Nile, while finding a compelling combination of instruments and voice to support and balance one another.
Over the course of two gatherings and a major, five-country African tour, the collective has gained an increasing sense of how to craft joint works, guided by their own interests and by the Collective’s leaders: Nile Project Musical Director Miles Jay, a contrabassist and composer who spent much of the last decade living and working with prominent artists across the Middle East and Africa; and Nile Project executive director Mina Girgis, an Egyptian ethnomusicologist and curator who specializes in creating innovative musical experiences. The exchange of know-how has had significant impact on the participants—bassist Steven Sogo enthuses about his newfound love for Ethiopian modes—and has molded a sound as broad and powerful as the Nile itself.
“The set is a continuous flow, like the river,” explains Jay. “We craft creative transitions from one piece to the next, inspired by the Nile’s soundscapes. So, we end a song and the percussionist continues the pulse, even through the applause. Or all the strings at the end of the song go into a drone, and then we introduce a melody to modulate to the next key.”
Evoking the Nile is not enough, however. Many trans-national music projects stop at the stage, when top performers break out their best for an audience. For The Nile Project, live performance is merely one stop on a long, compelling journey. “Music is the gateway that lets us envision the Nile Basin, its people, its challenges,” explains Girgis. “Yet the concert experience is just the beginning.”
The Nile Project uses music to spark cultural curiosity and engage audiences—particularly university and student audiences—encouraging them to feel connected to the river and to explore new approaches to its large-scale problems. In an evolving series of interlocking programs that spring from the musical experience, the project aims to inspire, educate and empower young people worldwide to become Nile Citizens. These growing circles of participants will contribute to Nile sustainability through their music, leadership, and innovative ideas.
For this reason, nearly every stop on the U.S. tour will be accompanied by a series of workshops and symposia involving the Nile Project participant musicians, complemented by the faculty resources and student interest of each campus. From water issues to women’s roles, from musical discovery to the image of the Nile through history, a wide range of topics tackle the river’s complexity and aim to draw students into active roles. These activities expand the circle of conversation begun by the musicians, to encompass entire academic communities.
The exchange on stage and the long interweaving of voices and ideas that preceded it, however, sets the tone for other interactions, dedicated to matters beyond music. “No matter what topic we’re addressing, the music shows something that we can aspire to,” notes Nile Project Musical Director Miles Jay. “It shows it in subtle terms.”
Select Nile Project Workshop Topics
The Nile Project will offer a variety of workshop themes during its 2015 US Tour, including those below. These programs will serve as catalysts for longer-term engagement with students and faculty beyond the tour ensemble’s musical performances.
1. Musical Collaboration & Water Cooperation
2. Imagining the Nile
3. The Nile & African Identity
4. Civic Engagement and Water Resource Management
5. School Matinee: K-12 student outreach
6. The Role of Musicians in Social Movements
7. Women of the Nile: An Untapped Resource
8. Finding Opportunities in Challenges: Crowdsourcing Solutions for an Environmentally Sustainable Nile Basin
9. Music Master Classes
Loving Listening, Subtle Flow: The Nile Project Meshes the River’s Many Sounds, Calls for New River-Based Conversation
• Tour begins January 15, 2015 in Gainesville, FLA, including
• March 19, 2015 New York, NY, Rubenstein Atrium - Lincoln Center,
• March 20, 2104 New York, NY, Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts - Pace University with LiveSounds
• For additional dates, check their website
“Music is a language,” exclaims Ethiopian sax player and Nile Project musician Jorga Mesfin, “and in the Nile Project, the conversation is about love.” The love of craft, of place, of the river that connects eleven countries and millions of people.
The passion and affection spring forth via one of the tightest cross-cultural collaborations in history. Forged over weeks of carefully calibrated workshops and participatory composition, the Nile Project Collective members hail from all along the great river, from its sources beyond Lake Victoria to its delta in Egypt.They have learned each others’ traditions well enough to create substantive music together, work that goes far deeper than mere meet-and-greet jam sessions. An ensemble of a dozen musicians will tour the US in January-May 2015.
To craft this music, Egyptian and Ethiopian artists have mastered each others’ wildly different modal systems. A Burundian bassist has become the foundation within head-spinning Ugandan rhythms. Instruments that parted ways millennia before are reunited and pushed into new tunings, new places. Love songs and lullabies
have crossed geography and language barriers to forge new songs and new, close friendships.Creating together, with the role of lead and soloist rotating among the players, the Collective has crafted emotionally stirring, musically complex pieces that weave together over the course of a concert into one long and shifting composition. This work serves as a rallying point to draw more and more people from more and more places into a meaningful conversation, where love and art intertwine with politics, history, ecology, and commerce.
Yet it all starts with sound, and with listening. “In the end, it is all about learning to listen,” reflects Egyptian singer and Nile Project musician Dina El Wedidi. “I think that is what we all took away from this, whether it is the participants or the audience. Listening is the basis for understanding.”
The Nile Project 2015 US Touring Ensemble
Mohamed Abo Zekry: Despite his tender years, this oud player has a stunning command of his instrument, as well as an open ear for other forms, skills that got him a recent album deal with Harmonia Mundi.
Alsarah: Based in Brooklyn, this soulful Sudanese singer and ethnomusicologist’s songs have won high praise from roots-music tastemakers like Songlines Magazine.
Michael Bazibu: A member of Uganda’s leading traditional music and dance company, Ndere, for the past 17 years, Bazibu plays several traditional Ugandan stringed and percussion instruments with virtuosic grace.
Hani Bedair: When the biggest stars in the Middle East need daff (hand drum) or riq (traditional tambourine), they call Bedair, whose percussion skills have also earned him a teaching position at several respected Cairo institutions.Nader El Shaer: Born in the culturally rich town of Port Said, Egypt, El Shaer taught himself accordion and ney, only to fall in love with the tones of the kawala (end-blown cane flute) and its role in Arabic classical music.
Dina El Wedidi: With experience that spans Arabic classical music, edgy theater, and street protest, this young singer has most recently worked with Brazilian heavyweight Gilbert Gil on her debut album.
Meklit Hadero (select appearances only): Co-founder of the Nile Project, this American-based Ethiopian singer frequently digs deep into soul and hip hop, but never loses sight of her roots.
Jorga Mesfin: This self-taught sax player meshes jazz with Ethiopia’s wealth of musical forms and ideas, both as a respected band leader and favorite sideman for greats like Mulatu Astatke.
Kasiva Mutua: Kenyan percussionist and singer Mutua may have learned drumming from her grandmother, but has developed her own knack for powerful Afropop beats. Her expressive playing can tell a story on its own, or keep a band perfectly in the pocket.
Sophie Nzayisenga: The first female master of the Rwandan traditional zither (inanga), Nzayisenga learned at her internationally acclaimed father’s knee before setting out to make the instrument her own.
Dawit Seyoum: Known for his flexibility, Seyoum rocks both the krar and the bass krar, the six-string powerhouse harps at the heart of much of Ethiopia’s music.
Steven Sogo: Burundi’s leading bassist, this multilingual multi-instrumentalist can play anything with strings, including the umiduri, Burundi’s answer to the birembau. Add to that Sogo’s wonderful voice, and it’s easy to see why he was named a World Bank musical ambassador.Selamnesh Zemane: Hailing from a long line of unique culture bearers in Northern Ethiopia, this young singer has brought her traditions to collaborations with indie darlings like Debo Band and The Ex.
The ensemble flows from a larger collective of musicians—most of whom are young and work across genres—that in turn arose from a long, thoughtful recruitment and collaboration process. The Nile Project strived to include musicians from many different cultural communities along the Nile, while finding a compelling combination of instruments and voice to support and balance one another.
Over the course of two gatherings and a major, five-country African tour, the collective has gained an increasing sense of how to craft joint works, guided by their own interests and by the Collective’s leaders: Nile Project Musical Director Miles Jay, a contrabassist and composer who spent much of the last decade living and working with prominent artists across the Middle East and Africa; and Nile Project executive director Mina Girgis, an Egyptian ethnomusicologist and curator who specializes in creating innovative musical experiences. The exchange of know-how has had significant impact on the participants—bassist Steven Sogo enthuses about his newfound love for Ethiopian modes—and has molded a sound as broad and powerful as the Nile itself.
“The set is a continuous flow, like the river,” explains Jay. “We craft creative transitions from one piece to the next, inspired by the Nile’s soundscapes. So, we end a song and the percussionist continues the pulse, even through the applause. Or all the strings at the end of the song go into a drone, and then we introduce a melody to modulate to the next key.”
Evoking the Nile is not enough, however. Many trans-national music projects stop at the stage, when top performers break out their best for an audience. For The Nile Project, live performance is merely one stop on a long, compelling journey. “Music is the gateway that lets us envision the Nile Basin, its people, its challenges,” explains Girgis. “Yet the concert experience is just the beginning.”The Nile Project uses music to spark cultural curiosity and engage audiences—particularly university and student audiences—encouraging them to feel connected to the river and to explore new approaches to its large-scale problems. In an evolving series of interlocking programs that spring from the musical experience, the project aims to inspire, educate and empower young people worldwide to become Nile Citizens. These growing circles of participants will contribute to Nile sustainability through their music, leadership, and innovative ideas.
For this reason, nearly every stop on the U.S. tour will be accompanied by a series of workshops and symposia involving the Nile Project participant musicians, complemented by the faculty resources and student interest of each campus. From water issues to women’s roles, from musical discovery to the image of the Nile through history, a wide range of topics tackle the river’s complexity and aim to draw students into active roles. These activities expand the circle of conversation begun by the musicians, to encompass entire academic communities.
The exchange on stage and the long interweaving of voices and ideas that preceded it, however, sets the tone for other interactions, dedicated to matters beyond music. “No matter what topic we’re addressing, the music shows something that we can aspire to,” notes Nile Project Musical Director Miles Jay. “It shows it in subtle terms.”
Select Nile Project Workshop TopicsThe Nile Project will offer a variety of workshop themes during its 2015 US Tour, including those below. These programs will serve as catalysts for longer-term engagement with students and faculty beyond the tour ensemble’s musical performances.
1. Musical Collaboration & Water Cooperation
2. Imagining the Nile
3. The Nile & African Identity
4. Civic Engagement and Water Resource Management
5. School Matinee: K-12 student outreach
6. The Role of Musicians in Social Movements
7. Women of the Nile: An Untapped Resource
8. Finding Opportunities in Challenges: Crowdsourcing Solutions for an Environmentally Sustainable Nile Basin
9. Music Master Classes
Single Release: Alice Sungurov - "Broke My Heart" (HitPlay Records - Oct 1, 2014)
Single Release: Alice Sungurov - "Broke My Heart"
(HitPlay Records - Oct 1, 2014)
• Check out all her music
The latest single from New York based singer/songwriter Alice Sungurov is called Broke My Heart, a pop song with a nice rhythmic complexity and some tasty melodic changes to complement her strong voice - strong and sweet at the same time. The chorus rocks out and the track lights up with an impressive drummer who switches convincingly from rock bombast to thoughtful intricacy on the bridges.
My beef with most contemporary pop - my most common beef - is that they take a great voice and add cheesy technology instead of real music to back it up. That's not the case here, and although Alice is just 16 and a sophomore at high school, hers is a voice she's come to honestly, as the saying goes. Alice was diagnosed at age four with Auditory Processing Disorder. Her mother founded a specialized arts school for children using creativity to enhance learning and life skills. Alice flourished and became involved in the arts and music from a very young age.
Broke My Heart by Alice Sungurov
She garnered the interest of HitPlay Records and her work is being internationally released by them using Red Music, A Subsidiary of Sony Music. So Blind, the first single for the label released earlier this year, is an
upbeat pop tune that takes full advantage of her agile voice .
The lyrics are clever - not designed to be deep but enough to pique the ear all the same. Musically, I'd say the same; it avoids predictability in an era of sameness. The track was produced by label owner and president Phil Garland.
Born in Jersey, now based in NYC (where else?) she's pursuing her career while serving as class president at her high school.
Websites:
http://www.alicesungurov.com/
https://www.facebook.com/AliceSungurov
@sungurovalice
(HitPlay Records - Oct 1, 2014)
• Check out all her music
The latest single from New York based singer/songwriter Alice Sungurov is called Broke My Heart, a pop song with a nice rhythmic complexity and some tasty melodic changes to complement her strong voice - strong and sweet at the same time. The chorus rocks out and the track lights up with an impressive drummer who switches convincingly from rock bombast to thoughtful intricacy on the bridges.My beef with most contemporary pop - my most common beef - is that they take a great voice and add cheesy technology instead of real music to back it up. That's not the case here, and although Alice is just 16 and a sophomore at high school, hers is a voice she's come to honestly, as the saying goes. Alice was diagnosed at age four with Auditory Processing Disorder. Her mother founded a specialized arts school for children using creativity to enhance learning and life skills. Alice flourished and became involved in the arts and music from a very young age.
Broke My Heart by Alice Sungurov
She garnered the interest of HitPlay Records and her work is being internationally released by them using Red Music, A Subsidiary of Sony Music. So Blind, the first single for the label released earlier this year, is an
upbeat pop tune that takes full advantage of her agile voice . The lyrics are clever - not designed to be deep but enough to pique the ear all the same. Musically, I'd say the same; it avoids predictability in an era of sameness. The track was produced by label owner and president Phil Garland.
Born in Jersey, now based in NYC (where else?) she's pursuing her career while serving as class president at her high school.
Websites:
http://www.alicesungurov.com/
https://www.facebook.com/AliceSungurov
@sungurovalice
Glenfiddich Issues Call for Canadian Artists to Enter Competition for the Coveted 2015 Glenfiddich Artists in Residence Prize
From a media release:
Glenfiddich
Issues Call for Canadian Artists to Enter Competition for the Coveted
2015 Glenfiddich Artists in Residence Prize
• To apply and for more information, applicants are asked to visit www.glenfiddich.com/ca/artistsinresidence
Toronto, November 26, 2014 – Glenfiddich is issuing a “Call to Artists” currently living and creating art in Canada to enter the internationally renowned competition for the prestigious 2015 Glenfiddich Artists in Residence Prize. The Canadian “Call to Artists” opens today, Wednesday November 26, 2014 and
closes midnight eastern time, Friday January 30, 2015.
The Canadian winner will be one of a small and distinguished group around the world to be awarded the art community’s coveted prize to live and work at the Glenfiddich Distillery in Dufftown, Scotland. It’s only fitting that the world’s most awarded single malt Scotch whisky honours distinction. The three-month residency valued at $20,000 per artist represents the Glenfiddich commitment to the pioneering spirit of the arts and the communities it serves. While living in crofts (traditional small Scottish farm houses), artists are encouraged to find inspiration from the unique setting in the Scottish Highlands. The experience provides an opportunity unlike any other for artists to work in an international community, share in a dialogue with other artists and foster cross-disciplinary ideas.
Now in its 14th year internationally and 10th in Canada, the Glenfiddich Artists in Residence Prize attracts close to 200 submissions across Canada from the visual arts. The prize covers the cost of travel, living expenses and materials throughout the residency. From the submissions, five jury members choose eight finalists and ultimately one winner. To apply and for more information, applicants are asked to visit www.glenfiddich.com/ca/artistsinresid...
The distinguished jury for the selection of the Canadian Glenfiddich Artists in Residence Prize includes, Dr. Sara Diamond, president of OCAD University, Gaetane Verna, director of The Power Plant, Adelina Vlas, associate curator of contemporary art at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), Julian Sleath, programming manager of special events, economic development & culture at the City of Toronto, and the Canadian 2008 Glenfiddich Artists in Residence Prize recipient, Dave Dyment.
Andy Fairgrieve, curator, Glenfiddich Artists in Residence Prize underscores that, “The program’s ethos is about encouraging people to take inspiration from their experience living at the distillery, whether that be the pioneering heritage of Glenfiddich, the surrounding environment, or the daily life of the distillery and local community, and to be as pioneering as possible – a mission our artists live and breathe during their three-month residency.”
The Glenfiddich Artists in Residence Prize has sponsored over 100 artists globally since its inception in 2002. The artistic team of Rhonda Weppler and Trevor Mahovsky, were awarded the 2014 Canadian Glenfiddich Artists in Residence Prize for their collaborative work that takes an innovative sculptural approach to still life. During the three-month residency the collaborative team ran a community sculpting and casting workshop based around coinage, while producing photography, video, and a range of sculptures made from copper, foil and custom oak veneer.
The past Canadian Glenfiddich Artists in Residence Prize winners include: Rhonda Weppler and Trevor Mahovsky (2014), Daniel Barrow (2013), Jillian McDonald (2012), Helen Cho (2011), Damian Moppett (2010), Arabella Campbell (2009), Dave Dyment (2008), Jonathon Kaiser (2007), Annie Pootoogook (2006) and Myfanwy Macleod (2005).
2014 Global Artists in Residence Prize recipients from left to right: Rhonda Weppler, Canada; Tania Candaini, Mexico; Hugh Hayden, United States; Hu Zi, China; Chetnaa Verma, India; Trevor Mahovsky, Canada; Han Wonsuk, Korea; Isadora Correa, Chile; Suso 33, Spain; Joyce Ho, Taiwan
Glenfiddich
Issues Call for Canadian Artists to Enter Competition for the Coveted
2015 Glenfiddich Artists in Residence Prize
• To apply and for more information, applicants are asked to visit www.glenfiddich.com/ca/artistsinresidence
Toronto, November 26, 2014 – Glenfiddich is issuing a “Call to Artists” currently living and creating art in Canada to enter the internationally renowned competition for the prestigious 2015 Glenfiddich Artists in Residence Prize. The Canadian “Call to Artists” opens today, Wednesday November 26, 2014 and
closes midnight eastern time, Friday January 30, 2015.The Canadian winner will be one of a small and distinguished group around the world to be awarded the art community’s coveted prize to live and work at the Glenfiddich Distillery in Dufftown, Scotland. It’s only fitting that the world’s most awarded single malt Scotch whisky honours distinction. The three-month residency valued at $20,000 per artist represents the Glenfiddich commitment to the pioneering spirit of the arts and the communities it serves. While living in crofts (traditional small Scottish farm houses), artists are encouraged to find inspiration from the unique setting in the Scottish Highlands. The experience provides an opportunity unlike any other for artists to work in an international community, share in a dialogue with other artists and foster cross-disciplinary ideas.
Now in its 14th year internationally and 10th in Canada, the Glenfiddich Artists in Residence Prize attracts close to 200 submissions across Canada from the visual arts. The prize covers the cost of travel, living expenses and materials throughout the residency. From the submissions, five jury members choose eight finalists and ultimately one winner. To apply and for more information, applicants are asked to visit www.glenfiddich.com/ca/artistsinresid...
The distinguished jury for the selection of the Canadian Glenfiddich Artists in Residence Prize includes, Dr. Sara Diamond, president of OCAD University, Gaetane Verna, director of The Power Plant, Adelina Vlas, associate curator of contemporary art at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), Julian Sleath, programming manager of special events, economic development & culture at the City of Toronto, and the Canadian 2008 Glenfiddich Artists in Residence Prize recipient, Dave Dyment.
Andy Fairgrieve, curator, Glenfiddich Artists in Residence Prize underscores that, “The program’s ethos is about encouraging people to take inspiration from their experience living at the distillery, whether that be the pioneering heritage of Glenfiddich, the surrounding environment, or the daily life of the distillery and local community, and to be as pioneering as possible – a mission our artists live and breathe during their three-month residency.”The Glenfiddich Artists in Residence Prize has sponsored over 100 artists globally since its inception in 2002. The artistic team of Rhonda Weppler and Trevor Mahovsky, were awarded the 2014 Canadian Glenfiddich Artists in Residence Prize for their collaborative work that takes an innovative sculptural approach to still life. During the three-month residency the collaborative team ran a community sculpting and casting workshop based around coinage, while producing photography, video, and a range of sculptures made from copper, foil and custom oak veneer.
The past Canadian Glenfiddich Artists in Residence Prize winners include: Rhonda Weppler and Trevor Mahovsky (2014), Daniel Barrow (2013), Jillian McDonald (2012), Helen Cho (2011), Damian Moppett (2010), Arabella Campbell (2009), Dave Dyment (2008), Jonathon Kaiser (2007), Annie Pootoogook (2006) and Myfanwy Macleod (2005).
2014 Global Artists in Residence Prize recipients from left to right: Rhonda Weppler, Canada; Tania Candaini, Mexico; Hugh Hayden, United States; Hu Zi, China; Chetnaa Verma, India; Trevor Mahovsky, Canada; Han Wonsuk, Korea; Isadora Correa, Chile; Suso 33, Spain; Joyce Ho, Taiwan
Listen & Shop: New Single from 1700 Monkey Ninjas & Ed Purchla Online Shop
Listen & Shop:
New Single from 1700 Monkey Ninjas &
Ed Purchla Online Shop
• Check out the single
• Check out the clothes
If you'd like some eye popping designs to go with your techno, then we've got you covered in this one post.
The song is amarrikuh (flaccid penises & assault rifles) a not-so-subtle attack on America's gun culture. It cleverly mixes spoken word snippets with an array of noise effects. It's quite effective at getting the message across with superlative editing especially at the end to reinforce the idea. He manages to mix a little political satire into a heavy message... and you can dance to it too.
On the sartorial side, you can now get your basic leggings and skirts with Ed Purchla's (aka 1700MN alter ego) arresting graphic designs at his online store. He's also a digital abstract artist and you will certainly never go unnoticed in one of his pieces - perfect for clubbing or just making your mark in the everyday world.
Free Electronic Press Kits from ReverbNation.com
November 9, 2014
Highlights from the African Diaspora International Film Festival New York City November 28 to December 14 2014
From a media release:
Highlights from the African Diaspora International Film Festival New York City
November 28 to December 14, 2014
• Check out all the films
• Get Tickets
Various locations in Manhattan, NYC including The Thalia Cinema at Symphony Space, Quad Cinema, The Cowin Center and Chapel at Teachers College, Columbia University and the Riverside Theater.
NEW YORK CITY - The African Diaspora International Film Festival (ADIFF) is proud of its 22-year history of firsts in presenting, interpreting and educating about films from throughout the world that depict the lives of people from Africa and the African Diaspora. The festival features world and US premieres, recent
popular titles, classic movies, foreign and independent releases. Post-screening question-and-answer sessions and panel discussions that include filmmakers, critics, academics, and audiences present the most current discourse on filmmaking in Africa and the African Diaspora.
The festival begins every year on the last Friday of the month of November during the Thanksgiving weekend and runs for eighteen days. ADIFF 22nd anniversary will be celebrated from Friday, November 28 through Sunday, December 14, 2014.
Highlights:
ADIFF NY 2014 presents: Gloria Rolando - An Afro-Cuban Filmmaker
Gloria Rolando was born in Cuba where she developed a career in making films about the Afro-Cuban experience. Her films span across 35 years at the ICAIC, the Cuban national film institute.
Gloria Rolando is currently on a national tour in the USA and is getting great acclaim for her work everywhere. Gloria will be in NY for ADIFF from NOV. 28 to NOV. 30 to present 5 of her films films as part of ADIFF's special program BLACKS IN LATIN AMERICA sponsored by the Academy of Motion Picture.
Come join us Nov. 28 to Nov. 30 and meet this exceptional filmmaker!
Films to screen in New York are:
Her classic Oggun: An Eternal Presence (Oggun: Presencia Eternal)
Her trilogy: 1912, Breaking the Silence: Part 1, 2 & 3 (1912: Voces para un Silencio)
Her most recent work: Reshipment (Re-embarque)
SCREENINGS
1912, Breaking the Silence: Part 1, 2 & 3 (1912: Voces para un Siliencio)
NY Premiere
Part 1: Chap 1 & 2: Sat, Nov. 29 @ 6PM - The Chapel
Part 2: Chap 3 + Q&A: Sat, Nov 29 @ 8PM - The Chapel
1912, Breaking the Silence is a project dedicated to the history of the Party of the Independents of Color (PIC), a political party established in Cuba in 1908 to represents the interest of Afro-Cubans.
This three parts documentary seeks to cover some antecedents in the history of Afro-Cubans' struggle for self-determination, a necessary recapitulation which goes step by step down the path of resistance taken by the Black movement in Cuba since colonial times, the struggle for independence and the situation of Black Cubans once the island of Cuba achieved its independence in 1902. References are made to significant, Black leaders in Cuba from the nineteenth century, such as Juan Gualberto Gomez and Martin Morua Delgado, Antonio Maceo and Quintin Banderas.
Through the voices, opinions, and commentaries of historians and Cuban cultural icons accompanied by images of documents, photos, and clippings from the press of that era, two main issues are explored : 1) what did the Afro-Cubans do before the founding of the PIC? 2) Was the creation of a political party to represents Afro-Cubans necessary?
Directed by Gloria V. Rolando Casamayor, 45, 58, 56 minutes, Cuba, documentary, Spanish with English subt.
1912: Breaking the Silence, Chapter 1
Oggun: An Eternal Presence (Oggun: Presencia Eterna) + Q&A
Fri, Nov. 28 @ 4PM - The Chapel
Gloria Rolando relates the patakin or mythical story of Oggun, the tireless warrior who, enamored of his mother, decided as punishment to imprison himself in the mountains. Only Ochun, goddess of love, succeeded in captivating him when she let fall a few drops of honey on the lips of the god of metal, war, progress, and civilization. Oggun is the first effort of the team later to be known as Images of the Caribbean, now chartered as an independent video group. Directed by Gloria Rolando, 1992, Cuba, Documentary, Spanish, 52 min, Spanish, English subtitles
Reshipment (Re-embarque) + Q&A and cocktail after the screening
NY Premiere
AN EVENING WITH GLORIA ROLANDO
Sun, Nov. 30 @ 6M - The Chapel
This is a documentary on Haitians immigrants in Cuba who were sent back in the beginning of the last century when the sugar market crashed and they became unwanted. Directed by Gloria Rolando, 2014, Cuba/Haiti, Documentary, 58 min, Spanish, English subt.
Abayomi Interviews AfroCubana Filmmaker Gloria Rolando
Bound: Africans vs. African-Americans
NY PREMIERE
Fri, Dec. 12 @ 7PM - The Chapel
GALA SCREENING
African vs African Americans is a hard-hitting documentary that addresses the little known tension that exists between Africans and African Americans. The film opens with personal testimonials that expose this rift then walks us through the corridors of African colonialism and African American enslavement, laying bare their effects and how these have divided and bound Africans and African Americans.
Directed by Peres Owino, 2014, 90 min., United States, documentary, English.
Conversation with director Peres Owino & Catered Reception
ADIFF NY 2014 CENTERPIECE
Between Friends
NY Premiere
Launching of the SOUTH AFRICA: 20 YEARS OF DEMOCRACY program presented in collaboration with the South African Department of Arts and Culture, the NFVF and the Kwazulu-Natal Film Commission.
VIP RECEPTION: Tue, Dec. 2 @ 6PM - Riverside Theater
CENTERPIECE SCREENING: Tue, Dec. 2 @ 7:30PM - Riverside Theater
Keynote speaker: Dr. Molefi Kete Asante
Professor in the Department of African American Studies at Temple University, founder of the PhD program in African-American Studies, and President of the Molefi Kete Asante Institute for Afrocentric Studies.
Between Friends
After 7 years, college friends reunite at an up-market game lodge in South Africa. Long buried secrets shared by old friends are eventually exposed, causing tensions to arise in current relationships. A stylish, funny tale of the new South Africa. Stars Thapelo Mokoena, Lihle Dhlomo, Mandisa Nduna, Dunisani Mbebe, Amanda Du Pont, Siyabonga Twala and Morne Du toit.
Directed by Zuko Nodada, 2014, 93 min, South Africa, Romantic comedy, English, Zulu with English subt.
Q&A after the screening.
ADIFF 2014 OPENING NIGHT:
Friday, November 28, 2014
SUPREMACY
7:30PM @ Symphony Space
Joe Anderson (Across the Universe) and Danny Glover star in Supremacy, a racially charged psychological thriller. Supremacy follows a high-ranking white supremacist (Anderson) who murders a cop and hides out
with his accomplice by taking a black family hostage. Glover plays the patriarch of the house, an ex-con who must rely on his wits and understanding of the supremacist’s racist mind to keep his family safe.
Supremacy, which made its world premiere in June 2014 at the LA Film Festival, also stars Dawn Olivieri, Derek Luke, Evan Ross, Lela Rochon, Robin Bobeau, and Anson Mount. Based on real events, Supremacy is a shocking, complex, real-life horror story.
(Deadline.com) (USA, 2014, 97 min, Deon Taylor, dir., Drama)
Highlights from the African Diaspora International Film Festival New York City
November 28 to December 14, 2014
• Check out all the films
• Get Tickets
Various locations in Manhattan, NYC including The Thalia Cinema at Symphony Space, Quad Cinema, The Cowin Center and Chapel at Teachers College, Columbia University and the Riverside Theater.
NEW YORK CITY - The African Diaspora International Film Festival (ADIFF) is proud of its 22-year history of firsts in presenting, interpreting and educating about films from throughout the world that depict the lives of people from Africa and the African Diaspora. The festival features world and US premieres, recent
popular titles, classic movies, foreign and independent releases. Post-screening question-and-answer sessions and panel discussions that include filmmakers, critics, academics, and audiences present the most current discourse on filmmaking in Africa and the African Diaspora.The festival begins every year on the last Friday of the month of November during the Thanksgiving weekend and runs for eighteen days. ADIFF 22nd anniversary will be celebrated from Friday, November 28 through Sunday, December 14, 2014.
Highlights:
ADIFF NY 2014 presents: Gloria Rolando - An Afro-Cuban Filmmaker
Gloria Rolando was born in Cuba where she developed a career in making films about the Afro-Cuban experience. Her films span across 35 years at the ICAIC, the Cuban national film institute.
Gloria Rolando is currently on a national tour in the USA and is getting great acclaim for her work everywhere. Gloria will be in NY for ADIFF from NOV. 28 to NOV. 30 to present 5 of her films films as part of ADIFF's special program BLACKS IN LATIN AMERICA sponsored by the Academy of Motion Picture.
Come join us Nov. 28 to Nov. 30 and meet this exceptional filmmaker!Films to screen in New York are:
Her classic Oggun: An Eternal Presence (Oggun: Presencia Eternal)
Her trilogy: 1912, Breaking the Silence: Part 1, 2 & 3 (1912: Voces para un Silencio)
Her most recent work: Reshipment (Re-embarque)
SCREENINGS
1912, Breaking the Silence: Part 1, 2 & 3 (1912: Voces para un Siliencio)
NY Premiere
Part 1: Chap 1 & 2: Sat, Nov. 29 @ 6PM - The Chapel
Part 2: Chap 3 + Q&A: Sat, Nov 29 @ 8PM - The Chapel
1912, Breaking the Silence is a project dedicated to the history of the Party of the Independents of Color (PIC), a political party established in Cuba in 1908 to represents the interest of Afro-Cubans.
This three parts documentary seeks to cover some antecedents in the history of Afro-Cubans' struggle for self-determination, a necessary recapitulation which goes step by step down the path of resistance taken by the Black movement in Cuba since colonial times, the struggle for independence and the situation of Black Cubans once the island of Cuba achieved its independence in 1902. References are made to significant, Black leaders in Cuba from the nineteenth century, such as Juan Gualberto Gomez and Martin Morua Delgado, Antonio Maceo and Quintin Banderas.
Through the voices, opinions, and commentaries of historians and Cuban cultural icons accompanied by images of documents, photos, and clippings from the press of that era, two main issues are explored : 1) what did the Afro-Cubans do before the founding of the PIC? 2) Was the creation of a political party to represents Afro-Cubans necessary?
Directed by Gloria V. Rolando Casamayor, 45, 58, 56 minutes, Cuba, documentary, Spanish with English subt.
1912: Breaking the Silence, Chapter 1
Oggun: An Eternal Presence (Oggun: Presencia Eterna) + Q&A
Fri, Nov. 28 @ 4PM - The Chapel
Gloria Rolando relates the patakin or mythical story of Oggun, the tireless warrior who, enamored of his mother, decided as punishment to imprison himself in the mountains. Only Ochun, goddess of love, succeeded in captivating him when she let fall a few drops of honey on the lips of the god of metal, war, progress, and civilization. Oggun is the first effort of the team later to be known as Images of the Caribbean, now chartered as an independent video group. Directed by Gloria Rolando, 1992, Cuba, Documentary, Spanish, 52 min, Spanish, English subtitles
Reshipment (Re-embarque) + Q&A and cocktail after the screening
NY Premiere
AN EVENING WITH GLORIA ROLANDO
Sun, Nov. 30 @ 6M - The Chapel
This is a documentary on Haitians immigrants in Cuba who were sent back in the beginning of the last century when the sugar market crashed and they became unwanted. Directed by Gloria Rolando, 2014, Cuba/Haiti, Documentary, 58 min, Spanish, English subt.
Abayomi Interviews AfroCubana Filmmaker Gloria Rolando
Bound: Africans vs. African-Americans
NY PREMIEREFri, Dec. 12 @ 7PM - The Chapel
GALA SCREENING
African vs African Americans is a hard-hitting documentary that addresses the little known tension that exists between Africans and African Americans. The film opens with personal testimonials that expose this rift then walks us through the corridors of African colonialism and African American enslavement, laying bare their effects and how these have divided and bound Africans and African Americans.
Directed by Peres Owino, 2014, 90 min., United States, documentary, English.
Conversation with director Peres Owino & Catered Reception
ADIFF NY 2014 CENTERPIECE
Between Friends
NY Premiere
Launching of the SOUTH AFRICA: 20 YEARS OF DEMOCRACY program presented in collaboration with the South African Department of Arts and Culture, the NFVF and the Kwazulu-Natal Film Commission.
VIP RECEPTION: Tue, Dec. 2 @ 6PM - Riverside TheaterCENTERPIECE SCREENING: Tue, Dec. 2 @ 7:30PM - Riverside Theater
Keynote speaker: Dr. Molefi Kete Asante
Professor in the Department of African American Studies at Temple University, founder of the PhD program in African-American Studies, and President of the Molefi Kete Asante Institute for Afrocentric Studies.
Between Friends
After 7 years, college friends reunite at an up-market game lodge in South Africa. Long buried secrets shared by old friends are eventually exposed, causing tensions to arise in current relationships. A stylish, funny tale of the new South Africa. Stars Thapelo Mokoena, Lihle Dhlomo, Mandisa Nduna, Dunisani Mbebe, Amanda Du Pont, Siyabonga Twala and Morne Du toit.
Directed by Zuko Nodada, 2014, 93 min, South Africa, Romantic comedy, English, Zulu with English subt.
Q&A after the screening.
ADIFF 2014 OPENING NIGHT:
Friday, November 28, 2014
SUPREMACY
7:30PM @ Symphony Space
Joe Anderson (Across the Universe) and Danny Glover star in Supremacy, a racially charged psychological thriller. Supremacy follows a high-ranking white supremacist (Anderson) who murders a cop and hides out
with his accomplice by taking a black family hostage. Glover plays the patriarch of the house, an ex-con who must rely on his wits and understanding of the supremacist’s racist mind to keep his family safe.Supremacy, which made its world premiere in June 2014 at the LA Film Festival, also stars Dawn Olivieri, Derek Luke, Evan Ross, Lela Rochon, Robin Bobeau, and Anson Mount. Based on real events, Supremacy is a shocking, complex, real-life horror story.
(Deadline.com) (USA, 2014, 97 min, Deon Taylor, dir., Drama)
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