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
Dr. Sybil Williams’ (Roberts) “Searching for Gabriela” @ Source Theate April 16th – 23rd
one of the giants of DC-theater Dr. Sybil Williams (Roberts) has a new play coming up at The Source, let’s support this!
Here is the excerpted info:
For full press release click here
Contact information
(202) 204-7760 / inseries@inseries.org
Contact: Emily Morrison or Mattias Kraemer
The In Series presents
Searching for Gabriela
Searching for Gabriela, a theatrical evening about poet Gabriela Mistral – produced by the In Series, at Source, 1835 14th St. NW, Washington, DC 20009.
Performances:
Friday April 16 at 8pm,
Saturday 4/17 at 8pm,
Sunday 4/18 at 3pm,
Thursday 4/22 at 7:30pm,
Friday 4/23 at 8pm
and Saturday 4/24 at 3pm.
Tickets: $31 (General Admission) $28 (Senior) $16 (Student) Box Office: 202-204-7763 or www.inseries.org.
Thursday 4/22 performance followed by Audience Discussion as part of OUT at InSeries.
Saturday 4/24 performance includes announcement of winners of the Finding Gabriela DC Youth Poetry Contest, followed by an informal gathering. Half of the proceeds for the Sunday April 18 and Friday April 23 shows will be donated to the Chilean American Foundation (CAF) to support
children affected by the February earthquake in Chile.
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Washington DC (March 24, 2010) – The In Series announces Searching for Gabriela, directed by Abel Lopez with an original storyline in English by DC playwright Sybil R. Williams. The work brings to life the passionate poetry of Gabriela Mistral, Latin America’s first Nobel Prize winner (1945 for Literature) in a bilingual tapestry of words, music and movement, performed alternating English and Spanish.
“Mistral was a fierce feminist warrior of the mid 1900’s, whose poetry celebrates the spirit of women in the beauty of the land, the laughter of children, and the redemption of loss,” says writer Sybil Williams,who draws inspiration from Ursula K. Le Guin’s powerful translations of Mistral’s poetry. This 21st century look at her magnificent work is revealed in performance by Jenifer Deal, Monalisa Arias, Karen Morales, Lorena Sabogal, vocalist Cecilia Esquivel and pianists/music directors Carla Hübner and Jose Caceres.
Both legend and myth in her home country of Chile, Mistral, born in1889, began writing poetry as a child. Her celebrated poetry about children and motherhood has long been a standard part of the school curriculum throughout Latin America and her memory is honored in Chile with streets, squares and schools in her name. Although her formal education ended at age 12, she began teaching at 15 in remote rural schools, was eventually nominated to direct several liceos (including the most prestigious girls’
school in Chile) and attained international fame and recognition as an educator. Five collections of her poetry and prose were published in her lifetime, and she wrote all her life in a consistently intense and passionate voice on themes of nature, betrayal, love, sorrow and recovery, travel, and Latin American identity. She left Chile in 1926, and like many Latin American artists and intellectuals, served as a consul working in Naples, Madrid, Lisbon, Nice, Petrópolis, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Veracruz and New
York. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1945, and returned to her beloved Chile a few times, only as a much acclaimed visitor, living out her life in essence as an exile. Gabriela Mistral died in New York in 1957.
Sybil R. Williams (Writer) – is a DC based playwright and dramaturg. Her work has been professionally produced by ETA Creative Arts Theatre (Chicago), National Black Theatre (New York) and Kuntu Theatre (Pittsburgh). For the In Series, Ms Williams most recently wrote the script for the highly successful historical/musical play From U Street to the Cotton Club. Her play Dream of Ophelia was nominated for a prestigious JEFF award in 2000, and Liberating Prayer: A Lovesong For Mumia has been published in August Wilson And The Black Aesthetic.
The In Series (www.inseries.org), in its 10th Season as an independent organization, is Washington, DC’s home for distinctive performing arts programming, encompassing original, innovative approaches to
classical music, with generous helpings of theatre, poetry and dance.
APRIL 23 @ 7:30: FREE Concert with the Cornel West Theory, Intersections/Poetry and art show closings
click on flyer for more info
Third World Press Fundraiser 4.24.2010
Please Click on Flier for a larger view and for more details.
Link will open in a new window.
Here is a message from Dr.Randall Horton about the event:
Please come out, all are welcome regardless of whether you can make a donation or not. Come out and support one of the oldest Black presses in the country….also, please pass around and tell your friends….we need your help to make this a success….
Millennium Arts Salon at The Phillips Collection: Art and Architecture
Art and Architecture
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Dear Friends of Millennium Arts Salon:
Please Join Us!!!
Salon with Scholar Kelly Quinn and Architect Peter D.Cook
Hilyard R. Robinson and the Making of a Community:
Langston Terrace Dwellings
Wednesday, April 7, 2010, 5:30-6:30 pm
Sponsored by Millennium Arts Salon and The Phillips Collection
Langston Terrace Dwellings, which opened in 1938 and situated in NE DC, was designed by African American Architect Hilyard R. Robinson. Scholar Kelly Quinn will explore the person and the community. Peter D. Cook, noted African American Architect, is associated with the building of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and whose family knew Mr.Robinson. He will respond to Ms. Quinn’s salon talk and will lead a rich and lively Q&A. See attachment for more details.
This salon is a collaboration between Millennium Arts Salon and the Phillips Collection. The event will be held in the Center for Modern Art just behind the Phillips, 1600 21st Street, NW from 5:30-6:30 pm. MAS is pleased to explore the intersections of art and architecture in its quest to “…advance cultural literacy through the arts and cultural programming”.
The event is FREE with museum entrance fee.
Join us.
Artfully yours,
Millennium Arts Salon
around my way: DISCOVER THE ANACOSTIA ARTS DISTRICT
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upstairs and see the art that Honfleur Gallery is exhibiting for the first BCCG art show!
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Honfleur Art Gallery | 1241 Good Hope Rd. SE | Washington | DC | 20020
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around my way: DISCOVER THE ANACOSTIA ARTS DISTRICT
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Honfleur Art Gallery | 1241 Good Hope Rd. SE | Washington | DC | 20020
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