The ’Wave of the Future

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Now in the middle of its first fund-raising campaign under the new name ArtsWave, the organization formerly known as the Fine Arts Fund wants to pioneer a new approach to valuing the role of the arts in our community. But with that might come controversy. Some worry that in trying to broaden its mission, ArtsWave will be spreading its dollars thin.

The nonprofit Fine Arts Fund was founded in 1949 to raise money for Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati Opera, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Taft Museum. In 1978, it added Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati Ballet, Playhouse in the Park and the May Festival. It has been increasing its reach, even as it fights to raise money during the recession, and last year collected just under $11.1 million on behalf of 100 groups. That includes the traditional arts giants, but also groups like the Lebanon Symphony Orchestra and Oxford Community Arts Center.

ArtsWave officials are proud of their outreach.


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“We’re at the head of the curve — we were the only locally based organization invited to participate in a meeting the National Endowment for the Arts held in Washington last June,” says Mary McCullough-Hudson, longtime head of the Fine Arts Fund and now ArtsWave CEO/president. The meeting considered means of measuring the impact of arts and culture on communities.

“National bloggers are paying attention to what we’re doing,” she adds, an indication of new media’s role in the new ArtsWave. “We are on the leading edge nationally in showing how the arts make a community more livable, more exciting,” says Margy Waller, who left her Washington, D.C., job two years ago to return to her hometown as Fine Arts Fund’s vice president for strategic communications and research. Work already was underway in revamping the Fund’s approach; the name change was announced last September.

Some people still ask why.

McCullough-Hudson says the impetus came five years ago when the Greater Cincinnati Foundation convened a group of leaders from various sectors to consider a two-pronged question. It was this, she says: “Who is really paying attention to sustainability for the extraordinary array of arts in this community? And are we doing enough to leverage it in attracting visitors, in aligning with corporations to attract and retain the 21st-century worker?”

The Fine Arts Fund eventually decided to take the lead in exploring these issues.

“We had been very focused and successful (as a fund-raiser),” McCullough-Hudson says. “We could have continued doing that and let somebody else take on the broader role. But the leaders (at the meeting) felt the stature of the Fine Arts Fund made it the choice. In the fall of 2007 the board agreed we should explore what the community wants from arts and culture.”


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Local African American artists present work; honor heritage

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by: Joseph McMillan

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB Fox 41) — Dozens gathered in Central High School’s auditorium today to celebrate African American history.

Art and music filled the room for the first ever African American History, Heritage and Family Celebration.

The ceremony was highlighted by several dance, drum and musical performances, as well as poetry and story readings.

The Arts Council of Louisville wanted the event to bring a sense of family to the community, and foster new enthusiasm about African American heritage.

“I think that it’s always a good time for starting new, what I call, initiative, and we wanted to have something that would bring all aspects of our community together,” said Nana Yaa Asantewaa, Founder and Administrative Office of the Arts Council of Louisville.

The event also recognized the late-distinguished U of L Professor Joseph McMillan.

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PS 31 students spent school year immersed in African art and crafts

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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – NEW BRIGHTON – Lucky third-graders at PS 31, along with some children from fourth- and fifth-grade classes at the New Brighton school, embarked on an exciting exploration of African art, crafts, and music last October – thanks to the creativity and enthusiasm of Emily Ellison, a West Brighton resident who is employed by Sundog Theatre to teach art and music.

“Once a week, we make art and music, sing songs, dance, and study some of the culture of the vast, varied and beautiful continent of Africa,” Ms. Ellison said. Her rich, Africa-themed curriculum continues until the end of the school year.

Ms. Ellison is hopeful that these creative classroom activities will inspire in her young students “a life-long interest in African culture and customs.” She also wishes that what they learn inspires them to enjoy future opportunities to visit the continent and see everything for themselves, first-hand.

AFRICAN MASKS

The students visited the Brooklyn Museum in October, on a tour that focused on the African masks exhibition.

“They investigated wood and fiber masks from Burkina Faso, Liberia, and other countries,” said Ms. Ellison, “and learned that artisans use readily-available materials – wood, fiber, and paints and pigments from plants and minerals. Some of the children designed masks of their own on paper that day.

“Back at school, each class spent three art-periods designing and creating their own African masks out of paper, yarn, fabric, raffia plant fiber, and glue,” she reported. “They cut out the eye-holes themselves, and made important design decisions, such as ear shape, mouth placement, and opting for symmetrical or asymmetrical masks.”

Last week, Jordan Montgomery, 9, proudly pointed out the mask that he had designed. It symbolizes “the combination of a guerrilla, a bird, and the teeth of a cheetah,” he said.

Raniyah Lockley, 8, explained that her mask – fashioned with pipe cleaners, yarn, and feathers, in a palette of blue, purple, pink, red, and orange – was designed to represent “a person from Africa.”

Another intricate, colorful mask by Max Butler, 9, was crafted to incorporate “a guerrilla, antelope horns, tiger whiskers, and a lion’s beard,” said Max, who noted that his father, Julius, “is a sculptor and an artist.”


WEAVING

The students also created textile pieces, “inspired by Kente cloth from Ghana,” Ms. Ellison said. “They learned about weaving, embroidery, and dying fabrics.”

She taught one class first to weave on paper, “and then I moved them on to creating beautiful weavings on plastic looms that I built out of discarded, corrugated plastic campaign signs from local political races.”

Two classes of students traveled to the Newhouse Center at Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden in Livingston to watch, up close, weaving of Kente cloth from Ghana.

Inspired, the students produced striking fabric-strip weavings from scraps of material that Ms. Ellison provided. “I gave them lots of strips, and they had to plan and work in groups. This was not easy,” she said.

The students were also instructed to title their works, which are destined for permanent exhibition at the school.

The pieces include: “My Little Sister’s Birthday Cake from my Dad,” a creation of Jahda Page and Bernard Faulkner; “Red Clothes” from Karmel Blake and Darsee Joe; and “Blue Sky,” a design of Richard Joya and Luis Soto.

EMBROIDERY

After learning about embroidery from South Africa, 23 third-graders worked on projects last Thursday morning, at Ms. Ellison instruction to “continue with or edit your design.” She explained that the students could choose to use metal or bobby-pin needles, and any sewing technique they preferred, including chain and cross-stitching. She distributed chalk to students who wanted to reconfigure initial design schematics.

Each student’s individual embroidered burlap squares will be combined into a class quilt, Ms. Ellison explained. And then she challenged them:

“What kind of design represents you the best? What if someone found our quilt 500 years from now? What will your design say about you? Pick your designs and colors carefully,” she advised.

The youngsters paid attention, and got to work. Alissa Walton, 9, from New Brighton, had chosen a piece of red burlap. Her design? “A heart with the word ‘love’ inside it, and I’m going to embroider flowers around the heart,” she said.

Her classmate Jadalise McGee, also 9 and from New Brighton, was designing “a rocket ship, because I like space,” she said. “Space is interesting because it has all the planets.” Her favorite planet is Mars – “because it’s so rocky and red,” she said.

The students learned about African-American quilt-making during a visit to Sandy Ground, according to Ms. Ellison. That art form derived “from needlework and quilt traditions in Africa,” she said.

Ms. Ellison is hopeful that the months-long experience will stick with her young charges for a lifetime. “I hope that the children will continue to pursue any of the wonderful arts and crafts they learned, and grow as artists, dancers, singers and musicians,” she said with a broad smile.

Arts calendar

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by: Daily Press


Authors to lecture at Jamestown Settlement – “From Africa to Virginia” Theme Month. 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 27. Linda M. Heywood, professor of history and director of the African American Studies Program at Boston University and author of “Contested Power in Angola,” will speak on “Queen Njinga: Legacy, Memory, and Nation in Contemporary Angola.” Jamestown Settlement, located at State Route 31 and the Colonial Parkway, is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Admission is $15.50 for adults and $7.25 for ages 6-12. A combination ticket is available with the Yorktown Victory Center. Information: (888) 593-4682 toll-free or (757) 253-4838 or visit http://www.historyisfun.org.

Boston University Professor Linda Heywood to Speak. 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 27.Heywood will present “Queen Njinga: Legacy, Memory, and Nation in Contemporary Angola.” Dr. Heywood, professor of history and director of the African American Studies Program at Boston University and author of “Contested Power in Angola,” will explore the question of how and why Queen Njinga, who waged war against the Portuguese in the 17th century, became a figure of memory and a power political icon in contemporary Angola. The lecture is presented in conjunction with Jamestown Settlement’s “From Africa to Virginia” theme month and is included with museum general admission of $15.50 for adults and $7.25 for ages 6 through 12. Jamestown Settlement, State Route 31, Colonial Parkway in James City County. Information, call (888) 593-4682 toll-free or (757) 253-4838.

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A Strange Anomaly: David Hammon’s ‘Homeless’ Art on the Upper East Side

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By Adam Lindemann

In 2003, artist David Hammons presented “Which Mike Would You Like to Be Like,” three vintage microphones standing alone in a room, representing three Michaels: Jackson, Tyson and Jordan. It was an ironic commentary on role models for African-Americans, a funny play on words, a great pun, all of the above; that’s the magic we’ve come to expect from David Hammons. He’s given us several memorable art moments: shoes slung over a Richard Serra sculpture, trees decorated with winos’ empty bottles; he famously sold snowballs outside an art school. A conceptual artist in the style of the great Marcel Duchamp, he even once re-bound Duchamp’s Catalogue Raisonne as the Holy Bible.

Mr. Hammons is arguably the most famous living African-American artist, and a serious cult figure in the art world. It’s not that the second half of the 20th century doesn’t have others, like Martin Puryear, Kara Walker, Glenn Ligon or Mark Bradford. But face it, they are far too few: The art world is sadly still a white man’s world.

So walking into a David Hammons show at the very grand L&M Gallery on the Upper East Side is a weird anomaly on a few fronts. Since he makes objects and avails himself of “ready-mades,” the notion of a Hammons painting show is a question mark in itself. And this show of paintings, by an artist who doesn’t paint, relates quite literally to homelessness. I braced for a lecture: artwork that revolves around issues of race, politics and inequality can get didactic, reductive and really boring. David Hammons has been working since the late ’60s, but, today, I’m living in the age of Obama.

To be frank, why would collectors like me, who are for the most part wealthy and white, want to buy work that tells a story that’s not their own? Too often, we, the “oppressors,” are supposed to come into a gallery, understand the work’s importance and collect it because it’s “meaningful,” and perhaps as a way to show compassion. I’m really not into buying self-indulgent work by artists who are going to lecture the bourgeois society about the realities of life. That’s stuff that dealers can pawn off on some overeager naif or stick back in storage.

But when I walked into this show, a very familiar room took on a completely different vibe. The work hung with tremendous gravitas, and I could feel something important was happening in this building. The new show at L+M is indeed a show of Hammons paintings, but very unusual ones, because each painting is draped in a dirty plastic tarp, to the extent that one cannot see the picture and can only glimpse at it through the tears and the rips and the dirt. Think of them as paintings draped in dirty plastic, the kind of objects a homeless person rolls up in on a cold night before they go to sleep near a subway grating or a church stoop.

Mr. Hammons is no painter and doesn’t care to be; he’s making fun of painting altogether, because when you lift the tarp, you find the same kind of splashy colorful inane gestural painting that you can find hanging in many Chelsea galleries right now. He is indifferent to them; he covers them and gives them shelter, but what convinced me was the beautiful effect the ripped and dirty draped plastic creates as it cascades over the canvas and rolls down the wall, spilling onto the floor.

There are plenty of art historical references we can find here, from Alberto Burri’s “Plastico” masterpieces, to the plastic sheets in Robert Rauschenberg’s combines, and yes, I did detect a little Steve Parrino and a touch of Rudy Stingel, too, but the homeless, dirty, discarded, left-out-in-the-cold painting hanging in this Upper East Side gallery is all Hammons.

The work is about class, and the strange intersection of the aesthetics of poverty with Arte Povera and Abstract Expressionism. The whole concept of art and money and class is a phenomenally complex one, too often over-sensationalized and oversimplified. Mr. Hammons gives it to us in its full complexity, presenting the queasy idea of paying six figures for a painting that hangs under a dirty tarp while nearby on 65th Street, homeless people are showing up in real dirty tarps and getting fed dinner in the basement of the Park Avenue Armory.

Of course, it may be be perverse to begin with for an artist to use this entire socio-art-gallery system to make a lot of money. Unlike most artists who produce work and consign it to their gallery for sale, Mr. Hammons reportedly makes the dealer buy the whole show for cash up front, so he makes out whether it sells or not. This all might be viewed as a part of his perverse and complex relationship with the art market, or perhaps he just can’t bear the idea that something he makes doesn’t sell. But it doesn’t much matter, because the work and the show, for those who are willing to think it through, puts him at the very top of his generation.

That’s not what other people I spoke to took away from it. One well-known collector told me he hated the show because it required too much explanation—but Mr. Hammons’ work speaks for itself. A savvy dealer even told me he didn’t like it because he couldn’t see the encased pictures—but you weren’t supposed to. All of this leaves me to conclude that David Hammons has to be one of the most misunderstood artists working today.

This is definitely going to be considered one of the best shows of the year, so go see it (It’s up through Feb. 26). One of the show’s triumphs is that it makes me think perhaps we should all also stop in at a homeless shelter and learn something there, too.

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Art Notes: Black history celebration, performances, lectures and more

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Art that’s loved American artist Edmund William Greacen painted the oil on canvas “Brooklyn Bridge, East River” in 1916, This view of the Brooklyn Bridge was probably painted from the roof of Greacen’s building on East 18th Street, the first apartment building erected in all of New York. Born in 1877, Greacen studied painting at the Art Students League in New York, then lived for several years in the early part of the 20th century in France, studying the works of the French Impressionists, particularly Claude Monet. Greacen returned to America and opened the first of two art schools in New York and exerted great influence as a teacher. He died in 1949. The painting was give to the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens by Mr. and Mrs. Rene Faure in 1972. Nan Greacen Faure was Edmund Greacen’s daughter. As part of its preparation for its year-long 50th anniversary celebration, the Cummer asked visitors last year to vote for their favorite items in the Cummer’s collection. A book, “50 Favorites for the Fiftieth Postcard Book,” which includes detachable post cards featuring images of the 50 favorites, is available from the Cummer gift shop for $14.95. The 50 favorites are also featured on a 50th anniversary website, www.cummer50.org. The Times-Union is publishing one favorite each Saturday during this year.



Quintet combines music and art

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by: Roberto Rodriquez

African/Caribbean/American music, Rodriguez, composer/percussionist and one of today’s most versatile performers and intriguing composers, brings his Mulato Insurgency Quintet including Roberto (drums), Igor Arias (congos, vocals), Matt Munisteri (banjo), Bernie Minoso (bass), and Andy Ezrin (organs) to the Puffin to perform selections from his multi-media work-in-progress “Manos Piadosas/Devout Hands.” Set to poetry by Cuban poet Omar Perez with a backdrop of visual art by Puerto Rican-American artist Juan Sanchez, this inclusive work seeks to preserve the cultural and ethnic identity of the three groups while creating a wholly original blend of their art, music and poetry.

Both the creative process and the final work will ultimately be recorded in digital, DVD, CD and vinyl formats.

There is a $10 suggested donation. Reservations recommended: tix@puffinfoundation.org. The Puffin is located at 20 Puffin Way. Call 201-836-3499 or visit www.PuffinCulturalForum.org.

The Puffin Foundation, Ltd. underwrites this and all other events and programs to make it possible for everyone to attend.

African masks on show in New York

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by: Yaella Biro

Our first stop is New York where the Metropolitan Museum of Art is the new home for creative re-imaginings of the African mask. The exhibition, “Reconfiguring the African Icon: Odes to the mask by Modern and Contemporary Artists from Three Continents,” is a collaboration between the Museum’s departments of Nineteenth-Century, Modern, and Contemporary Art and Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas.

African masks are often thought of as carved wooden artifacts. But these five artists detail the masks with infinite potential for reinvention.

Yaelle Biro, Assistant Curator, said, “I think it’s important to expose artists with different backgrounds. We have artists from Africa from Benin. We have American artists. We have one artist in particular from the beginning of the century. We have other artists who are from the 21st century. We are trying to show how the mix of these artists – each with their own unique personality and experience – are finding ways to explore the mask and African masks in particular.”

Alisa Lagamna, Curator, said, “What Man Ray does in that photograph is what we’re addressing with all the works in this exhibition. Taking the masks out of Africa in a sense elevating it as a work of sculpture and playing with it as a source of inspiration in it’s right.”

America artist Willie Cole has three pieces on display, in one he uses bicycle parts to interpret the historical significance’s of the African mask.

For Cole, being a part of the exhibition is meaningful.

Willie Cole, Artist, said, “I am standing, straddling I guess the past, present and the future were I am pulling forth some sort of spiritual connection I like to believe with my accent past, you know before Western world. But I am also, and I’ve been told by other curators, tapping into modernism as well as contemporary conceptual art.”

The works will be on display in New York until June.

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Series and Sequences: Romare Bearden, Stuart Davis, Robert De Niro, Sr., Nathan Oliveira

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by: DC Moore

DC Moore’s new exhibition, Series and Sequences, explores the idea of variations on a theme in the work of four twentieth-century artists who used related imagery or returned to similar imagery over time. Through a select group of paintings and drawings, the exhibit reveals some of the many ways in which artists enter into a dialogue with their own work through series. Organized in conjunction with Never the Same Twice, which features the work of contemporary artists, the exhibition provides a complementary view of a long-standing artistic practice.

In 1977, Romare Bearden (1911-1987) created a cycle of collages and watercolors based on episodes from Homer’s epic poem, the Odyssey. In the complete set of twenty-four watercolors Bearden reinterprets Odysseus’ heroic quest by emphasizing the North African aspects of its Mediterranean setting and using imagery rooted in both classical mythology and African American culture. Bearden created these works at mid-career, perhaps reflecting on his own journey as an artist as well as the historic African American search for home.

The importance of process and of using earlier works as the basis for new compositions are key aspects of the art of Stuart Davis (1892-1964), whose ideas about jazz and improvisation in painting had a significant influence on Bearden. Drawings like those on view were central to his creative practice, just as the act of drawing was the foundation of both his art and his art theory.

For Robert De Niro, Sr. (1922-1993), an artist who maintained a vibrant consistency in his work for over three decades, a series often meant creating three or four versions of an idea or subject almost simultaneously. The three paintings in the exhibition, all from September 1968, are radical stylizations of architecture in a suburban or small town setting, done in his signature post-Fauve palette with freely brushed areas of color defined by strong outlines.

Nathan Oliveira (1928-2010) explored the theme of the solitary figure for over fifty years. For him, a series could derive from repeated sessions with a particular model for a brief period of time or a group of related works created over the course of several years. The nudes in the exhibition were done between 1965 and 1972. Their immediacy demonstrates that spontaneity was the essence of Oliveira’s method, resulting in bold, direct works that capture a momentary encounter

between artist and model in a burst of creative energy.

March 17 – April 30, 2011

Opening reception: Thursday, March 17, 6:00-8:00 PM

About DC Moore Gallery:

DC Moore Gallery specializes in contemporary and twentieth-century art. The gallery is located at 535 West 22nd Street, 2nd Floor and is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 to 6. Press previews can be arranged prior to the exhibition. For more information, for photographs, or to arrange a viewing, please call Kate Weinstein at 212-247-2111

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Conference focuses on ‘The Art of Public Memory’ April 7-10

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By Steve Gilliam


GREENSBORO, N.C. –“The Art of Public Memory,” an international conference that will explore interactions between the arts, memory and history, will be held at UNCG, Thursday through Sunday, April 7-10.

“The conference will focus on the ways that the arts participate in the creation and rethinking of public, or collective, memory,” said Dr. Ann Dils, director of theUNCG Women and Gender Studies Program. “Dance, theatre, music, film, and the visual arts all contribute to our understanding of people, events, places, institutions and histories.

“It is also part of a year-long series of events marking the opening of the new School of Music, Theatre and Dance, a celebration of interdisciplinary scholarship at UNCG, and a way to bring UNCG faculty, students and the public together with scholars, artists, educators and activists from around the world.”

An opening reception at the Greensboro Historical Museum from 7-9 p.m. Thursday will feature an opening address by Randy Martin, professor of art and public policy at New York University and director of the graduate program in arts politics. Martin is the author of “Performance as Political Act: The Embodied Self,” and “Critical Moves: Dance Studies in Theory and Politics,” and he is co-editor of “Artistic Citizenship: A Public Voice for the Arts.”

The conference will feature a variety of topics to be covered by more than 100 speakers in 50-plus programs and performance sessions running through Sunday. Events will be held across the facilities of the School of Music, Theatre and Dance.

Major presentations include:

• “Serenade/ The Proposition,” performance by the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company (http://www.billtjones.org/ ), at 8 p.m. Friday, April 8, in Aycock Auditorium. A work about Abraham Lincoln and the nature of history, it was one of three works that Jones created for the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth. Among Jones’s other award-winning productions are “Chapel/Chapter,” “The Table Project,” “Still/ Here,” “D-Man in the Waters” and “Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin/The Promised Land.” Company co-founder Bill T Jones received the Kennedy Center Honor in December 2010.

• Eileen M. Hayes, music historian and ethnomusicologist at the University of North Texas, 3-4:15 p.m., Friday, April 8, Collins Lecture Hall, School of Music. She is the author of “Songs in Black and Lavender: Race, Sexual Politics, and Women’s Music” and is the co-editor of “Black Women and Music: More than the Blues.” Her essays have been published in “African American Music: An Introduction,” “Ethnomusicology” and “Women and Music: the Journal of Gender and Culture.”

• Suzan-Lori Parks, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and MacArthur Foundation “genius award” winner, 2-4 p.m. Saturday, April 9, Taylor Building. She is the first African American woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize in drama for the Broadway hit “Topdog/Underdog.” Her work, “The America Play,” will be presented locally by Triad Stage in May. Her musical, “Unchain My Heart, the Ray Charles Musical” is scheduled to premiere on Broadway this spring.

Conference attendees can also see the premiere of a documentary, “Honest, Abe,” by Mary Lopez, a UNCG media studies graduate student, which includes interviews with people living in Rutherford County, where local tradition suggests that Lincoln was born. N.C. A&T State University faculty member Donna Bradby will present sections of Suzan-Lori Parks’ “The America Play” performed by A&T students. UNCG theatre professor Janet Allard will lead a writing workshop entitled “Whose/Who’s Lincoln?”

Other presenters will discuss how the arts shape our response to wars and natural disasters; the importance of popular media and television series such as “Mad Men” and “Big Love,” to shaping opinion of particular groups of people; and how music, literature, and visual art participate in the histories of Mexico and Myanmar. Conference sessions range across music, theatre and dance performances, film showings, workshops and panels of academic papers.

Registration will cost $150 for general attendance; $30 for student registration, $60 for UNCG faculty and $15 for UNCG students. A one-day registration will run $60 general, $25 public educator or UNCG faculty member, and $7 UNCG students.



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Cerritos College B.S.U. Celebrates Black History Through Art

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By Michael Brown

More than 150 people didn’t let the pouring rain put a damper on an evening to celebrate the “Black Expressions through Art” program, sponsored by the Cerritos College Black Student Union as part of its commemoration of Black History Month.

The Feb. 25 event, held in the campus’ Student Center, featured dozens of speakers and performers of all stripes, who paid tribute to the night’s theme through poetry, dance, music and art. Vendor booths and a raffle were also part of the festivities.

“I have been waiting a long time, like six years, for the Cerritos College B.S.U. to do something like this,” said the event’s keynote speaker Mandla Kayise, founder of New World Education, an organization with a focus on college access, retention and student leadership development.

“You (students) have to be at the forefront of social change in your community,” Kayise added. “Only through you will our present conditions change.”

He also gave a brief history on the significant role African American artists played in affecting social change, reflecting on the early 20th century’s Harlem Renaissance, the ‘60s Black Arts Movement and the current Hip Hop music and the genre’s ability to unite young people from different backgrounds.

The event drew a diverse audience comprised of mostly students who filled the Center’s seats during the fashion and talent portions of the show.

Cerritos College sociology major Fabian Rodriguez said, “Although I’m not black, I still wanted to come out and support the B.S.U. because we need more unity on campus. Plus, I’m kind of an artist myself so I wanted to see some of the talent.”

And talent was on full display throughout the evening.

Byron Pittman, a member of the organization, performed a song titled, “B.S.U.,” which referenced Martin Luther King Jr., economic empowerment and the need for youth to assume leadership roles.

After some of the performances, students took the mic and recognized some members of their family. Tremel Stewart, B.S.U. president, also presented a couple members of the organization with small cash scholarships.

The evening also featured a variety of speakers who reflected on their personal experiences, including Hewlett “Smitty” Smith, a well-known pianist and jazz vocalist who talked about the racism and discrimination he faced while attending the University of Arizona as music major.

Not only was Black domestic art and music highlighted, the event also took on an international flair, courtesy of performers from Central and South America

B.S.U. member Jasmine Wright, who performed a spoken word piece early in the evening, proudly introduced a Los Angeles based band of Garifuna performers — black people originally from West Africa located throughout countries such as Honduras, Belize, Nicaragua and Guatemala.

Wright said she began to research the Garifuna because she wanted to “connect the different pieces of black people from the diaspora.”

Once on stage, the performers from the Garifuna American Heritage Foundation, danced and chanted while two members played the drums, prompting the audience to nod their heads to the beat while others approached the stage to snap numerous pictures.

Seeing the energy build in the room, Dale Aranda, a teacher at the Garifuna Language & Culture Academy of Los Angeles, called women in the audience onto the stage.

After he also invited the men to join the dancing, more than 40 people were on their feet moving to the thunderous and frenetic drumbeats in a frenzy of laughter and multicultural celebration.

“It was beautiful, just the whole event,” said B.S.U. member Benjamine Lewis. “We have been putting this program together for months, and we just do it for each other. I was proud of the event because it showed how successful we could be when we work together.”

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Dennis W. Spears Leads Penumbra Theatre’s I WISH YOU LOVE

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Penumbra Theatre Company, the nation’s preeminent African American theatre, announces the casting of I Wish You Love, by Dominic Taylor, directed by Lou Bellamy. The production features Dennis W. Spears as Nat “King” Cole, singing over 20 of Mr. Cole‘s beloved songs. This world premiere opens on the Penumbra stage April 21, 2011; Previews April 19 & 20; Runs April 21 – May 22, 2011. After its run at Penumbra, the production will travel to the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. where it will run from June 11 – 19, 2011 in the Terrace Theater.
The production, I Wish You Love, is a drama with music about a moment in the life of Nat “King” Cole. The play uses Cole’s television show as a way to illustrate the man, the times, and the real life drama behind the sanitizing lens of the television camera. In 1957, President Eisenhower had the Civil Rights Act on his desk that he may or may not sign. Althea Gibson had won Wimbledon.
Nine children were about to integrate Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas. And, Nat “King” Cole was the first black man that many in America let into their living room as they swooned to his tunes, including “Get Your Kicks on Route 66” and “Let There Be Love.” Cole came to the forefront of American life as the storm clouds of the modern civil rights era grew. Still, he believed that with enough talent and persistence he would be judged on the content of his character as opposed to the color of his skin. This production will be relevant to all ages and engage everyone in a dialogue about the power of advocacy – and how it can create change.
The cast also includes Kevin D. West (Oliver Moore), Eric Berryman (Jeffrey Prince), and Phil Kilbourne (Bell Henry/Anchor/Announcer).
The artistic team also includes Lance Brockman (Scenic Designer), Don Darnutzer (Lighting Designer), Mathew J. LeFebvre (Costume Designer), Martin Gwinup (Sound and Video Designer), Sanford Moore (Musical Director), and Mary K. Winchell (Stage Manager).
I Wish You Love was developed in OKRA, the Penumbra new play development program and produced with the assistance of The Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays.
PENUMBRA THEATRE was founded in 1976 by Lou Bellamy to make socially responsible art – art that demanded a response, art with intent, art that could create change. At a time when roles for black artists were limited to stereotypes and comical representations, Penumbra produced theater that roared with authenticity through the unrestrained and rich voice of black artists and playwrights. This respect for cultural authenticity became Penumbra’s signature style – and demand for it has reached new heights from theatres around the country fostering collaborations, new productions, tours and awards. For the latest news and updates, visit www.penumbratheatre.org.
OKRA, the Penumbra Theatre new play program was launched in 2008– a rigorous culturally specific program where playwrights can develop their plays in a safe, nurturing environment without restriction or reservation. The program has three components dedicated to play development – the expansion of early ideas, the exploration of a play script, and a developmental workshop to share the script with an audience. The ultimate goal of OKRA is to move a new play onto the main stage. Each year, we conduct Word(s)Play!, an intense development workshop for playwrights to refine completed scripts with the help of actors, directors, designers and musicians – readying it for full production. Penumbra has nurtured three plays that have received further production opportunities at New York Theatre Workshop and LAByrinth Theatre Company in New York City; Providence Black Rep in Providence, Rhode Island; and American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, California. Word(s)Play! has quickly gained critical acclaim within the industry for the caliber of the playwrights involved and the complexity of the works selected. The program receives generous support from the Jerome Foundation.

Burlington native hangs her art in Manhattan studio

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Artist Margaret Bowland described it as “a funeral where you get to be alive.”
It was the day after Bowland’s art opening at Babcock Galleries and the Burlington native was elated — not only was her artwork was on display at this prestigious gallery in midtown Manhattan — but friends and family were in attendance with the exception of her mother, Barbara Bowland of Burlington.
“She wasn’t able to come, but she sent flowers. You could see them as you walked in the door,” Margaret, a painting instructor and graduate adviser for the New York Academy of Art, said in a phone interview from her home in Brooklyn last week.
Bowland has lived and worked in New York for more than 30 years and this is her first solo art show. “Margaret Bowland: Excerpts from the Great American Songbook” opened March 1 and will remain on display until April 22. The show will then go on to the Greenville County Museum of Art in Greenville, S.C., where it will be on display May 18 through July 17.
The images of young African-American girls in white face was inspired by the Great American Songbook — songs Bowland has enjoyed listening to all of her life, but she exposes what she calls “the lies perpetuated by culture. The irony of the difference between what they’re (young girls) told and what they’ll get. The songs are really beautiful, but they set you up for a tough life. Distinguishing between myth and reality can be painful and yet, I love them.”
When it comes to her artwork, Bowland realizes that not everyone will like it — such is the world of art — but like she tells her students “all of art is an act of seduction. If you can’t get someone to start at it first … it has to be beautiful initially, but you have to feel the difference between what is beautiful and what is being said. You have to be open to any work of art.”
“I get e-mails all of the time from young black women saying ‘thank you for making paintings about us because no one does,’” she said. Her oil painting, “Murakami Wedding” (Portrait of Kenyetta and Brianna), was selected as the People’s Choice Award in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery’s Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition in 2009 in Washington, D.C.
The way the whole exhibit came to be is “a terrific story,” Bowland explained. “I had put an ad in Art In America; it was a tiny little image, way in the back of the magazine. Well, Thomas Styron, director of the Greenville County Museum saw it and called me out of the blue.” Styron then mentioned Bowland’s work to John Driscoll, owner of Babcock Galleries.
“It was the biggest thing that’s ever happened to me,” she said. “It was a miracle, really. It’s very hard to be an artist, especially in New York where there are more artists than galleries.”
Not only is her artwork on display at Babcock Galleries, but it was part of the Armory Show, an art fair featuring artwork from more than 270 galleries in the city, March 3-6.
“It’s a very big deal to get in that, too,” Bowland said. “More than 60,000 people pass through there. It’s just incredible.”
Bowland is married, has two children and lives in a brownstone in Brooklyn. The top floor is her studio and that’s where she creates her artwork, oftentimes massive billboard-like paintings.
Given the upcoming exhibits and attention to her artwork, Bowland said “it absolutely makes me feel like one of the luckiest people on the planet. Thomas Styron gave me a life with one phone call.”

Art exhibit commemorates attack on Freedom Riders

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One of the most violent moments of the civil rights era occurred in Montgomery 50 years ago and today Alaba­ma State University is un­veiling a series of artistic de­pictions of what happened on May 20, 1961.
On that day, civil rights ac­tivists dubbed “Freedom Riders,” were attacked at Montgomery’s Greyhound Bus Station where angry whites assaulted them with baseball bats, chains, fists and whatever else they could get their hands on.
Local authorities were vir­tually non-existent during the attack, and the activists were saved from further beatings by Alabama Public Safety Director Floyd Mann who withdrew his gun and waded into the mob until the violence stopped.

Books have been written and documentaries have been shown on television about the incident, but ASU is presenting something unique today — an artistic look at what occurred at the bus station half a century ago.
Presented by the National Center for the Study of Civil Rights and African-Ameri­can Culture, the paintings will have their debut this af­ternoon from 3 to 5 p.m. at the facility at 1345 Carter Hill Road. The exhibit con­tinues through May 31.
The exhibition, titled: “No Crystal Stair: A Climb to Freedom,” features works by Arthur Bacon, Ricky Callo­way, Marcella Muhammad, Lee Ransaw and Charlotte Riley-Webb.
Presented in vivid colors, the paintings depict the vio­lence, the anger and the sor­row that resulted from a sem­inal moment in America’s civil rights movement.
“The pieces in the exhibit honor the gallant contribu­tors to African-Americans’ struggle for freedom by the Freedom Rides and by others who sought to force the na­tion to live up to its creed of justice and equality for all re­gardless of race,” ASU spokesman Ken Mullinax said.
ASU graduate student Ro­lundus Rice, who is helping to promote the exhibit, said Saturday afternoon that it is one of several events that will be presented during the 50th anniversary of the bus station violence.
“These artists present a vivid, clear voice to what happened that day,” he said. “It further galvanized public support for the movement, and we are pleased to invite the public to join us.”

The riders were testing federal edicts prohibiting segregated bus seating and services in the South. The beatings they took woke the nation to incidents that only grew worse as the 1960s pro­gressed.

Assassinations of civil rights leaders including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Medgar Evers and the mur­ders of three civil rights ac­tivists in Alabama and Mis­sissippi led to arrests of Ku Klux Klansmen who were re­sponsible.
“I vividly remember the tumultuous times that led to the riots during the ’60s, the demand for equality and leg­islative changes that many take for granted today,” said Riley-Webb, who plans to be at the exhibit today.
After years of delays, the Greyhound Bus Station where the violence occurred is slowly being turned into a museum at 210 S. Court St.
A panel depicting various aspects of the incident at the bus station was unveiled a few years ago and work is continuing on the interior.
The building is owned by the U.S. General Services Administration while the Alabama Historical Com­mission has the lease and is working with local groups to help commemorate the event.