This is what it’s all about--$crilla, green, cheese, dough, ducats, and a place to make your artwork. While we’re aware that is a somewhat gross generalization, what’s real is that on this journey that is being an artist, the above-mentioned are necessities. What’s good is that we here at Code Z know where you can (potentially) get the hook-up. However, you’re gonna have to fight for it.
The good people over at MOCA GA in conjunction with The Charles Loridans Foundation have recently announced their inaugural resident/ artist program. MOCA GA Working Artists Project will give three deserving metro Atlanta artists literal and figurative room to do the doggone thang, respectively. Jurors Andrea Barnwell (Spelman College), Annette Cone-Skelton, and Jeffrey Grove will award said artists with a stipend of $12,000. But wait, there’s more. In fact, there’s much more. So, if you want all of the fine details, we suggest calling the folks in charge: 404.881.1109.
However, we want to inform you that the deadline for the grant proposal (including all of the usual suspects) is Monday, February 5 at 5:30 PM. We should also alert you that some folks from Code Z will be throwing hats into the ring as well. So step your game up, and consider yourselves warned.
The Code Z family deems it imperative to pause for the cause to remember Alice Coltrane, jazz harpist, pianist, tamboura player, spiritual leader, and widow of bebop jazz saxophonist John Coltrane. At 69, Alice Coltrane passed on Friday, January 12 in Los Angeles.
Ms. Coltrane will be remembered for bringing the harp, vibraphone, and a traditional Eastern pulse to the jazz aesthetic, alongside her husband, John Coltrane.
At seven, Coltrane began playing piano and organ alongside her siblings, eventually graduating to studying and mastering the classics and earning her place as a Detroit child prodigy, regularly working the church, jazz joint and church choir circuits. Coltrane's reverence for such composers as Beethoven, Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky aided in defining her music.
Following the passing of John Coltrane in 1967, Ms. Coltrane carried her sound and philosophy farther East, taking up the harp. She melded blues, jazz, and traditional Indian music to produce such savory recordings as "Journey in Satchidananda" and "Universal Consciousness." Coltrane continued her exploration of Afro-Asiatic instrumentation, which eventually led to her Hinduism. She traveled to India and studied with her guru, Sri Swami Satchidananda and later Sathya Sai Baba. Ms. Coltrane became Swami Turiyasangitananda, or "highest song of God" in Sanskrit, and established the Sai Anantam Ashram in Agoura Hills. She also established The Vedantic Center, as well as the John Coltrane Foundation, a scholarship to aid young, aspiring musicians.
Ms. Coltrane's legend lives on through her children Michelle, Ravi, and Oran, and her five grandchildren. Her eldest son, John Coltrane, Jr., passed away in a car accident in 1982.
We will remember how Ms. Coltrane wed classical and traditional rhythms with jazz in a continuance of her husband's legacy.
Always the innovators, never the intimidators, and twenty-five years later still the renegades. What or who is this? It is the one and only EXIT ART, which since its founding in 1982 by directors and co-curators Jeanette Ingberman and Papo Colo, has been a seminal art gallery and exhibition place for artists, creative thinkers, performers and the like, revealing the work of under-recognized artists and experimenting with emerging art forms and the union of film, video, performance art, music, design, and visual art in its programming.
EXIT ART's mission is to create and present exhibitions and programs that explore the diversity of cultures and voices that continually shape contemporary art and ideas in the U.S. This mission is exemplified in its most recent installation, RENEGADES: 25 Years of Performance Art at EXIT ART, on view until January 27 at its Tenth Avenue location in New York City. This exhibit presents myriad art forms and works from their archives, as well as newly commissioned art by emerging and established artists. It includes a documentation of a 1985 recreation of a 1922 Constructivist play by Mastfor II directed by Mel Gordon; early performances by artists such as Patty Chang, Sue de Beer, and Adam Putnam; Let the Artists Live!, a documentary featuring 15 artists who lived in the gallery for five weeks; live performances; and exhibits by the likes of Suzan Lori-Parks, Ogechi Chieke, and many more.
RENEGADES is more than a bird's eye view into the history and relevance of EXIT ART as a whole; it is a story of culture and life converging to unearth the written and unwritten histories of contemporary art and culture. We say watch and learn all that there is beyond the EXIT.
We at Code Z have gone on record with our frustration over the blinding whiteness of the graphic design press in the US, but we were never sure whether to aim our death rays at the press or at the design industry itself for its lack of diversity.
Apparently, some AIGA members felt the rub internally as well, as that organization has launched a nationwide drive to diversify the design industry, using its own membership as a bulwark. Albert Whitley, the Atlanta chapter's Membership Director and Diversity Taskforce Advocate, tells us that the organization has assembled its national taskforce and has begun the work of recruiting more Black and Latino designers into its ranks.
The taskforce has adopted national guidelines for its chapters, including recommendations to step up recruitment from technical colleges and community colleges, as well as aiming to place at least one designer of color on each chapter's board. The taskforce is also working on a design archive and traveling exhibition (working title: The Pioneers of Invisible Design) that will highlight the work of designers that have been overlooked by history dating back to the 18th century. Albert tells us that this effort is designed to counter the invisibility of design as a career option among communities of color.
AIGA is the design profession's organization of record, and chapter president Bill Grant has called diversity "an ethically and economically sound issue" for the organization to take up.
We got Austin, USA-based poet and performance artist Sharon Bridgforth to tell us about approaching her work as a "spiritual practice" in our January Texas artist feature. What ended up on the cutting room floor, however, were the details of her upcoming film Love Conjure/Blues now in preproduction.
Based on Sharon's book of the same name, published by Redbone Press, Love Conjure/Blues will inhabit the same territories of jazz aesthetic and "polyrhythmic storytelling." We're told that the film will combine text with a cappella vocal soundscapes, still images, "by any means necessary" filmmaking, and earth-based sculpting with sacred objects. We're reminded of both the multimedia concatenations of Carrie Mae Weems and also the guerilla film stylings of Melvin Van Peebles.
The film brings together the talents of filmmaker Krissy Mahan (she of the Dykeumentary), as well as Joni L. Jones, Florinda Bryant, Laurie Carlos, Daniel Alexander Jones and others. We're particularly interested to hear that Sonja Perryman, whose contributions to the hypnotic 2003 "Amniotic/flow" we still recall, is also involved. The project will exist as both a film and a digital environment in which Sharon will perform live while on tour.
Love Conjure/Blues is being supported by a number of foundations and organizations and will be presented by the Center for African and African American Studies, U.T. Austin.
This goes out to everyone who ever wondered, what the hell happened to BA&VCRS? Imagine our utter delight when we received the first installment of their quarterly e-newsletter last week.
For the uninitiated, January 15 marked the return of the Black Art & Visual Culture Research Society’s presence into cyberspace. Equipped with a new name, mission and format, the now-named Association for Critical Race Art Historians (ACRAH) seeks to provide a forum for contemplations on “critical race history.” Noting goals that include the production of a scholarly journal, developing and facilitating professional development opportunities, and an affiliation with the College Art Association, ACRAH has emerged to not only offer vital information for artists, historians, and critical thinkers, but serve as a direct link to what David C. Driskell calls “growing the field” for future stakeholders in the art of the African Diaspora.
We recently learned of the passing of Horace Gilford, an influential and pioneering Black architect based in Oakland, California.
We're sad to lose him, not only for his pioneering architectural work and his habit of mentoring younger folks in the industry, but also for his deep commitment to his community of architects. Gilford co-founded Bay Area Black Architects in the mid-70s and continued to do community building work throughout his life.
According to the Contra Costa Times, Gilford died January 4 of complications from multiple sclerosis at age 68. During his career Gilford did work in various capacities for the Oakland Unified School District, Kaiser Permanente, and Taubman Company, and designed the Beverly Center in Los Angeles. He was appointed assistant city architect for Oakland in 1991.
Farewell.
We've been tracking the curatorial and artmaking activities of New Jersey-based visionary REBORN pretty much since Code Z opened its digital doors some six months ago (where does the time go?). First we checked her in Newark as she contemplated rituals of healing, then we remember catching up with her in Manhattan as she was preparing for her upcoming show Black Rock, at Gallery Aferro, also in Newark.
REBORN, also known as Noelle Lorraine Williams, paired with longtime collaborator Kevin Darmanie on Black Rock, which opens January 27.
The exhibition features 22 artists and "changemakers" who are of African descent or whose work is influenced by African diasporic forms and traditions. We note sometime graf writer Jerry Gant, flag impresario Dread Scott, and multimedia bricoleur Nyugen E. Smith among the artists on the roster. Other artists hail from Kenya, Ecuador, Jamaica, and 8 other countries. The exhibition takes up 2 floors of the gallery and includes a full installation of black comics. (D'ya hear that, Afrogeek?)
The exhibition's full title is Black Rock: The Metamorphosis of Home from Isolation to Connection Task Force Exhibition, and the show addresses concepts of home, community, and the place of the individual within it. Black Rock runs through February 24.
Since the days of the zip-coon, to the hardcore thug of present day, stereotypes continue to affect how we see and are seen--especially at a young age. And those interpretations can easily determine whether one travels the road to greatness or down the primrose path.
So to combat the lobby of naggers that want all of pop culture to take the weight for the ills of our communities, the Seattle, Washington-based Rising Oak Foundation is sponsoring a series of events spanning three months that focus on influences and obstacles to the maturation of young African American males. Beginning Saturday, January 20 with a screening of filmmaker Byron Hurt’s Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, the Foundation's Outside the Hype: Exploring the Representation of Black Males in Society aims to interrogate the commodification of masculinity and how those ideas are reflected creatively, politically, intellectually, and spiritually.
Included in the series is a performance by artist Carl Hancock Rux. Carl, an accomplished artist of many disciplines and accolades, as well as collaborator with both the Nuyorican and SMH, will present the No Black Male Show on February 9 and 10. Carl's work will further investigate the conflict between black masculinity and its pop culture manifestations. This will be followed by a screening of the Rachel Lyon and Jim Lopes documentary, Race to Execution. The series will culminate with Which Way Seattle? State of Young Black Men, a community dialogue.
It is said that good things come in pairs. The Spelman College Museum of Fine Art is proving this expression to be true. The late artists and educators, Nancy Elizabeth Prophet and Hale Woodruff are being given their deserved time to shine. Hale Woodruff, Nancy Elizabeth Propohet and the Academy, an exhibition designed to both illuminate and re-introduce the works of Prophet and Woodruff, serves also as the 10th anniversary celebration for the SCMoFA as well as the 75th anniversary of Hale Woodruff’s work with the Atlanta University Center. Ms. Prophet, the first African American female graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, and Mr. Woodruff, the founder of the AUC art department, epitomized the struggle that many artists found in their pursuit of happiness. Particularly artists of color.
Although born ten years apart, Prophet and Woodruff traveled parallel paths. Both excelled at the visual arts at an early age, thus taking them to Paris in search of further education and creative freedom; kindred spirits in the midst of the madness that was Modernism and the rush to create the “Great American Painting.” The excellence that they exhibited eventually led them to the AUC--Mr. Woodruff in 1931, and Ms. Prophet in 1934, as the founder of the sculpture program.
More than an anniversary celebration, Hale Woodruff, Nancy Elizabeth Prophet and the Academy is also an outgrowth of conservation efforts to salvage works by Woodruff and present the 9 known remaining works of Ms. Prophet to the educational communities that they so willingly gave themselves to.
Hale Woodruff, Nancy Elizabeth Prophet and the Academy, on display at the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, opens January 18 and closes May 12, 2007. Anne Collins Smith, Curator of Collections, has the full scoop: annesmith at spelman dot edu.
No one forgets a first kiss, a caress from a loved one, seeing soft light touching a focused subject in a photograph or hearing the perfect note pleasantly ending a jazz solo. A kiss can be simple and unique, complicated and ambiguous, full of possibilities and full of questions marks. Such questions marks, with uncharted answers, permeate the works within Laylah Ali's first solo UK exhibit titled the kiss and other warriors on display at London's inIVA from January 17 through February 24. Yes, yes, y'all, she has done it again.
In this latest exhibit, curated by Cylena Simonds Ali keenly experiments with the playfulness of her art while at the same time conveying troubling and at times indefinite and wavering stories with her cartoon-like imagery. The "take-home" piece for any viewer of this exhibit, which will include her paintings and newly commissioned drawings, is that her art is not only pointed but profound, offering an eerie resemblance to present-day conflicts and continuing her exploration of the social dynamics of violence and cultural difference.
Credited for developing some of the most engaging educational programs on the west coast, UCLA's Hammer Museum will feature several interdisciplinary programs this season.
Two events of particular interest are the West Coast premiere of visual artist Nikki S. Lee's first film a.k.a. Nikki S. Lee and an intimate reading of Colson Whitehead's latest tome Apex Hides the Hurt. Lee, who assumes numerous racial, ethnic, and cultural identities in her various photographic series (most notably The Hip Hop Project, 2001 in the Bronx Museum of the Arts' One Planet Under a Groove) presents a documentary-style film on her life over a two-year period blurring the lines between fact and fiction. In the realm of fiction, Colson Whitehead is a master at creating alternate realities that question and critique our own, so it would be fitting that there would be some anticipation for Whitehead’s most recent release after the near cult status of The Intuitionist.
Oh, and happy MLK Day!
Opening this week at the Joyce Theatre, Complexions Contemporary Ballet Company opens their 2007 dance season with the New York premiere of two exciting works--the first installment of choreographed pieces set to the music of Marvin Gaye and the east coast premier of Loose Change danced by co-founder Desmond Richardson and choreographed by multi-talented actor Taye Diggs
Embodying the characteristics of what Sekou Writes calls slashers, actor slash singer slash chorographer Taye Diggs’ latest project is inspired by David Ryan Harris' song If I Had a Dime and the personal meaning behind the famous phrase. Based on the physical strength and intoxicating fluidity of movement synonymous with Complexions Contemporary’s pieces, we are excited about the endless possibilities of this season’s offerings as well as the June performances of dre.dance at Joyce SOHO where Taye Diggs and Andrew Palermo are artistic directors.
We at Code Z had always wanted to peek in on the world of journalists and educators from time to time, so we couldn't resist covering the second year of the spectacular International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE) conference in New York City. We remember attending last year and having a wonderful time. During the day, attendees reveled in seminars like vocal and Latin jazz and at night everyone partied hard to amazing live performances. Some 2006 highlights were Robert Glasper and his trio who preformed cuts from his debut Blue Note Record, Canvas. The "Blindfold Test" had piano-man Jason Moran guessing tunes selected by longtime writer Dan Ouelette. We believe the pinnacle moments were the NEA Jazz Masters ceremony where luminaries such as the late Ray Baretto, Tony Bennett , and Chick Corea among others, received their award fellowships amid screaming fans in the Hilton's lavish central ballroom. Another apex of the conference was Mr. Stefon Harris and his band Blackout making folks in the audience nearly catch seizures with their boombonic polyrhythms.
So 2007 brings NEA Jazz Masters awardees bandleader Toshiko Akiyoshi; trombonist Curtis Fuller; pianist Ramsey Lewis; Jazz advocate Dan Morgenstern; vocalist Jimmy Scott; flute player Frank Wess; and composer Phil Woods. Festivities kick off this week and go into the weekend, ending on Sunday. There will be performances by over 500 of the world’s most respected professional jazz groups and musicians. The 2007 IAJE Industry Track, presented under the auspices of Jazz Alliance International (JAI), is geared to members of the jazz recording, journalism, presenting, performing, retail, and radio industry. The panel sessions will focus on career development, new media, the recording industry, and personalized consultation.
On the occasion of his 1967 collection titled Tales, the renaissance man presently known as Amiri Baraka was described as "…at the center of the drama of contemporary America." Using a geometric concept of our own, January 16 will mark the 40-plus year return of his Obie Award winning play “The Dutchman” to its original venue at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York City. Directed by Bill Duke and starring Dulé Hill in the Robert Hooks-originated role, The Dutchman is a classic play that confronts issues of race, gender and class.
Making his way downtown, where his presence in the American avant-garde movement was solidified, Amiri Baraka will join forces with fellow scribes Felicia Luna Lemus and Aaron Petrovich at The Kitchen for the Akashic Books co-sponsored evening of readings and discussion on each writer’s recent release March 26. Baraka’s latest, Tales of the Out & the Gone, which includes both narratives on his life and entertaining commentaries on social issues, is in stores now.
Since the release of When the Levees Broke, Spike Lee's announcement to direct a film on the 1992 Los Angeles Riots and beginning negotiations to produce and direct a biopic on James Brown, Spike currently has our collective ear…and eye. This time it’s for the kids. Sponsored by the Brooklyn Young Filmmakers Center, the Inside Man Conference (January 13) begins with a screening of Lee’s Inside Man (released August 8, 2006), followed by workshops on how different departments worked on the film and several informational panels on how to get started in film careers without going to college--a concept Lee discusses in many of his academic lectures.
Speaking of concepts, filmmaker Byron Hurt’s documentary, Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes will be featured January 17 in a collaborative program with various youth and female advocacy groups to discuss the genius of rap music and hip-hop culture as well as the problematic elements of violence against woman and homophobia in the medium. Beginning its Community Cinema Series, the Oakland Museum of California will premiere community-relevant films scheduled to broadcast on “Independent Lens” through June 2007. Hurt's documentary is apart of this series.
The Inside Man Conference is Saturday, January 13 in the Spike Lee Screening Room at Long Island University--Brooklyn Campus.
Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes will be screened at the Oakland Museum of California January 17.
So it seems that film festivals are in the air.
After sitting on our desks and occupying our leisure conversations for several months, we've realized that it's high time we turned our attention to this one: Pegged as the new kids on the block in terms of film, Black Lily--of the Jazzyfatnastees and Philadelphia music scene fame--presents its (and Philly’s) first annual film and music festival solely focused on the contributions of women in traditionally male-dominated fields. The festival includes films garnered from an open call for narrative and documentary films, along with music videos and a special program featuring shorts by five local women filmmakers under the heading of the venue that made “The Lily” an international destination for good music--The Five Spot.
2007 begins with several festivals that take interdisciplinary studies and female empowerment to a new level. April 26 will mark the beginning of the Austin Woman's Film, Music & Literary Festival in Austin, Texas. Celebrating its seventh year, this event seeks to highlight media literacy and the artistic endeavors of females, paying close attention to the contributions of women of color. The festival consists of various showcases that include new media, documentary films, and a special program, in collaboration with the Media Arts & Literacy Institute (MALI) and the Gary Job Corp (a young girls' group home), on global justice, and focus on the empowerment and enlightenment of women.
In the true spirit of collaboration that we love so much around here, we note that those involved include not only filmmakers, but poets, writers, and various other creative souls.
