|
|
Sugar Hill, Harlem. 2007 © julien de bock. juldeb@gmail.com
|
|
|
|
of note is
a weekly publication celebrating the arts, culture, and history of our
distinct yet intersecting diasporas. It is a space where art meets activism, empowerment, and social responsibility.
Grace Aneiza Ali, Founder
Sandrine Colard, Executive Editor
Julien de Bock, Photo Editor
|
|
|
|
notable
This week The Satya Graha Forum is coordinating a series of events on the continuing relevance of Mahatma Gandhi's message of non-violence. It is a tribute that truly embodies the essence of of note: art meets activism, empowerment, and social responsibility.
Among Gandhi's most influential teachings was his call to action: "Be the change you want to see." A few years ago, I was honored to call India my home. After chatting with a friend about all India had given me, I was asked, "And what have you given to India?"
Wherever you call home, ask yourself: what have you given to your community? In answering, look for absence, search for what's missing. Ghandi was motivated by absence - the absence of justice and humanity in his homeland. He responded with compassion. Essentially, compassion was Gandhi's art. What is your art?
Grace Aneiza Ali
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Art
Adrian Piper, "Everything"
On view to April 19
Photograph: Courtesy Elizabeth Dee Gallery
Once you have taken everything away from a man, he is no longer in your power. He is free." This quote from Alexander Solzhenitsyn is the inspiration for Adrian Piper's "Everything" series. Piper, a pioneering conceptual artist who has been known since the 1960s for her fusion of Minimalism with a searing analysis of race and gender issues, takes this message and expands it to encompass blacks and women as well as the author's universal "man." She then boils it down to a simple sentence: "Everything will be taken away" - an ominous prediction open to multiple interpretations.Elizabeth Dee Gallery545 West 20th StreetNew York, NY 10011
|
|
In Conversation
What's Eating You? 2nd Annual Stress and Obesity Conference
Tuesday, April 1 @ 5:30 pm
 The Harlem Healthy Eating and Living (HEAL) is a new year long initiative of The Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce in concert with Congressman Charles B. Rangel and The City of New York to help the residents of Harlem live healthier and more productive lives.Harlem Hospital Center 506 Malcolm X Blvd/Lenox Ave.
2nd Floor, Martin Luther King Pavilion Harlem
New York , NY 10030
|
|
Film
At the River I Stand
Wednesday, April 2 @ 7:30 pm
 Memphis, Spring 1968, marked the dramatic climax of the Civil Rights movement. At the River I Stand skillfully reconstructs the two eventful months that transformed a local labor dispute into a national conflagration, and disentangles the complex historical forces that came together at the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Brecht Forum
451 West Street
btw Bank & Bethune Streets
New York, NY 10014
|
|
Art
Flow @ The Studio Museum of Harlem
April 2 - June 29
 Flow is the first 21st century exhibition focusing on art by a new generation of international artists from Africa. These artists are uniquely conscious of, and responsive to, recent African history, global economics, and the idiosyncratic culture of the new millennium. The artists, who hail from eleven African nations, reside mainly in Europe and North America and travel to and from Africa regularly. Flow illustrates the individuality and complexity of the visual art produced by a dynamic generation of young artists, this time with a global perspective.
The Studio Museum in Harlem144 West 125th Street
Harlem New York, NY 10027
|
|
Film
Charles Burnett Films @ the New Directors/New Films Festival
 Wednesday, April 2 @ 1 pm In 2007, film buffs swooned for the first-ever release of Charles Burnett's extraordinary 1977 drama, Killer of Sheep, which chronicled the hopelessness of life in Los Angeles' grim Watts ghetto.
His follow-up film, My Brother's Wedding is another evocative, unreleased relic-so this week's screening is a rare chance, not to be missed. To Sleep with Anger is also being screened on Wednesday, April 2 @ 2: 45 pm.Presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art.
Other Films of note: Foster Child, Brillante Mendoza, PhilippinesA Lost Man, Danielle Arbid, Lebanon/FranceSlingshot Hip Hop, Jackie Reem Salloum, USATrouble the Water, Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, USALa Zona, Rodrigo Plá, Spain/Mexico
|
|
In Conversation
Conversations with a Continent: Democratic Republic of Congo
Wednesday, April 2 @ 7 pm
Congo is a vast country endowed with immense natural resources and is home to more than 250 ethnic groups. Join panelists as they discuss how the struggle for these riches has contributed to the country's tragic colonial and post-independence history.
Co-presented with the Museum for African Art.
92nd Street Y
1395 Lexington Avenue
@ 92nd Street
New York, NY 10128
|
Art
Erasing Borders 2008: Exhibition of Contemporary Indian Art of the Diaspora
Opening Reception: Thursday, April 3 @ 6:30 pm
On view April 3 - 26
 The Guild Art USA45 West 21st Street btw 5th & 6th Ave2nd Floor (Rear), Suite 39New York, NY 10010
|
|
In Conversation
Identity Formed And Transformed: My Self, My Community, My World
Thursday, April 3 @ 6:30 pm
 Last year, Lorna Simpson's career was the subject of a 20-year retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art. James Casebere's works have been shown at the New York Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, to name a few.Their work adds immensely to the investigation of identity. Simpson's art practice has consistently examined the unseen forces that guide our reasoning around race, gender, identity and culture, challenging viewers' perceptions of these subjects. The focus of Casebere's art is to examine institutional spaces and to bring into focus their relationships to social control and societal structures.
St. Joseph's College
Brooklyn Campus
245 Clinton Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11205
|
|
Film
Zora Neale Hurston
Friday, April 4 @ 3:30 pm
 Barnard College celebrates alumna Zora Neale Hurston's legacy as a writer, folklorist, and anthropologist with a premiere screening of Zora's Roots, a new documentary that will air on PBS stations throughout the month of April. Hurston was Barnard's first black graduate and the author of the renowned novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, among her many accomplishments. The screening will be followed by a discussion with the film's writer and director Tom Lowe and Barnard English Professor Monica Miller.Barnard CollegeLehman Auditorium202 Altschul HallWest 117th Street & BroadwayHarlem, New York
|
Community Spaces
Harlem School of the Arts: Celebrating New Orleans
Friday, April 4 @ 6 pm
 The Harlem School of the Arts announce the launch of First Fridays, which kicks off April 4th, Celebrating New Orleans.
Programs include: Artist-in-Residence Paul DEO ~ Photography Studio, New Orleans and The Gulf Coast: Two Years After the Storm with John Pinderhughes ~ Dance studio, Jazz Moves, New Orleans Grooves with Robin Vaughn ~ HSA Theater Documentary Films, Children of Katrina: Still Weathering the Storm directed by Joseph Van Harken and My
Spring Break in New Orleans directed by Evan Allen-Gessesse.
Harlem School of the Arts
645 St. Nicholas Avenue
btw 145th and 141st Streets
Harlem
New York, NY 10030
|
Dance
E-Moves @ Harlem Stage Gatehouse
Friday April 4 - Sunday April 13
 Delight in exuberant, new dance works showcased by twelve rising E-Merging, E-Volving and E-Stablished choreographers in the field. Six performances turn it out with new works that span the spectrum of dance including modern, flamenco, tap, break dance and vogue. |
|
Music
Imani Uzuri @ The Apollo
Friday, April 4 and Saturday, April 5 @ 7:30
The Apollo Salon Series helps performing artists develop and present innovative new works and works in progress. Vocalist/composer/writer Imani Uzuri's new work for the series successfully blends elements of drum'n' bass, soulful rock, transformational ballads, and operatic arias to forge a provocative music-theater meditation on coming of age as an eclectic black girl in a post-modern world. The Apollo Theater 253 West 125th Streetbtw Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Blvd & Frederick Douglass Blvd.HarlemNew York, NY 10027 |
Tribute
The Satya Graha Forum Celebrates Ghandi
Sunday April 6 - Thursday April 10
In April the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center will perform Satyagraha, the opera by Philip Glass about Mahatma Gandhi and Satya Graha, his movement of social change through nonviolence. On the occasion The Satya Graha Forum will promote events throughout New York City that will discuss various approaches to Satya Graha and its relevance today.
|
|
In Conversation
What Our Girls Need to Know
Sunday, April 6 @ 1 pm
 Positively Empowering TeenGirls About Life (P.E.T.A.L.) is hosting their FREE "What Our Girls Need to Know" Teen Pregnancy Awareness Forum.
Special guest Nancy Redd, New York Times Best-Selling Author of Body Drama and contributing editor at CosmoGIRL! Magazine along with expert educator Taryn Crosby, L.E.S. teen advocate Stephanie Estevez and Dr. Manel Silva, Mount Sinai Adolescent Center/TruthAIDS will serve as panelists.P.E.T.A.L. will provide a discussion on the facts & issues, ask the experts, a viewing of a short film, and gift bags for the first 150 girls registered. Also, special book signing for Body Drama with Nancy Redd.Adam Clayton Powell State Office Building Plaza 163 West 125th Street @ Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Blvd/7th Avenue HarlemNew York, NY 10027
|
|
Dance
Ode to Love's Arrow
 Sunday, April 6 @ 3 pmOde to Love's Arrow is a traditional Bharatanatyam dance recital celebrating the whimsical and mischievous nature of Kamadeva, the God of Desire from Indian mythology. Kamadeva, a character similar to Cupid, is a master archer, shooting helpless victims who become lost in love's delightful agony. Performed & Choreographed by Malini SrinivasanDance New Amsterdam280 Broadway 2nd Floorentrance on Chambers StreetNew York, NY 10007
|
|
In Conversation
Blackface: Examining the Minstrel Tradition
Monday, April 7 @ 6:30 pm
 This panel discussion will bring together scholars and writers to examine the influence of the wildly popular and deeply reviled art of minstrelsy on American culture. Panelists include, Camille Forbes, Eric Lott, Greg Tate, and Mel Watkins.
|
|
Film
A Day's Work @ the Gen Art Film Festival
Tuesday, April 8 @ 7:30 pm
Alone in Los Angeles, Enrique doesn't speak a word of English. Forced to work as a day laborer to earn money for loved ones back home, his loyalties are put to the test when a simple job escalates into a matter of life and death. Filmmaker: Rajeev DassaniThe Gen Art Film Festival is a weeklong celebration showcasing independent films by today's most talented emerging directors.
Clearview Chelsea West333 West 23rd Street
New York, NY 10011
|
|
Music
A Celebration: Abyssinian 200
@ Jazz at Lincoln Center, April 10 - 12
@ Abyssinian Baptist Church, April 19
Celebrate the 200th anniversary of The Abyssinian Baptist Church with two special performances at the church in Harlem.
The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra premieres a special mass with world premiere music written by Wynton Marsalis for jazz orchestra and choir, and sermon by Rev. Dr. Calvin O. Butts, III - combining jazz and gospel traditions.
|
|
Art
Subodh Gupta, "Still Steal Steel"
On view to April 12
Gandhi's Three Monkeys, 2008
"New Delhi-based artist Subodh Gupta has become an international superstar by transforming Indian kitchenware into metaphors for a nation in transition."
|
|
Dance
Savion Glover @ The Apollo
Sunday, April 13 @ 4pm
Under the direction of Savion Glover, Savion Glover's Bare Soundz is an exuberant celebration of tap dance to sound and sound to dance. Using tap as song, Glover merges acoustical vibrations in a music mosaic of Jazz, Caribbean, and other contemporary musical genres.
Featuring Marshall Davis Jr. and Maurice Chestnut with special guest Lori Ann Stevens. The performance will be followed by a Q&A with the artists.Savion Glover is a Tony Award winner, Hoofer, Choreographer, Actor, director and producer celebrating his 27th year in show buisness. Broadway and film credits include The Tap Dance Kid, Black & Blue, Jelly's last Jam, Bring in 'da Noise Bring in da Funk, the movie Tap with Gregory Hines and Sammy Davis Jr., Spike Lee's Bamboozled and the acclaimed Acadamey Award winning 2006 Warner Brothers release of Happy Feet choreographed by Savion Glover. The Apollo Theater 253 West 125th Streetbtw Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Blvd
& Frederick Douglass Blvd.Harlem
New York, New York, USA 10027
|
|
Theatre
The Negro Ensemble Company Presents: Webeime
On stage through May 4
|
|
Art
Lorraine O'Grady
On view through May 12
The Wack! Art and the Feminist Revolution currently at the P.S 1 Contemporary Art Center in Queens traces a postracial impulse in art going back decades. Among the artists featured is Lorraine O'Grady who began her career with abstract work but went on to address race aggressively. In 1980 she introduced an alter ego named "Mlle Bourgeoise Noire," pictured above, who, dressed in a beauty-queen gown sewn from white formal gloves, crashed museum openings to protest all-white shows.
|
|
Art
Frida Kahlo @ The Philadelphia Musuem of Art
On view through May 18
 Organized in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the artist's birth, Frida Kahlo is the first major Kahlo exhibition in the United States in nearly fifteen years. It presents over forty of the artist's most important self-portraits, still lifes, and portraits from the beginning of her career in 1926 until her death in 1954. Rendered in vivid colors and realistic detail, Kahlo's jewel-like paintings are filled with complex symbolism, often relating to specific incidents in her life. In her iconic self-portraits the artist continually reinvented herself. Paintings like The Two Kahlos (1939) demonstrate her penchant for self-examination, and works like Henry Ford Hospital (1932) and The Broken Column (1944) express her struggles with illness throughout her life.The Philadelphia Museum of Art
26th Street
@ Benjamin Franklin Parkway
Philadelphia, PA 19130
|
end notes
Special thanks to Richard Blint and E. Ethelbert Miller for their contributions to this week's issue.
For questions, comments, and submissions contact us at ofnotemagazine@gmail.com
Mission
For many of us, the arts are central and inspirational to our life, work, and activism. As people of color, we are making great strides in terms of our representation on the stage, yet we are not equally represented in the audience. Even when it is work celebrating our histories, experiences, and cultures - we are often scantily present in the theaters, auditoriums, galleries, etc. Out of that absence, of note was created. It is a publication whose mission is to inform the community about noteworthy events, with the larger goal of increasing our access to and participation in the arts celebrating people of color.
|
|
|
