Between the years 1984-1985, Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat merged their disparate approaches to painting into a dynamic group of collaborative works on canvas.  The resulting paintings, six of which are displayed in the current exhibition alongside examples of each individual artist's works, underscored their unique styles and production method while at the same time giving rise to a vibrant and original body of work.  

Van de Weghe Fine Art
521 W. 23rd Street
Chelsea
New York, NY 10011

"Television 1975-1976" is the first US exhibition of images created in the 1970's by Japanese photographer Masao Mochizuki. By systematically photographing a series of images from television broadcasts into a progressive grid, Mochizuki illuminates the passive and manufactured manner through which the world is experienced and digested in contemporary society.

Pictured: Ali vs Frazier





Cohen Amador Gallery
The Fuller Building
41 E 57th Street, 6th Flor
New York, NY  10022

Anish Kapoor, born in 1954 in Bombay, India, has lived and worked in London since 1973.  In the undulating curves of form, in the passions elicited from the manipulation of material, Kapoor's sculptures stem from a universal experience of the world, while offering a wholly new vision of it. As Homi Bhabha wrote, Kapoor's works become a "living tissue, a contingent and relational medium," that seek to elevate the act of viewing to the level of spiritual awakening.


Gladstone Gallery
515 West 24th Street
Chelsea
New York, NY 10011

Sigalit Landau (b. Israel, 1969) has produced several works that explore her native Israeli landscape in a performative way, primarily through a video trilogy that experiments with circular movements and the act of spinning. In DeadSee (pictured), Landau floats in a spiral of green watermelons until the coil slowly unravels. The intensely red flesh of the fruits is revealed as they disappear, leaving the azure surface of the water nearly monochromatic.


The Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53 Street
btw 5th and 6th Avenues
New York, NY 10019

Marking the 5th  anniversary of the war in Iraq, Josephine Meckseper transforms the commercial zone of the gallery into a conceptually politicized territory. Through her signature use of display systems and commodity structures, she exposes the "endpoints" of the United States' capitalistic and militaristic crusades since 2001: totalitarianism in the current era of war, globalization, and domestic crisis.
 

Elizabeth Dee
545 West 20th Street
Chelsea
New York, NY 10011

Mel Bochner's paintings each contain a group of synonyms, starting with the simplest related words, and eventually devolving to vulgar colloquialisms and phrases.  The aggressive, painterly litany of language presents other possible connotations and undercurrents that move understanding ever further away from the basic idea of the original word.

 As in so much of his work, Bochner deftly dissects commonly-held assumptions of objectivity and ideology. In Bochner's own words, "Whether in the public or the private domain, my recent work attempts to confront the ideologies and hidden agendas of language. Because as recent history has painfully taught us, all abuses of power begin with the abuse of language."




Peter Freeman, Inc.
560 Broadway
Suite 602 / 603
New York, New York 10012

Eminent Domain presents selections from the work of five New York-based artists who have recently created large photographic projects that take on the theme of the modern city. All of the projects deal in different ways, and to varying degrees, with the changing nature of space in New York City today.

The collection features disappearing storefronts of the Lower East Side, life with a Chinatown family, and views from the unseen edges of New York City.


New York Public Library
D. Samuel & Jeane H. Gottesman Exhibition Hall
5th Avenue & 42nd Street
New York, NY  10018

Now in its 31st year, BAM's DanceAfrica festival is a Memorial Day weekend tradition in Brooklyn, packed with dance, music, art, and film events from Mother Africa and the Diaspora-plus the popular outdoor bazaar of African crafts, food, and fashion. In honor of the 125th Anniversary of the Brooklyn Bridge, DanceAfrica's artistic director Chuck Davis has named this year's festivities "Bridge to Cultural Rejuvenation & Enlightenment" and unites dance companies-from Gambia, Atlanta, Harlem, and Bed-Stuy-on BAM's Opera House stage.

BAM
Peter Jay Sharp Building
30 Lafayette Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11217

For many of us race will continue to shape where we live, pray, go to school, and socialize. In this brutally honest, yet ultimately hopeful, book Pedro Noguera examines the many facets of race in schools and society and reveals what it will take to improve outcomes for all students. From achievement gaps to immigration, Noguera offers a rich and compelling picture of a complex issue that affects all of us.

Hue-Man Bookstore & Cafe
2319 Frederick Douglass Blvd
Btw 124th and 125th Streets
Harlem
New York, NY 10027

Abyssinian member and author Dr. Martia Goodson will discusss her forthcoming book based on oral histoy interviews with long-time Abyssinian church menbers who provide an insider's perspective on Abyssinian life and Harlem politics from the 1920's through 1970's.

Photo: Rev. Adam C. Powell, Jr with his wife, jazz pianist Hazel Scott and their son Adam C. Powell III

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
515 Malcolm X Boulevard
& 135th Street
New York, NY 10037

Representing conversations from the Eighth National Black Writers Conference in 2006, this collection provides in-depth meditations and analyses of literature by black writers. Reflections on the black experience, the American experience, and a more global experience and worldview are all widely discussed, as well as future trends and ascensions for black literature.  Participants include Marita Golden, Walter Mosley, Ishmael Reed, Herb Boyd, Valerie Boyd, Haki R. Madhubuti, Elizabeth Nunez, Tananarive Due, Valerie Wilson Wesley, Camille Yarbrough, Susan McHenry, and many others.

Hue-Man Bookstore & Cafe
2319 Frederick Douglass Blvd
Btw 124th and 125th Streets
Harlem
New York, NY 10027

Drum
Tuesday, May 20 @  4 pm  & 9 pm


Drum depicts Sophiatown in the 1950s, a vibrant place full of music, love, and laughter; and the breeding ground for resistance. The film captures a period when a generation of courageous South African writers, critics, and musicians emerged, intermingling with Shebeen queens, and tsotsis (young gangsters). Taye Diggs anchors a commanding ensemble with his portrayal of legendary journalist Henry Nxumalo.

Alice Smith is, evidenced by  her solo debut, 'For Lovers, Dreamers & Me' (BBE Records), the most promising female singer-songwriter to go her own enrapturing way in a very long time. Her voice, with its four-octave range, is luscious and powerful and nuanced and finely sensitive to rhythm.

Yet it never makes a cult of its own abilities; for all its fantastic manners, Smith's voice gets on down the road. Sometimes she sings with a booming intensity, yet Smith never loses the unlearnable balance and poise that separates good singers from great ones. And her basic attitudes, which are audible in every unforced phrase she negotiates, are all her own.


Highline Ballroom
431 W. 16th St
New York, NY 10011