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| Alternate ROOTS Newsletter |
News from the Front!
February 2010
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New Orleans Free People of Color & Their Legacy
Jose Torres-Tama, New Orleans, LA
This publication is the culmination of seven years' worth of research, education projects, performances and exhibitions of Torres-Tama's exploration of the free people of color in New Orleans.
--David Houston, Chief Curator Ogden Museum of Southern Art
 Les gens de couleur libres are considered the first multiracial people in the United States, borne of an illegal but tolerated mixing between the French, Spanish and African races of colonial Louisiana. This visual history project celebrates the legacy of New Orleans' hybrid caste and their cultural and political contributions. José Torres-Tama's colorful and expressionistic pastel portraits on paper identify a 19th century Creole intelligentsia of artists and activists who fought to dismantle the institutional prejudices of their times.
Torres-Tama's book titled New Orleans Free People of Color & Their Legacy documents the exhibition of the same name. The art book was funded with the support of the Joan Mitchell Foundation in New York. Other arts organizations who have supported the development of the Free People of Color series include Alternate ROOTS and the Highlander Research Center through their We Shall Overcome Fund. The book contains biographical notes on each individual portrayed and a time line of New Orleans colonial history, both written by Creole historian Keith Weldon Medley.
The book is available for purchase at the Ogden Museum store in New Orleans and numerous bookstores across the Crescent City including the Community Bookstore and Faubourg Marigny Art & Books. Online it is available at www.torrestama.com/ogdenbook and at amazon.com.
The Alexandria Museum of Art in Alexandria, Louisiana is currently hosting the full traveling exhibit called New Orleans Free People of Color & Their Legacy through March 6, 2010. http://www.themuseum.org/
ABOUT THE ARTIST: José Torres-Tama is an award-winning interdisciplinary artist and writer working in visual and performance art. For twenty years he has worked in the New Orleans arts community, and since 1995, he has toured nationally and internationally with his multimedia performances. He is the recent recipient of a 2010 Creation Fund Award by the National Performance Network in New Orleans for the commissioning of a new solo work called Aliens, Immigrants & Other Evildoers, which chronicles the current rise in hate crimes against Latino immigrants in the United States.
A Louisiana Theater Fellow and NEA award recipient, his post-Katrina solo The Cone of Uncertainty has toured internationally to London, Liverpool, and Aberystwyth, Wales, his post-Katrina commentaries have aired on NPR's Latino USA, and WWNO, the public radio station in New Orleans. www.torrestama.com
Torres-Tama is both a versatile writer who can be lyrically evocative as well as bitingly humorous, and an impressive performer.
---The Philadelphia Inquirer
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Darwin Arts Projects at Virginia Tech
Carol Burch-Brown & Ann Kilkelly, Blacksburg, VA
 The year 2009 was Charles Darwin's 200th birthday and the 150th
anniversary of the publication of his revolutionary book, On the Origin
of Species. Throughout 2009 several ROOTS artists collaborated with
Virginia Tech faculty, students, and regional community members to
explore Darwin's life work and the still-controversial impact of
evolutionary science on our understanding of life, on public education,
and social policy. The project culminated in October and November with
an original theatre piece entitled "Living Darwin" and a new media
exhibition/performance art event called "Singing Darwin."
Artists
involved with the Darwin projects at Virginia Tech included Carol
Burch-Brown, Ann Kilkelly, Bob Leonard, Elise Witt, Celeste Miller, and
Normando Ismay as well as a roster of faculty artists in visual arts,
music, and digital media at Virginia Tech. Many ROOTS artists
participated in Darwin-related short recording sessions and readings.
The Darwin arts projects connected with other interdisciplinary
initiatives at Virginia Tech on Darwin, including a national
conference, a special course, radio spots, and a series of guest
speakers. [read the rest of the story here] |
Artistic Assistance
Artistic Assistance enables individuals to enhance the artistic aspects
of their work within their discipline. All artistic disciplines are
eligible. These funds are designed to provide ROOTS members with a
source of critical funding to attend a workshop, study with a mentor,
develop new work, invest in equipment that is vital to their craft, or
simply explore their creativity.
The deadline for applications for Cycle XIV of Artistic Assistance is Friday, March 12, 2010 at 6:00 p.m. EST. The application is available now on the ROOTS website. If you have any questions, please feel free to write to Shannon or call 404-577-1079.
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2010 C/APP Recipient
Miami, FL
Gullah Geechee and the 7 Dreams
Curated by Gary Moore
Through March 31
Main Library, 2nd floor exhibition space, 101 West Flagler Street,
Miami
305-375-2665
Multidisciplinary artist Gary Moore
is nationally recognized for his permanent public art installations and
interventions that join African American pop culture and architectural
context. For Gullah Geechee and the 7 Dreams, Moore curates
an exhibition from the permanent art collection of the Miami-Dade
Public Library System through the lens of the interests and influences
that inform his work as an artist. This cultural framework includes
South Carolina low country Gullah Geechee Culture, the anthropological
writings of Zora Neale Hurston, the culturally-specific minimalist
conceptual work of David Hammond,
and the fiction of Toni Morrison. Bound together by the metaphysical
connections between folk culture, low country mysticism, histories of
slavery and revolution, and handmade aesthetics, the exhibition
includes work by Kabuya Pamela Bowens, Carlos Alfonzo, Ana Mendieta, and Elizabeth Catlett, among many others.
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Please take a moment to tell us how we're doing...
Here at the home office, we've been striving to make the monthly newsletter timely, relevant, colorful, and full of pretty pictures. We'd be so grateful if you'd let us know whether we could be doing even an ounce better. Please take a minute to fill out a quick survey here. |
ANNUAL MEETING 2010August 10 - 15Lutheridge Conference Center
Arden, NC
2010 Annual Meeting - Call for Applications for AM Coordinator - Due this Friday, February 19, 2010!
Alternate ROOTS is currently seeking applications for coordinator for the 2010 Annual Meeting. Please read more on our website.
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Alternate ROOTS is supported by generous donations from the gracious members of Alternate ROOTS and the following: Nathan Cummings Foundation, Ford Foundation, Kresge Foundation, Shubert Foundation, Leveraging Investment in Creativity, National Endowment for the Arts, Appalachian Community Fund, McMaster Carr, City of Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs of Atlanta, Fulton County Arts Council, and Georgia Council on the Arts.
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