by Bob Martin | Dec 19, 2013 | Culture, Directors, Film, Movies
Lupita Nyong’o
The film “12 Years a Slave” is a remarkable film and different from previous films that I’ve seen about slavery. The injustices of slavery are evident and yet unknown to its practitioners. It’s a world they live in, because someone said it was OK.
There is no righteousness in “12 Years a Slave”. Steve McQueen is not relentless in his depiction of the cruelty of slavery in America. He is not gratuitous with the use of words, sex or violence. It is an even portrait of the times. We get the picture quickly, cruelty is what human beings have learned and now practice. We do what we can get away with or mimic what has been done to us. It is how we’ve learned, sadly. Unlike Sgt Witt in the “The Thin Red Line” we don’t question ourselves before we act. Why are we doing this?
“This great evil. Where does it come from? How’d it steal into the world? What seed, what root did it grow from? Who’s doin’ this? Who’s killin’ us? Robbing us of life and light. Mockin’ us with the sight of what we might’ve known. Does our ruin benefit the earth? Does it help the grass to grow, the sun to shine? Is this darkness in you, too? Have you passed through this night?” ..Witt, The Thin Red Line
The Hero’s Journey
Solomon Northup’s is metaphorically Pinocchio or more correctly following an abbreviated version of “The Hero’s Journey“. Solomon is naive because he believes that he is free and will be treated like all free men. He is unaware of the evil that lies in the south (The Unknown), because he can’t see it in the north (The Known). McQueen paints a picture of reality. The sky in the south is no less beautiful than the sky in the north. There are no visual manipulation or distinct musical cues. The people in the south believe that they have been given the right to own other people. The people in the north believe they have the right to declare others free. Where do these “rights” come from?
What is gracious about this film is that it avoids the temptation of Revenge. The audience doesn’t cheer at the end. The “evil people” (the people we are not like) don’t get there upcommance.
Edwin Epps, 12 Years a Slave: Sin? There is no sin. Man does how he pleases with his property.
There are automatic triggers that surface when the subject is slavery. People pick sides, assign blame, responsibility, declare ownership, causes, and race becomes the topic debate. Slavery is at times thought of as a unique and horrific American event, that happened in the past and no longer exist. None of which is true, we call it something else now like Human Trafficking, Unlawful Imprisonment or Forced Labor. Slavery may no longer be legal in the world and people still do what they can get away with.
by Sandy | Oct 28, 2013 | Art, Blogroll, Culture, Exhibits, Museums
Living in California for the last few years has brought to my attention certain holidays that frankly I didn’t really notice while living in NYC. One of the most popular is “Dia de los Muertos” (Day of the Dead). Posters, event notices, etc are often adorned with beautifully rendered and stylized skulls or skeletons to acknowledge the sentiments of the occasion. The influence of most of the images came from the work of Mexican artist José Guadalupe Posada, (1852 – 1913).
The Museum of Fine Arts offers a presentation that “commemorates the 100th anniversary of the death of José Guadalupe Posada (1852–1913), considered the father of Mexican printmaking. Calaveras Mexicanas: The Art and Influence of José Guadalupe Posada showcases a group of approximately 50 of the artist’s prints that explore the continuing resonance of his work.”…” The exhibition also features the work of artists who were inspired by Posada, such as Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Graciela Iturbide, Luis Jiménez, and Earl Staley.“
Calaveras Mexicanas: The Art and Influence of José Guadalupe Posada
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1001 Bissonnet St, Houston, TX
by Sandy | Sep 6, 2013 | Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, Culture, Live Performance
Mr. Wilson is one of my favorite playwrights. He wrote plays for every decade of the 20th century that would chronicle some part of the black experience in America. Through the use of his great ear for dialogue, Wilson was able to give us some insight into the daily life, both struggles and triumphs, of an assortment of universal characters that his audience could easily recognize. In 2005, August Wilson completed a ten-play cycle that is now being recorded to be enjoyed by future generations.
Tickets are sold out for just about all the live performances at the tiny Greene Space Theatre in NYC, however, the plays can be viewed online via webcast. I thoroughly enjoyed “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” a few days ago. True, the actors sit in seats in front of microphones, but they were so good and August Wilson’s stories are so compelling, that the imagination kicks in and provides the scenery and action. (For those of you not old enough to remember, we did this during radio programs all the time back in the day:)
“The Piano Lesson” is next on Monday 9/9/13 at 7PM EDT. The Greene Space site has a calendar of events, actor lists, etc.
August Wilson’s American Century Cycle
The Greene Space, 44 Charlton Street, New York, NY
BTW – the recordings are done in the order that the plays were written, not in chronological order as listed above
by Sandy | Aug 5, 2013 | Blogroll, Books, Culture, Education, Events, Exhibits, Learning
LABBX, the Los Angeles Black Book Expo, returns on Saturday August 17, 2013. This free event, at the L.A. Convention Center, will have “authors, storytellers, spoken word and poetry performances, musicians, exhibitors, children’s book authors, emerging writers, publishers, booksellers, panel discussions, editors, book reviewers…” all in support of having a glorious reading experience.
LABBX 2013
L.A. Convention Center – Saturday August 17, 2013
by Sandy | Jul 21, 2013 | Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, Culture, Exhibits
The Museum of Fine Arts Boston presents, not the Tom Cruise movie, but, “Samurai! Armor from the Ann and Gabriel Barbier-Mueller Collection” featuring the extraordinary artistry of the armor used by samurai—the military elite led by the shoguns, or warlords, of Japan from the 12th through 19th centuries.” “…more than 140 objects from the Ann and Gabriel Barbier-Mueller collection, including armored horses carrying combat-ready samurai in full regalia. Highlights include helmets of lacquered metal adorned with emblems often inspired by nature—which signaled the status of the wearer, differentiated samurai from each other, and also frightened the enemy on the battlefield—and full suits of exquisitely crafted armor, weapons, horse armor, and accoutrements used for both battle and ceremonies.”
Samurai! Armor from the Ann and Gabriel Barbier-Mueller Collection
Until August 4, 2013 – Museum of Fine Arts Boston
Avenue of the Arts, 465 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA
by Cybel Martin | Jul 14, 2013 | Blogroll, CDs, Culture, music
I love to listen to Brazilian music when I paint: Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Stan Getz etc. I just read this absolutely fascinating article in the NY Times about the origins of Brazilian music: how it was influenced by Arabic culture & how its aesthetic was passed onto American Blues. I have to get my hands on the recently released “Musica Tradicional do Norte e Nordeste 1938”. (It’s a 6 CD box set of Brazilian music circa 1938.)
