Save the Date!
11th Annual Harlem Book Fair & Arts Festival:
This is the largest annual African American book fair and it’s free!
Featured, on Saturday 7/18/09, will be 250 exhibit booths, 4 stages with music, story telling and children’s activities.
Harlem Book Fair, Sat. July 18, 2009, 11am – 6pm
Jacob Javits Center
655 W. 34th Street, NYC
“BUILDING READERS, EMPOWERING COMMUNITY”
For event information: (212) 348 – 1681
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I went to my friend, & fellow Tisch alumnus, Rod Gailes’ New York Premier of his feature film “Camouflage” last week. It’s a very intriguing, thought provoking visual journey/film shot during the pre-gentrification of Harlem. I believe Rod began production on “Camouflage” close to 15 years ago. One of the many thoughts the film will leave you with is just how much potential, desire and hope was being suffocated in the impoverished circumstances of Harlem.
St. John The Divine, Harlem, NYC by Ronnie Ginnever
Flash forward many years later and we have that potential expressed. One excellent blog, worthy of a RSS feed, is “Harlem World”. Its a pretty content rich blog/magazine centered on Harlem. What caught my attention was just how much is focused on the arts. I just happened on the blog today (late to the party, I know) but greatly enjoyed this article on the “Negritude” exhibit at the Exit Art Gallery.
A taste:
“Harlem resident Greg Tate presents a three-room “Black Mystery Anti-Panopticon,” envisioning Négritude as a “place” for mystery and funk, music and soul. A DJ shrine, created by Tate and the artists Xaviera Simmons and Arthur Jafa, will provide a site for weekly performances; a raised stage outfitted with a drum kit, microphones, and amps will be used for occasional live music; and an exhibition of visionary black artists – including Thornton Dial, Jr., Thornton Dial, Sr., and Lonnie Holley – coupled with laminated pages from the books Souls Grown Deep: African American Vernacular Art, Vols. 1 and 2, will create a “conjuration room where willing spirits can come to get toasted, roasted, and lit the fuck up.”
Harlem World Blog also encourages “citizen journalists” to send interviews, photographs, news stories etc to: hwcontact@yahoo.com
Photo is of course James VanDerZee’s “Couple in Raccoon Coats”, which I believe is at the Studio Museum of Harlem.
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Swiss born Robert Frank traveled around the United States in the mid-1950s and captured the America he saw through his photographs. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of his book, 83 of his images, considered controversial at the time they were taken, are on display at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Looking In: Robert Frank’s The Americans, May 16 – August 23, 2009
SF MoMA, 151 Third Street
San Francisco, CA
Images: Robert Frank, Trolley, New Orleans, 1955 and Robert Frank & wife at a photography festival in China (photo by E. Keating)
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Summer is almost here – time to make plans.
Atlanta is hosting its National Black Arts Festival again this year. Starting 7/29, music, dance, film, theater, poetry, literature – the Conga Kings, “Growing the Dream” at the Children’s Education Village, “Brazilian Cool” Gala – all presented courtesy of the NBAF. Their aim is to celebrate the vibrant life and art of people of color.
NBAF *Atlanta
July 29 – August 2, 2009
Woodruff Arts Center * Atlanta
1280 Peachtree St., NE, Atlanta, GA
“The mission of NBAF is to engage, cultivate and educate diverse audiences about the arts and culture of the African Diaspora and provide opportunities for artistic and creative expression.”
Brooklyn playwright Lynn Nottage has won the 2009 Drama Pulitzer Prize for “Ruined” – a powerful play set in the African Congo at the height of its civil war. It follows the plight of a group of women amidst the brutality and the chaos – a celebration of endurance.
Ruined – Manhattan Theater Club, 131 West 55th Street, NYC
Other plays by Ms Nottage:
Crumbs from the Table of Joy
Mud, River, Stone
Poof
Por’Knockers
Las Meninas
Intimate Apparel
Recently it had been suggested that HBO was off it’s game once the Sopranos and the Wire finished there runs. And yes it took some time to come up with a series that satisfied my taste, but The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency has been well worth the wait. The series is adapted from the books of Alexander McCall Smith, about the adventures of Mma Ramotswe
Jill Scott as Precious Ramotswe
Botswana’s only female private investigator. The story lines avoid the high tech and sci fi babble of CSI or Numbers, rather the deduction work done by Precious Ramotswe reminds me more of Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. No special effects and gun battles, just good old common sense.
Anika Noni Rose as Grace Makutsi
The charm of the series is how cleverly the complicity of Africa and Africans are revealed in each episode. How Beautiful the land, the people and their customs are, while still exploring and exposing some of the problems that much of the continent still needs to overcome, like Aids, Poverty and Education.
The cast and the stories are delightful, with plenty of humor and information about a culture many of us know little about. This a wonderful hour well spent.
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