Speak The Truth
Watching the Youtube video of Mos Def’s frustrated reaction to the absence of mainstream media coverage of the Jena 6 rally last September, I was thinking about the effectiveness of this relatively new media in getting the message out there. With its egalitarian, easy-access technology, Youtube is slowly revolutionizing the ways visual information is distributed, and people are beginning to use it effectively as a political tool. A case in point, the Jena rally clearly demonstrated just how closely the success of grassroots activism is intertwined with the support of the media. To have a voice means that you have to find a way to be heard - or nobody will listen.
To find out more about getting your voice out there, go check out the Fifth Annual NYC Grassroots Media Conference at Hunter College CUNY, hosted by the NYC Grassroots Media Coalition (NYCGMC). The conference theme – Speaking Truth to Power: MEDIA JUSTICE IN OUR COMMUNITIES – invites media makers and community organizers to discuss the idea of “Media Justice”, and to explore ways to implement it. Media justice activists will address a range of related issues, including under-representation, lack of access, racial bias, the connections between media justice and visual literacy, and the role of the arts, and complimentary strategies for making change on the streets of NYC. To register and find out more, click here.
Sunday March 2nd, 2008 9am–6pm
Hunter College, North Building, 68th Street and Lexington Ave. (Enter from street or directly from 6 train.)
If you miss the panels, you could still catch participants to network and build at the AFTER PARTY.
Mo’s Caribbean Bar and Grill
1454 2nd Ave. at 76th St.
6pm (1⁄2 off drinks after 7pm)
Rendezvous
Francophiles and foreign-film buffs get a treat this weekend with the start of Rendezvous with French Cinema, a week long event at the IFC debuting 15 of the newest French films in America. Throughout the week, the IFC will premiere a range of films covering love, war, and the situations that take us from one pole to the other.
The festival kicks off with French box-office hit, A Secret. Based on a novel by Phillipe Grimbert that will also be released in the United States this year, the film explores the effects of the many secrets a Jewish family was forced to keep on the eve, and in the wake of World War II.
Given the popularity of Persepolis, you might want to check out Fear in the Dark, an animated film in the same stylistic vein, developed by six of France’s top comic book artists. Each artists’ idea is woven into a dreamlike story taking you through the realms of science fiction, horror, and the fantastic.
One movie I’m checking for is Ain’t Scared, a drama set in the housing projects outside of Paris. Ain’t Scared is one day in the emotional life of a group of youth trying to express deep feelings for each other, when they’re accustomed to maintaining a hard, protective front. The director, who also grew up in les cités (as the housing projects are called), gives audiences a chance to see a gentler side of Paris’ urban youth that is rare in the media.
A bonus during the week is a preview screening of Love Songs, which will start its official run at the IFC March 21.
The directors of all the films will also be in attendance - a cherry on top for those who like to find out the director’s perspective on making the film, or the significance of the color green. All films in French with English subtitles.
Festival runs February 29-March 6 atthe IFC. For tickets and further information, visit IFC.
Parra-bot
The phenomena that Apple has created with the iPod continues to spread in its many forms, as it finds its way into the homes, studios, and pockets of technology freaks, and us simple ones looking for a way to have our music 24/7.
Anyone who has dropped their slick device down the stairs or in the street, knows a little protection can go a long way. Tinbot is bringing some artistic expression to the iPod case by combining fresh artists, a chic tin design, and a neoprene lining. Featuring artists like Jock, Mad, Sket One, Christopher Lee, and 7Sleepr, my favorite case is coming from the well-known Parra who is also a co-owner of the clothing line Rockwell.
Check out the site and grab one that tickles your iPod fancy before they sale out like the first generation of Tinbot cases. $30 a pop. For the artist who wants to do it themselves, they offer custom packages that will be available on their site soon.
City of Men
In the hills overlooking the beaches of Rio de Janeiro, a war is going on. Violence has long been harbored in the alleys, and beneath the palms of the favelas. Gangs and drug lords enforce law and order more than the police, who often enter the favelas shooting or ready to shoot. Either way, the fights, the rivalries, and the gunshots always give way to the blood of the young, the innocent and the damned.
City Of Men, a new film by the team behind City Of God, explores the ties that bind friendship, fatherhood, community, and survival in a world that is unsentimental about self-discovery, and is the nemesis to self-preservation. Two friends, Acerola (Douglas Silva) and Laranjinha (Darlan Cunha) realize this the hard way in the months leading up to their 18th birthdays. Acerola has a two-year-old son to raise. Used to his freedom, he feels tied down by his marriage and fatherhood; for Laranjinha, the problem isn’t being a father, it is not having one. While the duo tries to solve their problems, a gang war destabilizes the structure of the drug world around them . When the head drug lord in the community, Laranjinha’s cousin Madrugadão (Jonathan Haagensen), loses his ground to his former partner, the two friends are torn apart in the ensuing conflict. When the dust settles, they find themselves on opposite sides of the war wondering which will be stronger - the pull of friendship or the code of the streets.
Some viewers may remember Silva and Cunha from City Of God, where, at the age of 11, they were cast as the young versions of L’il Dice and File-com-Fritas. They have played Acerola and Laranjinha since City Of God on a television series in Brazil, also called City Of Men. Their real lives almost mirror those of their characters, with the exception that their talent for acting opened a world of opportunity for them that could lead to a life beyond the favela.
Beautiful and dusty, languid and fervent, City Of Men picks up where City Of God left off, showing how the tidal wave of a violent and conflicted past breaks across the doorsteps of today. City Of Men explores not only how drugs and violence shape and constrain the daily lives of the people in the favelas, but also what life is like for the 90% who are not directly involved in the drug or gang world until they fall victim to it.
Opens Friday, February 29 at the Angelika Film Center in New York. For tickets and showtimes, visit Angelika’s website. For more on City of Men, click here.
Talib Delivers
Lately, I’ve really been jockin’ Talib Kweli, and have been moved (yet again) by his conscious flo, inspired from his revolutionary stance and pumped by the powerful culture he embraces and strengthens. I’ve been pulling out old classics from the Black Star album, Reflection Eternal, The Beautiful Struggle - each with tracks that helped to mold me as an MC, a person, and a part of the hip hop movement itself. Although the last 2 albums he released kind of slid past me, and I never got the chance to cop them, last week I randomly came across the video that recently came out for the track “Hostile Gospel” (Deliver Us) from his newest project Eardrum. Watch it for yourself, but I have to say, I’m getting some of those goosebumps that Talib was giving me back in 2000. The video was shot in Lagos and directed by Andrew Dosunmu.
Girls Gone Real
To counteract the alarming shortage of public art programs, these days women are taking matters into their own hands to make real and lasting changes in the lives of inner city youth. Let’s face it, most public schools are underfunded, teachers are underpaid, and students often feel underappreciated or straight-out neglected. Female artists with grassroots backgrounds recognize the importance of reaching out to kids. Reminding them that their voice matters, showing them that their dreams of becoming poets, MCs, visual artists, or performers can in fact translate into reality.
Renaissance woman and true revolutionista at heart, Caitlin Meissner is living her dream of being an artist on a mission. Spoken word poet, educator, and graphic designer by trade, Caitlin makes things happen. Building on her long standing involvement in activism, and her natural ability as a community builder, she has been successfully running the Lower Eastside Girls Club’s Saturday Performance Series. The series hope to fulfill two objectives, showcasing today’s hottest female poets, singers, and artists in an intimate, free-to-all setting while fulfilling the Girls Club’s mission dedicated to “build ethical, entrepreneurial, and environmental leadership” for the next generation of female movers and shakers.
Since its debut two years ago, the Saturday Series has achieved many goals “making the Girls Club Art+Community Gallery and Café a downtown cultural destination for a socially conscious audience, connecting girls from lower income families with working artists, poets and musicians through the ‘VIP Luncheon’ series before each performance, and providing entrepreneurial training opportunities to Girls Club members through the adjoining café and gift store”, Caitlin explains. Some of the amazing women to grace the series this season included Honey Larochelle, Pyeng Threadgill, The Piper Jane Project, Maya Azucena, Shelly Nicole’s Blakbushe, Erika Rose, HeaVy, and Tamar-Kali. If you missed out on their performances, you can listen to the podcasts of past shows here.
This Saturday, you can check out some of New York City’s dopest female acts: 2007 Grand Slam Champ of the Nuyorican Poets Café, Aja Monet, who has been a favorite of both spoken word devotees and Hip-Hop crowds alike, performing alongside singer-songwriter, Maritri, whose bittersweet lyrics over piano, cello and guitar will take you to an inner space for reflection. I suggest you go early as seats get filled rather fast. Did I mention it’s free? For more info and schedules, visit the Girls Club online, or email Caitlin Meissner for more info at development@girlsclub.org
Home Sweet Home
My intro to house music came by way of Black Box’s “Everybody, Everybody” some time around 1990- every time it came on, I would instantly get open and flail around happily (I was young, okay?). Last year, when I was trying to upgrade my house moves from my private flailings, I came across a track, “Testin’ Me” by Peven Everett that almost sent me back into my pre-adoloscent apoplexy.
With sensual, smooth beats and a bass line that won’t quit, the Chicago native’s house music comes out of the post-disco, dance culture of early 80’s Chi-town. Although the music has morphed into many very different forms (from R&B styling to the thump-thump, glow-stick, trance-like variety), what remains key about Chicago’s house music is its soul. And don’t think the music died with the early 90’s. Chicago and the UK continue to produce chill, soulful house music, and one of the best examples today, is Peven Everett.
Dubbed the “Prince of Soul” (in house circles), the 27-year-old singer is performing tonight at Cargo in Shoreditch. Everett doesn’t just sing, he plays his own instruments (all nine) and of course, since we’re talking about house music, dances as well. His performance tonight is sure to satisfy. Alongside Everett are the King of Grooves, Glenn “Underground” Crocker and PA Daisy Villa, performing songs of their latest release, Rize. If “Follow Me” and “Hot” can still get you open from time to time, you’ll enjoy the show. If you’re new to soulful house music, Everett just might make you a fan. Flailing around is definitely not required but you’ll be dancing by the end of the night. Check it out.
8P-3A
£6 B4 9, £10 adv, £12 after
LIVE: PEVEN EVERETT + GLENN UNDERGROUND + DAISY VILLA
DJS: RAP SAUNDERS
General Enquiries: 020 7739 3440
Tickets available through Ticketmaster and on Cargo’s website
www.pias.com/peveneverett/
Hop On Top
Known in the 70’s as one of New York’s most “up” graffiti artist, James Top has painted the scene with his crew, tags, pieces and murals. He continued to evolve and contribute, by making the city a piece of art wherever he stopped to paint, and now he continues on canvas to bring consciousness to the “African American experience in America”. Opening to the public tonight, Afrology, is expected to be a historic night, attracting attendee’s from across the map, as Top exhibits 17 variations of the ‘Afro’ using graffiti art and mixed media.
Get your shovel out, trek down to the Lower East Side tonight and stop by the Essex Street Gallery! Come see this important figure in the history of New York subway art, as he shows through art what it means to be Black in America. “It is my time not only to be the voice of graffiti art but also to be the voice of the people in my community.”
GIRLS! GIRLS! GIRLS!
Back in 1985 Aretha and Annie said it, but here in 2008, these girls are actually doing it! That’s right the sisters are doing it for themselves by way of the MF Gallery. The all female art show is back for a second round “ding ding!” In 2006 Martina and Frank brought us GIRLS! GIRLS! GIRLS! Attracting many from all over NY and beyond. Fast forward a little over a year later, and they’ve done it again, presenting us with GIRLS 2! Again this show strictly exhibits the work of female artists, and will pay homage to a line up including Martina herself, and the likes of Lisa Petrucci, Aya Kakeda, Meredith Dittmar and Tracy Drury - just to name a few of these amazing ladies.
To launch the five week exhibit, an opening party will be held on Saturday, February 23rd, where you’ll be able to meet the women responsible for the work. It starts at 7pm and is totally free for all, no RSVP required. Don’t miss the show, attend any of the days between the 23rd and Sunday March 30th. Be there or be square!
Opening Party Saturday February 23rd 7pm-10pm
Show runs Saturday February 23rd - Sunday March 30th (Wed-Sun 2-7pm)
Soul Bites
For those of you who frequently associate the word ‘hunger’ with a craving for soulful nourishment, Hermann Deza aka Hermosdef, the Paris-born photographer with roots in Africa’s Ivory Coast brings a uniquely fresh visual aesthetic to the table. Imagine being hit by the smell of roasting spices, and burning charcoal after you’ve been starved for days. Yeah… that’s the kind of soul food he’s offering you. With rich tones and striking intensity, his fashion and music photography will no doubt feed your lust for something new. There is an unmistakably intimate quality to Hermosdef’s portraits, which clearly draw their power from his deep familiarity with the world his subjects live in. As one of the members of French Hip-hop crew, Jazzeffiq, he’s in fact an integral part of the world he documents.
Photographers working with living subjects must keep their awareness in the absolute moment. They have to be ready to take a slice out of a streaming sense of reality, a frozen image of life, that will be powerful enough to make a lasting trace on our memory. To be able to capture the most open and vulnerable moments of human expression, takes someone who is finely attuned to the subtle realm of emotions and has a deep love for his subjects. Hermosdef has clearly got what it takes. His portraits are fragments of many souls - raw and beautiful. Check’em at his website.