Art X Detroit

April 6, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Art X Detroit mural by artist Hubert Massey

Get set for a five-day multidisciplinary celebration that presents works created by the 2011-2012 Kresge Eminent Artists and Artist Fellows. Free and open to the public, Art X Detroit is filled with dance and musical performances, literary readings, workshops and panel discussions that are distinguished in depth and quality.

Artists include Detroit Poet Laureate Naomi Long Madgett and playwright Bill Harris, as well as a host of visual and performing artists who represent established and cutting edge parts of the spectrum. For the complete Who’s Who, What’s What and the schedule, click here.

From Art X Detroit:

Art X Detroit: Kresge Arts Experience is a five-day multidisciplinary celebration, from April 10-14, 2013, that will exclusively present works created by the 2011-2012 Kresge Eminent Artists and Artist Fellows, along with a special visual arts exhibition at MOCAD that runs through April 28, 2013.

An exciting program of dance and musical performances, literary readings, workshops, panel discussions, public art and special exhibitions, Art X Detroit will be hosted at more than a dozen venues located throughout Midtown Detroit’s Cultural Center and is free to the public. Art X Detroit is supported by The Kresge Foundation.

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Midway

I’ve come this far to freedom and I won’t turn back

I’m climbing to the highway from my old dirt track

I’m coming and I’m going

And I’m stretching and I’m growing

And I’ll reap what I’ve been sowing or my skin’s not black

I’ve prayed and slaved and waited and I’ve sung my song

You’ve bled me and you’ve starved me but I’ve still grown strong

You’ve lashed me and you’ve treed me

And you’ve everything but freed me

But in time you’ll know you need me and it won’t be long.

I’ve seen the daylight breaking high above the bough

I’ve found my destination and I’ve made my vow;

So whether you abhor me

Or deride me or ignore me

Mighty mountains loom before me and I won’t stop now.

– Naomi Long Madgett (1959)

 

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Madgett’s note:

(“Midway was first published in Freedomways in 1959, but I think I wrote it in 1958. The poem grew out of a discussion with a friend that acknowledged that the Supreme Court desegregation ruling, which legalized racial justice for the first time, led to the determination of Black people to move forward and never again accept the status quo.”)

SOURCE

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The image above:

“A People’s Vision” is a work of public art located at Warren and Woodward Avenues in Detroit Michigan. Created by Hubert Massey, a Kresge Fellow and visual artist whose work is featured in Art X Detroit, the mural reflects images of Detroit’s past and future, including historic events, cultural traditions and symbolic figures associated with the city. The work is a result of collaborative feedback between the artist and community. Learn more here.

 

 

Filed Under: Architecture, Art & Design, Community, Culture, Jazz, Music, Painting, Photography, Popular, Sculpture, Who We Are, Words

The Poet – The Green Room

March 30, 2013 By Leave a Comment

“Undercurrent” is the latest of poems by Victor “Billione” Walker, a native Detroit writer and activist who uses poetry as a method to share his cultural experiences. He is the founder and editor of Detroit Poetry Blog detroitpoetry.blogspot.com a source of information about poetry related events and venues in the Detroit Area. “Billione” will be releasing a collection of poetry entitled “Grand River” later this year.

PRODUCER NOTE: In an effort to remain true to the poet’s vision the location of each image was suggested by Mr. Walker.

ZOO WATER TOWER PICTURE: by William Archie used with the kind permission of the Detroit Free Press.

All other images by Roy Feldman.

The Green Room series is produced by Roy Feldman for Detroit Performs. To see more artists in the Green Room, please click here.

Filed Under: Detroit Inspires, Film, Photography, Reviews, Video, Words Tagged With: , , , ,

Shirin Neshat

March 2, 2013 By Leave a Comment

DIA presents Shirin Neshat

The Detroit Institute of Arts presents exhibition of photographic works and installations by the Iranian-American artist Shirin Neshat. The new exhibition will be at the DIA through July 7, 2013. Click here for details.

From the DIA:

Shirin Neshat, an Iranian American artist living in New York City, is widely acclaimed for her extraordinary video installations and photography, yet her collected works are rarely considered as a singular production or displayed together. The DIA’s mid-career retrospective includes seven video installations and two series of photography. Through visual metaphor and compelling sound, Neshat confronts the complexities of identity, gender and power to express her own vision that embraces the depth of Islamic tradition and concepts of individuality and liberty.

Event title image: Shirin Neshat, Offered Eyes (Women of Allah series), 1993, RC print and ink, Copyright Shirin Neshat. Courtesy Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont (Detail from a photo taken by Plauto).

Filed Under: Art & Design, Culture, History, Music, Photography, Reviews, Who We Are, Words, World Tagged With: , , ,

To Market, To Market

February 17, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Luis Resto performs The Cut at Music Hall Jazz Cafe

Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings presents jazz pianist Luis Resto and cellist Debra Fayroian in “To Market, To Market,” a special collaboration on Sunday, April 28. The DCWS Structurally Sound series performance begins at 3 p.m. at the Red Bull House of Art in Detroit’s Eastern Market.

To Market, To Market will feature DCWS cellist Debra Fayroian and Detroit jazz pianist Luis Resto. DCWS’ newest chamber music series, Structurally Sound presents chamber music in architecturally significant or interesting spaces with repertoire that relates to the space’s unique qualities. Matthew Eaton, curator at the Red Bull House of Art, will speak at the concert.

Fayroian and Resto will perform a number of works for cello and piano including contemporary French composer Claude Bolling’s “Suite for Cello and Jazz Piano.” A skilled jazz pianist, Bolling’s work easily mixes the key elements of jazz and classical music for a lively and fresh look at both musical genres. The work will also include Dan Kolton on acoustic bass and Tom Brown on drums.

Other works for cello and piano will include the world premiere of a new work by Resto titled “E minor Menagerie” and Resto’s “Chant Native American” for electric cello and piano.

The concert will also feature a performance of “the Cut,” a multimedia presentation that is a collaboration between Luis Resto and photographer Michelle Andonian. The presentation visually explores the Dequindre Cut Greenway, a 1.35-mile path that runs behind Eastern Market in an ever-evolving multimedia presentation that pairs silent film and still photographs with a blend of traditional and synthesis music improvised by Resto. The video and stills are projected onto a screen with Resto in the middle playing his piano. His live performance becomes part of the video.

The Red Bull House of Art opened in May of 2012 with its first exhibit featuring the works of eight Detroit artists. The house allows up and coming artists the chance to develop their skill and showcase their abilities in a collaborative and inspirational environment by exploring new themes and innovative ideas.

Initial funding for Structurally Sound came as part of a larger grant awarded to DCWS by the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan in honor of Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings’ 30th year. The grant was given to support new initiatives by DCWS.

Tickets for Structurally Sound are available by calling (248) 559-2095 or going online to detroitchamberwinds.org. Ticket prices are $35 for adults, $30 for seniors (60+), and $10 for students (under 25). Tickets will be $5 more at the door. The concert will take place in the Red Bull House of Art building in Detroit Eastern Market located at 1551 Winder Street. Space is limited, please call ahead to reserve.

 

REPERTOIRE

Chant Native American for electric cello & piano……………………………..Luis Resto

The Cut………………………………………………………Michelle Andonian and Luis Resto

Apres un Reve………………………………………………………………………….Gabriel Faure

Vocalise…………………………………………………………………………………..Rachmaninoff

E minor Menagerie piano & cello (WORLD PREMIERE)…………………..Luis Resto

Suite for Cello & Jazz Piano Trio………………………………………………..Claude Bolling

 

ABOUT DETROIT CHAMBER WINDS & STRINGS

Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings is an ensemble committed to bringing to life the body of repertoire that utilizes between 6 & 20 musicians. DCWS musicians are drawn primarily from the Detroit Symphony and Michigan Opera Theatre orchestras. Now in its 31st year, Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings presents an annual subscription series, the Nightnotes series, and new in 2012, the Structurally Sound series. Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings was named Crain’s Detroit Business 2010 Best-Managed Nonprofit. For more information, call (248) 559-2095 or visit www.detroitchamberwinds.org.

The image above shows Luis Resto performing The Cut at Music Hall Center for the Peforming Arts’ Jazz Cafe. In addition to outstanding music, video and images from Dequindre Cut Pathway linking downtown with Eastern Market are projected onto various surfaces  to create an extraordinary experience. For some, the performance evoked a sensation of being part of the Detroit scene today and part of the City’s future.

Filed Under: Art & Design, Classical, Community, Culture, Jazz, Music, Photography, Reviews, Video, Who We Are Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

You Can Make History – Thanks to Kroger

February 7, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Cadet Henry Ossian Flipper, United States Military Academy

Help Kroger celebrate Black History Month with the annual “I Can Make History” contest. The program is open to 4th through 12th grade Michigan students.

Kroger will award more than $67,000 in prizes in four categories – art, essay, music and poetry. All entries must be received by 5 p.m., Thursday, February 28, 2013. Winners will be invited to an awards luncheon held Saturday, April 13, 2013.

New this year, Kroger will honor one school with the School Leadership Award and $5,000 and the student that receives the highest score among all four categories will receive the $3,000 Best in Show Scholarship.

All entries should tie into the contests themes. Artwork entries must be original drawings, paintings, paper collages, and/or photographs. Essay entries must be the student’s own work and at least 500 words in length. Music entries must be an original work and a minimum of one minute (not exceeding four minutes). Poetry entries must be the student’s original work and no longer than 30 lines in length.

All entries must be received by 5 p.m. Friday, February 28, 2013. Learn more at http://www.icanmakehistory.com.

The image above is a photograph of Cadet Henry Ossian Flipper. Born a slave, he was the first African American to graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point. He served as a commissioned officer in the United States Army, where he encountered racism, bigotry and hypocrisy on the parts of his superiors, subordinates and fellow officers. After being drummed out of the Army, he continued his career as an engineer, land surveyor and land use scholar. Click here to learn more.

Filed Under: Art & Design, Community, Detroit Public Schools, For Students, History, Music, News, Painting, Photography, Sculpture, Words Tagged With: , ,

Heart Soul Detroit: Conversations on the Motor City

January 23, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Barry Sanders of the Detroit Lions portrait by Jenny Risher

Michigan-born photographer Jenny Risher celebrates Detroit with portraits of prominent Detroiters in new book, “Heart Soul Detroit: Conversations on the Motor City.”

An exhibition featuring photographs from the work opens Friday, Jan. 25 at the College for Creative Studies with a reception from 6-8 p.m. Free parking is available in the CCS structure on Brush north of Frederick Douglass.

The exhibition will be on display at Center Galleries, inside the Manoogian Visual Resource Center at Risher’s alma mater, College for Creative Studies, through March 2. Gallery hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and admission is free.

The exhibition will then move to the Detroit Historical Museum, 5401 Woodward Ave., Detroit for display July 13-Sept. 29, 2013.

From Kim Silarski:

It all started with a conversation between two friends and native Detroiters – photographer Jenny Risher and fashion icon Veronica Webb – in New York City in 2010. “Wouldn’t it be cool if someone made a book on all the amazing people who hail from Detroit?” Risher wondered out loud.

Now, almost three years later, it’s here: Jenny Risher’s Heart Soul Detroit: Conversations on the Motor City, published by Royal Oak, Michigan-based Momentum Books. Through intimate and compelling color portraiture and raw interview transcripts, Risher and editor Matt Lee present 51 influential, successful and fascinating Detroiters as they speak of their love for The Motor City. And it arrives just a few months after Risher brought her thriving practice back to metro Detroit after 15 successful years in New York, having relocated to raise her kids closer to family in a Midwestern atmosphere and to enjoy Detroit’s creative energy and community.

From superstar Eminem on the cover to super-athletes like Nicklas Lidström, Barry Sanders, Al Kaline and Tommy Hearns to internationally admired musicians like Smokey Robinson, Don Was, Jack White and Martha Reeves to business visionaries such as Berry Gordy, Lee Iacocca and Bill Ford, Jr., and of course, Ms. Webb, Heart Soul Detroit showcases the men and women who made Detroit famous the world over.

One of Risher’s most memorable photo shoots was Berry Gordy’s. She traveled to Beverly Hills to meet the Motown founder and was impressed by his energy and charisma. “It’s no wonder all these people worked so hard for him during their careers and dedicated everything to him,” she says. “It was hard for me to not be overcome with emotion. I just had to keep it together and take the picture.”

The images contained in Heart Soul Detroit are also the subject of a solo exhibition at Center Galleries in Detroit. In the exhibition, the large-format color portraits are each inscribed by their subjects, with heartfelt comments about their hometown. The exhibition will be on display at Center Galleries, inside the Manoogian Visual Resource Center at Risher’s alma mater, College for Creative Studies, January 25-March 2, 2013; gallery hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and admission is free. It will then move to the Detroit Historical Museum, 5401 Woodward Ave., Detroit for display July 13-Sept. 29, 2013.

Motown legend Martha Reeves, among the 51 Detroiters pictured in Heart Soul Detroit, will offer remarks and a brief live performance at a 6-8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 25, 2013 Opening Reception & Book Release Party at Center Galleries, 301 Frederick Douglass in Detroit. Many of the book’s subjects, including Mel Farr, Allee Willis and Bill Bonds, are expected to join Ms. Reeves at the event.

A limited number of copies of Heart Soul Detroit will be on sale during the Jan. 25 reception; advance orders will be accepted there. Sign up for an email alert at www.heartsouldetroit.com to receive immediate notice when the book is ready to be shipped. Beginning in mid-February, the book will be available at Barnes & Noble Booksellers and on Amazon.com, in addition to www.heartsouldetroit.com.

Jenny Risher grew up in Mount Clemens, Michigan and earned a BFA in Photography at The Center for Creative Studies (CCS) in Detroit in 1997. She moved to New York in 1998 and apprenticed with photography masters Patrick Demarchelier and Francesco Scavullo before striking out on her own to shoot for national publications and internationally known brand names (see bio below). Risher conceived Heart Soul Detroit as a personal project, a creative outlet unconstrained by commercial considerations. Beginning with apparel designers John Varvatos and Anna Sui and Ms. Reeves, Risher gained the confidence and participation of dozens of famous Detroiters, who shared private reflections and memories of their lives here.

“I love this line from Jerry Bruckheimer’s interview,” Risher says. “It pretty much sums up everything for me: ‘The harder you work, the luckier you get.’ Everyone featured in the book came from humble beginnings and became successful through hard work, passion, dedication, and backbone. To me this is the essence of the spirit of Detroit.”

 

Filed Under: Motown, Music, Photography, Reviews, Who We Are, Words Tagged With: , ,

Detroit Jazz Festival Photostories by Roy Feldman

January 7, 2013 By 1 Comment

Sonny Rollins by Roy FeldmanDetroit Performs’ own Roy Feldman  presents a photo-videographic journal documenting the 2012 Detroit Jazz Festival here.

The images will do more than a capture a pose: These tell  a story.

For instance, the moment saxophone legend Sonny Rollins fired off a solo that left the crowd wowed above. If you were there, the moment was special. Rollins, who lets his sax do the talking, also spoke up for a special love.

“One of the best sets he’s done in a very long time,” John Penney, jazz on-air host of WRCJ 90.9 FM. ”He almost never talks when on stage. And then he heaped love on Detroit.”

Mr. Rollins then played “Isn’t She Lovely?” and an encore, Penney added in a special WRCJ 90.9 FM live broadcast from the Detroit Jazz Festival. The crowd went wild.

Photographer Roy Feldman will chronicle the weekend festival with images that promise to tell the story.  Mr. Feldman also is the the creative genius behind The Green Room.

The Detroit Jazz Festival ran through Labor Day Monday, downtown. Click here for the complete schedule.

Filed Under: Art & Design, Fun, History, Jazz, Music, Photography, Reviews, Who We Are, Words Tagged With: ,

From Here to There at Cranbrook

December 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Cranbrook presents Alec SothCranbrook Art Museum presents “From Here to There: Alec Soth’s America.”

Featuring the work of photographer Alec Soth and a most recent pre-election voyage across Michigan, the new exhibition opens to the public Saturday, Nov. 17 and runs through Saturday, March 30, 2013. There will be a Members’ Opening Reception on Friday, Nov. 16 from 7-9 p.m.

Within the wanderlust embodied in Alec Soth’s photographs is an impulse to uncover narratives that comprise the American experience. ”From Here to There: Alec Soth’s America,” organized by the Walker Art Center, is the first major U.S. survey to explore the past 15 years of work by one of the most compelling voices in contemporary photography. While Soth’s practice has taken him throughout the world, the Cranbrook exhibition focuses specifically on his pictures made in the United States.

Featuring over 100 photographs, the presentation includes early black-and-white images of Minneapolis working-class taverns, as well as examples from his well-known series Sleeping by the Mississippi, NIAGARA, Fashion Magazine, The Last Days of W, Soth’s major new series, Broken Manual, as well as other bodies of work not exhibited until now.

Soth will also debut a new body of work at Cranbrook that will be the result of a road trip the artist will be taking across Michigan in the weeks leading up to the presidential election in November.

Along with writer Brad Zellar and graduate students from the Photography Department at Cranbrook Academy of Art, Soth will traverse the state while documenting the two-week journey in both text and photographs. The artist will work with Academy students to print this new photographic series in Cranbrook’s studios and subsequently install them in the Art Museum.

Additionally, Soth will collaborate with Zellar and Academy students to produce the latest edition of the LBM Dispatch, a quasi-reportorial black-and-white newspaper series. Through the new photographic series and the Michigan Dispatch, the Cranbrook iteration of this exhibition provides a unique opportunity to view the work of a major American photographer in the immediate context in which it was produced.

Soth’s distinct perspective is one in which the act of wandering, the method of embracing serendipity when seeking out his subjects, and the process of telling are as resonant as the photographic record of his remarkable encounters. When considered together, these pictures probe the idiosyncrasies of people, objects and places he discovers on his journeys, and form an offbeat and absorbing portrait of the American experience.

“From Here to There: Alec Soth’s America” is organized by the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, and made possible by generous support from Carol and Judson Bemis, Jr., Marilyn and Larry Fields, Linda and Lawrence Perlman, and Geri and Dar Reedy.

www.cranbrookart.edu.

Filed Under: Art & Design, Culture, Photography, Spotlight, Who We Are, Words Tagged With: , ,

Ken Burns: The Dust Bowl

November 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The Dust Bowl by Ken Burns

Detroit Public Television presents a new documentary from acclaimed filmmaker, Ken Burns: The Dust Bowl. The film will be broadcast Sunday, Nov. 18 and Monday, Nov. 19 at 8 p.m. on DPTV Channel 56. The program repeats immediately after each airing.

The Dust Bowl chronicles the worst man-made ecological disaster in American history, in which the frenzied wheat boom of the “Great Plow-Up,” followed by a decade-long drought during the 1930s, nearly swept away the breadbasket of the nation.

Through vivid interviews with twenty-six survivors of those hard times, combined with dramatic photographs and seldom seen movie footage, the film brings to life stories of incredible human suffering and equally incredible human perseverance.

The work also serves as a morality tale about our relationship to the land that sustains us—a lesson we ignore at our peril.

Filed Under: Film, History, Photography, Video, Who We Are, Words Tagged With: , ,

Family: A Photographic Exhibit at DCCP

November 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment

A review by Roy Feldman

20130112-DSCF1195

Kyohei Abe, Director DCCP

The  latest exhibit at the Detroit Center for Contemporary Photography is very, very good on many levels.

Titled “Family,” the exhibition goer expecting the sweet and sentimental will be disappointed. Instead, we are treated to vignettes that can only be captured in real time; not staged, posed or recreated.

Rather than trying to emulate paintings these photographs do what no other medium can: capture a slice of reality.We are given permission to be a voyeur and allowed a vantage point of intimacy that can’t be captured by a “outsider”.

Maier

Beth Maier’s “Best in Show” entry “Father and Son” is geometrically perfect with Rembrandt-ish lighting. BUT, the father in the picture is covered in pet hair, proving its spontaneous ‘moment in time’ pedigree.

Johnstone2

Artist Mary Johnstone gives us an image of a grandmother(?) comforting a young girl with the casket containing grandfather(?) in the background, a photograph that could only be made by an intimate family member, leaving the viewer with inescapable empathy and sorrow.

Judi Bommarito’s picture of her mother with Alzheimer’s show us that prose, poetry and painting are incapable of capturing the essence these photographs do.

The DCCP is located in the Russell Street Complex (Clay& I -75), central casting would place it in the noir menacing-warehouse car-chase shoot-out category, the dogged determination of Director Kyohei Abe (pictured) and Co-Director PD Rearick to bring good and thoughtful photography to Detroit has, with this show, paid off.

Mr. Abe’s sisyphean dedication (presumably underfunded) to his task for this show was aided by bringing a world class juror: Aline Smithson. Ms. Smithson, who runs the highly thought of blog http://www.lenscratch.com/ , had the daunting task of editing the 100+ entries down to 49. Her educated eye separated the smarmy from the subtitle and brought us an exhibit that belongs on the world stage, she writes:

“This exhibition is about seeing beyond the front door and the birthday party smiles, it’s about the pathos and poignancy of parenthood, of aging parents, of loss, of joy, of loneliness…it’s about all the things that make us human in the everyday drama played out in our own backyards.”


She has thoughtfully allowed us to see all the photographs on her blog:http://www.lenscratch.com/2013/01/the-family-exhibition-at-detroit-center.html

Please, take a little time to physically go and see this show. The online shots are great, but the impact of well-executed prints adds a dimension computer-viewing can not.

The DCCP is located in the Russell Street Complex, Building 2, Floor 1, 1600 Clay Street, Detroit, Mich.

The exhibit runs until Feb. 2. The DCCP is open Thursdays and Saturdays, from 1-4 p.m.

Roy Feldman is a writer, photographer and storyteller. He creates the Green Room video features on emerging artists for Detroit Performs.

Filed Under: Art & Design, Photography, Reviews, Who We Are Tagged With: , ,
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