Toni Brown, Rest in Peace

We will miss you.

Keith @ The New Museum

I'm looking forward to the sound installment of the Unmonumental show at the New Museum. Keith (Obadike) has some work in the show, as do Vito Acconci (with Sarina Basta and Daniel Perlin), Anthony Burdin, Trisha Donnelly, Paul Elliman, Andy Graydon, Language Removal Services, Ulrike Müller, Nautical Almanac, Pauline Oliveros, Susan Philipsz, Seth Price, & Stefan Tcherepnin.

“Unmonumental” is an exhibition about fragmented forms, torn pictures and clashing sounds. Investigating the nature of collage in contemporary art practices, “Unmonumental” also describes the present as an age of crumbling symbols and broken icons. Inspired by the art it presents, “Unmonumental” grows over time like an assemblage. It starts as a survey of recent sculpture, and morphs as layers of images, sounds, and Internet-based art are added in three subsequent parts.

The third part, “The Sound of Things: Unmonumental Audio” (February 13, 2008 – March 30, 2008), carries the theme of unmonumentality into the realm of sound. Audio collages by thirteen artists, reflecting diverse techniques including found recording, spoken text, and manipulated noise, will play throughout three of the Museum’s galleries. The compositions are broadcast at three-minute intervals, transforming the experience of “Unmonumental” into one in which sounds and images dramatically mix and overlap.

The New Museum is located at 235 Bowery (at Prince Street between Stanton and Rivington Streets, one and a half blocks south of Houston)
Subway: 6 to Spring Street or N/R to Prince Street.

Staceyann Chin & Willie Perdomo

and Dante Micheaux and young writers at Pen American Center

take a listen

God Bless Sonia Sanchez

For this and other things:



Some of the gems:

Dubois said the cause of war is the preparation of war
Dubois said the cause of war is the preparation of war

I say the cause of peace must be the preparation of peace
I say the cause of peace must be the preparation of peace

Should I prepare a table of peace before you in the presence of my enemies?
Will you know how to eat at this table?

. . .

Can you rise up at the sound of peace?
Can you make peace lighter than air?
Can you make peace sing like butterflies

Until peace becomes the noise of the planet?
Until peace becomes the noise of the planet?


***

Thanks to Ebony for the link.

Words to the Wise: Samuel Cornish

"Highly visible artists are too rare. 'Rare' is good for wine, but it sucks for an artist."

-- Samuel Cornish, Boston's first (recently selected) poet laureate

Erica Doyle and Tracie Morris @ the Belladonna Reading Series

I don't think I cried when I saw Erica and Tracie at Dixon Place, but it was an awesome night. (this pic is not of that night -- this pic is of some other night in Harlem-- ask Steven Fullwood) Anyway, I had been at work, it had been a long day, I was too tired to go out that night, but I also couldn't imagine not going to hear two of my favorite poets read *together*. Plus, Evie was going -- and that meant I was guaranteed to at least see yet another of my favorite poets. I don't know how to say what touched me so much. Of course, they were every bit as wonderful as I expected them to be. They read & performed poems I'd heard before and some I hadn't heard. This was last month, so now I can't remember so much, but I remember Tracie saying (after reading a confessional poem) that she usually didn't write confessional poems because she didn't feel that she'd done anything wrong! I remember the admiration each of them expressed for the other. I remember that when people said "R. Erica Doyle" it sounded and felt like they were saying "our Erica Doyle". And there were so many fierce women in the audience, Tisa Bryant, Tonya Hegamin (whom I hadn't seen in ages) -- both had new books coming out. Akilah Oliver, Ebony Golden, , Oh, I'll get in trouble if I try to name everyone, but there was lots of love in that room.

Things That Have Made Me Cry

I was recently telling my friend Besenia that I have recently turned a corner in my engagement with art. I have left a period of feeling jaded and come into a period of feeling earnest. What has this meant? In part it has meant that I have open to where other artists are trying to go, to the true and good. I have been able to follow their threads. One way I've become aware of this turn is that I've found myself crying (ok, sometimes bawling) in public.

Up til now, I've been letting myself engage and reflect in private, without needing to blog or post on listservs, but I think I'll come up for air for some public reflections and conversations. I'll say more as I feel like it, but to get us started, here is an incomplete list of things that have made me cry (I'll add as I remember):

The first words of the opera Margaret Garner

The last words of The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao

Aint That a Groove: The Genius of James Brown--A Two Day Symposium

Aint That a Groove: The Genius of James Brown--A Two Day Symposium

"Ain't that a Groove": The Genius of James Brown
A Princeton University Two-Day Symposium

PROGRAM

Thursday, November 29, 2007
Richardson Auditorium, Princeton University

6:00pm
Welcome
Valerie Smith, Director of the Center for African American Studies

6:15pm
"James Brown: Man To Man", Concert Film Footage
courtesy of Alan Leeds and Harry Weinger

7pm-9pm
"On the One": A Keynote Roundtable featuring Robert Christgau, Farah J. Griffin, Alan Leeds, and Fred Moten
moderator: Daphne A. Brooks

Friday, November 30, 2007
Richardson Auditorium, Princeton University

9:00am
Opening Remarks: "'I'm Not There': Popular Music Studies & the
Godfather of Soul"
Daphne A. Brooks

9:30-11:30am
"It's A Man's Man's Man's World": Black Power, Black Masculinity and the Politics of Funk

Mark Anthony Neal, "In the Rhythm of Patriarchy: 'Papa Don't Take No Mess'"
Jason King, "James Brown's Sweat"
Thomas F. DeFrantz, "My Brother, the Dance Master"
Robert Fink, "Soul Power, 1971"
Moderator: Tera W. Hunter

1:00-3:00pm
The Funky Precedent: Revolutionizing Rock, Birthing Hip Hop—Theorizing James Brown's Musical Innovations

Kandia Crazy Horse, "The One and Only: King James' Rock Revolt"
Rickey Vincent, "James Brown and the Rhythm Revolution"
Ahmir ?uestlove Thompson, "The Roots of Hip Hop"
Harry Weinger, "Listening to James Brown"
Moderator: Joshua B. Guild

3:30-5:30pm
"Mama Don't Take No Mess": Black Feminist Readings of James Brown

Greg Tate, "blues and the nekkid truth--the embodied she-funks of betty davis, chaka khan, grace jones and meshell ndeocello"
Imani Perry, "Telling Him About Himself: A Feminist Reading of James Brown"
Mendi Obadike, "The Pleasure/Challenge of James Brown's Iconicity"
Ernest Hardy, "James Brown: Portal of Possibility"
Moderator: Tavia Nyong'o

5:30-6:00pm
Closing Remarks
Cornel West, Class of 1943 University Professor in the Center for African American Studies

8:30-10pm
101 McCormick Hall

Special Evening Q&A
A Conversation with legendary James Brown band members Pee Wee Ellis, Fred Wesley and Questlove of the Roots
Moderator: Alan Leeds