Author Archives: Christina

Veronica Ryan
Unveils New Permanent Work

Image courtesy of the artist and Pangolin Editions

Net, Orange Peels, Black Thread
by Veronica Ryan
Unveiling 2 October 2021
Hackney Town Hall
Hackney, England

Thomas J Price and Veronica Ryan have been commissioned by Hackney Council to create two new individual public artworks celebrating and honouring Hackney’s Windrush Generation, the first permanent public sculptures to do so in the UK.

The artworks will be unveiled on 2 October 2021 (Veronica Ryan) and 22 June 2022 (Thomas J Price), and will be installed in two different locations at the heart of civic and community life in the borough, including outside Hackney Town Hall. The works will serve as a permanent expression of solidarity with the Windrush Generation, a recognition of the hugely significant contribution they have made to life in Hackney and the UK, and will symbolise the ongoing commitment from the borough to provide refuge and welcome to worldwide migrants.

Net, Orange Peels, Black Thread. Courtesy of the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery New York. Photo: Max McClure

Veronica Ryan will create a series of large marble and bronze sculptures representing Caribbean fruit and vegetables. Speaking of her inspiration, Veronica Ryan said: “I have memories of going to Ridley Road Market with my mother as a child to buy fruit and vegetables, fabrics, and sewing materials. Little did I know, those early experiences would become essential material for my practice as an artist. I remember as a toddler during the 1950s the difficulties my young hopeful parents from Montserrat dealt with, navigating a new country and often inhospitable circumstances.”

History of the Hackney Windrush Commission

In August 2018, Hackney became the first local authority in the UK to pass a comprehensive motion regarding the Windrush Generation, pledging to oppose the criminalisation of Windrush families, calling for an end to the ‘hostile environment’ policies and for support for those who have been affected by them. This announcement follows the Council’s decision to review the role of statues and the naming of landmarks, street names, parks and other public spaces to ensure they best reflect Hackney’s diversity and history of fighting racism.

The announcement was made on Windrush Day 2020, and follows an extensive consultation process that began in 2018. Following an initial shortlisting process, the final decision to commission Thomas J Price and Veronica Ryan was made by a panel including Hackney residents, Windrush campaigners, artists, architects and local councillors including Cllr Carole Williams – Hackney’s Windrush lead. The panel was chaired by Mark Sealy, Director of Hackney-based gallery Autograph ABP, with approval from Mayor Phillip Glanville.

The project, produced in partnership with Create, is part of the Council’s wider Windrush Engagement Programme which started in 2018. Working directly with over 3,000 Windrush elders and their descendants on intergenerational activities in areas of arts, heritage, sport, health and education, the programme has given African Caribbean elders a voice and reconnected younger generations with their heritage.

More information: Hackney Windrush Commission

Barbara Hammer
Tell Me There Is a Lesbian Forever

Barbara Hammer Available Space #2 1978

Curated by Tiona Nekkia McClodden
October 2 – November 6, 2021
Opening Reception: October 2, 4 – 8pm
COMPANY Gallery
145 Elizabeth Street NYC

More info: www.companygallery.us

1968/1969 is the beginning I’ve chosen. Barbara’s marriage to her husband Clay has ended after a joint trip around the world, building a home together – she realized that that is not the life that she wanted. Barbara buys her own motorcycle, a 1972 BWM R75/5, and proceeds on a trip of her own across the country, into her identity as a lesbian. She goes toward her desires, her sexuality, and the development of her artistic practice. She decides to make herself. She studies herself. She writes herself. She never turns back.

In 2018, curator Vivian Crockett and I were about to go on stage for a Museum of Modern Art film screening. Vivian walked over with Barbara––tiny, somewhat frail, but smiling widely and vibrating. Barbara pulled me close and said, “I’m dying, but I just want to tell you that I love your work, and this is where things should go. It’s hard for me to sit for long periods of time, and I don’t know if I can sit through the entire screening, but I just want you to know that I think your work is badass.” Teary, I gave her a deep hug. When she passed the following year, I thought, “Did I hug her too hard?”

I looked up at the seats after the presentation ended, and Barbara was still there. I looked up again and she was gone.

In 2019, shortly before her passing, Barbara was in conversation with Sophie about her next solo exhibition for Company. Unbeknownst to me, my name was on the list of possible curators. Barbara chose me, and I accepted.

Barbara Hammer practiced what I would call faith-based filmmaking, of a kind that is now rare. Her work is deliberate, rigorous, and exacting in production and in post. In today’s field, there is too much control of the image, while at the same time too much error is allowed, since it can be corrected later.

I have centered Hammer’s relationship and work with Terry Sendgraff, an aerial dancer and choreographer and an icon of her own, who also passed in 2019. Their work together appears at the core of Double Strength (1978). I’m attracted to the film’s display of immense strength, as well as the way the women’s bodies slip into each other, mirroring one another.

—

I have been wrestling with the mirror for the past five years, in relationship to a larger work that I’ve produced for the orisha Oshun. The mirror, her primary attribute, has carried over into the conceptual framework for this exhibition. Hammer’s mirror is time-based and must be placed in motion.

A mirror that moves when you do… This is what it means to love another woman, a friend, a sister, a lesbian.

-from my notes

Barbara’s widow Florrie has a selection of Barbara’s notebooks that are being prepared for art storage, and invited me to view them. For this exhibition, Florrie has provided photographs of Barbara, including one with them alongside her motorcycle in San Francisco. In one of her public talks given in 2017 for NYFF55 at the Lincoln Center, Barbara refers to Florrie, her greatest love, as her life support.

—

It is 2021. I find a motorcycle that is the same model Barbara purchased all those years ago. It is driven across the country to my studio. Florrie tells me that when it came time to sell her bike, Barbara did not want to let anyone test drive it. I decide this bike will be retired. It sits in my studio as an object of desire and reference. I have it drained of all fluids and taken fully apart. The bike is cleaned, rebuilt, and refinished using a mirrored chrome that reflects everything around it. I wash it in a white spiritual bath made of honey, white flowers, and efun. The only movement present, as the bike sits quietly, is what the viewer’s eye catches when the body circles the form.

In this show, I situate Barbara’s 1985 copy of the Daughters of Bilitis FBI report as a work of art. The work is in her redactions, which read the report as a prompt for producing what is hidden.

The pandemic keeps me from viewing the Barbara Hammer Papers at the Beinecke Library, which has restricted visits to Yale affiliates only. My greatest love, Mia, is a Yale PhD candidate, and she arranges to view the archive for me. We drive to New Haven. She comes back daily and recounts what she has seen. Through her eyes, I become able to envision Barbara. In our conversations, I encounter who Barbara is becoming to Mia first, before I am able to figure her myself.

In looking at Barbara’s work during this time, I feel the privilege of being able to re-assess, to arrange and reposition her work through and alongside my own subjectivity. Too often, lesbian identity has been treated as a nostalgic or archaic proposition. As a Black dyke, I refute this stasis. Lesbian identity has always been in flux, changing over time within itself. Barbara’s archive reveals a portrait of a lesbian constantly challenging herself in real time, constantly seeking a way to exist as her full self, unbridled, in a society which has tried to erase her and others many times over.

A letter from a lover reveals a note in the margins, perhaps an afterthought penned just before sending:

Write me that you love me dearly and that you always will.

Tell me there is a lesbian forever.

-Corky Wick

In 2019, while teaching my course “Curating Within Obscurity,” I screened Black Nations/Queer Nations (1995). Prior to class, I reviewed the film on my own. Ten minutes in, as the camera panned across a crowd of faces, I jumped to pause the video. Barbara Hammer was in the audience.
With love and immense care and consideration for you, Barbara, and for all of us.

xTiona Nekkia McClodden

David Del Tredici
In Black and White
Village Trip Festival

Fri Sept 24, 2021
8PM – 10PM
St Johns in the Village
Tickets $10 for Live Stream
and $20 in person

Performers
David Del Tredici
Marc Peloquin

This event will also be livestreamed on Youtube. See below for tickets. You will be able to watch this event live, or at any time after broadcast.
Tickets Live : EVENTBRITE LIVE
Tickets live stream EVENT BRITE LVESTREAM

Aaron Copland proclaimed David Del Tredici “that rare find among composers – a creator with a truly original gift. I venture to say that his music is certain to make a lasting impression on the American musical scene. I know of no other composer of his generation who composes music of greater freshness and daring, or with more personality.”

Del Tredici forged a new compositional path, neo-romanticism, a response to the atonality of the 1960s in which he came of age. Speaking for himself, he has said: “Music is not a religion, nor is it a duty. It is an entertainment. All that a composer really does is realize his own particular musical fantasy with a certain selection of notes, rhythms and timbres.”

The composer credits Marc Peloquin with reviving his interest in the piano and the two men have worked closely these past twenty years. Peloquin, whose career is focused on living composers, is in the process of recording Del Tredici’s complete works for solo piano, some of which, including S/M Ballade, have been composed specially for him.

This concert is supported by Roger Shapiro Fund for New Music.

From: David Del Tredici event

Village Trip Festival

HAPPENING NOW!
More than 30 events and over 50 performers at venues across the Village. A nine-day festival– Saturday, September 18 through Sunday, September 26, 2021 –celebrating the glorious community of Greenwich Village and all it has given the world.Come be part of it – join the fun, support local businesses.Because, as we know, it takes a village.

More info: The Village Trip

FLU SHOTS
FREE

WED SEPT 22, 2021
1:00P:M – 3:30PM
WESTBETH COMMUNITY ROOM

Just stop by
We’ll get you in as soon as possible.

The waiting area is outside of the Community Room.(Maybe bring a sweater)
One person at a time will be allowed in.

Masks are mandatory
Bring a pen
Bring your glasses

Vaccine and staffing provided by Lenox Hill Greenwich Village
Northwell Health.

RODARTE SPRING 2022 at Westbeth

Photo: Simbarashe Che for NY Times[/caption]

“Kate and Laura Mulleavy held their Rodarte show in the sculpture-festooned courtyard of the Westbeth Artists Housing complex, with black-and-white slip dresses trailing fronds of lace that caught just so in the breeze, neon-bright fringed frocks in constant motion and mushroom-printed silks looped up behind to billow like parachutes in the wind (plus one eye-popping black cape embroidered with a sequined image of an alien, complete with U.F.O.).”

– Vanessa Friedman. NY Times Chief Fashion Editor
Sept 12, 2021

All photos by Simbarashe Che for NY Times

Read entire article HERE

Rodarte made special mention of David Seccombe’s sculptures in their Instagram posts.

Sharp 5 Quintet
Brazilian Jazz
CD Release Event

Friday SEPT 24, 2021 at 7:30PM
SHARP 5 CD release event!
Westbeth Community Room
55 Bethune St, NYC 10014

$20 suggested donation

SHARP 5 Quintet
SHARP 5 is a newly-formed Brazilian Jazz band, and they are releasing their new recording, Shine a Bright Light, on September 20 on Valley Jazz Records! SHARP 5 includes musicians TERI ROIGER on vocals, PETE LEVIN on piano (Gil Evans fame), JOHN MENEGON on bass (Joe Lovano fame), JEFF SIEGEL on drums, and Brazilian percussionist NANNY ASSIS (perc. guitar & vocals).

SHARP 5 is a group of extraordinary musicians who embrace the passion of collaboration, engaging in the music of Brazil as well as the heartfelt emotion of American classic jazz. The nuance the group brings to the stage empowers the rhythmic and melodic expression that will take the audience on a magical journey through time, space and beyond.

In musical terms, Sharp 5 represents the raised 5th in a chord, which creates a unique sound in the evolution of American music. The group is all about creating new sounds and putting a positive vibration into the universe. The band members have all had extensive experience/careers as creative artists.

The combined experience of these five musicians creates a unique balance of the past, present and future. Their diverse repertoire includes original compositions (Menegon & Siegel), music by King Crimson, Kenny Barron, Peggy Lee, Abbey Lincoln, plus Gil Evans’ influenced arrangements of unique standards, and joyful Brazilian-flavored music. The experience of recording with this group has allowed everyone involved to explore their own personal relationships and history with the music. The friendship, interaction and empathy they feel comes through in the music they create, allowing freedom of expression and an opportunity to share their life experiences.

Vocalist TERI ROIGER has recorded with the likes of Kenny Burrell, Jack DeJohnette, Gil Goldstein, etc. and has forged a unique career as a bandleader. On keyboards is PETE LEVIN, who has worked extensively with Gil Evans, Jimmy Giuffre, Paul Simon, Annie Lenox, Miles Davis, The Levin Brothers). Bahia native NANNY ASSIS is a Brazilian percussionist, vocalist & guitarist, who has recorded with vocalist Janis Siegel (Manhattan Transfer) and many others.
Bassist JOHN MENEGON is a well-known composer, arranger and bandleader who has worked extensively as a sideman with the likes of Dewey Redman, David “Fathead” Newman, and more recently Joe Lovano. Drummer JEFF SIEGEL is an in-demand sideman as well as a bandleader who has worked with Kurt Elling, The Levin Brothers, Ravi Coltrane, etc.

Point of interest: Pete Levin’s long association with the Gil Evans Band had him rehearsing extensively with Gil in the Community Room at Westbeth!

BIOS

TERI ROIGER (vocalist, lyricist, songwriter, pianist, educator)
“Teri has an intuitive laid back sense of time reminiscent of Abbey Lincoln and Betty Carter but with her own uniqueness.” JACK DEJOHNETTE (legendary jazz drummer & NEA Jazz Master)
Teri is a jazz vocalist, but also plays piano, composes music, and writes lyrics. She has performed and taught masterclasses throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico (San Miguel), Panama, and Europe. The depth of her experiences and love of jazz is apparent when she brings her talents to live performances, the recording studio, and through her moving lyrics and compositions. Teri has been sharing her knowledge and inspiration with her diverse students for over 25 years. Her recordings have all met with critical acclaim, as have her live performances at festivals and top New York jazz spots (Birdland, Kitano, Dizzy’s, Mezzrow, Jazz Standard, Café Bohemia). Teri’s latest release “Ghost of Yesterday: Shades of Lady Day” shines a new light on the many facets of Billie Holiday, the vocalist who provided the initial spark for Ms. Roiger’s commitment to a life in jazz, and was chosen by jazz critic Scott Yanow as one of the top 30 jazz releases in 2017. Her recording “Dear Abbey: The Music of Abbey Lincoln” also met with great critical acclaim, as did her first two recordings, “Misterioso” (featuring Jack DeJohnette, Kenny Burrell & John Menegon) as well as “Still Life” which featured two of her original compositions, the title song winning 3rd prize in the jazz category of ISC (Int’l Songwriting Competition).
“Teri is made for those who still understand the meaning of the term the real thing.” Stanley Crouch (Author & Cultural Critic).

PETE LEVIN (keyboardist, composer, arranger)
In a diverse music career spanning several decades, keyboardist/arranger PETE LEVIN has performed and recorded with hundreds of Jazz and Pop artists, including Paul Simon, Annie Lennox, Miles Davis, David Sanborn, Lenny White, Wayne Shorter, Jaco Pastorius, Robbie Robertson and John Scofield – receiving critical accolades for his work during a 15-year association with the legendary Gil Evans, and his 8-year stint with jazz icon Jimmy Giuffre. His recent activity includes touring with his brother Tony Levin in their band “The Levin Brothers,” always met with enthusiastic audiences and high critical acclaim.

JOHN MENEGON (bassist, composer, arranger)
“New York bassist JOHN MENEGON is in the line of George Mraz and Michael Moore; a harmonically sophisticated bassist with technical facility who swings hard when it’s called for.” Kirk Silsbee, Downbeat!
MENEGON began his career as a musician in Montreal. After having worked for several years on the Canadian jazz scene, Menegon moved to New York City to study jazz at Long Island University. John has been composing and arranging music throughout his career, and the ten years he spent as bassist for two legendary tenor saxophonists, Dewey Redman and David “Fathead” Newman, provided a solid foundation for Menegon to continue his explorations as a bandleader. Having spent over a decade performing, touring, and recording with each of them, these jazz legends have taken John around the world, playing at jazz festivals in South Africa, Argentina, Turkey, Brazil, Mexico, Europe and the U.S., and have been a major influence in his playing and compositions. Menegon currently plays with jazz legend Joe Lovano as well as leading his own band. John has released five CDs as a leader, including “I Remember You” (a dedication to Redman and Newman) with a four-star review in Downbeat, and his latest “Quartet East: Blew By Blues,” a dedication to Charlie Haden.

NANNY ASSIS
Singer, guitarist, drummer, percussionist, songwriter and Bahia native NANNY ASSIS is a master of Brazilian Jazz, Afro-Brazilian music and other popular and folkloric sounds from his homeland. Music is the mirror of his inner expressions. He was born in the northeastern Brazilian city of Salvador, Bahia, in 1969. Bahia is one of Brazil’s first cities, with predominantly African influences. Salvador is the birthplace of some of the country’s most remarkable music creations. That, in part, explains why Nanny has music running through his veins, making him an outstanding singer, a terrific drummer/percussionist, and a talented songwriter.

JEFF “SIEGE” SIEGEL
Drummer/composer/educator (New School, Western Connecticut State University, SUNY New Paltz) currently performs w/Jeff “Siege” Siegel Quartet & Sextet and The Levin Brothers (Tony & Pete). Additional performances and/or recordings w/ Sir Roland Hanna, Dave Douglas, Ron Carter, Kenny Burrell, Ryan Kisor, Kurt Elling, Ravi Coltrane, Wadada Leo Smith, Arthur Rhames, Mose Allison, etc. He is endorsed by Canopus Drums, Beato Bags & Vic Firth Drumsticks.

COVID RESTRICTIONS: Masks are required for the unvaccinated & recommended for the vaccinated.

Susan Berger
Kingston Annual 2021 Exhibition

The Kingston Annual 2021 Exhibition
Displayed at Arts Society of Kingston
97 Broadway in Kingston, NY
September 4 – September 26th
Tuesday- Sunday from 1 PM to 6 PM

There were three jurors: Anna Conlan, Director of Dorsky Museum, New Paltz, NY; Ransome, an artist from Kingston and Sevan Melikyan, Director of Wired Gallery, High Falls, NY. There were 30 artists and 30 works selected from over 450 works that were submitted from artists throughout the Hudson Valley.

Susan Berger received one of the top awards from one of the jurors, Sevan Melikyan.

The work is called: “20,000 Strong to the Inferno 0f 1911″ (Drawing)
Size: 30.5” (w) x 40.5″(h) x 3″(d)

The work is about the inside the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory of the rows of women, who were between 16 to 25 years of age. They were immigrants from mainly Eastern European countries living in lower Manhattan particularly the Lower East Side. The brown fabric has images of the twisted ladders from the fire escape as these workers leaped from the fire to escape which ultimately led to their death. Those who witnessed the horrific fire thought that bundles of rags fell but were actually humans falling from the loft building right near Washington Square Park. This happened on March 25, 19ll at 4:15 PM, and 146 perished and 123 were women.

You have the layout of the workplace and the escape doors which were locked. And the lone elevator. It is artwork that tells a story. The middle part has images: one of the images is of women holding signs of striking and behind them of the burly police who roughed up these young girls. Another image is a closeup of three women striking and announcing why they are picketing. The middle image is darkened and ash-like in presence of a screen over it and a print from a page from a newspaper of its time. The print or lettering gives a clearer description of the work. The 20,000 shirtwaist workers marched to Cooper Union to tell the world about the horrible working conditions and dismal wages, and that they wanted a better life and felt that joining a union was the solution. Unity brings strength. These women were immigrants who were feminists and believed they deserved a better existence in the workplace; and told about their plight. Two years later the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory happened and some things were changed and eventually, The Ladies Garment Workers were founded by these very brave souls.

Immigrants are the soul and bedrock of our country.

Susan Berger
I am a fiber mixed media artist. In a way, I want to create a setting. I find material and use stitching for the details in the work. It becomes like a sampler that women did in the 19th Century. Before I do a larger and more detailed work it is a drawing. The middle piece was actually a swatch that I did or someone asked me to do to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. After I did it, I was told that the 12″x12″ swatch was too heavy and asked for it to be returned. I put the swatch away, forgetting about it and it was tucked away in my studio. My studio was in the basement of Westbeth and along came Superstorm Sandy and rediscovering the work not ruined. A year plus later decided to do something with the swatch, and that is how the piece came about. From there, an installation work came which had taken more close to two years to complete, and the swatch was used in its entirety with rug hooking techniques and again a mixed medium artwork. The story expanded.