*** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ***
MEDIA CONTACT:
Valerie Ghent songwritersbeat@gmail.com

Songwriter’s Beat, New York City’s popular songwriter concert series,
features 17 top artists – including KJ Denhert, IGBO: Joe Bowie & Adam
Rudolph, Patti Rothberg, Tom Ghent – at 7th Annual Festival this July
July 21, 22, 23 2011 at Christopher Street Coffee House
(New York, NY)

The Songwriter’s Beat Festival, New York City’s only festival celebrating performing songwriters, returns for three consecutive nights this July and features 17 top performing songwriters including acclaimed artists KJ Denhert, renowned jazz duo IGBO: Joe Bowie &
Adam Rudolph, folk legend Tom Ghent, rocker Patti Rothberg, vocalist supreme Dean Bowman, plus two winners of the 2010 Songwriter’s Beat Song Contest.

Located at St. John’s Lutheran Church at 81 Christopher Street, Christopher Street Coffee House is co-sponsored by St. John’s and the Downtown Songwriters’ Circle. The Coffee House features songwriter nights each Thursday, with Songwriter’s Beat taking place every third Thursday of the month. Each July Songwriter’s Beat produces an annual festival of songwriters which raises funds for local arts nonprofit, Feel the Music! (feelthemusic.org).

“Artists love performing at Songwriter’s Beat. There’s nothing quite like our summer Festival,where we bring together so many top performing songwriters” says founder Valerie Ghent. “This year’s festival lineup is simply outstanding. Encouraging “new” songs and arrangements from
such a wide variety of talent, in so many genres of music – jazz, folk, world, rock, a capella, blues, pop – it is exactly the kind of one-of-a-kind concert experience Songwriter’s Beat is all about.”

WHAT: Seventh Annual Songwriter’s Beat Festival
WHEN: July 21, 22, 23, 2011; 7:00pm
WHO: 17 songwriters including KJ Denhert, IGBO: Joe Bowie & Adam Rudolph, Tom
Ghent, Patti Rothberg, Valerie Ghent, Dean Bowman, Amanda Homi and more.
WHERE: Christopher Street Coffee House, inside St. John’s Church, 81 Christopher Street, NYC
10014
ADMISSION: $10

BENEFIT: Festival proceeds benefit Feel the Music!, a nonprofit music/arts education program
for children and families impacted by trauma, loss and illness

ON THE WEB:
WEBSITE: new.songwritersbeat.com
FACEBOOK: facebook.com/songwritersbeat
TWITTER: twitter.com/songwritersbeat
VENUE WEBSITE: christopherstreetcoffeehouse.org

2011 SONGWRITER’S BEAT FESTIVAL SCHEDULE:

Thurs. July 21
Tim Skehan
Amanda Homi
Jon Albrink
DB Leonard
Patti Rothberg

Fri. July 22
Alan Grubner
Bill Grady
Dean Bowman
KJ Denhert
IGBO: Joe Bowie & Adam Rudolph
Walking Upright

Sat. July 23
Khalil Madyun
Ghent & Ghent: Tom Ghent & Valerie Ghent
Francis Mbappe
Marla Mase

About Songwriter’s Beat: Songwriter’s Beat is one of NYC’s premiere nights for performing songwriters, where all are encouraged to perform new material in a supportive and encouraging atmosphere. Founded by NYC singer-songwriter Valerie Ghent in 2000, The Songwriter’s Beat
has presented over 325 songwriters, over 50 benefit concerts, six annual festivals, dozens of songwriting workshops and has fostered the creation of hundreds of new songs.

Songwriter’s Beat is honored to receive support from the ASCAP Foundation.
###

*** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ***
MEDIA CONTACT:
Valerie Ghent valerie@musicandhealing.org
Executive Director, Feel the Music!

9/11 Tenth Anniversary Reflections”
Public Art Project for People Who Live and Work in Lower Manhattan

Launched by Tribute WTC Visitor Center & Feel the Music!
(New York, NY) June 28, 2011 As the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, Lower Manhattan is feeling the increasing impact of the anniversary commemorations.

Tribute WTC Visitor Center, arts nonprofit Feel the Music!, and The Battery Conservancy have joined together on a public art project to provide residents and those who work in the area with a unique opportunity to reflect on their experiences, both on 9/11 and today.

During the month of July, curators, artists and Tribute volunteers will collect handwritten and handdrawn thoughts and feelings of people who live and work in Lower Manhattan about the impact of the 9/11 attacks on their lives. Tables will be set up in key locations in the neighborhood on

four Wednesdays, from 11am-2 pm,
and on
Thursday, July 7, from 4pm-7pm.

All residents and people who
work in Lower Manhattan are invited to participate.

What: “9/11 Tenth Anniversary Reflections” public art project
When/Where:
Wed. July 6 11am-2pm Peter Minuit Plaza (in front of the Staten Island Ferry)
Thurs. July 7 4pm-7pm Hudson River Park’s Pier 25
Wed. July 13 11am-2pm Coenties Slip Park, 36 Water Street
Wed. July 20 11am-2pm World Financial Center Courtyard, adjacent to Starbucks
Wed. July 27 11am-2pm 59 Maiden Lane Plaza
Cost: FREE

The collected reflections will be assembled into a unified visual expression of community members’ sentiments by international painter and muralist, Tova Snyder. The final work of art, “9/11 Tenth
Anniversary Reflections”, will be installed on August 4th, 2011 at The Battery, near its Gardens of Remembrance, a 10,000-square-foot garden planted to honor those who perished, as well as those who
survived.

The final artwork will incorporate bamboo (including bamboo poles recycled from the recent Metropolitan Museum exhibit, Big Bambu) and displayed along the walk way of the Gardens of Remembrance. Participants and the general public will be able to read, see and be moved by one another’s thoughts and contributions in this touching and inspirational work of public art.

As the tenth anniversary of the attacks of September 11th approaches, the Tribute WTC Visitor Center is exploring the types of healing that occurred in the months after 9/11 and in the years since. New Yorkers’ resilience was supported by the generosity of people from around the world who expressed their empathy and volunteered their time to help in the recovery process. In the next 4 months, the
Tribute WTC Visitor Center will be presenting a variety of programs that highlight the contributions of people who helped New Yorkers to understand their responses to the disaster and to rebuild their lives.

The project is a collaboration of Tribute WTC Visitor Center, Feel the Music! and The Battery Conservancy and has been made possible with support from the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, Feel the Music!, Tribute WTC Visitor Center, with additional support from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Brookfield, 59 Maiden Lane Associates LLC, Hudson River Park Trust,
and Manhattan Youth.

About Tribute:
The Tribute WTC Visitor Center is located at 120 Liberty Street along the south side of the World Trade Center site. The center was created by the September 11th Families’ Association to share the personal stories of victims, survivors, rescue and recovery workers, volunteers, and residents of Lower Manhattan. By engaging visitors in
the authentic experiences of those most affected by the events of February 26, 1993 and September 11, 2001, the center’s five galleries and its walking tour program convey the efforts of those who responded to the tragedy and the steps taken towards working for a more peaceful world by many of those impacted by the events.
Tributewtc.org

About Feel the Music!:
Feel the Music! is a nonprofit organization which provides music and inspiration to children, families and adults
impacted by trauma, loss or illness. Founded in 2005 to serve 9/11 families, survivors, witnesses and recovery workers by using music and art to foster recovery and resilience, Feel the Music! continues to work with the 9/11 community to this day and has since expanded to serve hospitals, schools and senior centers in NYC. Partnering
with local communities, Feel the Music! brings world-renowned musicians and teaching artists who engage participants with hands-on workshops, concerts, lessons and public art projects. feelthemusic.org

About The Battery Conservancy:
The Battery Conservancy was created in 1994 as a 501(c)(3) not–for–profit educational corporation to rebuild and revitalize the Battery and Castle Clinton National Monument, the park’s major landmark. The Battery remains one of the oldest public open spaces in continuous use in New York City. This is the first art project thatis being planned specifically in relationship to the Gardens of Remembrance, which were created as to honor both those who were lost and those who survived.

About Tova Snyder:
Feel the Music! teaching artist Tova Snyder is an international painter and muralist. She has created art installations for the Nice Jazz Festival, international festivals in Italy and Brazil, a six-story mural off the Grand Concourse in the Bronx and the Harrison, NY, Metro-North train station. A recipient of the prestigious Westchester Arts Council Arts Award, Ms. Snyder is currently working with Feel the Music! on a nine-month mural project with 9/11 families to be exhibited in September, 2011.
– ###

my life
runs its course
i run along
beside it
trying to get in

Check out there is this moment and that moment on miriam chaikin’s artist page.

Arlene Gottfried speaks on Photography
B & H Superstore Event Space
2nd floor
420 9th Ave, New York, NY 10001.
June 29, 2011 | 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM

Arlene Gottfried is a distinguished photographer who is collected internationally and has four books published under her name. Join Arlene for a lively slide show and lecture as she discusses her books and long term projects that span more than 3 decades. Arlene will imbue her passion about photographing the world she lives in, and share her unique style while also discussing in depth, her newest book, “Bacalaitos and Fireworks” recently published by Power House Book

Arlene Gottfried is the author of four books; BACALAITOS AND FIREWORKS 2011SOMETIMES OVERWHELMING (2008), MIDNIGHT (2003), published by powerHouse Books in Brooklyn, New York and The Eternal Light (1999) by Dewi Lewis Publishing in the United Kingdom.

Sally Gross and Company

LOOKING FORWARD, an evening of new work.
June 16 – 19 Thursday – Sunday at 8 pm.

Dancers: Jamie Di Mare, Heather Lee, Tanja Medling, and Sally Gross.
Lighting: Blu.

Joyce Soho

155 Mercer Street (bw Houston and Prince).
Tickets: $18, and $15 – students/seniors.
Joyce.org or 212 242 0800

Joseph Chaikin (1935-2003), was installed in the Theater Hall of Fame in 2010 as director in a ceremony at the Gershwin Theater on Jan. 25, 2011 . James Nicola of the Signature Theatre presented Joe — avant-garde actor, director and playwright, creator of the Open Theatre and best known for his collaborations with Sam Shepard, who said Mr. Chaikin “used words like a sword to pierce the heart,” and Samuel Beckett, who dedicated a poem to him. Mr. Chaikin had an uncanny effect on people, partly because of what Peter Brook called his purity and his “fiery steel-blue eyes.” Famously, he fought back after a stroke to continue to create. Jim Houghton, founder and director of the Signature Theater, received the award for Joe.

Read more:
The Post-Gazette
Theater Hall of Fame

The Westbeth Playwrights Feminist Collective is featured in a new book, Off Off Broadway – The Second Wave 1968 – 1980 by Christopher Olsen, published March 2011.

The playwrights all from Westbeth included Dolores Walker, Chryse (Christina) Maile, Gwen Gunn, Sally Ordway, Patricia Horan, Susan Yankowitz, and Helen Duberstein.

One of the first feminist theater groups to be reviewed in the NY TImes, the group was noted for its ability to balance the serious social message regarding the marginalization of women with a sense of the absurd and a commitment to good writing. – Off Off Broadway

Check it out on Amazon

ILSA GILBERT, writer, and Mary Carol Warwick, composer premiere a musical setting of the poem ,A WOMAN IN COSTA RICA, presented as part of a new concert series, NEW LATIN AND HISPANIC CLASSICAL STYLES produced by Downtown Music Productions.

The premiere features Darcy Dunne, mezzo soprano, Rachel Golub, violin, Whitefield La Grange, viola, and Mimi Stern-Wolfe, piano.

St Marks on the Bowery 131 East 10th Street, near 2nd Ave.
22 May at 3 pm
Tickets $10 – $15. Students, seniors, unemployed $8
Info: dmpmimi@verizon.net

It is a diverse and beautiful concert with the Downtown Chamber & Opera Players and the participation of
Labyrinth Dance Theatre in Tanguedia of Astor Piazzolla, choreographed by Sasha Speivogel.

Also Alhambra, A Judeo -Spanish and Middle Eastern musical potpourri of the Sephardic Diaspora. 2

On view Fridays and Saturdays April 9 – 30, 12 – 5 pm. Life-sized video portraits projected side by side – the title from an Emily Dickinson poem – asks whether the mediated image can adequately reflect the reality of the subject. At the Chocolate Factory 549 49th Ave LIC. Further info The Chocolate Factory