Westbeth Artists’ Housing
Westbeth, on Bethune Street, along the Hudson River, one of the first subsidized artists’ housing complexes in the United States, opened in 1970, providing cheap rent in 384 live-work spaces. Many of the residents that moved in decades ago are still there today. Credit Rob Stephenson

ONE OF THE realities of living in New York is that you cannot become too attached to specific places any more than you can become attached to certain people in your life: the waitress you chat with every weekend, the parking garage guy, the newsstand vendor from whom you buy a paper. Often, they disappear, and you may never learn why. Why was that building torn down? Why did that bar close overnight? Whatever happened to the bartender? And what about Mohammed? He was here yesterday.

Place is as crucial to the architecture of memory as it is to dreaming, and like those New Yorkers who seem to disappear, spaces themselves carry their own memories here. Departed landmarks like CBGB or the Mudd Club are not so much addresses in downtown Manhattan as they are touchstones in the collective consciousness, occasionally reminding us of what was and of how much has changed — not least, ourselves. CBGB is where a 16-year-old Adam Horovitz — soon to be known as Ad-Rock of the Beastie Boys — opened for punk legends Bad Brains in 1982; the Mudd Club is where, a few years earlier, Talking Heads, performing just days after the release of “Fear of Music,” coolly name-checked both spots in the iconic song “Life During Wartime.” (“This ain’t no Mudd Club or CBGB / I ain’t got time for that now.”) Moments like these still haunt the city — half recalled, half imagined — even now that the Mudd Club is a condo building where a unit sold recently for $3.6 million, or CBGB has been colonized by designer John Varvatos, plundering the cultural heritage of the very building he now occupies.

– Bill Hayes

Read rest of article HERE

About five years ago, Olga asked my mother if she would consider renting the empty first-floor apartment. Olga wanted to sponsor her sister and brother-in-law and bring them from Ecuador. Mom agreed.

Bella and Jorge became tenants in the house too; it felt safer to us with a man on the premises. Bella was eager to learn English and Mom tutored her using books my sister had from her career as a reading teacher. My mother, who’d come here from Ireland as a child, was glad to help the new arrivals adjust.

Now Olga wanted to buy the house….

Read the full article HERE

Kate Walter is the author of the memoir Looking for a Kiss: A Chronicle of Downtown Heartbreak and Healing. Her essays and opinion pieces have appeared in many publications. She teaches personal essay writing at New York University School of Professional Studies.

Get Yr BLUES ON!

Valerie Ghent LIVE
at

Nick Ashford’s “Nuttin but the Blues”
March 20 & March 27

RESERVATIONS: 212.579.0222

Ashford & Simpson’s Sugar Bar
254 W. 72nd Street
NYC NY 10023
212.579.0222
sugarbarnyc.com

valerieghent.com

About Valerie Ghent

Powerhouse recording artist Valerie Ghent is an American singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, and recording engineer from New York City. An outstanding live performer, Valerie weaves together blues, soul, R+B, jazz and pop, treating listeners to soulful, romantic, highly melodic music rendered with passion, undeniable skill and a mighty heart. With a bluesy, funky piano style and a stunning 3 1/2 octave range, Valerie has toured, performed and recorded with world-renowned artists including Ashford & Simpson, Debbie Harry, Defunkt, Valerie Simpson, Dr. Maya Angelou, Nina Simone, Roberta Flack, Sir Cliff Richard, and Luther Vandross.

As a solo artist Valerie has five albums released under her own name, including Day to Day Dream, which launched a #1 hit song on iHeart Radio, Love Enough for a Lifetime; and Velours, named Soul Tracks 50 Best Albums of 2016. In 2017 Valerie released The French Sessions, her first release on a French label, and her song New York City Streets was hailed as an “anthem for New York City”.

Valerie grew up in SoHo and Greenwich Village. Born into a musical family, she began writing songs as a child, recording in her father’s electronic music studio, absorbing her mother’s string quartet rehearsals and falling asleep to the music of Ornette Coleman, who lived and rehearsed in the same building. Longtime keyboardist, vocalist and recording engineer for legendary hit singer-songwriters Ashford & Simpson, Valerie worked closely with the duo for over two decades, recording their music as well as collaborations with Angelou, Nina Simone, Roberta Flack, Sir Cliff Richard and many others. Literally a whirlwind of musical energy, in addition to her own music career Valerie continues to perform and record with Valerie Simpson, is founder of arts nonprofits Feel the Music! and Songwriter’s Beat and travels regularly to China to further her studies of Chinese internal martial arts. Music, video and more at valerieghent.com

Follow Valerie on:
facebook.com/valerieghentmusic
twitter.com/valerieghent
youtube.com/valerieghent
instagram.com/valerieghent
reverbnation.com/valerieghent

Cultivate Your Own Garden
Curated by Patricia Spergel
and Shazzi Thomas

Painting Center
547 27th St., 507, NY, NY 10014
https://www.thepaintingcenter.org/cultivate-your-own-garden

February 27 – March 24, 2018

Jazz musicians are real American heroes: but their true stories have not been truly told. Find out how they created an original American art form while battling discrimination, poverty, violence, even defying death, to create an original music of the American people. Jazz is America’s greatest gift to World Culture!

The jazz heroes in this series have something in common with each other; they have given to the world a wonderful legacy of music. For decades; all over the planet, people continue to read about their lives, study, sing, play, dance to and enjoy their music. These super heroes have provided the soundtrack to our lives; their music is constantly around us. It can be heard everywhere; on elevators, in department stores, on the radio, on TV commercials and movie soundtracks.

Because their music is around us all the time, it will be surprising to a lot of young people to learn what these heroes went through in order to accomplish what they did! Each of these real life heroes, in spite of the terrible conditions they experienced, triumphed over dangerous and depressing situations and found the inner strength and concentration to learn jazz music so well, that they could make it up their own way and start exciting new styles for audiences to appreciate. This is why they are Jazz Superheroes!

Billie Holiday Jazz Superhero at Amazon

Lester Young “Prez” Jazz Superhero at Amazon

Westbeth resident Erica Fae’s feature film, TO KEEP THE LIGHT, will be released online in the United States on February 27.

Set in the 1860s on an island off the coast of Maine, the film — which Erica wrote, directed, and stars in — tells the story of salt-of-the-earth homesteader Abbie, the lighthouse keeper’s wife, who must manage her household and the lighthouse post while also caring for her bedridden husband. A gorgeously-shot tale of love, loss, and a woman finding her place in the world, TO KEEP THE LIGHT won numerous awards — including an international critics prize and awards for best director, best in show, best narrative feature, and best cinematography — during its festival run.

TO KEEP THE LIGHT will be available on iTunes, Amazon Prime, and various cable and video-on-demand platforms. Order it on iTunes HERE

Find out more at www.tokeepthelight.com

About Erica:

Erica Fae is a filmmaker, theatre maker, and actor, and she teaches physical acting in the MFA programs at Yale School of Drama and the New School for Drama. Her play, Take What Is Yours, (with Jill A. Samuels) received a critics’ pick in the New York Times & Backstage. Erica is currently in development on her second feature film and on a new solo play, Saved Again and By Him, which will premier in May 2018 as part of the New Ohio Theatre’s Archive Residency. Erica and her husband, Jordan Fletcher, are also proud new parents to Ezra Wolf (perhaps Westbeth’s newest resident).

Westbeth Icons is a project that celebrates the work and life of senior Westbeth artists who continue to passionately work in their artistic field. It is funded by the Westbeth Artists Residents Council with a grant from NYC Council Speaker, Corey Johnson.

The films feature a video interview produced and directed by Ted Timreck and Terry Stoller as interviewer, as well as a video of the evening itself before a live audience and includes speeches by colleagues and the artist.

Additional Cameras: Christina Maile, Sandra Kingsbury
Lighting Design: Frankie Alduino

A filmed event of the February 17, 2018 evening honoring Vija Vetra, dancer, choreographer, and Latvia’s
National Treasure

Vija Vetra WB Icon Presentation from theodore timreck on Vimeo.

A filmed event of the January 21, 2018 evening honoring Edward Field, poet.

Edward Field Icon Portrait 006 from theodore timreck on Vimeo.

A filmed event of the January 18, 2018 evening honoring Edith Stephens, dancer, choreographer and filmmaker

Edith Stephen Presentation from theodore timreck on Vimeo.

A filmed event of November 19, 2017 evening honoring Jack Dowling, painter, printmaker, curator and writer.

Jack Dowling Icon Presentation 11-19-17 from theodore timreck on Vimeo.

The Miriam Chaikin Foundation Writing Award was established in memory of Miriam Chaikin, a longtime Westbeth resident and prolific writer. It is in her memory that the Foundation seeks to honor a member of the writing community who have created recent written works that are worth sharing across the community.

Native New Yorker Joan Hall is a pioneer in the field of collage and assemblage illustration.
Hall’s collages and assemblages have been exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide, including the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and the Museo Tamayo in Mexico City. She was commissioned by the American Cultural Center to lecture, exhibit, and conduct workshops in France, India, Brazil, and recently lectured at The National Arts Club in New York City.
Joan illustrated “The Policeman’s Beard Is Half-Constructed”, the first book ever written by a computer with a program called Racter and published by Warner Books.
Known for her artwork, Joan has also been writing poetry since she was 8 years old, when her poem, “Spring” won best in class. She is presently illustrating a book of her own poetry.
She has been a resident of Westbeth Artist Housing in New York City since 1971.

Friday, February 16th, 8pm
Mr Wau Wa plays the songs of Bertolt Brecht
Times like these need songs like these

Gina Leishman, vox, accordion, pump organ
Rinde Eckert, vox, pum organ, accordion
Doug Wieselman, clarinet, sax, guitar
Marcus Rojas, tuba
Kenny Wollesen, drums

Lethe Lounge
618 W 113th St
New York, New York 10025

************************

Wednesday, March 7th, 8pm
“Geography” CD Release gig

Gina Leishman, vox, piano, mandola, bari uke
Dana Lyn, violn,
Marika hughes, cello
Greg Cohen, bass
Doug Wieselman, clarinet, sax, guitar
plus guests
Matt Munisteri, Charlie Burnham, Peter Apfelbaum, Kenny Wollesen and more

The Owl Music Parlor
497 Rogers Ave
Brooklyn, New York 11225

Gina Leishman is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and performer, British born but resident in the US since seemingly forever, having fled the goldfish bowl of Old Europe (at present she wishes she’d stayed there).
Collaborations with other artists include directors Karin Coonrod and Robert Woodruff, writers Ellen McLaughlin and Naomi Wallace, choreographers David Gordon and Deborah Slater, composer Doug Wieselman, and performance artists Rinde Eckert and John Kelly.
She leads various ensembles, including her long-standing septet Kamikaze Ground Crew, a vehicle for original composition; the Mr. Wau-Wa band, a quintet dedicated to the songs of Bertolt Brecht; and various quartets in support of her solo work.
Recordings are available on Koch Jazz, New World Records, Busmeat and GCQ Records. She is also an award-winning narrator of audio-books.

The Mr. Wau Wa band was formed in 1998 as part of a project at P.S 122 celebrating Bertolt Brecht’s centenary and is dedicated to performing the songs of Bertolt Brecht as set by his collaborators Kurt Weill, Hanns Eisler, and Paul Dessau, as well as some contemporary settings by David Hidalgo. (date, band line-up etc. in email)

“Geography” is Leishman’s fourth ‘solo’ album exploring the Leishman Songbook. Previous are “Bed Time” (2004) “In My Skin” (2007) and “Baseless Rumors” (2011). This latest recording, 12 encounters with landscapes both beloved and unknown, is a coming together of the disparate threads of Leishman’s recent life, covering the last 5 years of triangulated living – from New York to the wilds of Scotland and Northumbria and the warmth of the Mediterranean islands… (date, band line-up etc. in email)