GLORIA MIGUEL INTERVIEW ON NEWS 12 MARCH 22,2022

Photo: Jonathan Staff

The Native American Bohemia in Brownstone Brooklyn

Ms.Muriel Miguel and her two older sisters, Gloria (95) and Lisa Mayo (who died in 2013 at 89), have often been described as the matriarchs of Indigenous theater in North America.

“They made a space for so many people and companies,” Penny Couchie, an actor and choreographer of Ojibwe and Mohawk ancestry, said. “They made no apologies for the way that we tell stories.”

In recent weeks, Ms. Miguel has been scrambling to finish preparing for the debut of her latest production, “Misdemeanor Dream,” a collaboration between her company, Spiderwoman Theater, and Aanmitaagzi, an arts group led by Ms. Couchie and her husband, Sid Bobb, on Nipissing First Nation territory in Ontario. The show, which will open on March 10 at La MaMa, the experimental theater in the East Village, represents the culmination of her life’s work so far, she said.

– Saki Knafo, NY Times March 4, 2022 (excerpt)
Read entire article HERE

La MaMa ETC presents the world premiere of Misdemeanor Dream

March 10 – 27, 2022

Ellen Stewart Theatre
66 East 4th Street, 2nd floor
New York, NY 10003

Tickets: https://www.lamama.org/shows/misdemeanor-dream-2022

“Misdemeanor Dream” features Ms. Miguel’s sister Gloria, in the role of The Elder.Credit…Adrienne Grunwald for The New York Times

It is the latest large-scale production of Spiderwoman Theater, the legendary Downtown feminist-Indigenous theater ensemble. Created by a multi-generational performing ensemble with members drawn from Indigenous communities across North America and internationally, this unique production across inter-woven disciplines explores the realms of Indigenous story, magic, interrupted dreams and lost languages, while including all who experience it in a vital continuum of Native spirit and worldview.

In Misdemeanor Dream, old spirits long-ago silenced reveal themselves to the current inhabitants of Turtle Island through their stories and experiences of daily, contemporary life (“Turtle Island” is the name given to Earth by Indigenous peoples in North America).

We are, in the words of Spiderwoman co-founder and artistic director Muriel Miguel, “exploring what we, as Indigenous people, have lost, how we reclaim it and our path to move into a future where we can hold on to our dreams, heal ourselves and be hopeful.”

We are open to anyone in the neighborhood 60 and older. We are hoping we get neighbors from all over the West Village. I am very excited coming to Westbeth to help open a new Center, I grew up around the corner at W 11th St and I feel like life is coming full circle for me. I look forward to meeting you and introducing myself. We are there every day from 11-1 to register members.

-Donna Coles
Assistant Director
Phone: 212-989-3620
www.greenwichhouse.org
dcoles@greenwichhouse.org

About Greenwich House Older Adult Centers

Partially funded by the New York City Department for the Aging (DFTA), Greenwich House’s older adult centers are a vital resource for many in the community. Our centers offer social, educational, physical and cultural programs to engage members, build community and promote healthy and active lifestyles. Every weekday, each center serves a hot lunch that meets DFTA’s nutritional requirements.

Along with regularly scheduled weekly programming, each center fills their monthly calendars with special events. Thanks to partnerships with cultural institutions, local politicians and private foundations, this includes access to exciting arts programming and opportunities. Free courses are taught by professional artists, and chances to see performances are provided throughout the year. Other activities include visits to cultural institutions or shopping trips, services like free haircuts or tax assistance, or cooking demonstrations by guest teachers.

More info: Greenwich House

Gwen John Self Portrait 1902 oil on canvas

Tuesday March 22, 2022 at 5:30PM

Hudson Park Library
66 Leroy Street
New York, NY

Gwen John Painting in a Minor Key Art Talk

Gwen John (1876-1939) lived most of her life as a recluse outside of Paris, in the shadows of two men: her lover, the sculptor Rodin and her brother, the flamboyant wunderkind Augustus John, whom, in recent years (as he predicted), she eclipsed as an artist. During her lifetime her main patron was a New York lawyer, John Quinn. Although a small cir-cle of admirers knew her work, she was aloof from engaging with “the art world,” becoming increas-ingly isolated from colleagues, friends, relatives, choosing instead to retreat to Catholic piety and her pet cats.

Her paintings and drawings are modest in scale, and like her younger contemporary, Giorgio Moran-di, she focused on simple subjects: her room, por-traits of friends and the nuns in a local convent, table-top still lives, often painting variants on a theme. Her close-toned, exquisitely brushed sub-jects reverberate with tenderness, offering a unique personality.

Robert Bunkin is a painter, curator, art historian and educator, with a BS from CUNY and an MFA from Ma-son Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University. He has taught art history and studio art in several NYC art schools, universities, colleges and museums.

*Space is limited. Walkups will be permitted as space accommodates. Face mask required.

Gwen John, Self-Portrait, 1902. Oil on canvas. Tate Britain

Feb 12, 2022 – March 12, 2022

Platform Project Space
20 Jay Street #314
Brooklyn, NY
platformprojectspace.com

Platform Project Space is pleased to present Impinging Environments, a two person show of paintings and animations by Olive Ayhens and Ezra Johnson. This is the first show to pair the work of the artists, who are mother and son. Both are interested in the collision of man and nature and in capturing the often toxic beauty that results.

Olive Ayhens transforms environments in her own quirky ways. She works from memory and uses exaggerated imagination to catch the deep essence of a place. She researches, sketches, and dreams to spontaneously amplify and add nuance to her vision. She remains inventive all along. Color is her first language and she is especially drawn to spatial incongruities and surprises. Represented in the show is older work from different times and places, yet it is all connected. Olive is very excited to show with her
son, Ezra Johnson.

Ezra Johnson is known for expanding his painting practice into animation and sculpture. Interested in experimentation with color, form and surface, his work takes a playful and energetic approach to serious subject matter. For Impinging Environments, Johnson will exhibit three still life paintings depicting objects found along the banks of the Hillsborough River in Tampa, Florida. The show also includes Johnson’s stop-frame animation, Stranded in a House, made with oil painting on top of interior design
advertisements gathered from found catalogues.

Olive Ayhens has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Joan Mitchell Grant, a Pollack-Krasner Grant (twice,) and the Adolph & Easter Gottlieb Individual Support Grant.She has been in residence at Ucross,MacDowell, Yaddo, VCCA, Blue Mountain, Djerassi, LMCC among others and she will be attending the Joan Mitchell residency in New Orleans this coming spring.

Ezra Ayhens Johnson was born in 1975 in Wenatchee, Washington. He received an MFA from Hunter College in New York in 2006 and a BFA from California College of the Arts in San Francisco in 2000. Johnson’s work has been exhibited widely at museums and galleries such as the Nerman Museum of Art in Kansas, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, the Site Santa Fe Biennial, among others. Johnson is currently residing in Tampa and teaches painting at The University of South Florida.

Saturday March 7, 2022
1 PM – 7PM Schedule an appointment.
Westbeth Community room
155 Bank Street
Through Courtyard
New York, NY

New York Blood Center relies upon 1500 volunteer blood donors per day.

There has been a chronic gap in blood donations since the start of the pandemic. Remote and blended learning has resulted in a 75% reduction in youth donations from high schools and colleges and remote work has also resulted in hundreds of organizations no longer able to host blood drives. At the same time, the need for blood from patients in our local hospitals has increased by 10-15% from pre-pandemic levels, from pent up demand for treatment and surgeries postponed during the pandemic.

We’re encouraging folks to give blood and/or help amplify the message on the need for blood in our community. Saving a life takes just an hour of your time. You can click on this link to schedule an appointment

https://donate.nybc.org/donor/schedules/drive_schedule/301825

Food Banks

As you will see on the flyer, we are working with local food banks throughout the month of March. Donors must register for their donations to qualify by going to:

https://www.nybc.org/donate-blood/save-1-feed-1/

The Miriam Chaikin Endowment Fund

The Fund for the writing award was established in 2016 in memory of Miriam Chaikin, a longtime Westbeth resident, former Westbeth Artists Residents Council Literary Arts Chair, and prolific writer.

For Miriam, the written word and the book were essential to her life and well-being. It is in her memory that we seek to honor a member of the writing community, especially those writers who live in Westbeth.

Cassandra Long, poetry

Cassandra Long is a writer, painter, and illustrator based in Brooklyn, New York. Many of her stories are inspired by working with kids as a schoolteacher in both Boston and New York City. She is currently at work on a children’s book about her time as a teacher, as well as a book of illustrated stories titled Me Imagining Holding a Baby While Imagining Dropping the Imaginary Baby While Still Holding It.

Jeffrey Solomon, prose

Jeffrey Solomon’s coming out and coming of age memoir, The Tourist, is his first work of long-form prose. He is currently finishing up his MFA in creative writing at Goddard College. He is the founder of Houses on the Moon Theater Company (HOTM); the playwright and director of Houses’ productions of Building Houses on the Moon and De Novo (59E59 Theaters and Next Door at NYTW); and the playwright of Tara’s Crossing (Tenement Theatre).

He has taught HOTM’s storytelling workshops with underserved communities, co-curating and directing the story-based theater projects. His one-man show The Santa Closet (originally titled Santa Clause Is Coming Out) won the Best of the Columbus National Gay and Lesbian Theatre Festival (2002), had its off-Broadway debut at the Kirk Theatre on Theatre Row (2009), and was revived in 2019 by Houses on the Moon at Teatro Circulo. His other solo play, MotherSON, has had acclaimed runs at HERE (New York City), the Oval House (UK), and Theatre Works (Melbourne, Australia), and has been presented as an educational and support tool around LGBTQ+ and human rights issues in India, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines. Solomon wrote the pilot episode for Jim Henson/ABC-TV program CityKids, which was Emmy-nominated for Best Children’s Special.

More Information About the Fund

Miriam Chaikin Writing Award