Lunada Literary Lounge and Open Mic featuring Aya de Leon

Galería de la Raza
2857 24th Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

March 3, 7:30 p.m.
Lunada Literary Lounge and Open Mic featuring Aya de Leon

Admission: $5 (free w/ food dish or Galeria membership)

[nb: first of two posts highlighting March programs at the Galleria]

Writer, performer, hip hop theater artist, poetic activist, and community healer Aya de Leon lives in the Oakland Bay Area. Her work has received acclaim in the Village Voice, Washington Post, American Theatre Magazine, the Oakland Tribune, and San Francisco Chronicle. She was named best discovery in theater for 2004 by the SF Chronicle, and also in 2004, she received a Goldie award from the SF Bay Guardian in spoken word. In 2005 she was voted "Slamminest Poet" in the annual East Bay Express Best of the Bay. In November 2006, Aya performed in Voices of a People’s History with Mos Def, Alice Walker, Luis Valdez, Howard Zinn, Anthony Arnove, and others. In April of 2005, Aya and Mos Def co-hosted a kickoff rally for Current TV, Al Gore’s new cable network.

Aya has taught spoken word and poetry at Stanford University, and has been a guest artist in residence at New York Theatre Workshop. She is a Cave Canem poetry fellow, and a slam poetry champion. In 2003 she presented her work at the Ford Foundation in New York and The Mark Taper Forum in LA.

A graduate of Harvard College, Aya studied theater with Whoopi Goldberg, the San Francisco Mime Troupe, and the Jean Shelton School. She also studied fiction in the MFA program at Bennington College. She is currently working on her first novel and a collection of essays about self-love.

[image from Galleria Web site]

New Orleans Mardi Gras 2007

[The Washington Post published the thoughtful article below on the final day of New Orleans Mardi Gras 2007. Like so much of the city's cultural life, contradictions and contrasts abound.



Living off the fete of the land
It's Mardi Gras, but New Orleans is the Big Uneasy
by Eve Zibart
Washington Post

NEW ORLEANS - Mardi Gras is the tale of two cities, the New Orleans that was -- the home of elaborate Carnival floats and fancy dress balls, of coat-and-tie restaurants and Dixieland jazz bands -- and the post-Katrina New Orleans of For Rent signs, recorded classic rock, intoxicated frat boys and parades rerouted to skirt still-widespread devastation.

It's the promise of a million visitors and a billion dollars in tourist trade culminating today, Fat Tuesday, and it's the shopkeepers who close mid-afternoon because the only browsers are really just looking for clean bathrooms. It's a full house at Larry Flynt's Barely Legal strip club, and a dozing hostess at the empty Chris Owens music club. It's Jackson Square, 17 months ago gussied up for President Bush's promise of funding, now with its wrought iron gates locked to keep out the homeless.

full article

[photo by Alex Brandon / AP on msnbc.com web site. caption: "Clarence Williams wears a mask and a king's crown on Bourbon Street on Lundi Gras in the French Quarter of New Orleans Monday, Feb. 19, 2007."]

Throw me something, Mister! - Krewe of Bacchus

[with festivities now in full tilt motion, below another instance of the extraordinary culture of New Orleans Mardi Gras.]



The Krewe of Bacchus

Sunday, February 18, 2007
2007 Krewe of Bacchus New Orleans Mardi Gras Parade

Bacchus XXXIV: "Through The Eyes Of A Child"

James Gandolfini to reign as celebrity King

[image from image from the Krewe of Bacchus web site]

Lost In Light

[from the Heartland, from Iowa City, Iowa, home of The University of Iowa]

"This is a project about the 8mm film format. But 8mm is dead, you say? On the contrary! Not only is the format alive with innovation by filmmakers around the world, but hours and hours of Super 8 and regular 8mm film exist in attics and basements the world over—as home movies, educational films, works of art—that is slowly fading from the historical record."

Lost in Light

[image from the Lost In Light Web site, a still from the captivating "Our Trip to Mars"]

Teatro del Pueblo at Intermedia Arts

Intermedia Arts
2822 Lyndale Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55408
phone(612) 871-4444
fax (612) 871-6927
info@intermediaarts.org

Teatro del Pueblo's 6th Annual Political Theatre Festival
February 15 - March 4, 2007

"The Teatro del Pueblo Political Theater Festival brings fresh new perspectives to the social-political implications of Latin American immigration to the United States though 6 new one-act plays from around the country."

more

[image from Intermedia Arts Web site]

New Media Curatorial Research Opportunities

[My brilliant colleagues at CRUMB forwarded the rfq's below. Note their partnership with Eyebeam]

University of Sunderland, UK
School of Arts, Design, Media & Culture
Curating New Media Art

Since 1993 the School of Arts, Design, Media & Culture has had a special interest in issues for exhibiting new media art (including Internet art, and interactive digital media). The CRUMB web resource for curators is now an internationally acclaimed site, which complements the postgraduate work in Fine Art, Curating and Informatics at the University. A recent AHRC Research Grant enables the continued expansion of this research, with research partners Eyebeam (New York) and Lancaster University.

Research Assistant
Fixed-term 3 years
£20,119 - £23,187 pa
To undertake research outputs, and assist the research of the CRUMB team, and to undertake research outputs in the field of curating new media art. You will hold special responsibility for online/print research outputs, and collaborative networking.
Ref No: ADR017/1362
Closing date: 2 March 2007
An application form and Role Profile can be obtained by contacting
Human Resources on +44 191 515 2057 or www.sunderland.ac.uk/jobs

Research Studentships x 2 posts
Curating New Media Art, and New Media Art & Programming
Fixed-term 3 years
AHRC grant of - £12,300 pa
PhD proposals including practice-led artist/curator research are invited. Applicants should meet AHRC UK/EU residency regulations.
Closing date: 2 March 2007
Further details can be found on http://www.crumbweb.org.
An application form and further details on the Research Studentships can be obtained by contracting Valerie Cornell on + 44 191 515 3725 or email: valerie.cornell@sunderland.ac.uk

Arnolfini presents Ken Stanton Archive - Recording Iraq

Arnolfini
16 Narrow Quay
Bristol
England BS1 4QA

Arnolfini presents Ken Stanton Archive - Recording Iraq, on view through April 1, 2007.


In 2003, just before the coalition invasion of Iraq, independent film producer Michael Burke purchased satellite time from Reuters and made an open request for video recordings made on the ground during the first weeks of the ensuing war. As the conflict continued Burke travelled to Iraq making contacts and establishing a network of paid and volunteer sources. Contributors - including civilians, human shields, aid workers, photojournalists and amateur operators with varying skills and expectations of the power of the video image - witnessed tragedy and atrocity, humour and defiance; producing tapes that range from the mundane and commonplace to the sensational and unique.

KSA have followed the development of this archive for three years; cataloguing tapes, researching its use and considering how this material might be seen, or displayed outside conventional formats. Recording Iraq presents over 200 hours of unedited footage, alongside transcripts from recorded interviews with Burke which describe the frustrations, dangers and contradictions inherent in trying to record, collect and place material such as this within the public realm. KSA’s approach is to examine the criteria we employ to select and edit such material, and reflect back upon our own implication in the ways in which it is re-presented.

There will be live translation of the tapes: Arabic - English, English - Arabic, taking place in the gallery every Saturday.

There are Saturday Exhibition Tours available with a different person leading an informal tour of the exhibition offering their own perspective.

more

Emergency Programs for Artists

.
From the Arts Council of New Orleans web site:

Ongoing Emergency Programs for Artists

"These organizations offer emergency programs for individual artists. Please make sure the organization funds your specific discipline and/or geographic location."

[image From The Rounder Heritage Series CD Mardi Gras in New Orleans cover]

New Orleans Mardi Gras Parade Schedule

[although incomplete, the site below provides a good start in planning your parade schedule. As importantly, exploring its links to krewes provides a peak at the uniquely rich and fascinating culture of New Orleans' Mardi Gras.]

parade schedule



[image of the 1999 Krewe d'Etat poster. "Le Krewe D'Etat's satirical slant on the circus world of politics. Featuring Mayor Marc Morial with his trained seals direct from the City Council chambers, Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee and his trained nutria, Political strongman Governor Mike Foster, and President Clinton's favorite act, sword swallower, Monica Lewinsky."]