#Edisa Weeks

[theuniversitychallengereview]

UC 50.8 - Darwin, Cam vs St Andrews

Right, I’m going to warn you straight from the off - this one is going to be experimental. And I don’t mean experimental in the way literary types describe Will Self novels, because it is only ever used when they think the experiment in question has been a success, at least to some extent. I’m using it in the purely scientific sense, whereby a hypothesis is proposed and then proved or disproved using an agreed upon methodology. I am under no illusions that this is going to work, or that it will even achieve one tenth of what it sets out to, although of course if it does (which I very much doubt it will) pull this off even a little bit then this bit will look like nothing but bluster and I’ll come across as exactly the kind of pretentious I was going for.

Anyway, last things first, if you haven’t seen the new Christopher Nolan film Tenet then there will be... I was going to say spoilers, but that would imply that I understood the plot well enough to be able to spoil it for you. But still, the hypothesis of this post will be to review this episode of University Challenge in the style of Tenet, so if you don’t want to spot cack-handed references to various plot points then you may want to stop reading here.

Okay, here is the point where I admit that I have no idea how one would go about writing a review of a quiz show in the style of a sci-fi spy thriller, and the reason that this is being released on a Saturday is that I spent the whole week trying to come up with a sufficiently clever way of doing it. 

.net rof retrats tsrif ruoy s’ereh ;ti htiw no teg tsuj s’tel os ,won yb selur eht wonk lla ew tuB

Is it simply good enough to run some of the sentences through a backwards text generator and call it a day, or do I have to do other things as well? (oot tnorf ot kcab sa tnuoc nwod edispu seoD and could I have used the upside down Spanish question marks there¿). I guess what I should really be doing is running a temporal pincer movement, but what would that involve exactly; should I be

swerdnA tS 552 - 09 egdirbmaC ,niwraD :erocS laniF

simultaneously reviewing the beginning and end of the episode with one version of me travelling forwards and the other backwards? I’ll just carry on, shall I? 

St Andrews have made loads of appearances on the show, but haven’t made the quarter finals since 2010. They give a very strong performance against a timid Darwin side to give them a shot at breaking that duck (I only know this because I was told by the inverted version of me travelling backwards from the end of the episode. Keep up). 

They have a player who is literally called Sherlock, though it is their surname rather than their first name, which checks out given the theme of this post (unfortunately none of the contestants have palindromic names, which would have been even better), and they are the star of the show, with seven starters, including four of the first five. Sherlock has a moustache that is fit for twirling and the most remarkable pair of glasses I’ve ever seen, which could, for all I know, be from the future themselves. Hang on, I’m just going to go back for another pass through the first few questions...

Yes, I was right. You don’t notice it because you don’t think it would be possible, in the smae way taht you can siltl raed wrods if the ietanrnl ltetres are all jbemlud up, but Sherlock actually gives their answers before Paxman asks the questions. The reason Paxman looks confused by it is because, like when John David Washington’s protagonist uses an inverted bullet for the first time and is perplexed by the sensation of catching rather than shooting it, he is not asking the question, he is answering it. This explains how Sherlock was able to put on such a dominant performance, and why they have such bizarre (and excellent) spectacles. Probably something to do with their eyes not being able to process inverted light. 

So, we already know the score, because what’s happened, happened, but I will say that Darwin 

)esnes sekam lla ti taht emussa ot evah tsuj ll’uoy dna )raf siht ti edam ev’uoy fi esigolopa ylno nac I .ti gnitirw emit a fo elahw etulosba na gnivah m’I ))yrros ,noitpecnI eb ot tnaem t’nsaw sihT .peed stekcarb ruof eerht m’I won dna( t’nsi ti hcihw( gnitirw fo eceip tnerehoc dna gnillepmoc a si siht ton ro rehtehw fo sseldrager tub ,daer ot emit eht ekat yllautca lliw enoyna erus ton m’I taht txet sdrawkcab fo eceip a ni elbmar-dim m’I elihw edisa elttil a( ,dnatsrednu ot gniyrt ti htrow ton sti ,teneT ekiL .tsop siht tuohguorht detartsnomed neeb ydaerla evah taht daerht lacigol siht htiw seicnetsisnocni dairym eht fo yna nialpxe ot rO .rehtruf ti nialpxe ot em ksa t’noD .trats eht ta drawrof gniog sa emas eht sti dne eht ta sdrawkcab gniog sti fi esuaceb ,detrevni eb ot sah ti ,dne eht ta er’ew esuaceb tuB .trats eht ta tup dluow I taht elttat-elttit yrotisopxe fo dnik eht si siht esuaceb si sdrawkcab ni si tib siht nosaer eht dnA .enildaeh a fo laog nepo na hcus teg uoy netfo ton stI .puhctam nosaJ sv ydderF suolevram eht ni llaH dnumdE tS dna oeL ydderF yb detaefed eb ot ylno ,wohs eht no saw eh erofeb lwobziuq ta maet drofxO na gniyortsed was I ohw ,sonifloG nosaJ citsatnaf eht fo pihsdrawets eht rednu oga sraey owt slanif-imes eht edam ohw( 

do get some questions right, quite a few actually, its just that they were unfortunate to be up against a time-travelling super-quizzer called Sherlock. And this being the fifth first round match to post a combined score of 345 or more we’ve already exceeded the equivalent total from last year, indicating either a jump in quality or a dip in difficulty, but I’ve noticed no evidence of the latter. 

So, we’re coming to the end/start of this review, and I would like to thank you if you’ve made it this far, given the batshit nonsensicality of it all (I don’t think nonsensicality is a word, but it might just be the only way of describing this drivel). You don’t need to tell me whether it all makes sense, because I already know, and you don’t need to ask me how I know, because you already know... 

ytiretsoP

[larryland]

PS21 Announces First-Ever Spring Season and Executive Director

PS21 Announces First-Ever Spring Season and Executive Director

Who: More than 120 Artists from the US and five countries

What: Music, Dance, and Theater, plus residencies and workshops open to the community

Where: Performance Spaces for the 21st Century, 2980 NY Route 66, Chatham, NY 12037

When: March – November 2020

From March to November 2020 PS21will offer more programs than ever before to bring cultural and educational enrichment to the Hudson Valley’s…

[citylifeorg]

Kupferberg Center for the Arts presents the World Premiere of Action Songs/Protest Dances

Kupferberg Center for the Arts presents the World Premiere of Action Songs/Protest Dances

Kupferberg Center for the Arts presents the World Premiere of Action Songs/Protest Dances, a live music and dance performance conceived, directed, and choreographed by Edisa Weeks. The work features five original songs commissioned by composers/musicians Taina Asili, Spirit McIntyre, and Martha Redbone. Three of the songs are inspired by the life, speeches, and writings of civil rights activist…

[nyfacurrent]

Introducing | NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship Program Recipients and Finalists

NYFA has awarded $661,000 to 98 New York State artists working in the categories of Architecture/Environmental Structures/Design, Choreography, Music/Sound, Photography, and Playwriting/Screenwriting.

New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) has announced the recipients and finalists of the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship Program, which it has administered for the past 33 years with leadership support from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA). The organization has awarded a total of $661,000 to 98 artists (including three collaborations) whose ages range from 25-76 years throughout New York State in the following disciplines: Architecture/Environmental Structures/Design, Choreography, Music/Sound, Photography, and Playwriting/Screenwriting. Fifteen finalists, who do not receive a cash award but benefit from a range of other NYFA services, were also announced. A complete list of the Fellows and Finalists follows. 

The NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship Program makes unrestricted cash grants of $7,000 to artists working in 15 disciplines, awarding five per year on a triennial basis. The program is highly competitive, and this year’s recipients and finalists were selected by discipline-specific peer panels from an applicant pool of 2,542. Since it was launched in 1985, the program has awarded over $31 million to more than 5,000 artists. This year, thanks to the generous support of photography nonprofit Joy of Giving Something, NYFA was able to award an additional five Fellowships in Photography, which has the largest application pool of any Fellowship category.

“We are grateful to NYSCA for this annual opportunity to provide nearly 100 artists from New York State with unrestricted cash grants,” said Michael L. Royce, Executive Director, NYFA. “What’s most exciting is that the Fellowship impacts artists of all disciplines and career stages and that these artists are being recognized by a jury of their peers. Beyond the financial aspect, it empowers them to keep creating and exploring new possibilities in their work.”

New York State Council on the Arts Executive Director Mara Manus described how the program makes New York communities more vibrant: “The NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship recognizes that artists of all disciplines, backgrounds, ages, and career stages make vital contributions to New York’s creative culture. Over the past 33 years, the Artist Fellowship has been a launching pad and a critical source of support for artists whose work helps build healthy communities in all regions of the state.”

On receiving a NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in Playwriting/Screenwriting, Brooklyn-based Nabil Viñas said: “It is a deeply moving honor to be recognized by NYSCA/NYFA. I took up screenwriting out of necessity, as it became clear that the voices and stories from my life would not appear in works by others. This fellowship tells me our stories matter, and that my voice is worth hearing.”

For Ben Altman, a Fellow in Architecture/Environmental Structures/Design from Danby, NY, the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship represents another facet of support from NYFA: “NYFA has informed my artistic practice throughout my 12 years in Upstate New York, providing professional development, fiscal sponsorship, grant application support, workshops, critique, and timely advice. To be awarded a NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship is as much a tribute to those inputs as it is an important and very welcome recognition of the work NYFA’s support has helped me to produce.”

To Veena Chandra, a Fellow in Music/Sound from Latham, NY, the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship empowers her to “continue to create, promote, and preserve” musical tradition. “I feel blessed to have been playing Indian sitar music for the last 63 years. I am so grateful to my father, who created an environment for me to learn this beautiful music and taught me from the very beginning of my life. To be recognized for my work in performing and preserving Indian Classical music means a lot to me, especially at this point in my career,” she noted.

Fellowship Recipients, Finalists, and Panelists by Discipline and County of Residence:

Architecture/Environmental Structures/Design Fellows

Ben Altman (Tompkins) Kenseth Armstead (Kings) Shimon Attie (New York) Sonya Blesofsky (Kings) Yeju Choi and Chat Travieso - Yeju & Chat (Kings) * Blane De St. Croix (Kings) Sun Young Kang (Erie) Kyung-jin Kim  (Queens) Ming-Jer Kuo (Queens)*** Lindsay Packer (Kings) Christopher Robbins (Westchester) Jeffrey Williams (Kings)       

Architecture/Environmental Structures/Design Finalists      

Serra Victoria Bothwell Fels (Kings) Justin Brice Guariglia (Kings) Pascale Sablan (New York)    

Architecture/Environmental Structures/Design Panelists    

Ann Reichlin (Tompkins) Ekene Ijeoma (Kings) Nina Cooke John (New York) Victoria Palermo (Warren)      

Choreography Fellows

Ephrat "Bounce" Asherie (New York) Justina Grayman (Queens)**** GREYZONE (Kings) Dan Hurlin (New York) Jaamil Olawale Kosoko (Kings) Shamel Pitts (Kings) Melinda Ring (New York) Same As Sister (Queens)* Rebeca Tomas (Westchester) Kelly Todd (Kings) Donna Uchizono (New York) Vangeline (Kings) Adia Tamar Whitaker (Kings)        

Choreography Finalists      

Parijat Desai (New York) DELIRIOUS Dances/Edisa Weeks (Kings) Netta Yerushalmy (New York)        

Choreography Panelists    

Rose Pasquarello Beauchamp (Monroe) Robin Collen (St. Lawrence) Trebien Pollard (Erie) Marie Poncé (New York) Kota Yamazaki (Kings)  

Music/Sound Fellows

ALMA (Kings)* Lora-Faye Åshuvud (Queens) Newman Taylor Baker (New York) Bob Bellerue (Kings) Leila Bordreuil (Kings) Vienna Carroll (New York) Veena Chandra (Albany) David First (Kings) Micah Frank (Kings) Kate Gentile (Kings) Michael Harrison (Westchester) JSWISS (Kings) Liz Phillips (Queens) Kenneth Kirschner (Kings) Elliott Sharp (New York) Jen Shyu (Kings) Ann Warde (Tompkins) Eric Wubbels (Queens)    

Music/Sound Finalists      

Lily Henley (Kings) Earl Howard (Queens) Tobaron Waxman (New York)    

Music/Sound Panelists    

Toni Blackman (Kings) Sarah Hennies (Tompkins) John Morton (Rockland) Margaret Anne Schedel (Suffolk) Elio Villafranca (New York)        

Photography Fellows

Manal Abu-Shaheen (Queens) Yasser Aggour (Kings) Aneta Bartos (New York) Lucas Blalock (Kings) Matthew Conradt (Kings) Debi Cornwall  (Kings) Robin Crookall (Kings) Tim Davis (Dutchess)****** Eli Durst (Queens) Nona Faustine (Kings) Jonathan Gardenhire  (Kings) Rachel Granofsky (Kings)***** Carlie Guevara (Queens) Gail Albert-Halaban (New York) Daesha Devón Harris (Saratoga)****** Gillian Laub (New York) Jiatong Lu (Kings)****** Diana Markosian (Kings) Rehan Miskci (New York) Rachelle Mozman Solano (Kings) Karina Aguilera Skvirsky (New York) Erin O'Keefe (New York) Paul Raphaelson (Kings) Victor Rivera (Onondaga)****** Jahi Lateef Sabater (Kings) Nadia Sablin (Kings) Derick Whitson (New York) Letha Wilson (Columbia)****** Alex Yudzon (Kings)        

Photography Finalists      

Mike Crane (Kings) Julianne Nash (Kings) Dana Stirling (Queens)

Photography Panelists    

Nydia Blas (Tompkins) Carmen Lizardo (Hudson) Lida Suchy (Onondaga) Sinan Tuncay (Kings) Penelope Umbrico (Kings)

Playwriting/Screenwriting Fellows

Rae Binstock (Kings) Benedict Campbell (Bronx) Sol Crespo (Bronx)**** Amy Evans (Kings) Stephanie Fleischmann (Columbia) Robin Fusco (Queens) Myla Goldberg (Kings) Ryan J. Haddad (New York) Susan Kathryn Hefti (New York) Holly Hepp-Galvan (Queens) Timothy Huang (New York) Fedna Jacquet (New York) Nicole Shawan Junior (Kings)** Serena Kuo (Kings) Kal Mansoor (Kings) Michael Mejias (Kings) Joey Merlo (New York) Rehana Lew Mirza (Kings) Joél Pérez (New York) Keil Troisi (Kings) Nabil Viñas (New York) Craig T. Williams (New York)    

Playwriting/Screenwriting Finalists      

Iquo B. Essien (Kings) Becca Roth (Kings) Sheri Wilner (New York)        

Playwriting/Screenwriting Panelists    

Sheila Curran Bernard (Albany) Clarence Coo (New York) Randall Dottin (New York) David Ebeltoft (Steuben) Julie Casper Roth (Albany) 

* Collaborative artists ** Geri Ashur Screenwriting Award *** Joanne Y. Chen Taiwanese American Artist Fellow **** Gregory Millard Fellows made with the support of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; Gregory Millard Fellowships are awarded annually to New York City residents chosen in several categories. The award was established by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in 1984 in memory of poet and playwright Gregory Millard, who served as Assistant Commissioner of Cultural Affairs from 1978 until his death in 1984 and championed the causes of individual artists. ***** Deutsche Bank Fellow ******Joy of Giving Something Fellow

Funding Support

NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowships are administered with leadership support from New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Major funding is also provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA). Additional funding is provided by Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation, ​Taiwanese American Arts Council��, The Joy of Giving Something Inc., and individual donors.

Find out more about the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship Program, a $7,000 unrestricted cash grant awarded to individual artists living and working in the state of New York. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for more news and events from NYFA. To receive more artist news updates, sign up for our bi-weekly newsletter, NYFA News.

Images from Top: Lindsay Packer (Fellow in Architecture/Environmental Structures/Design ’19), False Fold, 2019, colored light and found objects, Photo Credit: Lindsay Packer; Donna Uchizono (Fellow in Choreography ’19), March Under an Empty Reign (Sextet), 2018, performers Natalie Green and Aja Carthon, Photo Credit: Ian Douglas; Eli Durst (Fellow in Photography ’19), Bread (Cross), 2017, archival pigment print; Veena Chandra (Fellow in Music/Sound ’19), Image Credit: MARS Fotographi

[jimrmoore]

Vaudevisuals interview with Theodora Skipitares +

Vaudevisuals interview with Theodora Skipitares, LaFrae Sci and Edisa Weeks.

I met up with puppeteer/director/creator Theodora Skipitares whose new show “The Transfiguration of Benjamin Banneker” opened at LaMama ETC on Jan. 23rd, 2020. I also interview the composer LaFrae Sci and the Choreographer Edisa Weeks.

From the ‘press release:a multi-disciplinary spectacle with a marching band, dancers, 12-foot puppets, shadow puppetry and moving projection screens. The band…

[newyorktheater]

“The Transfiguration of Benjamin Banneker” by Theodora Skipitares at La MaMa. Giant heads by Skipitares worn by members of the Banneker chorus.

In this gorgeous, enlightening and ambitious —  if over-stuffed — hour-long theatrical collage, Theodora Skipitares uses the eerie visual splendor of puppetry to illuminate a serious subject, as she’s done in some 30 plays over the past 40 years. But “The Transfiguration of Benjamin Banneker” stands out, in two ways. First, it tells the fascinating and surprisingly little-known story of Benjamin Banneker, an 18th century free black man, independent farmer, self-taught astronomer, mathematician and civil rights advocate, who corresponded with Thomas Jefferson in 1791 arguing for racial equality.

And then, there’s the use of the teenage drummers from the Soul Tigers marching band of the Benjamin Banneker Academy, a public high school in Brooklyn.

Click on any photograph to see it enlarged. All photos by Theo Cote, except when indicated in caption.

Copernicus puppet.

Giant Banneker head by Theodora Skipitares. Photo by Theo Cote.

Giant heads worn by Banneker chorus.

Marriage of Benjamin Banneker’s grandmother and grandfather, from a film by Klara Vertes and Trevor Legerett.

Soul Tigers drumming marching band

Banneker puppet Photo by Jane Catherine Shaw

Chris Ignacio and Banneker puppet.

Banneker puppet, dying

Funeral of Benjamin Banneker.

Alexandria Joesica Smalls plays Lieutenant Uhura.

Frank Borman puppet for “The Transfiguration of Benjamin Banneker” Photo by Jane Catherine Shaw.

Miniature toy theater, scene of story of would-be astronaut Ed Dwight Jr.

Banneker head with Soul Tigers in finale.

Curtain Call.

As with most of her works, Skipitares doesn’t stick to one subject or to one mode of expression. Through dozens of inventive puppets, giant masks, animation, toy theater, a narrator/actor, recorded voices,  puppeteer/actors, a marching band full of drummers and a troupe of dancers, “The Transfiguration of Benjamin Banneker,” which is running at La Mama through February 2, offers a somewhat kaleidoscopic look at the subject of African-Americans and space exploration. It focuses in the second half on the story of Ed Dwight, now 86, an Air Force test pilot who trained to become the first African-American astronaut but was scrapped from NASA. He resigned from the Air Force, and went on to become a sculptor of African-American historical figures….including Benjamin Banneker. There is even a scene with Lieutenant Uhura – as both a person (Alexandria Joesica Smalls) and a near life-size puppet head inside a miniature Starship Enterprise – who tells the story of how the original actress (Nichelle Nichols) had planned to quit her job, but Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a self-confessed Trekkie, convinced her not to: “You can’t. You’re part of history. “

The story of how “The Transfiguration of Benjamin Banneker” came about is nearly as captivating as the stories in the play.  I detail it in my article for TDF Stages, A Downtown Puppet Master Returns With Her Latest Epic

Theodora Skipitares in her home, with Banneker heads and the astronaut Frank Borman puppet

The Transfiguration of Benjamin Banneker La MaMa ETC digital program Conceived, Designed and Directed by Theodora Skipitares Music by LaFrae Sci Choreography by Edisa Weeks in collaboration with Jasmine Oton and the performers Puppetry Direction by Jane Catherine Shaw Set Design by Donald Eastman and Theodora Skipitares Lighting by Jeffrey Nash Video Design and Voice Recording by Kay Hines Dramaturgy by Andrea Balis Stage Manager Karen Oughtred Animation Film #1 by Holly Adams Animation Film #2 by Trevor Legeret & Klara Vertes Special Projects by Jim Freeman Scenic Painting by DeAndre Craigman, Taylor Clayton Brooks, Gabe Garcia, Brooke van Hensbergen, Lizzy Duquette Chaperone Andy Safford Banneker Dancers’ Co-Ordinator Francie Johnson-Sealey Executive Director, Soul Tigers Music & Arts Program Kenyatte L. Hughes Percussion Director, Soul Tigers Marching Band Osei K. Smith CAST Reginald L. Barnes Narrator/Benjamin Banneker/Ed Dwight Eleni Daferera Puppeteer/Crew Nishan Ganimian Puppeteer/Crew Chris Ignacio Puppeteer/Dancer Alexandria Joesica Smalls Puppeteer/Uhura Jane Catherine Shaw Lead Puppeteer Tom Walker Thomas Jefferson/Frank Borman/ Puppeteer Timothy Atkinson Puppeteer/Crew Banneker Dancers: Adeoba Awosika, AnnJeane Cato, Isabel Elliott, Halle Gillett, Janee Jeanbaptiste, Kimori Zinnerman Soul Tigers Marching Band, Inc. Alora Brooks, Ava DeLeon, Arron Jones, Alex Patterson, Nathalya Pericles, Ionie Pumarejo, Dennis Usher Recorded Voices: Tom Walker (Thomas Jefferson), Karen Oughtred (Charles Dorsey), Jane Catherine Shaw (Susanna), Alexandria Joesica Smalls (Martha), Chris Ignacio (Sheppard), Reginald L. Barnes (Rittenhouse) Running time: One hour, no intermission Tickets: $26, $21 Students/Seniors “The Transfiguration of Benjamin Banneker” is on stage through February 2.

The Transfiguration of Benjamin Banneker: Theodora Skipitares’ puppetry collage about an 18th Century African-American astronomer, a 20th Century black astronaut, and Lieutenant Uhura of Star Trek, with the Soul Tigers high school marching band. In this gorgeous, enlightening and ambitious --  if over-stuffed -- hour-long theatrical collage, Theodora Skipitares uses the eerie visual splendor of puppetry to illuminate a serious subject, as she’s done in some 30 plays over the past 40 years.

[dinafbrownil]

Drumbeat Builds For A Peace Corps Of Caregivers

Imagine a government program that would mobilize volunteers to help older adults across the nation age in place. One is on the way.

Navigating Aging

Navigating Aging focuses on medical issues and advice associated with aging and end-of-life care, helping America’s 45 million seniors and their families navigate the health care system.

To contact Judith Graham with a question or comment, click here.

Join the Navigating Aging Facebook Group.

See All Columns

The Administration for Community Living, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, is taking steps to establish a National Volunteer Care Corps.

If it’s successful, healthy retirees and young adults would take seniors to doctor appointments, shop for groceries, shovel snowy sidewalks, make a bed or mop the floor, or simply visit a few times a week.

Older adults would not only get a hand with household tasks, but also companionship and relief from social isolation. And family caregivers could get a break.

Younger volunteers might get class credit at a community college or small stipends. Older volunteers could enjoy a satisfying sense of purpose.

There’s no question the need is enormous, as the ranks of the oldest Americans ― those age 85 and up, who tend to have multiple chronic illnesses and difficulty performing daily tasks ― are set to swell to 14.6 million in 2040, up from more than 6 million now.

Who will care for these seniors? More than 34 million unpaid family caregivers currently shoulder that responsibility, along with 3.3 million paid personal care and home health aides. (Medicare does not pay for long-term care services or non-medical services in the home.)

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According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 1.2 million new paid jobs of this kind will be needed by 2028. But filling them will be hard, given low pay, difficult work conditions, limited opportunities for professional advancement and high turnover.

This notion of a domestic Peace Corps for caregiving, if you will, has been circulating since 2013, when it surfaced in a Twitter chat on elder care. In 2017 and 2018, bills introduced in Congress proposed a demonstration project, unsuccessfully.

Now, four organizations will spearhead the Care Corps project: the Oasis Institute, which runs the nation’s largest volunteer intergenerational tutoring program; the Caregiver Action Network; the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging; and the Altarum Institute, which works to improve care for vulnerable older adults.

The initial grant to the group is $3.8 million; total funding for the five-year project is expected to be $19 million, according to Greg Link, director of the ACL’s office of supportive and caregiver services.

This fall, project leaders will invite organizations across the country to submit proposals to serve “non-medical” needs of older adults and younger adults with disabilities. Next spring, up to 30 organizations will get 18-month grants of $30,000 to $250,000, according to Juliet Simone, director of national health at the Oasis Institute.

The goal is to discover innovative, effective programs that offer services to diverse communities (geographic, racial and ethnic) and that can be replicated in multiple locations.

“We want the organizations that apply to be very flexible and creative,” said Anne Montgomery, deputy director of Altarum’s Program to Improve Eldercare. “And we’re aiming to create a volunteer infrastructure that can last and be sustainable.”

All volunteers will undergo background checks and training, and there will be an emphasis on evaluating program results.

“We want to be able to say, ‘Here are the services that people really need, and these are the types of things that work well for specific populations,’” said John Schall, CEO of the Caregiver Action Network. Services could include preparing meals, taking seniors to church or home-based tech support for computer users, among many other possibilities.

Care Corps faces several challenges. A big one: The grant is tiny, compared with the trillions of dollars spent on health care. It could take a long time to build it into a national effort that attracts more investment.

Project leaders are optimistic. To nonprofit organizations working in the aging field, “it’s a lot of money ― they can do quite a lot with these grants,” said Sandy Markwood, CEO of the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging. Programs may find ways to license successful models, and local and national foundations may step in with additional support, Simone said.

Recruiting volunteers could be another challenge. At the Center for Volunteer Caregiving in Cary, N.C., which has been providing “friendly visiting,” transportation and caregiver respite services for 27 years, “it’s the biggest issue we face,” said executive director Elaine Whitford.

Because her organization focuses on building relationships with seniors, it asks volunteers to commit to at least a year. “We get a lot of interest,” Whitford said, “then people realize that this just isn’t going to fit into their schedule.”

Helen Anderson, 86, has sickle cell disease, lupus and chronic pain. She lives alone in a Cary apartment. Without help from the center’s volunteers, three women and a man who’ve taken her shopping, cleaned her apartment and done her laundry since 2008, she said, “I could not live independently.”

Scores of volunteer programs serving seniors and people with disabilities already exist, but most are small and many older adults and their families don’t know about them. How they’ll interact with the Care Corps is not yet clear.

One of the largest is Seniors Corps, run by the Corporation for National and Community Service. Through its Senior Companion program, volunteers age 55 and older visit needy older adults and help them with tasks such as shopping or paying bills. About 10,500 volunteers spend 15 to 20 hours a week, on average, serving 33,000 seniors through this program.

Recent research from Senior Corps demonstrates that volunteers receive benefits while giving to others ― a finding confirmed by a large body of research. After two years of service, 88% of Senior Corps volunteers reported feeling less isolated, while 78% said they felt less depressed.

To learn if Service Corps’ companion program is available near you, use this new tool on its website. The group also offers less intensive services to 300,000 older adults and people with disabilities through its Retired Senior Volunteer Program.

To learn about other volunteer programs in your community, contact a local senior center, a nearby Area Agency on Aging or your county’s department of aging, experts suggest. ACL’s Eldercare Locator can help you identify these organizations.

Another source is the National Volunteer Caregiving Network, which lists about 700 programs, most of them church-based, on its website.

“Volunteer caregiving can make the difference between someone having quality of life and not having any at all,” said Inez Russell, board chair of the organization. She’s also the founder of Friends for Life, a Texas program that offers volunteer aid to seniors trying to live independently and that reaches out to seniors who don’t have family members on birthdays and holidays, among other services. Altogether, the two programs reach about 4,000 people a year.

In Montpelier, Vt., Joan Black, who’s 88 and lives alone in a one-bedroom apartment, has been a member of Onion River Exchange ― a time bank ― for 10 years. Onion River members contribute goods and services (a ride to the airport, a homemade casserole, a newly knit baby sweater) to the time bank and receive goods and services in exchange. For years, Black gave out information about the exchange at farmers markets and other community events ― her way of banking credits.

“It’s a form of volunteerism that “creates a sense of community for many people,” said Edisa Muller, chairwoman of the Onion River board.

For Black, who lives on a small fixed income and can’t vacuum, scrub her tub, dust her wooden furniture or shovel the driveway that leads to her apartment, participating in the time bank has become a way to meet new people and remain integrated with the community.

“I like a tidy house: When things are out of order, I’m out or order,” she said. “I don’t believe I’d be able to do everything I do or live the way I do without their help.”

from Updates By Dina https://khn.org/news/drumbeat-builds-for-a-peace-corps-of-caregivers/

[tadpolepublication]

Edisa Weeks

[lxdylxne]

March 8th-10th, 2018 || part of Dancing Platform Praying Grounds: Blackness, Churches, and Downtown Dance, ​Platform 2018 curator Reggie Wilson invited artists Beth Gill, Jonathan González, Miguel Gutierrez, Angie Pittman, and Edisa Weeks to each create their own “charrette” —a 10-minute artistic response to a dossier compiled by scholar Prithi Kanakamedala. A “refraction and reflection” will take place each evening after the performances. ​______________ Info & tix: danspaceproject.org (at Danspace Project)

[larryland]

Celebrated French Play "Pollock" Comes to PS21’s Black Box Theater

Celebrated French Play “Pollock” Comes to PS21’s Black Box Theater

The life, mythology, and volatile relationship of the towering 20th-century painter Jackson Pollock and his likewise talented and enigmatic wife Lee Krasner come to life in Pollock on PS21’s Black Box Theater stage October 4 – 6. After premiering in New York in Feb 2018 with rare reviews, and hot off a tour of France’s Normandy region, the play by acclaimed French playwright Fabrice Melquiot and…

[jimrmoore]

Vaudevisuals interview with Edisa Weeks from Jim Moore on Vimeo.

Vaudevisuals interview with choreographer Edisa Weeks at the LaMama theater where she worked on "The Transfiguration of Benjamin Banneker" opened on Jan 23rd, 2020. Originally posted at: vaudevisuals.com

[newyorktheater]

Ken Barnett, Justin Genna

How do people care for one another in dangerous times? That’s the still-relevant question underlying this beautiful, sad, enraging, uplifting, and awesomely staged theater piece that sweeps through the 161-year history of St. Vincent’s Hospital in Greenwich Village, dwelling on two traumatic periods – the cholera epidemic, during which four nuns from the Sisters of Charity founded the hospital in 1849, and the AIDS epidemic that surrounded it in the 1980s and 90s.

St. Vincent’s was shut down in 2010, and “Novenas for a Lost Hospital” begins with a literal view of that end.  An engaging  “prologue” takes place in the courtyard of St. John’s in the Village, the church next door to Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, little more than a block away from the condominiums that replaced the razed hospital.

Those dark new condos serve as a kind of backdrop for the audience during the

pre-show in the courtyard, where a Village resident named Goussy Célestin welcomes us, leading an ensemble dressed variously in festive garb, in doctors’ scrubs or in patient garbs. They sing and dance and play musical instruments.  One of them, Rafael Sánchez, performs a bathing ritual. (Sánchez was a patient at St. Vincent’s HIV until it closed.)  Célestin  also points to what was until recently the Open Door,  a safe haven for 20 years for people with HIV/AIDS. She tells us that the ashes of people who died of AIDS are buried in urns in the courtyard.

After the pre-show, we are led out of the courtyard, down the block and up the theater’s steep, narrow staircase, the walls of which are graced with an exhibition curated by Visual AIDS. We enter a theater crowded with hospital partitions, those white screens that encircle a hospital bed to allow patients some privacy.  These partitions display photographs, newspaper clips and other items in an exhibition of St Vincent’s history, each partition presenting a different era.

After we’ve had a chance to look over the exhibition, the partitions are soon cleared away, the characters make sure all of us in the audience have an electric candle to light and Cusi Cram’s play begins proper – well acted, and wonderfully directed by Rattlestick’s new artistic director Daniella Topol

The script is divided into nine scenes, a number that reflects the title of the play: As the characters explain, a novenas is a prayer you say over nine days.

The scenes, which travel back and forth in time, focus on the nurses, and on their interactions with their patients, and with the doctors. Often, these amount to various types of negotiations, compromises.

A nurse (Kelly McAndrew) agrees to hold hands and jump up and down with her AIDS patient JB (Justin Genna), a once glorious dancer who has plans to perform in Paris – which seems delusional,  although the nurse gives no indication she thinks so.

“You’re not usually this accommodating. It’s a little terrifying,” JB tells her.

“Why?”

“Makes me think everyone but me will be resurrected. “

In a scene from the 19thcentury, the nurse Sister Ulrica (Natalie Woolams-Torres) indignantly stops a young Dr. Potter (Leland Fowler) from cutting into the body of a cholera victim, a Patrick McShane (portrayed by one of the other actors under a sheet), seeing the mutilation of a corpse as a desecration against God. But she comes to understand that the inexperienced Dr. Potter is nervous about conducting his first operation the next day – “I hold someone’s fate in my fingertips” – and he feels he needs the practice.

Her understanding comes at the prompting of Elizabeth Seton (Kathleen Chalfant), the first America Saint –or, more precisely, at the prodding of her ghostly presence, since Seton died in 1821, 28 years before St. Vincent’s began.   The existence of Seton is, I suppose, easily defended – she established the Sisters of Charity in Maryland, some of whose members in New York went on to found St. Vincent’s. That’s certainly more of a connection to the story than the other early 19thcentury New Yorker who looms over the piece, Pierre Toussaint (Alvin Keith.) Toussaint, born a slave in what is now Haiti, became a popular hairdresser to  New York high society, gaining wealth himself and turning into a philanthropist. They are both  undeniably fascinating historical figures; both are Catholic (Toussaint is buried underneath St. Patrick’s Cathedral.) But their presence can be read as a signal. The trip “Novenas” takes us on is fueled by history, but it takes flight into symbolism, impressions, observations and pointed commentary.

Although a saint is a main character in the play, “Novenas” is no hagiography. Characters are blunt in criticizing the hospital’s mismanagement. “Didn’t they kill the guy who wrote ‘Rent’,” one recalls.  Several scenes pit Catholic theology against good medical practice. Dr. T (Alvin Keither again) and Sister Angela (Kelly McAndrew again) argue over whether he can use the word “prophylactic” in a grant proposal.

There are many personal reasons why I considered “Novenas for a Lost Hospital” a must-see. I grew up in the Village, and live there still. This was my neighborhood hospital; it was the place where I was sent from P.S. 41 down the block when in fourth grade Jamie Lewis shoved my head into the playground wall. It was the place where my father died.

But the truth is St. Vincent’s Hospital was personal for so many New Yorkers – maybe all New Yorkers. It was at the epicenter of AIDS. It was also one of the closest hospitals to the World Trade Center site, which is why on 9/11 its walls were plastered with paper notices of missing persons, which turned into posters, which turned into a wall full of memorials. At the end of “Novenas for a Lost Hospital,”  Kathleen Chalfant as Mother Seton leads the audience down the narrow staircase to the street, and then the block and a half over to the so-called St. Vincent’s Triangle, a park across the street from where the hospital stood. It’s the site of the New York City AIDS Memorial. We stood in a circle for the epilogue, beneath the white steel triangle canopy of the memorial. The hospital isn’t here anymore, but we remember.

  Kathleen Chalfant as Saint Elizabeth Seton in Novenas for a Lost Hospital

Goussy Célestin leading the audience in the NYC AIDS Memorial Park at St. Vincent’s Triangle during the epilogue of Novenas for a Lost Hospital

Novenas for a Lost Hospital: Natalie Woolams-Torres, Leland Fowler, Ken Barnett, Kelly McAndrew, Kathleen Chalfant

Novenas for a Lost Hospital: Kathleen Chalfant, Alvin Keith, Justin Genna, Kelly McAndrew

Novenas for a Lost Hospital; : Ken Barnett, Justin Genna

Leland Fowler, Ken Barnett, Justin Genna

Justin Genna, Kathleen Chalfant, Kelly McAndrew, Alvin Keith

Ken Barnett

Kathleen Chalfant

the audience being led to the New York AIDS Memorial in St. Vincent’s Triangle

Novenas for a Lost Hospital At Rattlesnake Playwrights Theater Written by Cusi Cram With Dramaturgy by Guy Lancaster Directed by Daniella Topol Choreography by Edisa Weeks, set design by Carolyn Mraz, costume design by Ari Fulton, lighting design by Stacey Derosier, sound design by Brian Hickey & Sinan Zafar, composed by Serge Ossorguine, prop design by Rhys Alexander Cast: Kathleen Chalfant, Ken Barnett, Goussy Celestin, Justin Genna, Steven Jeltsch, Alvin Keith, Shayne Lebron-Acevedo, Kelly McAndrew, Noriko Omichi, Rafael Sánchez, Laura Vogels, and Natalie Woolams-Torres Presented in partnership with Village Preservation, The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Community Center, NYC AIDS Memorial Board, NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing, St. John’s in the Village, and Visual AIDS.

Running time: 2 hours and 30 minutes with no intermission Tickets: $45-60. Students 20 “Novenas for a Lost Hospital” runs through October 13, 2019

Novenas for A Lost Hospital Review: St. Vincent’s In Greenwich Village, from Cholera to AIDS How do people care for one another in dangerous times? That’s the still-relevant question underlying this beautiful, sad, enraging, uplifting, and awesomely staged theater piece that sweeps through the 161-year history of St.