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blackkudos · 5 years ago

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Carl Hancock Rux

Carl Hancock Rux (born March 24, 1975) is an American poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, actor, director, singer/ songwriter. He is the author of several books including the Village Voice Literary Prize-winning "Pagan Operetta," the novel, Asphalt, and the Obie Award-winning play, Talk. Rux is also a singer/songwriter with four CDs to his credit, as well as a frequent collaborator in the fields of dance, theater, film, and contemporary art . Notable collaborators include Nona Hendryx, Toshi Reagon, Bill T. Jones, Ronald K. Brown, Nick Cave, Anne Bogart, Robert Wilson, Kenny Leon, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Jonathan Demme, Stanley Nelson Jr., Carrie Mae Weems, Glenn Ligon and others. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the Doris Duke Award for New Works, the Doris Duke Charitable Fund, the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Prize, the Bessie Award and the Alpert Award in the Arts, and a 2019 Global Change Maker award by WeMakeChange.Org. . His archives are housed at the Billy Rose Theater Division of the New York Public Library, the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution as well as the Film and Video/Theater and Dance Library of the California Institute of the Arts.

Early life

Rux was born Carl Stephen Hancock in Harlem, New York. His biological mother, Carol Jean Hancock, suffered from chronic mental illness, was diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, and was institutionalized shortly after the birth of his older brother. Rux was born the result of an illegitimate pregnancy (while his mother was under the care of a New York City psychiatric institution) and the identity of Rux's biological father is unknown. Rux was placed under the guardianship of his maternal grandmother, Geneva Hancock (née Rux), until her death of cirrhosis of the liver due to alcoholism. At four years of age he entered the New York City foster care system where he remained until he was eventually placed under the legal guardianship of his great uncle (grandmother's brother) James Henry Rux and his wife Arsula (née Cottrell) and raised on a step street in the Highbridge section of the Bronx, later used as the filming location for the stairway dance scene in the 2019 film Joker.

Rux attended PS 73, Roberto Clemente Junior High School and received a scholarship to the Horace Mann School, an independent Ivy college preparatory school in the Riverdale section of the Bronx before transferring to the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts where he studied visual art. Exposed to jazz music by his legal guardians, including the work of Oscar Brown Jr., John Coltrane, Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln, Rux eventually double-majored in music/voice, and sang with the Boys Choir of Harlem. He also became a member of the Harlem Writers Workshop, a summer journalism training program for inner-city youth founded by African-American journalists, sponsored by Columbia University and The Xerox Corporation. At the age of 15, Rux was legally adopted by his guardians and his surname changed to Rux. Upon graduation from high school he entered Columbia College where he studied in the Creative Writing Program; took private acting classes at both HB studios; and trained with Gertrude Jeanette's Hadley Players as well as actor Robert Earl Jones (father of actor James Earl Jones). Rux continued his studies at Columbia University, American University of Paris, as well as the University of Ghana at Legon.

Career

Working as a Social Work Trainer while moonlighting as a freelance art and music critic, Rux became a founding member of Hezekiah Walker's Love Fellowship gospel choir and later found himself influenced by the Lower East Side poetry and experimental theater scene, collaborating with poets Miguel Algarin, Bob Holman, Jayne Cortez, Sekou Sundiata, Ntozake Shange; experimental musicians David Murray, Mal Waldron, Butch Morris, Craig Harris, Jeanne Lee, Leroy Jenkins as well as experimental theater artists Laurie Carlos, Robbie McCauley, Ruth Maleczech, Lee Breuer, Reza Abdoh and others.

He is one of several poets (including Paul Beatty, Tracie Morris, Dael Orlandersmith, Willie Perdomo, Kevin Powell, Maggie Estep, Reg E. Gaines, Edwin Torres and Saul Williams) to emerge from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, most of whom were included in the poetry anthology Aloud, Voices From the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, winner of the 1994 American Book Award. His first book of poetry, Pagan Operetta, received the Village Voice Literary prize and was featured on the weekly's cover story: "Eight Writers on the Verge of (Impacting) the Literary Landscape". Rux is the author of the novel Asphalt and the author of several plays. His first play, Song of Sad Young Men (written in response to his older brother's death from AIDS), was directed by Trazana Beverly and starred actor Isaiah Washington. The play received eleven AUDELCO nominations. His most notable play is the OBIE Award-winning Talk, first produced at the Joseph Papp Public Theater in 2002. Directed by Marion McClinton and starring actor Anthony Mackie, the play won seven OBIE awards.

Rux is also a recording artist, first featured on Reg E. Gaines CD Sweeper Don't Clean My Streets (Polygram). As a musician, his work is known to encompass an eclectic mixture of blues, rock, vintage R&B, classical music, futuristic pop, soul, poetry, folk, psychedelic music and jazz. His debut CD, Cornbread, Cognac & Collard Green Revolution (unreleased) was produced by Nona Hendryx and Mark Batson, featuring musicians Craig Harris, Ronnie Drayton and Lonnie Plaxico. His CD Rux Revue was recorded and produced in Los Angeles by the Dust Brothers, Tom Rothrock and Rob Schnapf. Rux recorded a follow up album, Apothecary Rx, (selected by French writer Phillippe Robert for his 2008 publication "Great Black Music": an exhaustive tribute of 110 albums including 1954's "Lady Sings The Blues" by Billie Holiday, the work of Jazz artists Oliver Nelson, Max Roach, John Coltrane, rhythm and blues artists Otis Redding, Ike & Tina Turner, Curtis Mayfield, George Clinton; as well as individual impressions of Fela Kuti, Jimi Hendrix, and Mos Def.) His fourth studio CD, Good Bread Alley, was released by Thirsty Ear Records, and his fifth "Homeostasis" (CD Baby) was released in May 2013. Rux has written and performed (or contributed music) to a proportionate number of dance companies including the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater; Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company; Jane Comfort & Co. and Ronald K. Brown's "Evidence" among others.

Literature

Books by author

Elmina Blues (poetry)

Pagan Operetta (poetry/Short Fiction/SemioText)

Asphalt (novel/Simon & Schuster)

Talk (drama/TCG Press)

Literary fiction

Asphalt (novel) (Atria, Simon & Schuster)

The Exalted (novel) forthcoming

Selected plays

Song of Sad Young Men

Talk

Geneva Cottrell, Waiting for the Dog to Die

Smoke, Lilies and Jade

Song of Sad Young Men

Chapter & Verse

Pipe

Pork Dream in the American House of Image

Not the Flesh of Others

Singing In the Womb of Angels

Better Dayz Jones (Harlem Stage)

"Stranger On Earth" (Harlem Stage)

The (No) Black Male Show

Mycenaean

Asphalt (directed by Talvin Wilkes)

Etudes for the Sleep of Other Sleepers (directed by Laurie Carlos)

Steel Hammer (co-written by Will Power, Kia Cothran and Regina Taylor for the SITI company, directed by Anne Bogart).

The Exalted (directed by Anne Bogart)

NPR Presents WATER ± (co-written by Arthur Yorinks, directed by Kenny Leon)

Selected essays

"Eminem: The New White Negro

"Dream Work and the Mimesis of Carrie Mae Weems"

"Belief and the Invisible Playwright"

"In Memoriam: Ruby Dee (1922–2014)"

"Up From The Mississippi Delta"

"Democratic Vistas of Space and Light"

"A Rage In Harlem"

Selected anthologies

Experiments in a Jazz Aesthetic: Art, Activism, Academia, and the Austin Project University of Texas Press

Soul: Black Power, Politics, and Pleasure NYU Press

Heights of the Marvelous NYU Press

Juncture: 25 Very Good Stories and 12 Excellent Drawings Soft Skull Press

Da Capo Best Music Writing 2004: The Year's Finest Writing on Rock, Hip-hop, Jazz, Pop, Country, and More, DeCapo Press

Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam, Counterpoint Press

Humana Festival 2014: The Complete Plays, Playscripts, Incorporated

Action: The Nuyorican Poets Cafe Theatre, Simon & Schuster

Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam, Three Rivers Press

The African American Male, Writing, and Difference: A Polycentric Approach to African American Literature, Criticism, and History, State University of New York Press

Meditations and Ascensions: Black Writers on Writing, Third World Press

Plays from the Boom Box Galaxy: Theater from the Hip-hop Generation, Theatre Communications Group

Bad Behavior, Random House

Verse: An Introduction to Prosody, John Wiley & Sons Press

Significations of Blackness: American Cinema and the Idea of a Black Film, UMI Press

So Much Things to Say: 100 Poets from the First Ten Years of the Calabash International Literary Festival, Akashic Books

Black Men In Their Own Words, Crown Publishers

Bulletproof Diva, Knopf Doubleday

Race Manners: Navigating the Minefield Between Black and White Americans, Skyhorse Publishing

In Their Company: Portraits of American Playwrights, Umbrage Press

Listen Again: a Momentary History of Pop Music, Duke University Press

Journalism

Rux has been published as a contributing writer in numerous journals, catalogs, anthologies, and magazines including Interview magazine, Essence magazine, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, aRude Magazine, Nka Journal of Contemporary African Art (founded by fellow art critics Okwui Enwezor, Chika Okeke-Agulu and Salah Hassan) and American Theater Magazine.

Libretti

Makandal (music by Yosvaney Terry, stage design and costumes by Edouard Duval Carrie, directed by Lars Jan) Harlem Stage

Blackamoor Angel (music by Deidre Murray; directed by Karin Coonrod) Bard Spiegeltent/Joseph Papp Public Theater

Kingmaker (music by Toshi Reagon) BRIC Arts Media

Perfect Beauty" (music by Tamar Muskal)

Music

Solo albums

Cornbread, Cognac, Collard Green Revolution

Rux Revue Sony/550 Music

Apothecary Rx Giant Step

Good Bread Alley Thirsty Ear

Homeostasis CD Baby

Singles

"Miguel" (Sony) 1999

"Wasted Seed" (Sony) 1999

"Fall Down" (Sony) 1999

"No Black Male Show" (Sony) 1999

"Good Bread Alley" (Thirsty Ear) 2006

"Thadius Star" (Thirsty Ear) 2006

"Living Room" (Thirsty Ear) 2006

"Disrupted Dreams" (Giant Step) 2010

"Eleven More Days" (Giant Step) 2010

"I Got A Name" (Giant Step) 2010

"Living Room" (Kevin Shields Remix) (Mercury) 2013

12-inch singles

"Lamentations (You, Son)" Giant Step Records

Carl Hancock Rux Live at Joe's Pub (forthcoming)

Collaborations

Sweeper Don't Clean My Streets Reg E. Gaines Polygram

Eargasms Vol. 1

70 Years Coming R. L. Burnside Bongload/Acid Blues Records

Our Souls Have Grown Deep Like the Rivers: Black Poets Read Their Works, Rhino

Bow Down to the Exit Sign David Holmes Go! Beat

Love Each Other Yukihiro Fukutomi Sony/ Japan

Optometry DJ Spooky Thirsty Ear Recordings

The Temptation of Saint Anthony (Studio Cast Recording)

Inradio 5 Morningwatch 2004

Thirsty Ear Presents: Blue Series Sampler (Thirsty Ear)

Poetry on Record: 98 Poets Read Their Work, 1888-2006 Box Set Shout! Factory (2006)

More Than Posthuman-Rise of the Mojosexual Cotillion Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber, TruGROID

The Dogs Are Parading David Holmes Universal

Life Forum Gerald Clayton Concord Jazz

Tributary Tales Gerald Clayton

Tomorrow Comes The Harvest Jeff Mills Tony Allen Decca Records

Humanist Rob Marshall Ignition Records

Songwriter

Mckay Stephanie McKay Universal Music

Contemporary Dance (text & music)

Movin' Spirits Dance Co.

Kick The Boot, Raise the Dust An' Fly; A Recipe for Buckin (chor: Marlies Yearby, co-authors: Sekou Sundiata, Laurie Carlos, music: Craig Harris ) Performance Space 122, Maison des arts de Créteil (France)

Totin' Business & Carryin' Bones (chor. Marlies Yearby), Performance Space 122, Maison des arts de Créteil (France)

The Beautiful (chor: Marlies Yearby, co-author:Laurie Carlos), Judson Church, Tribeca Performing Arts Center

Of Urban Intimacies (chor: Marlies Yearby), Lincoln Center Serious Fun!, Central Park Summerstage, National Tour

That Was Like This/ This Was Like That(chor: Marlies Yearby, music: Grisha Coleman), Tribeca Performing Arts Center, Central Park Summerstage, National Tour

Anita Gonzalez

Yanga, (chor: Anita Gonzalez, music: Cooper-Moore, composer), Tribeca Performing Arts Center, Montclair State College

Jane Comfort & Co.

Asphalt (dir/chor: Jane Comfort; vocal score: Toshi Reagon, music: DJ Spooky, David Pleasant, Foosh, dramaturgy: Morgan Jenness, costumes: Liz Prince, lighting design: David Ferri ), Joyce Theater, National Tour

Urban Bush Women

Soul Deep (chor: Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, composer: David Murray), Walker Arts Center, National Tour

Shelter (chor: Jawole Willo Jo Zollar, music: Junior Gabbu Wedderburn) International Tour

Hair Stories (chor: Jawole Willa jo Zollar) BAM Theater/Esplanade Theater (Singapore) Hong Kong Arts Festival

Jubilation! Dance Co.

Sweet In The Morning (chor: Kevin Iega Jeff)

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

Shelter (chor: Jawole Willo Jo Zollar, music: Junior Gabbu Wedderburn) City Center, International Tour

Uptown (chor: Matthew Rushing) Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

Four Corners (chor: Ronald K. Brown) Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater 2014

Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble (Ailey II)

Seeds (chor: Kevin Iega Jeff) Aaron Davis Hall, Apollo Theater, National Tour

Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Theater

The Artificial Nigger (chor: Bill T. Jones) Arnie Zane Bill T. Jones Dance Co; music: Daniel Bernard Roumain National Tour

Roberta Garrison Co.

Certo! (chor: Roberta Garrison, music: Mathew Garrison) Scuola di Danza Mimma Testa in Trastevere (Rome, Italy) Teatro de natal infantil Raffaelly Beligni (Naples, Italy)

M'Zawa Dance Co.

Seeking Pyramidic Balance/Flipmode (chor: Maia Claire Garrison) 651 Arts

Robert Moses Kin

Helen (chor: Robert Moses) Yerba Buena Performing Arts Center

Nevabawarldapece (chor: Robert Moses) Yerba Buena Performing Arts Center

Topaz Arts Dance

Dreamfield (chor: Paz Tanjuaquio) Hudson River Park NY

Actor

Theater

Rux studied acting at the Hagen Institute (under Uta Hagen); the Luleå National Theatre School (Luleå, Sweden) and at the National Theater of Ghana (Accra). Rux has appeared in several theater projects, most notably originating the title role in the folk opera production of The Temptation of St. Anthony, based on the Gustave Flaubert novel, directed by Robert Wilson with book, libretto and music by Bernice Johnson Reagon and costumes by Geoffrey Holder. The production debuted as part of the Ruhr Triennale festival in Duisburg Germany with subsequent performances at the Greek Theater in Siracusa, Italy; the Festival di Peralada in Peralada, Spain; the Palacio de Festivales de Cantabria in Santander, Spain; Sadler's Wells in London, Great Britain; the Teatro Piccinni in Bari, Italy; the Het Muziektheater in Amsterdam, Netherlands; the Teatro Arriaga in Bilbao and the Teatro Espanol in Madrid, Spain. The opera made its American premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music / BAM Next Wave Festival in October 2004 and official "world premiere" at the Paris Opera, becoming the first all-African-American opera to perform on its stage since the inauguration of the Académie Nationale de Musique - Théâtre de l'Opéra. Combining both his dramatic training and dance movement into his performance, Rux's performance was described by the American press as having "phenomenal charisma and supreme physical expressiveness...(achieving) a near-iconic power, equally evoking El Greco's saints in extremis and images of civil rights protesters besieged by fire hoses." Rux has also appeared in several plays and performance works for theater, as well as in his own work.

Film/Television

Radio

Carl Hancock Rux was the host and artistic programming director of the WBAI radio show, Live from The Nuyorican Poets Cafe; contributing correspondent for XM radio's The Bob Edwards Show and frequent guest host on WNYC as well as NPR and co-wrote and performed in the national touring production of NPR Presents Water±, directed by Kenny Leon.

Performance Art Exhibitions/Curator

The Whitney Museum "Beat Culture and the New America, 1950-1965"

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum "Carrie Mae Weems: Live"

Thread Waxing Space "Sacred Music"

The Foundry Theater "Roundtable on Hope"

The Kitchen "Sapphire: Black Wings & Blind Angels"

Harlem Stage "We Da People Cabaret"

The New School "Comrades and Lovers" Glenn Ligon

Mass MoCA "Until" Nick Cave

Kennedy Center/Spoleto Festival "Grace Notes"; Carrie Mae Weems

Grace Farms "Past Tense"; Carrie Mae Weems

Selected Directorial Credits

"Chapter & Verse" by Carl Hancock Rux /Dixon Place; Nuyorican Poets Cafe

"Mycenaean" by Carl Hancock Rux CalArts/BAM Next Wave Festival

"Third Ward" by Tish Benson/Nuyorican Poets Cafe

"Girl Group" by Tish Benson, Latasha Nevada Diggs, Sarah Jones/Aaron Davis Hall

"Stranger On Earth" by Carl Hancock Rux/ Live Arts; Harlem Stage

"Poesia Negra" by Carl Hancock Rux /RedCat; Lincoln Center; Aaron Davis Hall; BAM Next Wave. *"Who 'Dat Who Killed Better Days Jones?" by (Various Artists)/ Aaron Davis Hall

"blu" by Virginia Grise/ New York Theatre Workshop

"Welcome to Wandaland" by Ifa Bayeza/ Rights & Reasons Theater/Brown University

"String Theory" by Ifa Bayeza/ Rights & Reasons Theater, Brown University

"Bunky Johnson Out of The Shadows" by Ifa Bayeza/Shadows on the Teche

Academia

Rux is formally the Head of the MFA Writing for Performance Program at the California Institute of Arts and has taught and or been an artist in residence at Brown University, Hollins University, UMass at Amhurst, Duke University, Stanford University, University of Iowa, University of Wisconsin at Madison, and Eugene Lang New School for Drama, among others.

He has mentored award-winning writers including recipients of the Yale Drama Prize, Whiting Writers Award, Princess Grace Award, and BBC African Performance Playwriting Award.

Personal life

Rux's great uncle, Rev. Marcellus Carlyle Rux (January 8, 1882 - January 5, 1948) was a graduate of Virginia Union University, and principal of The Keysville Mission Industrial School (later changed to The Bluestone Harmony Academic and Industrial School), a private school founded in 1898 by several African-American Baptist churches in Keysville Virginia at a time when education for African-Americans was scarce to non-existent. For about 50 years the school had the largest enrollment of any black boarding school in the east and sent a large number of graduates on to college. For the first five years, Marcellus Carlyle Rux was a teacher in the institution. Such was the record he made that he was promoted to the principalship in 1917. Under his administration, the school reached its highest enrollment and had its greatest period of prosperity. The post-Civil war school was one of the first of its kind in the nation and was permanently closed in 1950. The school's still existent structure once featured a girl's and boy's dormitory and President's dwelling and is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Marcellus Carlyle Rux is listed in History of the American Negro and his Institutions.

Rux's younger brother is a New York City Public School Teacher and his cousin a New York City middle school principal. Rux's older brother died of AIDS-related complications.

Rux's home, a Victorian Brownstone in the Fort Greene Brooklyn section of New York City, has been photographed by Stefani Georgani and frequently featured in home decor magazines and coffee table books internationally, including Elle Decor UK.

Activism

Rux joined New Yorkers Against Fracking, organized by singer Natalie Merchant, calling for a fracking ban on natural gas drilling using hydraulic fracturing. A concert featuring Rux, Merchant, actors Mark Ruffalo and Melissa Leo and musicians Joan Osborne, Tracy Bonham, Toshi Reagon, Citizen Cope, Meshell Ndegeocello and numerous others was held in Albany, N.Y., and resulted in public protests.

Rux was a co-producer (through a partnership between MAPP International and Harlem Stage) and curator of WeDaPeoples Cabaret, an annual event regarding citizens without borders in a globally interdependent world. A longtime resident and homeowner in Fort Greene Brooklyn, Carl Rux worked with the Fort Greene association and New York philanthropist Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel to erect a cultural medallion at the Carlton Avenue home where novelist Richard Wright lived and penned his seminal work, Native Son. Rux is a member of Take Back the Night, a foundation seeking to end sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, sexual abuse and all other forms of sexual violence.

Honors, awards, and grants

Rux was featured in Interview Magazine's "One To Watch" and New York Times Magazine's "Thirty Under Thirty". His essay Eminem: The New White Negro was selected for Da Capo's Best Music Writing 2004. Rux's radio documentary "Walt Whitman: Songs of Myself" was awarded the New York Press Club Journalism award for Entertainment News.

#03/24

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theuncannytruthteller · 5 years ago

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Zora Neale Hurston (January 7, 1891 – January 28, 1960) was an American novelist, short story writer, folklorist, and anthropologist known for her contributions to African-American literature, her portrayal of racial struggles in the American South, and works documenting her research on Haitian voodoo. Of Hurston's four novels and more than 50 published short stories, plays, and essays, she is best known for her 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Hurston was the sixth of eight children of John Hurston and Lucy Ann Hurston (née Potts). All of her four grandparents had been born into slavery. Her father was a Baptist preacher and sharecropper, who later became a carpenter, and her mother was a school teacher. She was born in Notasulga, Alabama, on January 7, 1891, where her father grew up and her grandfather was the preacher of a Baptist church.

Zora moved to Eatonville, Florida, with her family in 1894. Eatonville would become the setting for many of her stories and is now the site of the Zora! Festival, held each year in Hurston's honor. In her early career, Hurston conducted anthropological and ethnographic research while attending Barnard College. While in New York she became a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance. Her short satires, drawing from the African-American experience and racial division, were published in anthologies such as The New Negro and Fire!!. After moving back to Florida, Hurston published her literary anthropology on African-American folklore in North Florida, Mules and Men (1935) and her first three novels: Jonah's Gourd Vine (1934); Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937); and Moses, Man of the Mountain (1939). Also published during this time was Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica (1938), documenting her research on rituals in Jamaica and Haiti.

Hurston's works touched on the African-American experience and her struggles as an African-American woman. Her novels went relatively unrecognized by the literary world for decades, but interest revived after author Alice Walker published "In Search of Zora Neale Hurston" in the March 1975 issue of Ms. Magazine. Hurston's manuscript Every Tongue Got to Confess (2001), a collection of folktales gathered in the 1920s, was published posthumously after being discovered in the Smithsonian archives.

Born in Notasulga, AL, she grew up in Eatonville, FL., and was educated at Howard University, Barnard College, and Columbia University, where she studied anthropology. Hurston returned to Florida after college for an anthropological field study that influenced her later fiction and folklore.

Hurston traveled extensively in the Caribbean and the American South and immersed herself in local cultural practices to conduct her anthropological research. She collected folklore in Jamaica, Haiti, Bermuda, and Honduras. In 1927, she married Herbert Sheen, a jazz musician and former classmate at Howard who would later become a physician, but the marriage ended in 1931. In 1939, while Hurston was working for the Works Progress Administration (WPA), she married Albert Price, a 23-year-old fellow WPA employee, but this marriage, too, ended after only months.

In later life, in addition to continuing her literary career, Hurston served on the faculty of North Carolina College for Negroes (now North Carolina Central University) in Durham, North Carolina.

As a fiction writer, Hurston is noted for her symbolic language, story-telling abilities, and her interest in and celebration of Southern Black culture in the United States. Hurston was closely associated with the Harlem Renaissance and has influenced such writers as Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, Gayle Jones, Alice Walker, and Toni Cade Bambara.

Hurston’s book “Of Mules and Men,” remains one of the few writings to chronicle folk tales thoroughly. Her best-known novel is “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” in which she wrote about a Southern Black woman's search, over 25 years and 3 marriages, for her true identity.

Hurston's writings include novels, short stories, plays, journal articles, and an autobiography, “Dust Tracks on a Road.” She consistently addressed issues of race and gender, relating them to the search for freedom and equality.

In her later years, Hurston experienced health problems, and she died broke and unrecognized by the literary community.

In 1975, Ms. Magazine published Alice Walker's essay, "In Search of Zora Neale Hurston" reviving interest in the author. Many of her writings were rediscovered and republished. She was an important author during America's Harlem Renaissance.

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elotroladodelrock · 7 years ago

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Mono Sapiens se va hasta las raíces de la música contemporánea con: “Jazz, The Smithsonian Anthology” (2011) [US] | Varios Artistas @ CDMX [14/05/2018] Fotografía: RCM©️

#PhotoOfTheDay #Abstract #Animals #Art #Landscapes #Music #Photojournalism

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aaronmblevin · 7 years ago

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100 Awesome Folkways LPs

Back in 2005 I had just dropped out of graduate school and returned to Edmonton, Alberta. I was waiting for the semester to start so I could begin my journey as a mathematician. I'm indebted to my friend Christopher Bateman (co-author of In Fine Style) who told me that there was a collection of Folkways Records at the University of Alberta. An entire collection?! Wow! The only other complete collection was at the Smithsonian Museum! And I had nothing to do all day (except for my string of terrible minnimum wage jobs)!

I started visiting folkwaysAlive!, the small Folkways centre (photos below), regularly and digging through their collection. Most of the knowledge about Folkways at the time was centred on their incredible collection of ethnographic recordings. However, as I began looking through the catalog I was finding all kinds of weird and amusing records. There was one titled Speach After the Removal of the Larynx and another called Sounds of the Junkyard. Even more, there were famous composers of electronic music who had published LPs on folkways. What were those doing there? It turns out that Folkways founder Moses Asch was determined to capture all "sound" and that in the pure pursuit of this philosophy several LPs of collateral damage would delight the catalog.

Some years later I had a radio show on CJSR where I played music entirely from the Folkways collection (the show was appropriately titled The Sounds of Folkways). At the same time I was trying to capitalize on my newfound knowledge and tried to pitch a book and/or column to various people titled 100 Weird and Wonderful LPs on Folkways. I wasn't successful, but in the process I had made a "list of weird Folkways LPs" and that's what I'd like to share today.

Here is my list. It's not complete. It's not a list of "the best folkways LPs." It's just a list of Folkways records I happen to like and think weird or cool. Thus, there are large omissions in categories like Blues and Ethnomusicology, which contain many of the most incredible Folkways records.

You can find music clips for most of these LPs on YouTube. This list is a decade old, so there's probably some errata and some of the catalog numbers aren't likely correct.

I hope you enjoy.

PS - I still need a copy of Speach After the Removal of the Layrnx!

PPS - I'm forward thankful to Lorna Arndt who so graciously let me hang out in the folkwaysAlive! office!

Avant-Garde / Electronic

FW 34006 – Music of Ann McMillan - Whale-Wail, In Peace, En Paix

FW 33451 – Gateway Summer Sound – Abstracted Animal & Other Sounds Composed by Ann McMillan

FW 33855 – Reelizations – Composed and Preformed by Barton Smith

FW 33856 – Reelizations Vol. 2 – Composed and Preformed by Barton Smith

FW 37464 – Dariush Dolat-Shahi – Electronic Music Tar and Setar

FW 37467 – Dariush Dolat-Shahi – Ostashagah

FW 03434 – Eight Electronic Pieces – Todd Dockstader

FTQ 33951 - Ilhan Mimaroglu - To Kill a Sunrise and La Ruche

FW 31313 – Gamelan in the New World Vol.1

FW 31312 – Gamelan in the New World Vol. 2

FSS 33878 - Israeli Electroacoustic Music

FS 003861 – Radio Programme No. 1 Audio Collage / Henry Jacob’s Music & FolkloreFT 03704? – Indeterminacy (John Cage Reading and David Tudor Music)

FW 47902 – Invocations – Richard Kostelanetz

FX 06250 - Science Fiction Sound Effects Record

FW 06160 – Sounds of New Music

FW 06241 – Travelon Gamelon – Music for Bicycles – Richard Lerman

FW 33440 – Outer Space Music by Vaclav Nelhybel

FW 33436 – Electronic Music

FW 06253 – Futuribile the Life to Come – Gianni safred and his Electronic Instruments

FM 03349 – The Piano Music of Henry Cowell

FW 03438 – Electronic Music From Razor Blades to Moog – Produced & Composed by J.D. Robb

FW 33435 – J.D. Robb - Rhythmania & Other Electronic Compositions

FW 33439 – Music by Jean ivey for Voices, Instruments, and Tape

FW 33445 – Jon Appleton – Music for Synclavier and other Digital Systems

FW 33437 – The World Music Theatre of

FW 33442 – The Dartmouth Digital Synthesizer

FW 37461 – Jon Appleton – Four Fantasies for Synclavier

FW 33450 – McLean: Electro-Symphonic Landscapes

FW 36050 – Electronic Music from the Outside In

FW 37465 – Computer Music from the Outside In

FW 37475 – Computer Music

FSS 6301 – Highlights of Vortex

FW 33431 – Extended Piano (Elliot Schwartz)

FW 33901 – New American Music Vol. 1

FW 33902 – New American Music Vol. 2

FW 33903 – New American Music Vol. 3

FW 33904 – New American Music Vol. 4

FW 33441 – Tract: A Composition of Agitprop Music for Electromagnetic Tape by Ilhan Mimaroglu

Ethnographic

FW 31306 – The Nuru Taa African Musical Idiom: Played on the Mama-Likembi (Nadi Qamar)

FW 08975 - Mushroom Ceremoney of the Mazatec Indians of Mexico

FW 08512 – Music of Upper-Egypt

FW 04457 – The Pygmies of the Ituri Forest

FE 4377 - Modern Maya: The Indian Music of Chiapas, Mexico

FE 4379 - Modern Maya: The Indian Music of CHiapas, Mexico - Vol. 2

FC 7755 - Bilal Abdurahman – Echoes Of Timbuktu And Beyond

Folk

FG 3526 - Elizabeth Cotton - Folksongs And Instrumentals With Guitar

FTS 31003 - Elizabeth Cotton - Vol. 2: Shake Sugaree

FW 03537 - Elizabeth Cotton - Vol. 3: When I'm Gone

FW 07535 – Innovative Rythmic and Tonal Textures for developing Creative Motor Skill Activities (Bilal Abdurahman)

FW 07540 – Sound Rhythm Rhyme and Mime for Children (Bilal Abdurahman)

FW 03581 - Mike Hurley – First Songs

FW 07520 – Ghetto Reality (Nancy Dupree)

FW 32850 – Niss Puk Band – No More Nukes

FW 32852 – Roger Matura – The Outrage Grows

FW 32851 – Roger Matura – Times are Gonna Get Harder

BR 304 - The Village Fugs - Sing Ballads Of Contemporary Protest, Point Of Views, And General Dissatisfaction

PAR 01020 – A Grain of Sand: Music for the Struggle by Asians in America

FTS 31066 - Lucinda Williams - Ramblin' on My Mind

FTS 31067 - Lucinda Williams - Happy Woman Blues

FA 2951 - Anthology of American Folk Music Volume One: Ballads (Harry Smith)

FA 2951 - Anthology of American Folk Music Volume Two: Social Music (Harry Smith)

FA 2951 - Anthology of American Folk Music Volume Three: Songs (Harry Smith)

Jazz

FW 33867 – East New York Ensemble de Music at the Helm

FW 33866 – Entourage

FW 33870 – The Neptune Collection – The Entourage Music & Theatre Ensemble

FW 05403 – From the Cold Jaws of Prison

FW 09718 – Kenneth Patchen reads with Jazz in Canada

FW 02966 – Mary Lou Williams – The Asch Recordings 1944-1947

FW 02843 – Mary Lou Williams – Black Christ of the Andes

FSS 37462 - Bertram Turetzky - A Different View

New Age

FW 06195 – Clouds: New Music for Relaxation Vol. 1 (Craig Kupka)

FW 06916 – Crystals: New Music for Relxation Vol. 2 (Craig Kupka)

FW 37463 – Charles Compo – Seven Flute Solos

Soul / Funk / R&B

FW 32863 – Into Morning – Charles Cha-Cha Shaw

FW 32870 – Kingdom Come – Cha Cha Shaw

FW 31037 – Climbing High Mountains – Juanita Johnson & The Gospel Tones

FW 33868 – The Montgomery Movement featuring The Montgomery Express

FW 09723 – Underground Streets – Words and Original Music by Normal Riley

FW 09710 – Boss Soul – 12 Poems by Sarah Webster Fabio set to Drum Talk, Rhythms & Images

FW 09715 – Together to the tune of Coltranes “Equinox” (Sarah Webster Fabio)

FW 09714 – Jujus Alchemy of the Blues – Poems by Sarah Webster Fabio Read by Sarah Webster Fabio with Musical Background

Spoken Word

FC 7471 - Rev. Howard Finster - Man of Many Voices

FW 06134 – Speech After the Removal of the Larynx

FW 05401 – Angela Davis Speaks

FW 09871 – Dante: The Inferno

FW 06102 – Interview with Sir Edmun Hillary – Mountain Climbing

FW 09711 – Soul Ain’t Soul Is – Poems by Sarah Webster Fabio

FW 05404 – The End of the World

FW 09701 – The Psychedelic Experience (Timothy Leary)

FW 055338 – What If I am a Women? Black Women’s Speeches Narrate by Ruby Dee

Strange

FW 06118 – Playing Music With Animals – The Interspecies Communication of Jim Nollman with 300 Turkeys, 12 Wolves and 20 Orca Whales

FW 06143 – The Sounds of the Junk Yard

SFW 45060 – Sounds of North American Frogs

FW 06142 – Sounds of the Office

FW 06121 – Sounds of the Sea Vol. 1

FW 06122 – Sounds of the Sea Vol. 2

FW 05589 – Street and Gangland Rhythms

FW 05580 – A Dog’s Life (Tony Schwartz)

FW 05562 – The World in My Mailbox (Tony Schwartz)

FW 05581 – Music in the Streets (Tony Schwartz)

FW 06200 – Voices of Satellites

FW 06123 – Vox Humana

#folkways #rare records

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bungitonthen · 5 years ago

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30/4/20

so what - miles davis;

giant steps - john coltrane;

better git it in your soul - charles mingus;

blue rondo a la turk - the dave brubeck quartet;

ramblin’ - ornette coleman quartet;

work song - cannonball adderley;

wrap your troubles in dreams - sarah vaughan;

my favourite things (single version) - john coltrane;

waltz for debby - bill evans;

round midnight - george russell sextet;

cotton tail - ella fitzgerald / duke ellington & his orchestra

isfahan - duke ellington & his orchestra;

the new anthem - gary burton;

matrix - chick corea;

miles runs the voodoo down - miles davis;

celestial terrestrial commuters - the mahavishnu orchestra;

watermelon man - herbie hancock;

- (jazz: the smithsonian anthology)

#miles davis #john coltrane #dave brubeck #ornette coleman #bill evans #duke ellington

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tempolibero · 6 years ago

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JACO, JACO, JACO, JACO AND JACO

Simplemente hay sucesos que ocurren una vez en la vida, fenómenos fuera de lo de nuestra percepción y entendimiento, como lo diría mi buen querido maestro Germán, “un fuera de serie”.

Se encuentran personajes dentro de nuestra historia que están hechos para cambiar todo como conocemos; Uno de ellos JACO PASTORIUS.

En los fenómenos dentro del mundo, nos encontramos con personajes “modernos”, como Jimi Hendrix, John Bohnam, Dimebag Darrell, Pat Metheny, Chick Corea, etc etc etc...

Pero este maravilloso personaje conocido como Jaco Pastorius, sin duda es para mi gusto personal lo que es el Jimi Hendricks, así de icono y cambiante dentro del juego musical del “violín del siglo XX”. Cabe mencionar, que sin el legado de Hendrix en la música actual no existiría gente como Stevie Ray Vaugh, y sin Stevie, no habría uno de mis músicos que mas admiro contemporáneo John Mayer.

Jaco, Jaco es el Hendrix del Bajo, pero es grosero llegar a encajar a Hendrix en algo como lo que es Mr. Pastorius; La finalidad de esto es solo la metáfora y la magnitud de la persona.

Sin Jaco no habría un Flea de los Red Hot. Así de grande así de importante.

Pat Metheny en su primer disco Bright Size Life, grabado a sus 21 años...(dejaré que entre un poco ese dato), le pidió a su gran amigo Jaco Pastorious grabar el bajo para su álbum debut.

Esa persona es Jaco, El mejor bajista de TODOS los tiempos; Incluso gente como Pat en diversas entrevistas ha explicado, que no vale la pena imitarlo, no vale la pena estudiarlo, simplemente acepten el caso que no habrá alguien mas como Jaco.

El link que se encuentra abajo de este texto Jaco Pastorius Modern Electric Bass, es un vídeo donde Jaco muestra sus métodos y licks de como toca el y las técnicas que utiliza el bajo. Yo personalmente no toco el bajo, pero ver al Sr. Pastorius tocar, sin duda es un placer de la vida.

Hay muchos Guitar Heroes....Jaco...Jaco is the BASS HERO

NOTE: Bright Size Life is included in the Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology compilation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujJ1Y_6vrr0

(Tu primer disco, grabado a los 21 años, guardado en las bóvedas del Museo Smithsonian, como acervo cultural para futuras generaciones). Pat Metheny... otro personaje que falta tiempo y síntesis para poder abordar.

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onett199x · 8 years ago

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Pat Metheny | Bright Size Life

Pat Metheny’s debut album as bandleader came out on ECM in 1976 with bassist Jaco Pastorius and drummer Bob Moses. Even on his debut album, Pat Metheny had star power - the title track of this album was chosen for the Smithsonian’s anthology of jazz music, and Metheny had already made a name for himself with artists like Gary Burton (who wrote the liner notes to this album). For his debut, Metheny performs a set of mostly originals with one Ornette Coleman cover (an artist he would frequently pay tribute to and eventually perform alongside). Metheny’s originals pay tribute to his home in the American Heartland, with titles like Missouri Uncompromised, Midwestern Night’s Dream, and Omaha Celebration. While he isn’t yet with longtime collaborator Lyle Mays here, the Metheny sound is already distinct and individual. I don’t personally think this album stands out quite as much as some of his later recordings, but it’s a rare opportunity to hear him with Jaco Pastorius, who works together with him very well.

#pat metheny #jaco pastorius #bob moses #jazz #guitar #ecm #music #now playing

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topnewsfromtheworld · 6 years ago

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Tomasz Stanko, Ruminative Jazz Trumpeter, Dies at 76

By GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO A bandleader who played with a melancholic air, he was Poland’s leading jazz musician, honored across Europe and included in a Smithsonian anthology. Published: August 5, 2018 at 01:00AM from NYT Obituaries https://ift.tt/2AQLJl8

#Top News From The World #NYT

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izayoi1242 · 6 years ago

Text

Tomasz Stanko, Ruminative Jazz Trumpeter, Dies at 76

#IFTTT #NYT #NEWS

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sarah-and-the-truthseekers-blog · 7 years ago

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Sarah and the Truthseekers is an improvisational project led by Baltimore saxophonist Sarah Hughes (sarahmariehughes.com), accompanied by Sam Lohman (drums), Doug Kallmeyer (bass), Patrick Whitehead on quarter-tone flügelhorn and trumpet, Dan Gutstein (spoken word) and T. A. Zook (basscello).

Sarah Hughes is an alto saxophonist, composer, improviser, educator, and art adventurer hailing from Maryland. She obtained her MM in Jazz Saxophone at the New England Conservatory in May of 2015 and currently freelances in and around Maryland, DC, Virginia, and New York. Sarah graduated with a bachelor’s degree in music education from the University of Maryland in 2008. While there she studied privately with world-renowned classical saxophonist Dale Underwood. After graduating, Sarah taught beginning band and strings in Prince George’s county schools for five years and also maintained two private studios in Maryland and Virginia. During that time she performed in and around DC and New York City with ensembles including the Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra and the Brad Linde Ensemble, a Washington D.C.-based collective dedicated to exploring and expanding the styles of jazz that emerged in the 1950s including bebop, cool jazz, third stream, and free jazz. As part of these ensembles, Sarah shared the stage with jazz greats such as Lee Konitz, Ted Brown, Freddie Redd, Matt Wilson, and Michael Formanek. While at the New England Conservatory, Sarah studied privately with Jerry Bergonzi, Ran Blake, Donny McCaslin, and Anthony Coleman, all of whom impacted Sarah’s unique approach to improvisation and music-making. Sarah performed on Coleman’s latest album, “You” and has performed with Coleman in concerts at the New England Conservatory as well as Roulette and The Stone in New York. Sarah studied composition in classes with Ken Schaphorst and also Ben Schwendener, with whom she has performed several duo concerts in Boston. In September of 2015 Sarah toured Sweden as part of Amy K. Bormet’s “Ephemera” and performed in Sweden’s first Women in Jazz festival. She also recently taught an improvisation workshop, “Improvisation for Everyone: Games and Storytelling” for beginning, intermediate, and advanced instrumentalists in the 2016 Judith Lapple Summer Woodwind Camp in Fairfax, Virginia. Most recently, she went on tour with an improvising trio “Lead Bubbles”, playing venues in New York, Montreal, and Toronto. Sarah hopes her music and teaching will continue to introduce her to new people, places, and art.

T. A. Zook (https://goo.gl/svtpQ ) is based in Arlington, VA. Mr. Zook is co-founder of the Lost Civilizations experimental music project (https://goo.gl/OznNw ); Heterodyne (https://goo.gl/Ds4D8k); Chimiak & Zook (https://goo.gl/YYNKlW ); and Rosati and Zook (https://goo.gl/8SmFnj).

Mr. Zook is primarily a nylon-string guitarist; however, in live performances he more commonly plays an NS Design Omni Bass, set up as a basscello, through digital signal processors. In 2016, Mr. Zook was awarded Steinberger Artist status. At studio sessions, he also plays a variety of digitally-processed, non-traditional analog instruments such as bowls, rainsticks, slidewhistle, whistle-flutes, oceanharp, etc.

An Avant Music News interview with Mr. Zook is posted athttp://goo.gl/5LdYos; audio interviews are posted athttps://goo.gl/RsPbR9 and https://goo.gl/ZVvF4l .

Mr. Zook began his study of the guitar in Chile and Uruguay (the latter under the guidance of Luis Acosta), and continued upon his return to the U.S. in the early 1960s under Sophocles Papas (classical)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophocles_Papas;http://comusco.com/sophocles_papas.en.html ) and Frank Mullen (jazz)(http://goo.gl/6E3eir ; http://goo.gl/niQTYd ). From 1999 through 2012, he studied improvisation under David Darling (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Darling_(musician) ;http://www.daviddarling.com/;http://www.musicianguide.com/biographies/1608003038/David-Darling.html ), a study which continues under the auspices of the Music for People organization (http://musicforpeople.org/wp/ ), which conferred him Honorary Graduate certification in 2011.

During the early 1970s, Mr. Zook had the privilege of working with keyboardist (B-3 & Lawrence Audio electric piano)/singer Larry Buck, who was very supportive in his development as a musician.

Mr. Zook has frequently performed in the Sonic Circuits Festival of Experimental Music (http://dc-soniccircuits.org/).

Mr. Zook is fortunate beyond his ability to express in words for the opportunities that he has had to work with so many accomplished and kind musicians and artists, as well as for the support by audiences for the music that comes through him, thanks to the Muse!

Doug Kallmeyer spends much of his time on the road mixing bands which have included Blonde Redhead, School of Seven Bells, and currently with Phantogram (recently returned from a tour to Iceland and Europe). Add to that list more live work with notable artists including Shellac, Sunny Day Real Estate and Rancid. Both local to the Washington D.C. metropolitan area and on the road, a career which has numbered live shows in the thousands, and continues. His last release, 2005′s “Even Calls” (EM:T, 2005, 302acid) was a group foray into ambient textures which received rave reviews in publications like the UK’s WIRE magazine, and resulted in tours throughout the US and Europe. His most current project, Dubpixels (http://www.dubpixel.com/ ) expands upon modern and classic aesthetics in dubwise music production to include audio and video.(http://www.facebook.com/Dubpixels;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/302_Acid;http://sesshinnofi.wordpress.com/;http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Mantis/125299140867441 ).

Patrick Whitehead (https://goo.gl/tt9LSc ) was inspired by the music of Louis Armstrong at age 5. At age 8, he began playing in his school band. His broad and varied career spans the decades as a soloist, orchestral, chamber, opera, commercial, and improvising musician.Possessing a great fondness of brass chamber music, he founded The Monumental Brass Quintet (http://goo.gl/G5PMCO ) and has recorded and toured extensively throughout the U.S. with this ensemble.As a free-lance trumpeter, Pat’s performed with orchestras at the Kennedy Center and Constitution Hall. He’s also performed with the Annapolis Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Gettysburg Symphony, the Annapolis Opera, Baltimore Opera, and Concert Artists of Baltimore,. Additionally, Pat has recorded for the PBS and ABC television networks, Voice of America, and has performed on numerous radio and TV programs.In June of 2014 Patrick performed as part of the Momentary Quartet comprised, Jane Buttars- piano, Lin Foulk - horn, and Harold Mckinney- piano at the annual conference of The International Society for Improvised Music in New York City.Pat serves on the faculties, as instructor of trumpet, at the Baltimore School for the Arts and the Levine School of Music in Washington DC. For several years he served as Coordinator of Brass Chamber Music and Director of Trumpet Ensembles at the Levine School. Additionally, he has taught trumpet and brass methods at Mount Vernon College and the Community College of Baltimore.Through his involvement (since 2003) with Music for People, Pat has become an avid proponent of improvised music. As he progressed through MfP’s Music Leadership Program, he’s evolved as a passionate and dynamic facilitator of improvised music workshops. He has presented improv workshops at the Peabody Conservatory’s Prep Division. The Summer Brass Institute hosted by Monumental Brass, the Howard and Montgomery County Maryland public schools, and at various venues in the central Maryland area.Pat studied trumpet with George Recker, Rob Roy McGregor, and Langston Fitzgerald. He studied theory and arranging with Asher Zlotnik. Pat majored in music education at the University of Maryland where he studied trumpet with Emerson Head.

Dan Gutstein (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Gutstein) is a preeminent poet; the author of two collections, non/fiction, and Bloodcoal & Honey; his writing has appeared in 100 journals and anthologies. Dan has taught at a number of colleges and organizations, including George Washington University and the Smithsonian. More at http://dangutstein.blogspot.com/.

Sam Lohman drums for Trio OOO, New Atlantis Duo and Matta Gawa.

Schedule:

January 14, 2018 at Baltimore’s The Crown (https://thecrownbaltimore.tumblr.com/); details: https://www.facebook.com/events/313733955796662/); free download: https://soundcloud.com/sarah-hughes-ensemble/live-at-the-crown.

For more information: [email protected]

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january-19-at-capital-fringe · 7 years ago

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January 19: Directed Actions at Capital Fringe!

Directed Actions is a live video series that consists of short films, new media, activism, and discussion connecting participants on issues and solution oriented action hosted at the Capital Fringe.

The series aims to highlight dynamic work as inspiration and an anchor for continued community building. Created and curated by Robin Bell, a visual media artist and activist with deep roots in the community. Featured Guests: Holly Bass Holly Bass is a multidisciplinary performance and visual artist, writer and director. She creates solo and ensemble performances with professional collaborators as well as public art happenings and socially engaged art with untrained members of the community. Her performance work, which combines dance, theater and writing, has been presented at respected regional theaters and art spaces such as the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, the Seattle Art Museum, Art Basel Miami Beach (Project Miami Fair) and the South African State Theatre. Her visual art work spans photography, installation, video and performance and can be found in the collections of the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the DC Art Bank, as well as private collections. A Cave Canem fellow, she has published poems in numerous journals and anthologies. She studied modern dance (under Viola Farber) and creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College before earning her Master’s from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. As an arts journalist early in her career, she was the first to put the term “hip hop theater” into print in American Theatre magazine. She has received numerous grants from the DC Arts Commission and was one of twenty artists nationwide to receive Future Aesthetics grant from the Ford Foundation/Hip Hop Theater Festival. Since 2014, she has directed a year-round creative writing and performance program for adjudicated youth in DC’s Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services. Ted Zook Ted Zook (http://ted-zook.tumblr.com/) is primarily a nylon-string guitarist, but he also plays basscello through digital signal processors and a variety of digitally-processed, non-traditional analog instruments such as bowls, rainsticks, slidewhistle, whistle-flutes, oceanharp, etc. He began his study of the guitar in Chile and Uruguay (the latter under the guidance of Luis Acosta), and continued upon his return to the U.S. in the early 1960s under Sophocles Papas (classical) and Frank Mullen (jazz). Since 1999, Ted’s mentor in improvisation has been David Darling (https://www.daviddarling.com/). In addition to his appearances as a basscello soloist, Ted plays regularly plays experimental music in Heterodyne (https://the-heterodyne-project.tumblr.com/) and the Sarah Hughes Ensemble (https://sarah-hughes-ensemble.tumblr.com/) in the Baltimore / Washington DC area.

Capital Fringe is located at 1358 Florida Ave NE (https://goo.gl/maps/o6MyRV2vjBz); the event is 7:30 PM - 10:30 PM; tickets ($10): https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pe/10237484/ .

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/561632970852727/ .

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blackkudos · 5 years ago

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Sterling A. Brown

Sterling Allen Brown (May 1, 1901 – January 13, 1989) was a black professor, folklorist, poet, literary critic, and first Poet Laureate of the District of Columbia. He chiefly studied black culture of the Southern United States and was a full professor at Howard University for most of his career. He was a visiting professor at several other notable institutions, including Vassar College, New York University (NYU), Atlanta University, and Yale University.

Early life and education

Brown was born on the campus of Howard University in Washington D.C., where his father, Sterling N. Brown, a former slave, was a prominent minister and professor at Howard University Divinity School. His mother Grace Adelaide Brown, who had been the valedictorian of her class at Fisk University, taught in D.C. public schools for more than 50 years. Both his parents grew up in Tennessee and often shared stories with Brown, their only child, who heard his father's stories about famous leaders such as Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington.

Brown's early childhood was spent on a farm on Whiskey Bottom Road in Howard County, Maryland. He was educated at Waterford Oaks Elementary and Dunbar High School, where he graduated as the top student. He received a scholarship to attend Williams College in Massachusetts. Graduating from Williams Phi Beta Kappa in 1922, he continued his studies at Harvard University, receiving an MA a year later.That same year of 1923, he was hired as an English lecturer at Virginia Theological Seminary and College in Lynchburg, Virginia, a position he would hold for the next three years. He never pursued a doctorate degree, but several colleges he attended gave him honorary doctorates. Brown won "the Graves Prize for his essay 'The Comic Spirit in Shakespeare and Moliere'" in his time at Williams College.

Marriage and family

Brown married Daisy Turnbull in 1927 and they went on to adopt a son together. Daisy was an occasional muse for Brown: his poems "Long Track Blues" and "Against That Day" were inspired by her.

Married for over 50 years, the second poem in Alfred Edward Housman's A Shropshire Lad was meaningful to the couple. Brown read the poem to Daisy on their wedding day and she read it to him fifty years later on their anniversary. They had one son, John L. Dennis.

Academic career

Brown began his teaching career with positions at several universities, including Lincoln University and Fisk University, before returning to Howard in 1929. He was a professor there for 40 years. Brown's poetry used the south for its setting and showed slave experiences of the African American people. Brown often imitated southern African-American speech, using "variant spellings and apostrophes to mark dropped consonants". He taught and wrote about African-American literature and folklore. He was a pioneer in the appreciation of this genre. He had an "active, imaginative mind" when writing and "a natural gift for dialogue, description and narration".

Brown was known for introducing his students to concepts then popular in jazz, which along with blues, spirituals and other forms of black music formed an integral component of his poetry.

In addition to his career at Howard University, Brown served as a visiting professor at Vassar College, New York University (NYU), Atlanta University, and Yale University.

Some of his notable students include Toni Morrison, Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael), Kwame Nkrumah, Thomas Sowell, Ossie Davis, and Amiri Baraka (aka LeRoi Jones).

In 1969 Brown retired from his faculty position at Howard and turned full-time to poetry.

Literary career

In 1932 Brown published his first book of poetry Southern Road. It was a collection of poems, many with rural themes and treated the simple lives of poor, black, country folk with extra poignancy and dignity. Brown's work included pieces authentic dialect and structures as well as formal work. Despite the success of this book, he struggled to find a publisher for the followup, No Hiding Place. Sterling Brown was most known for his authentic southern black dialect.

His poetic work was influenced in content, form and cadence by African-American music, including work songs, blues and jazz. Like that of Jean Toomer, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes and other black writers of the period, his work often dealt with race and class in the United States. He was deeply interested in a folk-based culture, which he considered most authentic. Brown is considered part of the Harlem Renaissance artistic tradition, although he spent the majority of his life in the Brookland neighborhood of Northeast Washington, D.C.

Quotes

"Harvard has ruined more niggers than bad liquor."

Brown's warning to Thomas Sowell, as quoted in Sowell's A Personal Odyssey (2000).

Honors

In 1979, the District of Columbia declared May 1, his birthday, Sterling A. Brown Day.

His Collected Poems won the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize in the early 1980s for the best collection of poetry published that year.

In 1984 the District of Columbia named him its first poet laureate, a position he held until his death from leukemia at the age of 88.

The Friends of Libraries USA in 1997 named Founders Hall at Howard University a Literary Landmark, the first so designated in Washington, DC.

The home where Brown resided is located in the Brookland section of Northeast Washington, DC. An engraved plaque and a sign created by the DC Commission On Arts And Humanities are featured in front of the house.

Works

Southern Road, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1932 (original poetry)

Negro Poetry (literary criticism)

The Negro in American Fiction, Bronze booklet - no. 6 (1937), published by The Associates in Negro Folk Education (Washington, D.C.)

Negro Poetry and Drama: and the Negro in American fiction, Atheneum, 1972 (criticism)

The Negro Caravan, 1941, co-editor with Arthur P. Davis and Ulysses Lee (anthology of African-American literature)

The Last Ride of Wild Bill (poetry)

Michael S. Harper, ed. (1996). The Collected Poems of Sterling A. Brown. Northwestern University Press. ISBN 978-0-8101-5045-4. (1st edition 1980)

The Poetry of Sterling Brown, recorded 1946-1973, released on Smithsonian Folkways, 1995

Mark A. Sanders, ed. (1996). A son's return: selected essays of Sterling A. Brown. UPNE. ISBN 978-1-55553-275-8.

Old Lem (Poem)

Old Len was put to music by Carla Olson with the permission of Sterling Brown’s estate. The resulting song is called Justice and was recorded by Carla backed by former member of The Rolling Stones Mick Taylor and former member of the Faces Ian McLagan along Jesse Sublett on bass and Rick Hemmert on drums.

#05/01 #01/13

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sarah-hughes-ensemble-blog · 7 years ago

Photo

The Sarah Hughes Ensemble is an improvisational project led by Baltimore saxophonist Sarah Hughes (sarahmariehughes.com), accompanied by Sam Lohman (drums), Doug Kallmeyer (bass),Dan Gutstein (spoken word) and T. A. Zook (basscello).

An Avant Music News interview with Mr. Zook is posted at http://goo.gl/5LdYos; audio interviews are posted athttps://goo.gl/RsPbR9 and https://goo.gl/ZVvF4l .

Mr. Zook began his study of the guitar in Chile and Uruguay (the latter under the guidance of Luis Acosta), and continued upon his return to the U.S. in the early 1960s under Sophocles Papas (classical)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophocles_Papas ;http://comusco.com/sophocles_papas.en.html ) and Frank Mullen (jazz)(http://goo.gl/6E3eir ; http://goo.gl/niQTYd ). From 1999 through 2012, he studied improvisation under David Darling (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Darling_(musician) ;http://www.daviddarling.com/;http://www.musicianguide.com/biographies/1608003038/David-Darling.html ), a study which continues under the auspices of the Music for People organization (http://musicforpeople.org/wp/ ), which conferred him Honorary Graduate certification in 2011.

During the early 1970s, Mr. Zook had the privilege of working with keyboardist (B-3 & Lawrence Audio electric piano)/singer Larry Buck, who was very supportive in his development as a musician.

Mr. Zook has frequently performed in the Sonic Circuits Festival of Experimental Music (http://dc-soniccircuits.org/).

Doug Kallmeyer spends much of his time on the road mixing bands which have included Blonde Redhead, School of Seven Bells, and currently with Phantogram (recently returned from a tour to Iceland and Europe). Add to that list more live work with notable artists including Shellac, Sunny Day Real Estate and Rancid. Both local to the Washington D.C. metropolitan area and on the road, a career which has numbered live shows in the thousands, and continues. His last release, 2005′s “Even Calls” (EM:T, 2005, 302acid) was a group foray into ambient textures which received rave reviews in publications like the UK’s WIRE magazine, and resulted in tours throughout the US and Europe. His most current project, Dubpixels (http://www.dubpixel.com/ ) expands upon modern and classic aesthetics in dubwise music production to include audio and video.(http://www.facebook.com/Dubpixels ;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/302_Acid ;http://sesshinnofi.wordpress.com/ ;http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Mantis/125299140867441 ).

Sam Lohman drums for Trio OOO, New Atlantis Duo and Matta Gawa.

Schedule:

January 14, 2018 at Baltimore’s The Crown (https://thecrownbaltimore.tumblr.com/); details: https://www.facebook.com/events/313733955796662/) free download: https://soundcloud.com/sarah-hughes-ensemble/live-at-the-crown.

For more information: [email protected]

0 notes