video by Michael Lucio Sternbach (“MoonLasso”)
“The Vision Festival always leaves me feeling hopeful. All the musicians cooperating together and staying true to themselves. I am always sad when it’s over. It always goes smoothly but there is a lot of work to make it happen year after year. “
–Dave Sewelson, baritone saxophonist, improviser, composer
“The characteristic trait of innovators is vision. Their vision lights the path, enabling me to follow my own path. AFA follows the vision of visionaries. ”
–Gerald Cleaver, drummer, improviser, composer
“For nearly a quarter century the Vision Festival has been presenting new and exciting artist with fresh ideas and exhilarating music. I am more than please that they have been daring and tenacious to continue to give the community such important musical information over the years. Moreover, as a senior member of the music community, I’m more than grateful for the Vision Festival allowing me to have been a part of this momentous and necessary endeavor.”
-Ted Daniel, trumpeter, improvisor, composer
“The Vision fest has been a foundation for decades for anyone interested in creative music and is an amazing testament to artistic communities.”
-Mike Reed, drummer, improvisor, composer
“I loved being there with everyone! Thank you! Arts for Art is the only organization I know that encourages artists to express themselves completely without any boundaries.”
-Jeremy Carlstedt, drummer, improvisor, composer
“Just reiterating what has already been noted; u did a fantastical wonderful job on this year’s vision festival I watched each night on my couch in Florida … it’s so enthralling to be entertained with multiple genres and educated thru poetry and spoken word .. much thanks”
-Ron Scott author and Journalist at Amsterdam News
“Thank you so much for all I got from you and from all at Vision, with my love and warm greetings!”
-Pierre Michel Zalesk – from Brussells
“Thank you, Patricia! As always, celebrating these great jazz giants!
Wish we could have been with you and Joelle”
–
Bernadette Speech
Celebrating the Lifetime Achievement of Joëlle Léandre. The 27th annual Vision Festival: Improvising the Future will bring together over one hundred top artists of various disciplines —FreeJazz, poetry, visual arts, dance, and more — to share the message of hope and justice with unfettered creativity. Since 1996, the Vision Festival has created and guaranteed a space for FreeJazz and improvisation as a leading creative language, and has been named “one of New York’s most essential art events” by The New York Times.
7:00pm
Tiger Trio
Joëlle Léandre – bass
Myra Melford – piano
Nicole Mitchell – flute
8:00pm
Joëlle Léandre / Fred Moten
Joëlle Léandre – bass
Fred Moten – poetry
8:30pm
Judson Trio
Joëlle Léandre – bass
Craig Taborn – piano
Mat Maneri – viola
9:30pm
Joëlle Léandre Septet Premieres “Atlantic Ave Septet”
Joëlle Léandre – bass, composition
Ingrid Laubrock – saxophone
Steve Swell – trombone
Mat Maneri – viola
Jason Kao Hwang – violin
Fred Lonberg-Holm – cello
Joe Morris – guitar
7:00pm
Gerald Cleaver Black Host
Cooper-Moore – piano, synth
Brandon Seabrook – guitar
Darius Jones – alto saxophone
Dezron Douglas – bass
Brandon Lopez – bass
Gerald Cleaver – drums, composition
8:00pm
Brown / Greene / Krall Trio
Rob Brown – alto sax, flute
Hilliard Greene – bass
Jackson Krall – drums
9:00pm
Hamid Drake’s Turiya: Honoring Alice Coltrane
James Brandon Lewis – sax
Jamie Saft – piano, keyboards
Patricia Brennan– vibraphone
Joshua Abrams – bass, guembri
Hamid Drake – drums, percussion, vocals
featuring Patricia Nicholson – dance, spoken word
Hamid Drake’s Turiya: Honoring Alice Coltrane was made possible in part through the ArtsCONNECT program of Mid Atlantic Arts with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
10:00pm
Mark Dresser 7
Mark Dresser – bass, composition
Nicole Mitchell – flutes
Keir GoGwilt – violin
Marty Ehrlich – reeds
Michael Dessen – trombone
Joshua White – piano
Michael Sarin – drums
7:00pm
Brahja: Watermelancholia
Devin Brahja Waldman – alto sax
Watson – bass clarinet
Ras Moshe – tenor sax
Lee Odom – soprano sax
Damon Hankoff – piano
Luke Stewart – bass
Reggie Nicholson – drums
8:00pm
L.I.P.
K.J. Holmes – dance
Jeremy Carlstedt – drums
8:30pm
Ted Daniel International Brass and Membrane Corps (IBMC)
Ted Daniel – trumpet, composition
Marvin Sewell – guitar
Jose Davila – tuba
Michael Wimberly – percussion
Brian Rojas – actor
Kerby Darius – actor
9:30pm
Mike Reed’s Separatist Party
Mike Reed – drums, percussion, synth, compositions
Ben LaMar Gay – cornet, perc.
Marvin Tate – vocals
Cooper Crain – guitar, synth
Dan Quinlivan – keyboards /
Rob Frye – tenor sax, flute, percussion
6:30pm
Patricia Brennan’s More Touch
Patricia Brennan – vibes marimba
Kim Cass – bass
Marcus Gilmore – drums
Mauricio Herrera – percussion
Visual Art by Mincho Vega
7:30pm
Mayan Space Station Flight 66
William Parker -bass, composition, art
Ava Mendoza – guitar
Gerald Cleaver – drums
Lee Mixashawn Rozie – mandolin, flute
Jason Kao Hwang – violin
gabby fluke-mogul – violin
8:30pm
Shamanic Principle
Patricia Nicholson – movement, text
Val Jeanty – electronics, perc.
Visual Art: Patricia Nicholson & Miriam Parker
9:30pm
Matthew Shipp Quartet
Matthew Shipp – piano
Mat Walerian – reeds
Michael Bisio – bass
Whit Dickey – drums
Visual Art by Dawn Bisio
10:30pm
Mississippi to NY Freedom Band
Dick Griffin – trombone, visual art
Dave Sewelson – baritone saxophone
Luke Stewart – bass
Michael Wimberly – piano
Tcheser Holmes – drums
AFTER HOURS at FourOneOne – TWO SETS!
11:30 PM
James Brandon Lewis & Alexis Marcelo Duo
12:30 AM
Open Improv JAM led by Ava Mendoza & gabby fluke-mogul
at FourOneOne, 411 Kent, Brooklyn
AFTER HOURS at FourOneOne – TWO SETS!
11:30 PM
James Brandon Lewis & Alexis Marcelo Duo
12:30 AM
Open Improv JAM led by Ava Mendoza & gabby fluke-mogul
at FourOneOne, 411 Kent, Brooklyn
6:00pm
MiM Intergenerational Ensemble
Led by William Parker
7:00pm
SUN HAN GUILD
eddy kwon – violin, voice, body, composition
Laura Cocks – flutes, voice
Nava Dunkelman – percussion, voice
DoYeon Kim – gayageum, voice
Lester St. Louis – cello, voice
8:00pm
Dave Burrell / Joe McPhee
Dave Burrell – piano
Joe McPhee – tenor saxophone
9:00pm
Yasmine Lee
Yasmine Lee – dance
Michael Wimberly – drums
9:30pm
Brandon Lopez “the gospel of sans”
Zeena Parkins – harp
Cecilia Lopez – electronics
Mat Maneri – viola
DoYeon Kim – gayageum
Gerald Cleaver – drums
Tom Rainey – drums
Brandon Lopez – bass
Gill Arno – live film manipulation
10:30pm
HEAR IN NOW Extended
Tomeka Reid – cello
Silvia Bolognesi – bass
Angelica Sanchez – piano
Selina Trepp – videolah
Hear In Now was made possible in part through the ArtsCONNECT program of Mid Atlantic Arts with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
6:30pm
75 Dollar Bill Altered Workspaces w/ Jason Kao Hwang
Che Chen – guitar, percussion
Rick Brown – drums, homemade horns
Sue Garner – bass guitar
Talice Lee – organ, violin
Jason Kao Hwang – violin, viola
7:30pm
Ethnic Heritage Ensemble: Don Cherry Tribute
Kahil El’Zabar, multi-percussion, voice, composition
Dwight Trible, vocals
Corey Wilkes, trumpet, percussion
Alex Harding, baritone sax
Justin Dillard, piano
8:30pm
Melanie Dyer We Free Strings Band
Melanie Dyer – composition, viola, video
Gwen Laster – violin
Ken Filiano – bass
Alexander Waterman – cello
Newman Taylor Baker – drums
Video Art Melanie Dyer
9:30pm
Kayo / Nioka Workman
Kayo – poet
Nioka Workman – cello
10:00pm
Reggie Workman Celebration Band
Reggie Workman – bass
Odean Pope – tenor sax
Jason Moran – piano
Jen Shyu – vocals
Elijah Thomas – flute
Elizabeth Panzer – harp
Tapan Modak – tablas
Gerry Hemingway – drums
VISION FESTIVAL 2023: Improvising the Future
June 13 – 18: Performances at Roulette
509 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217
with additional dates & locations for Vision Conference, Visual Art Shows and Films TBA
New York, NY – Arts for Art is thrilled to announce VISION FESTIVAL 2023: Improvising the Future, taking place from June 13 to June 18, 2023 at Roulette in Brooklyn, NY. Deemed “one of New York’s most essential art events” by The New York Times, the 27th annual Vision Festival will feature an unbelievable lineup of FreeJazz performers. Over one hundred artists will shine on stage in a vibrant showcase of Multicultural Improvised Creative Music & Arts.
Highlights of Vision Festival 2023 include an opening night showcase of improviser and bassist Joëlle Léandre in celebration of her Lifetime Achievement Award on Tuesday, June 13. Léandre will perform with two of her iconic trios, in a collaboration with iconic poet Fred Moten, and with a special “tentet” composed of legendary French and American musicians. Léandre’s celebration night will also feature Nicole Mitchell, Myra Melford, Craig Taborn, Mat Maneri, Ingrid Laubrock, and more. The Arts for Art Lifetime Achievement Award is presented annually to artists who have attained preeminent status in the world of FreeJazz with past awards going to a venerable pantheon of FreeJazz pioneers including Amina Claudine Myers, Andrew Cyrille, Dave Burrell, Sam Rivers and Kidd Jordan.
Closing night is on Sunday, June 18 and the festival ends with a not-to-be-missed all-star set led by legendary improviser, composer, and bassist Reggie Workman, featuring Odean Pope, Jason Moran, Jen Shyu, Elijah Thomas, Elizabeth Panzer, Tapan Modak, and Gerry Hemingway.
Other notable performers from the Vision Festival 2023 lineup include:
Gerald Cleaver Black Host with Cooper-Moore and Darius Jones • Hamid Drake’s Turiya honoring Alice Coltrane • Mike Reed’s Separatist Party • Patricia Brennan’s More Touch • William Parker’s Mayan Space Station Flight 66 featuring Ava Mendoza, Jason Kao Hwang, and gabby fluke-mogul • a presentation of the MiM Intergenerational Band led by William Parker • a duo featuring Dave Burrell & Joe McPhee • The Kahil El’Zabar Ethnic Heritage Ensemble Don Cherry Tribute.
About the Vision Festival
The Arts for Art Vision Festival is the world’s premier festival of FreeJazz music, poetry, art, film and dance. Founded by dancer-choreographer Patricia Nicholson-Parker in 1996 and held annually in NYC, the Vision Festival was created with a mission to gather luminaries from varied avantgarde scenes together in NYC, and to celebrate important African American leaders of the music. This celebration of too-often under-recognized leaders continues, notably in the annual Vision Festival Lifetime Achievement Award. The Vision Festival maintains a commitment to showcase the multi-arts fabric of this improvisational artform by presenting musicians together with poets, dancers, filmmakers, and visual artists, alongside discussion series on issues of social justice relevant to both performers and audience. In its totality the Vision Festival creates and guarantees a space for improvisation as a leading creative language, heralded as “one of New York’s most essential art events” (New York Times).
About Arts for Art
Founded in 1996, Arts for Art (AFA) is a New York City based tax exempt organization dedicated to the promotion and advancement of Black Multicultural Improvised Creative Arts — an African American indigenous art form in which improvisation is principal. This art embodies music, dance, poetry and visual arts. It is recognized for its variety of highly developed and personalized improvisational languages. AFA works to preserve the legacy of FreeJazz, and to ensure a vital future through its re-imagination by new generations of artists. Spearheaded by the internationally renowned Vision Festival, AFA’s programming brings together multiple generations of vibrant, diverse and highly skilled artists. To further our goals of diversity and accessibility, we foster education initiatives and produce events that build community amongst artists and audiences.
On Tuesday, March 28 at 7 pm (EST), Arts for Art proudly presents the world premiere of Life, Struggle, Music – an exclusive documentary featuring legendary French bassist Joëlle Léandre in never-before-seen solo performance, and in conversation with RogueArt label founder Michel Dorbon. Shot by Christian Pouget in the South of France, Ms. Léandre speaks with Dorbon about her exposure to FreeJazz in the 1970’s and the freedom it represented at a time when she was immersed in traditional and modern classical music. Léandre discusses her attraction to the energy and absence of hierarchy in the FreeJazz movement, what it meant to be a woman in the music industry at the time, and what it means in a music industry still controlled by men today.
“JANZ IN THE MOMENT” directed by Joanna Kiernan
2020, 72 min
6:30 PM at The Clemente, Flamboyan Theater, 107 Suffolk Street, NYC
JANZ IN THE MOMENT is a feature documentary about the artist Robert Janz (1932-2021). Throughout his life Robert Janz was committed to exploring the nature of change, transience and the ephemeral, his most extreme projects being water drawings that evaporate. “Janz in the Moment” begins in his eightieth year, when he starts interacting with the graffiti art that was exploding in New York at the time. The film follows him as he moves around lower Manhattan creating images of mountains, wild animals, and half human beings that evoke the most enduring aspects of life, even as they are erased by the ceaseless processes of the city. Delving into Janz’s history we see an artist who has exhibited at world-class museums and galleries, yet who has repeatedly turned away from a conventional career path to follow his commitment to spontaneity, directness and interaction. “Janz in the Moment” is an exploration of his themes of flux, change and continuity, becoming a poem to city life and to creativity itself.
“Affamée” (on Joelle Leandre) by Christian Pouget
2019, 66 min
6:30 PM at Roulette Intermedium (films start at 6:30 and 7:45 PM, respectively)
Meeting with Joëlle Léandre around her manifesto, “Can you hear me? », portrait of the double bass player through her composition for ten improvising musicians, poetic evocation and discovery of her existential source of inspiration. Like a furious cry of revolt à la Ginsberg, an act of faith and sharing with a young generation of improvisers with an appetite to learn, to discover, a solitary cry in the midst of murmurs, a rebellious, subversive provocation, a cry of love, so that we can hear her unique voice, here with the inventive freshness of young partners, transcended musical companions alongside this woman, an irreducible politically committed fighter, burning at the heart of music, a woman of fire who almost died in the flames of a car accident, Joëlle Léandre is famished for life and music : “Can you hear me? » she said.
“In Modern Time” (on Sonny Simmons) by Robert Brewster, followed by Q&A
2003, 58 min
7:30 PM
A Q&A featuring director Robert Brewster and producer Craig Morton will follow the screening of this event.
In 1939, Huey “Sonny” Simmons,” his preacher father, and the rest of his family was thrown off their sharecropper farm near Monroe, Louisiana at gunpoint. As the white owner showed up with “guns and horses,” Sonny’s father picked him up and hid him behind a big tree in the yard to protect him from gunfire. In sixty years, Sonny had never returned to the South and claimed that he had no inclination to ever go back. After growing up in Oakland, California, Sonny picked up the alto sax and became one of the leaders and innovators of the avant-garde style of jazz improvisation. He recorded numerous records and played and recorded with Eric Dolphy, Billy Higgins, McCoy Tyner, Elvin jones and many others. In later years he fell on hard times and, for a while, lived on the streets of San Francisco. In 1999, sixty years after leaving the Louisiana, Sonny decided he was ready to go back to the south. In the midst of trying to record a new record and while still struggling with housing and other economic issues, filmmaker Robert Brewster accompanied Sonny on his trip back to Louisiana sixty years after leaving, to experience, as Sonny says, “a trip back to see the deep, dark, beautiful past of my early childhood – where you’ll see the truth.”
Visual Art & Multidisciplinary Collaborations at Vision Festival 2023
June 13 – 18, 2023 at Roulette Intermedium | 509 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217
Featuring: Miriam Parker, Mincho Vega, Amir Bey, Ian Kornfeld, Dick Griffin, William Parker, Matt Lavelle, Dawn Bisio, Jackson Krall, Nissa Nishikawa, Selina Trepp, Melanie Dyer, Patricia Nicholson
Arts for Art is exci
ted to announce the Vision Festival 2023 lineup of collaborations between visionary artists from various disciplines. Arts for Art has been dedicated to great creative Black and multicultural arts since 1996, curating multi-arts experiences at each Vision Festival. Vision Festival 2023 will showcase how these artists create the future through moment-to-moment creative choices, exposing the interconnections between various art forms. Each one of us, each day, improvises our future. As a community of improvisers, we believe in the importance of deep listening skills and strive to bring balance and beauty into the world through our art. This is the commitment each of these cutting-edge, improvising artists make with their work.
SCHEDULE OF MULTI-ARTS COLLABORATIONS
AT VISION FESTIVAL 2023
June 14
7:00 Miriam Parker video art in collaboration with Gerald Cleaver’s Black Host
8:00 Jackson Krall metal sculpture in collaboration with Karen Borca’s Quartet
June 15
7:00 Nissa Nishikawa paintings with live video by Gabriel Gall in collaboration with “Brahja”
8:00 Matt Lavelle paintings in collaboration collaborate with K.J. Holmes & Jeremy Carlstedt
June 16
6:30 Mincho Vega paintings in collaboration with Patricia Brennan’s More Touch
7:30 William Parker multimedia art in collaboration with Mayan Space Station
June 16 (cont.)
8:30 Miriam Parker, Patricia Nicholson video art and Amir Bey headdress with Shamanic Principle
9:30 Dick Griffin paintings in collaboration with Mississippi to New York Freedom Band
10:30 Dawn Bisio paintings in collaboration with the Matthew Shipp Quartet
June 17
9:30 Ian Kornfeld live video art in collaboration with Brandon Lopez “the gospel of sans”
10:30 Selina Trepp videolah (live video art) in collaboration with HEAR IN NOW
June 18
8:30 Melanie Dyer film in collaboration with We Free Strings
Amir Bey headdress
Amir Bey is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work involves both visual and performance arts. He is engaged in mixed media sculpture, carving, silkscreen on fabric, sumi ink paintings and scrolls, art writing, installation, performance art, set design.
Amir Bey has created headdresses for Patricia Nicholson to wear in Shamanic Principle performance.
Headdress at left titled Eagle Stallion.
Dawn Bisio paintings
Dawn Bisio is a painter and installation artist. Her painting is predominantly abstract and spontaneous. She is driven by experimentation and accessing a mesmerized flow. Bold colors and multiple layers creating depth and dimensionality characterize her work. Conversely, her installations begin with a deliberate theme carefully planned and executed. Much of her installation work explores issues related to her Korean American identity and involves a hanging element, which appeals to her love of “suspension.” Having both artistic outlets allow her a mix of spontaneous, subconscious flow work and deeply measured and engineered conceptual work. Connective Tissue is about the ties that bind; the lifeblood of humanity, community, and family. Without it bringing people together, and even the ingredients for the everyday objects we rely on, we are singular persons and things floating solo. Connective Tissue is the interweaving element that harnesses individual components and creates a sum total greater than its parts.
The Natural World Knows… by Dawn Bisio (2022)
12″ x 12″ acrylic on wood panel
Dick Griffin paintings
Dick Griffin is a musician and a visual artist. His abstract paintings and works on paper have been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions, private and corporate collections in both the U.S. and Europe. Griffin’s paintings are influenced by his experience. “When you hear me play, what I put out there is what I’ve experienced; and when I paint, I put the same thing on canvas – in a different way.”
“I’m reflecting the conditions of the world today”. I choose to have three colors represent a response to the conflict in today’s time. I choose the colors; red, black and white to represent peace, love and hope. I use these colors blending and moving them to demonstrate how love and harmony could work together. I hope the future will bring about some of these conditions.
World Peace and Love For The Human Race
Series #18, 11”x14”
Ian Kornfeld live video art
Ian Kornfeld will present a video art piece in collaboration with composer/bassist Brandon Lopez “the gospel of sans”.
Ian Kornfeld is an Argentinian audiovisual artist dedicated to experimentation around the confluence in the fields of music, plastic, video art and expanded cinema. In 2000 he co-founded the audiovisual collective Pornois, and in 2012 he founded ANTIPLAN, his current audiovisual project. He has created live projections and video performances in collaboration with numerous artists, and has made music videos and short films. His work flows between macro landscapes, moving-paintings and audiovisual-sculptures, and is characterized by having deep detail in fully handcrafted images, featuring an unexpected amount of underlying content. The links between rhythm-movement, and color-timbre are one the main axis of his constant search.
Jackson Krall sculpture
Jackson Krall was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1949. His artistic practice involves sculpting with metal, making and playing percussion which he primarily plays in the creative improvised music settings. Krall’s father, being involved in the foundry industry, gave him his first understanding of metal work. At age 5 he witnessed the creation of a cowbell by a blacksmith at the Ford Museum’s Greenfield Village, which made a lasting impression. In 1957 his family’s move to Wisconsin near another blacksmith shop, C. Sanders and Sons in Elm Grove, where he was able to learn welding and forge work and engage in a variety of projects through his teenage years. By the mid 1970’s Jackson was creating unique cowbells and metal sculpture in New York City in addition to working as a professional musician. And from there, with some help from Arts for Art, the rest is history. He will feature his freestanding Bell Tree.
Matt Lavelle paintings
Matt Lavelle is a Philadelphia based painter and musician. His passion for art was inspired in large part by his grandfather Fritz Kluber, who was himself an artist, painter, and sculptor. In the early 70’s, Kluber led a team of artists who restored the gold leafing on the famous statue of Prometheus at Rockefeller Plaza. He died in 1983. Given the early influence of his grandfather, Lavelle turned to art. He has completed 70 works, and the influence of music can be seen in many of them. The paintings reflect Lavelle’s deep love of colors as full, dark, or bright as they can be. Some pieces are illustrations based in musical fantasy, while others are improvisations of sacred geometry and color.
Nissa Nishikawa live painting
Nissa Nishikawa’s Light for Watermeloncolia with live painting projected on stage through video by Gabriel Gall.
[A predicted landscape, forming from the frequencies on the stage; a response, a gesture to the transmission – an intuitive articulation of materiality being illuminated]. Nissa Nishikawa’s multidisciplinary practice is comprised of performance, poetry, painting, ceramics and film. Nishikawa researches and interprets traditional forms of dance, ritual and craft in ways that illuminate animistic and alchemical philosophies with an embodied and structural approach. She often works in the open-air and studios equipped to house fire; interconnecting the layers of the arcane with the supra-sensual, the living earth and various conscious inhabitants.
Miriam Parker video installation
Miriam Parker is an interdisciplinary artist working in paint, video and movement. Parker is a CBA Toulmin Fellow ’21. Her work has been showcased in NY at PS1 MoMA; Fridman Gallery; the Every Women Biennial; Survey Dover Plains; and the Whitebox ArtCenter, NY among others. She has had residences with Monira Foundation at Mana contemporary as well as residencies at École Normale Supérieure, Paris; FiveMyles Gallery, NY; and Center for Ballet and the Arts, NY etc. Parker will present Bang • Shake • Slam • Shift in collaboration with the music of Gerald Cleaver’s Black Host. This video looks at surface; what rises to the top, what creates definition to the chaos. Chaos is Nature. Nature is in a constant state of change. Change is what and how all phenomena connects. This work embraces change.
William Parker paintings
William Parker, known as a great musician, composer, improvisor, author and teacher has been creating visual art throughout his life. Rarely has his artwork been featured in an art setting. Much of his early work was displayed as paintings on the instruments he played, or in fabric for his instrument cases. He also has created a beautiful series of painted scores and book illustrations. During the pandemic he began a series of paintings, a few of which will be projected during his performance with his band Mayan Space Station: Flight 66
Mincho Vega “I am the Ancestor”
Mincho Vega is collaborating with the highly acclaimed vibraphonist/percussionist Patricia Brennan for her work in tribute to her hometown Veracruz. In Mincho Vega’s words “My artwork is a practice in healing historical and inherited traumas. I meditate on resistance, survival, and ancient indigenous folklore from the Americas through portrait illustrations and paper collages. All forms of my work manifest from my ancestral roots and spiritual beliefs. My ancestors, who are indigenous to Central America and Spain, form a violent embrace in my artistic process. This historical clash that created a people of mixed race and culture allows me to flow from one rich tradition to another spiritually and artistically. Blended within this embrace is a long history of trauma and pain, evident in many of my works. This beautiful yet tragic mixture constructs a focal point on healing making the outcome so much more critical for my community and myself.”
Selina Trepp Videolah
Selina Trepp (Swiss/American b.1973) is an artist researching economy and improvisation. Finding a balance between the intuitive and conceptual is a goal. She works across media, combining performance, installation, painting and sculpture to create intricate setups that result in photos, drawings and animations.
In addition to the studio-based work, Selina is active in the music scene. In this context she sings and plays the videolah, her midi controlled video synthesizer, to create projected animations in real-time as visual music. She performs with a varying cast of collaborators and as one half of Spectralina, her long running audiovisual collaboration with Dan Bitney.
curated by Patricia Nicholson
June 10, 2023 from 10 AM – 5:30 PM
Arts for Art & Rutgers Advanced Institute for Critical Caribbean Studies Conference on the Legacies of Black Creative Arts / Spirit of the Ancestors
Addressing the profound unifying spirituality underlying traditional and cutting edge Black Creative Arts and the struggle for justice and non-erasure.
Organized by Carter Mathes – author, Associate Professor of English at Rutgers University; Patricia Nicholson – Arts for Art Founder; Artistic Director, Michael Heller – author, Associate Professor at University of Pittsburgh; Kehinde Alonge – PhD candidate in English at Rutgers University
June 12, 2023 from 12 PM – 5:30 PM
The Ecology of Media and MUSIC
This conference focuses on enhancing accessibility and inclusivity in the creative arts. A panel consisting of musicians and media professionals will discuss amplifying the impact of music through media channels, fostering diversity and inclusivity, nurturing emerging talent, and exploring the intersection of technology, media, and music.
Roulette Intermedium | 509 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn NY
Music lifts us up. It is a healing force in times of trouble. When the media brings attention to the Creative Art, those arts become available to a more general public, not only for the privileged few. We need to identify ways to create broader accessibility through publications that already exist as well as building new more accessible spaces. This conference focuses on enhancing accessibility and inclusivity in the creative arts. A panel consisting of musicians and media professionals will discuss amplifying the impact of music through media channels, fostering diversity and inclusivity, nurturing emerging talent, and exploring the intersection of technology, media, and music.
SCHEDULE
June10
10:00 AM Panel – Ancestral Spirits from the African Diaspora
Moderator:
Carter Mathes, Associate Professor, Department of English / Director, Rutgers Advanced Institute for Critical Caribbean Studies at Rutgers University, author of Imagine the Sound.
Panel:
Nelson Maldonado-Torres – Co-Chair of the Frantz Fanon Foundation / President Emeritus of the Caribbean Philosophical Association / Professor Extraordinarious at the Institute for Social and Health Sciences, University of South Africa / Honorary Professor at the University of KwaZulu Natal in Durban, South Africa.
Nana Sula Janet Evans – priestess, singer, songwriter, artist, author, and founding spiritualist of the Temple of Light – Ile’ de Coin-Coin in New Orleans, LA.
Maricruz Rivera Clemente, PhD – Corporación Piñones Se Integra (C.O.P.I.) Founder & ED / Corredor Afro – Co-Founder
Marta Moreno Vega – CCCADI – Founder / Global Afro-Latino and Caribbean Initiative (GALCI) / Creative Justice Initiative (CJI) – Co-Founder / Corredor Afro – Co-Founder / Afro-Global Network – Founder
Followed by a Q&A
12:30 pm Panel – Spirit Speaks through History and Present in Black Improvised Arts
Moderator:
Anthony Jermaine Ross Allam, Director of Presbyterian Mission Agency’s Center for Repair of Historical Harms & recipient of United Theological Seminary “Spirit of United Award”
Panel:
Adam Zanolini – Executive Director, Elastic Arts Foundation / AACM member
James Brandon Lewis – musician, composer, and PhD candidate at UArts
Fay Victor – Sound Artist, improvising vocalist, composer, educator, member of We Have Voice
Katea Stitt – WPFW/Pacifica Radio Program Director
Lee Mixashawn Rozie – musician, author, educator in Indigenous & Black Creative Music
William Parker -musician, author, activist, and educator
Followed by a Q&A
3:00 pm Convergence Roundtable: Improvising the Future Together
Through honoring our spirituality and the ancestors and visionaries who laid the way, we now can begin to lay down paths that may heal some of our world’s brokenness. This roundtable brings together members of the first two panels for a free flowing conversation and exchange of ideas.
Co-Moderators:
Patricia Nicholson, Founder of Improvisers Collective, Arts for Art, RUCMA, Artists for a Free World, dancer, poet and Michael Heller, Associate Professor, Music Department, University of Pittsburgh, author of Loft Jazz, editor Jazz and Culture journal
Roundtable followed by Q&A
5:00 – Performance
This event was supported by a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation. Thanks to Rutgers University – New Brunswick and the University of Pittsburgh for their support.
June 12
12 PM Panel
A Point of Comparison – Media in the 1960’s, 70’s & 80’s
Co-moderated by Basir Mchawi and Patricia Nicholson
Sharif Abdus-Salaam – WKCR-FM Columbia & WKNY-FM in Kingston
Gary Giddins- Journalist, Weather Bird column in Village Voice / Author
Herb Boyd Journalist at Amsterdam News, Down Beat magazine. / activist, academic,author.
Katea Stitt – Program Director, WPFW/Pacifica Radio
William Parker – musician, composer, author, activist
Bobby Hill – co-founder of Transparent Productions, radio producer at WPFW, WOWD
Followed by a Q&A
2 PM Panel
Media and Music Today
Co-moderated by Basir Mchawi and Patricia Nicholson
Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky – artist in residence at Yale University Center for Arts and Media
Nabil Ayers – President, Beggars Group US, music industry entrepreneur, writer and musician.
Nate Chinen – Journalist on WRTI / NPR
Melvin Gibbs – musician, composer, author, activist
Naomi Extra – writer, scholar, poet and creator of Black Women in Jazz Oral History Project
Followed by a Q&A
4 PM Roundtable Discussion
Through a better understanding of how media functions and dysfunctions we will consider possible solutions that may create greater access to Music and the Arts for a larger more diverse public.
Arts for Art’s programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council. This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support provided by Council Members Chris Marte and Carlina Rivera, Howard Gilman Foundation, Jacob and Ruth Epstein Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Chamber Music America, Mid Atlantic Arts, Jazz Foundation of America and The Givens Foundation for African American Literature. This project is supported by New Music USA’s New Music Organizational Development Fund. Arts for Art receives support from the Henry Luce Foundation, the Willem de Kooning Foundation, and Teiger Foundation through the Coalition of Small Arts New York.
The engagements of Hear In Now and Hamid Drake’s Turiya: Honoring Alice Coltrane are made possible in part through the ArtsCONNECT program of Mid Atlantic Arts with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Joëlle Léandre’s Lifetime Achievement Award is underwritten by the Robert D. Bielecki Foundation.
