Art is Where You Find It

Blurb #3 is due Wednesday. Please check the “Blurbs” category when posting your writing to the blog. And save your blurb on your own computer in the event of catastrophic blog meltdown (or, in Dr. Atomic terms, in case the atmosphere catches on fire).

Next item… bring your (charged) laptops and the podcast you created of review #3 to class on Wednesday. We will continue working with Lynn to fine-tune your podcasts and prepare them for posting to the blog.

At 4:10 we will be attending a performance and conversation with the Alexander String Quartet in the Engleman Recital Hall at the Baruch Performing Arts Center.

Finally, I trust you are all working on your next creative assignment, which is due Nov. 26. This time, your assignment is to create a text-based work (poetry or prose, fiction or non-fiction) that continues your development of the theme you’ve worked with in the past two phases of the project. I’m not looking for a text that describes your ideas – I’m looking for texts that embody, evoke, suggest, riff of, or otherwise creatively explore your theme. You can plan to read your text to the class if you’d like to. In any case bring seventeen copies of your text to class on Nov. 26 (that’s one copy for everyone including me). If you have questions feel free to post them as comments and/or bring them to class.

Ambiguous. Disturbing. These two words come to mind as I walk into Catherine Opie’s “Being and Having” and “Portraits” photograph galleries at the Guggeinheim Museum. As opposed to her black-and-white photos of urban infrastructures, such as highways, found at a lower level of the museum, the portraits at the entrance to these particular galleries are rebellious and dazzling in nature; as one wanders further in, it becomes quite disturbing of what people do to their bodies so that even their specific genders can be manipulated and played around with. Dazzling – because of the bright backgrounds and vivid facial details of the subjects’ faces. Rebellious- because of the excessive amount of tattoos, piercings, and rings on the faces that show the subjects are going against the norms of society. These series of images explore notions of communal, sexual, and cultural identity. The portraits along the wall at the entrance are half-body poses, and the subjects are of different originalities. They all have body rings in the most unusual parts of their faces. [Read more →]

Located on a small street between Bleecker Street and West 4th Street, Cornelia Street Café embodies romantic atmosphere with superb food and relaxing atmosphere with various performances. Great food with entertainment: what more can a New Yorker ask for? My friends and I had an opportunity to enjoy a great dinner-I ordered grilled pita with amazing hummus- and savor the rest of the night with songs and desserts. Tonight the Café hosted Songwriters In The Round, which consisted of Ann Klein, Diego Costa, Sherman Ewing and Ruth Gerson. What a night! As each songwriter joyfully performed their piece by playing guitar and letting their souls sing, I felt lucky to be in a city where arts are rooted deeply into our culture. So to all the art and food lovers, visit Cornelia Street Café tonight to fill your belly and immerse yourself into the performance of the night!

Hey guys! This is the email my theater professor sent me. Some free events for your reviews and blurbs.

This Friday and Saturday there is a festival of plays by first Native American/First Nations playwrights. All shows are free.

The Public Theatre
425 Lafayette St
New York, NY 10003
(212) 539-8500
www.publictheater.org

The Public Theater
Thursday, November 13 at 8pm – FREE
The Conversion of Ka’ahumanu
By Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl (Native Hawaiian /Samoan)
Set in Hawaii during the early 19th Century, this poignant piece
explores the complex relationships amongst Christian missionaries andindigenous women forty years after the islands’ first contact with the West. Honolulu-based writer Victoria Kneubuhl is a recipient of the prestigious Hawai`i Award for Literature.
(Post Show Discussion)

Friday, November 14 at 8pm – FREE
Chasing Honey
By Laura Shamas (Chickasaw)
Directed by Alanis King (Odawa Nation)
With her loving father serving in Afghanistan and her drug-addicted
mother coming back into her life, Sandy turns to Len, keeper of a
struggling bee colony and new member of her college’s Native AmericanStudies Club. Chasing Honey has received workshops at Native Earth in Toronto and Native Voices at The Autry in Los Angeles.
(Post Show Discussion: Contemporary Native Playwriting)

Saturday, November 15 at 8pm – FREE
Re-Creation Story
By Eric Gansworth (Onondaga)
Directed by Leigh Silverman
Novelist, poet, essayist and visual artist Eric Gansworth, winner of
the PEN Oakland-Josephine Miles National Literary Award for Fiction,brings us his personal exploration of the Haudenosaunee creationnarrative. He playfully alters the oral tradition’s fluid nature to reflect issues relevant to a contemporary Haudenosaunee life.
Post Show Discussion: Bringing Oral Tradition to the Stage
Special Guests: Eric Gansworth (playwright), Daniel David Moses
(playwright), Leigh Silverman (director), and Edward Wemytewa
(playwright/performer).