williamaveryhudson

At P.S. 122, Lear deBessonet’s production of Bertolt Brecht’s second great play, Saint Joan of the Stockyards (Die heilige Johanna der Schlachthöfe, 1928), featuring an inspired live score (Greek chorus?) by country/blues woman Kelley McRae and her band and telling choreography by Tracy Bersley. The producer is Karina Mangu-Ward and Helen Shaw is the dramaturg.

Space, production, players, and all the other elements combine to create the real deal, Brecht’s Verfremdungseffekt. Can’t think of a better introduction to the work of this genius. Ralph Manheim’s translation translates Brecht into a fine American muckraker without neglecting the exceptional historical/philosophical/theological chops.

From the program:

“So what is being discussed in the play ‘St. Joan of the Stockyards’ is not the inner being of religion, faith, the existence of God. It is rather the approach of religious persons, the talk of God… talk to the effect that God need have no function whatsoever in social matters, and that those who believe in such a God are called to accomplish nothing in particular.”
-Bertolt Brecht

Actors: Kristen Sieh (Joan); Richard Toth (Mauler); Kate Benson (Mrs. Luckerniddle, Ensemble); Mike Crane (Slift, Ensemble); Jessica Green (Martha, Little Joey, Ensemble); Jonathan Co Green (Cridle, Gloomb, Ensemble); Peter McCain (Snyder, Ensemble); Nate Schenkkan (Graham, Ensemble)

Running through 1 July, by special arrangement with Culture Project’s Women Center Stage.

tags: bertolt brecht

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Coincidental with the opening of Michael Moore’s Sicko, Dance/NYC is offering a promotion with Fractured Atlas, a US not-for-profit with the following mission:

Fractured Atlas liberates artists nationwide by providing critical tools and resources that allow them to focus on their creative work. We help artists and arts organizations gain access to funding, health insurance, and education, in a context that honors their individuality and independent spirit.

As the only national service organization to serve the needs of emerging, pre-emerging, and independent arts groups as well as individual artists, Fractured Atlas is a unique and vital resource. We value the role that the arts play in shaping our world, and we are always seeking new ways to facilitate their advancement.

A free one-year membership, which provides access to “very affordable health and liability insurance.”

What’s not to like? The links start here.

tags: dance health insurance creative economy

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Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet succeeds majestically in the New York premiere of “DecaDance,” 16 pieces drawn from Ohad Naharin’s (Batsheva Dance Company) choreography over the past 21 years.

Thunder, earth and water; bravery on a Marley floor. / An apparition on stilts. / Bodies as ideograms. Young dancers with big voices. / Meditations on dance and not-dance, the nature of performance, absent partners. / Balletic purity and strength, (anti-balletic?) love of gravity.

The dancers: Jubal Batisti, Jon Bond, Nickemil Concepcion, William Vaughn Credell, Shani Garfinkel, Heather Hamilton, Jessica Lee Keller, Jason Kittelberger, Ana-Maria Lucaciu, Andrea Miller, Oscar Ramos, Matt Rich, Acacia Schachte, Jessica Coleman Scott, Kristen Weiser, Riley Watts, Ebony Williams. (Christopher Adams out with an injury.)

Music/songs/texts/voice/arrangements: Shama Khader; Habib Alla Jamal; Antonio Vivaldi; Paul Smadbeck; Conrad Gozzo & Billy May; Bobby Black; Pablo Beltran Ruiz & Norman Gimbel; Harold Arlen/Marusha; Arvo Pärt; Charles Bukowski/Bobbi Smith; Paul Francis Webster, Luiz Antonio & Djalma Ferreira; Carl Ford & Lori Ford; Richard Whiting & Johnny Mercer; Luis Oliveira & Ray Gilbert; Paul Klinke & Larry Owens; Dick Dale; Ohad Naharin & The Tractor’s Revenge; Harris/Zorn/Laswell; Ali Hassan Kuban; Roberto Pregadio; Morton Stevens; Ludwig van Beethoven; Fabrizio Predagion & Roberto Pregadio.

“DecaDance” runs at Cedar Lake through 1 July. Coming up - new collaborations with Stijn Celis, Crystal Pite, Jo Strømgren, Angelin Preljocaj.

tags: dance batsheva dance company

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Allyson Mann writes in Georgia Magazine about a leading-edge environmental study-abroad program in the upper San Luis Valley of the Monteverde region in Costa Rica.

A working farm and a fully operational campus, University of Georgia - Costa Rica offers “inter-disciplinary, field-based learning opportunities and cultural immersion in a tropical cloud forest,” as described on the program’s website.

During their residence, students work in ecology, entomology, geology, visual arts, and creative writing, among other disciplines.

One telling detail from the article - the program’s business manager, Virgilio Brenes, a native of San Luis, initially had concerns about the impact of a North American university on the town. “Luckily the University has been careful, taking small steps and consulting the community,” he says. “Today people consider this place as part of the community and as a neighbor.”

Download the article.

tags: study abroad costa rica

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Night of the Half Moon, recorded live at Tonic, NYC, 19 Feb 2005.
Yoko Ono accompanied by Sean Lennon and Vincent Gallo.
Limited edition DVD, very sweet!
Available at http://www.tonicnyc.com/ (also a good opportunity to be part of the future of this great venue).

The DVD package includes this writing, which I hope is okay to quote because it is important:

When you are feeling bad

Do one thing a day
To make your heart dance.
It could be a syimple thing like looking up at
the sky.
If you can’t manage even that
Do something for somebody
To make his/her heart dance.
It could be a simple thing like giving a call.
Do this for a couple months and
Your life will change in a big way.
One day we’ll all dance together.
Alright?

y.o. 2000

tags: yoko ono

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SciDev.Net reports on a new web-based system to access high-resolution satellite images and track the activity of Janjaweed militia and other military groups in Sudan’s western region, Darfur.

Maintained by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in collaboration with Amnesty International USA, Eyes on Darfur allows human rights groups, journalists, policymakers, and the online public to monitor the status of twelve settlements considered at high risk of attacks. Eyes On Darfur also includes an archive of images and testimony showing destroyed villages since 2003.

tags: Darfur

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Emerging Arts, Sustainable Cities: Berlin - New York

Plato got it right, necessity is the mother of invention. Berlin, New York, and the emerging global creative economy need powerful and sustainable solutions to attract and grow vital talent. Talent often does not hit the ground with huge bags of money, and the constant quest for capital can detract from the hard work of cultural production.

Watch this space for new ideas and strategies toward a robust emerging arts infrastructure, whether you work in New York, Berlin, or anywhere creativity matters - isn’t that everywhere?

tags: creative economy berlin new york city

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Good, cheap, new, and a very sweet upper Manhattan scene.

Thai Market
960 Amsterdam Ave (between 107th & 108th Streets)

tags: nyc restaurants

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Thu 14 Jun, 7 pm
Voices of Reason in Unreasonable Times: An Evening with The Dialogue Project
Jewish Community Center in Manhattan

Tue 19 Jun, 8 pm
DECADANCE by Ohad Naharin
Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet

Thu 21 Jun, 8 pm
Brecht’s Saint Joan of the Stockyards
Performance Space 122

Sat 23 Jun, 2 pm
New York Asian Film Festival
EXILED (Hong Kong, 2006)
IFC Center

Sat 23 Jun, 8 pm
Romeo and Juliet
American Ballet Theater

Sun 24 Jun, 6:20 pm
New York Asian Film Festival
I’M A CYBORG BUT THAT’S OK (Korea, 2006)
New York Premiere
IFC Center

Tue 26 Jun, 7:30 pm
An Illuminated Life: Belle da Costa Greene’s Journey from Prejudice to Privilege
Morgan Library and Museum

Thu 28 Jun, 7:00 pm
New York Asian Film Festival
Big Bang Love, Juvenile A (Japan, 2006)

Sun 1 July, 8:00 pm to midnight
PERFECTLY YOU
A film by Sabina Maria van der Linden
GBE@passerby
436 w 15th street, NYC

Wed 4 Jul, 3:15 pm
New York Asian Film Festival
ZEBRAMAN (Japan, 2004)
US Premiere
IFC Center

Thu 5 Jul, 8:30 pm
New York Asian Film Festival
EXTE (Japan, 2007)
North American Premiere
Japan Society

Fri 7 Jul, 8 pm
The Brig
The Living Theatre

Wed, 11 Jul, 6:30 pm
Matsugane Potshot Affair (Matsugane ransha jiken)
U.S. Premiere. 2006, 112 min., 35mm, color. Directed by Nobuhiro Yamashita. With Hirofumi Arai, Takashi Yamanaka, Tomokazu Miura
Japan Society

Sun 15 Jul, 7:30 pm
I want you to ____ me
A dance performance event curated by Ann Chiaverini with choreography by DELIRIOUS Dances/Edisa Weeks; Siri Peterson/Free Radical Collective; adamscherdance; Kaite Dorn; launch movement experiment/Rachel Mckinstry & Liz Riga
galapagos artspace

Mon-Thu 16-19 Jul, 8 pm
Der Ring des Nibelungen
Kirov Opera

Sat 21 Jul, 12-9 pm
Siren Music Festival
Coney Island

Mon 30 Jul, 8 pm
The Black Eyed
New York Theatre Workshop

Also in this month’s New Internationalist, philosopher and ethicist John McMurtry writes about the life capital of societies: “the wealth of human and ecological life that reproduces and grows in any sane economic order.”

As defined by McMurtry, life capital comprises a wide range of shared wealth including sustainable topsoil, ocean phytoplankton, and biodiverse habitats:

There is one set of life goods that is required by all peoples without which they suffer or die:

• Atmospheric goods - breathable air, open space and light
• Bodily goods - clean water, nourishing foods and waste disposal
• Home and habitat - shelter and a life-enhancing environment
• Care through time - love, safety and healthcare
• Human culture - music, language, art, play and sport
• Human vocation - meaningful work of value to others
• Economic justice - right to enjoy these life goods and obligation to help provide them

McMurtry contends that the global market, as driven by private capital, actually erodes this essential life capital as “money grows by consuming human and natural resources as part of its feeding cycle.” See the June issue for the full essay (available in print now, online at a later date).

tags: globalization globalisation

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In the June New Internationalist, Paul Mooney describes an alternative future in which local farmers successfully resist corporate takeover of their specially bred crops. The speculative piece features a real-life international movement, Via Campesina:

Via Campesina is an international movement which coordinates peasant organizations of small and medium sized producers, agricultural workers, rural women, and indigenous communities from Asia, America, and Europe. It is an autonomous, pluralistic movement, independent from all political, economic, or other denomination.

Its origin goes back to April 1992, when several peasant leaders from Central America, North America, and Europe got together in Managua, Nicaragua, at the Congress of the National Union of Farmers and Livestock Owners (UNAG).

The principal objective of Via Campesina is to develop solidarity and unity in the diversity among small farmer organizations, in order to promote economic relations of equality and social justice; the preservation of land; food sovereignty; sustainable agricultural production; and an equality based on small and medium-sized producers.

The story, “Resilience in the High Andes,” originated with the What Next Project of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation. Read the full report.

tags: globalization globalisation community-shared agriculture

slow food movement

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Just a few (idiosyncratic) finds:

• Eivor Palsdottir
• www.bellydance.org
• Malouma, ‘Nebine’ from Nour
• Telmary featuring Ojos de Brujo, ‘Sueno Brujo’ from A Diario
• Taraf de Haidouks
• La Camorra Tango, 12 Postales
• Asian Dub Foundation, Time Freeze 1995-2007
• Ritva Koistinen, ‘Pari Intervallo’ from The Tradition of Kantele Vol 3: The New Era

What, you haven’t subscribed? www.songlines.co.uk

tags: world music

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The University of Georgia may be embarking on a unique real-world examination of Richard Florida’s theories by launching a Music Business certificate program with reference to the following economic facts:

The annual economic impact of the music industry in Georgia encompasses:

• $2 billion in gross sales
• 10,000 jobs
• $94.7 million in tax revenues

More information at www.terry.uga.edu/musicbusiness

See also http://www.williamaveryhudson.com/6.html

tags: creative economy

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If you can’t be there (or even if you are there), this is the place to go:

http://www.droppingknowledge.org/g8

“An international group of filmmakers, photographers, bloggers, designers and programmers are living and working together to create content reflecting the multiple aspects of the G8 Summit.”

tags: g8

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A new report from Americans for the Arts details the economic impact of nonprofit arts and culture organizations in the United States.

From the conclusion:

Nonprofit arts and culture organizations in the United States drive a $166 billion industry—a growth industry that supports 5.7 million full-time jobs and generates nearly $30 billion in government revenue annually. Arts and culture organizations—businesses in their own right—leverage significant event-related spending by their audiences that pumps vital revenue into restaurants, hotels, retail stores, parking garages, and other local businesses. This study lays to rest a common misconception: that communities support arts and culture at the expense of local economic development. In fact, communities are investing in an industry that supports jobs, generates government revenue, and is the cornerstone of tourism. This report shows conclusively that, locally as well as nationally, the arts mean business.

Economic activity generated by the nonprofit arts industry in the United States has increased 50 percent over the past five years, according to the report, Arts & Economic Prosperity III, which was undertaken with economists from the Georgia Institute of Technology and funded by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Ruth Lilly Fund of Americans for the Arts, where it is available online.

See also http://www.williamaveryhudson.com/6.html

tags: creative economy

Comments and Links Appreciated!