Nokuthula Ngwenyama Named 2010 Taft Museum of Art Duncanson Artist-in-Residence

Re-post from: artdaily.org Ngwenyama learned about the Duncanson Artist-in-Residence program during a visit to Cincinnati in April when she performed with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra at Music Hall.

CINCINNATI, OH.- The Robert S. Duncanson Society of the Taft Museum of Art has selected violist Nokuthula Ngwenyama as the 2010 Duncanson Artist-in-Residence from a talented pool of local and national candidates. A nationally recognized orchestral soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician, Ngwenyama will be the Taft’s 24th resident artist. Ngwenyama learned about the Duncanson Artist-in-Residence program during a visit to Cincinnati in April when she performed with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra at Music Hall. She describes the Taft’s historic Duncanson murals as “beautiful, peaceful works of art.” The Taft Museum of Art established the Duncanson Artist-in-Residence program in 1986 to honor the achievements of contemporary artists of African descent working in a variety of disciplines and media. The program also honors the relationship between african american painter Robert S. Duncanson and his patron, Nicholas Longworth, who commissioned Duncanson to paint landscape murals in the foyer of his home, now the Taft Museum of Art. “I think that it really shows the contribution that african americans have made to the fine arts for such a long time. To be able to have a tie to that legacy is a wonderful honor,” Ngwenyama says. “To pay tribute to the relationship that Duncanson had (with Longworth) has given me a sense of tradition in this country that I wasn’t really aware of.” Gramophone Magazine has proclaimed Ngwenyama’s playing as providing “solidly shaped music of bold, mesmerizing character,” and the Washington Post describes her as playing "with dazzling technique in the virtuoso fast movements and deep expressiveness in the slow movements.” Ngwenyama’s orchestral appearances include performances with the Atlanta, Baltimore, and Indianapolis Symphonies, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the National Symphony Orchestra. She has been heard in recital at Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, the Louvre, the Ford Center in Toronto, the Maison de Radio France, and the White House. Born in California of Zimbabwean-Japanese parentage, Ngwenyama came to international attention when she won the Primrose International Viola Competition and the Young Concert Artists International Auditions at age 17. She graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music. As a Fulbright scholar she attended the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique de Paris and received a Master of Theological Studies degree from Harvard University. “I hope to highlight the legacy (between Duncanson and Longworth) and make sure it continues today,” says Ngwenyama, “and show that the arts cross racial boundaries.” In addition to her performance activities Ngwenyama served as visiting assistant professor at the University of Notre Dame in 2007, teaching in the field of ethnomusicology. She joined the faculty of Indiana University as visiting associate professor from 2008-10. Ngwenyama is the current director of the Primrose International Viola Competition and president-elect of the American Viola Society. During her residency, Ngwenyama will give public performances and workshops. She will also engage in educational outreach activities with students both in the classrooms and at the Taft. To learn more, click here.

Lorenzo Dow Turner Exhibition Opens at the Anacostia Community Museum, Washington, DC

re-posted from Artdaily.org

Doing the Ring Shout in Georgia, ca. 1930s Members of the Gullah community express their spirituality through the “ring shout” during a service at a local “praise house.” Lorenzo Dow Turner Papers, Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

WASHINGTON, DC.- The Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum presents the groundbreaking exhibition “Word, Shout, Song: Lorenzo Dow Turner Connecting Community through Language” on view from Aug. 9 through March 27, 2011. Curated by Alcione Amos and the first exhibition based almost entirely on one of the museum’s special collections, “Word, Shout, Song” looks at the life, research and scholarship of Lorenzo Dow Turner, perhaps the first african american linguist. It also focuses on how his discoveries linked communities in Africa to the New World through language. “In assembling this exhibition, most exciting to me was how I was able to connect words from Portuguese, Gullah and English to their African origins, 80 years later, based on Turner’s work in the 1930s,” said Amos. “His work is still relevant today.” “Word, Shout, Song” is three stories in one: scholarship and success against the odds, a quest to crack a linguistic code and a discovery spanning continents. The exhibition presents Turner’s pioneering work, which in the 1930s established that people of African heritage, despite slavery, had retained and passed on their cultural identity through words, music and story wherever they landed. His research focused on the Gullah/Geechee community in South Carolina and Georgia, whose speech was dismissed as “baby talk” and “bad English.” He confirmed, however, that quite to the contrary the Gullah spoke a Creole language and that they still possessed parts of the language and culture of their captive ancestors. Turner linguistic explorations into the African diaspora led him to Bahia, Brazil, where he further validated his discovery of African continuities. The exhibition begins with a look at Turner’s early life. He was profoundly influenced by his Howard University-educated father—a fourth-generation freed man forced to flee his home after an altercation with a white man—on the importance of academic excellence. Turner (1890-1972) obtained successively higher degrees in English from Howard, Harvard University and the University of Chicago. Denied teaching positions at white institutions, he built his career in academia at several black colleges, including his alma mater where as a student he had become interested in languages. A summer stint teaching at the now-South Carolina State University, however, is where he first heard and was captivated by the Gullah dialect. Convinced that the speech pattern was not illiterate English but instead a distinct language incorporating words and structure from African languages, Turner focused his interest into a lifelong project. Turner studied various African language, including Twi, Ewe, Yoruba, Bambara and Wolof as well as Arabic, to make linkages to Gullah vocabulary. Through his pursuit of information, he often became the first african american member of many organizations, including the Linguistics Society of America. “Word, Shout, Song” recounts his travels to South Carolina and Georgia and abroad to London, Paris and, finally, Africa to record and compare the speech of hundreds of informants. His journeys feature fascinating stories of adventure and discovery as well as the difficulties he encountered with bulky equipment and remote access. A major linguistic achievement occurred when Turner determined the possibility that the “ring shout,” a Gullah religious dance, was directly inherited from enslaved Muslims—the name “shout” derived from the Arabic word Sha’wt, which had to do with movement around a sacred object rather than sound. Resulting from Turner’s early Georgia recordings is a later major discovery by scholars Joseph Opala, Tazieff Schmidt and Cynthia Koroma who, in 1990, realized that a song passed down through generations connected the Mende people of Sierra Leone to their American descendents in Georgia. A section of the exhibition focuses on Turner’s research on culture in Bahia where a much larger number of Africans had been brought as captives than to the United States, along with the same languages influencing the Gullah. African survivals were particularly seen in the Afro-Brazilian religion, Candomblé, and when informants recognized words in the Sea Island recordings, Turner, again, saw language connecting the worlds of the African diaspora. Turner’s many writings, presentations and publications included his book, Africanisms in the Gullah Dialect, published in 1949, and still the standard reference for Creole language research today. Highlights of “Word, Shout, Song” include: • The Bilali Diary written by a Muslim slave • Turner’s recording device and special-character typewriter • The vestment of a Candomblé initiate • Rare recordings of Gullah speech and songs and rare photographs of informants produced by Turner • Audio and written comparisons of words that are similar and from languages spoken in the Americas and Africa • The section “Singing for the Ancestor: A Song that Made the Roundtrip to Africa” The section “The Black Seminole: The Gullah that Got Away” that recounts the history of fugitive slaves from Georgia and South Carolina, whose descendents are now found in Florida, Mexico and Texas and who speak an ancient form of Gullah To learn more about this exhibit, click here.

17th Annual Black Enterprise/Pepsi Golf & Tennis Challenge, Carlsbad, CA

17th Annual Black Enterprise/Pepsi Golf & Tennis Challenge

taking place September 2 – September 6, 2010

at the La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, California. Ron Isley & The Isley Brothers, Big Daddy Kane, MC Lyte, Doug E. Fresh, El Debarge, Blair Underwood will be attending. What is the Black Enterprise/Pepsi Golf & Tennis Challenge? The Black Enterprise/Pepsi Golf & Tennis Challenge is an exclusive, luxurious weekend bursting with networking, fun, and relaxation. This stellar event aligns you with top business minds—so get in the game! Who should attend? Professionals wanting to network, relax, or both. This event is a weekend of business, pleasure, and friendly competition. Adult registration is ages 18 and up. We are anticipating more than 1,200 attendees this year. Learn more about this, click here.

DO ARTS

Art Show Reception

7 p.m. Sept. 2, Richmond Hill Historical Society & Museum, 11460 Ford Ave. The Society is pleased to present the show "Seeing History Through the Eyes of Local Artists" during the month of September. Local artists have used archived images held in the Richmond Hill Museum to visually reproduce through paint, pencil, canvas and photography the life and times of the people, places and things from days gone by on the coast of Georgia. Free. For information, call 912-756-3697.

African American artists shine in new exhibit, Wayland Baptist University Plainview, TX

PLAINVIEW – Art as an imitation of life is a tradition as old as art itself. For many cultures, art has been a way to express their experiences, emotions and struggles.

The newest exhibit to grace the walls of the Abraham Art Gallery at Wayland Baptist University is testament to the unique experiences of African Americans in the South. Southern Journeys features the work of 52 artists in a variety of mediums as they examine their ties to the south. Open to the public during September and October, the show is free.

According to the promotional guide, artists in Southern Journeys span three generations, those whose careers developed and matured between the 1930s and 1950s; those who came of age during the Civil Rights and Black Power decades; and those who have emerged in the postmodernist period.

Show curators liken the artists to griots, or storytellers in Western Africa who keep alive the oral traditions and history of a village, as they tell multilayered stories through their drawings, paintings, sculptures and prints. The artists represent the academicallytrained and the self-taught ends of the art spectrum though they share their culture and the “black experience.”

While African Americans primarily lived in the south until the early twentieth century, the migration into other parts of the country resulted in ablending of their culture and art forms such as music, literature, art and dance with the art of the region. Some of the work represents commissioned art by the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s and 40s, designed for the masses. The Civil Rights movement, focused heavily in the south, fueled African American artists to examine the politics of race in their work.

The Black Power movement that followed added a sense of empowerment and pride that brought about a new consideration of African American art and identity. The southstill inspires contemporary artists, and the distinctive regional identity, multicultural heritage and vibrant folk culture of the South align with postmodernist cultural values.

“Southern Journeys features works by internationally recognized African American artists such as Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, Faith Ringgold, Dean Mitchell, and Richmond Barthé, allowing students to experience their artwork up close and personally, which is always a better way to experience art than in art history textbook reproduction. The American experience of these black artists across three generations presents a fascinating visual narrative, and provides insights into our rich and complex history,” said Dr. Candace Keller, curator of the gallery and professor of art at Wayland.

From the advent of slavery to the Harlem Renaissance, the Black arts movement to the postmodern era, the exhibition is sure to stimulate discussion on culture and inclusion of the multiple voices and visions of American art history. A generous grant from the Mid America Arts Alliance and the National Endowment for the Arts helped us to bring this exhibition to the Abraham Gallery, and we hope our regional schools will be able to take advantage of it, as well as our patrons and friends.”

According to Keller, the gallery welcomes tour groups from schools and other organizations, especially those who want to get a more in-depth look into the history and culture featured in the 55 works. Trained docents will be available for groups with advance notice. Interested parties may call the gallery at 291-3710 to make reservations for group visits or for more information.

The gallery is open during regular hours of the Mabee Learning Resources Center, which houses the gallery in its lower level: 10-5 Monday through Thursday, 10-4 Friday and 2-5 Saturday.

Addiction drama 'A Separate Sun' debuts at the Fringe, Philadelphia, PA

THERE'S A little something for everyone on the theatrical edges of the 2010 Philadelphia Live Arts Festival/Philly Fringe, getting into gear this weekend through Sept. 18 - from the, um, "karaoke debauchery" of "Zombies Are Forever" to a new beach blanket musical, "Destination Summer," to a staged presentation of old-time radio dramas, "Hear Again Radio Project."

But playwright Joe Blake thinks it's time to get real, people. He believes that 2010 audiences crave something more attuned to the world we live in, something that's "pressing the envelope, more sensitive to the times."

And he's got just the goods to satisfy: an urban drama with music called "A Separate Sun" which has its world premiere Saturday at The Arts Garage on Ridge Avenue as part of the Fringe. (The Fringe welcomes any and all to present their work, and Live Arts participants are selected by festival producing director Nick Stuccio.)

"Sun" stars Barrymore Award-winning actress/singer Joilet Harris as Ansonia, a woman struggling to overcome abuse, drugs and depression who finds salvation through the power of song.

Blake, a former Daily News reporter who covered news and entertainment, writes with obvious personal knowledge and sensitivity for his subject.

For musical scoring, he found a kindred spirit in Bill Jolly, one of Philadelphia's most seasoned R&B, jazz and theatrical music arranger-composers, Blake shared in a recent conversation.

Q: Will "A Separate Sun" be your debut at the Fringe festival? And what inspired it?

A: This is my second time participating. The first was with a piece called "Muralista," about a mural proposed for a gentrified neighborhood. My inspiration was a piece I did for the Inquirer , in which I complained about a mural I didn't like in an urban neighborhood. It had these idyllic images [and] reflected nothing of the stress that the community was under. Murals were invented as a political tool by artists like Diego Rivera to incite revolution and change. They were supposed to represent anything but being happy and digging in the garden.

"A Separate Sun" came out of teaching a writing class for a group of recovering addicts. A friend who was teaching asked if I could fill in for two sessions. At first I was resistant, didn't think I could accomplish anything. I wound up staying for three years.

As a playwright, these people opened up a world that I never knew existed. We all know someone who's recovering, or someone who knows someone who is. But to hear their challenges firsthand, their stories, it's fascinating. It's like an alternative universe. And I was so inspired by them.

This play is about a woman who's a recovering addict, who made it through with song. The thing is, with a recovering addict, music becomes a different kind of addiction for them. Junkies can only cure themselves with family or music or spirituality, with something that fills the void - the crack that's left behind.

Q: Is the character of Ansonia based on someone you met and worked with?

A: A lot of the words are composites of stories they told me. One thing I found out that was not unusual with recovering addicts, most of them have been dead at least once. They OD'd, or somebody beat 'em up so bad they had to bring them back, resuscitate them. But I couldn't fit that in, because it would have taken away from other things, maybe seemed too preachy. So I'll use that somewhere else.

Q: You're rather critical of a lot of the content in the Fringe, aren't you?

A: There's so little for African-American people, though my experience with "Muralista" was that people will really come out if you give them something of value. While other shows couldn't attract five people, literally, and had to cancel performances, we never played to less than 25. And one of our performances for "A Separate Sun" has already sold out. (The theater space holds 100.)

Some artists who're participating in the Fringe fest are not really trying to be cutting-edge, just gimmicky. That stuff might have worked four or five years ago, but now what they [audiences] want to see in art is different, and you need to be aware of that tone and be sensitive to the times. To the economic meltdown. And our perceptions of immigration and of color.

Heavy, heavy stuff has been going down. It's like a throwback to the '50s. So to come out with lightweight pieces that don't try and say anything . . . Come on, we're smarter than that.

Q: What can you tell me about Bill Jolly's score, and your lead actress?

A: Bill's done a wonderful job. The story ebbs and flows between recovering and going back again, her backsliding. And the music just flows with it. When she's recovering it's upbeat. When [she's] backsliding, it's something else. It builds to a crescendo.

I don't want to give it away, but she does overcome.

This isn't just instrumental music, it's songs with lyrics. Jazz, bluesy, R&B and gospel, all mixed in.

Joilet is an accomplished actress and singer, the only African-American to win the Barrymore Award [Philadelphia's version of the Tony Awards ]. She just came out of a Pittsburgh production of "Sarah's Song," in which she played [jazz singer] Sarah Vaughan.

She's always working. She was in "12 Monkeys" with Bruce Willis . She was a regular on "The Wire," did several episodes of "Law & Order." And she has a singing voice that will make you cry. She's that good.

Q: What does it take to get a show into the Fringe? Do the organizers pay you to participate? And how do you pull it all off?

A: No, no, there are no subsidies! In fact, it's expensive to participate. You have to pay a festival fee. You pay to get a picture with your listing in the guidebook. You have to get insurance, to be bonded.

If you want marketing - say a sandwich board outside the venue, or any kind of flier or cards, you pay. And of course, you have to pay the actors. We got a break from Actors Equity to be able to work with Joilet Harris, but only within limits.

I've been working with the owner of the Arts Garage, Ola Solanke, for several years, originally doing some poetry readings. It's in a gentrifying neighborhood, become a popular place with students and cutting-edge artists from the universities and the Northern Liberties area.

But I also couldn't have gotten this show on without Chetachi Dunkley, owner of a residential services company [Casmir Care Services] that works with people who have disabilities or mental health issues. I am doing some consulting for her [he holds the title of executive director], and she raised the issue of wanting to do something for the arts. I said, hell, you can donate to me!

Well, I didn't say it quite like that, but that's how it all got going. And her daughter [Chioma] wound up in the show, alternating in the part of the young Ansonia. But Chioma has experience - she just finished working on an independent film at Temple - and had to pass our audition.

"A Separate Sun" by Joe Blake and Bill Jolly, directed by Lenny Daniels, starring Joilet Harris with Chioma Dunkley, Harum Ulmer Jr. and Jamara Griffin. The Arts Garage, 1533 Ridge Ave., 7 p.m. Saturday, 4 p.m. Sunday (sold out), 7 p.m. Tuesday through Sept. 10, and 4 and 7 p.m. Sept. 11, 215-413-1318, www.livearts-fringe.org.

To read and learn more about this event, click here.

The Parkway Collection of Important African-American Art, Tyler Fine Art, St.Louis, MO

The present group of important African-American works of art has been discriminately collected by Parkway Galleries L.T.D., a Midwestern-based group of people with a great passion and appreciation for this genre of American art. Rich in complexity and diversity, we believe that this collection is a meaningful cross-section of masterworks, well representing the heritage and pride, as well as the trials and tribulations experienced by the African-American artist during the early to mid-20th century. Many of these works were produced at the height of the artist’s critical period of recognition.
Parkway affiliates, with more than 70 years of combined experience in the field of modern American art, believe that living with, loving and investing in fine art associated with our own American heritage is a prudent and fulfilling decision. We also believe that American art produced during the 20th Century, especially between the wars, with its magnitude of political, social, technical and creative complexities will, over time, be recognized as some of the most important art ever produced.

Tyler Fine Art
282 N. Skinker Blvd
St. Louis, MO 63130
(314) 630-3845

Gallery Reception:
6-9PM Friday August 20th

Exhibit
Aug 21 - Sept 28th
Tues-Sat 11-5

Please visit the Parkway Collection website to view the current exhibit
www.parkwaycollection.com