@creativecap

What do Sanford Biggers and Tahir Hemphill have in common? They’re both recipients of Creative Capital grants. Now you can get in the running, too!

Creative Capital is now accepting online Letters of Inquiry for grants in Emerging Fields, Literature and Performing Arts. The deadline for submitting inquiries is March 1 at 4:00pm EST. Visit creative-capital.org/apply to learn more about the application process, read the grant guidelines and access the Inquiry Form.

Creative Capital provides integrated financial and advisory support to artists pursuing innovative and adventurous projects. Acting as a catalyst for the development of exceptional and imaginative ideas, we support artists whose work is provocative, timely and relevant; who are deeply engaged with their art forms and demonstrate a rigorous commitment to their craft; who are boldly original and push the boundaries of their genre; and who create work that carries the potential to reshape the cultural landscape. Selected grantees receive up to $50,000 in direct support for their project and advisory services valued at more than $40,000.

To be eligible to apply, an artist must be:

• A U.S. citizen or permanent legal resident
• At least 25 years old
• A working artist with at least five years of professional experience
• Not a full-time student

Applicants are invited to attend an in-person or online information session to learn more about the process.

Upcoming info sessions:

• Philadelphia, PA: Friday, February 3, 12:30pm, The Painted Bride, 230 Vine Street.
• ONLINE WEBINAR: Thursday, February 9, 3:00-4:00pm Eastern Standard Time.
• Houston, TX: Thursday, February 9, 7:30pm, DiverseWorks Arts Space, 1117 East Fwy.
• Washington, DC: Friday, February 10, 12:30pm, Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, 1101 6th Street SW.
• Baltimore, MD: Saturday, February 11, 12:00pm, MICA PLACE, 814 North Collington Ave.
• Tucson, AZ: Saturday, February 11, 2:00pm, Tucson Pima Arts Council Large Conference Room, 100 N Stone Ave. #303.
• Tempe, AZ: Sunday, February 12, 2:00pm, ASU Memorial Union Building, 1290 S. Normal Ave., Room MU 246.
• San Francisco, CA: Tuesday, February 14, 6:00pm, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Large Conference Room, enter at 130 3rd Street.
• New York, NY: Thursday, February 16, 12:30pm, New York Live Arts, 219 W 19th Street.
• ONLINE WEBINAR: Friday, February 24, 12:00-1:00pm Eastern Standard Time.

RSVP requested to grants@creative-capital.org for in-person sessions. The link to access online info sessions will be posted on our Info Sessions page on the morning of each session.

Questions? Visit creative-capital.org/apply or email grants@creative-capital.org.

About Creative Capital
Creative Capital is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to providing integrated financial and advisory support to artists pursuing adventurous projects in five disciplines: Emerging Fields, Film/Video, Literature, Performing Arts and Visual Arts. Working in long-term partnership with artists, Creative Capital’s pioneering approach to support combines funding, counsel and career development services to enable a project’s success and foster sustainable practices for its grantees. Since its founding in 1999, Creative Capital has committed nearly $25 million in financial and advisory support to 372 projects representing 463 artists, and its Professional Development Program has reached more than 4,000 artists in 50 communities across the country. For more information, visit www.creative-capital.org.

@noshun

Many of you got to hear Sanford Biggers in conversation with fellow artist Wangechi Mutu and critic Greg Tate at this year’s Festival of the New Black Imagination.  At that time, he had two show’s running, one in Queens at the Sculpture Center, and the other at the Brooklyn Museum.

Sanford continues his streak of winning shows with the multidisciplinary The Cartographer’s Conundrum, a series of installations in MASS MoCA’s football field-sized Building 5 that will immerse visitors as they actively become part of a series of optical floor patterns when they move through the space.  All the work in the show is inspired by Sanford’s cousin, Houston, Texas-based artist, scholar and Afrofuturist John Biggers (1924-2001).  Sanford’s goal is to study and expand the emerging genre of Afrofuturism AND illuminate the underrepresented career of this master painter and muralist.

From what we can tell there are three main areas in the exhibit:

• A series of floor patterns that culminate in an installation of church pews and colored transparent plexiglass that’s 25 feet high
• A reproduction of John Biggers’s 7 x 21-foot mural Quilting Party.
• A video, Shake (see the still above), which is, according to the exhibit’s press release, “the second part of Sanford Biggers’s Odyssean trilogy about the formation and dissolution of identity”.

And I like how Afrofuturism is defined.  At the very least, it’s a good starting point

Afrofuturism was a phrase coined in 1995 by cultural critic Mark Dery in is essay Black to the Future, where he links the African American use of science and technology to an examination of space, time, race and culture. In this text Dery defines afrofuturism as: “Speculative fiction that treats African-American themes and addresses African-American concerns in the context of 20th century technocluture – and, more generally, African American signification that appropriates images of technology and a prosthetically enhanced future…” The movement began in earnest in the mid-1950s with musician Sun-Ra, whose music blended science-fiction, mysticism, African culture (with a particular focus on Egypt) and jazz fusion, all of which coalesced in his 1972 film Space in the Place. In 1975 George Clinton formed his bands Parliament and Funkadelic, which took Afrofuturism to new often absurdist heights. Today the movement is still strong, encompassing contemporary musicians like Saul Williams, Janelle Monae, OutKast and DJ Spooky along with writers like Paul Beatty, films like The Matrix, Blade and Chronicles of Riddick and visual artists like Sanford Biggers.

The Cartographer’s Conundrum will be up until October 31.

Additional link:

• The exhibit on the MASS MoCA site
• MASS MoCA main

Wow. Soul Train creator Don Cornelius is dead, the apparent victim of suicide.  He was 75.

According to the LA Times:

Law enforcement sources said police arrived at Cornelius’ home around 4 a.m. He apparently died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the case was ongoing.

The sources said there was no sign of foul play, but the Los Angeles Police Department was investigating.

Soul Train was a groundbreaking show.  It not only provided a TV platform for black music artists at a time when such outlets were few or nonexistent, but it went on to become the longest running, first-run nationally syndicated music show in TV history.  Cornelius hosted the show from 1971-1993.  The show continued until 2006 when it ceased production.

Love, peace, and soul, brotha.  It’s true that you never know what people are going through.

@_CCDs

(l to r: Dom Flemons, Rhiannon Giddens, Hubby Jenkins) credit: Crackerfarm

The Carolina Chocolate Drops’ new album, Leaving Eden–the follow-up to their 2010 Grammy Award-winning Genuine Negro Jig–will be released on February 28 on Nonesuch Records.  Produced by Buddy Miller (Emmylou Harris, Robert Plant, Patty Griffin, Solomon Burke), the album is a mix of original compositions, covers, and traditional song.

Some background from the press release:

Carolina Chocolate Drops formed after founding members Dom Flemons, Rhiannon Giddens, and Justin Robinson met at a roots festival in 2005, and discovered a shared interest in traditional African-American string band music of the Piedmont region. In 2011 multi-instrumentalist Hubby Jenkins joined Flemons and Giddens in the group upon Robinson’s departure. The members share singing duties and swap instruments throughout their sets. (Cellist Leyla McCalla also joins the band on the record and on their upcoming tour.)

Tour dates are as follows

January 26     Music Hall                                                       Portsmouth, NH
January 27     Flynn Center for the Performing Arts       Burlington, VT
January 28     Calvin Theater                                               Northampton, NH
January 29     The Egg                                                           Albany, NY
January 31     Jefferson Theater                                          Charlottesville, VA
February 2     Georgia Theatre                                             Athens, GA
February 3     University of North Carolina                      Chapel Hill, NC
February 7     Butcher Auditorium                                      Madisonville, TN
February 9     Henderson Fine Arts Center                       Henderson, KY
February 17    Monmouth University                                 West Long Branch, NJ
February 18    Library of Congress                                     Washington, DC
February 19    Ruby Diamond Auditorium                       Tallahassee, FL
February 20    Ruby Diamond Auditorium                      Tallahassee, FL
February 23    Clifton Center                                               Louisville, KY
February 24    Buskirk-Chumley Theater                         Bloomington, IN
February 25    Earlham College                                          Richmond, IN
February 26    Stuart’s Opera House                                 Nelsonville, OH
February 28    Strand-Capitol Performing Arts Center  York, PA
March 2          Schimmel Center for the Arts                    New York, NY
March 3          Berklee Performance Center                     Boston, MA
March 4          Narrows Center for the Arts                      Fall River, MA
March 7          Infinity Hall                                                  Norfolk, CT
March 8         Strand Theatre                                              Rockland, ME
March 9         Stone Mountain Arts Center                      Brownfield, ME
March 10       Stone Mountain Arts Center                      Brownfield, ME
April 3           Vagabond Blues                                             Palmer, AK
April 4          Wendy Williamson Auditorium                  Anchorage, AK
April 6          UCLA Live                                                       Los Angeles, CA
April 11         Simms Auditorium                                       Albuquerque, NM
April 15        McDowell Mountain Music                        Phoenix, AZ
April 28       New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Fest            New Orleans, LA
June 17         Palisade Bluegrass & Roots                        Palisade, CO

Additional link:

• Carolina Chocolate Drops official

As the end of the year approaches, some of you may have your accountant’s words ringing in your ears: Make more charitable donations to reduce your taxable income!

If that’s the case, then please consider making a donation to The Festival of the New Black Imagination.  As you may recall, we produced the first Festival on October 15 here in Brooklyn, and played host to 14 sessions, 23 speakers and 4 musical performances.  Here’s the 4-minute recap:

While the Festival itself isn’t a registered non-profit, our fiscal sponsor Fractured Atlas is.  This means, you can donate to the Festival via Fractured Atlas and take whatever deduction you’re allowed by law.

We’ve got a lot planned for 2012, including making the Festival bigger and better, adding some ongoing programming throughout the year leading up to the Festival, and working to develop a granting-making system so that we can support worthy projects.

If you feel this is something worthwhile, please consider a year-end donation. You’ll feel great about supporting the Festival, your accountant will be glad you took his or her advice, and we’ll be incredibly grateful.

Click here to donate!

Additional link:

• Festival of the New Black Imagination
  

@basseyworldlive @thesiweproject

There’s still things black people don’t talk about in 2011 and, to our collective detriment, mental illness is one of them.  I mean, for a people who have survived colonialism, the Middle Passage, slavery, Jim Crow and institutional racism, it would be surprising if we perfectly fine mentally and emotionally after all of that.  And many of us are alright.  But there are just as many who aren’t.

I’ll say upfront that I don’t know Bassey Ipki (above) personally.  What I know about her is that she’s a respected poet, writer, performer (multiple Def Poetry Jam appearances, to say the least) and a fierce mental health advocate who’s been bracingly honest about her own struggles with depression. We’ve had a few short Twitter conversations, and that’s about it.  Just knowing this about her, I thought the launch of this effort made perfect sense.  But I found out the impetus was something beyond her.  It was the suicide of a friend’s 15-year-old daughter.  Here’s what Bassey wrote about it:

Over the summer, I wrote about Siwe Monsanto, the amazing, beautiful, talented 15-year old daughter of my friend, Dionne. I wrote about what  a wonderful human being she was. I wrote about how funny she was. I wrote about what a wonderful mother Dionne was. I wrote about how sad Siwe was at times. I wrote about how she took her own life. Since Siwe’s death, I’ve been struggling with ways I could do more as a human being and someone who loved her. I’ve thought about ways that I could use what few talents I had to do something more to honor Siwe’s memory and to prevent deaths like hers. In August, just 2 months shy of Siwe’s death, I came up with the idea of The Siwe Project, a global non-profit whose aim was to spread mental wealth awareness and education in the global black community. I wasn’t sure how I was going to do it. I’m only a writer. I have no admin experience but I knew it needed to be done so I began talking to some people.

The project had a kickoff event this past Wednesday in DC.  Bassey goes on to say this:

This is just a soft launch, we will be sharing our mission and plans for the future. We will announce our slogan and photo campaign. We are starting small in order to stay focused and on task but we hope to do big things. We need to erase the stigma of mental illness from our communities. We must learn to love and cherish our mental health as much as our physical health. We must encourage and support those with mental illness so that they may manage and seek treatment without fear or shame. These are imperatives. Too many of us our dying or the walking dead. This isn’t about pushing medication or specific forms of treatment on anyone. What works for me, may not work for you. But find something that works. Face it. Treat it. Then live.

The promo video is a version of her poem “Choices,” which chronicles her struggles with mental illness.  It was directed by the very talented Pierre Bennu:

A great closing thought from Bassey: “Mental illness is not who you are.  It’s what you have.”

Additional links:

•  Bassey Ipki’s blog
• The Siwe Project
• Pierre Bennu

@saulwilliams (photo by Andrew Gura)

Hot off the presses!  These dates have just been announced, so you can catch Saul bringing Volcanic Sunlight to you live and direct!

Fri. 17-Feb       Brooklyn, NY           Music Hall Of Williamsburg

Sat. 18-Feb       Boston, MA             Brighton Music Hall

Mon. 20-Feb       Hoboken, NJ            Maxwells

Wed. 22-Feb       Philadelphia, PA       World Café Live

Thu. 23-Feb       Washington, DC         Black Cat

Fri. 24-Feb       Chapel Hill, NC        Cats Cradle

Sat. 25-Feb       Atlanta                The Masquerade

Sun. 26-Feb       Tampa, FL              Orpheum

Mon. 27-Feb       Orlando, FL            The Social

Wed. 29-Feb       New Orleans            HOB

Thu. 1-Mar        Houston                Fitzgeralds

Fri. 2-Mar        Dallas, TX             Sons of Herman hall

Sat. 3-Mar        Austin, TX             Mohawk

Mon. 5-Mar        Albuquerque, NM        The Launchpad

Tue. 6-Mar        Phoenix, AZ            Crescent Ballroom

Thu. 8-Mar        Los Angeles, CA        El Rey

Fri. 9-Mar        San Diego, CA          Soda Bar

Sat. 10-Mar       San Francisco, CA      Slims

Mon. 12-Mar       Portland, OR           Doug Fir

Tue. 13-Mar       Seattle, WA            Neumo’s

Wed. 14-Mar       Vancouver, BC          Biltmore

Fri. 16-Mar       Salt Lake City, UT     Urban Lounge

Sat. 17-Mar       Denver, CO             Marquis

Mon. 19-Mar       Minneapolis, MN        Triple Rock

Tue. 20-Mar       Chicago, IL            Bottom Lounge

Wed. 21-Mar       Cleveland, OH          Grog Shop

Fri. 23-Mar       Toronto, ON            Great Hall

Sat. 24-Mar       Montreal, PQ           El Cabaret

Additional link:

• Saul Williams official

Thanks @stereogum.

Yup, they’re back.  The new album is slated for sometime this spring.  Also, according to Pitchfork, they’ll be at Radio City Music Hall on April 13.

More album details are forthcoming, so stay tuned.

This 6 minute short was just released yesterday and includes behind-the-scenes footage and some previously unheard (new?) songs.

Wonderlustre drops in two weeks on September 13.

Additional links:

• See the video for “Ugly Boy”
• Skunk Anansie official site

"So many of us grew up knowing Lena Horne," I said to my wife Bridgett earlier tonight.  "Several generations grew up on Lena Horne," she replied.  She was 92 years old when she passed away yesterday. Pretty incredible, right?

Here's a quick sample of some of the writing that's been done about her today.

First, Thembisa Mshaka, journalist and author of Put Your Dreams First: Handle Your [entertainment] Business, wrote this:

Groundbreaking actor, dancer, and vocal stylist Lena Horne made her
transition at the age of 92. Lena Horne, with her smoldering voice,
lithe dancer’s body, and flawless beauty, is the Mother of Black
Hollywood: its glamour; its contradictions, its fighting spirit. Before
Dorothy Dandridge, Lonnette McKee, Vanessa Williams, Halle Berry, or
Paula Patton, there was Lena. If you are a woman of color in the
business, and you elect to pursue a living performing on stage, using a
microphone or appearing before a camera, you owe a debt of thanks to
Lena Horne.

Read more here.

Sundance fellow and author of Blood Beats, Vols 1 and 2, Ernest Hardy, wrote the following:

When I was a child her beauty grabbed me first, but there was so much
more… that extraordinarily regal bearing, which never broke; the fire
in her eyes that let you know there was a real fighter behind that
classically gorgeous face; the earthy, frank humor which dispelled the
"goddess" mystique in which her countenance and her own rich, layered
history (personal and professional) shrouded her. But it was her vast
reality and the courage and class with which she lived it that made me a
lifelong fan, and made her relevant beyond nostalgic longing. Her
struggles in Hollywood and her principled stands against racism in the
entertainment  industry, in the military (she was an early challenger to
the rules of segregation that were in effect when celebrities performed
for the military in the '40s), and in America at large made her a
heroine and cultural icon for Black folks even though her film career
was a clear example of the race-based glass ceiling at work. We had
great pride in her because she was talented and tenacious… But also
because she was loud and clear about the pride she had in us, long
before such pride was publicly fashionable. She was tough. Fearless.
Legendary. Her death hits hard.

Read more here.

And the NY Times obituary, written by Aljean Harmetz, is here.

Her classic, Stormy Weather: