If you missed the Vision Collaborations and Matthew Shipp

There is still time, but barely.

This Saturday is the last day of the Vision Collaborations Festival at the 14 Street Y (a once a year treat… you’ll have to wait till the Vision Festival in late June for a line-up coming close to this!). Check the program here.

Visual arts, dance and music explore an innovative dialogue in sound, space and sight. The collaborations and improvisations  are at the core of these unique performances, and this Friday night one of my favorite pianist, Matthew Shipp, engaged in this conversation in tone and movement, along with violinist Rosie Hertlein and drummer Whit Dickey, as Mario Zambrano, Emily Coates, Marie Blocker and Emily Clime danced.

Matthew Shipp (piano) and Rosie Hertlein (violin)

For those who would want to hear Matthew Shipp, he will be playing next Sunday, March 14, from 5 to 7PM, at a benefit for a very special place: A Gathering of the Tribes, a salon on East 3rd Street. You will hear music that feeds the brain and opens the mind, and you will be supporting a real grass-roots artistic community.

For those who can’t attend and are curious, an excerpt of a recent concert with Matthew Shipp and Whit Dickey:

The Vision Festival has started

Brass Bang

Tuesday was the opening night of the Vision Festival – the 14th edition, this year at the Abrons Arts Center at Henry Street Settlement. Check out the full program here and be curious: come out, open your eyes, your ears and your heart! It is a yearly blossoming of smart, generous and free expression unlike any other, mixing music, dance and visual arts.

(Yes, full disclosure: I volunteer for the creation of an Innovative Arts Center, an initiative closely linked to this, and I’ll be moderating two panel discussions at the Festival about Arts and Politics).