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:

Wow – it’s Vision Collaborations season already?

So where did the summer go? And New Year? Really, I have not written a note here since June and the Vision Festival???

Well, thanks to Arts for Art here we go again: it’s Vision Collaborations’ season already! Actually it started tonight, but I was stuck at the keyboard by a couple of deadlines. Still, worth checking the program here, as it goes on until Saturday.

So what have I been doing that kept me so busy?

Well, amongst other endeavors, the newest and most fascinating thing I did was to help co-develop the French language and culture unit, using journalistic expertise, for a pilot educational exchange program (a collaborative effort of CUNY and a wonderful not-for-profit, Make A Better Place.)

Also, I went to New Orleans a couple of times, still working on that long piece about the city and all that’s at stake in its rebuilding. This project has taught me quite a lesson about the human spirit, and the very strong political and personal backbone that is quite unique to the people of New Orleans I met through the years.

During my last stay, I went to see the progress at Wesley United, a place I had visited some time ago, where a group of dedicated people are saving a piece of history and building a center that will give the local youth a shot at the music and film jobs the city hopes to create with its development as “Hollywood South”. With the help of local experts, apprentices, and volunteers, progress is made at Wesley: solid, steady – I want to write “obstinate”, because it goes on against all odds, and without the glamour glow of some other (worthy) causes.

This week, “Restore United” launched a donation campaign: adopt a brick, adopt a pew, put your money down and your name up in history. The drive for funds ends Friday and yes, it’s tax-deductible. All the details are here.

The upstairs of the church, future site of the performance/teaching center

MLK Day, the day before Inauguration…

…is the time to celebrate and create a new collective vision of the United States.

It will be happening in a lot of different ways all around the country, with many volunteers contributing various efforts and talents. In these difficult times, art is one of the essential ways we can get together and move forward. Here are the details of one event, in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, that will be a gathering of creative forces for change.

The invitation:

Freedom’s Ring – Dreams for a New Era

As part of the Special Martin Luther King Day / Inaugural Eve Artist’s Ball at Theater for the New City, Arts for Art is presenting a special conduction, led by Warren Smith and Joe McPhee.

Confirmed members of the Conduction ensemble include:

Alto Sax: Rob Brown Patrick Brennan Avram Fefer Henry Warner Saco Yasuma Flute: Diana Wayburn Tenor Sax: Adrian Cunningham Darryl Foster Seth Meicht Ras Moshe Bass Clarinet: Gunter Hampel Bari Sax: Dave Sewelson Vocals: Mossa Bildner Ellen Christi Jean Carla Rodea Trumpet: Lewis Barnes Jesse Selengut Trombone: Steve Swell Violin Rosi Hertlein Jason Kao Hwang Guitar: Cristian Amigo Bradley Farberman Clifton Hyde Juan Quinonez Cello: Daniel Levin Bass Michael Bisio Hilliard Greene Zak Sherzad Dance: Patricia Nicholson: Dance Conduction Ruomi Lee Hampel Jason Jordan Members of Wendy Osserman Dance Co. Drums: Whit Dickey Andrew Drury Gunter Gruner. Poetry: Eve Packer Steve Dalachinsky Poets from A Gathering of the Tribes Visual Art: Amir Bey There will be more artists coming…

Full schedule:

5 till 7: Dance / Art / Spoken Word, organized by Lower East Side Girls’ Club and LES Power of Peace Anti-Violence Youth Coalition.

7 till 9: Theater / Dance / Music performances, organized by TNC

9 till 10: Vision/RUCMA large ensemble with dance/ spoken word, conduction by Warren Smith and Joe McPhee, organized by Arts for Art

10 till 12: Vision/RUCMA individual or small group musicians, dancers and poets – personal statements of vision, organized by Arts for Art

10 till 1:30: the Artist’s Inaugural Ball, organized by the Action Arts League – Come in Costume to Express Your Dream!

From 5PM on: There will be art installations and impromptu happenings, organized by the Action Arts League – Please Come and Take Part!

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January 19, 2009 is the eve of President Barack Obama’s Inauguration and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Let us join together to express our Vision for the Future. With an artful Inaugural Ball, we will ring in a new era and establish a direct conversation with the Obama Administration on how art and culture can help strengthen the country.

This is part of a national network of events which are an official part of the Inauguration.  The event encourages participants to create music, art or costumes that reflect a “Vision” for a better America. It will include performances and activities early with a dance party breaking out later.

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Practical information:

The event will take place at Theater for the New City, 155 1st Avenue between 9th and 10th streets. The admission for the latter portion of the evening is an affordable $5 or $10. There will also be an inexpensive bar.

Since I last wrote…

…Barack Obama has been elected President of the United States and the explosion of joy in downtown Manhattan felt like a liberation, the end of a long war.

The party was over, for the president-elect, as early as November, 6, when he received his first PDB – “presidential daily brief”, the state of the world as described by intelligence services. (Later, Al Qaeda’s perplexity, faced with a black man named Barack Hussein Obama succeeding George Bush, became perfectly clear).

Soon enough, Barack Obama was holding regular press conferences, announcing his cabinet and the priorities. Rahm Emanuel was the first major figure to be designated, soon followed by Obama and Clinton loyalists, and of course Hillary herself at the State Department.The economy quickly became the top priority, with record job losses and the debate about a bailout for Detroit’s “Big 3″.

In line with the new approach of the campaign, the transition team put itself on-line. “Chicago” and the less than stellar tradition of Illinois politics came back with a vengeance, though, with the arrest of Gov. Rod Blagojevich, accused by the FBI of a “pay to play” scheme involving the appointment of Barack Obama’s successor in the Senate (but not involving the president-elect or his team, the prosecutor quickly pointed out).

And yes, there was a new song - and speaking of songs, one of the reasons this blog was once again lost in the shuffle is that, besides preparing a book (in French, and no, I have no intention to translate-blog it!) and trying to keep up the French-language “Americana” blog, I volunteer for a cause I believe in: the creation of an Innovative Arts Center in downtown Manhattan. Yes, we need it – creation and imagination is more crucial than ever in tough times – and yes, we can! And yes, there is a Gala Fundraiser this Monday, at the Orensanz Center. Good cause, good art, good party…