Mainstream museums lack Native expertise in curating Native art

In Mainstream Museums, Confronting Colonialism While Curating Native American Art
by Sheila Regan, Hyperallergic, June 26, 2015

Transatlantic trade pact could threaten arts funding

Transatlantic Trade Agreement Could Spell Disaster for Culture
by Benjamin Sutton, Hyperallergic, June 26, 2015

Chris Squire, 67

Chris Squire, Bassist With the Rock Band Yes, Dies at 67
by Peter Keepnews, The New York Times, June 28, 2015

Your witness wanted: Attend Fire & Ink this fall.

Author Randall Kenan
will be the keynote speaker
at Fire & Ink, IV in Detroit.

Fire & Ink IV: Witness

October 8-11, Detroit, MI

REGISTER NOW!

"Generations do not cease to be born, and we are responsible to them because we are the only witnesses they have."

—James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time

Keynote speaker Randall Kenan is the author of a novel, A Visitation of Spirits; two works of non-fiction, Walking on Water: Black American Lives at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century and The Fire This Time; and a collection of stories, Let the Dead Bury Their Dead. He edited and wrote the introduction for The Cross of Redemption: The Uncollected Writings of James Baldwin. Among his awards are a Guggenheim Fellowship, the North Carolina Award, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Rome Prize. He is a Professor of English and Comparative Literature at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Fire & Ink IV: Witness is a writers festival that will address the urgent question of what it means to bear witness as LGBTQ and SGL writers of African descent and heritage in the 21st century. Merriam-Webster offers these definitions of "witness": One that gives evidence. One who is present at an event and can say that it happened. One who testifies in a cause. An attestation of fact. One who has personal knowledge of something. Public affirmation by word or example of usually religious faith or conviction. We invite Black LGBTQ and SGL writers and artists to assay their own definitions of witness.

Fire & Ink is a nonprofit organization devoted to increasing the understanding, visibility and awareness of the works of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender writers of African descent and heritage.

Harold Battiste, 83

Harold Battiste, Musician, Mentor and Arranger, Dies at 83
by Sam Roberts, The New York Times, June 25, 2015

Albert Evans, 46

Albert Evans, Ebullient City Ballet Dancer, Is Dead at 46
by Margalit Fox, The New York Times, June 24, 2015

Preview another festive year of Bessies

The Bessie Awards Steering Committee--honoring outstanding work in New York City's diverse dance field--extends a special invitation to a cocktail reception and presentation of the 2015 award for Emerging Choreographer and the Juried Bessie Award. In additional, all Bessie Award nominations for 2015 will be announced at this essential event.

Wednesday, July 15

Cocktail reception 5-6pm*

Announcements and awards 6-7pm

Studio C at

Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center

280 Broadway (enter at 53 Chambers Street), Manhattan

(map/directions)

*Purchase 

reception tickets.

Support 

The Bessies!

Outstanding Emerging Choreographer: On July 6, the nominees for Outstanding Emerging Choreographer will be announced online at this link.

Juried Bessie Award:  The 2015 Bessie Jury includes award-winning dance artists Susan Marshall, Reggie Wilson, and Shen Wei. The honored dance maker will tour his or her work to one or more regional theaters.

2015 Bessie Awards Steering Committee:

Cora Cahan, Beverly D’Anne, Lane Harwell, Judy Hussie-Taylor, Stanford Makishi, Carla Peterson, Laurie Uprichard and Martin Wechsler

Produced in partnership with 

Dance/NYC

Ronnie Gilbert, 88

Ronnie Gilbert, Folk Singer for the Weavers, Dies at 88
by Bruce Weber, The New York Times, June 6, 2015

Will Holt, 86

Will Holt, Who Wrote ‘Lemon Tree’ and for the Musical Stage, Dies at 86
by Bruce Weber, The New York Times, June 4, 2015

Margaret Juntwait, 58 [UPDATE]

Margaret Juntwait, Former WNYC Host, Voice of Metropolitan Opera, Dies at 58
by Brian Wise, WQXR, June 3, 2015

Margaret Juntwait, the Voice of the Met on Radio, Dies at 58
by James Barron, The New York Times, June 4, 2015

Stew says, "Don't blame James Baldwin...."

Stew
(photo: Susan Rosenberg Jones)

James Baldwin had nothing to do with it. Or so we're told.

Even so, he's all over Notes of a Native Song, repeatedly referenced in words and video images, popping up in comically surprising places that will have you double-checking your old vinyl albums because...well, wait a minute...!?!

Harlem Stage's 14-month Year of James Baldwin goes out boldly this week with a commissioned premiere by Stew, star and Tony-winning co-creator of Passing Strange. The new 75-minute work invites us to Baldwin Country, a place where Stew will pair Baldwin's "social remedies" with his own "anti-social questions." For it is the rockin' poet's quest to rescue "Harlem's Bard" from what Stew considers to be our selective, safe memories of the provocative writer.

James Baldwin? Safe? Respectable? Hmmm.

Well, all anti-social questions aside, Stew himself strikes me as anything but safe in his wry, incisive poetry, his madly eclectic, often gorgeous music (co-composed with Heidi Rodewald), his singing, his very being. Passionate, insistent, occasionally snide, yet capable of disarming beauty, Stew can make you grin one minute and the next, feel a chill race up your chakras.

Text/music/guitars/singing: Stew
Bass/guitars/Moog: Heidi Rodewald
Percussion: Urbano Sanchez
Woodwinds: Mike McGinnis
Piano: Art Terry
Lighting: K. J. Hardy
Video design: Joan Grossman

Tickets are almost gone. Connect with Harlem Stage here for shows Wednesday through Saturday, 7:30pm and Saturday and Sunday matinees, 2pm.

Harlem Stage Gatehouse
150 Convent Avenue (at 135th Street), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Jean Ritchie, 92

Jean Ritchie, Lyrical Voice of Appalachia, Dies at 92
by Margalit Fox, The New York Times, June 2, 2015

Jim Bailey, 77

Jim Bailey, Character Actor in Drag, Dies at 77
by Bruce Weber, The New York Times, June 2, 2015

Betsy Palmer, 88

Betsy Palmer, ‘Friday the 13th’ Villainess, Dies at 88
by Bruce Weber, The New York Times, June 1, 2015

Dudley Williams, 76

Dance Legend Dudley Williams Has Passed
by Out and About NYC, June 2, 2015

Tanith Lee, 67

Tanith Lee, Fantasy and Horror Novelist, Dies at 67
by Sam Roberts, The New York Times, June 1, 2015

Louis Johnson, 60

Louis Johnson, Bassist and Singer for the Brothers Johnson, Dies at 60
by Daniel E. Slotnik, The New York Times, May 31, 2015