Amiri Baraka, 79

Amiri Baraka, former N.J. poet laureate and prolific author, dead at 79
by David Giambusso, Newark Star-Ledger, January 9, 2014

Amiri Baraka, Polarizing Poet and Playwright, Dies at 79
by Margalit Fox, The New York Times, January 9, 2014

Race barriers in classical ballet: A conversation at NJPAC

Ballerina Ashley Murphy
(photo by Matthew Murphy)

Black Ballerinas: 

Breaking the Boundaries of Classical Ballet

Thursday, January 16, 7-8:30pm

New Jersey Performing Arts Center

1 Centre Street, Newark, New Jersey

Free admission

In 2007, The New York Times asked, Where are all the Black Swans? An urgent dialogue sparked by that question has caused leading dance institutions nationwide to examine the rarity of African-American women among their ranks.

A conversation about raising the profile of the black ballerina, and the economic opportunities for diversifying and expanding audiences, will be held on January 16, the evening prior to a performance by Dance Theatre of Harlem at NJPACs annual tribute to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Moderator:

Charmaine Warren, dance journalist

Announced panelists (as of January 8):

Virginia Johnson, Artistic Director and a founding principal dancer of Dance Theatre of Harlem

Michelle Gadson-Williams, Head of Global Diversity at Credit Suisse

Map/Directions

Artists come together against gun violence

Participate in Art = Ammo

an Artists Against Gun Violence performance/event

Saturday May 18, 2pm

(rehearsal 12:30 pm)

in Newark, exact location TBA

For more information and to see an example of the performance: http://www.artammo.org/ {listed on site as soon as we clear the location}

To participate, please email gguncontrol21@gmail.com.

It started on February 24, 2013. Almost 200 artists and activists met in NYC’s Times Square. We held our hands up in a surrender position for 26 seconds, 26 seconds to honor the 26 victims of Newtown. Vulnerable to opposition in a very public place, we singularly sank to the ground and dropped into a lifeless position as our partners traced our outlines with chalk. An exponential crime scene emerged. We wrote a word inside each chalked body image­ the name of a victim, their age, a statistic, 'senseless,' 'loophole,' 'mother,' 'son,' 'enough' and then...walked away. Left on the ground was a sea of literary and visual reminders of lives lost." 

--Lorin Latorro

In the words of Brecht, ‘Non­action is a tragic flaw’. As artists, we have the responsibility to act.

Newark's got 'America's Got Talent'

'America's Got Talent' Provides Boon to Newark Arts Center
by Holly Hall, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, April 12, 2012

NJPAC's Out, Loud and Proud V

New Jersey Performing Arts Center
presents Out, Loud and Proud V

curated and hosted by Pandora Scooter
with Brave Soul Collective and Alix Olson

Saturday, May 7 (7:30pm)

Gay, straight, queer, lesbian, bisexual, transgender—how do you identify? As part of this season’s Alternate Routes GLBT Festival, New Jersey’s own Pandora Scooter returns to riff, rhyme, rant and act as host to some of the spoken word scene’s most provocative new artists—a daring collective of wordsmiths who collectively represent all orientations. Be there when these cutting-edge voices convene to express their personal views on one of life’s hottest topics: sexuality. This year's performers include the three-person Brave Soul Collective and spoken word artist Alix Olson.

Details
Ticketing
Directions

NJPAC gets into real estate

New Jersey Arts Center Sets Real Estate Venture
The project, advocates say, will help revitalize the Newark neighborhood where the center makes its home.
by Robin Pogrebin, The New York Times, October 15, 2010

Newark hosts Dodge poetry fest

Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival Tries Newark
by Felicia R. Lee, The New York Times, October 5, 2010

Filmmaker Brack remembers Sakia Gunn

Dreams Deferred: The Sakia Gunn Project -- Charles B. Brack, producer-director. Co-produced with Third World Newsreel. (58 minutes, 2008)

Charles B. Brack opens his hour-long documentary appropriately with clips of brief statements by people--presumably LGBTIQ folks--most of whom do not know who Sakia Gunn was or only vaguely remember what happened to her. Run her name by anyone you know, and most will give similar responses.

Try the same experiment with the name "Matthew Shepard," and you'll quickly see the need for Brack's project, which won the Best in NewFest award in its premiere run.

"It saddened me deeply that this 15-year-old Black lesbian had been murdered on the street, and I hadn't heard about it," said an activist in San Francisco. 

Like the white gay college student in Wyoming--whose grisly torture, brain injury and subsequent death in 1998 got widespread media attention and inspired worldwide protest--Gunn, a resident of Newark, was murdered for being who she was. On a spring night in 2003, after a trip to Manhattan's Christopher Street piers, Gunn--who identified as an "aggressive"--waited with her girlfriends at Newark's Broad and Market Streets bus stop. A couple of men drove up and taunted the kids, propositioning the femmes in the group. Gunn told the men that, as lesbians, they had no interest in them. A fight ensued. Richard McCollough stabbed Gunn, and the teen later died of her wounds.

Dreams Deferred zooms in on the principals involved in the trial of Gunn's 29-year-old murderer, including showing the testimony of Gunn's family members and of the activist Laquetta Nelson, whose group, Newark Pride Alliance, arose in the wake of the tragedy. It is a completely unvarnished, unsentimental portrait in grief and outrage. But, beyond offering these personal statements and some brief views into the milieu of Gunn, her kin and her friends, the film aspires to be a teaching tool. It highlights Gunn's promising life and unacceptable death, yes, but sets her story squarely within the context of American society's homophobia, gender conformity, racism, classicism and sexism as well as our disregard for the needs of youth of color, in particular LGBTIQ youth. Moreover, it does not let queer community off the hook for the ways in which Gunn and other youth like her have been ignored.

This documentary is best approached as a corrective to our collective lack of consciousness and best used to inform about issues, to foster open discussion and to stimulate action.

(Available through Third World Newsreel)

See Dreams Deferred: The Sakia Gunn Film Project at Anthology Film Archives on Wednesday, September 29. Click here for information.