In good voice: Black women speak up, sing out

Melissa Harris-Perry
(photo: MSNBC/Heidi Gutman)

Yesterday, the stars aligned. And how!

In mid-afternoon, scholar, author and MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry sat down at The New School for a provocative conversation with scholar and author bell hooks. In the evening, singer-musician Toshi Reagon took to the stage at the Rubin Museum of Art with violinist/fiddler Juliette Jones for an acoustic concert of songs organized around images from the Rubin's collection of Himalayan art. Without question, November 8, 2013 was a Power Day in New York City.

bell hooks

If you missed the (poorly announced) free ticket distribution for the New School event, you could watch via Livestream (complicated sign-up, especially at the last minute, but not impossible). Social media exploded right before, during and after with expressions of frustration (What??? I didn't know you needed TICKETS to get in!!!) and increasing awe as hooks and Harris-Perry addressed, all too briefly, numerous issues, each of which could have launched a thick dissertation. From divergent perspectives on recent Black-themed films (12 Years A Slave, Django, The Butler) to sexual violence against Black women to the relative privilege of having light skin when working in corporate media, hooks and Harris-Perry showed a willingness to take space, give voice and honestly grapple with difficult questions. And difficult people: Ironically, perhaps inevitably, one man chose to waste limited Q&A time by delivering a lecture then shouting over hooks' attempt at a reply. It's useful, though--isn't it?-- whenever a fool helps you prove your point about the arrogance of patriarchy.

Both women invoked the late congresswoman/presidential candidate Shirley Chisolm of Bajan heritage (her slogan: "Unbought and Unbossed") as a role model and, accordingly, spent the ninety-minute session breaking every possible code of silence. I was most amazed by--and even concerned for--Harris-Perry who displayed an outspokenness about her role at MSNBC and a degree of personal vulnerability that I would not have anticipated. I felt hooks--twenty years the broadcaster's senior, as she made sure to note at the beginning of their talk--prodding and then leading Harris-Perry into deep waters but making sure to surround her with loving support. Just breathtaking.

Watch the archived conversation

 on Livestream here.

Toshi Reagon
(photo: Erica Beckman)

Introducing Toshi Reagon at the Rubin, Tim McHenry (Director of Public Programs and Performance) wondered aloud what had taken him so long to invite her. So now that that oversight has been rectified, I'm sure it won't take long to bring her back. McHenry's sold-out audience was not only appreciative but clearly smitten.

The Rubin challenges singer-songwriters in their Naked Soul acoustic concert series to peruse the collection and select three images to build a set list around. Reagon--who looks much like a delighted Buddha herself--clearly enjoyed her opportunity to learn about the legends of Himalayan deities and demons and recognized, in them, a way to talk about her ongoing concerns around social and environmental justice. The connection of her specific song lyrics to the sacred themes wasn't always obvious, but the delicate interplay of her high-flying voice, her bluesy guitar and Juliette Jones's sinuous fiddle work made their own sense and had grounded, and grounding, spirituality--always welcome. Her ease with the audience and her sense of humor were winning. Someday ask Reagon to tell you the story of the warrior goddess, Durga--one of her image choices. The Rubin really ought to hire her as a docent.

******

Future Naked Soul evenings will include appearances by Mary Gauthier (January 3), Susan Werner (Febuary 14), David Wilcox (March 14) and Shelby Lynne (May 30). For information and ticketing, click here.

"Naked Soul" at the Rubin

Holly Near

Did you know that Chelsea's Rubin Museum of Art will feature a great acoustic singer/songwriter series, starting this month and presenting the likes of Kristin Hersh (July 26), Holly Near (September 27) and Toshi Reagon (November 8)?

Presented with Music without Borders, the Naked Soul series opens June 28 (Slaid Cleaves) and continues on select Fridays at 7pm.

Members may receive up to 25% off tickets.

Get the complete schedule and ticketing information here or call the box office at 212-620-5000 x344.

Bronx art museum continues free admission program

In the Bronx, Where Art Is Still Free
by Robin Pogrebin, The New York Times, March 6, 2013

Contemporary visual art from India

Indian Images Reflect the Present
A Review of ‘Goddess, Lion, Peasant, Priest,’ in Ewing
by Tammy La Gorce, The New York Times, November 2, 2012

Museums explore the art of meditation

Om Is Where the Art Is
by Nick Earhart, ARTnews, October 2011

Celebration of Greek film in New York City

The Fifth Annual New York City Greek Film Festival, heralding what presenters have called a new renaissance in Greek film, kicks off on October 16 and will run through November 6 at venues from Chelsea's Rubin Museum of Art to the Museum of the Moving Image.

This year's lineup includes Athina Rachel Tsangar's unconventional Attenberg, the first Greek film to be presented at the Sundance Festival and Greece's current contender for a Best Foreign Film Oscar. Its lead actress, Ariane Labed, won the Best Actress award at the 2010 Venice Film Festival.

Tickets are available now. Learn more about the festival's schedule of screenings and related events here.

He's melting, melting...

Night of the Melting Buddha

To mark the closing of Grain of Emptiness, the Rubin Museum of Art has asked South Korean photographer Atta Kim to document the melting of a five-foot-tall ice sculpture of the Buddha. Visitors can participate in the work by collecting the melting water with the injunction that they use it to tend to new growth.

 

The melting begins on Friday, March 25 at 6pm during K2 Friday Night, and the museum will be open after hours so that it can be viewed through the night and into the weekend.

For more information on this event, click here.

Rubin Museum of Art

150 West 17th Street (between 6th and 7th Avenues), Manhattan

(directions)

Black sutra

Chelsea's Rubin Museum of Art, a beautiful home for the classic arts of the Himalayan region, regularly looks far beyond the Himalayas for ideas, imagery and energies that resonate with its spiritual focus. Last Saturday, the Rubin hosted If We Breathe, a living installation by Chicago-based multidisciplinary artist Theaster Gates that featured members of The Black Monks of Mississippi, five Black men and women whose performance practice involved the unexpected blending of gospel, blues and Buddhist chant; yoga asanas and the strumming of cello.

At their 2pm public performance, Charisma Sweat's mellow gospel vocals led us up the museum's spiraling staircase to a tiny gallery. There Khari Lemuel plucked spare notes from his cello, while Aya-Nicole Cook performed a smooth yoga sequence before sitting in meditation. In a short while, the monks quietly retreated, and the audience dispersed.

That performance--part of an afternoon in which the group appeared on each hour, from noon to 3pm, and in "a special salon concert for high-level members"--could not have lasted much more than five minutes. For something so short and so understated, though, it left a residue of serenity with an undercurrent of soul that said firmly, without shouting, "We are present." To me, it suggested a place for difference, and our awareness of difference, within the context of sameness, the context of expectations--Buddhism is Asian; Buddhism in today's America is white and affluent; yoga in today's America is white and affluent; Black Americans are Christian, period. In its quiet way, this installation blew down all kinds of boundaries.

I didn't expect, though, that it might have something to suggest to me about dance writing. But I found a thought arising, unbidden, about dance criticism and about how prominent critics of dance and other disciplines have recently taken defensive postures about the value and even the very survival of their profession. It was this question: "What if we were to think of our dance criticism not as 'my job' but as 'my practice?'"

How might that shift things? How might commitment to practice open up, for each of us, the possibility of humility, curiosity, attention, creativity? What if we realized we had nothing to protect and much to learn and exchange?

Really, I don't know why that thought about practice arose at that particular moment, but I thank Gates, Sweat, Cook, Lemuel, Yaw Agyeman and Dayna Lynn for planting the seed.

Theaster Gates: The Black Monks of Mississippi performing at 2010, the Whitney Biennial

More videos:

The Black Monks of Mississippi on blip.tv

Theaster Gates lectures at Milwaukee Art Museum

For information on current and future programs of the Rubin Museum of Art, click here.

The Black Monks of Mississippi

Rubin Museum of Art:

Theaster Gates and the Black Monks of Mississippi

Saturday, January 22

Echoing his video installation in Grain of Emptiness, sculptor, urban planner, and performance artist Theaster Gates infuses the gallery with live monastic chanting at the top of each hour. Monks layer meditative sutras and gospel singing in this accumulative performance, juxtaposing the Buddhist and African American spiritual experiences. Each performance is distinct, building upon the experience of the previous hour.

Public performances at 12, 1, 2 and 3pm

Free with museum admission

(complete information)

Rubin Museum of Art

150 West 17th Street (between 6th and 7th Avenues), Manhattan

212-620-5000

(directions)

The Rubin says, Nothing to it!

Renowned avant-garde stage director Robert Wilson addresses the significance of space and emptiness with the architect Charles Renfro of Diller Scofidio + Renfro for the Rubin Museum of Art's Talk About Nothing series.

Robert Wilson + Charles Renfro

Monday, December 6 (6pm)

Rubin Museum of Art

150 West 17th Street (between 6th and 7th Avenues), Manhattan
(information and directions)

When you're ready to move beyond Oprah...

The gorgeous, always imaginative Rubin Museum of Art is well into a series of seven Wednesday evening conversations called Tibetan Book of the Dead Book Club in association with its special exhibitions, Bardo: Tibetan Art of the Afterlife and Remember That You Will Die: Death Across Cultures. Each Wednesday, curator Ramon Prats explores the TBD from different perspectives with an expert representing a particular discipline. They inquire: Does the TBD have relevance, wisdom and practical application for us today?

This week, I attended Prats's talk with Jungian psychoanalyst Morgan Stebbins on "The Analysis of Dreams," a topic of perennial relevance. According to Tibetan Buddhist beliefs, dreams will always be relevant as long as humans exist, as long as humans remain unenlightened. Enlightened beings do not dream. They no longer have to, for to dream is to open onto an altered level of awareness in which we come face to face with avoided, unknown or normally inaccessible issues.

Stebbins discussed how Tibetan ideas and traditions around this heightened state of awareness parallels the theories and practices of Carl Gustav Jung. Jung's psychoanalytic approach, he said, represents a journey into the "totality of one's being--the Buddha nature" where one can gain information on unconscious patterns of behavior, insight into so-called symptoms that are actually "symbolic attempts to get to somewhere new." Dreams herald a shift towards liberation.

And the TBD considers this liberation through hearing, as Prats mentioned, in his intriguing introductory remarks. Why hearing, I wondered? One sentence from a TBD passage read later suggested the reason: "So, recognize what I show you without distraction." We are simply too distracted by illusion to get with reality. Like children in school, we have to be brought to attention and made to hear. The Bardo afterlife process, Tibetan Buddhists believe, first brings the soul to that required place of attention and learning before it can move on in its journey. But dreams offer powerful opportunities for growth within our lifetime.

And what of the images of deities of wrath, featured in so much Tibetan art? And what of our own terrifying nightmares?

"Psychologically speaking, nightmares are great news," says Stebbins. "Wake up! Look at this! It has a lot of energy. You have a lot of energy you're not using. Change is scary."

Upcoming TBD Book Club sessions will feature Rabbi Neil Gillman on "The Death of Death" (July 28), Brooklyn Museum curator Edward Bleiberg on "The Egyptian Book of the Dead" (August 11), medium Jesse Bravo on "Channeling the Dead" (August 18) and Roshi Enkyo O'Hara on "How to Die" (August 25)--all at 7pm. Click here for full information and tickets, and promptness--in both ticket purchasing and showing up to get a good seat--is strongly advised.

Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th Street (between 6th and 7th Avenues), Manhattan

Directions

Rubin Museum goes all OUT in June

OUT in the Himalayas

Five Wednesday night events in Gay Pride Month focusing on gay, lesbian and transgender issues in the Himalayan region

Wednesdays, 7pm

For complete information, click here.

To purchase tickets by phone, contact the box office at 212-620-5000 x344.

Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th Street, Manhattan

What time is it?

The Rubin Museum of Art presents a conversation, about time, between screenwriter/director Charlie Kaufman (Synecdoche, New York and The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and Brian Greene (physicist and foremost proponent of string theory).

Greene is currently working on a cantata with Philip Glass and David Henry Hwang based on his children's book Icarus at the Edge of Time. The cantata will premiere at New York's World Science Festival 2010.

What time is it? is part of the museum's wide-ranging and provocative Brainwave series. Get full schedule and ticketing details here.


What time is it?
Saturday, March 6, 3:30pm
Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th Street (at 7th Avenue)
212-620-5000

Bush and Helstroffer: To dream without cease

The Himalayan imagery on display in Chelsea's classy Rubin Museum of Art has found a champion in Nadine Helstroffer, a French-born dancer-choreographer with a Ph.D. in Philosophy. Helstroffer's commissioned solo, Absence Presence, was premiered in the Rubin's special exhibition gallery, surrounded by Eternal Presence: Handprints and Footprints in Buddhist Art. The record of that performance--filmed by John Bush, edited with exquisite sensitivity by Brent Felker--received its world premiere last night at the Rubin along with another Bush film scored by Felker, the quite enchanting Dream on Me.

Helstroffer's snaky dancing evokes the couple's shared spirituality and pleasure in nature; her perpetually inward expression gives a poetic, even solemn flavor to her work. But she is not just Bush's ethereal muse but also his anchor. Like the hyper-energized, exalted beings at the center of the Tibetan images that flicker through Absence Presence, Helstroffer acts as the radiant core from which Bush's loveliest light can flow in the dream-inspired Dream on Me. The ripples of reflections in water; the deep, resonant clang of super-saturated color; the languorous bobbing of blossom-laden trees in lingering moments of drowsy beauty and gentle humor: They all seem sourced and grounded in this iconic performer.

A flowing composite of the four seasons, Dream on Me hits a jarring, undreamy note only when surf-side passages too closely resemble slick, New Age magazine ads for yoga retreats. But, overall, strategies for overlapping color-bearing dancers with natural or manufactured environments speak to the complexity of notions of permanence and impermanence. What is eternal? What is fleeting? Rigid skyscrapers? Mounds of snow? Wafting saffron banners? Elusively drifting bodies of flesh and bone?

A Q&A followed the screening in which Helstroffer and Bush were joined on stage by Michael Vincent Miller, PhD, a Buddhist psychotherapist. Miller offered thoughtful insights--about engagement with and consideration of art, about empathetic surrender in the moment, about the similarities between wellness in health and in art--that he made me wonder if the future of really useful dance criticism might not actually lie in Buddhist psychotherapy!

For more information on the work of John Bush and Nadine Helstroffer, click here and here.

For more information on the Rubin Museum of Art and a schedule of upcoming events--including the impressive BRAINWAVE series, pairing artists with neuroscientists and astrophysicists--click here.

Do the BRAINWAVE!

BRAINWAVE at the Rubin Museum of Art: It could change your mind!

The third annual BRAINWAVE series--running from February 17 to April 14--brings thinkers from multiple disciplines to sit down with (neuro)scientists and astrophysicists to wrap our minds around the things that matter.

Wednesday, February 17 (7pm) -- "Why Does Movement Move Us?" with Mark Morris and Bevil R. Conway

Choreographer Mark Morris and neuroscientist Bevil R. Conway explore how the brain responds to dance and motion.

$30 (includes reception)

For a full schedule of BRAINWAVE events and ticketing information, click here.

Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th Street (between 6th and 7th Avenues), Manhattan
212-620-5000

Jung's Book of Shadows

Exhibition Review: 'The Red Book of C. G. Jung - Creation of a New Cosmology'
by Edward Rothstein, The New York Times, December 11, 2009