Don Hogan Charles, 79

Don Hogan Charles, Lauded Photographer of Civil Rights Era, Dies at 79
by Niraj Chokshi, The New York Times, December 25, 2017

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Dick Gregory, 84

Dick Gregory, 84, Dies; Found Humor in the Civil Rights Struggle
by Clyde Haberman, The New York Times, August 19, 2017

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Bob Fitch, 76

Bob Fitch, Photojournalist of Civil Rights Era, Dies at 76
by Sam Roberts, The New York Times, May 3, 2016

Bob Adelman, 85

Bob Adelman, Photographer Who Captured the Emotion of the Civil Rights Movement, Dies at 85
by Sam Roberts, The New York Times, March 21, 2016

Leon Bibb, 93

Leon Bibb, Actor, Folk Singer and Civil Rights Activist, Dies at 93
by William Grimes, The New York Times, October 26, 2015

Guy Carawan, 87

Guy Carawan Dies at 87; Taught a Generation to Overcome, in Song
by Margalit Fox, The New York Times, May 7, 2015

Jacqueline Woodson: Publishing must and will change

The Pain of the Watermelon Joke
by Jacqueline Woodson, The New York Times, November 28, 2014

Public memorial for Ruby Dee at Riverside Church, September

Memorial for Ruby Dee Set for September in NYC
NBCNewYork.com/Associated Press, July 2, 2014

Ruby Dee, 91

Ruby Dee, a Ringing Voice for Civil Rights, Onstage and Off, Dies at 91

by Bruce Weber, The New York Times, June 12, 2014

Maya Angelou, 86 [UPDATE]

Legendary author Maya Angelou dies
by Faith Karimi, CNN, May 28, 2014

Maya Angelou, Lyrical Witness of the Jim Crow South, Dies at 86
by Margalit Fox, The New York Times, May 28, 2014

Stormé DeLarverie, 93 [UPDATE]

Iconic treasure of the LGBT Community Stormé DeLarverie passed away peacefully early Saturday morning, May 25th
Henrietta Hudson blog, May 25, 2014

Storme: The Lady of the Jewel Box (1987), a film by Michelle Parkerson

Storme DeLarverie, Early Leader in the Gay Rights Movement, Dies at 93
by William Yardley, The New York Times, May 29, 2014

Rosie Perez offers master class for young performers

Rosie Perez holding a master class
at Baryshnikov Arts Center's Jerome Robbins Theater
Photo by Robert Leslie
courtesy of the National YoungArts Foundation

Actress, dancer, choreographer, director,
Rosie Perez has had to acknowledge and push past her fears
in order to be the accomplished, authentic artist she wants to be.
Photo by Robert Leslie
courtesy of the National YoungArts Foundation

Rosie Perez majored in biochemistry. That scientific headset remains with her, she says, making it easier for her to function in theater onstage--more in the moment, finely analyzing and managing each and every aspect of her performance--than in film, where so many, many others have control of the product.

That was one interesting revelation from a master class the multi-talented performer and Puerto Rican activist offered for high school arts students enrolled in this year's YoungArts New York week-long intensive. Held yesterday afternoon at Baryshnikov Arts Center's Jerome Robbins Theater, The 90-minute session gave a group of about twenty students in jazz, singing, dance and acting an opportunity to be observed and critiqued by this exceedingly sharp-eyed, frank and caring artist. And it also gave her a chance to share hard lessons learned from decades in the entertainment industry:

First off, check your attitude at the door, or you might get shown the door. 

"You're going to be dealing with a lot of older people who've been around a long time," she said. "When you get older, you don't have time to put up with people's BS, with chips on their shoulder."

Next up: Just plain do your art.

"If you're an artist and you aren't doing what you do, a part of you will be dying."

Nerds are it.

"That feeling that you have of never fitting in? That you're kind of weird? The reason you stand out as an artist is that you are not the norm. Embrace your oddity. Embrace it, honor it and cherish it."

No slacking off.

"You have to bring 100% professionalism, being prepared and pushing through your fears and stepping into your greatness, knowing who you are."

It was director George C. Wolfe who gave Perez that advice--"Push through your fears and step into your greatness"--and who once confronted her, as she waited to go onstage, with this:

"Are you still scared?"

"Yeah," she said.

"Good. Use it."

Passion. Use it, too.

"Have you seen my YouTube Soul Train compilation? Passion was leaking out of my pores. I learned to control it, manipulate that passion."

Your authentic self is your artist self.

"I used to spend a lot of time being someone else in my performance, thinking that that's what it is."

She thought she had to be Meryl Streep--although, she jokes, her accent was kind of a liability. But she watched jazz drummer Max Roach at a White House gig being nobody but Max Roach and was blown away by his cool. That gave her a clue. And she watched Sutton Foster, then a virtual unknown, step into the lead role in Thoroughly Modern Millie at nearly the last minute when another actress was fired--"Sutton Foster was read-day! Bitch was read-day!" Foster got her break and more than proved herself. And went on to win a Tony. Perez resolved to always be read-day, too.

"Where you find who you are and how you perform are those moments alone. That's how you develop the person you want to be."

Perez intently watching as
YoungArts New York participants perform.
Photo by Robert Leslie
courtesy of the National YoungArts Foundation

My favorite part of Perez's master class came when she quietly asked some members of a jazz combo, who had just played for her, to each take a moment to describe one of their colleagues as a musician. Each of the students did his or her best with this assignment but, as I see it, might have missed Perez's point. 

I think she was trying to get them to see that ability, and even style, is not enough. You have to have that little something something that is absolutely yours alone and that identifies you to your peers and your fans. Your signature. 

But they have time to work that all out.

* * * * *

YoungArts New York is a program of the National YoungArts Foundation, established in 1981 to "identify and nurture the next generation of artists in the literary, performing, visual and design arts, and to contribute to the cultural vitality of the nation by supporting the artistic development of talented young artists."

During YoungArts New York, March 31-April 7, 2014, approximately 100 YoungArts Winners in the visual, literary, performing and design arts will take part in a week-long intensive, working with masters in their field. These talented young artists will then present their work through several multidisciplinary performances at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, and a visual art, photography and design exhibition, writers’ readings and cinematic arts screenings at the MoMA PS1. The week will culminate with a special screening of the HBO documentary series Anna Deavere Smith: YoungArts MasterClass at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

For a schedule of YoungArts New York exhibitions, readings, screenings and performances open to the general public this weekend, click here.

Applications to participate iin 2015 programs will be open from April 15 to October 17, 2014. For eligibility requirements, click here.

Lorraine Hansberry Literary Trust goes online April 1

A New Website Dedicated to Lorraine Hansberry
by Felicia R. Lee, The New York Times, March 10, 2014

Reflections: Pete Seeger

Pete Seeger’s Last Night on Stage
by Jesse Wegman, The New York Times, January 28, 2014

For Seeger, Years of Singing and Sailing to Save His Hudson River
by Joseph Berger, The New York Times, January 28, 2014

Pete Seeger, 94

Pete Seeger, Songwriter and Champion of Folk Music, Dies at 94
by Jon Pareles, The New York Times, January 28, 2014

Carrie Mae Weems retrospective at Guggenheim Museum

Carrie Mae Weems: 
Three Decades of Photography and Video

Guggenheim Museum

January 24-May 14

Carrie Mae Weems
A Broad and Expansive Sky—Ancient Rome (from Roaming), 2006
Chromogenic print, 73 x 61 inches (185.4 x 154.9 cm)
Private collection, Portland, Oregon
© Carrie Mae Weems

Carrie Mae Weems
Untitled (Man and mirror) (from Kitchen Table Series), 1990
Gelatin silver print, 27 1/4 x 27 1/4 inches (69.2 x 69.2 cm)
Collection of Eric and Liz Lefkofsky, promised gift to The Art Institute of Chicago
© Carrie Mae Weems
Photo: © The Art Institute of Chicago

New York Times critic Holland Cotter's otherwise admiring review of Carrie Mae Weems: Three Decades of Photography and Video (here) chides the Guggenheim Museum for not devoting its central, spiraling rotunda to Weems. Right now, if you visit the Guggenheim, you'll find that sloping spiral roped off in preparation for the upcoming Italian Futurism, 1909-1944: Reconstructing the Universe and that show's crates filling much of the ground floor.

The original Weems retrospective, curated by Kathryn Delmez, opened in September 2012 at Nashville's Frist Center for the Visual Arts. According to Cotter, the Guggenheim omits some works included in previous stops along the show's tour, and the exhibition has been broken up into galleries scattered over a few floors. Cotter points out that, for a first New York retrospective of Weems's career, thirty years worth of work, the limited selection and spatial placement give this Black American artist, a 2013 MacArthur Fellow, short shrift. Cotter's argument seems all the more reasonable and urgent once you appreciate Weems's entire mission, which is all about visibility--to underscore and creatively document presence and experience against racist, sexist omissions and erasures.

She has done this, magnificently, in a variety of ways. Often putting her own body--at once, deific and down-to-earth--front and center in her photography and video work is the boldest stroke. Whether facing us head-on and meeting our gaze with her own or, by turning her back to the camera, slipping into iconic anonymity as in her dramatic Roaming series, Weems answers a denying world with defiance as if to say, Without my presence, you could not have come to be what you are.

I took a tip from Frida who from her bed painted incessantly--beautifully while Diego scaled the scaffolds to the very top of the world. -- from Weems's text for Not Manet's Type (1997)

Weems claims space for African and Afro-Atlantic realities, for people of African descent, particularly women, and our families and communities within society and its art.

Weems also exerts an artist's right not just to make new stuff but to appropriate existing objects--say, J. T. Zealy's daguerreotypes of "Negroid types" from slavery days--sealing these excavated memories under glass etched in white text, seizing control of how they will be seen and understood. She brings marginalized history to the table just as, in The Kitchen Table Series, she brings everyday eros to the table. Because she locates herself or others in historical time and in dreamtime and in something eerily combining the two--see her 2008 video Constructing History: A Requiem to Mark the Moment--we come to understand that we can do and often do the same.

The Guggenheim show might not have everything it could have or take pride of place in the main gallery, but it does educate and inspire (Guggenheim visitor information). See also Brooklyn Museum's Wangechi Mutu: A Fantastic Journey (closing March 9).

A book details the story of Black women in performing arts and activism

Harnessing Celebrity to Civil Rights Cause
‘How It Feels to Be Free’ Salutes Black Female Entertainers
by Farah Jasmine Griffin, The New York Times, January 15, 2014

College seeks performers for new opera on Fannie Lou Hamer

Activist Fannie Lou Hamer in 1964

Mount Holyoke College (South Hadley, MA) plans auditions in Boston and New York for a new opera composed by Mary D. Watkins on the life of the renowned civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer. Dark River, The Fannie Lou Hamer Story will premiere in April 2014 at the college to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the signing of the Bill of Civil Rights. It will be conducted by Tian Hui Ng, directed by Darryl V. Jones and produced by Martha Richards.

This is a paid production.

Auditions will be held at Mount Holyoke College in the afternoon on October 20.

Available roles include:

Lead Roles

1 African-American Female Lead Soprano
1 African-American Male Lead Baritone

Ensemble Roles (Minor Characters and Chorus)

1 African-American Female Ensemble Soprano
2 African-American Female Ensemble Altos
1 White Female Ensemble Alto
2 African-American Male Ensemble Tenors
1 African-American Male Ensemble Baritone
1 African-American Male Ensemble Bass
2 White Male Ensemble Tenors
2 White Male Ensemble Baritones

Children's Roles

2 African-American Female Child Sopranos

For more information about the opera, audition requirements and schedule, and an online application form, click here.

Things that help me breathe...and smile

First, the news that Quvenzhané Wallis (Oscar nominee for Beasts of the Southern Wild) will play the lead in a new film version of Annie. (Yes! She who laughs last laughs best!)

And now this:

Alfre Woodard Says She's Bringing The Life Of Fannie Lou Hamer To TV In 4-Hour Film
by Tambay A. Obenson, Indiewire: Shadow and Act, February 26, 2013

Rosa Guy, 89

Rosa Guy, 89, Author of Forthright Novels for Young People
by Margalit Fox, The New York Times, June 7, 2012