Memorial celebration for Kazuko Hirabayashi, November 7

Kazuko Hirabayashi
(photo courtesy of Daniel Madoff)

Organized by Daniel Madoff, Stephanie Tooman and Terese Capucilli, a memorial celebration for legendary dance teacher and choreographer Kazuko Hirabayashi has been set for Monday, November 7 (7:30pm) at New York's Symphony Space.

Ms. Hirabayashi, born in Japan, was an influential mentor to numerous leading dance artists. She died in March at her home in Harrison, New York. She was 82.

Featured performers include a stellar lineup from American Ballet Theater, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Batsheva Dance Company, Martha Graham Dance Company, Doug Varone and Dancers, Abraham.In.Motion and Limón Dance Company as well as students from The Juilliard School, The Conservatory of Dance at Purchase College, SUNY, The Ailey School and The Martha Graham School.

Choreographers represented will include:

Kazuko Hirabayashi
Merce Cunningham
Martha Graham
Antony Tudor
Robert Battle
Ohad Naharin
Doug Varone
Kyle Abraham
Takehiro Ueyama
Alberto Estébanez Rodriguez
George Faison

Tickets are free with your RSVP by email to

kazmemorial2016@gmail.com

Symphony Space
2537 Broadway at 95th Street, Manhattan
(map/directions)

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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

Jean-Léon Destiné exhibition and life celebration planned for Harlem

Jean-Léon Destiné (1918-2013)

Life Celebration--Saturday, June 15

1pm Mass at St. Charles Borromeo Church, 211 West 141st Street, Manhattan (212-281-2100)

4pm Exhibition at The Schomburg Center, 515 Malcolm X Boulevard, Manattan

(NW 135th Street and Lenox Avenue)

6pm Performance at The Schomburg Center's Langston Hughes Auditorium

****

The New York Times obituary from January 30, 2013:

Jean-Léon Destiné, Dancer, Dies at 94

by Margalit Fox

Memorial planned for cultural historian Delilah Jackson

Delilah Jackson

A public memorial tribute to Delilah Jackson, Harlem's cultural historian, who died on January 12, is planned for St. Peter's Church--New York's world-renowned jazz church--on Friday, March 8 (7-10pm).

Organized by Al Heyward, Michela Marino Lerman, Mable Lee and Cobi Narita, this tribute will feature nearly 100 jazz musicians and tap dancers along with special guest Jill Jackson, Delilah's daughter. A coffee and dessert reception will follow.

All are welcome!

St. Peter's Church
619 Lexington Avenue (at 54th Street), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Memorial service tomorrow for Diane Wolkstein

Read: Why Travel to the Other Side of the World

by Diane Wolkstein, January 2013

The Most Incredible Thing of All at Central Park (2010)

Courtesy Rosegarden Television (CC BY–NC–ND)

 A message from Diane's daughter, Rachel: 

"It is with profound sadness that I tell you that my mother, Diane Wolkstein, passed away very early this morning in Taiwan. She had had emergency heart surgery but the procedure was not sufficient to allow her heart to work on its own. She was not conscious and she was not alone. She had several of her close friends from Taiwan there with her and at the very end she had a rabbi say kaddish and Buddhist prayers were said as well. Her death is a terrible shock. Her life overflowed with joy, intensity, friendship, love and spirit. Her love for each of us and the stories she told live inside of us forever." —Rachel Zucker

Obituary:

Diane Wolkstein, world-renowned storyteller, folklorist, mythologist and author of many books for children and adults, died following emergency heart surgery on January 31 while on a trip to Taiwan working on her most recent project, the Chinese epic story of Monkey King or Journey to the West.

Diane was the author of 23 books of folklore and performed to sold-out crowds throughout the world. What set Diane apart as a storyteller are her performing gifts as well as the depth of knowledge and research she devoted to the stories she told. Diane’s collection, The Magic Orange Tree, was the result of numerous visits to Haiti during which Diane recorded stories told on porches and in late-night gatherings. In Australia, Diane met Aboriginal storytellers who granted her special permission to tell their stories. Wolkstein spent years working with Samuel Noah Kramer, one of the world’s pre-eminent archeologists, to create the definitive telling of the great Sumerian epic, Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth, which she performed at the United Nations and the British Museum. Because of Diane’s work, Inanna has become an influential text in feminist studies and studies of ancient history.

Diane’s belief in story and its potential to transform people’s lives propelled her to the forefront of the modern storytelling movement as early as 1967, when she joined the New York City’s Department of Parks & Recreation and started a year–round storytelling program for the city’s parks and schools. Diane initiated America’s first graduate storytelling program at Bank Street College of Education and was a regular visiting teacher of mythology at New York University for 18 years. She is a founding member of both America’s National Storytelling Conference and the Storytelling Center of New York City, and has held hundreds of workshops on the art of storytelling throughout her long career. For thirteen years Diane’s radio show, Stories from Many Lands, was broadcast on WNYC–AM/FM bi–weekly, and in 2007 New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg named June 22nd of that year “Diane Wolkstein Day” in honor of Diane’s 40 years of storytelling for the people of New York City.

New York City’s children gathered at the foot of the statue of Hans Christian Andersen in Central Park to hear Diane tell stories every Saturday for more than forty summers. The culminating event of the storytelling season was her telling of Elsie Piddock Skips in her Sleep and the skip rope competition that followed.

Diane is survived by her daughter, Rachel Zucker, her son-in-law Josh Goren, her three grandsons Moses Goren, Abram Goren and Judah Goren, her mother Ruth Wolkstein, her brothers Martin Wolkstein and Gary Wolkstein, her sister-in-law Elizabeth Borsodi, nieces and nephews and a grandniece. She also leaves behind many dearly loved friends in New York and around the world.

In lieu of flowers please consider making a donation in Diane’s name to Partners in Health, or Tzu Chi Foundation.

A public memorial service will be held this Sunday, February 3rd, at 3PM at the New York Insight Meditation Center, located at 28 West 27th Street, 10th floor (b/w 5th and 6th Avenue). (A second memorial, celebrating Diane's life is being planned for the summer/fall).

Celebration for Jayne Cortez at Cooper Union's Great Hall

There will be a celebration of the life of poet/activist Jayne Cortez at The Great Hall, Cooper Union  (7 East 7th Street, Manhattan) on Wednesday, February 6, 2pm.

(map/directions)

For further information, please email jaynecortezcelebration@gmail.com.

Frances Alenikoff memorial announced

A memorial will celebrate the life and legacy of Frances Alenikoff, hosted by Alenikoff's family.

All are invited to toast Frances and share their memories with her fellow artists, friends, and loved ones.

Eden's Expressway

537 Broadway, 4th Floor

Sunday, September 30

6:30pm

Featuring words from Francesca Rheannon and from Movement Research, and a video presentation by Ray Grist.  Frances's art and writing will be on display. All with memories and stories of Frances are invited to share them.

Please feel free to bring a contribution of light fare or drink, in Frances's true spirit of community.

Judd Jones, 79

Thanks to Melvin Erroll Taylor for sending the following announcement through Facebook. Please note that the memorial service is today at 6pm.

***

Judd Jones, an actor, singer and dancer, died peacefully with friends at his bedside at his home in Manhattan on March 9. He was 79 years old. Born and raised in Montgomery, Alabama, Jones arrived in New York in 1954 with stars in his eyes and a tremendous desire to sing professionally.

His booming bass baritone voice had been nurtured in the U.S. Army. He was assigned to a USO and loved being on stage. “I knew that I could hold an audience,” he said. “So when I got out of the Army, I headed for New York City.”

He found a job in an acting studio and one of the first people he met was Chita Rivera, who told him, “If you want to make it on Broadway, you can't just sing. You have to learn to act and dance.”

Jones took her advice. He toured for five years as Chino in West Side Story. He performed in plays and musicals on Broadway, Off Broadway, in regional theater and with the Lincoln Center Repertory Company. He appeared in The Royal Hunt of the Sun, My One and Only, The Fantastics, Tambourines to Glory, Finian’s Rainbow, Kiss Me Kate, Two Gentlemen of Verona and King Lear, among many other productions.

His one-man shows celebrated the life and work of Paul Robeson and the great Vaudeville performer Bert Williams. Jones also taught, coached and mentored many young actors.

After a moving Black History Month reading from Martin B. Duberman’s slave chronicle “In White America,” a sobbing young girl apologized to the white-haired Jones for his years of suffering. “Oh, my dear, I’m not that old,” he said. “I am an actor and I have lived a wonderful life in New York City.”

Judd Jones is survived by his brother Edward Jones of Huntsville, Alabama. He is mourned by his many friends, neighbors and the far-flung clan of Joneses.

A memorial service led by Brian Stokes Mitchell and Keith David will be held on Sunday, April 10, at 6 pm in the Good Shepherd Faith Church at 152 West 66th Street in Manhattan. A reception will follow in Jones’s apartment at 140 West End Avenue at 66th Street.

Contributions may be made on Judd Jones’s behalf to the Actors Fund, the New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the Association of Tenants of Lincoln Towers.

Memorial service for Jill Johnston (1929-2010)

There will be a celebration of writer/activist Jill Johnston's life and work on Saturday, January 29 (1pm-5pm) at Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South, Manhattan.

Johnston comes on like a flood, vivacious, mile-a-minute, with an uncontrollable eloquence. -- New York Review of Books

Memorial for Francis Mason -- October 30

There will be a Memorial for Francis Mason on Friday, October 30th, 2009 at 2:00 pm at The Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue (at 19th Street). The speakers and program will be announced soon. It is open to the general public. Francis Mason (88), a cultural diplomat, editor, radio dance critic, writer, and dance devotee, died on Thursday, September 24 at his home in Rye, N.Y. He began his career as a dance writer in the 1950s, and for more than 50 years, he worked in the field of dance.

He was born on September 9, 1921 in Jacksonville, Fl. He received his bachelor’s degree from St John’s College in Annapolis. While serving in the Navy, he participated in D-Day. Cultures especially literature, music, movies and the visual arts were all early loves. In 1948, he was taken by a friend to the world premiere of “Orpheus,” with music by Igor Stravinsky and choreography by Balanchine. This began his devotion and advocacy for dance.

In 1949 he began his radio career for WNYC, on the program “Today in Ballet.” In 1954 he was the principal editor and author of the highly successful book “Balanchine’s Complete Stories of the Great Ballets,” which has been reissued numerous times. This book reflects Mr. Balanchine’s account of his ballets, as well as presents the scenarios of a wide range of other internationally acclaimed ballet repertory.

Mr. Mason was cultural attaché to the United States embassies in Belgrade (1956-60), and in London (1960-65), where he successfully urged the American government to sponsor appearances by American dance companies. These presentations forged the British recognition of Balanchine, Graham and other American choreographers and helped to further these careers. These performances helped to establish the popularity of American dance troupes both in Europe and the United States. The success of New York City Ballet, the Graham, Merce Cunningham and Alvin Ailey companies in London in the 1960s made a great impression back in the United States and in other countries. Martha Graham and George Balanchine would remain life long friends. His attachment to Balanchine, Graham and their respective dance companies continued after their deaths.

Some of his other positions included in Washington as chief of East/West Exhibitions (1965-67); a year in New York as president of Experiments in Art and Technology, invited by its founders, Billy Kluver and Robert Rauschenberg; later as assistant to Arthur A. Houghton Jr. (president of Steuben Glass and chairman of the Metropolitan Museum of Art); and, in 1975, assistant director of the Morgan Library & Museum.

He served for decades as a member of the board of the Martha Graham company, twice as chairman, from 1974 to 1976 and from 2000 to 2007. And during this period, he lead the company through a trying period of lawsuits, fund-raising and advocacy.

In 1980, he became the third editor of Ballet Review, which was founded in 1965. He brought the magazine to its’ annual quarterly publication and for the last three decades served as editor until his death. Mr. Mason published “I Remember Balanchine,” (1991) an anthology of his personally conducted interviews with an extraordinary range of people whose contacts with Balanchine stretched from the 1920s to the 1980s. And until a few months ago he was dance critic for the radio station WQXR-FM,

His wife, Patricia, whom he married in 1952, died in 1997. He is survived by a daughter, Leslie, a real estate broker in Manhattan, and his son, Spencer Mason, an opera singer in Pforzheim, Germany; and two grandchildren.

Tags: Francis Mason, dance criticism, Ballet Review, memorial service, obituary, The Joyce Theater