59!

Just a quick note. I completed the 59th interview this past week with Dawn Xiana Moon, singer, songwriter, bellydancer, and more. You can check out her group Raks Geek here: http://raksgeek.com/  for amazing bellydancing with a geek culture theme! 

This weekend, I also had the pleasure of seeing Honey Pot Performance's Ma(s)king Her at the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park. I've talked about this group and work previously; I interviewed Meida Teresa McNeal, Executive Director and Artistic Director, for the project and the Vocalo piece. The work was the result of several workshops held in the fall at the Washington Park Arts Incubator, other universities and colleges and more. The piece was inspired by Afro-Surrealism and Afro-feminist thought. It was a moving and powerful modern fairytale. I'm quite pleased that I had the chance to check it out. Below are some photos from the performance. 

Honey Pot Performnace

Honey Pot Performance 

That's all for now!

New Recorder!

This past week I got a new recorder. It’s a Tascam DR-05. After the Vocalo Storytelling Workshop, it was clear that if I was serious about audio documentaries, I should upgrade my recorder. Just to give you all an idea about the difference, here’s a photo between my old recorder Athena and my new recorder Aiode. Just a tiny difference, no?

I will use both since Athena still works and it’s always good to have a backup. But I’m very excited to have this recorder. I’ve already played around with it, wandering through an empty church and I like what I hear. I’m much more sensitive to noise opportunities. Plus Third Coast International Audio Festival’s Short Docs competition is on right now. They are partnering with one of my favorite performance groups, Manual Cinema, this year. The general idea is to use the recorder like a camera. (And they have specific rules on their website). Very challenging. Still working out what I’ll do this year. So stay tuned for that.

Upcoming events: 

Meida Teresa McNeal and the rest of Honey Pot Performance are putting on Ma(s)king Her at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion on 4/14 to 4/16. For more information, check the website: http://honeypotperformance.com/projects/masking-her/

Other News:

This movie Signature Move: Life, Love and Lady Wrestling sounds like a great thing to support. 

Brief synopsis:

"Signature Move is an indie romantic comedy meets coming-of-age feature film about a Pakistani-Muslim-lesbian named Zaynab, who lives in Chicago taking care of her conservative-but-sweet TV-obsessed mother. A mother she keeps secrets from. The film is set in Chicago, because a Chicago summer is a beautiful time to fall in love. And Zaynab does fall in love with Alma (secret #1), a smart, bold Mexican woman with whom Zaynab connects across culture, food, AND WRESTLING because as Zaynab is learning professional-style wrestling (secret #2), Alma tells her that her grandmother used to be a Lucha Libre wrestler back in Mexico when she was young."

If you can, please support. It sounds like a wonderful movie. You can support it here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/signature-move-life-love-lady-wrestling--4#/

That’s all for now!

SWAN Day and Other News

Hello! I just returned from a lovely trip to NYC. I spent SWAN day (Support Women Artist Day) attending a guided tour about Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun at the Met; she was an amazing artist who regularly painted Marie Antoinette and other notables of her age. Here's more about her: http://nmwa.org/explore/artist-profiles/%C3%A9lisabeth-louise-vig%C3%A9e-lebrun

Later, we stumbled upon an exhibition "Printing Women" at the NYC Public Library Main Branch. There were etchings by Queen Victoria and Marie Medici. So cool! 

I'm back to interviews and other mischief in Chicago.

Other things on the horizon:

Nora Moore Lloyd has some photographs in a pop up show called "Women's Art from the Chicago American Indian Community" in the atrium of the Thompson Center downtown. It's open from Monday the 28th until April 1st. I interviewed Nora Moore Lloyd in my Vocalo piece. Go check it out!

Honey Pot Performance will perform Ma(a)sking Her at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion from 4/14/16 to 4/16/16. I also interviewed Meida Teresa McNeal for my Vocalo piece in February. I'm super excited about the show! You should check the show out: http://honeypotperformance.com/projects/masking-her/

Radio Piece Progress

This week marked the fourth class of the Vocalo Storytelling Workshop. The theme of the workshop is philanthropy, but it's beyond the notion of financial contributions. We are looking at how individuals or groups contribute to society in many ways.  I've been working on an eight minute piece focusing on three artists whose work has dealt with communities. The first artist is Nora Moore Lloyd, a photographer who has worked to document elders and other members of Native American tribes in the US. The second is Carron Little, co-founder of the public performance art series Out of Site. And the third is Meida Teresa McNeal, co-founder of Honey Pot Performance. Together, I'll talk about how each person's work interacts and fosters community.

I've learned a great deal of important things about getting good tape for the radio. THere's a big difference between oral history tape and radio tape. One of the books on oral histories says that while you want to make sure when you are clear that you are recording with the person you are interviewing, you should position the tape so they don't see it. But you want to make sure you can still see it, so you can make sure it is still recording. Radio is much more upfront and close with this. You should wear your earphones into the recorder and position the recorder close in front of them. Very different. I've also learned to think about what non-verbal noises that you can get, like the sound of someone showing photos, or showing a camera. Very neat. I've also learned that editing tape with music in the background is hard. If you make cuts, the music may not align in the cuts and it will sound weird.

In the past three weeks, I've been working to collect additional audio for the radio piece. I've meet with two of the artists already and will be meeting the third artist this week. It's helped me get better sounding tape and also to hone in on the part of their work that I'll be talking about. I've also been helped by Out of Site who has let me use the audio they've collected. I've also gotten permission from Ballenarca, one of the performance art groups from last year, to use the music from their amazing puppet whale piece. (Check out more here: http://www.ballenarca.com). 

Ballenarca, Out of Site 2015

Lots of hard work ahead! I can't wait to make the final piece available to you all!

Upcoming Art Events!

Lots of exciting events coming up!

Gabriella Boros will have several pieces up in several shows in Chicagoland and Milwaukee. Her piece “Crowding Out the Gift Horse” is in a show at Nixie Gallery in Skokie, 7925 Lincoln (just south of Oakton Street). The show opened on the 23rd and will end on February 12th. Check out the gallery website for more information: http://www.nixiegallery.com

Gabriella Boros has work in another show at the Union Street Gallery in Chicago Heights, 1527 Otto Boulevard as part of the Chicago Printmakers Collaborative Show. The opening is Friday the 29th from 6 to 9. Check out more information here: http://www.unionstreetgallery.org/

She has three prints from “Going Viral” in the show “Intimate Systems” at 100state, 30 West Mifflin, 6th floor, Madison, Wisconsin. The show opens on February 6th from 1-5. For more information, check out: http://100state.com/

Tomeka Reid, cellist extraordinaire, will be performing on February 17th at 7pm at the Mary & Leigh Block Museum of Arts in Evanston as part of A Feast of Astonishments, an exhibition about Charlotte Moorman, “a groundbreaking, rule-bending artist, musician, and advocate for the experimental art of her time.” It should be an amazing performance and exhibition. Check out more information: http://www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu/muse/Participate/2016/charlotte-moorman-opening.html

Hull House Museum still has “Into Body Into Wall” exhibit up featuring The 96 Acres Project with Maria Gaspar. It’s up until February 29th. The project “uses the wall of Cook County Jail to look at architectures of power and incarceration. The project investigates the wall as a social, political, psychological and physical frame, imagines and reflects on new alternatives, and grapples with personal stories from both sides of the wall.” Check out more information here: http://www.hullhousemuseum.org/intobody/

Honey Pot Performance with Meida Teresa McNeal  will be presented /Shift/: First Annual Benefit Gala to support future performances of HPP on February 27th. The event will take place at Stony Island Arts Bank at 6:30pm. Check out the website: http://honeypotperformance.virb.com/