Celebrate Black and African Culture With Two Outstanding Exhibits At This Oregon Art Museum

Celebrate Black and African Culture With Two Outstanding Exhibits At This Oregon Art Museum – Only In Your State ®

The Portland Art Museum always makes for a wonderful, enlightening outing. But that’s especially true right now as the museum is putting on two exciting, informative exhibits this winter and spring that aren’t to be missed. Both exhibits showcase the rich contributions of Black Oregonians and African culture to the arts and our local and larger communities.

The first exhibit showcases the work of some of Oregon’s amazing Black artists. The other celebrates African culture through fashion. Be sure to head to the Portland Art Museum soon to experience both of these compelling shows — and to check out the other wonderful galleries and exhibitions.

For more information about these fantastic exhibits, visit the Portland Art Museum website. If your visit to the museum includes a drive, you may want to stock up on car-friendly snacks and/or eat at the museum’s The PMA Café by the Black Tie Company.

We’d love to know how you enjoyed your visit to the museum, so please leave a comment to let us know about your experience.

OnlyInYourState may earn compensation through affiliate links in this article. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

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RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

Culture x Design’s Black History Month Lineup Has Films, Trivia and More

Film screenings, forums and concerts honoring the major contributions of Black creatives to visual arts, music and culture highlight a newly launched local Black History Month celebration. 

The programming is the brainchild of Culture x Design, a recently launched Milwaukee event and marketing agency founded by brand marketing executives Geraud Blanks and Maureen Post, in collaboration with Milwaukee business leader Ranell Washington, who will serve as lead advisor. 

Blanks and Post are both former executives at Milwaukee Film, the nonprofit operator of the annual Milwaukee Film Festival and the Oriental Theatre, the historic East Side movie venue.  


 

Let your voice be heard on everything you love about Milwaukee’s suburbs by voting in our 2024 Best of the Burbs Readers’ Choice.


Blanks expressed the importance of offering inclusive activities during Black History Month.

“The need for diverse thought, engaging dialogue and entertaining cultural expression never gets old and is never outdated,” said Blanks, who serves as Culture x Design’s managing partner and creative director. “Our mission is to create platforms that celebrate our shared culture.”

The program features a varied lineup of activities, including Black History Trivia, a forum focused on Black creative entrepreneurship and two special events dedicated to exploring the musical legacy of recording artist Lauryn Hill, marking the 25th anniversary of her debut solo album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.

Joan Morgan; Photo courtesy of Culture x Design

The kick-off event, In Retrospect: The Life & Times of Lauryn Hill, will take place on Feb. 10 at Radio Milwaukee (220 E. Pittsburgh Ave.) Baltimore educator LaShay Harvey, founder of Black Girl Saturday School, and award-winning cultural critic Joan Morgan, program director of the Center for Black Culture at New York University, delve into Hill’s cultural impact as a singer-songwriter, rapper and actor. Morgan, a pioneering feminist writer and hip-hop journalist, authored She Begat This: Twenty Years of the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

A Hill tribute concert, Groove Theory: The Lauryn Hill Experience, will be held at 8 p.m. Feb. 24 at The Cooperage (822 S. Water St.). Milwaukee ensemble Brew City Soul will present renditions of Hill’s music.

The Black History Month programming is being offered through a collaboration between Culture x Design and the Milwaukee Brewers, Bank of America and media partners HYFIN/Radio Milwaukee. 

Here’s the lineup: 

  • Black History Trivia, Feb. 3, Company Brewing, 735 E Center St. 
  • Reel-to-Real: Short Films & Conversation, Feb. 8, Radio Milwaukee, 220 E. Pittsburgh Ave. A Short film screening followed by guided discussions and happy hour networking. 
  • In Retrospect: The Life & Times of Lauryn Hill, Feb. 10, Radio Milwaukee, 220 E. Pittsburgh Ave. 
  • Black Love x Design: Boomerang Reconsidered, Feb. 16, Radio Milwaukee, 220 E. Pittsburgh Ave. Culture x Design’s Geraud Blanks leads a conversation the impact of the 1992 romantic comedy on Black cinema. 
  • Groove Theory: The Lauryn Hill Experience, Feb. 24, The Cooperage, 822 S Water St. 
  • Creativity x Design: Black in Milwaukee’s Creative Economy, Feb. 29, Marn Art + Culture Hub, 191 N. Broadway, Suite 102. A Networking soiree and town hall-style discussion on the economic prospects for local Black artists and cultural entrepreneurs.





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RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

‘The American Society of Magical Negroes’ Filmmaker Kobi Libii Isn’t Surprised About Sparking Internet Controversy: ‘I Understand Being Deeply Suspicious’

Kobi Libii knew “The American Society of Magical Negroes” would be controversial. After all, the film is a critique of the “magical negro,” the cinematic trope where Black characters are constructed to support white protagonists without internal lives of their own.

Libii grew up in Gary, Ind. in the ’90s, during a run of those movies. “Some of them were seared in my brain,” he tells Variety, remembering a time when “The Legend of Bagger Vance” and “The Green Mile” were lauded by critics and audiences alike, even though they reinforce those tropes. (Both movies are not-so-indirectly referenced in the film.) “It really agitated me at the time but I didn’t have a language for that. I was just told that this was a great movie even though Black people are doing this.”

Now that he’s got a foothold in Hollywood, Libii is taking that type of representation to task, asking audiences to take a deeper look at the way racism impacts our minds and the insidious qualities of racism which are more difficult to make tangible and visible.

“The subject matter I’m playing with is really sensitive and raw, and people have such strong, visceral feelings about it,” he explains. “I think means that we’re pointed in the right direction in terms of what we should be talking about. I’m genuinely excited for people to bring that same passion and political conviction into what I think is the more sophisticated and intricate and nuanced conversation that the full film is.”

When Libii sits down for our interview in early January, he’s buzzing with energy — a mix of excitement and anxiety about the world premiere of the film, in competition at the Sundance Film Festival. It’s Libii’s feature directorial debut, but as a veteran writer, actor and comedian, he doesn’t feel much like a newcomer. Then there’s the fact that the film already has distribution from Focus Features (which will release the film on March 15), so he’s not like the other filmmakers chasing a distributor. And the picture has been locked since late summer, so he’s not worried about racing against the clock before its debut at the Eccles Theater on Friday afternoon.

What Libii is eagerly anticipating, though, is the reaction from the live audience. “I love the audience reaction, especially because it’s a comedy, so people giving other people permission to laugh – especially about some of the tricker stuff — is something I’m looking forward to,” he says.

The last time Libii was at the festival was in 2019, while participating in the Sundance Institute’s screenwriting and directing lab. He was workshopping “The American Society of Magical Negroes” and connected with Justice Smith, who would go on to star in the film as Aren, a recruit to a secret society magical Black people who “dedicate their lives to a cause of utmost importance.” The cause: ensuring that white people are comfortable.

Libii began working on this idea in 2016, imagining it first as a two-and-a-half minute comedy sketch about this secret society. But as he began writing, Libii realized he was working on something bigger — and working out something deeper that he’d internalized long ago as a biracial person.

“I came up for air a couple of hours into working on it realized that really what I was writing about was a very particular defense mechanism that I was taught as a Black man growing up in America, about how to keep myself safe, and how to navigate systemic racism. And that particular defense mechanism was making sure that the powerful white people around me were comfortable.”

The example he uses to make that idea tangible for people is the direct conversation that his father had with him about how to act around cops, known for many Black people as “The Talk.”

Looking back, Libii distinctly remembers the sense of unease that his father (who is Black; Libii’s mother is white) had when it came time for him to start driving as a teenager, which often necessitates having this conversation. His father told him: “It’s not about your pride. It’s not about you looking cool or feeling good about yourself. It’s about you literally staying alive in that situation, so you just be on your best behavior.”

But what happened to Libii — and many Black people, including this writer — is that he “overlearned that lesson in terms of the way he moved through the world and related to powerful white people.”

“What I realized writing about this trope and writing about the society and depicting a group of Black people that, because of racism, were hyper-focued on serving white people, I found a trouble resonance in the lessons I’d learned about how to navigate America,” Libii says. “That’s a really challenging — and for me, a very embarrassing — conversation for people to wade into. And it provokes very strong feelings. Appropriately.”

And from the moment “The American Society of Magical Negroes” was announced, the internet discourse began. First came the educational period where cinephiles explained to everyday moviegoers that this was not a movie about a Black Harry Potter but instead referred to the trope popularized in 2001 by Spike Lee in reference to movies stereotype their Black characters into roles that purely serve the white leads. Then came the trailer, which inflamed the Fox News crowd, sparking anger for saying “white people are the most dangerous animal.”

In context, a veteran member of the society named Roger (David Alan Grier) is explaining the group’s function to Aren. “White people feeling uncomfortable preambles a lot of bad stuff for us, which is why we fight white discomfort every day,” Roger explains as he and Aren gaze upon a distressed white police officer. “The happier they are, the safer we are.”

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It’s a strong statement for a springtime comedy — and he’s taking the reaction to it in stride. “It’s mixed,” Libii says, admitting that he’s definitely been surprised by the sheer volume of feedback to the project.

“We’re a small independent film, and, frankly, I’m just excited people are talking about it,” Libii says. “Many of my peers’ films land with near silence, so the fact that people are paying so much attention to this little piece that we made is a very pleasant surprise.”

It’s also a sign of the times that a movie like “The American Society of Magical Negroes” is getting a wide release from a major studio.

“How many years ago does this film not get made?” Libii wonders. “Definitely 10. Probably five. I feel like extraordinarily fortunate to be living in this time where filmmakers could tell these complex stories.”

He explains: “There’s such an appetite and a vibrant, passionate audience for Black stories about race and racism. And a passionate audience for Black stories have nothing to do with that. I’m just excited for a hopeful future day, when there are so many of us telling stories that that I don’t have that sense of scarcity. Where I don’t feel like there’s only a couple of these that get told every year. That’s the fantasy and hopefully we’ll get there.”

Here, Libii addresses some of the film’s most controversial elements and why, upon further inspection, they might not be so relatable than you’d think.

Justice workshopped this script with you during the Sundance labs. What did you two bond over?

He just really understood the defense mechanism. Being friendly, trying to assimilate — those those strategies and how seductive they can be, even if they’re not ultimately effective or positive for us. As a writer-director, when you meet someone who like instantly gets the character, you’re like, “Oh, great, this is just going to be so much easier.” You don’t have to get on the same page; you can just find by new levels to it.

The character of Aren, and Justice by proxy, essentially act as an avatar for your experience. There have been criticisms from potential audience members about you making this movie as a biracial creator. What has that experience been like?

It’s one of those things where you get the good with the bad. There’s a tremendous amount of privilege I have because of my skin. Because I had a white mother who could go into my school, and yell at the guidance counselors when they did racist shit to me. There’s a literal privilege that I have benefited from, and my peers that don’t have that privilege have not. And also it sucks to have stuff be assumed about you because of who you are.

One of the ironies is that this piece is about proximity to whiteness, and what that does to you, and the advantages and dangers of that. So I’m trying to write and make tell stories that are really incredibly specific and authentic to my experience, and part of that is trying to reflect the privilege that I have by being light-skinned and being biracial.

It’s part of why I made the choice to cast Justice specifically, to reflect that I know my relationship to whiteness and white people is different. It’s really important to be precise and not pretend that my experience moving through the world is the same as a Black person who is a different shade than I am. Mine is very much a Black experience, even if it’s a different kind of Black experience, but I want to be really authentic about that and I hope people can appreciate that.

This movie intends to be both a critical racial satire and also a love story. As you started writing and evolving this piece, how did you weave those two narratives together?

There are two answers to that. One is that it’s partially about protagonism and what it looks like in movies. The thing about protagonism for cis male characters is that it’s about “getting the girl.” That is a really potent symbol of centrality and protagonism in movie history. That’s the sort of like heavy author answer.

The heart and soul real reason I did it is that it’s a movie about being reduced and being seen as less than you are. To me, the opposite of that is being seen by someone who loves you. Because of what it means to be magical negro, what it means to live in America, seen as a stereotype, thinly-sliced, regarded as a little fraction of yourself — when someone who really loves you, they see all of you. They see details. To feel seen by a partner is one of the most beautiful experiences.

After a movie that’s so much about being reduced, to feel seen and held is really positive and nourishing going forward, but it also clarifies how troubling that white gaze is. When you put the idea of what it’s like when a person really sees and understands you right next to being stereotyped, it sharpens the critique of that reductive gaze.

Let’s talk about An-Li Bogan, who plays Lizzie, who is a relative newcomer. How did you find her?

She auditioned and was really superb. Whenever you’re casting a love story, it’s also about chemistry and when she sat down with Justice, it was like, “Oh, I believe these two characters are in love.

I wanted that character to be a non-Black woman of color. Black love stories are so beautiful and so important and I really hope I get to tell a story that centers one because I believe that there’s really crucial political work in that kind of representation.

The work that I was trying to do with this film, in part, was to quite deliberately be better than magical Negro authors. Their main failing was not really thinking about the experience of other marginalized people. A white writer is not really thinking through what it means to be a Black person; he’s just thinking about his own relationship to the idea of Blackness.

It wanted to not just think through what my experience as a Black person had been, but also about the different, but related ways that other people of color, especially women of color, are impacted by systemic racism too. And to try to have an empathy for those related but different struggles in a way that the magical Negro authors didn’t. That was a choice in support of Black people in the Black community because we have to be working together because the systemic problems we’re up against are the same — even if the way Black people suffer under white supremacy is different than the way that an Asian American woman suffers under white supremacy. That intersectional coalition of us fighting that is part of what my ambition was.

I also want to talk about colorism really explicitly. There’s a real value of portraying darker-skinned people of all races, but I deliberately cast fairer skinned people of color in Justice and An-Li for a reason, which is that this movie is about the false promise of assimilation. Casting people that should be able to quote-unquote “assimilate easier” and have that proximity to whiteness sharpens the critique of assimilation, when you watch them not be able to. That is to say, even someone as light-skinned as Justice or a woman of color like An-Li can’t assimilate in this culture. I think when you see that, there’s a power to it and it sharpens the critique of this as a survival strategy.

To put it in blunt terms: complying with the officer’s orders will not keep you safe. And that is an argument you still hear from certain segments of America. There is a suggestion that if we just behaved differently, if we just assimilated harder, all of these problems would go away for us. I just think that is a dangerous lie.

So, showing people of color with the greatest proximity to whiteness, still not being allowed into the full benefits of white privilege was a deliberate choice.

That argument doesn’t just come from white people; it comes from people of color as well.

There is that hope in some conservative corners of our community, like, “Oh, maybe we can keep ourselves safe with a survival strategies like this.” Obviously, I don’t agree with that, but it’s seductive, and I understand that.

That’s why the discourse about the movie within our community is particularly interesting. Do you hope to assuage Black people’s fears when they watch the film?

I made a movie about “magical negroes.” I also have a deep suspicion of Hollywood. I really, really understand being a Black person and seeing a trailer for a film and being deeply suspicious that there’s some more racist bullshit is coming down the pike. Of course, it’s reasonable to think that some terrible cartoon of the studio executive is doing more terrible, racist things and slapping your face on it.

Part of what you hear in this conversation is both the absolute deep hope from the Black community that there will be good Black art — there’s a real yearning for that and a palpable frustration and anger when what feels like very, the very few chances for Black art to be made at a high level aren’t handled as thoughtfully as they could be.

There’s a real passion and an appetite for that, and a real suspicion that it’s going to be mishandled, so I really do get having an eyebrow raised.

How has this project shaped this version of Kobi?

So much of this piece is about the request to be really seen and heard. That’s one of the most nourishing things when it happens to you, and it’s not as easy to do for other people as I would like to think it is. So I feel like the sort of natural extension of this piece in some ways is to try to be consider people more closely and more empathetically around me and hope that hope that I can do that and that the America can sort of increasingly do that to me in return.

Going into the Sundance screening, is there anything else you want people to know about the film?

My great hope is that people just sit down and watch it — as opposed to what they expected it to be or what they hoped it would be or what they’re afraid it’s going to be — and just see what it is. Then think whatever you think about it and feel about it. I believe there’s a lot to get out of it.

Writer-director Kobi Libii (right) with director of photography Doug Emmett and Justice Smith on the set of “The American Society of Magical Negroes.” Tobin Yelland / Focus Features

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

The Color Network On the Significance of Building Community, Teaching Diversity, and Facilitating Access for Artists of Color

In 1991, ceramic artist and professor Bobby Scroggins was frustrated by the lack of access and recognition for artists and craftspeople of color, particularly Black artists. At the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) conference, he sought out Black and Brown faces in the crowd and organized informal chats, inviting peers and colleagues to form a cohort. Conceived with a mission to promote the careers of ceramic artists of color, share information, and facilitate opportunities across the U.S., The Color Network was born.

In the early 2000s, Scroggins passed the baton to Chicago-based artist Paul Andrew Wandless, who transformed the project into an exhibition platform and website called Cultural Visions, which continued until 2014. Then, in 2018, a conversation at the same annual NCECA conference prompted Natalia Arbelaez and April D. Felipe to initiate a new organization named The Color Network in homage to Scroggins’s original idea.

Comprising a substantial database of artists, a mentorship program, micro-grants, community discussions, exhibitions, and residencies, The Color Network’s core aim is to advance people of color in the ceramic arts. Currently led by five co-organizers including Arbelaez, Felipe, Magdolene Dykstra, Corrin Grooms, and George Rodriguez, the group assists artists in developing their work, networking, and creating dialogue as a way to foster community and provide support for those working at all professional stages and skill levels.

Colossal editor Kate Mothes spoke with Arbelaez, Dykstra, and Rodriguez about the significance of access to the arts for people of color and education for their allies, the power of peer mentorship and sharing resources, and ideas for the future.

This conversation was conducted via Zoom in September 2023 and has been edited and condensed for clarity. All images © the artists, courtesy of The Color Network, shared with permission.


Kate Mothes: How did the three of you get involved with The Color Network, and how long have you been a part of it?

Magdolene Dykstra: I first got involved with The Color Network as part of their mentorship program, as a mentee. Natalia was my mentor at that time, and that started in 2018. I had just finished grad school and was looking to find a new community after leaving that previous community. And then, in 2021, I was invited to jump on as a co-organizer and help organize different opportunities through The Color Network.

Natalia Arbelaez: I got involved in 2018 as part of this iteration of The Color Network. A few of us got together, and we got the namesake from Bobby Scroggins. I was part of the first group of organizers to start using more of the web-based organization and meeting and mentorship.

George Rodriguez: I did a little bit of jurying for The Color Network. Then I came on as a mentor in 2020 and officially joined the co-organizing team earlier in 2023.

Kate: I read that the initial history of the organization goes back to 1991 when artist Bobby Scroggins began a project by the same name. In its current guise, 2018 was a big year of redefining and reorganizing, and I’m curious how that came about. How did it change gears when a new group of people became involved?

Natalia: Yeah, it was a whole new group of people. I applied to run a topical network discussion with a few other individuals at NCECA, the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts. I approached the community and asked, how can we organize? And what is important to you to see from the community, for artists of color?

Bobby Scroggins came to our talk but also pulled us to the side later and was like, well, we used to do this and this. So, after that, coming together and realizing that this work has been done for a long time—it’s nothing new—we asked Bobby if we could take on the namesake and continue the work, where a completely different group is honoring and continuing the work of elders in our community to help us be present, visible, and empowered.

Installation view at Eutectic Gallery of ‘The Things We Carry,’ featuring work by Nickeyia Johnson in the foreground and additional pieces by Alex Paat, Michael Dika, and Julissa Ilosa Vite

Kate: Did you view the project initially as primarily a database, or were mentorship opportunities there to begin with? What were the anchors in the beginning?

Natalia: Yeah, I think the database was the first thing. Artaxis is a really great organization that was already kind of doing that. It was a great foundation to look at, and they were always willing to answer any questions and kind of be a mentor to this version of The Color Network. So we looked at their structure and made a database for other people who are looking for artists of color or other artists of color looking for each other.

The mentorship program was always really important from the beginning. That developed from a few of us not having that in our own community, feeling isolated, or not having a natural mentor. So it was important pairing people with a mentor, with someone that you’re allowed to ask questions, and you’re allowed to initiate that conversation and not feel like you’re a burden on someone for just asking random questions.

(As a mentor), you get to know other artists as people, what their goals are, and have a conversation about how we become better stewards in the world through our artwork.George Rodriguez

Kate: Magdolene, you mentioned that you were initially a mentee and then a mentor and that there was a post-university aspect of community that you wanted to continue or find again in a different way. I’m curious what that transition was like, being first on one side of that relationship and then the other, and how that developed for you.

Magdolene: When we’re talking to mentees and mentors, and trying to recruit more mentors, this comes up a lot. Even if you’re serving as a mentor, you’re not necessarily an expert in all things. During my mentorship with Natalia, I started to realize that my feet were getting a little bit more firmly under me, and I started to understand that I have some things to offer. So, it’s a gradual transition; I’m still planting my feet. They could be firmer, but hopefully, that is always present. Hopefully, there’s always that sort of light-footedness in terms of looking for growth and understanding; there’s always room to grow.

I started to understand that I had my feet under me enough to be able to at least listen and be present with someone else. Not to have all the answers, but to at least be someone who could share space with a mentee and help them make connections to people who could answer questions I couldn’t. That’s how I decided that I was ready to give back in that way.

Kate: George, you mentioned that over the past few years, you’ve done mentorship and also been involved in a jurying capacity. Does The Color Network provide exhibitions, opportunities, or connections that you find particularly interesting or meaningful?

George: Yeah, so to speak on the process, I’ve applied to many, many things in my life as an artist. Sometimes it’s unknown how you get chosen to be in an exhibition or are selected for a grant. I think that to be on the other end, where I’m actually jurying a large assortment of applications, to narrow it down to just a couple of grantees… It was good to be in that perspective of having to sift through all of these different people. And I would say that all of them are qualified in some capacity, but we still have to narrow it down. It’s a really enlightening process to be able to witness.

In the mentorship capacity, to echo Magdolene a little bit, I’ve taught formally at different institutions, but to get a one-on-one conversation with a mentee is just more valuable. It’s more personal. You don’t just talk about academia or their work or their process. You get to know other artists as people, what their goals are, and have a conversation about how we become better stewards in the world through our artwork, which is really great.

Kate: There’s a certain language involved with academia and scholarship, whereas mentorship can be so much more about relationship-building over longer periods. In your involvement with The Color Network as a mentee or mentor, how has it impacted your own artistic practice?

George: There’s such a wide breadth of artists involved with The Color Network, and there’s a really lovely page on the website where all of these artists can showcase their work. Just looking through to see who’s on there, you begin building some relationships. Then, the first time that I had the opportunity to see a TCN grouping in person was really striking. You can feel the intention and power of the work, which just made me question like, okay, well, if I want to be in this grouping, how am I putting in my intention? So it didn’t change the concepts, but it increased the intention that I was putting into creating my own work.

Magdolene: That’s really well put, George. For me, too, my work continues to follow its own path. I don’t think it’s coincidental that, in my work, I’m thinking about relationships and finding ways to visualize that. A lot of the work we do with The Color Network is about building and fostering relationships. So it’s a sort of echoing or reverberation, between my work and the work we do through The Color Network.

A sculptural installation of thousands of pieces of clay that resemble petals and have thumbprints inside each one.A sculptural installation of thousands of pieces of clay that resemble petals and have thumbprints inside each one.

Work by Magdolene Dykstra in ‘Project M’

Kate: Do you actively tie artists in the database and the mentorship program to exhibitions within the network?

Magdolene: We’ve been trying with exhibitions to turn those into opportunities and not limit it to just the folks who are in the network, to really expand and allow more opportunities for folks who might not be on the database yet. A really exciting component of the database is that educators and curators are looking at it. Educators and curators are well aware of needing to question the models they’ve been following and decenter previously prioritized groups. For me, as an educator, that’s the most exciting aspect of the database: there is no longer any excuse for any educator to say that they just don’t know any artists of color.

Natalia: I think that’s my favorite part when K-12 teachers send us their projects and share how excited the students are to be using the database. And how the database is really for everyone and anyone, not just for artists of color. I also think that, now that people are recognizing TCN, we can just put out open calls to anyone.

George: Yeah, and I just wanted to add that our connections as organizers, individually, reach beyond what the database has. There’s always a lot more interest. And the upkeep of the database is slower than we’d like it to be, so we do reach beyond that and try to always incorporate more.

Kate: That’s a great point to make, Natalia, about the K-12 education because the art world at large isn’t necessarily thinking about how they’re reaching, you know, 16-year-olds. It seems like you’re building elements that appeal to different groups of people depending on what their entry point is.

Magdolene: I think that accessibility to K-12 educators is actually incredibly important because the majority of those students aren’t going on to art school. So what does that mean? Only if you go to art school do you learn about artists of color? That’s not right. K-12 education is an important way to get more young people talking about diversity, equity, and inclusion, and what that can look like in visual arts and beyond.

Kate: There are so many variables, based on geography, economic background, what size school you went to, what your teachers even have been exposed to throughout their lives. Think about how much that early art education enriches how students view the entire world.

Magdolene: It’s massive. I mean, arts education, whether it’s K-12 or it’s post-secondary, like what are we really teaching? Yeah, we’re teaching art, but art is a vehicle for learning how to be a better human and a better co-traveler with all these other humans. Artists of color are doing incredible work that addresses these issues. There are beautiful prompts for student creativity, just by looking at the work being made today. You can start talking about incredibly crucial issues that are hard to get into otherwise. If you have an art object, whether it’s a piece of ceramic or painting or whatever, all of a sudden everyone can talk about this together.

Kate: Have you seen an increase in demand from artists or educators, seeking out this information as it has grown in the last few years?

Magdolene: From my experience, I would say yes. In the school board that I work with, there is still a really high need and a sense of not letting anyone off the hook in de-centering previously Eurocentric curricula but also acknowledging the capacity of each educator.

Every educator has a certain capacity that is stretched between a variety of responsibilities, and every educator also has a life where they’re navigating many factors. What I’m seeing in my role as a secondary educator is that my colleagues don’t always have the experience or even the capacity to do in-depth searches. The database offers educators a stepping stone to start this work, and I see that as really crucial. I’m seeing my colleagues hungry for it, and some are just a little bit lost until they can find a platform to start from.

Art is a vehicle for learning how to be a better human and a better co-traveler with all these other humans. Artists of color are doing incredible work that addresses these issues.Magdolene Dykstra

Kate: TCN launched online in 2018, and then during the pandemic there was a wave where everyone went online out of necessity, to maintain connections and to keep working. Did that period change how the organization reaches people or what the response has been?

George: I think a big part of the 2018 formation—and even in 2017, right before that—it was about gathering in person, building community and camaraderie with one another, and exchanging ideas, like when you’ve had a similar lived experience or just have a perspective that you want to get some honest feedback on. It was all about gathering in 2018 and 2019. When we moved into an online platform, we tried to continue that through open studio sessions. We were able to figure out the technology and figure out, like, how can we still gather, but digitally?

We had these Open Studio Sessions where we could bring different ideas or just have conversations amongst each other. It’s imperfect, but it also opened up a lot of doors because we could do it more often, as opposed to those in-person gatherings, which tended to happen once a year.

Kate: The group offers something called affinity rooms. What are those?

Natalia: That is the Open Studio Session, and it’s still open. We provide a stipend for any artists of color who want to run a discussion. You can have up to three or four co-facilitators, and everyone receives a stipend just to guide a conversation.

The biggest feedback from the community is that they wanted more connection, more community events, and more ways to be able to connect with each other. A lot of us are spread throughout the United States and Canada, and a few of us are sometimes the only person of color in the surrounding area. A lot of spaces are predominantly white. So especially for a few artists that were living up in, for example, Alfred, New York, they were thirsty for conversations with the community. Doing these conversations or having community events online when we can’t get together in person, people can have a little bit of that. We’re always open to receiving applications to facilitate the Open Studio Conversations.

Three people wear face masks and stand over a table where they are looking at various ceramic pieces.Three people wear face masks and stand over a table where they are looking at various ceramic pieces.

Kiln opening at Watershed Residency, 2022, with Shaya Ishaq, George Rodriguez, and Yesha Panchal

Kate: Can you tell me about TCN’s involvement with the Watershed Residency?

Magdolene: It’s a really good connection to make between the Open Studio Zoom gatherings and Watershed. I would say that both fall under a major pillar of our mission, which is to provide networking opportunities. Watershed goes a little further in terms of offering, rather than a quick network, a bit more of a sustained space and time for more in-depth dialogue and relationship-building. We’re still in relationship with Watershed, and we’ve been in talks around an upcoming project to try and keep that opportunity running.

Natalia: Yeah, it’s all grant-based. We will continue to try to make in-person residencies happen, and that’s just dependent on whether we receive funding. It’s a lot of work for some of these grants, but as long as we’re here, we’re going to continue to try to offer these in-person residencies for artists of color.

Kate: As you’ve been involved in various ways as part of the community, is there anything that you’ve been surprised by, something that happened that you didn’t anticipate, or anything that stuck with you over time?

Natalia: I would say the mentorship. I came into it as kind of the guinea pig with Magdolene, and I had graduated only a couple of years earlier than her from grad school, and I thought, what can I offer her? But having someone to talk to and becoming good friends through that program, it became peer mentorship. Even though I was the mentor, there were times she became the mentor. It’s a rich relationship, and we’ve worked on projects outside of The Color Network, which I think has been the most valuable experience for me.

George: I would also say the mentorship portion tied into the Watershed Residency because the residents at Watershed were mentees and mentors coming together. A lot of those relationships are digital; we’re online. My mentee was in Sacramento, and I’m in Philadelphia. Mostly we corresponded online, and that tends to happen a lot with our mentorship program, but we were able to gather a group of mentees and mentors at Watershed.

What was lovely is that, as soon as we all arrived, the hierarchy of the mentorship-mentee relationship kind of leveled out. Everybody was just there on even footing, and we were able to have really lovely conversations with each other. We came out of that and continued these really deep friendships with everybody. I think, because it was a residency and we were all in community, pretty constantly together, for two weeks, we were able to come out of that with a mentality of being able to rely on each other even more, which is lovely.

Magdolene: The surprise that came out of that, for me, was seeing a small group within the group of residents who were at Watershed carrying forward with friendship and professional relationships. They are taking control of the conversation. They gave an excellent panel presentation at NCECA this past year. It’s really exciting to see the power of mentorship, just having that connectedness and that network. Every person is a node connected to so many other nodes.

I think George absolutely hit it on the head: to just have this safe space where you can count on these people. And even if it’s as simple as, “Where are you going to stay for NCECA? How are you managing the logistics of this insane three-day sprint?” Even things like that are really beautiful to see.

A black-and-white photograph of people standing around a small kiln, making raku-fired pottery.A black-and-white photograph of people standing around a small kiln, making raku-fired pottery.

Raku firing at Watershed Residency, 2021, with Gerald A. Brown, Sarah Wise, April Felipe, and Sana Musasama

Kate: That’s a great point, too, that no matter what region of the art world, so to speak, you might be in, it’s all about relationships. I love your idea of the nodes connecting to other nodes. Is there a goal or a mission that you’re working toward or projects that you’re in development for, like a focus on more in-person opportunities?

George: I think the focus right now is to apply for grants so that we can have that funding to create these larger opportunities. We do have a fiscal sponsorship with Watershed that allows us to continue some of the programs that we’ve been running. Micro-grants are ongoing for artists to get reimbursed for application fees. It’s a really small thing, but it’s something that we can provide pretty easily. But for larger-vision projects, we gather about once a month as co-organizers to discuss these ideas. Right now, we’re just trying to kind of steady the ship and figure out things like, how do we gain more funding to create these bigger opportunities?

Kate: Say there’s endless funding. Is there a dream opportunity? Is there a project that you would love to see within the next year or two, a dream goal? I know that’s a big question, like “endless funding,” what’s that?!

A lot of us are spread throughout the United States and Canada, and a few of us are sometimes the only person of color in the surrounding area. (They’re) thirsty for conversations with the community.Natalia Arbelaez

Magdolene: If there’s no limit to the account, I mean… Something that’s on my radar at the moment is the Gardiner Museum in Toronto recently hosting a major exhibition of Magdalene Odundo’s work. I was talking with a friend who was previously my mentee, and we were talking about how amazing it would be for The Color Network to arrange some sort of event that interacts with that show, to celebrate these stars in our network. That’s been on my mind.

Natalia: We’d like to pay mentors because we know that that’s work. And to get more mentors—we’re always looking for more mentors. I think people don’t realize that somebody just out of grad school could be a mentor. Somebody in grad school could be a mentor. A lot of people have that imposter syndrome or feel that they don’t have anything to give. We’re doing this out of a labor of love, but if we had unlimited funds, yeah, we’d be paying people, recognizing that it is important work.

George: For me, I’m a lot about the party! I want people to come together and hang out with each other. And if we had unlimited funds, having an event somewhere central where people could gather. Maybe we could pay people’s way if they needed help and just financially be able to support folks to come together and be in community with each other for a week. It’s those in-person conversations that are really powerful.

A group of artists stand together in front of the entrance of a building.A group of artists stand together in front of the entrance of a building.

Watershed Residency 2022 Cohort with Malcolm Mobutu Smith, Yesha Panchal, Vivianne Siqueiros, Kay Marin, Magdolene Dykstra, Ibrahim Khazzaka, Jesus Chuy Guizar, Cassandra Scanlon, George Rodriguez, Shoji Satake, Sam Shamard, Shaya Ishaq, and Jasmin

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

In Conversation With The Co-Founders Of Jupiter Magazine A Radical Art Publication

Camille Bacon And Darian Simone Harper's Art Magazine Jupiter Has Divine Origins
Jupiter Magazine

Co-editors of Jupiter Magazine, Camille Bacon, a Chicago-based writer, and Daria Simone Harper, a multimedia journalist in Brooklyn recount their first interactions to create their publication. Over a Zoom call, Bacon says the idea stemmed from a desire to nurture and extend their inner practices but to also do so for writers simultaneously. Last January, the duo met for their first meal together in Chelsea, under the guise of getting to know each other. Both having illustrious careers in the art and writing industries, Daria left an imprint on David Zwirner where she worked as an editor and Camille lent her writing prowess to publications such as The New York Times and i-D. They bonded over shared desires and frustration with the current state of art writing. “We are hoping to show up for each other and think about healing in a very real [and] cosmic way, and both of us believe deeply in the power of art and our relationship to art,” Daria elaborates. Camille adds: “Writers are an endangered species, and we are here to nourish that ecology. We are here to shift industry standards. We are here to renew a collective sense of romance and deep value around what writers do.”

Laying with the publication’s manifesto is a call for “linguistic atmosphere that is rooted in spirit, regards and reveres the legitimacy of divinely-derived knowledge, and functions as a mode of cosmic Catharsis.” Its birth has a mystical presence, drawing from “the perennial question of artist’s roles in global freedom struggles,” grounding its text in a circular practice. Jupiter looks back as it reaches forward.

Issue 1: Worldbending debuted on January 18 with the following inaugural contributors who are also lauded writers: Akwaeke Emezi, J Wortham, Rianna Jade Parker, Joshua Segun-Lean, and Diallo Simon-Ponte. Jupiter will launch four online issues and one annual print edition. This intentional approach allocates the select writers a deliberately agreeable time frame to sit with their subjects whilst offering them space to execute their written works. With these core principles in addition to a trans-disciplinary approach, the co-founders are aiming to create a refreshing format for art criticism and also cultural criticism.

Below is an in-depth conversation with the co-founders and co-editors of Jupiter Magazine, Camille Bacon and Daria Simone Harper which spans the presence of the art critic, the role of the writer as a laborer, and the magazine’s lineage within the Black editorial canon.

ESSENCE.com: How did you come up with the name for Jupiter?

Camille Bacon: We had our Poetry Foundation panel during the Expo Chicago and Daria and I on stage with our dearest, Jessica Lynne and Amarie Gipson, announced officially that we were doing this. For several days, I was just receiving intense transmissions during my dreams and would wake up at three in the morning [and] the word Jupiter kept spinning in my head. I wrote it down in one of our documents and went back to sleep, and woke up the next morning, and sort of recalled that to Daria. I think the whole time [I’ve] been acknowledging the first law of thermodynamics: you can’t create or destroy energy, it only recycles itself and shapes shifts, and morphs.

That also means that when we speak about ancestral divination [and] when we speak about the presence of spirits. When we speak about this reliance on the unseen. To give you the information and the language you need exactly when you need it. We’re very serious about that. Through that mutual understanding, I regarded that we were not going to look for a name, that the name for this thing would insist upon itself somehow, and that I think we both just trusted that we would listen intently enough to catch it when it arrived or really to hold it when it arrived.

Jupiter is the planet of abundance, expansion, and good fortune, and we know that names are a way of conjuring and material reality, that a name is a spell and a name is a magical incantation. And so, as Daria has been noticing and mentioning recently, each time someone says Jupiter, it’s aiding and abetting, and fusing more energy into the lifespan of this entity. So that just made all the sense in the world that the name would be a spell of good fortune, abundance, and expansion.

ESSENCE.com: With your publication’s emphasis on criticism, what is the role of the critic? 

Daria Simone Harper: We hope to foster relationships and space for critics who are operating from a position of care and thinking about the way that the critic is engaging with whatever work [is] at hand, but really from a place of intention to extend.

The word itself has taken on such a negative connotation for so many people, and I think that there are so many factors that may be a bit warranted, but I do think that somewhere along the way it’s been forgotten. The critics that we’re working with are ultimately so deeply invested in the ability to constantly make new meaning of and to challenge and to ask questions in a way that ultimately will reveal things in a very generative way. 

CB: I always imagine that critics are not on the periphery looking in. They’re critiquing or writing about in this ivory tower, regarded as this authoritarian figure to make a value judgment but rather the critic, as deep in the crevices of this broader ecosystem that we traffic through. And I think it goes back to what Daria was saying about really regarding the act of criticism, at least as we consider it as an act of care. Lowery Sims said that the root of the word to curate is to care, and people love to talk about what that etymology means. I feel that, that is what Daria and I strive to embody and strive to impart on everyone that we work with through Jupiter. 

There’s a reason writers are paid, maybe 10% of what the artists they’re writing about received as compensation for the work that they’re writing about, and the system tells you how much it values your work, based on how much it pays you, right as it is currently situated right now. And we’re interested in both materially, metaphysically, and metaphorically bringing the role of writers right into the central node of that circle. Our North star, Jessica Lynne, wrote a fabulous essay called “Criticism is not Static.” In it, she writes about the role of criticism, the role of writing as being this act of and gesture of placing care around the practices of the artists.

ESSENCE.com: What are you discussing regarding the inequitable compensation of writers in terms of equating the writer to type of laborer?

DSH: Camille and I talk about [this] a lot. There is a mysticism around the writer in a lot of ways, and across the industry where there can be a form of distance that people sense, or just kind of like a general lack of knowledge. One thing that Camille you’ve said before, which I love is when you ask somebody to conjure up an image of an artist’s studio. A lot of people will have this vignette that they can picture. But when it comes to thinking about what that looks like for a writer, it’s not necessarily the same. There’s not necessarily the same feeling. The publication that we wish we could have written for and been editors for, but also thinking about our network and community of peers who are also writers. I think that there’s something very important about existing outside of isolation as a writer.

CB: This publication is a direct response to that alienation, a refusal of that alienation, and a grand experiment in how we might be able to really cement conditions again, both ideologically and materially speaking, that make writing lives more viable, partially through an understanding of why the work we do is so important and valuable.

ESSENCE.com: I was just thinking about the Black media landscape, do you see Jupiter fitting into that lineage?

CB: We talk about legacy and lineage all the time, specifically citational ethics. I’d say we’re a direct descendant of Taylor Renee Aldridge, and Jessica Lynn’s publication, Arts.Black, which was the first publication dedicated to Black art critics and they started it a decade ago. I definitely feel like we are in lineage with and as we mentioned just earlier, of course, but I also think about the ways that Ebony and Jet are particularly sticky to think about because they do serve as this locus for in articulation of a specific Black consumer. I think we are interested in a more avant-garde approach. Something more akin to the rebellious and fugitive nature of Just Above Midtown.

In terms of the importance of explicitly naming and affiliation to blackness by naming ourselves as a black publication. This is something Daria and I still go back and forth about in terms of whether or not we will publicly name Jupiter as a Black publication. It is a Black publication. As we are Black women, right? ​​We are not only publishing writing by Black people forever. Our first issues are, and not because we wanted them necessarily explicitly to be Black flattened regard. But because that’s who we look to. That’s who we listen to. That’s who our community is. But I do think that there’s a certain audacity and also explicitly claiming a desire not to be in proximity with whiteness.

DSH: There is something massive that we’re also trying to do, which is examining those threads as well and thinking about global freedom struggles like thinking about where black liberation sits in connection with freedom struggles globally. To have space alongside our folks, who might be from South Asia, and might be from literally everywhere.

I think that naming that lack of proximity or the distancing to whiteness is very essential. The language of the new model is really exciting to look back and think about the publications that have existed that, you know, have laid [the] groundwork for us. Because of the business side of things, these publications often operate under a larger media conglomerate. There’s a certain level of rigidity in the way that things can be presented. In what can be discussed, and what’s off the table, what’s off limits–which is something that we’re committed to breaking beyond as an independent venture.

ESSENCE.com: If you could choose one person dead or alive to write for Jupiter, who would it be?

CB: I already bagged my living one, Akwaeke Emezi. Akwaeke wrote the cover story and I am so geeked! They’re included in the context of art criticism because I feel like their pen be wielded towards any direction. 

Toni Morrison needs no introduction nor explanation. Aside from the fact she was also the writer-editor at Penguin Random House responsible for getting Angela Davis and Toni Cade Bambara published, I would love for a retrospective reflection from her on what those particular hyphen modes of playing with language do, and how they feed each other.

Lucille Clifton. I think that if we want to position and lean on this Black feminist notion of the work of building a life as a creative venture, as a creative pursuit, especially as a Black woman. I think that her poems theorized the everyday and the mundane through the lens of the miraculous so profoundly. I’d be so curious to see what she would do with a particular art object in front of her, and how she would read the mundane miraculousness of that art object.

Kathleen Collins! I saw her film Losing Ground recently. I stumbled upon this lecture she gave to students at Howard University in the film department in the ‘80s. She was so deeply invested in exalting and venerating the mundane dimensions of Black folks’ lives. I’d be so fascinated to see what she would do as a practitioner of film and a scriptwriter.

DSH: Octavia Butler. I am drawn to this idea of writers who would not necessarily be labeled an art writer, someone who is not in their, you know, regular practice always engaging with investigating and grappling with art. My interest in fantasy and sci-fi and thinking about this kind of notion around futurity. I wonder what may happen if Octavia Butler was able to contribute to Jupiter.

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

Geoffrey’s Inner Circle drops effort to stop Oakland highrise

A downtown business owner’s fight to try to stop a 40-story residential tower from being built next to his nightclub came to an abrupt and surprising halt earlier this week when Geoffrey Pete announced he was withdrawing his appeal.

Pete had concerns that the tower project being advanced by the developer Tidewater Capital would harm his entertainment and music venue, Geoffrey’s Inner Circle. In 2023, Oakland’s Planning Commission overrode community objections to the project. Pete appealed to the City Council, the city’s final decision maker regarding major developments. 

The council was supposed to resolve the matter last December during the fifth and final hearing on Pete’s appeal. But in an unexpected turn, the council cast a split vote, neither rejecting nor greenlighting Tidewater’s project. Mayor Sheng Thao was scheduled to cast the tie-breaking vote on Tuesday, but Pete announced at the City Council meeting that he was withdrawing his appeal after coming to an “agreement” with the city. 

Pete didn’t describe the agreement, but he appeared to be referring to stricter conditions that councilmembers imposed on Tidewater’s residential project, including noise mitigation measures and a requirement that the developer hold a community meeting on its draft construction management plan.

“There’s a plethora of items that will be addressed, and if they’re not addressed, we will respond accordingly,” Pete told The Oaklandside. 

Kyle Winkler, Tidewater’s construction director, told The Oaklandside that the final approval of the project is a welcome outcome. 

“We are pleased to have reached this milestone,” Winkler said. 

During Tuesday’s meeting, Pete also thanked supporters for championing his cause with city officials. Dozens of residents have turned out at previous meetings to raise their concerns about any harm befalling Pete’s establishment, which is widely considered to be a Black cultural landmark in Oakland. 

Many of Pete’s supporters have also tied the conflict between Tidewater and Geoffrey’s Inner Circle to what they say is a larger problem: Black-owned businesses and organizations being squeezed out of Oakland, and especially the 14th Street corridor. The corridor is part of a cultural district known as the Black Arts Movement and Business District. Councilmember Lynette McElhaney introduced legislation in 2016 to create the district, recognizing and supporting Black businesses and cultural organizations in the corridor. But essentially, the district  exists in name only.

“I think it was a noble effort,” said Councilmember Carroll Fife during Tuesday’s meeting. “But it didn’t give the city of Oakland the tools necessary to really enforce what it means to be a cultural district.”

Fife, whose City Council district includes the Black Arts Movement Business District, is bringing forward a resolution next month that she says will strengthen it. Fife’s proposal, which she described during the meeting, would direct the city to implement street improvements along the 14th Street corridor, including banners that honor Black cultural leaders and institutions. The resolution would also have the city use available funds—and seek new sources of revenue, such as grants—to support art, music, comedy, and other cultural institutions in the district. This assistance might take the form of building improvements and transforming spaces for events.

Fife said she also wants the city to work with the departments of Planning and Building and Economic and Workforce Development to adopt policies and plans that “further strengthen the district and ensure long-term vitality, support, and prevent conflicts” for businesses and organizations on 14th Street.

Fife, who declined to comment for this article, previously told The Oaklandside that she’s interested in standardizing how Oakland creates and funds cultural districts in Oakland. In just the past few months the Oakland City Council established two new cultural districts: The Latinx Cultural Arts District and the Lakeshore LGBTQ Cultural District.

Fife said one potential strategy is to rely on enhanced infrastructure financing districts, which set aside a portion of future increases in property tax revenue to pay for specific services. The city was exploring this as a model for funding affordable housing in East and West Oakland, and the Athletics’ wanted to use an infrastructure district to fund the now-defunct Howard Terminal ballpark complex. 

Fife also wants to provide better technical assistance and legal support for businesses, noting that many of them struggle with navigating city departments or understanding their rights under the law. She cited the example of Uncle Willie’s BBQ, a restaurant on 14th Street near City Hall that closed during the pandemic. Uncle Willie’s owners blame their demise on a neighboring Marriott Hotel that allegedly rained debris down on their building during construction.

“Sometimes we do things in Oakland because they sound good and they look good, but if we really want something to have impacts, and generational impacts, it takes a little bit to make it happen,” Fife said.

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

The Best Bang for Your Buck Events in Seattle This Weekend: Jan 19–21, 2024


Jump to: Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Multi-Day


COMEDY





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You might get “read” in more ways than one at this night of improv with a mystical twist. The mysterious Reader will pull tarot cards for you, and a team of New Age-approved improvisers will interpret their meanings. Hang on to your crystals. LC
(Rendezvous, Belltown, $15)

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S.O.V., short for “shot on video,” is also perhaps the most honest movie-making medium. The Beacon deems these works “trashterpieces,” which feels accurate in the best way, and the theater’s new series Magnetic Madness: The Citizen Kanes of S.O.V. will screen four of ’em. Among the trashterpieces is gross-out flick Hallucinations, which features a “giant penis monster,” and ’89 hoser horror Things. The series will continue this weekend with Suffer, Little Children, which was banned during the UK’s “video nasty” witch hunt. Let’s go! LC
(The Beacon, Columbia City)

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Following the death of his wife (poet and Great American Baking Show contestant Molly Brodak), Blake Butler discovered surprising secrets she kept from the world, fundamentally altering his view of her. This discovery eventually turned into his memoir Molly, which grapples with the loss of life, loss of potential, and loss of trust with unrelenting compassion. He will stop by Seattle on his book tour alongside Richard Chiem (author of You Private Person and King of Joy) with musical support from glam rock band Beautiful Freaks, pop-punk princess Lisa Prank, and folk troubadour Birdie Fenn Cent. Yes, this lineup is a bit chaotic…but I’m here for it. AV
(Sunset Tavern, Ballard, $12)

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Paging all Swifties! Have you been romanticizing your seasonal depression with cozy cardigans, messy braids, and Evermore playing on a constant loop? If so, consider coming out of your cottagecore hibernation for a dance party honoring Taylor’s folk-tinged pandemic albums, Folklore and Evermore. You can expect plenty of whirling, twirling, and maybe even running. And, be sure to prepare your pipes for the “Illicit Affairs” bridge. AV
(Neumos, Capitol Hill, $10)

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Alexis Devine, like, really talks to her sheepadoodle, Bunny. Big whoop, you say—after all, you refer to your cat as “Baby New Year” all January long—but listen, this is a big deal. Bunny has learned to communicate with Alexis via a system of buttons, which “string together important, relatable, and philosophical phrases” like “Dad went poop” and “Ugh, why?” The training process began with a single button, through which Bunny communicated when she wanted to go outside, and has since expanded to over 100 expressions. Learn more about it at this talk. (Devastatingly, Bunny will not be attending this event, but Devine will be on site to chat with certified dog behavior consultant Sarah Stremming.) LC
(Town Hall Seattle, First Hill, Sliding scale $5-25)

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Elizabeth Malaska’s moody figures, fearless use of patterning, and not-so-subtle responses to power dynamics and the Western painting canon take center stage in All Be Your Mirror, a solo exhibition resulting from her 2022 Betty Bown Award win. Head to this public reception for a free peek at the exhibition, plus a cash bar and live tunes spun by DJ Wax Witch. Malaska will be on site to chat about her paintings and answer your burning questions. LC
(Seattle Art Museum, Downtown, free)

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LED lamps be damned, because you can try beating SAD with SAM this year. The art museum will offer free, first-come, first-serve wellness activities on the first and third Saturday of each month through March 16 to help you battle the drab winter doldrums. Drag yourself out of bed and head to Olympic Sculpture Park on January 20 for a 9 am Vinyasa flow, followed by art therapy, sound bowl, and silent reading sessions, plus a performance by Shelby Natasha, who blends lo-fi R&B sounds with Chinese folk songs. Cool! LC
(Olympic Sculpture Park, Belltown, free)

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If you’re a sucker for old-school cinema with an element of surprise, this recurring series has your name written allll over it. Grand Illusion will continue a longstanding tradition with its 16th season of matinee classics screened alongside a secret feature film every Saturday, all in dreamy 16mm. The series takes a trip across the pond this weekend for “Forgotten British Sci-Fi,” which promises cinematic “lost gems” from the region. LC
(Grand Illusion, University District, $8-$11 tickets, $66 series pass)





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When some dude named Zeus gets his partner murked in a police shootout, he’s puzzlingly recruited by the CIA and tasked by the president himself to rid the streets of crime. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: Couldn’t be me. This kind of mayhem is par for the course at VHS Uber Alles, though, where three bucks will land you a ticket to a hush-hush flick that you’ve probably never heard of, anyway. The screening series is always offered at an ultra-low price aligned with the so-bad-it’s-good quality of its programming. (That’s what makes it fun.) LC
(Grand Illusion, University District, $3)

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The Central District’s convivial cafe/bar/bicycle shop Peloton (no affiliation with the faddish exercise bike) presents a prime example of Seattle at its finest: coffee, community, and cycling culture, all in one cozy location. Chef and co-owner Mckenzie Hart’s menu is an unalloyed delight—I’m smitten over that breakfast burrito. On Saturday, they’ll commemorate eight hard-won years with an anniversary party. In an age where small businesses find it increasingly arduous to stay open, institutions like this one are more precious than ever, so why not take the excuse to join them for some hearty jambalaya and festive drinks? JB
(Peloton, Central District)





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It takes more than an hour to get to Ballard from West Seattle by bus, so you West Seattle residents are forgiven if you have yet to taste the chewy, tender perfection that is a Rachel’s Bagel. But your excuses end today because Rachel’s is braving the bridge to bring their housemade bagels, sandwiches, and one-pound breakfast burritos to Peel & Press on California Avenue from 10 am-1 pm. There will be everything, sesame, cherry-poppy, za’atar, and togarashi bagels all begging to be topped with huckleberry, tarragon, harissa, and black truffle cream cheese. The sandwiches will be stacked with sweet and savory ingredients, from northwest wild lox to roasted pears to Spanish ham, and the burritos will be stuffed with eggs, potatoes, and your choice of dry-aged steak, carnitas, oyster mushrooms, and queso Oaxaca. There’s still lots of winter left—stock your freezer for the cold days ahead. STRANGER CULTURE EDITOR MEGAN SELING
(Peel & Press, Gatewood)

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Seattle-based singer-songwriter Tinsley takes the best parts of 1980s and 2010s pop music and squashes them together for pure pop perfection. Her latest EP, Love Songs, is dreamy, beachy, synthy effort in the vein of Taylor Swift’s 1989. She will play a hometown show alongside like-minded local artists Austen and Sister Swimmer. AV
(Barboza, Capitol Hill, $10-$12)

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The mountains finally have snow! (They better, what with the below-freezing temps we’ve had to endure here in the lowlands.) Celebrate with a free and family-friendly disco at the base of Crystal Mountain, where you’re invited to don your light-up best as you dance around to a live DJ with colorful lights and glowing characters. If you want to go a little farther up the mountain and get some night riding in, you’ll have to purchase a lift ticket. SL
(Crystal Mountain Resort, free)

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It’s January, it’s gross outside, and if we have anything in common, you’re probably going more than a little stir-crazy. My suggestion: Watch laser artists choreograph an operatic soundtrack by prominent Black opera singers at the Pacific Science Center’s Laser Dome. A handful of spirit-lifting arias will get the laser-art treatment with narration from Seattle Opera’s dramaturg, Jonathan Dean, and you’re encouraged to BYOPAB (bring your own pillows and blankets) for maximum solace. LC
(Laser Dome at Pacific Science Center, Uptown, $10)





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Tacoma-based percussionist Antonio M. Gómez (of LINEAJES) will lead an “exploration of the interconnections between music and dance in the Americas” with an evening of conversation, demonstrations, and hands-on experiences. Gómez will be joined by members of the Meso-American drum and dance company Huehca Omeyocan to explore how Indigenous, African, and European heritages formed music and dance traditions across Latin America. AV
(Frye Art Museum, First Hill, $10-$15)

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I’m taking notes from Marlene Dietrich, who once said, “I dress for the image. Not for myself, not for the public, not for fashion, not for men.” As Hollywood director Josef von Sternberg sought out the next screen siren, his working relationship with Dietrich became the stuff of legend: The pair made bliss, beauty, and opulence come to life on screen in six Paramount-produced films throughout the ’30s. Dietrich did it all—she was a “sultry chanteuse, a cunning spy, and the hedonistic Catherine the Great,” for starters—and von Sternberg’s chiaroscuro lighting captured it all. Dress for the image and head to the Beacon for screenings of all six of the films, continuing with Dishonored this weekend. LC
(The Beacon, Columbia City, $12.50)





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Off-kilter filmmaker Tim Smith, a Portland legend in his own right, captured a long-gone Rose City through the lens of a 16mm Bolex camera. Smith’s sardonic films, which feature a plucky cast of his family and friends (including future Simpsons creator Matt Groening), radiate with his love for cinema. They often act as parodies of ’60s- and ’70s-era genre flicks—we’re especially intrigued by the anti-drug drama Drugs: Killers or Dillers? This selection of his most weird-out movies was digitally captured at 2K with support from the Al Larvick Conservation Fund. LC
(Northwest Film Forum, Capitol Hill, $10-$14)

FOOD & DRINK





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Take two: this hibernal festival was postponed from last weekend, ironically due to winter weather. Snap up some street food at the Mobile Food Rodeo-presented event, with vendors like Off the Rez, Bobaholic, Kathmandu Momocha, Kottu, Outsider BBQ, and Birrieria Pepe El Toro. In between bites, hunt for vintage treasures at the Fremont Sunday Market. JB
(Fremont Sunday Market, Fremont)

LIVE MUSIC





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On her latest album, Anarchist Gospel, folk-punk artist Sunny War tackles her internal battle with self-destruction. “Everybody is a beast just trying their hardest to be good,” she writes. “You’re not really good or bad—you’re just trying to stay in the middle of those two things all the time, and you’re probably doing a shitty job of it.” Through her songwriting, Sunny embraces the nuances of emotion, identity, personhood, and in particular, genre, finding the spaces between gospel, country blues, folk, rock, and avant-garde. She will support the album alongside local singer-songwriter Maya Marie. AV
(Tractor Tavern, Ballard, $16)

SPORTS & RECREATION





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The Seattle Kraken are back! The Seattle Center Armory is once again hosting pregame celebrations, starting two hours before each weekend match. You can join your fellow Kraken friends to make signs, play cornhole, enjoy food and drink vendors, and get hyped before the puck drops! If you don’t have tickets to the game at Climate Pledge next door, don’t fret, the Armory will be showing it on a big screen. You can even get your photo with Kraken mascot Buoy, or enjoy toe-tappin’ tunes from Kraken band Red Alert. SL
(Seattle Center Armory, Uptown, free)

WINTER





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We know the waterfront hardly sounds appealing in winter weather, but the Friends of Waterfront Seattle are lighting a fire right before dusk on every Sunday this month for folks to gather ‘round. Go for a nice little walk and enjoy sunset views of Rainier and the Olympics (on a clear day) or simply soak up the cozy campfire vibes. The fires are weather-dependent, so if it’s pouring rain or (god forbid) snowing, they might skip that weekend. SL
(Pier 62, Downtown, free)

EXHIBIT





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The first cohort to graduate from the Seattle Black Spatial Histories Institute will share their oral history and “Black memory work” in this culminating exhibition, which was inspired by interviews with Black longshore workers, barbers, dancers, educators, and beauticians. I’m stoked to see Ricky Reyes, Eboni Wyatt, and Sierra Parsons’s Making.Wavs zine and immersive reading room, Ariel Paine’s barbershop installation, and Brenetta Ward’s quilted scrolls. LC
(Wa Na Wari, Central District, free, Friday-Saturday; closing)

FILM





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The bisexual lighting is hard at work in All of Us Strangers, a film that stars Andrew Scott (the hot priest on Fleabag) and Paul Mescal in cute sweaters. The film follows two Londoners living in the same near-empty tower block, where they find each other, do ketamine, and vibe before memories of past traumas begin to interrupt their romance. The film is based on the eerie, hypnotic 1987 novel Strangers by Taichi Yamada. LC
(SIFF Cinema Egyptian, Capitol Hill, $13-$14, Friday-Sunday)





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If the words “incisive literary satire” perk up your ears, then boy, does director Cord Jefferson have the film for you!! In his new dramedy (an adaptation of Percival Everett’s Erasure), Jeffrey Wright stars as Monk, a novelist who’s understandably aggravated by the establishment that profits from “Black” entertainment and its exhausting tropes. When Monk writes a book under a pen name, he finds himself paddling in the same phony waters he admonished in the first place. LC
(SIFF Cinema Uptown, Uptown, $13-$14, Friday-Sunday)





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In post-apocalyptic France, a butcher with a troublesome habit of filleting the local handymen is perturbed when his daughter falls for the new shop employee. Also, the new shop employee is a former circus clown. I promise it gets weirder from there, too. This cult classic black comedy, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro (Amélie, The City of Lost Children), will be screened in a fresh 4K restoration; you’ll dig it if you’re into Luis Buñuel’s satirical films.
(Northwest Film Forum, Capitol Hill, $7-$14, Saturday-Sunday)





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Grand Illusion’s latest series of documentary screenings centers a high-brow selection of flicks you may have missed, like Smoke Sauna Sisterhood, which won the Directing Award for World Cinema: Documentary at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, and Nicole Newnham’s The Disappearance of Shere Hite, which tracks the life of the female orgasm researcher and writer. The series continues this weekend with 12 Years a Slave director Steve McQueen’s Occupied City and director Luke Lorentzen’s A Still Small Voice, which follows a chaplain’s year-long hospital residency. LC
(Grand Illusion, University District, $8-$11, Friday-Sunday)





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It always seems to be up to the teens to challenge outdated, discriminatory bullshit. Enter Tracy Turnblad, a ’60s-era teenybopper who lands her dream role on an American Bandstand-inspired variety show and becomes an overnight sensation, but is disgusted by the show’s racist practices. The “Hey, it’s Nikki Blonsky” meme is so camp it could have been conjured by John Waters himself, so check out this screening of Hairspray‘s 2007 remake to celebrate Nikki. LC
(Central Cinema, Central District, $12, Friday-Sunday)





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Takashi Miike’s musical horror depicts the oddball Katakuri family, whose bed-and-breakfast endeavor is quickly soured by a dead body in the backyard. The disasters continue, the bodies begin to pile up, and the backyard becomes a bit more hectic than the Katakuris bargained for. The Happiness of the Katakuris blends Miike’s outlandishly violent style with claymation, karaoke, and crime for a stand-alone experience. LC
(Central Cinema, Central District, $12, Friday-Sunday)





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Tina Fey will continue trying to make “fetch” happen in this musical “twist on a modern classic,” a phrase that makes me feel irreparably old. Pack it up, fellow millennials—our journey to cultural obsolescence is complete, I guess. ANYWAY! Regina George is wearing black leather, and Jenna Fischer, Busy Philipps, and Jon Hamm have cameos as various adults in Cady Heron’s teenage world. Will this newfangled version create the same fanatical chokehold on teen society that the original Mean Girls did? Honestly, I don’t think so. But you’ll have fun regardless. LC
(SIFF Cinema Downtown, Belltown, $14.50-$19.50, Friday-Sunday)





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Real Lanthimos heads know that he doesn’t direct anything without dystopic, black comedy underpinnings and plotlines that make audiences ponder why they’re on the planet at all. He is weird, as directors should be, and you’re either in or you’re out. This time around, he’s adapted a ’92 Scottish novel for the screen, painting the picture of a young woman (played by Emma Stone, who is raven-haired and looks charmingly bananas) brought back to life by an unorthodox scientist (played by my famous dad, Willem Dafoe). Best part? Poor Things “saved” my other dad, Mark Ruffalo, from “depressed dad typecasting.” Praise be. LC
(SIFF Cinema Uptown, Uptown, $13-$14, Friday-Sunday)





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If you’ve been keeping up with A24’s films by international directors lately, including solid entries like After Yang and Dream Scenario, you’re probably already jazzed for The Zone of Interest, which is a co-production between the US, the UK, and Poland. Filmmaker Jonathan Glazer (who directed the Scarlett Johansson-as-an-extraterrestrial flick Under the Skin) tells the story of a Nazi commandant and his family, who attempt to build a happy life near the Auschwitz concentration camp. Call me presumptuous, but uh, I’m not rooting for them. The film has been shortlisted for Best International Feature at this year’s Oscars. LC
(SIFF Cinema Uptown, Uptown, $13-$14, Friday-Sunday)

GEEK & GAMING





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Even if you’re not a millennial for whom this clip lives rent-free in your head, you probably like trains. They’ve been around forever, they’re powered by steam, and the miniature versions are really fun to play with. If you’re a hardcore enthusiast, a train-loving kid, or just mildly curious, the Great Train Show is definitely worth checking out. Featuring tables of trains for sale, free workshops and demos, and a train kids can ride on, this show has something for every railfan. You can even bring your own trains and run them on the show’s test track. SL
(Washington State Fair Events Center, Puyallup, $5-$15, Saturday-Sunday)

VISUAL ART





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Contemporary mainstay Traver Gallery’s first exhibition of 2024 kicks off the new year with its annual multimedia selection of works from its material-focused roster of artists, including heavy hitters like Granite Calimpong, Andrea Dezso, Naoko Morisawa, Bronson Shonk, Preston Singletary, Curtis Steiner, April Surgent, Dick Weiss, and more. Expect to feast your eyes on works from the realms of blown glass, watercolor, ceramics, and engraving. LC
(Traver Gallery, Downtown, free, Friday-Saturday)





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Aiming to redefine stereotypes and notions of luxury in Black culture, the group exhibition Black & Boujee challenges the Eurocentric conception of opulence, centers Afrocentric aesthetics, and will likely expand your perceptions on all things expensive. The show is a great reason to visit Bainbridge Island—it’ll showcase works by Black artists and designers working in painting, sculpture, and other mediums to investigate the “complexity of navigating luxury in a society shaped by racial inequalities.” LC
(Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Winslow, free, Friday-Sunday)





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Seattle-based artist Eirik Johnson’s The Light That Gets Lost pairs tranquil, hushed diptychs with a sound installation, inviting the viewer to respond to the subtle differences in imagery within a larger thematic framework of natural transformation and climate change. The images depict hunting cabins “built by the Iñupiat inhabitants of Utqiaġvik (formerly known as Barrow), Alaska as seen through the extremes of the Arctic summer and winter.” There’s something deeply satisfying about observing the shifting appearance of the cabins as the seasons change—in summer, they have a bare, weathered, and makeshift appearance, but blanketed in snow, they become pristine, almost magical. LC
(Koplin Del Rio Gallery, Georgetown, free, Friday-Saturday; closing)





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Inspired by a recent residency in Joshua Tree National Park, which is home to delightful “Don’t Die Today” signage and over 300 historic mines, Katie Miller’s solo exhibition Overburden blends kiln-fired glass, photographic weavings, and hand-cut paper to think about the sociological influence of historic and modern mining and mineral extraction practices. A quick peek at Miller’s Instagram reveals ultra-detailed compositions that remind me of the Joshua tree’s spiky leaf growth. LC
(The Vestibule, Ballard, free, Friday-Saturday)

WINTER





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The canonical holidays may be over, but winter’s still here, and we recommend brightening up the darkness in Washington’s very own Bavarian town. Leavenworth’s Winter Karneval honors an ancient German tradition called Fasching, which brings about the “exorcism of winter.” Over half a million lights will brighten the streets where you can check out demos of ice carving, fire dancing, and fireworks over Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend. Don’t forget the traditional foods—fresh pretzels, hot bratwurst, and warm donuts (krapfen) will be on offer. SL
(Leavenworth, Saturday-Sunday)

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

Civil Rights History Backstory Tour Coming to Hamptons

Southampton African American Museum Exec Director Brenda Simmons, Debbie Woods at Downton Abbey: A New Era screening
Southampton African American Museum Executive Director Brenda Simmons with Debbie Woods.

A first-of-its-kind self-guided tour of historical sites in the Hamptons that played a role in the Civil Rights movement is being hosted by a local group of historians this weekend.

Long Island Traditions organized the stops on the Civil Rights Backstory Tours in which participants start at the Southampton African American Museum, 245 North Sea Road, at 11 a.m. Saturday, January 20 before making stops in East Hampton, and Sag Harbor. The event is the group’s fourth on TravelStorys, which highlights unsung and forgotten contributions of minority communities with tours participants follow using their cellphones.

“By integrating multimedia resources with newer technologies, visitors to historic sites will gain a more accessible way to understand vernacular and historic sites recognized for their struggle for Civil Rights and the preservation of African American and BIPOC (Black Indigenous People of Color) communities,” says Nancy Solomon, Executive Director of Long Island Traditions.

Besides the museum, which is the former site of Randy’s Barbershop and a community gathering place, South Fork tour stops will feature the Eastville Community Historical Society, where a historic African American community formed in the 19th century; the homestead of Pyrrhus Concer in Southampton, a former slave, whaler and entrepreneur; and the home of George Fowler, a Montaukett who was a gardener for landscape painter Thomas Moran in East Hampton.

In developing the program, LI Traditions worked with Dr. Georgette Grier-Key of the Eastville Community Historical Society, Brenda Simmons of the Southampton African American Museum, Michael A. Butler, a well-known African American artist and activist in Sag Harbor, and former East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc.

The project is funded by the African American Civil Rights grant program through the Historic Preservation Fund administered by the National Park Service and the New York State Council on the Arts.

For more information about Long Island Traditions, visit longislandtraditions.org.

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–> RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

Art & Soul 2024 will highlight Black artists, celebrate Indiana Avenue

Art & Soul returns next month with four new featured artists whose crafts include dance, visual art, spoken word and music.

With the theme “We Are One, The Naptown Experience,” they will perform and show their work across February. The Indy Arts Council’s celebration of Black artists and Black History Month, which has been ongoing since 1996, supports the careers of central Indiana’s Black artists. And the event will have a special historical component this year.

More:NBA All-Star Weekend will bring a special Butter art fair, food and music to downtown Indy

“The current ‘Naptown Experience’ is vast, and over the past decade or so, ‘Naptown’ has become a term of endearment for our city,” said Valerie Phelps, Art & Soul 2024 event producer, in a news release.

“The grand finale will be a non-stop, power packed tribute sharing highlights from ‘the Avenue’ past to present, popular music and dance from the 40’s to now — in costume. The program will represent the African American community as a whole, capitalizing on strength in variety, and serve as a cultural representation of where we are as a people in the City of Indianapolis.”

Here are this year’s artists and when you can see them:

2024 Art & Soul’s featured artists

Boxx The Artist uses acrylics, digital, public art, photography and film to explore the African Diaspora. She is one of four featured in Indy Arts Council's 2024 Art & Soul program, which will celebrate Black artists and Indiana Avenue.

Visual artist Boxx The Artist: She uses acrylics, digital, public art, photography and film to explore the African Diaspora. She was honored as one of the 2023 Hoosier Women Artists by Indiana Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, and her work has been shown in several places, including the Black Creativity Juried 2022 and 2023 Exhibit at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. Boxx has installed murals for the the city of Indianapolis and Indiana State Museum, among others.

Musician Dexter Clardy is an IU Soul Revue alum is the lead singer of Shvdy Rollins. He is one of four featured in Indy Arts Council's 2024 Art & Soul program, which will celebrate Black artists and Indiana Avenue.

Musician Dexter Clardy of Shvdy Rollins: The Indiana University Soul Revue alum is the lead singer of the alternative R&B band, which was formerly called Huckleberry Funk. He’s been on shows with 21 Pilots and Doja Cat, among several other big performances.

Austin "Sirlimitless" Day is an alum of IU's African American Dance Co. and the founder of ChoreoBlitz.He is one of four featured in Indy Arts Council's 2024 Art & Soul program, which will celebrate Black artists and Indiana Avenue.

Dancer, choreographer and educator Austin “SirlimitlessDay: An alum of Indiana University’s African American Dance Co., he founded ChoreoBlitz, which brings innovative programming and opportunities to dancers. He’s performed with major artists and formed Indianapolis classes that serve several age groups.

Spoken word artist jus Will has performed across the country and written the "The Missedprint of a Poet" about his journey. He is one of four featured in Indy Arts Council's 2024 Art & Soul program, which will celebrate Black artists and Indiana Avenue.

Spoken word artist jus Will: Taking inspiration from hip-hop, he’s played across the country, worked in comedy and written the literary debut “The Missedprint of a Poet” about his own journey. He’s also recorded an album and two EPs.

Tickets on sale Jan. 19:After a standout 2023 show, pop icon and Hoosier Janet Jackson will return to Indy

2024 Art & Soul event schedule, ticketing information

  • Feb. 2: Art & Soul kickoff. Art exhibit (5-9 p.m.) and performances at Gallery 924 and The Cabaret. Spotlighting Boxx the Artist, former Art & Soul visual artists and well-known local musicians. (924 N. Pennsylvania St. Free. RSVP for 6 p.m. performance at tinyurl.com/4h3ze9td.)
  • Feb. 7: Featured Artist Music Showcase. 5 p.m. doors for drinks and dinner, with pre-show art by Boxx the Artist. 7 p.m. show with Dexter Clardy with his band Shvdy Rollins, a spoken word reading by jus Will and more. (The Jazz Kitchen, 5377 N. College Ave. $15+. tinyurl.com/mrk47fvm)
  • Feb. 23: Celebration and Naptown Tribute. Live music, dancing and vendors with a finale that celebrates Indiana Avenue’s music with the 2024 featured artists. An IPS Kids Zone will show student artwork and host a performance by the Arsenal Tech High School Jazz Combo. (5 p.m. Indianapolis Artsgarden, above Illinois and Washington streets. Free. RSVP at tinyurl.com/29zdneed)

Find more information at indyarts.org.

Looking for things to do? Our newsletter has the best concerts, art, shows and more — and the stories behind them

Contact IndyStar reporter Domenica Bongiovanni at 317-444-7339 or d.bongiovanni@indystar.com. Follow her on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter: @domenicareports.

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment