Calling All Artist

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATION: Feb 24th, 2006
CALL FOR ARTISTS OF COLOR UNDER 30 (NYC)
From Performance to Print is a 10 workshop series> combining spoken word, playwriting, and bookmaking. The series aimsto develop writing and performance skills and then self-publish thewriting in handmade books. The workshop culminates in a reading and exhibition of books called Paper Shed from Word. The workshops also aimto pass on the economic skills necessary to make a living as aspoken word artist, playwright, and / or bookmaker via conversations> about submitting, publishing, producing, booking, and promoting artistic work.

The series is free. All workshops are on Tuesday nights at 6:30 PM at Booklyn in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. March 14 – Journal Making,March 21 – Our Books, Ourselves> March 28 – The Book as the Body> April 11 – The Book as a Gift> April 18 - The 5 Minute Play(erz)> April 25 - Truth, Memory, and Imagination in> Playwriting, May 9 - 4th Wall Breakin' May 16 – Computer vs. Paste Up May 23 – Book Design> May 30 – Editioning, June 6 – Paper Shed from Word.
The spoken word and playwriting workshops will be led by writers of color: Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai, spoken word artist; and Andre Lancaster, playwright. The bookmaking workshops will be led by white bookmaker, Jamie Munkatchy. The workshops are designed for but not exclusive to artists of color under the age of 30 to encourage the development of artists who are typically marginalized and> underrepresented in the literary, theatrical, and bookmaking fields.
Ten applicants will be selected for the workshop> series: five artists between the ages of 14 and 22 and five artists> between the ages of 23 and 30 Artist Bios> > Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai is a Chinese/Taiwanese American spoken word artist who strengthens cultural pride and survival throughhow she lives and how she spits. She has been featured at over 125> performances across > the country including venues like the Nuyorican Poets Café, the House of Blues, the Apollo Theater in Harlem, and two> seasons of “Russell Simmons Presents HBO Def Poetry.” Splitting her homes between Chicago and New York, Kelly also tours nationally with Mango Tribe and “We Got Issues!” She is the author of two chapbooks Inside Outside Outside Inside and Thought Crimes. Her first full-length play, “Murder the Machine.” will be excerpted at Chicago’s first Hip Hop Theater Festival in Spring 2006. More about Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai. /playwright/rebel Andre Lancaster creates imaginative theatre that presents worldvisions where theatre is healing, healing is art, and art is resistance. In 2004 Descendants of Freedom: a futuristic queer hip hop odyssey [descendantsoffreedom.info} premiered at Brooklyn’s BRIC Studio, Sputnik Bar+Lounge, and SoHo’s Queer@HERE Theatre > Festival. Selected into Columbia University’s Our Word Playwriting Workshop in Spring 2005. He has facilitated his> playwriting workshop - I am a Writer - for a local group of writers in> Brooklyn and at the Sadie Nash Leadership Project. Jamie Munkatchy is a bookmaker and teacher. To pay the bills she does the accounting at Booklyn. She makes handmade books> under the press names: Jim and Betty Books and White Chocolate Blunt Press. She published two editions of Andre Lancaster’s descendants of Freedom and an artists’ edition of Consensual Genocide by poet Leah Piepzna- Samarsinha. She currently runs the Open Studio, a> labor exchange, at Booklyn

Application Deadline is February 24, 2006 If you need hard copies of the application or have trouble downloading the application, please call Jamie at> 718-383-9621. Send > completed applications via email to munkaj@gmail.com or by mail to: Booklyn> 37 Greenpoint Avenue> Brooklyn, NY 11222 This workshop is partially funded by a Department of> Cultural Affairs (DCA) Regrant administered by the Brooklyn Arts> Council

Black History Month Profiles Karen Brown

We celebrate the excellence of artistic commitment with Karen Brown a prolific visionary blessed with the gift of Dance.
Oakland Ballet has named Karen Brown, formerly of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, as the company's new artistic director. The announcement was made yesterday at a press conference at Oakland City Hall hosted by Mayor Jerry Brown and Oakland Ballet officials.

A member of Dance Theatre of Harlem from 1973 to 1995, Brown has enjoyed a long career as dancer, educator, arts administrator and teacher. Among the eminent choreographers with whom she has worked are Arthur Mitchell, Frederick Franklin, Alexandra Danilova, Agnes De Mille and Geoffrey Holder. Bay Area audiences may remember Brown for her many performances with the Dance Theatre of Harlem at Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall, including her lead role in Alonzo King's ``Signs and Wonders.''

Brown's community outreach activities are extensive and have included working with young dancers in the Harlem company's annual Kennedy Center Residency in Washington, D.C.
She was born in 1955 in Augusta, Ga., and began her ballet training with Ron Colton of the Augusta Ballet. Following her tenure with Dance Theatre of Harlem, Brown was director of education at the Atlanta Ballet Center for Dance Education from 1995 to 1997. She has worked for the International Association of Blacks in Dance and, most recently, has served as Artistic Director of Karenina, a dance support organization she founded in 1997.
``I am delighted to have the opportunity to share my vision of dance with Oakland Ballet,'' said Brown. ``I look forward to working closely with the community at large.''
Oakland Ballet was founded in 1965 and has been dancing in Oakland's Paramount Theater since 1973. Although the company has had its share of financial troubles and staff cutbacks, it also boasts an illustrious history and a unique repertory that has been acclaimed internationally for its vibrant reconstructions of modern ballets. These include Kurt Joos' ``The Green Table,'' Bronislava Nijinska's ``Les Noces'' and ``Les Biches,'' and a production of Michel Fokine's ``Les Sylphides'' that ranks as one of the finest anywhere.

Karen Brown is a noted humanist who expresses the complex issues of humanity with the divine expression of dance and music. She is a founding board member of the Atlanta Ballet ABCDE Dance School which gives enlightenment and joy to all. Her outreach activities have touched all communities. She is known for integrity and fierce determination to build and provide a platform for the Arts.

Black History Month

Black History Month is here and we want to celebrate with stories of credible and strong people within our families. If you have anystories to submit then do so with Charly so he can bring them to light. Consider those who have cleared the path or those who comforted others through trials. Please submit any profiles to Wesley at olocun@hotmail.com or Charly at
Charlydoesit@yahoo.com

An Artist is not

Those that speak but whose words harbinger empty thoughts are not artist

Those that dig into the crevice of their soul and come up empty are not artist

Those that give in to delusion and hysteria with no commitment to themselves are not artist

Those that invade dreams and keep stolen treasures ...Hoarding talents are not artist

Those that use filthy hands to wreak havoc against nubile creations are not artist

Artist ....Inspire..........Create.........Execute..........Manifest........Desires deep within the cerebral patterns of thought and ignite a shielded passion within the folds of our humanity......... they are the muses of divine inspiration

Artist share their gifts, for these fragrant seeds build dynasties upon torn thresholds
denigrated by the sandpaper of life.

-Wesley- @copyright

Congrats to Charly!!

Congratulations to Charly for the sale of one of his paintings at the Winter Kills Exhibit.!!!!!
The show ended on Jan. 31st.

"Be inspired and create. The rest will follow suit"