#artsandletters

[hauntedfalcon]

Sponge print dinosaur in progress. #artwithAda #artsandletters (at Rosette Studios: Arts & Letters)

[pretentiousbullshittheblog]

Wadada Leo Smith at Arts and Letters Saturday September 28, 2024

The newly reopened American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York City hosted it’s first concert, the Redkoral Quartet performing string quartets by Wadada Leo Smith and Raven Chacon. This performance was in conjunction with Raven Chacon’s Aviary, a sound installation that opened at Arts and Letters along with a gallery show of Smith’s visual scores. 

The performance of Smith’s String Quartet No. 17 (2022-2023) was an absolute triumph and displayed Smith as perhaps the pre-eminent contemporary composer of the string quartet. He is certainly one of the most prolific as well, having reached 17 over the last 40-50 years of Smith’s compositional life. The string writing veered from glissandos to cycled passages to short, staccato chords, reaching apexes of beauty like in the second movement, subtitled “The Lincoln Memorial.” That title could allude to Copland’s Lincoln Portrait and there certainly was a Copland-esque Americana to the sound world. But the work never became cloying, or even very close. Smith’s ability to constantly re-direct to different places made the work ever fascinating. 

That each movement had it’s own subtitles including “The Capital and the Rotunda,” “The USA Supreme Court, Can It Survive,” and “Washington, D.C., January Six: The Falcon Uplifted the Unity with Love” attests to Smith continuing to think and critique the American project. His late masterworks 10 Freedom Summers, and America’s National Parks both included Smith’s long form questioning of Civil Rights, where we are now in the nations racial history, and the idea of who owns the national parks. That Smith is able to place so much into an seemingly abstract music is revelatory. 

The concert ended with a short, improvised set of Smith on trumpet and Chacon on processed guitar in the North Gallery of the Arts and Letters campus. With Chacon providing a bed of soft, slightly shifting, electronic chords, Smith, with his trumpet muted, performed an exquisite, plaintive, melodic coda to the afternoon’s performance. Sublime. 

[gingermck]

Experienced a cultural explosion yesterday, both as one of the participants/organizers of the @easternarealinks and @westchestercountynylinks virtual museum tour of works by African-American art in @metmuseum private collection (guided by esteemed curator Denise Murrell), and then as an observer of my hometown #dallas #texas @dallasmuseumart virtual 30th anniversary celebration of its #artsandletters series featuring amazing literary readings by young actors, including an extraordinary young @smudallas theater student as well as seasoned vets like @mgh_8 (who was amazing) and @officiallymcconaughey ... #artmatters #africanamerican #writerslife #intheheartoftexas https://www.instagram.com/p/CNyKkdsncZX/?igshid=n6k18lnjjufj

[gregorysiff]

Photo by 2wenty

(via Gregory Siff, Notable Artist, to Speak at UT Feb. 4, 11)

Gregory Siff, a notable visual artist, opera singer, experimental filmmaker, voice artist and actor, will speak at The University of Tampa on Feb. 4 and 11.

On Feb. 4, Gregory Siff will be the featured guest in the College of Arts and Letters in Conversation event in the Sykes Chapel and Center for Faith and Values at 7 p.m. On Feb. 11, Siff will speak about his art at the Scarfone/Hartley Gallery at 1 p.m.

On Tuesday, Feb. 4, Siff will be the featured guest in the College of Arts and Letters in Conversation event in the Sykes Chapel and Center for Faith and Values at 7 p.m. On Tuesday, Feb. 11, Siff will speak about his art at the Scarfone/Hartley Gallery at 1 p.m. Both events are open and free to the public.

Siff is from Brooklyn but currently lives and works in Los Angeles. He began working on stage at the New York City Opera, singing in operas such as Carmen, Tosca and Lucia. He was cast in Fox’s true-life story The Brady Bunch: The Final Days and in I.F.C.’s Rome and Jewel, a modern update of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. He’s guest-starred on Showtime’s Nurse Jackie, CBS’s C.S.I.: NY and HBO’s How to Make It in America.

Siff’s experimental short film, Sequential Paint, written and directed by Stephen Dackson, was a featured selection at the Spring 2010 NewFilmmakers Series in New York City at the Anthology Film Archives. The film also screened at various exhibits, art shows and galleries in Los Angeles, including the opener of the 2006 Santa Ana Film Festival. His work blurs the boundaries between pop art, abstract-expressionism and street. As a voice actor, Siff appears in the video game series Grand Theft Auto as the voice and body of Rocco Pelosi.

Siff’s work is featured in places including Beatz’s Dean Collection, Deitch Projects, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Soho House New York and Google HQ. He also has done commissions and installations for companies including Mercedes-Benz, Adidas, Marc Jacobs and Forbes.

For more information, contact Christina Singer, assistant professor of art, graphic design, at [email protected] or [phone].

[zarahgagatiga]

A collage to jumpstart writing #writingworkshop #artsandletters #lifeinthesouth (at Westborough Town Center) https://www.instagram.com/p/BzAVFIwBkWC/?igshid=1owdag9073i3g

[therecordnerd]

Big thank you to our 1st graders from Arts and Letters school from Fort Greene, Brooklyn for collecting $$ to donate to BARC shelter. Excellent work!!! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . #fortgreene #artsandlettersschool #artsandletters #barcshelter #animalmagnet #animalshelter #dogsofig #dogsofinstagram #dogs #adoptdontshop #adoptdontbuy #adopt #donate #volunteer #kittensofig #kittens #catsofinstagram (at Brooklyn Animal Resource Coalition (BARC Shelter)) https://www.instagram.com/p/BwSYVcSFlJ7/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=7gusjmrzonjf

[schsieh]

Okay done! I believe these will be available to buy $5 in this Thursday, Feb. 1 in Rosette Studios: Arts & Letters :) hope someone like mine. #rosettestudios #artsandletters #3x3size #illustration #charity #donation #art #doodles #color #penandink #acrylicink

[glamorouzlife]

Soror Westbrook shares memories of her Aunt Katherine Globe Johnson @hiddenfiguresmovie #nacdst #artsandletters #sisterhoodmonth #dst1913 #dst104 (at The Minerva Foundation of Tennessee, Inc.)