"I don't know if you should call these videos poetry or not, but they're what happens when a poet starts making YouTube videos." Meet Steve Roggenbuck, a young poet who has been compared to Walt Whitman and who sees social media as poetry.

"Save this stuff for your blog," said Steve Roggenbuck's graduate school professor when he used internet slang in a poem. Having a background as a musician and heavily invested in online media, Roggenbuck had been looking at blogs, YouTube and memes for inspiration. "A blog is potentially so much more powerful than all these literary journals you submit to - it just seemed really oblivious," says the poet critically of traditional means of distribution. "It seemed clear that the establishment was so behind, that there was room to identify even harder as an internet poet and be the antithesis of the establishment."

Roggenbuck's most well-known work is his online poetry: tightly edited, layered videos of seemingly improvised poetry, music and images, which are uploaded to YouTube. The form, explains Roggenbuck, is akin to automatic writing and allows him to take risks: "I go into these voices, I start saying wacky stuff, I start yelling something ... it's uncensored ... like I'm writing the first draft of a poem."

The Internet poet also discusses his more traditional literary influences, particularly the formative experience of reading American poet Walt Whitman: "It woke me up, I saw everything anew, the weirdness of it all. Knowing he had that effect on me made it so that I knew I could have that effect on other people," says Roggenbuck, who sees precedents for calling his idiosyncratic blend of media 'poetry' - for example in the Dadaist, Surrealist and visual poetry.

Steve Roggenbuck (b. 1987) is an American poet and vlogger most known for his videos, which are posted online and have been presented at places like the New Museum in New York, USA and the Rowing Gallery in London, UK. He has published six collections of writing and his work has been covered by medias like The New York Times, Gawker, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone and The Guardian.

Steve Roggenbuck was interviewed by Pejk Malinovski in connection to the Louisiana Literature festival at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark August 2016.

Camera: Klaus Elmer, Anders Lindved & Rasmus Quistgaard
Produced and edited by: Kasper Bech Dyg
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2016

Supported by Nordea-fonden

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Carolee Schneemann, Fresh Blood - A Dream Morphology, 1981-85, gelatin silver print.

Three concurrent exhibitions at four galleries in New York representing three generations of women artists mesh the millennial concern for cultural intersectionality with feminist, ecological and global formulas of sustenance. Carolee Schneemann, Further Evidence at PPOW and Galerie Lelong in Chelsea, October 21 - December 3, 2016, revisit the performance art, photo documentation, film projections and video that helped to usher in the first wave of new media feminist art in the early 1960s and remained freshly innovative through the 1980s. At Wave Hill in Riverdale, Of Nature, September 3 - December 3, 2016, a small but concentrated survey of the career of the late Jackie Brookner spans the 1990s-to 2010s by tracing her evolution from studio artist, to installer of site-specific conceptual art, to engaging truly activist eco art among wildlife natural habitats. At Transfer Gallery, in Brooklyn, Morehshin Allahyari's, She Who Sees the Unknown, October 28 -December 3, presents newly fabricated work made with 3D scanners and 3D printers, much of which is rephotographed for video projection in the space. In stating her goal is to "refigure" an ancient, proto-feminist activist art for an emerging generation, she reclaims century-old imagery and objects representing women's nature religion and medicine banned for centuries by Zorastian, Christian and Islamic autocracies, yet which revisited today hint at the hidden side of what would become the province of modern medicine and psychology.

What unifies the three bodies of work are the singular, even oracular focus each of the artists displays in devising a personal physics and metaphysics of culture that unifies the body, mind and world. Whether they favor the ideological, political, cultural, spiritual or theological as their primary path to a unifying world view is relative and thereby less important than the common factor at play -- their approach to building a correspondence of art with the world their art embodies, represents, mimics or points to. The three shows are made even more relevant for arriving at a time when the issue of women's identities, beliefs and politics claim to expand with the notion of a cultural intersectionality that meshes all the variant feminist arts and activisms based on cultural and ideological origins. To bring that intersectionality into the greater history of feminist history and art, we may look to the deep roots, spreading branches and interlacing tendrils of the sciences, metaphysics, poetics and long histories of human life, their languages and iconographies, continually growing to become ever more prominent and understood as composing a holistic vision of the culture-nature continuum.

Carolee Schneemann, Fresh Blood, 1983, 11 minutes, color and sound.

In this context, the three shows are remarkable for simultaneously reviving the currency of a feminist metaphysics of the body-world continuum that reaches back to ancient millennia. Yet it also informs the scientific quest for a unified model, whereby the quantum, the nuclear, the molecular, the chemical, the biological, the psychological, the terrestrial, the astronomical, the astrophysical are made one unified system modeling the world and our place in it. Until that unified model is arrived at, we refer to vague outlines of the unified theory in terms of the microcosm-macrocosm; the prose of the world; the cyborg fusion of body and object; the correspondence of things; the immanence of intelligent design, if not intelligence in materiality operating at unique frequencies. All these models of the world and more inform both the traditional and new media these three women had independently and in different decades settled on to sustain their political empowerment and personal enhancement as artists.

All three artists also show a marked proclivity for making an art that reflects, at the same time that it is what is reflected, as reality. And that reality is the projection -- truly a much better metaphor than the mirror for an age of electric digitalization of light projected images, and which Schneemann and Allahyari in particular relish to redefine the parameters of an exhibition space. The projection is, of course, a perceptual representation of human perception and affinity. And given that all three artists see the diversity of being as a mesh of difference in coexistence and shared ideas, the projection, mesh, existence and idea all together can be called an 'immanence' of consciousness binding the world within a cultural perspective.

Carolee Schneemann, Fresh Blood, 1983, 11 minutes, color and sound.

The term immanence was the name given to the theological belief that the entirety of the world is invested with a theistic presence, if not an intelligence, whether it was impersonal, as in pantheism, or presumes the presence of a deity or deistic-like energy immanent in all creation. For our intersectional purposes, were we including the art of men in this survey, we might call the presence presumed in all things to be a 'human immanence', or its derivation, a 'humanence'. In fact, this would be an immanence projected by us into the world, perhaps even an immanence projected by the world onto us.

But since the artworld from the 1970s on has seen this projection of humanence primarily in the art of women, particularly feminists, for our purposes the art discussed here can be said to be a holistic projection of 'feminence'. This is not to be mistaken for the essentialist search for the feminine "in" all nature, but rather a projection into the unity and power of things that women share with men, but derive strength, wisdom and confidence from. The fact that we divide it into 'humanence' and 'feminine', (there is no similar new-world encompassing movement by men searching for a source of power they already culturally presume to possess. And the old order of men just assumed 'humanence' is their designation.) Feminence, then, is merely a condition of the evolution of women through the patriarchal millennia we are emerging from. It is not an energy or source predisposed only to or for women. It is a channeling of the one pervasive and unified projection by women today of their presumed energy and essence as a source of resilience and identity.

At the same time deistic sensibilities aren't excluded in the shared ideology of humanence or feminine -- that is part of guarantee of intersectionalism. Of the three artists here, Allahyari entertains the bygone myths of the essentialist feminine for historical reference, yet one she departs from as essences are what disappear from her work as she newly explains the myths in pedagogical terms. Still, the underlying and fundamental notion of a feminine essence sought by women (and those men interested in "getting in touch with their feminine") within all things emanates as a unifying motivation and ideal propelling such work that can be said to be culturally constructed as a mirror of the mind, as a prose of the world, and as a continuum of microcosm meshes out in constructive expansion to compose macrocosm.

Carolee Schneemann, Precarious , 2009, multichannel video installation, motorized mirror system. Installation view: Galerie Lelong, New York, 2016.

How an artist accesses the all-pervasive immanence is naturally subject to the conditions of her life. Since 1960, Carolee Schneemann used her nude body as a screen that meshed with the theatrical background, and the mixed-media of still and motion picture projections. When Schneemann was seen with the projection of a chalice atop her torso, the connotation is that the body is literally as subjected to receiving all manner of projection of meaningful contents from the mind as the body is capable of being made into a physical receptacle or platform of objects and images. It is in particular Schneemann's reaching for a connective mesh to the world, to a resonance beyond the mundane events of the performance, or the cultural conceits of art to an immanence in all things. It may have been Schneemann, or it may have been Frida Kahlo or Georgia O'Keeffe or Meret Oppenheim or Remedios Varos before her, or Marisol Escbar, Niki de Saint Phalle or Yko Ono, her contemporaries, all of whom reached for a universal immanence like the old deistic pantheism from which the human form of woman could be said to emanate. As did Kahlo's organic and mineral bloodlines in Henry Ford Hospital, O'Keeffe's flowering vagina analogues, and Oppenheim's fur cup, Schneemann's Meat Joy and Interior Scroll did this literally and physically when her astonished audiences witnessed her dancers rolling around on the floor among the animal meats that were continuities of their bodies, or the artist herself pulling a paper scroll from her vagina to read a manifesto that extended Courbet's, and really all of the ancients, notion that the vagina is the source for the world.

Meat Joy and Interior Scroll are missing from the PPOW and Galerie Lelong surveys -- not that they are needed, so ubiquitous have they become for at least connoisseurs of political art as milestones of innovation. The gallerists are rightfully intent on expanding our acquaintance with the a range of Schneemann's performance art, and other spoken and written monologue art. Much of the imagery in particular is either derived from photo documentations of her performances or remediated imagery and text that originally composed the multimedia slide projections and video screenings that Schneemann wove into her textural and textual fields of space, time and meaning. For this viewer, the textual works in particular resonate with the sound of Schneemanns voice, familiar to anyone who has been acquainted with the soundtracks of her films, videos and slide installations. (Schneemann's voice has a historical resonance in the artworld that is rivaled only by the voice of Yvonne Rainer, whose early, quasi-narrative films, were punctuated by her long and ironic voiceovers.)

Carolee Schneemann, Precarious , 2009, multichannel video installation, motorized mirror system. Installation view: Galerie Lelong, New York, 2016.

Much of the work we view by Schneemann is composed of interplaying resemblances, analogies and punning in the Freudian tradition by facilitating our seeing of vaginas in branching trees; bodies in chalices; erotic stimulants in household pets. Freudian associative thinking, after all, energized second-wave feminism in the 1960s and 1970s as did no other figure or ideology, even if it was largely as a catalyst of dissent and delegitimization. The both positive and negative influence Freud, and his acolytes Carl Jung and Jacques Lacan, had on the associative chain of feminist empathies with objects, whether as fetishes, archetypes, metaphors or political euphemisms, Schneemann mischievously reconstituted what Donna Haraway would in the 1980s famously call the feminist cyborg that not only makes the inanimate object continuous with her body as a strategy of empowerment in times and places of darkness and fear, but who dissolves the boundary between subject and object by rendering them continuous. Haraway wrote: "The 'eyes' made available in modern technological sciences shatter any idea of passive vision; these prosthetic devices show us that all eyes, including our own organic ones, are active perceptual systems, building in translations and specific ways of seeing." In other words, when we are seeing we are, in Haraway's words, "organizing worlds." (This passage was provided by Jackie Brookner.)

Read more about Schneeman in Denson's essays Breaking the Frame and XX Chromosocial, Women Artists Cross the Homosocial Divide.



As the first self-proclaimed feminist in the Modernist art world (those who came before her, such as the surrealists, Frida Kahlo, Meret Oppenheim, Remedios Varos, and Lee Miller, and before them the Dada artists, Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Hannah Hoch, were, in retrospect, protofeminists). But given that Schneemann, Brookner and Allahyari are self-proclaimed feminists, the immanence they project through their art can rightily be called a 'feminence'. This includes the invocation by all three women of a history of woman's metaphysical strivings for an almost oracular metaphysics that unites culture and nature through a reading of the body, the mind, and the objects as one expansive text continuous with and signifying the world as we know it.

The beginnings of feminence. Frida Kahlo, Roots, 1943, oil on metal. Ana Mendieta Untitled (Tree of Life series) ,1977, color photograph documenting earth-body work with tree and mud. Meret Oppenheim, Object, 1943, fur. Georgia O'Keefe, Grey Lines with Black, Blue and Yellow, oil on canvas, 1923. Marisol Escobar, Cocktail Party, 1965. Man Ray and Lee Miller, Prayer, gelatin sIlverprint, 1930.

While art critics prefer to detach the art object, image, performance or concept from the maximalist sensibility of mainstream culture, a cultural critic such as myself prefers just the opposite: to correlate the various mainstream threads and trace them back to their sources. In uniting the concerns of these three artists in a metaphysical feminist immanence we can call a 'feminine', we are visually uniting artists who make images, objects, performances, philosophies and ecosystems posed not as oppositional or dualistic, but rather as seamless and symbiotic textures of difference that propose a holistic antidote to 'the Self' and 'the Other' by uniting them in a systemic mesh of difference and commonality. Maya Deren's 1943 film, Meshes of the Afternoon, comes to mind as yet another vision of a Surrealist feminence. Dream (the structure mimicked by Deren's film), after all, is our living return to the similitude of the all-encompasing Whole. This much is conveyed by the famous montage in which Deren takes five steps around the world, each cutting to a different terrain: cement, earth, grasses, sand, water, and living room carpet.

But before we can begin to use a new word like 'feminence' to discuss the perception of the feminine in all things -- including masculinity, as conveyed by the common symbolism of the X chromosome belonging to both genders, while the Y chromosome belongs only to the male. But before we can expect 'feminence' to be received and utilized by others, we should understand the notions and theories from which such a term is historically derived as well as the crises the word is meant to resolve.

Jackie Brookner, Of Cotton and Earth, detail, hand-shaped earth after the feet of cotton pickers, pigment and wood

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Although until now there has been no such term as 'feminence', nor even the more inclusive notion of 'humanence', the term 'human ence' has been esoterically applied in European philosophy, however rarely and idiosyncratically. That shouldn't keep us from conceptualizing a useful and current notion of feminence and humanence to double for the 'immanence" that has historically informed both the ideologies and the actions of religions and philosophies that both united and divided populations for millennia up through the 19th Century. But while there hasn't been much modern art in the 20th Century, and even less in the 21st, to have invested in immanence, the artists of the first quarter of the 20th Century whose radical formalisms had been influenced by Theosophy -- Hilma af Klint, Wassily Kandinsky, Kasimir Malevish, Piet Modrian, Paul Klee, and László Moholy-Nagy, among scores of other prominent modernists) have been vital enough to keep the presumption alive at least as an historical departure point for Modernism, however conflicted that departure has been for its legatees.

The exception has been feminist art. Despite the antiessentialism of such philosophers from Simone De Beauvoir to Judith Butler, a kind of feminine was invoked by women artists of the 20th Century in reaction to the false rationalism that had long dismissed women's metaphysical alternatives to a patriarchy that has it roots in the notion of a male deistic immanence by law, both in the public and in the home. Feminence, the citation of a feminist presence in all things, is for some a real presence, for others, a rhetorical completion of what has been missing from male-dominated faith and metaphysics alike. Feminence can be seen both in the protofeminist art of Frida Kahlo and Meret Oppenheim and the self-proclaimed nonfeminist art of Georgia O'Keefe. That is because the notion of feminism transcends the political even as it permeates the psychological terrain of cultural and personal inheritance. What Kahlo and O'Keefe intuitively observe in culture and nature (with or without feminism), Carolee Schneemann explicitly interjects into art politics.

Photograph of a cotton picker posing her feet for Jackie Brookner as she renders a copy in earth and pigment for the series, Of Cotton and Earth, 1994-98.

Feminism has often enriched its theories and practices with not just metaphors of nature, but a mimicry and reference to the interconnectedness of natural systems: whether it be structural (intersubjectivity, interconnectivity), organic (tendrils, roots, branches), or languages to read (all the world is poetry and prose; signs, signifiers and semaphores), as the ancients read tea leaves, stars, palms, so today we read weather patterns, astronomical configurations, geological strata, molecular structures, DNA strands for clues to a relevant humanence (truth-to-survival narrative) within.

It was Schneemann who spearheaded the expansive metaphysics of women's alterity that until the 19th Century feminists opened nature to women, hid itself away in the wilderness of witches, maenads, amazons, real and mythological, but always made outlaws for their defiance of male domination. If women's religions were more attuned to nature, it is because they were forced to hide deep within its cragged stone recesses and dark forests both literally and figuratively. Schneemann is widely acknowledged for having taken the performative aspect of the abstract expressionists and extrapolated its performanceness with the body. If the abstract expressionists were disinclined to acknowledge their female painter colleagues, Schneemann, along with Niki de Saint Phalle in France, was disinclined to accept the male proscription of women's body as generative of art as much as Yves Kline had made women instruments of painting and Willem De Kooning had made them painted objects, but never as thinking, active, conferring subjects.

Jackie Brookner, Tongue Lounge, 1994, earth and wood suitable for sitting. Behind it, three untitled, monoprints, 22" x 15" (each). © Estate of Jackie Brookner. Photo: Stefan Hagen 1994-98.

On a more extensive axis well beyond the political and cultural provinces, Jackie Brookner wrote about and made an art epitomizing the nature-culture continuum and its connectedness with the world at large. On the wall of the Wave Hill gallery entrance, a citation by the late artist (who left us only in 2015) introduces the visitor to the culture-nature continuum informing the drawings, bronzes, biosculpture, photo- and video documentation of her ecological process art promoting and protecting plant and animal species. "The major theme of all my work is that humans are part of larger natural patterns and that we are dependent upon the natural systems that support our lives. My work is intended to foster conscious understanding of this and to instill an emotional connection to nature and a sense of literal Kinship."

Wave Hill's chief curator, Jennifer McGregor, and guest co-curator, Amy Lipton, recount that Brookner strove to break down the barriers between interior and exterior spaces for art by making her Soho studio of forty years into a biosphere, presenting some of its contents in galleries and other public spaces. Prima Lingua, a large terrasculpture made from earth in the form of a human tongue, doubles as a lounge chair. Although unadorned in the gallery so we can appreciate the natural porous surface, in Brookner's studio it had been "covered with ferns and mosses, with circulating water trickling down over its rocky surface into a pool below." Despite its rudimentary shape and iconographic simplicity, the biosculptural tongue functions not only as an organizing centerpiece uniting the work in the space that had been made before and after Brookner's eco-enlightnement, it is also a unifying metaphor for the human continuity with nature in embodying the mind and the body, which Brookner saw as, "a place where taste, sex and speech meet".

Jackie Brookner Prima Lingua, 1996-2002, concrete, volcanic rock, mosses, ferns, wetland plants, fish, steel, rubber liner, tubing, pumps.

Such meetings of pleasures, drives and intelligences catalyze Brookner's drawings and sculptures as porous filters whereby human existence mingles with the material and immaterial existence of all natural things. The finite artistic plenums she depicts and materializes are representative of a holistic and infinite totality of "essences" -- which really are no more than transient human experiences artificially reduced to concepts for as long as they are valuable for practical use. To Brookner the human-material hybrid is familiar yet foreign; they are extensions of experience into the unknown, but receptive, unconscious of the world. The place were the mind goes in sleep and the body in death, where stasis and motion, and with continuity and differentiation, identity and totality, neither in opposition or exclusion.

In such work, Brookner materializes the French philosopher Teilhard de Chardin who saw nature assuming a succession of higher and higher forms of organization, partaking in a hierarchy of increasing complexity from subatomic particles, through atoms, molecules, proteins, cells, organisms, humans, and ultimately to God, or a supreme and omniscient power. Brookner's artistic chain transits from idea to material, to cultural, to universal -- all interpreted as a code of interlocking relations which phases continually between organic and human-altered structures on all levels.

Jackie Brookner, Urban Rain, thumbprint filter for rainwater runoff before it enters a nearby waterway, installed in San Jose, CA, 2008, and beforehand in Brookner's studio.

By far Brookner's most successfully integrated work, that crowning the final years of her life's work, are those outdoor, surviving and ongoing activist and ecological process works that bridge human and animal societies living in symbiotic relationships. The Wave Hill videos and photo documents represented several of such works that Brookner installed around the globe. One of those promising to survive her for as long as its community remains committed is that in Salo, Finland. Here Brookner organized local volunteers, regional scientists and students to adapt lagoons that were formerly used in the sewage treatment processes to the needs of migrating birds. The project specifically enables birds to protect their eggs from onshore predators. Having organized volunteers to build three floatation islands, the installations immediately attracted nesting birds with their lightweight "rock formations" doubling in their supply of protection for eggs and as supports for the phytoremediation of indigenous plants that are a food source for the birds and other cohabitable wildlife. Brookner also saw to it that mist emissions from wind-powered aerators installed beneath the islands stimulate microbial life which feed the food chain.

Movng on to Moreshin's Allayari's show, She Who Sees the Unknown, is somewhat of a throwback to 1970s feminism's preoccupation with the Goddess and other female myths from history, these from pre-Islamic central Asian faiths that include what feminists have come to call the monstrous mother narratives. Such narratives are today thought to originally have been catalysts for women's social empowerment spanning hundreds if not thousands of years that, with increasingly patriarchal culture and history, were reformed into misogynist warnings proscribing women's power. Allayari is challenging the archeologists and mythologists who emerged since the 1970s to argue that no such global-historical matriarchy existed beyond isolated regional confines to justify the feminist myth of a matriarchal age preceding the historically confirmed patriarchal societies that formed during the Bronze and Iron Ages in the Middle East. But the provinces of myth and art are not dependent on science to buttress a feminist mythopoetics -- the making of new myths -- or the remaking of old myths to suit new activist social and cultural imperatives.

Jackie Brookner, The Magic of Water, 2007-16. Left: Volunteers build Brookner's flotation islands in Salo, Finland. Center: Nesting birds flock to the lagoon at the sight of Brookner's three islands. With time the vegetation grew and wind-powered aerators emit mist necessary for microbial life.

Allayari revives more than ancient and forgotten myth, however, as she also recalls the narrative accounts and performance tropes that artists of the 1970s, including many feminists, made their trademarks. But the plethora of performance art by visual artists in the 1970s and 1980s grew so cliche and so overindulgent in presenting narrative fictions as indistinguishable from cultural truths, that the genre was made anemic with the same unavoidable redundancies and cheapened formulas that inundate pulp fiction.

But thirty years later, the nostalgic recall of the veteran performance art aficionado combined with the renewed vigor of the narrative voice read aloud in an otherwise hushed gallery space, offers a new generation all the self-conscious, at times overly academic, monotonal pleasures that new beginnings promise. The most attractive being the implicit parallel metanarrative that tells us, "I am not making theater. I am not writing literature. I am making a polymorphic artifact with an activist incentive." It is in that monotone, that academic, that artifact that we also hear Allayari's voice of feminence reverberate. And because she knows she is recounting a nonWestern legend few Westerners know, Allayari's voice resonates authority at the same time that she injects the tension of our historic and ongoing conflicts between and phobias about secular and religious, scientific and superstitious, colonial and rebel, male and female, Western and Middle Eastern, ideologies.

Morehshin Allahyari, Huma and Talismans, 2016, 3D printed sculpture in black resin and clear resin.

As with all performance art and narrative, particularly those with political overtones, there is the danger that Allayari draws us into ideological portals she has no intention of opening. In a year marked by exceedingly fractious political campaigns in America, the bruising of thinned skins not yet calloused over can present the artist an audience all too eager to fight against the absorption of the feminence she sets free as literally as the setting free of the jinna from a bottle. But Allayari is well aware of this, as is any feminist who publicly unearths the matriarchal myths and histories that are a pathway to cultural immanence. Popular culture since the 1970s has been sending out feminist mythopoetic incarnations modeled on the amazon, the sorceress and the witch with subtle hermeneutics (that is, readings of the hidden prose of the world of nature) that can be read into the world by the uninitiate, as much as read from the world for those intune to humanance and feminance.

The difference with Allayari's generational context that was absent the feminism performance art of the 1970s and 1980s is that she inherits her generation's assumption of a well-debated and applied intersectionalism. In this she talks and writes about moving "beyond a simple binary view of West vs Islam / tech-future vs religious-history." Her methodologies are diversely millennial, which she demonstrates when she projects into the maelstrom the catchphrases of the key geopolitical crisis zones that for her Western audiences sign both the region of her birth an upbringing (she was born in Iran, where she live until 2007) and the proclaimed objectives of her resettlement in the US, some she is in conflict with. "My work undermines the uneven economics of Western technocolonialism and the performative rhetoric of Islamic fundamentalism," she writes, through a ficto-feminist-figural expression of power. I seek to makes visible the invisible power relationships emerging from the age of 'The War On Terror', current fashionable acts of cultural reconstruction, and the ownership/economics of 3D scanned data through a research-based practice and public engagement."

Morehshin Allahyari, Huma and Talismans, 2016, 3D printed sculpture in black resin and clear resin.

Allyari hasn't yet delivered all that she promises, but the project is still evolving in terms of its narration, objective strategies and especially its reconciliation of enemies. But it is the quieter feminences that succeed, and in large part not because of their rhetorical posturing, but because they are altogether as beguiling as a jinn of fevers ought to be. The installation is composed of a research center with library; a wall-mounted compendium of reproductions of miniature paintings and cards depicting the pre-Islamic myths of Iran and the books that are their sources; a 3D printed black resin sculpture of the jinn, Huma, She Who Sees the Unknown; and two projected videos about Huma with voiceover by Allahyari. In one f the videos, she reads "She Who Sees the Unknown", 2016.

Her name is Huma.
She who is of flame and blaze
She is a Jinn made of smokeless and scorching fire
Among a race created by Allah prior to humans
From the very day of her birth
She was responsible for common fever; '
The fever of fevers' as they called it.

Morehshin Allahyari, Talisman, 2016, 3D print in clear resin.

The fever is one of the two most successful of Huma's attributes to be evoked visually in the space, the other being the chain of concurrent visualizations around the space that are analogous to the mesh of the world with all its endowed feminance. Not all the 3D printed artifacts are entirely successful. This isn't to disparage Allahyari's efforts: it's is a limitation of the capacity and materials of 3D printing that may never be worked out, as the industrial processes have not yet been able to match the delicacies in craftsmanship and visual articulation achieved by intensive human labor. The times that the resined surfaces of the figurative sculptures work resoundingly for Allahyari is when they are veiled in shadow so that the highlighting of the black resin gleams as if obsidian. The resin figures also succeed when, in the video, the "lights go on" to reveal the precious jinn idols to be little more than hollow idols, some smashed to pieces. It's a sober reminder that not only do all our myths ultimately become discredited by new generations whose forebears may have been disempowered by the powers behind the idols, but also that many of our own forebears smashed the arts of foreign and bygone populations for appearing to them as sinful idols, in the fashion that the Islamic State (ISIS or Daesh) and the Taliban have been obliterating the artifacts they hold to be by idolaters.

The talismanic images digitally printed on suspended clear resin are much more successfully and theatrically lit to cast shadowy-circular figures on the wall. With the narrative of fever reverberating throughout the space, anyone who can recall the personally momentous captivation of a high fever (for this viewer it was an unforgettable phasing in an out of a 105-degree portal at the age of five) immediately transports back to the blurred and warped images and shapes of the wet heat. It is especially effective because the impression is in high contrast to the archival presentation of the tools of Allahyari's investigation of Huma which cool us after coming back to the present.

Morehshin Allahyari, archival reprductions of miniatures and cards depicting jinn and other mythical beings affixed t the gallery wall, 2016.

If the motifs of immanence, humanence and feminence have any traction in the ideological posturing of our still young century, it is largely because in the 1980s and 1990s the self-proclaimed proponents of (a now phantom) postmodernism made much ado about the end of the grand narratives that propelled, some would say held captive, the history of world philosophy. First principles such as Being, Knowledge, Phenomena, Nuemena (what cannot be known but is essential to what can be known), Nature, Culture -- are no longer the first and central principles from which all other principles and their philosophies issue. We now have embraced not a hierarchy of principles but a mesh of interpenetrating narratives simultaneous and ongoing. As Daniel Bell argued about the so-called ages of 'premodern', 'modern' and 'postmodern' industries -- which were marked by the rise and dominance of the epoch's human industry -- agrarian, industrial, digital -- we have not truly supplanted the agrarian community with the industrial community. Neither have we supplanted the industrial community with the digital. In practice all three remain simultaneous and vital to our survival.

This is how the notion of feminence relates to the notions of immanence and humanance. However we animate the world, and however the world animates us, the process in mutually exclusive, interconnected and constantly at variance in ways that make boundaries artificial at best. The miracle is that artists have from the very beginning implied this. Which is why we can today marvel at a cave painting (now known to be as likely painted by women shamans as by men) with the same degree of awe and astonishment that we marvel at a Frida Kahlo and a Georgia O' Keefe.

Morehshin Allahyari, still from one of two videos screened in the installation, She Who Sees the Unknown. She, Huma, "who shatters the unjust subject" is herself seen shattered, as all myths ultimately are.

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Postscript:

Virgina Woolf was a master of feminence, as ascertained in this excerpt from To the Lighthouse.

"She looked up over her knitting and met the third stroke and it seemed to her like her own eyes meeting her own eyes, searching as she alone could search into her mind and her heart, purifying out of existence that lie, any lie. She praised herself in praising the light, without vanity, for she was stern, she was searching, she was beautiful like that light. It was odd, she thought, how if one was alone, one leant to inanimate things; trees, streams, flowers; felt they expressed one; felt they became one; felt they knew one, in a sense were one; felt an irrational tenderness thus (she looked at that long steady light) as for oneself. There rose, and she looked and looked with her needles suspended, there curled up off the floor of the mind, rose from the lake of one's being, a mist, a bride to meet her lover."

Emily Dickenson was also.

The Soul's Superior instants
Occur to Her--alone--
When friend--and Earth's occasion
Have infinite withdrawn--

Or She--Herself--ascended
To too remote a Height
For lower Recognition
Than Her Omnipotent--

This Mortal Abolition
Is seldom--but as fair
As Apparition--subject
To Autocratic Air--

Enemy's disclosure
To favorites--a few--
Of the Colossal substance
Of Immortality




Listen to G. Roger Denson interviewed by Brainard Carey on Yale University Radio.

Read other posts by G. Roger Denson on Huffington Post in the archive.

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"I believe in singing together," says Brian Eno, widely regarded as the intellectual icon of modern western music. Join him as he humorously conducts a public morning choir with songs and spirituals of his own choice.
 
Brian Eno has a passionate interest in a cappella singing, he reveals in this video, recorded at a public group singing one winter morning in Copenhagen. Each Tuesday, Eno tells the audience, he runs his own a cappella choir consisting of ordinary people like a lawyer, a boxer, professionals and one musician besides Eno himself.

Eno has said that "when you sing with a group of people, you learn how to subsume yourself into a group consciousness because a cappella singing is all about the immersion of the self into the community. That's one of the great feelings -- to stop being me for a little while and to become us. That way lies empathy, the great social virtue." Learn more about Eno's singing passion: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97320958
​
The songs sung by Brian Eno together with the people in this choir includes 'Cotton Fields', 'I'll Fly Away', 'Can't Help Falling in Love', 'I Gave My Love a Cherry', 'Early One Morning', 'Calling My Children Home'.

Brian Eno (b. 1948) is a musician, composer, record producer, singer, writer, and visual artist. Eno's work is a pioneering exploration of music and art, not least presented in ground-breaking albums together with David Bowie, David Byrne and U2. Brian Eno is the inventor of ambient music, where he wanted the music to be part of the listener's surroundings, eliminating the idea of music as the result of the artist's ego. Some of Brian Eno's most famous albums include 'Discreet Music' (1975), 'Ambient 1: Music for Airports' (1978) and 'Music for Films' (1978).
 
Brian Eno was recorded leading the morning choir at the Central Library of Copenhagen, Denmark, 16 November, 2016, arranged by Lars Kjelfred.
​
Piano: Christian Steen Noringriis
Cameras: Klaus Elmer & Rasmus Quistgaard
Produced by Christian Lund

Supported by Nordea-fonden

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Dallas-Fort Worth.

One could possibly think that the Dallas-Fort Worth appellation is just an indication of a big twin megapolis, when in fact, as I discovered Sunday, it's two very distinct cities, not even remotely touching, with a Grand Prairie in-between - grande prairie means large field in French.

So it took me an hour to drive from Dallas to Fort Worth Arts District to reach the Kimbell Museum.

Needless to say, I was starving when I reached the museum. True fact is that I always eat first at art exhibits, firstly because I am always starving, and secondly because museums have the best cafés and shops.

The Kimbell has a unique flat rate fee for plates of three sizes - small, medium, and large. The menu is the same for all. But you pay by the size of your plate. Some people have mastered the art of piling up tons of food in a precarious balance on their plate. I saw some lunchers with a small plate who had more food than me on my medium one.

Was it "worth" it?

But I digress. Claude Monet is one of these great French painters that everyone knows. They may not know his name but will recognize his art. He is a familiar painter with a subdued and sweet domestic life that accompanied his paintings all his life. His paintings of Venice, London, and Paris are vital witnesses to the cities' daily landscapes.

Organized in collaboration with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, thanks to loans from 10 countries, and a handful of private collectors, the show offers a unique view of the early years of the master, starting when he was 17 years old and painted the "View at Rouelles" where he lived.

All the paintings presented at the Kimbell are from Monet's early years and have seldom been seen in museums. The precious exhibit is a must-see for lovers of impressionists' work.

Le Déjeûner sur l'Herbe.

My favorite Monet piece is the whimsical lunch on the grass, for its romantic setting, the fashion so beautifully described, and the funky story of its missing part. You will only see two pieces of this large painting at the Kimbell, as this is the only remaining parts of the massive representation of a lunch in the woods. Monet explained how the painting got cut up and subsequently gone shorter:

"I had to pay my rent, I gave it to the landlord as security and he rolled it up and put in the cellar. When I finally had enough money to get it back, as you can see, it had gone moldy."

When his landlord finally gave it back, Monet cut it up and kept only three pieces - but the third part has now disappeared.


Pricey grain stacks.

The auction house Christie in New York just sold last week the piece "Grain stack" for a hefty $81.4 million, when the hope was to sell it for half of that. I won't tell you who bought it, because it's a secret - the 1891 canvas was won by an anonymous collector bidding over the telephone.

The wheat stack sold is not at the Kimbell, but a couple of the series of about 20 stacks canvases are on view - better hurry to see them before they sell for millions and vanish into some lucky private living room!




Another Monet had already set a record for the painter; his "Water Lily Pond" was sold for $80.4 million in 2008. The 19-part elliptical painting of the "Nymphéas" is another familiar sight for many. A special studio was built for the size of his project, and he devoted the rest of his life to the large masterpiece.

We are treading far away from cutting up paintings to pay the rent! If only Monet could see the frenzy of collectors around his art today.

Claude Monet was a great impressionist master - good at drawing, and even better at rendition of material such as clouds, water, and snow. Friends with Renoir, his flowers show the influence the other master had on him.

" Qu'y a-t-il à dire de moi ? Que peut-il y avoir à dire, je vous le demande, d'un homme que rien au monde n'intéresse que sa peinture - et aussi son jardin et ses fleurs ?"

(What is there to say about me? What can possibly be said, I am asking you, about a man that nothing in the world interests except his painting - and also his garden, and his flowers?)




More info:
Monet: the early years.
Kimbell Art Museum
3333 Camp Bowie Blvd. Fort Worth, Texas 76107.
817-332-8451.

Trough January 29, 2017. Tickets are $7 to $18. The museum is closed on Mondays, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day.

Note: The Kimbell Museum's pavilion hosting the Monet exhibit was designed by star architect Renzo Piano and opened in 2013 - but that's another story.




Questions / Comments: sidoniesawyer@gmail.com.
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By Dan Ouellette, ZEALnyc Senior Editor, November 25, 2016

It's about time. The flute is coming back.

The instrument best known in the classical world had been an emotive, fiery and dreamy component of the pop and jazz worlds in the '60s and '70s. In jazz, there were Bobbi Humphrey and Hubert Laws (still the top vote getter in jazz polls), not to mention the three-minute flute solo by multi-instrumentalist Eric Dolphy on the tune "Stolen Moments" on Oliver Nelson's classic Blues and the Abstract Truth recording. In pop the flute showed up on a couple of Beatles songs ("You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" and "Fool on a Hill) but was fully thrust into the limelight by Ian Anderson in the rock-charged Jethro Tull band. Then there was Charles Miller's soulful and mysterious flute lines in Eric Burdon and War's hip radio hit "Spill the Wine."

But the flute faded from the instrumental palette as saxophones, plugged-in guitars and keyboards dominated after the '70s. Raucously loud and fiercely energetic versus elegant calm and delicate wafting. Today the shift back to a flute world beyond the symphony is beginning in crossover music with one of the keystone stars of the resurgence being the duo Flutronix--Brooklyn-based flautists Nathalie Joachim (also the vocalist) and Allison Loggins-Hull--who are taking their instrument to worlds it's never known. While both are classically trained, they playfully reference jazz electronics, soul, pop and hip-hop into their repertoire that they call "urban art pop."

In an ancient history reference, Joachim and Loggins-Hull met via the aught's social networking site Myspace and began discussing--and playing--how to create beyond the orchestra and thereby redefine the flute while also staying true to the tradition. So while their music is technically challenging, they also drive the music into the future with the beats and verve of jazz and contemporary pop. Flutronix's latest recording is the EP City of Breath, which features originals as well as classical composer Steve Reich's "Vermont Counterpoint," treated to the pair's own flute-driven vision. Its self-titled debut was released in 2010, followed by the strongest recording of its catalog, 2014's 2.0, which features a killer cover of the new wave band Eurythmics' 1983 dance club megahit "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)."


Nathalie Joachim and Allison Loggins-Hull of 'Flutronix'
appear at Baruch PAC Milt Hinton Jazz Perspectives Series.

While Joachim and Loggins-Hull are devoted to flute education--including sheet music downloads on their website as well as their workshops in the New York area and beyond--it's their dynamic performances full of unison, harmonic and counterpoint flute playing as well as the electronics and rhythmic support that single them out as top-drawer flute adventure seekers who are crisscrossing musical genres with aplomb.

Flutronix plays its rousing music on December 2 in the Baruch College Performing Arts Center's Milt Hinton Jazz Perspective Concert series, which offers a liberal arts complement to the school's academic emphasis on business and public affairs. The series was founded by Milt Hinton, considered to be the dean of jazz bassists and dubbed The Judge by his fellow players. He was a member of the Baruch faculty and passed away in 2000. The Flutronix show represents the 25th anniversary of the series.

Click here for tickets to Flutronix at Baruch Performing Arts Center, Friday December 2nd at 8pm.

Cover Photo: Nathalie Joachim and Allison Loggins-Hull. Photo by Patrice O'Brien.
_________________________________________

Dan Ouellette, Senior Editor at ZEALnyc, writes frequently for noted Jazz publications, including DownBeat and Rolling Stone, and is the author of Ron Carter: Finding the Right Notes and Bruce Lundvall: Playing by Ear.

Read more from ZEALnyc below:

Actress Cherry Jones Celebrates a Milestone

Finding your inner Olaf at all the NYC area ice skating rinks

There's a 'Silver' lining at the Vineyard Theater

For all the news on New York City arts and culture, visit ZEALnyc Front Page.

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Literature is renowned for having created some of the greatest and most enviable romances of all time. Love the smush? I do.

With a few helpful contributions from Bookishly's friends on Facebook, I've successfully compiled a list of literature's top 10 romances.

In no particular order...

* * *

1. Juliet Capulet and Romeo Montague -- Romeo and Juliet

We couldn't leave them out! Despite an arguably flawed relationship, these two will always be the faces of young and unequivocal love.

2. Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy -- Pride and Prejudice

Do we need to add anything more? A romance where both characters needed one another to be the best versions of themselves.

3. Jane Eyre and Mr Rochester -- Jane Eyre

Despite undergoing a number of trials and tribulations, their loyalty to one another prevails. We get to see their love on a number of different levels, not just that initial spark and attraction.

4. Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley -- Harry Potter series

The most charming of relationships. From two children who often butted heads, a fiercely loyal friendship as two teenagers, to a blossoming romance in early adulthood.

5. Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe -- Anne of Green Gables

We were able to follow the somewhat complicated relationship of Gilbert and Anne from their very first meeting as children, who were intellectual rivals, to a happily married couple. A whole will they/won't they follows much of their story but Gilbert's persistence and patience pays off!

6.Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler -- Gone With the Wind

A romance that was as exciting and interesting as it was unpredictable and turbulent. Their characteristics that made them so compatible were also the reasons why their marriage broke down. Though they both truly and sincerely loved one another but they realised this at the wrong time.

7. Emma Woodhouse and Mr Knightley -- Emma

A friendship that eventually evolves in to a relationship and then marriage. Their romance is a breath of fresh air; full of compassion and very selfless. Mr Knightley in particular, is a genuine and kind man who only wants what's best for Emma - even if that means sacrificing his own happiness, wants and needs.

8. Hazel and Augustus -- The Fault in Our Stars

A short romance but a wonderful one. Though very sad it's a love story that teaches us to make the most out of everything, even those small (seemingly insignificant) moments.

9. Ifemulu and Obinze -- Americanah

A wonderful romance where despite life forcing them on different paths, they find their way back to one another at a time when it matters most.

10. Claire and Henry De Tamble -- The Time Traveller's Wife

An unconventional and difficult romance but an honest one. Though their love story is sad and unfair, it's also at times, incredibly happy with both Claire and Henry not taking the times they have together for granted.

* * *

There we have it. Literature's top ten romances (in my opinion), though I could have easily made it top 20... What do you guys think? Who would you include?

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Franz Kline, Untitled, Circa 1947, Oil on canvas, 28 x 35 in. (71.1 x 88.9 cm). Courtesy of Allan Stone Projects, New York. © The Franz Kline Estate / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

All signals point to an optimistic and rising art barometer as another whirlwind Miami Art Week approaches. Not only is the expected temperature perfect for the first week in December, but recent auction results show a healthy push for acquiring outstanding examples of contemporary art. Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips' recent evening sales totaling almost $450 million were perhaps the best predictor that the art market is alive and well and has weathered an earlier dip successfully, so now it looks like sunny skies are ahead. Not surprisingly, most financial advisors are recommending a healthy percentage of wealth be invested in contemporary art. Concerns about the impacts of continued lagging oil prices (not oil on canvases), the aftermath of Brexit, and the unexpected U.S. presidential election results, when markets immediately plunged and then recovered (and as of this writing the Dow topped a record 19,000 points), appear to have had little effect on art buying confidence from sophisticated collectors. Last week, someone finally figured out that de Kooning is still the greatest abstract expressionist painter who ever lived on the planet and plunked down $66 million at auction for an exceptional 1970 abstract landscape. There were plenty of other impressive sales, including Christopher Wool ($5.5 million), Dubuffet ($23 million), rocker Eric Clapton's Richter ($22 million) and Hockney ($1.7 million), so it seems that the climate is encouraging for obtaining iconic and exemplary blue chip and museum quality works of art. Coincidentally and not surprisingly, all of these record-breaking artists and more are well-represented at Art Miami, the longest running continuous art fair in the U.S., inaugurated in 1989 by Nick Korniloff and partners, and its neighboring sister fair, CONTEXT, which are living up to their well-earned reputation as America's foremost contemporary and modern art fairs.

Art Miami returns for its 27th installment, kicking off on November 29th with a VIP Preview sponsored by Christie's International Real Estate benefiting Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) in the Art Miami Pavilion. Eighty-five thousand art lovers attended the fair in 2015, and this year attendance is expected to rise, with 135 international exhibitors and over 450 artists from more than forty different countries.

Some of the unique highlights I spotted in advance are a pastel of Edward Ruscha's DO ING, previously exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, LACMA and the Whitney, which will be at ARCHEUS/POST-MODERN; Frank Stella's Brazilian Merganser, along with stunning works by Dzubas, Diebenkorn and Olitski, are at Leslie Feely; Roy Lichtenstein's Reflections on Expressionist Painting and some iconic Warhol silkscreen pieces are at Benrimon Projects; and Mayoral Galeria D'Art is presenting Salvador Dali's Rhinocéros en désintégration, along with a handsome Alexander Calder painted sheet metal sculpture and Joan Miró's Personnage. Sims Reed Gallery is featuring a work from a famous and rare series of works by David Hockney, titled Illustrations for Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm; and Allan Stone Projects will exhibit Willem de Kooning's Abstraction, circa 1945, and selected works by Wayne Thiebaud.

In addition, on view will be works by an alphabetical who's who of artists, including Andre, Baselitz, Basquiat, Botero, Chamberlain, Cragg, Condo, de Saint Phalle, Dine, Fairey, Frankenthaler, Hashimoto, Hirst, Johns, Judd, Kelly, Kiefer, Koons, Kusama, Longo, Murakami, Noland, Picasso, Rauschenberg, Richter, Rosenquist, Sultan, Twombly, Venet, Warhol, Wool and Zakanitch. Suffice it to say, this exciting line-up of world-renowned artists make for a great art fair that also encourages the display of mid-career and emerging artists who are represented by leading galleries around the world.

Among the top works previewed, here is a list of my personal favorites in no particular order:

Franz Kline, Untitled, circa 1947 (Allan Stone Projects; pictured at top): an unusual but delightful painting by one of the most important abstract expressionist artists of our time. Allan Stone was known in the business as an exceptional dealer and collector with a perfect eye. The works in his overcrowded Manhattan office were always outstanding examples of leading artists, including an extraordinary Chamberlain that I predicted in The Art Economist magazine would set an all-time auction record, which it did! Allan Stone Projects


Mark Bradford, Untitled (Corner of Desire and Piety) III, 2008, Mixed media collage, 22 x 27 ¾ in. (55.9 x 70.5 cm). Courtesy ARCHEUS POST-MODERN, London.

Mark Bradford, the hot shot whiz kid and perhaps one of the most sought after artists of the last few years, who will represent the U.S. in the 2017 Venice Biennale and has work touring in the celebrated "Open This End" exhibition of Blake Byrne's collection, shows Untitled (Corner of Desire and Piety) III at ARCHEUS/POST-MODERN, a mixed media collage that is instantly recognizable as a solid example of the artist's oeuvre. Bradford's art is concerned with cities (and maps thereof), racial identity, history and injustice. He usually creates his collaged compositions by utilizing discarded materials from posters and other urban neighborhood sources, which often are sanded down. Archeus


John DeAndrea, Classical Allusion, 1987, Oil on polyvinyl, marble, 60 x 30 x 31 in. Courtesy of the artist and Bernarducci Meisel Gallery, New York.

John DeAndrea's hyper-realist sculpture Classical Allusion, 1987 (Bernarducci Meisel Gallery) is a simply astonishing, unthinkably perfect rendition of a female nude study that is leaning on the corner of a sculpture stand displaying a male torso. This work is far superior to other artists who try to create real figurative illusion and there is no contest. This sculpture will be one of the most talked about and admired in the fair. Bernarducci Meisel Gallery


Yayoi Kusama, NETS- INFINITY (OPQA), 2004, Acrylic on canvas, 51.3 x 38.2 in. (130.3 x 97 cm). Courtesy Galerie von Vertes, Zürich.


Yayoi Kusama's hypnotic work from Galerie von Vertes, NETS-INFINITY (OPQA), has swirls and dots on canvas that are deceptively simple, but in reality, have a complex formula that seems to come naturally from this prominent and gifted artist. Gallery Von Vertes


Salvador Dali, The Earth Goddess (Illustration for a eponymous Lithograph 1979-80), 1971, Gouache, blue ballpoint pen and felt pen (silver?) on paper, 47.1 x 35.2 cm irregular. Courtesy of Mayoral Galeria d'Art, Barcelona.

Salvador Dali's The Earth Goddess (Illustration for an eponymous lithograph), 1971 (Mayoral Galeria d'Art) is a rare example of a titan of 20th century artists, complete with Dali-esque semi-conscious doodles of flying fish and fruits juxtaposed with characteristic watercolor applications from a great grandfather of surrealism. Galeria Mayoral


Henry Darger, At Jennie Richee . . ., c. 1940-50, Double-sided, carbon transfer and watercolor on paper, 18 x 76 in. Detail. Courtesy Carl Hammer Gallery, Chicago.

Carl Hammer Gallery is internationally acknowledged for representing some of the best outsider artists in the world, well known in their own right, like Bill Traylor, Joseph Yoakum, and illustrated here, the reclusive Henry Darger, who is a truly remarkable artist with the most bizarre story attached to his life and working methods than any other I know. Janitor by day, artist by night, his late shift portrayals of a secret world often dominated by rebellious children are wondrous and beautiful. Carl Hammer Gallery


Brian Eno, 3 Fields, 2016, Light box: LED lights, perspex, wood, usb stick, 65 x 65 x 19 cm. Photo credit Masami Naruo. Courtesy Paul Stolper, London.

Paul Stolper Gallery of London is presenting a series of light box "colorscapes" at CONTEXT by musician, composer and artist Brian Eno, known for his collaborations with such musical acts as U2, David Bowie and the Talking Heads. These dramatic glowing works could almost be a theoretical hybrid of Dan Flavin, Josef Albers and Kenneth Noland, all in one. Paul Stolper Gallery


Adrien Brody, Untitled, 2016, Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 48 in. Courtesy of David Benrimon Fine Art, New York.

Adrien Brody, Academy Award winning actor and artist, is exhibiting a new series that incorporates bold colors and narrative imagery that relate to saving the environment. These works shown by David Benrimon Fine Art successfully combine a number of painterly styles, including abstract expressionist drips and flat fields of color, with recognizable narrative outlines of fish and fowl. David Benrimon Fine Art


Chantal Joffe, Alba and Esme in the Winter, 2016, Oil on board, 72.05 x 48.03 in. (183 x 122 cm). Courtesy Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki.

Galerie Forsblom of Helsinki is showing Chantal Joffe's dual portrait titled Alba and Esme in the Winter, 2016. Joffe is recognized for her large, highly expressive paintings and commanding interpretations of female figures, including self-portraits. Her new series, which includes pastels on paper, has a gentleness and airiness that captures a sense of ephemerality reminiscent of the Impressionists. Galerie Forsblom

Art Miami opens November 29 with a VIP preview and continues through December 4. Ticket information: 1-800-376-5850, email info@art-miami.com

For more information about Art Miami, CONTEXT and Aqua art fairs: www.artmiamifair.com, www.contextartmiami.com and www.aquaartmiami.com

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I consider life to be truly remarkable when an event that started out as a coincidence, turns into destiny. At least that's what happened to photographer Andy Seliverstoff.

Andy has always had a passion and love for dogs, especially large breeds, and got his first dog, a Saint Bernard, over 25 years ago. After the dog passed away, Andy couldn't imagine life without another 4-legged companion, which is how he ended up with his first Great Dane. Together they started taking part in and photographing dog shows first in Europe, then around the world. This new found hobby grew quickly, and before Andy knew it, more than 10 years had flown by.

Then in Summer 2016, the coincidence occurred. Good friends of Andy asked if he would professionally photograph their 2-year old daughter, Alice. Andy agreed, and they decided to conduct the shoot in a well known park. As it just so happened the couple also brought along their Great Dane, Sean, who ended up becoming part of the photo shoot.


2-year old, Alice, and her Fawn Great Dane, Sean

On a separate occasion, Andy photographed another friend's gentle and sociable Newfoundland Dog, Ringo, with the strong desire to capture the communication between children and dogs.


3-year old, Fedor, and Newfoundland, Ringo

After the two photo shoots with Alice and Sean, Fedor and Ringo, Andy decided to post the photos on his Facebook page. What he wasn't prepared for was the astounding and touching reaction that came from his audience. Friends and strangers both loved the photos, and appreciation quickly turned into requests. It was then that Andy realized that such a small coincidence had turned into destiny, and decided to continue his new project, Little Kids and Their Big Dogs.

Photographing children, especially children so young, comes with it's own unique set of challenges that have to be cleverly overcome. For example, when Andy was asked to photograph Alexandra and her harlequin Great Dane, he and her mother were both struggling to find ways to calm the capricious 2-year old. As it just so happened, Alexandra loved to play with electronics, and when her mother handed her a small compact camera, she started playing the game "photographer" taking pictures of her dog as the model. It was then that Andy went to work to capture these energetic, intriguing, and interactive moments of fun between dog and child.



2-year old, Alexandra, and her Harlequin Great Dane, Zara

As the series continued to grow, Andy chose to start varying his approach. 3-year old Lisa and 4 Leonberger Dogs was the first session where more than one dog took part.


3-year old, Lisa, and Leonberger Dogs

Andy also conducted action shoots to again capture the communication, love, and joy between children and animals while playing sports.


Young boy with 4 Bracco Italiano Dogs


I first came across these photos on Facebook, and as a dog owner, instantly fell in love with their beauty and eloquent innocence. Curious to know more about the photographer and inspiration behind these photos, Petopia contacted Andy for an interview.

"The main priority for this photography series wasn't just to make a beautiful photo, but to achieve and show communication and condition of contact between child and animal."

Andy recalled the exact date that the series began, 24 July, 2016. The locations for the photo shoots are all natural places where the models usually walk with their dogs. In the future Andy would love to photograph a Komondor, which is a Hungarian sheepdog, but also many more large breeds. He is, however, cautious about photographing Terrier breeds with children, unless the child grew up with the dog. A common re-occurrence Andy is noticing is that families do not often introduce large breed dogs when they have small children, the exception being that the child was born into a family that already had a large breed dog. More often then not the children have grown up and moved away when the dogs join the family. So in these cases where owners still would like to participate in the series and request to have a photo shoot, they are instead bringing their grandchildren or children of friends and acquaintances, and therefore the dogs and children are already familiar.


2-year old, Anechka, and her Dogue de Bordeaux


Andy is still in the beginning stages of this new chapter in his life, and is excited about the prospects to come. Click here to continue reading on Petopia's blog, Zoe's Couch

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When Magnus Carlsen walked into the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan nearly three weeks ago for the red-carpet opening of the world chess championship, he was in high spirits. The man who was about to challenge him for his title, Sergey Karjakin of Russia, was no doubt a tough opponent. But Karjakin had only ever managed to beat Carlsen once in their nearly two dozen encounters. Magnus had a fight ahead of him, sure. But like the rest of the chess world, he must have fancied his chances.

Things didn’t go as planned. Over the next few weeks, the champion’s attacks crashed against his challenger’s defenses like waves against a brick wall. In the first seven rounds neither player was able to draw blood. The games were frequently tense, complex, 6+ hour struggles but again and again they ended in draws. By this same point in his first title match against Viswanathan Anand of India in 2013, Carlsen was up by two wins to zero and appeared to be coasting to victory. In the rematch the following year, by game seven he was up by two wins to Anand’s one. In both cases the momentum was clearly on the Norwegian’s side.

But this time, to the shock of the chess world, Magnus cracked first. In game 8, Karjakin gained a small advantage and pressed it home for hours, with relentless accuracy. In the latter phase of the game, the “endgame”, the champion overestimated his position, a cardinal sin in chess. Carlsen went down.

He shocked chess fans again a few minutes later, when, flustered by his defeat, he stormed off the press conference stage where the players are meant to talk to the press after each game. The press conferences are a contractual obligation for both players, and Magnus faces a potential 5-figure penalty for his tantrum. Agon Unlimited, the company putting on the championship, has been cagey about details, but they have revealed that Carlsen has appealed the fine.

Two rounds later, Magnus hit back to level the score. As the players prepare for the final game, it sits at an even 5.5 - 5.5. If Monday’s game is a draw, the match goes to rapid tie-breaks, the chess equivalent of penalty kicks. Magnus Carlsen, whom many had considered almost unbeatable, is confronting a brand new reality: he might lose the world championship.

On November 12th, day two of the match, I spoke with a Spanish chess journalist named Leontxo García. Himself an accomplished chessmaster, García is a veteran of the world championship circuit; for 30+ years he’s been Spain’s most popular chess journalist, covering the sport for the country’s biggest newspapers and for Spanish radio and television. I asked him if he felt the 26-year old Karjakin would be capable of challenging Carlsen more than the 44-year old Anand had.

“Probably he will,” García told me. “It’s a question of age. Anand is a genius, with a capital G! He’s a five-time world champion. But when he played Carlsen, he was already in decline as a chess player. Karjakin is at the height of his career. Energy is very important in a contest like this one.”

People often laugh when they hear about chess grandmasters engaging in physical fitness training or cross-country running. When the English player Nigel Short was preparing for his 1993 match against Garry Kasparov, he was chatting with a trainer about his weight-lifting regimen and the latter quipped, “Ha! Are the pieces that heavy?” But there’s a reason that the world chess champion tends to be between the ages of 22 and 35. Cardiovascular fitness and physical endurance have a direct effect on a player’s ability to sustain their concentration during the marathon-length games a world championship entails. Playing at the level of Carlsen or Karjakin takes a type of mental exertion that the average person can scarcely comprehend. When Carlsen played Anand, the crucial moments in the games often came after 5, 6 hours of play. The middle-aged Anand, pushed to his mental breaking point by the stress of endless concentration, would finally snap and make some terrible mistake. Then Carlsen would clean up.

When Magnus Carlsen first appeared on the international chess scene in the mid ’00s, it soon became conventional wisdom that the prodigy from Norway was a future world champion. Year after year he scored dazzling wins against the world’s most established and dominant players. In an earlier era, when the Russian champion Garry Kasparov dominated the game, there was a saying in the chess world. “When Garry plays in a tournament, the question is not who will come in first but rather who will come in second.” By 2010 it seemed that the same could be said of Magnus. And he was only 19.

Carlsen has faced challenges in his still-young chess career. He has faced losses - bitter ones, even. But the prospect he faces today - that one wrong move could cost him his coveted seat atop the chess world - is something entirely new.

The are some chess players who simply can’t tolerate the thought of not being #1. When Garry Kasparov retired from competition in 2005, he still held the top spot in the world rankings. For thirty years, the name Kasparov had been synonymous with chess genius. His matches against Anatoly Karpov had become legend, the most intense and thrilling rivalry in the game’s history. His match against the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue in 1997 captured the attention of the world unlike any previous chess event. It came as a surprise when Kasparov lost his title to a fellow Russian, Vladimir Kramnik, in 2000, but Garry retained his #1 ranking (as for the arcane distinction between being #1 and being world champion, for now let’s just say that they’re not the same). Five years later, he was still a top performer on the tournament circuit and could have continued to make a comfortable living from the game. So why’d he step aside? The simplest explanation is that Garry simply saw the writing on the wall; if he stuck around, he would soon be #2. After thirty years, Kasparov’s self-image was said to be so fundamentally wrapped-up in his status as #1 that the mere idea of being anything else just didn’t compute.

Then there’s the game’s most famous premature retiree: the American world champion Bobby Fischer. He won the championship from the Soviet Boris Spassky in Reykjavik in 1972, in the most famous championship match in chess history. Three years later, he abdicated rather than defend his title against a younger Soviet challenger, Anatoly Karpov. If you ever meet a chess player and you’ve got some time to kill, ask them why they think Fischer walked away. Everyone has their own theory. Personally, I wonder if Fischer just felt he had too much to lose.

The first match between Karpov and Kasparov, in 1984, lasted 5 months and 48 games before it was abandoned out of fear for the players’ health. Leontxo García covered that match, early in his chess journalism career. When I talked to him after game two, I asked him for his predictions about how this month’s match might unfold. The rules have since been changed to prevent the games from dragging on endlessly, but twelve rounds at this level is still a marathon. “I think we’re going to see a much more even and exciting match than many thought, myself included,” he told me. Yesterday in the first game, Karjakin showed that he is extraordinarily well-prepared. [In game 2] he showed that he’s no longer afraid of Carlsen. Because today there were a few moments in which Karjakin could have simplified the position and forced an easy draw, but instead he invited Magnus to complicate the game. That’s very significant. It indicates that Karjakin has a lot of faith in himself.”

“You say he no longer fears Carlsen,” I asked García. “Do you think he used to?”

“I suppose so,” he said. “It’s a matter of numbers. If we look at their previous games, there have been four wins for Carlsen, one for Karjakin, and sixteen draws. Those numbers probably wouldn’t make one feel very confident.”

Yet during the match the Russian has showed supreme confidence. Very few players can resist Magnus in this kind of endurance format; his great strength is his ability to maintain a flawless standard of play late into the game when his opponent’s powers begin to fade from exhaustion. Many simply wilt before the Norwegian’s sheer presence and their fear of his reputation. Karjakin has done neither.

“I can’t be sure,” Leontxo García told me, “but probably during Karjakin’s training he’ll have had a psychologist, specialized in sports, who will have helped him in that regard… he has total support from Putin’s government, an army of Russian grandmasters that have helped him train, and a lot of money for his period of training and preparation.”

“And today he sent Carlsen a message,” García added. “Magnus, I’m not afraid of you.”

Game 12 begins today, Monday, November 28th, at 2 p.m. EST. You can find my previous coverage of the championship here, here, here, here, and here.

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In Lot Vekemans's Poison, the Origin Theatre Company production at Theatre Row's Beckett, the character designated He (Michael Laurence) is considering the situation he shares with ex-wife She (Birgit Huppuch) and says something along the lines of worse things could have happened to them than has happened.

It's a challenge to imagine what. They're meeting in the cemetery where their son, who was killed in an automobile accident, is buried. He maintains it's now nine years since She and He have seen each other. She claims it's 10 years, and they never reach an agreement. They've reunited for a conference with an official (never seen) who'll explain to them why and how their deceased boy's disinterment will take place due to the cemetery ground recently being declared poisoned by contaminated water.

What has definitely been poisoned, of course, is the He-She relationship, as Dutch playwright Vekemans makes plain during the painful 90-minute encounter on Jian Jung's spare white set, furnished only with a long, low bench and a vending machine dispensing drinks. (Rina Vegano is the translator.)

As He and She reluctantly relive their shared past, she reiterates that she grieves every day for her child and grows increasingly resentful as she suspects that he does not. She finds that his now living in France is evidence that he's put their loss behind him. She's further convinced when he refers to a new wife. She has no idea that a marriage had occurred.

He insists that he is, and has been, as bereft as She about their disconsolate loss and attempts to reconcile with her more than she tries with him. In that disparity, Vekemans underscores one of her points: that grief takes different forms and that moving on after such a disaster is a matter of individual choice and resilience.

A question Vekemans plants in the collective audience mind is whether reconciliation of any kind can develop between people torn so tragically apart. Suggesting that only so much might be possible, she writes about it with dark wisdom. It's a condition not only affecting She and He deeply but also affecting spectators the same way: Because Poison is so well composed, it's that difficult to watch.

The somber Poison tone is more resolutely established by countertenor Jordan Rutter, who walks slowly through the auditorium and then across the stage and back a time or two, intoning Richard Strauss's "Morgen." The poem, which promises that happiness can eventually come to the despairing. Whether this is true is a possibility Vetemans raises but doesn't quite resolve. Nor should she.

While Poison is undoubtedly hard for audiences to endure, what does it do to actors? Can it be easy for performers to negotiate the script eight times a week? Probably not, although only Huppuch (gallant recently in Men on Boats) and Lawrence (over the top not long ago in Hamlet in Bed) know for sure. Maybe astringent director Erwin Maas has some idea. But the couple, as the estranged couple, retreat from nothing in their potent, chillingly nuanced interpretations. Poison is relentlessly harrowing, and Huppuch and Laurence play their parts in achieving that.
******************
Not to be too mysterious about The City That Cried Wolf, a mock mystery written by Brooks Reeves and directed by Leta Tremblay, let's just say that it's tedious, unnecessarily convoluted and, at 100 minutes, too long by half.

The conceit of a production, at 59E59 Theatres and first seen 10 years ago, is that the frenzied action takes place in Gotham-like Rhyme Town, which is inhabited by nursery rhyme characters. It's a far-fetched Mother Goose-rhymes farrago in which Mother Goose (Michelle Concha) herself figures as a police chief, and Little Bo Peep (Rebecca Spiro) bombshells about in bonnet and sultry frocks as a nightclub femme fatale. (Angela Borst is the resourceful costume designer).

Jack B. Nimble (Adam La Faci) is the detective attempting to determine who killed city councilman Humpty Dumpty (Dalles Wilie) in a great fall. (Don't think that the puns about a cracked egg stop at just a few. They drag on and on but will not be repeated in this critical response.) A long time passes while Nimble pursues the guilty party and, narrating in a timeworn Philip Marlowe manner, profusely deconstructs familiar rhymes.

For instance, every time he mentions that Rhyme Town's London Bridge is falling down, he's required to say, "falling down, falling down, falling down." One thing missing, or maybe this onlooker missed it: Jack never jumps over a candlestick.

As Nimble repeatedly maneuvers through a door endlessly wheeled about on casters, La Faci is more than satisfactory. That can't be said about the others trying their darnedest to be amusing in the strained enterprise. Incidentally, the title refers to the wolves roaming free and criminally in Rhyme Town. But while Rhyme Town may be crying "Wolf!" audiences are more likely to be crying "Uncle!"

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Firstly, what are civil rights? Is there a distinction between civil rights and human rights? In simplest terms, the difference between a human right and a civil right is why you have them. Human rights arise simply by being a human being. Civil rights, on the other hand, arise by virtue of a legal grant of that right, such as the rights imparted on American citizens by the U.S. Constitution. When The Civil Rights Act was enacted in 1964 the rights of every Americans regardless of race, creed or color became law.

Civil Rights was characterized by major campaigns of civil resistance and acts of non violent protest. Between 1955 and 1968, acts of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience produced crisis situations and productive dialogues between activists and government authorities. Federal, state, and local governments, businesses, and communities often had to respond immediately to these situations, which highlighted the inequities faced by African Americans. Forms of protest and civil disobedience included boycotts such as the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-56) in Alabama; "sit-ins" such as the influential Greensboro sit-ins (1960) in North Carolina; famed marches, such as the Selma to Montgomery marches (1965) in Alabama; and a wide range of other nonviolent activities.

What does music have to do with civil rights? I was in high school when the march from Selma to Montgomery happened in 1965. Dr. Martin Luther King led thousands of nonviolent demonstrators to the steps of the capitol in Montgomery, Alabama, after a 5-day, 54-mile march from Selma, Alabama, where local African Americans, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference had been campaigning for voting rights.King told the assembled crowd: ''There never was a moment in American history more honorable and more inspiring than the pilgrimage of clergymen and laymen of every race and faith pouring into Selma to face danger at the side of its embattled Negroes'' Around the same time, young poets,musicians and writers were converging on Greenwich Village to join the civil rights movement, and wanting to make their voices heard. Musicians found that political voice in the Village, and began to write songs of protest that would change the world forever. Among those voices were Fred Neil, Tim Hardin Tom Paxton Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Judy Collins Arlo Guthrie, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Richie Havens, John Prine, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Pete Seeger, Sonny Terry John Sebastian, Roger McGuinn, Peter Paul and Mary, Steve Goodman Nina Simone, Eric Weisberg, Janis Ian, Happy Traum, Bette Midler, Harry Chapin, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Don McLean, Melanie, Kris Kristofferson, Billy Joel, Phil Ochs, Ian and Sylvia, Dave Van Ronk, Gordon Lightfoot, Cass Elliott, David Bromberg, Neil Young, David Crosby, Jose Feliciano, Jerry Jeff Walker, Jimi Hendrix, James Taylor, and Carly Simon and they were all part of the social activism of that time. A song like Thirsty Boots sung below by Judy Collins, Arlo Guthrie, Tom Rush, and Eric Andersen (writer) was as critical a song to an understanding of the Civil Rights movement as Blowin' in the Wind

Suze Rotolo, Bob Dylan's girlfriend when they lived in the Village, said "We had something to say not something to sell."



The 1960's gave way to the '70's and I was playing in folk clubs like The Troubadour in London. By my side were folk musicians from all over the world. We were members of an after hours music club that we used to hang out at on the Fulham Rd in London. Bert Jansch, of Pentangle, and Ralph McTell and Robin Williamson and Mike Heron of The Incredible String Band were regulars there and often would jam all night with anyone who had an instrument (and we all did !). The club used to open at midnight, and often by 2 a.m. there were dozens of us playing music we all loved. Down the road from The Troubadour a friend of mine, Mike Pinder of The Moody Blues lived. I used to hang out at his flat (after playing at The Troubadour,) and play music with friends, some of whom were American who'd come to London to avoid the draft. The Vietnam "police action" was raging and thousands of young Americans had gone to Canada and on to London and Europe. Our music scene in London had never been better.

We've always been saddened by even the hint of racism. It has no place in our schools, communities, or our lives. The thought of grown men prancing around in hoods and white robes is almost funny if it weren't so deadly serious. The thought that "pillars" of our community, judges, businessmen, and "any white guy" could enjoy the dubious bonding of a 'fun" lynching is abhorrent to us. It makes us want to fight even harder to stamp out bigotry, racism, misogyny and hatred of all kinds. Racism is man's greatest threat to man-the maximum of hatred for the minimum of reason. Ask Adolf Hitler to expound on that theory.

Civil Rights, equality, women's rights, affordable health care and children's rights are all issues that have been important to most of us. America has traveled vast distances politically and socially since 1955 when Rosa Parks was arrested for standing up for herself on that infamous bus in Montgomery Alabama. As a nation we still have a long way to go, but we're so proud of how far we've come as Americans. It's vital that we always stand up for each other.



Education is the key to continued progress.Public elementary schools are wonderful places. Children from all walks of life learning together is a beautiful environment. We've been privileged to work with hundreds of thousands of kids around the United States and have observed varying teaching styles and regional flavors and, we've watched all different types of kids interacting together. We learned something early on -- we reaffirmed that we're all the same, no matter where we're from.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964, expressly banned discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in employment practices and ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace, and by public accommodations. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 that restored and protected voting rights for minorities. The Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965 removed racial and national barriers and opened the way for black immigrants from Africa and the Western Hemisphere. The Fair Housing Act of 1968 banned discrimination in the sale or rental of housing. African Americans re-entered politics in the South, and across the country young people were inspired to take action.

From folk icon Woody Guthrie to his son Arlo Guthrie we have long had a love affair with music that speaks to us. The music of the 60's generation was lyrically based and more about righting the wrongs of political and civil unrest and less about writing a commercial pop song . So many of the activists from the Civil Rights movement came out of Greenwich Village. The women's movement came out of the Village. The artists that came out of there historically had a real shot at ending up being more political. Greenwich Village was political before it was musical and there was a great sense of community when it came to the civil rights movement. Today in 2016 Arlo Guthrie is still as popular as ever. He packs concert halls wherever he and his fine band travel, as do so many of the Artists who started out in Greenwich Village over 50 years ago.



Earlier this year, when we were bursting with pride at the recent Supreme Court decisions we decided to write a positive song to show our support for those historic decisions. And FREEDOM was born.Our backgrounds as teachers came through, and we asked ourselves, "What hurts kids' feelings the most and makes them feel different?" The answer was obvious to us. "The identical things that hurt adults feelings and make them feel different. We're all the same however." Our diversity makes us interesting, debate makes us stronger but, equality permits us a level playing field.

We must keep pushing Civil Rights in a forward direction to allow FREEDOM to rain down on everyone. We must encourage young artists to express themselves in music and literature to document the current times and capture what it feels like, as young people, to watch our current unfolding history. Squelching their voices will only rob all of us of needed perspective to move forward. Our children truly are our future.

Regardless of whether you're right or left politically, no one ever wants to witness hatred and mistrust in our government. We've fought so hard in our lifetime to erase misogyny, racism and bigotry from our neighborhoods and our great country. Over 60,000,000 people died in World War 2. Over 1.4 million died in Vietnam. The cost, therefore can be much too high if we're not discerning about who we put into power. History has shown us this.

Just like those valiant folks from the Civil Rights Movement did in the 1960's, we must create our own civil resistance and non violent protests. At this moment in time we must support Dr. Jill Stein with her recount in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, if for no other reason than to assure ourselves that our recent election was conducted fairly and not rigged, as some have suggested. For the love of mike... What do we have to lose ?


First Lady Michelle Obama campaigns to bring back school girls who'd been kidnapped in Nigeria

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Like many of our colleagues in the national nonprofit and cultural communities, we at the League of American Orchestras have been discussing the great divisions in our country underscored by the election, and trying to figure out what they mean for our work. At least one thing seems clear: everything is related. The fates of our organizations, our people, and our art form are inextricably bound up in the broader currents of our nation and world, which we ignore at our peril.

The erosion of a common belief in civil society and the mistrust of a 'public space' that requires government participation for sustenance cannot be good for the arts, to say nothing of the humanities, social services, education, or healthcare. The ability of orchestras to play their unique role among our fellow social sector sisters and brothers - of promoting our collective and individual humanity and health - is dependent on public policy at the federal, state, and local levels that is committed to democratic values and supporting the public sphere.

More than ever, this is a time for our action to be broad based -- for our partnerships to include all arts disciplines, artists, and arts organizations, especially those that have been historically under-supported, as well as the full array of nonprofits that keep our communities healthy. If that seems like "pie in sky," just click here and read about the coalition of arts organizations (big and small) and advocates for the homeless in San Francisco that advanced Proposition S -- a single ballot measure to provide financial assistance from the hotel tax to artists and the homeless alike. While the measure did not receive the two-thirds majority needed for passage, the effort succeeded in binding together a diverse coalition in pursuit of common cause.

Proposition S in San Francisco was supported by a broad-based coalition of arts and other nonprofit organizations

And, while as arts organizations our role may not primarily be that of the architects and designers of America's economic and political order, we can do our work in a way that models the participatory democracy we believe in. I don't mean simply by performing music for its power to bring people together. If we stop there, we have underutilized the full capacity of the music we create.

I do mean making our decisions and acting in ways consistent with our values. In her book, Not For Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities, University of Chicago philosopher Martha Nussbaum argues that for a democracy to work successfully, we must cultivate several key abilities associated with both the arts and the humanities: "the ability to think critically, the ability to transcend local loyalties and to approach world problems as a citizen of the world, and finally the ability to imagine sympathetically the predicament of another person."

She goes on to define the spirit of the arts and humanities as "searching critical thought, daring imagination, empathetic understanding of human experience of many different kinds, and understanding of the complexity of the world we live in."

If we do believe these to be among our unique capacities in music and all the arts, then we must revisit our values and acknowledge that we still serve too narrow a slice of our communities. The arts ecosystem is filled with inequities resulting from choices, conscious or not, about who the arts are for, how resources are distributed, how and to what degree artists are supported, and the norms of engagement, partnership, and participation.

If we want music to fully contribute to the democratic process, then we must consider whether the concert experience is welcoming to others besides our traditional audiences. And if we want to figure out how to address these admittedly complex challenges, then we must reach out to other voices besides our own. If ever there was a time to get out of our bubbles and get to know others whose views may differ from ours, this is it.

The League of American Orchestras will continue to directly engage in the federal policymaking process in partnership with the broader nonprofit sector, we will increase our members' capacity to do the same at the state and local levels, and -- through our power to convene -- we will relentlessly seek opportunities to listen to and bring forward new voices that will inform the work orchestras do in their communities every day. Together, we can realize both our musical and our human potential to instill empathy, understand today's complexities, and imagine a new future.

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Last night, Miami Art Week kicked off with a celebration of Italian artist Gaetano Pesce at The Setai Miami Beach. Art world VIPs including Chuck Close, Sara Arison, Dominique Levy, Rodman Primack, Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn and Paul Johnson gathered to preview the centerpiece of Pesce's latest sculpture series, which is installed in the hotel's courtyard.

"We are thrilled to welcome the legendary Gaetano Pesce to The Setai and are honored to feature his site-specific installation in our newly renovated courtyard. Tree Vase XXL is the perfect complement to the lush Zen-like space, an ultimate refuge away from the tents and a discreet oasis for our guests and residents during this exciting week," says Alex Furrer, the General Manager of The Setai. 

Pesce is known for his iconic furniture designs, which are currently on view at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and at Museo del Novecento and Piazza Santa Maria Novella in Florence, Italy. If you're in Miami this week, the complete Tree Vase Series will be presented by Salon 94 Design at Design Miami/.

"The Tree Vase Series is a novelty to me. The tree is alive, it moves under the force of the breeze, it is always different and it is a miracle of nature. All this has inspired me to turn it into a type of work that is very dear to me, the 'maternal womb vase'. I love to create vases shaped as trees with elastic materials resembling the movement of the trees when touched by the wind," says Gaetano Pesce.

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Installation view, Wael Shawky: Al Araba Al Madfuna, Fondazione Merz. Courtesy Fondazione Merz. Photo: Andrea Guermani.

Puppetry, Performance and Play: Wael Shawky's Postmodernist Version of Arab History

"It's pronounced Wa-el," Wael Shawky explained patiently as he was introduced to one of many guests lining up to greet him in Turin earlier this month. The artist was very much present at the openings of two exhibitions, launched to coincide with Artissima Art Fair, where he also gave a talk about his work. Just a week later, he unveiled a solo exhibition on a more modest scale at the Lisson Gallery, Milan, presenting drawings produced during the making of his two film trilogies--on view concurrently at new installations at the Castello di Rivoli and the Fondazione Merz, Turin.

Installation view of Wael Shawky, Castello di Rivoli, November 3, 2016 - February 5, 2017. Photo: Renato Ghiazza.

Wael translates roughly from ancient Arabic as "protector, one who gives refuge." Through his art, Shawky indeed seems to provide shelter, a way to protect and preserve the richness of Arab culture, history and tradition. At his retrospective in Rivoli, he manifested this role as protector very literally, by putting a castle inside the castle that was once the residence of the Royal House of Savoy: the age-old walls were painted a brilliant blue, and Shawky erected a series of turreted pink structures, resembling both a castle and a medina, filling the Manica Lunga. Heavy-looking wooden reliefs, immaculately carved, hung on the walls, seamlessly merging with the architecture of historic Italy. Within the walls of his own castles, Shawky screened the trilogy of films that made his name, Cabaret Crusades: The Horror Show File (2010) Cabaret Crusades: The Path to Cairo (2012) and the most recent chapter, The Secrets of Karbala (2015). In the middle, a garden filled with 26 marionettes from this last film complete the staging.

Wael Shawky, Cabaret Crusades: The Horror Show File, 2010, film still. © Wael Shawky. Courtesy Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut & Hamburg and Lisson Gallery, London.

The films recount the stories of the Crusades--narrated in Arabic with English subtitles--the bloody, brutal history that divided Western Christian and Islamic cultures, the repercussions of which are still felt today. For Shawky, history is stories--there are no facts, only different perspectives. The films tell gruesome stories, full of deceit, betrayal, cannibalism and decapitations. Based on intense research, these stories are retold intuitively, using marionettes. "It's never calculated in a way that it will be entertaining or amusing, at all," Shawky explains in an interview. It is perhaps surprising when you watch the films that are not only visually arresting but also full of drama and the tug of human emotion--despite the lack of actual flesh-and-blood characters.

Wael Shawky, Cabaret Crusades: The Horror Show File, 2010, film still. © Wael Shawky. Courtesy Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut & Hamburg and Lisson Gallery, London.

In the first chapter of the trilogy, Shawky uses 18^th century marionettes from the Lupi Collection, Turin; remodeling the clothes and hair of these old European artifacts, he tells the stories of the first crusades from 1096 to 1099, and medieval Antioch. In the second chapter, custom-made ceramic puppets are the storytellers, and for the third, Shawky selected glass marionettes from Murano. The precise, deliberate choice of his materials--the marionettes already inhabited by European stories--adds a further layer of interplay between languages and storytelling customs.

Shawky's Cabaret Crusades--as their title implies--lead us to the question of the problematic nature of storytelling and its relationship to history. Though Shawky might not have produced his films to entertain, his films absorb you in the past--a past that we are distanced from. If, as viewers, we are detached from the action (more so, because the story is told by puppets) how do we interact with the narratives we hear?

Installation view of Wael Shawky, Castello di Rivoli, November 3, 2016 - February 5, 2017. Photo: Renato Ghiazza.

Shawky is also interested in translation--translation from Arabic to other languages, between oral, written and visual media, and from ancient tradition to contemporary culture. Sometimes, of course, things get lost in translation.

"I absolutely hate it," declaimed one guest at a breakfast at Fondazione Merz during Artissima in Turin, where Shawky was presenting his acclaimed film trilogy, Al Araba Al Madfuna. The newly commissioned site-responsive installation had the feeling of Joseph Beuys, who Shawky was inspired by when he encountered his work early on in his career.

"Oh, why is that?" I asked.

"I mean, what is it? What it is about?" came the retort, as we shifted on clods of sand caking the entire gallery floor.

"Well, I find it very relevant to what we see happening around us right now," I replied. The guest remained unimpressed. It struck me that not everyone is receptive to this kind of storytelling, so unfamiliar in its European context. Shawky has shown his work extensively in Europe--where Arab voices are still not commonplace--and his imaginative histories really require openness. 

Wael Shawky, Al Araba Al Madfuna II, 2013, film still, HD video, b/w, sound, 33'. Co-produced by Sharjah Art Foundation & Wiener Festwochen. Courtesy the artist & Sharjah Art Foundation.

While not everyone is receptive to his storytelling, Shawky gives us opportunities to reexamine the history we have received in the West, to unearth new understandings that include metaphysical and spiritual readings. This act of unearthing is again literal in the case of Al Araba Al Madfuna, a film that integrates the artist's accounts of time spent with villagers in Al Araba Al Madfuna, near Abydos--an archeological site in northern Egypt--as they performed a ritual dig, searching for buried treasures underground that might reveal secrets of their ancestors. Shawky's stories are intertwined with parables from Mohamed Mostagrab's Dairout al Sharif, and performed by children dressed as adults, in turbans and moustaches.

Wael Shawky, Al Araba Al Madfuna, Drawings, 2015, graphite, pigments, ink, and oil on paper, 29.7 x 42 cm (11 3/4 x 16 1/2 in). © Wael Shawky; Courtesy Lisson Gallery.

Using puppetry, performance and play is Shawky's way to show us how history is constructed. When you enter Shawky's set in its Italian context at Fondazione Merz, a twisted palm tree planted in the sand spirals upwards, as mellifluous sounds of Arabic resonate through the dark space, you step into a history that you are not part of, but are nonetheless complicit in. Stories, as Shawky suggests, can protect us, but the confluence of voices can also be deeply disorienting--as my gruff acquaintance proved.

Wael Shawky, Pope Urban II with a priest in Cabaret Crusades: The Horror Show File, 2010, film still. © Wael Shawky. Courtesy Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut & Hamburg and Lisson Gallery, London.

For its very intricate and complex tapestry of tales, Shawky also makes it emphatically clear that we cannot know the truth. This is the prominent postmodern leaning that his work is steeped in, and at a time of deep cultural and religious crisis, it seems to be the perfect time to scrutinize history--and admit to the impossibility of fully understanding it. Shawky finds truths in fiction and fiction in truths. "History and theatre are caught up in each other," he once said, "The cabaret is a stage for history, as a performance."

--Charlotte Jansen

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Dolly Parton is a global icon and is one of the most honored female country performers of all time. Achieving 25 gold, platinum and multi-platinum awards, she has had 25 songs reach #1 on the Billboard Country charts—a record for a female artist—and is one of only five female artists to win the Country Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year Award. In addition to receiving multiple Grammy, Country Music Association, ACMA and AMA awards, Parton was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, has received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and just this month was the recipient of the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award during the 50th annual CMA Awards.

Although Parton is best known as a country music singer-songwriter, she also wears a multitude of other hats: she is an actress, runs a successful multimedia corporation (Dolly Parton Enterprises) and the popular Dollywood Theme Park, and composed the score for the Broadway musical 9 to 5, based on the acclaimed film of the same name, which she also starred in. This year, Dolly released her 43rd solo studio album, “Pure & Simple,” a stripped down set of original Parton compositions and embarked on her most extensive tour in 25 years—her “Pure & Simple” tour—which traveled to 60 cities in North America.

Despite her impressive career and iconic status, Dolly has never forgotten her humble beginnings. Dolly grew up as one of 12 children, extremely poor on a rundown farm in the rural town of Locust Ridge, Tennessee. While she describes her early childhood as one of hardship and poverty, she also speaks of the strong bond of love her family had. When she moved to Nashville and scored her first hit song, “Joshua,” in 1971, she literally went from rags to riches, yet she’s never forgotten her roots and the obstacles she had to overcome.

She has immortalized one story from her childhood in particular in several projects, beginning with her hit song “The Coat of Many Colors” released in 1971, which she says is one her favorite songs she’s ever written. The song tells the true story of how Parton’s mother stitched together a coat for her daughter out of rags given to the family. As she sewed, her mother told Dolly the biblical story of Joseph and his Coat of Many Colors. Feeling proud and excited to show off her coat made with so much care and love, Dolly rushed to school, “with patches on my britches and holes in both my shoes… just to find the others laughing and making fun of me.” The song concludes with Parton singing the moral of her story:

But they didn’t understand it, and I tried to make them see One is only poor, only if they choose to be Now I know we had no money, but I was rich as I could be In my coat of many colors my momma made for me

The story means so much to Dolly that in addition to the song, she developed the successful 2015 television film Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors, a sequel film airing tomorrow night, as well as a children’s picture book, which was published in October of this year.

On Wednesday November 30th at 9 p.m. ET/PT NBC will air the poignant sequel film, Dolly Parton’s Christmas of Many Colors: Circle of Love (which will also be available on DVD on December 20th). In the all-new holiday sequel—based on true stories gleaned from Dolly’s remarkable life—the Partons, a family of humble means living in the mountains of Tennessee, face a devastating event that challenges their will. But when they experience an unexpected Christmas miracle, the Partons are drawn closer together than ever—with deepened faith and love for one another. The film stars Jennifer Nettles, Ricky Schroder, and Gerald McCraney with Dolly making a special guest appearance.

Parton’s recently-released Coat of Many Colors picture book came about because she felt that there were many important lessons for children embedded in her story, including the importance of respect and gratitude, anti-bullying messages, accepting people and their differences, and that “it’s okay to be who you are.” Using lyrics from Parton’s classic song, the children’s book tells the story of a young girl in need of a warm winter coat. When her mother sews her a coat made of rags, the girl is mocked by classmates for being poor. But Parton’s trademark positivity carries through to the end as the girl realizes that her coat was made with love “in every stitch.”

The children’s book is the latest project in Dolly Parton’s longtime mission to support childhood literacy. In 1988, she began the Dollywood Foundation to inspire children in her home community to “dream more, learn more, care more, and be more.” Dolly envisioned creating a lifelong love of reading in children, preparing them for school and inspiring them to dream. The Foundation’s signature program is the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, which works with local sponsors to give every preschool child a book each month from the time he or she is born until the child reaches kindergarten. The Imagination Library has gifted over 85 million books in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia. Founded in 1995, Imagination Library began as a small community outreach in Parton’s native Sevier County, Tennessee, and has evolved to become the largest literacy program in the world, which has recently marked another impressive milestone: one million books gifted to children around the world each month.

In the following interview, the big-hearted and charismatic Parton discusses the lessons contained in her Coat of Many Colors story, her advice on overcoming obstacles, what she thinks the world needs more of, how she keeps her positive attitude and more. As she says, “I still believe that’s what we need more than anything now is love—a little bit more acceptance, understanding, forgiveness, listening instead of just talking. I mean, we’re not hard of hearing, we’re just hard of listening. So I think we need to try a little harder to get inside the hearts and minds of other people and not just dwell on our own worked-up sense of things.”

You can read the transcript below or watch this special video presentation of our interview.

Marianne Schnall: Your personal story of a Coat of Many Colors has special meaning to you and has inspired you—not only with your country song by the same name, but now a series of movies beginning with the film, Coat of Many Colors, and now the upcoming sequel, Christmas of Many Colors. Why has it been so important to you to share that story and what are you hoping viewers take away from it?

Dolly Parton: Well, it was important to me to share my story of Coat of Many Colors, which is a true story from my childhood. It has touched the lives of so many people through the years, even in a song. Since it became a hit I’ve had so many people say that it has healing qualities for them, because almost everybody been through something—somebody’s made fun of them, made them feel less than they should be about something or another. It may not have been something you wore, but a lot of people related to it, a lot of poor people. It’s kind of a rags-to-riches kind of story, and people always love that.

And I love that, too. I love that I’m a mountain Cinderella, so to speak. And so I really thought that it would make a good movie—in fact, I knew it would. Different people have asked me through the years why didn’t I make it into a movie. It just hadn’t been time, but now it was time and it just did so well.

I want people to talk away from the movie what the story is. It’s about love. It’s about acceptance. It’s about deliverance. It’s about hope. It’s about anti-bullying. That’s a really big subject these days. I think it’s really good for kids and, in fact, they even teach from the little Coat of Many Colors illustrated book that I have out in schools about just accepting people and their differences and that it’s okay to be who you are. We’re not all supposed to be the same.

So I want people to take that feeling of faith, family, fun and just acceptance and just love it.

MS: You mentioned your recently-released children’s book based on the Coat of Many Colors story. Why did you decide to turn it into a children’s book and what messages are you hoping that children can glean from this story?

DP: Well, children love the story of Coat of Many Colors because it is an anti-bullying story, it is about family and it is about someone overcoming. And I think a lot of kids relate to it for different reasons. They might have been the bullies, they might have been the little kid who’s been made fun of. There’s a little song I wrote called “Making Fun ain’t Funny.”

Anyway, it talks about just accepting people and not making fun. How would you feel if it was you? We decided to do a little book because it gives the kids a chance to follow along with the story and give some thought about all those elements. And so it’s really a special little book, and I think it’ll be good for children to learn to accept people and their differences and to not bully and make light and make fun. So hopefully it’ll be something good for the kids, and I think it will be.

MS: In the song there’s a line: “We had no money, but I was rich as I could be.” How would you define what it means to be rich in life?

DP: Well, that little line of, “although we had no money, I was rich as I could be in my Coat of Many Colors that Momma made for me” was because Momma sewed love in every stitch. She took the time to tell me that story about Joseph and the Coat of Many Colors in order to instill some pride in me about that.

But I really think that the true measure of success is in how you deal with it. I mean, there’s a saying and a song that says, “A man can make money, but money cannot make a man.” And there’s so much truth in that. You can make all the money in the world, but if you’re not happy, you’re not a success. So to me, I feel like I’m a success because I enjoy my successes. I enjoy the fact that I’ve accomplished all these things. I remember to remember all the things that mattered to me then—they matter to me now. I’ve made it a point not to ever forget who I was, who I am.

You should never be ashamed of yourself, your family, your religion, no matter what. That’s your family. That’s who you are. And so I really measure success in how you deal with the money you make, how you give back with the fame you have. Just like my little Imagination Library: one of the biggest and most important charities of my whole life is something I believe in based on the fact that my own daddy couldn’t read and write, but he was a smart, smart man. I started the little program years ago where we give books to children from the time they’re born until they start school, and now we’re giving books to a million children a month and we’re heading up to almost like hundred million books that we’ve given away worldwide.

So I feel successful in thinking that I’m doing something good. I’m giving back, I’m not just taking, and I’m loving it. I’m happy doing it, and I just think that’s when you’re really successful is when you’ve made a difference and you’re happy.

MS: What advice do you have on finding strength hope and purpose in the face of adversity?

DP: Well, I really lean on God for everything. There’s a line I heard when I was little in the church: “Through God all things are possible.” And even though in my church, which was a very high-spirited church, they preached a lot of hellfire and damnation, a lot of fear tactics and all that, but I remember that one particular line and I made it my own. I believed that through God all things are possible.

And I have proved that because I pray every day that God will lead me, guide me and take all the wrong things and all the wrong people out of my life and put all the right and good ones in and that I’ll know what to do. So I really think that the key to my success as far as holding myself together is that I believe in something greater than myself. I believe in God and I believe that strength comes from that, and I will always believe it and I’ll always be hanging onto that.

MS: You established the Imagination Library for your Dollywood Foundation dedicated to improving children’s literacy and encouraging children to read. Tell me more about why did you decided to do that and why this cause is so important to you.

DP: Well, I really think it’s important to get books into the hands of as many children as we can. And I started the Imagination Library because of my own family. A lot of my own relatives didn’t get a chance to go to school. My own dad couldn’t read and write because he was from a big family back there in the mountains and they had to just go to work to help feed the rest of the family. They couldn’t get to school, it was too far away, or they couldn’t spare them.

And so I started the program because of that in my home county, and it did so well that the governor at that time, Phil Bredesen, he loved the program and he took and put it all over Tennessee. Then we went all over the United States, into Canada. Now we’re all over the world and we’re heading toward giving away a hundred million books.

And so we actually give books to a million kids a month. And so that’s a good feeling to be able to do that and it started from a sincere place. I think when you’re working your charity work—I think as a celebrity when you get in a position to help you should, but you should also actually invest in things that are personal to you that you can be passionate about. I look forward to everything to do with the Imagination Library. In fact, I’m heading out to do some concerts in my hometown to make up money for that, which I do that every year or every two years or so.

So, anyway, it’s a community-based program. United Way has been very, very helpful with helping us with all that, but it’s a worthwhile program and you can’t get enough books to enough children.

MS: You, Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda made the film 9 to 5 in 1980, taking on sexism and sexual harassment in the workplace. The film and your song by the same name were huge commercial successes and resonated deeply with many women. Thirty-six years later, how do feel about the progress that woman have made on these issues today and where we are now?

DP: Well, first of all I was so proud to be part of 9 to 5. Jane Fonda had the foresight and the insight to do a show like that. It was really based on a company called 9 to 5. It’s about women in the workplace, you know, equal pay for equal work and all that. And it was a controversial idea at the time, but a necessary one, and I was just proud to be part of that.

And the fact is that we’ve come a long way. We’ve still got a long way to go, but I really think we broke some really great grounds as women, and I’d really like to think that that little movie, 9 to 5, really has done a lot to further that cause.

MS: You’ve been creating great music and touring with your albums for decades. What is the continued source of all of your energy and inspiration?

DP: I love what I do. That gives me energy. I love my fans. I love the love they give me back. That creates energy. Nothing to me is more special than when I’m out on stage and look out there and I see all those fans that really, really seem to be touched by what I’m doing. They’re laughing with me, they’re talking with me, they’re listening. They seem to be really interested in it. And I ask God all the time to let me say and do and be something to uplift people and to really let Him shine through what I do.

So I really love it, and I think it’s a very energizing thing. I’ve never gotten tired of it and I won’t ever retire. If I get sick or my husband gets sick, well, that’s another thing, but if left up to me, as long as I can do it, I plan to continue to perform and to sing and to write—to tour when I can and just to do whatever I can to make the fans happy and myself happy.

MS: There’s so many issues impacting our country and the world today. What encourages you that gives you hope?

DP: Well, God gives me hope. People give me hope. I love life. I know that we are a great people. I know that we are a great country. I know that we go through our things. I know that we’ll rise above it, and I pray all the time that God will bring us together and let us try a little harder. And we may have to get to heaven before we actually ever see peace in this world, but we could do a whole lot better by just kind of changing a lot of things within our own circle, in the space that we work and live in. If we tried a little harder, if we had enough circles going on, it would be a circle of love and we could kind of put it all together and make it one big thing.

But I just wish life was a little better. I just wish people tried a little harder and I figure - I pray all the time, so I figure whatever is going to happen is going to be God’s will, whether it’s to fulfill prophecy or whether it’s just the way things are, but I do know that we personally could do a lot to change the future if we wanted to.

MS: What do you think the world needs right now?

DP: Well, I wish I had of written that song, “What the World Needs Now Is Love.” I didn’t, but that’s a great song. I still believe that’s what we need more than anything now is love—a little bit more acceptance, understanding, forgiveness, listening instead of just talking. I mean, we’re not hard of hearing, we’re just hard of listening. So I think we need to try a little harder to get inside the hearts and minds of other people and not just dwell on our own worked-up sense of things.

MS: You’re considered to be a fun-loving, positive person. What keeps you feeling so positive and what advice do you have for others on keeping a positive outlook?

DP: Well, you got to try to be happy, just like some people work at being miserable. I mean, I was born with a happy heart. I want things to be good because it just kills me when things are not good. And if I wake up in the mornings and find there’s something going wrong, I try my best to see what I can do to make it better by the end of the day and I pray hard about it. I work at it. And I just try to keep a good positive attitude. You can’t change everything, but you can change some things, and by changing some things it might change it enough to where it’s bearable or you might do something to lift somebody else’s burden. Even when yours are too hard to carry, if you try to help somebody with theirs, yours don’t seem as bad, I think. So I think we just need to try to do a little better.

MS: What’s the most valuable lesson that you’ve learned in your life?

DP: Well, I think there’s a saying that says, “To thine own self be true.” I really think there’s so much more to that than meets the ear or meets the eye. I really think if you know who you are and you can come to terms with that, accept that and love that, and if you can understand your talents, what your gifts may be and how to maybe develop them or at least how to pray about trying to get some strength and some encouragement and some insight on how to deal with it I just think you really have to know who you are. I heard that in my early life, just like “through God all things are possible” and “to thine ownself be true,” those are two things that I have kept and I worked inside, and believe and create and strengthen my faith through both things.

So I think if you’re comfortable with yourself and know yourself, you’re going to shine and radiate and other people are going to be drawn to you. And by doing that I think you can do a lot for people because you’ll have a lot of help because people want to be around you.

For more information on Dolly Parton and her work, visit www.dollyparton.com.

Marianne Schnall is a widely published writer and interviewer whose writings and interviews have appeared in a variety of media outlets including O, The Oprah Magazine, Marie Claire, CNN.com, AOL Build, the Women’s Media Center and The Huffington Post. She is also the co-founder and executive director of the women’s website and non-profit organization Feminist.com, as well as the co-founder of the environmental site EcoMall.com. She is the author of Daring to Be Ourselves: Influential Women Share Insights on Courage, Happiness and Finding Your Own Voice and What Will it Take to Make a Woman President? Conversations About Women, Leadership, and Power. You can visit her website at www.marianneschnall.com.

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By Bob Rizzo, ZEALnyc Contributing Writer, November 29, 2016

The New York annual holiday tradition of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular returns in all its glory. Rockefeller Center is without question the heart of Christmas in New York City. The Christmas Spectacular is a big part of what makes it so magical. The show closely resembles last year's top-notch production with some slight modifications that only enhance the extravaganza.

The iconic Rockettes remain supreme with their eye-high kicks, razor-sharp precision and synchronized choreography. They prance as reindeer, dance as teddy bears, march as wooden soldiers, and tap as rag dolls, all to stunning effect.

The show's kid-friendly story revolves around two brothers searching for a Christmas present for their sister. They run into Santa who offers his help despite the older brother's disbelief. Thanks to Santa's magic they're whisked off to the North Pole where they find the perfect gift.

Santa, played by the engaging Charles Edward Hall, remains Radio City's quintessential jolly old elf. He effortlessly interacts with the audience and has the children in the palm of his hands. The brothers, Patrick and Ben (played with enthusiasm by Mateo Lizcano and Landon Maas at this performance) hit just the right notes and wisely avoid being too precocious.

But the show is more spectacle than story, with the Rockettes as it's most valuable players. Their signature "Parade of The Wooden Soldiers" is still, after eighty-three years, a feast for the eyes. It's hard to pick a favorite considering the sheer variety of fascinating numbers they do. The multiplying Santa's in "Here Comes Santa Claus" and the tap dance count down to "The Twelve Days Of Christmas," are both showstoppers.

Video projections and state of the art technology add to the holiday proceedings. Choo-choo train images ride the walls of the theatre and GPS-guided snowflakes fly over the audience. Squeals of delight from the children around me were infectious. Yet it's the 3-D animated film sequence "Santa Flies to New York" that's the most eye-popping. It continues to be one of the technical highlights of the production.

Director-choreographer Julie Branam holds tight on the reins, expertly guiding her enthusiastic cast. The numbers are crisp and full of vitality. Not a misstep throughout, the show seamlessly transitions from scene to scene. It also looks like there's been some sprucing up in the choreography for the ensemble members. Their dancing is much more fluid and utilizes their technical prowess. Kudos to the dancers and singers who add an extra sparkle this year.

Take your cue from Harold Arlen's famous song, "Get Happy"--"Forget your troubles, come on get happy" at the Radio City Christmas Spectacular this holiday season! It's guaranteed to chase all your cares away.

For more information on the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, which runs through January 2nd, click here.

Cover: The Rockettes in the 'Parade of the Wooden Soldiers'; photo: courtesy of MSG Entertainment
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Bob Rizzo, a Contributing Writer for ZEALnyc writes frequently on Braodway and Dance. More information is available at his website, The Dance Coach.

Read more ZEALnyc features:

Ballet Hispánico in a 'not to be missed' performance at the Apollo Theatre

'Natalia Osipova and Artists' Present a Mixed-Bill with Mixed Results

Holiday Shopping -- Pop Up Style!

For all the news on New York City arts and culture, visit ZEALnyc Front Page.

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When you think about Vegas magicians, you think about guys with bad toupees in tuxes, wheeling around showgirls past their prime.
Or you think about Criss Angel.
Angel, who is selling out his new Mindfreak Live! show at the Luxor ten times a week, is a magician for our times.
He connects on a heart level with his audiences, while at the same time providing the illusions and demonstrations that make him an object of fascination - and even obsession - for his fans.
Angel is known to millions of TV viewers for his six seasons of Mindfreak on A&E, the longest-running magic program in television history. He's is also the most watched magician in Internet history--a YouTube sensation. His "Walk on Water" clip has generated over 60 million views alone, and all his clips combined have generated more than 300 million views. Criss also has the largest social media following of any illusionist, with six million followers.
He performed his prior Vegas show, BeLIEve, to over a million paying customers and generated over $150 million dollars for the Luxor in one year. He is the highest paid magician in history, and has put a separate troupe of illusionists on the road as well (The Supernaturalists). Angel is hailed by Hollywood elites as the greatest magician alive, and earlier this year was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
But all this pales before what happens in Mindfreak Live!, head and shoulders the best show in Las Vegas, on or off the strip.
Angel is known to be not just a mindfreak but a control freak, sweating the details, even to the point of deciding whether to repair or replace a $250 straight jacket.
But all this attention to detail pays off for the audience, which is consistently blown away by the enormous entertainment value that Criss provides, and regularly give multiple standing ovations during each performanc
Yes, he saws a woman in half.
Yes, he makes birds appear out of nowhere.
Yes, he invites a random audience member to choose one of eight motorcycles, and he somehow makes it appear.
While the illusions, or demonstrations as Angel likes to say, are amazing and compelling, what matters most is the way Angel connects with his audience.
He strides satyr-like on the stage, his edgy and provocative image belying the fact that Angel is, at base, a good guy who wants to love and be loved by his audiences.
And that's exactly what happens.
There's always the excitement and shock of seeing a favorite television star live and in the flesh, and his audiences certainly respond to his physical presence.
But more than that, there's a sense that Angel has been expecting you, waiting for you to stop by his place, even though a celebrity, the kind of guy you could have a beer with.
Perhaps the greatest illusion of all is to establish a sense of intimacy with 1,500 strangers, twice a night, five nights a week.
Yet Angel pulls off that most difficult act with aplomb. He appears to have the Joe DiMaggio attitude that this may be the only time people see him live, and they must walk away having seen him at his best.
Mindfreak Live! offers more than 50 illusions, some of which carry over from BeLIEve, and others which are new to the show - Criss having spent decades to create and them.
How he walks down a tall ladder, his body parallel to the ground and finally rising straight into the air taking one of the cast members with him, is anybody's guess. This levitation is unlike any other ever performed.
He also devotes meaningful show time to his quest to raise funds for pediatric cancer research; his two-year-old son was diagnosed with leukemia in 2015.
Magicians stuck in a time warp with their tuxes, bad toupees, and stale acts may look askance at Angel, who combines skill and showmanship not seen this side of Houdini.
But the audiences love Angel, and Angel loves his audiences.
And that's the greatest magic of all.

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So my friends, we are in the midst of the holiday season, which means that we are looking for special gifts for our family and friends. My favorite places to search are definitely museum gift shops with their spirited atmospheres and surprising variety of artistic objects. And, of course, plenty of books...



And speaking of books: Yesterday, I went to a reception at the TASCHEN Gallery celebrating the publication of David Hockney's SUMO-sized monograph. If you haven't been to TASCHEN Gallery on the corner of Beverly and Crescent Heights, now is a good time. The façade and roof of the gallery are plastered with huge signage and colorful banners, grabbing the attention of passersby. Walls inside the gallery are covered with hundreds of pages from the book -- turning the pages into a fabulous wallpaper.



This gorgeous oversized book comes with a specially designed stand. And considering it's hefty price tag, it's understandable that during the opening, white gloves were offered to those who wished to look through the book. It was a privilege to encounter David Hockney himself during the reception. Here he was, surrounded by admirers and friends and -- more to the point -- by thousands of reproductions of paintings, drawings, photographs all made during his 50-year-long career.


The exhibition at TASCHEN (running through January 5, 2017) with its larger-than-life, theatrical flair brings to mind Hockney's set designs for major opera productions around the world. One thing at the exhibition that you might be particularly taken by is an original painting by Hockney that belongs to the artist himself. Sorry, it's not for sale. And here's a suggestion: if you're planning to get down on one knee and propose to your art-loving beloved, why don't you surprise them not with a diamond ring, but with this amazing book, costing nearly as much as an engagement ring?



Yesterday, by pure coincidence, I went to another book signing, this one celebrating the publication of Overspilling World: The Photographs of Janet Sternburg by Distanz Verlag. In this book, L.A.-based artist Janet Sternburg presents nearly two decades of her work done with the help of iPhones and disposable cameras. Most of her images capture reflections of light and scenes shot through storefront windows. Her camera captures fleeting impressions of perfectly imperfect moments, and the resulting mysterious images captivate and hold your attention.



The monograph includes texts and essays by German filmmaker Wim Wenders and artist Catherine Opie, among others. This small and exquisitely designed book could be another smart holiday gift choice for your friends, and maybe for yourself as well. On Saturday, December 10, at 11:30am, Janet Sternburg will be having another signing for the book, this time at Hauser Wirth & Schimmel in Downtown L.A.



Currently, my coffee table is being crushed under the weight of the new monograph by Robert Storr, Intimate Geometries, dedicated to the great artist Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010) who worked until the very end of her life at the advanced age of 98. It's amazing to learn that she didn't receive international recognition until she was in her 80s. After all, her genius is so obvious, even in her much earlier works. The question is why it took such a long time for the smart art world to catch on. This is another surprise gift you might want for yourself...





To learn about Edward's Fine Art of Art Collecting Classes, please visit his website. You can also read The New York Times article about his classes here, or an Artillery Magazine article about Edward and his classes here.

___________

Edward Goldman is an art critic and the host of Art Talk, a program on art and culture for NPR affiliate KCRW 89.9 FM. To listen to the complete show and hear Edward's charming Russian accent, click here.

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Lately, my novelist friends and I have been talking about finding other jobs because the publishing business is so rocky. Usually this list of possibilities is short, since we're not really qualified to do much other than write. Waiting tables, maybe, or working in retail.

"Maybe we should just write other things that pay better," one of my friends suggested. "Like screenplays!"

She has always been an optimist. Still, that conversation led me to wonder whether it's easier to be a screenwriter than a novelist these days, so I asked Toronto-based screenwriter, Shane Weisfeld, who wrote the screenplay for the 2014 thriller, "Freezer," starring Dylan McDermott, to tell me about his career path. It turns out that selling a script and actually getting it made into a movie might not be any easier than selling a novel and seeing it in bookstores...darn it.

Q. I love the cobbled-together word you use, "sacriverance," to describe the combination of sacrifice and perseverance it takes to make it as a writer. When did you first set out to become a screenwriter, and why? And what feeds your "sacriverance" when the going gets tough?

A. I've been a writer since day one. It chose me. I was born with a pad and pen in my hand (not a laptop). Also, from the beginning I was a huge film lover. In my last year of high school I realized I wanted to seriously be in the film industry in a creative capacity. It was during this year that I first started reading about the script-to-screen process and the role above-the-line talent plays in getting a film made. So writing + film = screenwriting, and I jumped off the ledge into the fire, building my wings on the way down.

As to why I became a screenwriter, I come from the world of hip hop, which completely shaped and molded who I am. In that world, it's all about proving yourself lyrically, which stems from the writing; and being able to paint a picture and tell a compelling story from your writing, and then being able to do it live and move the crowd is a whole other story. Screenwriting was basically a natural extension of that. I owe everything to hip hop - it's the foundation of all my creativity.

My sacriverance is fed from one key thing: hardcore, relentless, unwavering, blue-collar perseverance. I'm a fiend for this. I have an obsessive, burning desire to make a go at it. It's not just a hope and a dream. I knew I'd never be okay on the sidelines. I had to take action. Writing goes beyond being a passion or love of mine. I get in where I fit in, and when the going gets tough, I just know that quitting has been - and never will be - an option. I'm programmed to do this. Don't know anything else, don't wanna do anything else.

Q. I know you wrote a lot of sceenplays before selling "Freezer." Why do you think "Freezer" was the one that made it? Is it really better than anything else you had written to that point, or was there some combo of luck and connections involved?

A. No luck or connections. Those are myths. Well, having connections is not a myth, it certainly helps to know people, but I only know people and made connections because of what you mentioned - I wrote a lot of scripts and spent years at it, and in that time I built up my network. So that's part of why I was able to sell a script after so many years. "Freezer" was not necessarily better than anything I had written at the time, it just happened to be really good timing in terms of the concept and genre and people (producers, execs, actors, directors) who were looking for something like that. I have to give credit to my former manager in L.A., because he took a chance on me and was able to get "Freezer" set up with a great company who went to bat for it and were serious about getting it made the right way.


Q. You're one of the rare writers who has actually managed to have a film made into a major motion picture with "Freezer." Do you think of yourself as a "success?" Where there any really low points along your journey to selling a script--times where you thought you might run out of "sacriverance?"

A. I think of myself as a success because I've persevered in my journey. Perseverance, in my opinion, is what separates the adults from the children. Success for me is not money or material things or any position I'm in. This is a crazy, polarizing, back-breaking, lip-zipping, confidence-shattering business, and just to get representation and an option, or to sell a script is a success, let alone have something produced and have it picked up for distribution or included in film festivals or whatever. I've succeeded because a number of goals were reached not necessarily from hard work, focus and determination, but from pure tenacity, persistence and personal resilience. You can be the most talented, driven individual, but even talented people quit. Perseverance is the name of the game. Of course there were low points; it's been so frustrating I can't even begin to tell you. I've had many boiling points, believe me. It's still, and will always be, a struggle. However, I will never run out of the sacriverance. I'm built for the kill.

Q. I know that you've kept every rejection you've received since 1997. When you look at that growing pile, what makes you think the journey is worth it?

A. Taking action and never quitting something you're so passionate about, have a burning desire for it and feeling you were meant to do it is always worth it. I started writing (short) scripts in '94, but December of 1997 (when I wrote my first feature) is when I started actively pursuing the business, sending out scripts and thus facing rejection; so it's been a 19-year journey for me, one of ups and downs, highs and lows and every nitty-gritty thing in between. I asked myself early on if it's worth it, and I only needed to ask myself that one time. I've never questioned my talent, ability or mental stamina. However, that rejection pile of mine is definitely a reminder of the journey and its worth.

Q. How has the film industry changed in the twenty years or so that you've been trying to realize your goals as a writer?

A. I've seen firsthand how things have changed, from a writing perspective, and then on a broad level just from following the business on a regular basis. Three main things have changed. One is content. People are viewing films and TV in ways nobody thought was possible 10 or 20 years ago. So many different companies offer consumers many ways to buy what they're selling, and non-traditional has become traditional. Number two is the amount of fully integrated companies that have stepped up to the plate to produce, finance, sell and distribute films in the low-to-mid-budget range that the studios wouldn't normally touch. So a lot of these companies have become their own studios, but work outside of the studio system. The third thing that has changed is the TV landscape, from a writing perspective, genre perspective and IP perspective. The envelope keeps pushing when it comes to television content, in terms of form, genre, subject matter and character portrayal. In terms of my goals specifically as a writer, there are certainly more ways to get your material out there and get noticed, especially with the plethora of writing competitions now, and sites and forums that host scripts and provide feedback coverage (for a price of course). But one thing remains constant: it will never, ever become easier to break into this business... Never.

Q. What words of advice do you have for other writers out there who are struggling to find an agent/manager and sell their screenplays?

A. Figure this out for yourselves. I had to. I will tell you this though - and it can be for anybody who wants to perfect their craft and artistry and make a name for themselves... it's what I call the cigarette versus cigar scenario of advice:

A cigarette is made on a conveyor belt, pumped out the exact same way as millions of other cigarettes, mass produced, in a very short time. Whereas a cigar is carefully hand-rolled, each one unique, quality-controlled, only after the different kinds tobacco (leaf, wrapper, filler) have been carefully grown and fermented over time in the right conditions. A cigarette gets smoked in minutes, usually rushed, then stomped out, whereas a cigar is properly cut, smoked slowly, enjoyed with great conversation, especially paired with a good meal. Which do you want your craft to be - a cigar or a cigarette? Always focus on quality, authenticity, uniqueness and originality. That will set you apart from the rest.

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Swiss video artist Pipilotti Rist is a crowd pleaser. On our first visit several weeks ago to the New Museum where her show, Pipilotti Rist: Pixel Forest, is up until January 15, 2017, the attendance was modest. Last week on our second visit, the line outside went around the block. Word had spread. The mostly Millennial hordes crowded the three floors of the museum devoted to the show, iPhones at the ready, posing, snapping, reviewing, re-posing, snapping again.

A viewer could walk through suspended sheets of sheer fabric on to which Rist projected videos. Or one could stick one's head into a box to view another. Or one could lie on mattresses or cushions on the floor and take in the videos on the walls and ceiling. In another section, you had to walk through a forest of 300 glass LED light ornaments hanging from the ceiling, spaced maybe a foot apart. The idea was to slow down, be in the ornaments, observe the colors and pixels on the ornaments, make out the patterns, navigate carefully, not to disturb the hanging pendants, or, worse, crash them together. The visitors, being blithe New Yorkers and high-spirited Europeans - I heard at least a half dozen languages - were routinely knocking the glass lights into each other. A security guard told me that four pendants had been shattered that day, and it was only 2 pm. He routinely radios the curatorial staff and they come armed with replacements, stepladders and, presumably, a broom and dust pan. All part of the intended experience, I imagine. Breakable, elusive art. The fragility of life.

The Rist videos projected on walls and ceiling continue the theme and confuse. Are you, the observer, inside the body or outside? Underwater scenes, filmed in the Rhine, are surreal, bubbles and particles - of what? - abound. You are taken down narrow passages - are we in an artery, is this human skin we see and feel? Are the amoeba in the river or in us? Rist calls her art "glorification of the wonder of evolution".

The installation envelopes with its dual screens surrounding you. You lie there not wanting to leave, yet conscious there is a waiting line. The accompanying music completes the envelopment. The experience takes you outside yourself and inside at the same time.

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