NeoHooDoo: Art of a Forgotten Faith is exquisite in its subtle attempt to lift the veil on the abundance of spiritual, metaphysical, magical excitement that takes place across the multicultural landscape of the Americas.  While George W. and his predecessors under the flag of Christianity have been doing it by the book, a whole host of folks have been trippin’ the light fantastic in consciousness exploration for centuries. Now that’s where the party’s at!

(Image: Brian Jungen, Beer Cooler,  2002. Plastic, 16×28x26in. Collection of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax.)

In a show curated by contemporary art trailblazer Franklin Sirmans (currently, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at The Menil Foundation) it’s not a surprise to find some audiences who can’t quite see or taste the flavorful depths of the exhibition.  Afterall, it tackles a topic where some folks are spectators and others are players.  According to Sirmans, “NeoHooDoo: Art of a Forgotten Faith grew out of a desire to examine the multiple meanings of spirituality in contemporary art.”  The show was designed to dissolve the boundaries between the physical and  spiritual world and was inspired by Ishmael Reed’s poems Neo-HooDoo Manifesto and Neo-HooDoo Aesthetic.  Dissolving the boundaries between the spiritual and the physical is essentially a marriage, or acceptance, of the so-called knowable and the unknowable.  Terrain that artists are quite familiar with, but audiences weened on western rationalism may find challenging.  Nevertheless, works by 30 artists, including Sanford Biggers, William Cordova and David Hammons, speak to time honored traditions and remixes of culture that put the chutzpah en la vida!

(Images left to right: Sanford Biggers, Ghetto Bird Tunic (full length), 2006. Bubble jacket, exotic feathers. Courtesy of the Artist & D’Amelio Terras. Michael Tracy, Cruz De La Paz Sagrada (Cross of the Sacred Peace), 1980. Acrylic on rayon wrapped over wood, tin and brass milagros, rosary beads, metal swords, spikes and nails, string, wire, ribbon, human hair, crown of cactus needles; wood base with gold leaf, 69×43x31in. The Menil Collection, Houston.)

NeoHooDoo: Art of a Forgotten Faith is on view at P.S.1. Contemporary Art Center through January 2009.

(Photos: Don Pollard, Courtest P.S.1. Contemporary Art Center.  Except for Ghetto Bird Tunic, Courtesy of the artist.)

A public art project can’t get much bigger or more urgent than one that tackles our personal responsibility for the environment, and thus our collective responsibility for our future. Privileged Tactics II, a project of Sara Heitlinger and Franc Purg, attempts to do just this, and inspire action, by asking the question: When is waste one person’s trash and another’s privilege?  A 2nd place winner of the UNESCO Digital Arts Award in 2007, Privileged Tactics II, is a work-in-progress that focuses on the low-impact and low-tech model of waste disposal by 70,000 Zaballeen (“people that collect rubbish”) who live in Cairo, Egypt.

(Image: Privilege Tactics II, Recycling plastic in Moqattam, Cairo)

What Sara and Franc aim to do is to help the Zaballeen model gain global visibility and notoriety: 1) as an alternative to the replacement of their own system by international waste-disposal companies that are ecologically unsustainable, impractical, and socially irresponsible; and, 2) as a environmentally benevolent tool for waste management in cities across the global south (a.k.a. the developing world/third world).  The Zaballeen model is not only low-tech and low-impact, it’s a life-sustaining economic model for family-run cottage industries built around the collection and recycling of garbage in a city of over 17 million people.

(Image: Privilege Tactics II, Central Cairo)

The Privileged Tactics II project is in the midst of executing and developing a digital-public art project built around Radio Frequency Identification, or RFID, technology.  The technology can be used to develop a system of tagging on objects and products, that in this case would be used to track garbage items along their path of creation, use and disposal.  By maintaining tag codes within a computer database, individuals could potentially base their consumer practices on information such as: the energy, pollution and materials consumed and created in an object’s production; how far it and its source materials traveled; where and how the object is disposed of; and, if manufacturers have taken responsibility for a product throughout its life cycle, including its disposal.

(Image: Privilege Tactics II, Plastic in Moqattam, Cairo)

There’s no doubt that the problem that Priviledged Tactics II is attempting to address is monumental.  However, it is truly a much needed contribution to the civilizing of humanity’s collective ego.

Sara and Franc’s first RFID tracked garbage item will be bottled water distributed in the Cairo area.  So far, action/exhibitions on the project are scheduled for Hamburg, Germany, Nottingham, UK and Ljubljana, Slovenia. Check the Privileged Tactics website for updates on Privileged Tactics II, and to find out about Privileged Tactics I, which asked: When is stealing a criminal tactic, and when is it a legal, or privileged tactic?

In the summer of  2007, tired of curators with puppet strings on their backs, a host of Los Angeles based artists decided to take a hippy approach to the white cube side of artist life. Their brainchild - an artist run space known as Monte Vista located in Highland Park, an area just a few subway stops (or a quick cruise on the 110 freeway) from downtown Los Angeles. The space, subletted from Los Angeles based contemporary artist Sam Durant, houses 3 artist studios and one exhibition space built out by 2 of the founding artists, Noah Peffer and Frank Chang. Rent is split amongst studio renters and the collective, while time is divided into 5 hour shifts to cover the spaces weekend hours of operation.

With general aims to bring a platform for art and conversation to Los Angeles that sidesteps the influence of the commercial market, Monte Vista has successfully completed a year’s worth of exhibitions, talks and events that support so called “non-traditional” sources and dialogues.  Motivated by a collective urge for self-determination, the space’s democratic nature serves as a balance to the moodiness of art market trends and the confines of “the game.”

Current collective members include: Noah Peffer, Candice Lin, Chris Bassett, Frank Chang, Shizu Saldamando, Ryan Taber, Jeff Cain, Nikki Pressley, and Jay Lizo.

Many ladies who came of age during the birth of hip-hop are B-Girlz at heart and that trend hasn’t stopped for the generations that followed. In celebration of the creativity of gutsy girlz with dynamic style and non-stop energy who mastered skillz in all aspects of hip-hop from the early days up until this moment, We B*Girlz is presenting the 1-month We B*Girlz Festival 2008 in Berlin, Germany this August. The organization, founded by Martha Cooper and Nika Kramer, aims to present strong, smart, independent B-Girlz and other hip-hop females as role models for upcoming generations, and to highlight the significant place for and history of women in the worldwide culture of hip-hop.

(Image: The Queens of Graffiti series, a collection of screenprinted portraits of outstanding female graffiti artists from around the world, on view at the Hip Hop Ladies With Attitude – Jammin’ Fresh & Def exhibition.)

Overall the multimedia festival’s intent is to provide a platform for girls and young women from different nations and cultural backgrounds to make contacts, exchange ideas and support each other. A highlight of the festival will be the visual art exhibition, Hip Hop Ladies With Attitude – Jammin’ Fresh & Def, organized by AnAttitude Magazine (Belgium) and Catfight Magazine (Holland) from 8/22-8/31/08. The 10-day exhibit will showcase live art in the form of Style Battles (8/28) and Graffiti Jams (8/29) featuring artists like Faith47 (South Africa), Shiro (Japan) and Mad C (Germany). Other artists such as, Roxanne Shante, Bahamadia, Toofly and Asia One, will all be in effect throughout the month representing MC, graf and breakin’ skills. In a packed schedule of events and activities, girls will gain knowledge, skills and tools to develop their creative prowess in all elements of hip-hop culture. The We B*Girlz Festival will also teach participants how to document their artistic output through workshops in video editing, photography and web design. Music, club nights and a film festival will round out the month long celebration and will close with a final flurry of battles, shows and a concert on the last weekend in August. The entire event will be documented in a compilation CD, magazine and DVD.

Event sponsors include Hauptstadtkulturfonds, Montana Cans and many more. For more info click here!

Get off the corner, the couch and the passenger seat of your best friend’s car, there’s a new sheriff in town, Barnabus Shakur, founder of Project Re-Generation (PR-G) in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn.  On a mission to eliminate teenage after-school idleness through educational programs, PR-G has been empowering youth through physical fitness, financial literacy, job skills and mental calisthenics for the last 7 years.  Through community partnerships with local homeowners, volunteer educators and corporate entities like the New York Knicks, PR-G’s commitment to creating a college bound culture within the urban community has reached over 500 teens and 3,000 Bed Stuy residents.

Fundamental to the program’s philosophy is a commitment to the development of personal integrity and knowledge of self.  To this end PR-G engages young people in the study of Urban Contemporary Jujitsu under Grand Master Bill McCloud and the mantra, “The art of 360 -Perfecting every aspect of your being!”  The regimen includes Urban Contemporary Jujitsu, Aikido, Yoga, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Cardio Kickboxing.

Other PR-G programs consist of the NY Knicks Poetry Jam Sessions (an 8 week poetry program with performance opportunities), Foot Soldiers (a money management, job readiness and community service initiative) and Rites of Passage (a program designed to support personal development, community care and hard work).  Commitment like Shakur’s, to structure, guidance and community, lead to the optimal functioning of young people and represents the possibilities of what can happen when private citizens take public action!  Join PR-G for their 6th Annual Community Pride Day at Von King Park in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn on July 12th, 2008.

Based in Los Angeles, The HeArt Project creatively links overlooked teenagers in alternative high schools with professional artists, cultural centers, and communities to imagine, produce and present new work. The organization believes that overlooked young people are extraordinarily creative, that artists are a significant civic resource, and that their ideas, collaborations and work benefit the entire culture. 

(Left to right: Man One, A student presents a portrait of Tejana singer Selena, at the Getty Center, created as a group project during a workshop series with Man One.)

Each year The HeArt Project hosts its annual evening of art benefit to raise funds and awareness for the organization’s comprehensive arts programs through an exhibition of student work, a silent auction and special presentations to honorees made by HeArt Project students. This year’s event, on May 15, 2008, will feature one special honoree, the beloved International Muralist, Graffiti Artist, HeArt Project Artist Instructor and local Los Angeles Art Activist, Man One. Some folks know him for his downtown LA graffiti outpost/store/art gallery, Crewest, and others, like the HeArt Project students, also know him for his stature as a muralist in their own communities and city. The Crewest gallery philosophy to “cater to art that speaks to the heart and soul as well as the mind,” is also clearly evident in Man One’s dedication to arts education via the HeArt Project.

(Man One and the students of Amelia Earhart High School on a field trip to the artist’s gallery and one of his murals.)

Since 1992, in partnership with institutions and professional artists, The HeArt Project has served as a pathway for its students to move from dropping out of high school to re-engaging in their education, lives, and futures. The HeArt Project operates at 24 sites on a conceptual “ladder” philosophy, offering students the opportunity to advance through four levels of increasingly advanced arts programs – workshops and public presentations, after-school residencies and leadership training, scholarships to art programs for high school students at local colleges, and alumni support. Support strategies at each level, help students “climb” the ladder while exploring opportunities in the arts, working toward high school graduation, and transitioning into post-secondary education.

For more information on the HeArt Project fundraiser location, sponsorship, tickets, and silent auction, visit www.theheartproject.org or contact Suzy Foster at (213) 744-1404 / suzy@theheartproject.org.  

For those of us on the east coast, we may know about Boricuas and salsa legends from Tito Puente and Celia Cruz to Willie Colon and Hector Lavoe.  Or we may even know that a large portion of east coast Mexican immigrants come from Puebla, Mexico and Cubans hold it down in Miami.  But, one thing is for sure, most of us don’t know a damn thing about the Chicano Movement of the west coast, and its cultural hub in East Los Angeles.  Enter, Self Help Graphics and Art, a legendary community arts organization in the heart of East Los that has nurtured, cultivated and provided a platform for a myriad of Chicano and Mexican artists across generations.  Self Help Graphics and Art and THE VEX club, formally housed on its premises, offers a point of departure for The Claremont Museum’s upcoming exhibition, VEXING: Female Voice and East L.A. Punk, that explores the East L.A. scene in the late 70’s and early 80’s, and its subsequent influence on a younger generation of artists.

(Images left to right: Shizu Saldamando, Cindi and Asma in the Ladies Room, 2007, Colored pencil, collage on paper Collection of Sam Lee and Karen Rapp.  Dawn Wirth, Alice Bag, Jensen Rec Center/Silver Lake Film Festival, 2007, Silver-halide/C print. Courtesy of the artist)

The exhibition was designed to document, “a vital moment of artistic and musical interchange in Los Angeles, with women staking out a position between and within punk rock, East LA and the downtown art scene.” Vexing: Female Voices from East LA Punk is on view from May 18 to August 31, 2008 at The Claremont Museum of Art in Claremont, California.  Stay tuned for a forthcoming catalog on the exhibition and a documentary on The Vex by Pete Galindo, Willie Herón and Lysa Flores.

Founded by Fernando Afable, Foto Baryo brings the art and pleasure of photography to children in the Philippines. Although raised in the Philippines, it was Afable’s tenure as an employee at the International Center for Photography in New York that provided the backdrop for his growth in knowledge and love of the medium.  During this time, over 10+ years, as he moved from Security Guard to Darkroom Manager, Afable collected discarded books, enlargers, cameras and film, and built a school on his family’s land in Manila. The result of his efforts is Foto Baryo, a venue where cross-cultural and cross-class dialogue thrives and exposes young people to the diversity of planet earth.  The school is heavily involved in outreach to Philippine youth living in Manila, squatter communities, and autistic children.  Images and exhibitions in galleries and public community spaces are produced by the children year-round. Foto Baryo’s most recent work will be exhibited at the Philippine Consulate in New York on June 5th, 2008.

(Fernando Afable, photo courtesy of PhilippineBusiness.com)

What is equally amazing is the fact that all the work has been produced by discarded equipment and expired film!  Read more on Foto Baryo here or for more information contact Cres Yulo or Amor Rodriguez here!  (Special thanks to Lauri Lyons for this post.)

“The existence of Afro-Mexicans was officially affirmed in the 1990s when the Mexican government acknowledged Africa as Mexico’s “Third Root.” For nearly 500 years, the existence and contributions of African descendants in Mexico have been overlooked, although they have continued to contribute their cultural, musical, and culinary traditions to Mexican society through the present day. This groundbreaking exhibition provides an important opportunity to revisit and embrace the African legacy in Mexico and the Americas while creating significant occasions for cross-cultural dialogue, exchange and presentations for all age ranges and backgrounds. No exhibition has showcased the history, artistic expressions, and practices of Afro-Mexicans in such a broad scope as this one, which includes a comprehensive historical range of artwork including contemporary artistic expressions. The exhibition is organized by the National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago.” The African Presence in México: From Yanga to the Present is on view at the California African American Museum (CAAM) in Los Angeles from January 31st - June 1, 2008.

(Image: Maximino Javier (b. 1950), Indecisive Chacmool / Chacmool Indeciso, 2002 oil on canvas / oleo sobre tela, Collection of Galeria Quetzalli)

Art being made in the moment took place on a series of corners in downtown Miami at 2007’s Miami Art Basel (NW 2nd Ave & NW 23rd St).  As street artists, graffiti writers and muralists continue to form alliances across the country and around the globe their presence is being felt not only at home on street corners in various hoods, but collectively on the ubiquitous art fair circuit that is now de rigueur for participants in the production of the aesthetic culture of globalization.  An organized effort was put forth through the Primary Flight Site Specific Street Level Art Installation at Miami Art Basel 2007.  Energy, life and love vibrated off the ladders and streets where artists like El Mac, Lady Pink and Futura were at work. 

Wall by Cycle and Lady Pink. Photo courtesy of FATSKINS.

London based photographer Jennie Baptiste’s latest project, in conjunction with six young people collectively know as The Linx, took her and her youth shooters on a fact-finding trip to Accompong, Jamaica to interview and photograph descendants of the Maroons - the first free African slaves in the western hemisphere.  The Linx are a part of London’s Brent Council’s Youth Service and have been commended for raising awareness about these “courageous runaway slaves”, more appropriately described as, historic freedom-fighters, through public talks and forthcoming exhibitions.  Jennie told Cultureserve, “The people out there are so humble and giving, we in the west could definitely learn a thing or two.”  Stepfan one of the youth participants, along with the other 5 members, Asia, Blaine, Dipesh, Moses and Val (ages 13-19), described the experience of being invited into the Maroon community and seeing former slave plantations as quite “enlightening.”  

(Photos, left to right: Avian a young farmer who lives in Accompong by Moses Howe,14 yrs. old and Traditional Maroon House by Blaine Powell, 17 yrs. old)

The work will be exhibited in the newly opened “permanent slavery gallery” (no comment on that name!) at The Museum in Docklands in London from Wednesday 2/20/2008 - 8/31/2008.  There will also be photography workshops for young visitors in which Maroon culture and artifacts will be examined and discussed with The Linx. Also on deck: A book with photos by Jennie Baptiste and The Linx sponsored by The Watchmen Agency and, an exhibition at the National Institute of Jamaica 2008. 

The Rural Haiti Project, founded in New York, brings professionals and teachers from across Haiti and around the world to lead workshops in rural Haitian schools on art, architecture, culture, environmental protection, media, technology and public policy.  The project strives to instill and support the importance of developing and maintaining a strong community through community service.  By empowering students with education and the tools necessary to build infrastructure children are prepared to embrace the Rural Haiti Project’s message,  “This is your town, your country, your responsibility - you can change it.”

The Rural Haiti Projects’ green initiative includes an emphasis on plastic bottle collection, recycling, planting trees and, peer to peer and peer to adult education on environmemtal responsibility.  For more information or to donate time or money contact info@ruralhaitiproject.org.

The word femicide gained its re-entry into our recent world culture, through the written activism of Diana Washington Valdez, a veteran award-winning journalist for the El Paso Times in Texas. The first to report on the abductions and brutal murders of hundreds of young Mexican women in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Washington-Valdez’ relentless exploration has officially awoken us to the fact that 3rd world women’s lives are in serious danger.  Mexico’s inability to resolve these murders has encouraged women throughout the world to voice their outrage for the legal impunity towards femicides in their own countries.  In 2002, less than 6 years ago, googling words such as “femicide”, “women of Ciudad Juarez”, “border murders”, “NAFTA murders” or “abductions in Chihuahua”, brought no results. The results under these search terms are now substantial, due to the visual, written and performance artists who have vowed to create work on Juarez, until the crimes are resolved. Pictured below: Postcard for ESPEJO: A protest exhibit against Femicides in Guatemala (Santa Ana, CA, May 2007). Curated by Artist Victoria Delgadillo.  Exterior Art Installation by Rigo Maldonado with Performer/Poet Gabriela Garcia Medina.

In 2006, Congresswoman Hilda L. Solis of California introduced a resolution into congress condemning the brutal murders in Ciudad Juarez and urging the United States and Mexico to discuss resolution steps as part of their bilateral agenda. The resolution was passed.  Following up on work by Grassroots activists such as Guatemalan/American, Lucia Muñoz, founder of Mujeres Iniciando en las Americas (MIA) [dedicated to exposing the femicides in Guatemala], Congresswoman Solis introduced U.S. House Resolution 100 in 2007. This resolution expresses concern over the unsolved murders of more than 2,000 women in Guatemala since 2001 and encourages new efforts to address these crimes and prevent further killings. This resolution also passed.

(Information for this post provided by Victoria Delgadillo) 

The non-profit All Stars Project founded in 1981 creates outside of school, educational and performing arts activities for tens of thousands of inner-city youth. One of the All Stars projects, established by Susan Jaffe, American Ballet Theatre prima ballerina, is the All Stars Artist Committee which partners leading performing artists with young people from inner city communities.  Artist committee members lend their talent and energies to connect young people to the broader world of culture. Members include: Fran Drescher, Charles S. Dutton, Bill T. Jones, Donna Murphy, Desmond Richardson and Daphne Rubin-Vega, among others.

Its flagship program, the All Stars Talent Show Network, involves young people, ages 5 to 25, in creating developmental culture through producing and performing in weekend talent shows in their neighborhoods. Young people perform as rappers, singers and dancers, and everyone who auditions makes it into the show! Young people also learn how to organize the productions, performing as ushers, ticket sellers, technical and house staff, box office staff, and stagehands. The All Stars next cycle of events will be held in South Ozone Park in Queens, New York this fall. For information on how to audition for a show, or volunteer, call 212-356-8447 or visit www.allstars.org!  (Below: Bill T. Jones with youth performers) 

For the past five years, spoken word poet Bryonn Bain has organized workshops and performances in prisons across the country through, his grassroots non-profit, Blackout Arts Collective’s award-winning “Lyrics on Lockdown Tour.”  As an educator, Bain created a course, Lyrics on Lockdown, that explores hip hop, spoken word poetry, the prison industrial complex and, includes an exchange between students and incarcerated individuals at Riker’s Island. He taught Lyrics on Lockdown at Columbia University (2003-2005) and will teach it at the New School for Social Research (2007-2008). The course has also expanded to New York University where it will be taught by Ella Currenne.  Amongst Bain’s numerous artistic endeavors, he hosts BET-J’s leading talk show “My Two Cents” on air each week in 27 million homes nationwide, and has his 2nd spoken word album, Scared of the Dark, dropping in 2008.