Community Closing Party for Exploding Language: Mining the Black Arts Movement to create new visual text - October 18, 2008 - North Minneapolis
A special thanks to Mr. Roderic Southhall for providing the
following information to Twin City Business!
North Minneapolis, MN - October 2008…Bringing the spirit and power of the black arts movement back home to North Minneapolis is the goal of the current off-site project by Obsidian Arts. Bathing a four block stretch of Plymouth Avenue North, starting at Penn and Plymouth, in public art that focuses on the weight orientation of the visual aesthetics and purpose of artwork associated with the Black Arts Movement that swept though the U.S. during the late 1960’s and early 1970s. The exhibit consists of two and three-dimensional installations, projections and sound scapes placed along Plymouth Avenue in North Minneapolis. Plymouth Avenue was the epicenter of the city’s black power and black arts movement activities in the late 1960’s and early 1970s.
Saturday October 18, 2008
7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Action Sites -
Mass Appeal Barbershop (East Wall):
• Video Projections by artist Charles Nelson & Film Short: Hairpiece
Legacy Village East Wall (Logan Avenue North):
• Video Projection by artist Tim Portlock & Film: Killer of Sheep
Yard Poetry (Between Newton and Logan):
• Kirk Washington – Word games for community youth
• Community BBQ
• Old School DJ Music
Background
The Black Arts Movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s led to a profound cultural shift in the United States and throughout the African Diaspora. While the goals of the Black Arts Movement focused on creating art that reflected the aspirations of Black people, it also changed how people viewed basic notions of race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, politics, and art. Long standing issues of ethnic art and its place in the mainstream art world finally had a forum.
Inherently political, the Black Arts Movement, often called the “aesthetic and spiritual sister” of the Black Power Movement, took place against the backdrop of the turbulent political and economic climate of the ‘60’s. Activism was the order of the day and the tandem movements that formed the core advocated for a “cultural revolution of ideas”.
This “revolution of ideas” created one of the most fertile environments for Black artists in the twentieth century. Amidst all the chaos there was an energetic vision of achievement, self actualized and fed by artistic disciplines diverse as the free jazz of John Coltrane and Charles Mingus, the poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks and Sonia Sanchez, the plays of Amiri Baraka and Larry Neal, the revolutionary literature of Franz Fanon, and the creativity of visual artists from all directions.
The intent of curators Ernest Bryant and Suzanne Roberts was to a create a revolution of ideas and provoke participating artists to create a new “visual text” for today’s black community based on a rigorous re-consideration of the literary and visual languages of the Black Arts Movement. We invited artists from across the country to engage in a dialog that interrogates the current or standard lexicon of black visual text, with the hope that they create a new language that accurately articulates the contemporary Black experience.
Artists and Curators
Charles Huntley Nelson (Atlanta), Christopher Aaron Deanes (Minneapolis), Christopher Harrison (Minneapolis), Estela De Paola De Lerma (St. Paul), Jessica Ann Peavy (New York), Kirk Washington (Minneapolis), Mica Lee Anders (St. Paul), Michael Paul Britto (New York), Seitu Jones (St. Paul), Torkwase Dyson (Boston) and Tim Portlock (New Jersey). Ernest Arthur Bryant III and Suzanne Roberts curate the exhibition for Obsidian Arts.
Obsidian Arts
Obsidian Arts participates in the global dialogue about artists and the art they create. Add. Enter 2948 Chicago Avenue, suite 220.; Tel. 612-822-6808; Hours are Thursday 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., Saturday 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. and Friday 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. No admission fee.
Sponsors
The General Mills Foundation, The McKnight Foundation, The Jerome Foundation, The Minneapolis Empowerment Zone, The Buddy Taub Foundation, and The NorthSide Resident’s Redevelopment Council.
Special Thanks
Minneapolis Arts Commission, Mustard Seed, Mass Appeal Barbershop, N.R.R.C. Green Team, Peter Thompson, U of M Projection Project, Carl Pope, Juxtaposition Arts, Mary Altman and the City of Minneapolis, CartoGraphics, Ali Momeni, Legacy Management and Shalette Cauley Wandrick.
About Obsidian Arts
Obsidian Arts supports the growth of ideas . . . valuing artists, curators, and art historians in the examination of Black history and culture. Obsidian Arts regularly develops exhibitions, art-history based educational programs and maintains a small black art history library and artists’ collective.
Address: 734 E. Lake Street, Ste. 220, Minneapolis, MN 55407 - 612-822-6808.
Introducing Dr. Ron Paul, Join the Campaign for Liberty on Tuesday, September 2, 2008 at the Target Center
Trust me; you do not want to miss this event. This will be Ron Paul’s legendary moment and a very important first step in calling the GOP back to its roots‚ as we are only a few miles from the Republican National Convention.
Tickets are still available for Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty on September 2, 2008. Tickets can be purchased by going to www.campaignforliberty.com.
Tuesday’s Rally for the Republic will be the official kickoff of Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty.
You will witness a historic event‚ as we present the vision for Campaign for Liberty‚ feature numerous speakers from various areas of our philosophy‚ and entertain you into the night with famous musical artists.
Last week‚ we revealed Monday’s schedule for the Ron Paul Nation Celebration. Monday’s event will be a free concert to celebrate all you have accomplished over the past year in spreading the message of liberty‚ but recognizing this is only the beginning.
Who is Dr. Ron Paul?
Ronald Ernest Paul (born August 20, 1935) is a Republican United States Congressman from Lake Jackson, Texas, a physician, a bestselling author, and a former 2008 U.S. presidential candidate.
Originally from the Pittsburgh suburb of Green Tree, Pennsylvania, he studied at Duke University School of Medicine; after his 1961 graduation and a residency in obstetrics and gynecology, he became a U.S. Air Force flight surgeon, serving outside the Vietnam War zone. He later represented Texas districts in the U.S. House of Representatives (1976–1977, 1979–1985, and 1997–present). He entered the 1988 presidential election, running as the Libertarian nominee while remaining a registered Republican, and placed a distant third.
Paul has been described as conservative, Constitutionalist, and libertarian. He advocates a foreign policy of nonintervention, having voted against actions such as the Iraq War Resolution, but in favor of force against terrorists in Afghanistan. He favors withdrawal from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the United Nations, citing the dangers of foreign entanglements to national sovereignty. Having pledged never to raise taxes, he has long advocated ending the federal income tax, scaling back government spending, abolishing most federal agencies, and removing military bases and troops from foreign soil; he favors hard money and opposes the Federal Reserve. He also opposes the Patriot Act, the federal War on Drugs, No Child Left Behind, and gun regulation. Paul is strongly pro-life, and has introduced bills to negate Roe v. Wade, but affirms states’ rights to allow; regulate or ban abortion, rather than federal jurisdiction.
While Paul was a leading 2008 presidential candidate in some Republican straw polls, he saw substantially less support in landline opinion polls and in the actual primaries. Strong internet grassroots support was indicated by the popularity of his name in search queries and the number of his campaign’s YouTube subscriptions. His book commenting on the presidential run, The Revolution: A Manifesto, became a bestseller immediately upon release and went on to be #1 on the New York Times nonfiction best sellers list.
