Sonia Sanchez, Cornel West, Abiodun Oyewole discuss 1963

Poet/Author Sonia Sanchez, Activist Dr. Cornel West, Last Poets Founder Abiodun Oyewole, Creative Director of Soundtrack '63 Chen Lo and Composer of Soundtrack '63 Tut Asante Amin discuss the movement in 1963. 

651 ARTS presents Movement 63; a series of events that will Reflect...Renew...Remix 1963. Join us for our kickoff event, Soundtrack '63 this Friday at Irondale in Brooklyn, NY!  For tickets and more information http://www.651arts.org

Absolutely adore this picture of June Millington high fiving with Toshi Reagon! Check out more photos from our Live & Outspoken featuring these two beautiful ladies. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150963795840465.467441.31969185464&type=3

Happy Birthday Judith Jamison! You are an amazing soul.

651 ARTS & THE NEW BLACK FEST PRESENTS

  HAPPYFLOWERNAIL

Written and Performed by Radha Blank

Directed by Colman Domingo  

HappyFlowerNail marks Radha Blank's return to the solo performance

platform with a funny and touching story that explores gentrification,

ownership, freedom and survival through five distinct women searching

for 'home' in a Korean-owned nail salon in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn.

Date & Time: Friday, May 25, 2012 at 7:00 p.m.

  Location: The Mark Morris Dance Center in The James and Martha Duffy Performance Space

3 Lafayette Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11217-1415

  Admission: Free/ RSVP required

RSVP to rsvp@651arts.org

For more information www.651ARTS.org or call 718-636-4181 x2229

And visit http://thenewblackfest.org/

651 Arts spotlights June Millington “6 questions in 5 minutes for 1 artist”

Produced by Shay Wafer & Jodine Dorce Hosted by Jodine Dorce

Music provided by I, Ced – “Dont Lay Low (Gap Revisited)”

2012 Live & Outspoken Series http://www.651arts.org/

June Millington shared with us this letter she wrote about Toshi Reagon last year. What a great story: 

"In Spring of 1975 I was on the road with Cris Williamson on her first national tour just after the release of " The Changer and the Changed". It was a riot of impressions and energy, a swirling mix of adulation, raw excitement, and the feminine principle becoming manifest. Although I'd come out of the extreme edge of rock and roll, I was shocked - in a good way. How fun, plus Cris was taking all the attention, therefore the heat. For me, bliss.

In the midst of all that, a gig in a huge hall in Washington DC, the very spot where singer Marian Anderson was refused permission to sing to an integrated audience by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) in 1939: Constitution Hall. I was from the Philippines, I didn't know all that. After all, who here knows about Jose Rizal? (a national hero of the Philippine Revolution).

Thus began my steep learning curve through women's music and feminism, to which I was entirely unassociated until just the winter before when I played on Cris' album and was introduced to the scene - perfect for me, as it wasn't associated with books. This was on-the-streets learning, which I came to appreciate more and more. Plus, her-story was being created in the moment, and I was there to see it, better yet. All this was a dawning realization which took awhile to integrate, and these events constituted a turning point in my life.

After the show, in walked a young woman backstage, one big smile and all the energy in the world. Such enthusiasm! I think she was maybe 14, and I don't know how she got into the backstage area, had to be that smile. As chance would have it, I was sitting there by myself so we had a few lovely minutes together. I couldn't help it, her energy was so infectious, and she wanted in the worst way to learn - anything! So right then and there I pulled out my guitar and showed her the riffs to "Your Own Way", which have a direct link to the Meters and New Orleans funk (Fanny had done numerous gigs with the Meters and Dr John, and I had spent lots of time in New Orleans soaking it all in). 

This was a girl impossible to resist. Over the next 5 years or so I would send Toshi notes and cassettes that would help her in her determined training, for example the layers of production on Cris' "Strange Paradise" and Holly Near's "Fire in the Rain". I think it was good for us both, as I'm endlessly fascinated by the production process, and I remember Cris giving me a look during pre-production at her home in Oregon and saying something like "why are you doing all that?" (I was sending Toshi rehearsal tapes, too - important to the sculpting). I don't remember what I said but basically I let Cris know I was being led, and she accepted that.

Around early 1980 I began working on my own solo album and after it was released went out to do gigs to support it ~ Toshi produced me in Washington, DC, played bass and I stayed at her and her mother Bernice's house. One morning I woke up to a note under my door from Bernice - we had met once before, when Sweet Honey invited Cris to a rehearsal at their house and I tagged along - welcoming me and saying how she didn't know me that well and but felt she knew me through Toshi's playing my music over and over! It was the sweetest welcoming note I've ever received, and I still have it somewhere. (yes, the IMA Archives). I knew Toshi and I had a deep connection, and that sealed it.

Toshi is someone who has always let me and others know how important I was in her life, and how I helped her in her quest to learn everything, and I mean everything, she could. She also, when I was reluctant to talk about Fanny, always urged me to acknowledge my past when I wanted nothing but to leave it behind. I think we have helped each other to flower, as now she's a celebrated artist, guitarist-singer-songwriter and a record producer herself. And I'm writing my autobiography.

There are many more brushing of wings that I don't have the time to relate here, but let me just say that Toshi always has supported IMA, understood its fundamental importance and has been a willing accomplice in making sure that she herself has been well-archived through me and by extension IMA, and for that I thank her…" - June Millington June 7, 2011

Amateur Dancers Wanted 

This summer the River To River Festival and The Joyce Theater will present the U.S. premiere of Le Grand Continental by Montréal-based choreographer Sylvain Émard at the South Street Seaport. This exciting performance brings together 200+ participants of all ages, ethnicities and backgrounds – dancers and non-dancers alike – to perform a contemporary re-imagining of a traditional festive line dance.

Who is Toshi Reagon?

"Dance Heaven"

Dance Legends: Garth Fagan / Judith Jamison / Arthur Mitchell

After the Sold Out Live & Outspoken event with Garth Fagan & Judith Jamison.  Dance legend, Arthur Mitchell joined them for this memorable moment.

Photo Courtesy of Julieta Cervantes

651 ARTS & The Kumble Theater at LIU Brooklyn

presents

A Special Edition of Live & Outspoken featuring

  Actor/Author Blair Underwood

&

Dancer/Actress Carmen de Lavallade

Moderated by radio host Esther Armah

  THURSDAY

March 15 | 7PM

  FREE Admission

To RSVP call 718-488-1624 or email info@kumbletheater.org

Award-winning actor Blair Underwood along with legendary dancer/actress Carmen de Lavallade will come together for an intimate conversation about their careers and their roles in the new Broadway play, A Streetcar Named Desire. Off the heel of her 81st birthday, Carmen will discuss her commissioned body of work and Blair will share his experience on NBC's, Who Do You Think You Are? Blair Underwood will read excerpts from his new book. Conversation will be followed with a book signing. 

Kumble Theater for the Performing Arts at LIU Brooklyn

1 University Plaza (on Flatbush Avenue between DeKalb Avenue and Willoughby Street)

For more information on the event, http://www.651arts.org/on-stage/

For more info about "A Streetcar Named Desire" visit http://www.streetcaronbroadway.com

For special rates: http://www.broadwayoffers.com or call 212-947-8844

Enter Promotional Code: ASBTO215

Happy Birthday Carmen de Lavallade!!!!

At 81 years old and still dancing (http://bit.ly/ysXSKJ ) and performing (http://bit.ly/xJIsSu)

You are our SHERO!

A Streetcar Named Desire On Broadway - 16 Weeks Only

We have a special announcement for Brooklyn coming soon!

Where is Shay Wafer?

Southwest Township or SOWETO

I took a day trip to SOWETO yesterday and visited Mandela's house and The Hector Pieterson Museum. The day we got there, the Apartheid Museum was closed. Hector Pieterson was the first student shot and killed in 1976 when the students organized a protest and marched against being taught an Afrikanns education. The day was overwhelming on many levels. On one hand seeing infrastructure changes post 1994 were hopeful, yet the class differences are startling, although not very different from poor people all around the world including the US. There is literally one road or street that divides the upper middle class from the shanty town communities.

The next day, the Market Theatre hosted a meet and greet for us with artist and art practitioners from around the city. At least 40 individuals joined us for informal conversations and breakfast. I felt a bit like an American tourist with my sneakers and South African beaded earrings while our guest were all fashionable chic in their attire. Ah well, wrong again. I met a former attorney from NJ and Program Officer for the Ford Foundation who has been living here for 16 years, two art administrators and many artist in dance and theatre. Establishing relationships and allowing room for organic partnerships and collaboration was the most frequent response when we ask what value could the African Consortium provide to their artistic process. It is a gift to visit a place and to experience it through the lens of the local artistic. It’s vastly different than being here and only interacting with those who are conducting tours.  I cannot get over how much the landscape resembles Southern California minus the ocean.

Till next time,

Shay Wafer

Executive Director of 651 ARTS

Where is Shay Wafer?

Johannesburg, South Africa

I'm in Johannesburg attending Dance Umbrella 2012 with members of The African Consortium, a small group of US presenters (there are 10 of us on this trip) who engage, support and present contemporary African art makers.  This marks the 24th year of Dance Umbrella Festival, which presents new contemporary choreography and dance from South African artists, of which the majority are Black artists.

I'm staying in a lovely guest home in the Melville area, a hipster-like atmosphere filled with clubs, bars, boutiques and internet cafes. On Friday and Saturday night the streets were filled with fashionable young men and women at the bar and club-hopping with House music, Adele and Minnie Ripperton blasting from their sound systems.  I was intrigued by the variety of hairstyles among the women; of course there were weaves and wigs everywhere in addition to the braids and closely cropped heads. This city is quite sophisticated and thoroughly modern.  Melville looks and feels like a mixture of Santa Monica and Los Felix---the weather, trees and homes.

I'm hoping to take a day trip to Soweto to visit the Apartheid Museum and to see another aspect of life in Jo'burg.  There are areas near downtown that are clearly new developments with art businesses and organizations serving as the anchor tenants, art galleries and performance spaces. It’s springtime and the weather is perfect: clear skies, 75 degrees and sunny. Couples, families and young adults are strolling the area, sitting at outdoor cafes to listening to music.

Till next time,

Shay Wafer

Executive Director of 651 ARTS

Note from 651 ARTS: While our Executive Director is traveling, we’ve asked her to check in with us to find out where she is and to share what she’s experiencing. Enjoy!