Category archives: Art for Progress
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9 years ago
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Art for Progress & NOosphere Arts present
Haven: A Summer Retreat for Artists and Friends, Part II
Saturday, July 16th, 7PM at Mothership USA, $5, BYOB
252 Green Street, 2L, Rooftop, Greenpoint, Brooklyn
Summer is here, and if you can’t be at the beach or away for the weekend, what’s better than a summer rooftop party?
Last year, Frank & Sol decided to throw a fun party for artists and friends at Sol’s artist studio, rooftop in Brooklyn, and it turned out to be one of the best parties of the summer!
So, we’ve decided to make this an annual event, and we are so very pleased to once again invite you to join us for a magical night of art & music to celebrate life, creativity and happiness.
LIVE MUSIC: Kick Ass Rock n Roll from NYC’s Hundred Hounds, Rootsy Americana/Folk from Brooklyn’s Bad Faces, Soaring Vocals and Eclectic Sounds from blythe is a mermaid
DJ’s: Brian Burnside (deepa) Gatto (AFP)
Performance Art: Autumn Kioti, Loren Crabbe
Physical Theater: Hilary Chaplain
Video Installations: Filmmaker, Daniel Maldonado, Artist Jeanne Wilkinson
We invite you to beta-test ArtFundit, a new website designed to help promote artists, their artwork and voice within the artist community. Visit the kiosk at our event for more information and how you can participate.
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9 years ago
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Formed in 1978, Human Rights Watch is one of the world’s leading independent organizations devoted to defending and protecting human rights. Having long recognized the power of film to educate and bring change, the organization’s New York-based Human Rights Watch Film Festival screens approximately 500 films in 20 cities around the world each year. The 2016 edition of its New York City event is presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center from June 10 through 19, featuring 18 feature films and three interactive programs. Here are some highlights:
Opening Night selection is Hooligan Sparrow, which documents the efforts of filmmaker Nanfu Wang to track Chinese activist Ye Haiyan (aka “Hooligan Sparrow”) in her mission to prosecute a school principal who arranged the rape of schoolgirls by government officials. Sparrow, a women’s rights advocate who first made headlines by speaking up for sex workers, seeks to close a loophole in China’s child prostitution laws that has enabled officials to elude rape charges by claiming that the victims were prostitutes. Hooligan Sparrow shows its protagonist and a small group of fellow protestors being harassed regularly by government-hired thugs, as Wang uses hidden cameras to record interactions with uncooperative police officials. Sparrow avoids arrest by fleeing to several cities during the course of the film, including her home village, as she awaits the verdict in the schoolgirl case. For Hooligan Sparrow, Wang [...]
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9 years ago
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Ok, fashion creatives, now let's get in formation! If you are passionate about streetwear design, be sure to create brand merchandising that seamlessly promotes your brand in a unique and fun way, and that stands out with Beyoncé-level swag.
After all, it's not only a spectacular way to strengthen customer allegiance, it also pushes word about your company further into the world.
Below: This week, a model sporting an old-school style logo tee at Gucci Cruise 2017 at Westminster Abbey. Crafted by creative director Alessandro Michele, this season's layered looks also embrace logo design
Photo: Getty Images
Even outside of the fashion world, Internet giants like Reddit and Mailchimp have discovered great success in brand merchandising.
For Reddit, their first run of promotional gear sold out in 24 hours. And, as spirits company Sweet Tea Vodka points out, company swag is a more widespread form of advertising: [Fans become like] "billboards walking around, which is great," he says. "The beer companies have done it forever."
As journalist Tim Donnelly writes in Inc., "brand merchandise is a great way to create new loyalties with your customers and enlist them to spread your name to new audiences."
However there's a caveat: "You have to do it in a way that creates viral sensations, not just oversized promotional T-shirts that end up at the bottom of someone's closet."
Below: Looks like Alessandro Michele took a risk using oversized promotional gear for a look th[...]
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The question of safety at shows gets rehashed at least once a year. Usually around festival season when there's a surplus of concerts, all the top outlets, popular musicians, and related voices chime in as to what they think this means. Factors and examples of good, bad, and ugly behavior are paraded out and readers are asked rhetorically: What do we think about moshing? Is stage diving safe? What about selfie sticks? Should we allow "all ages" shows? Some of these concepts and actions are labeled as questionable or unsafe only for the spirit of debate; however, some raise valid issues. A selfie stick in a thick crowd does have the potential to hurt someone. Or at least really tick off the people behind the user enough to insight a tiny riot.
Most of these concerns, like age restrictions, have the best intentions (eg, the well being of underage listeners) at heart. Warped Tour has intermittently tried to ban moshing, citing the likelihood of injury and a resulting lawsuit. Organizers understand that such behavior is integral to Warped culture, but ultimately take a sort of "this is for you own good" stance. This attitude has become somewhat controversial due to the lack of consensus, amongst members of both the bands and the crowd, on whether Warped has the right to make that decision. Some want to learn to avoid a -core pit the hard way and don't mind chipping a tooth in the process. Others want to be cautioned, but not restricted and given the option to participate i[...]
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Everyone gathered on Tuesday night to see not only the documentary Danny Brown: Live at the Majestic, but also to see the famed rapper Danny Brown himself. Best known for his 2011 album XXX, the Detroit native has been quiet in recent years. Apart from voicing the Fresh Off The Boat theme song and writing a Seussian children's book, Brown hasn’t released any new work or played many shows of late. This fact made his appearance at House of Vans all the more exciting. Those who had sustained themselves with the recorded versions of "Grown Up," "Dip," "Smokin & Drinkin," and "25 Bucks” and longed to hear them live would finally get the chance.
That crowd, the one that had been patiently waiting for years now anxiously passed the last hour of that interval outside the venue. Some groaned about having come straight from work while others repeatedly called the missing members of their parties, telling them to “hurry up.” Amongst them was a mix of safety pins, asymmetrical haircuts, Supreme brand clothing and the odd fannypack. They were a young, hip, image-conscious crowd, but despite all that originality and individuality, there was one thing that brought them together and that was Danny Brown. He was why they dragged out to Greenpoint, why they rallied their friends, why they skipped dinner just to get a good spot in line. “I had a multigrain kombucha in my fridge… I should've grabbed that,” one girl bemoaned. She the[...]
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9 years ago
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Veteran documentarians Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker, (The War Room, Startup.com) have teamed up again for a timely film about a subject that has been much in the news lately: animal rights, specifically the issue of humans keeping and imprisoning animals—as pets, for experiments, or for other reasons. Unlocking the Cage follows the efforts by attorney Steven Wise, president of the Nonhuman Rights Project, to change the way animals are regarded in the eyes of the law. As he sees it, “The line between humans and nonhuman animals is at an irrational place.” Specifically, Wise is fighting for great apes, elephants and cetaceans (dolphins and whales)—all acknowledged as cognitively complex beings—to be considered “persons” as opposed to “things,” from a legal standpoint. After all, as he persuasively argues, corporations, ships and other inanimate bodies have achieved legal personhood and its accompanying rights; why not a thinking, feeling chimp? Wise describes his mission early in the film as “a hell of a war,” but one whose time has come.
The film shows how Wise and his legal team (Monica Miller, Natalie Prosin and Liddy Stein) bring several lawsuits before various New York State courts, on behalf of captive chimpanzees. Wise, who possesses a gentle, avuncular personality, tells about his epiphany as a young, idealistic lawyer, upon reading Peter Singer’s seminal 1975 book Animal Liberation. Having always wanted to represent the underdog, he found his ideal special[...]
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In part 1 of this series, we looked at a video that showcased an artist as a role model, another that shed light on the creative process of an up-and-coming band, and a third that brought international superstars back to their old digs to be humbled by their beginnings. For this installment, we’re going to revisit the political music video with TARICA's “But, Anyway” as well as examine the success of the web series with a look at NPR’s Tiny Desk.
Tarica's “But, Anyway”
Suzanne Vega's "Tom's Diner" has been sampled, remixed, covered and served up in countless fashions. Over the years everyone from Aaliyah to Britney Spears to Fall Out Boy to R.E.M have tried their hand at the 1987 classic, always placing the songs unmistakable “duh duh duh duduh, duh duh duduh” at the forefront of their efforts. Most recently, D.C. rapper Tarica June included the interlude in her song “But, Anyway.” In the song rather than recounting the patrons of a local cafe as Vega did decades before, June discusses the gentrification of her home town. With personal, frank and adept lines like, “But anyway, this is third generation for me / My parents and my grandparents all from DC / So I feel like I notice things other folks can't see / And like I represent things other folks can't be”, June makes her point without so much as raising her voice. Her approach, unlike many others, is one of hope and positivity with the song's chorus opening with, “But anyway I can go on forever about all of the bul[...]
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9 years ago
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Montreal based experimental pop/rock band Braids are set to release the follow up to the critically acclaimed album, Deep in the Iris on May 20th. The four songs for the EP were recorded in August 2015 shortly after the band completed work on Deep in the Iris, but we're surely not talking about B sides here.
With Companion, the band continues with a similar minimalist approach musically, but as you listen to the title track which begins by deeply focusing on the beautiful soaring vocals of Standell-Preston, the tension builds as the synthesizer takes a growing, more profound role in the track. The vocals and music provide a fantastic balance of emotion in the build up, and as the song begins to fade out with a delicate piano, a whispering vocal joins in, "Remember when I pushed you in, you were surprised that you floated."
The second track, Joni, takes a more powerful, upbeat approach with its booming, break-beat musical structure. Lyrically, the song addresses dealing with life's uncertainties and the personal challenges that come with it. On the other hand, Trophies for Paradox gets back to the common topic of relationships and all the complexities that go with it. The music composition is also more complex with added guitar elements in the mix. Perhaps, my favorite song on the EP is Sweet World.
The composition of the track provides a pure energy rush as it unfolds with a driving style not found with the other songs on the EP. Overall, this is a very strong re[...]
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9 years ago
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At The James Baldwin School in Chelsea, AFP's program is in its 3rd year, offering after school digital audio production, musical instrument instruction and performance coaching. Students range from 9th to 12th grade and come to the program with a variety of individual goals in mind. The sessions vary, and participants usually work individually or in small groups.
The class combines a combination of elements which are often going on simultaneously. One group may be learning how to sequence beats to a metronome track on one computer, while another student is involved in the more advanced stages of a fully fleshed out track on the next. At the same time a vocal duo may be working out harmonies to a rock ballad, while others are learning how to build scales and chords on the piano. In all cases, the fundamentals of music making are uncovered and explored. The focus is always on building a working musical vocabulary and developing the ability to use music for self-expression.
This year at Baldwin I have seen remarkable progress on every front. Beat-makers have progressed from struggling at playing simple kick and snare patterns, to building complete tracks and having their friends rap over them. Drummers who had never played a drum-set maintain a groove behind a full band. I’m especially impressed with Reshwan and Katana who had never met before. Within a few short months they have become a powerful cohesive duet act eagerly learning the theory to support their development[...]
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9 years ago
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The Art for Progress music program at Humanities Preparatory Academy, now in it’s fourth school year, is the flagship of AFP’s arts education programs. Instituted in the Fall of 2012, the program serves two classes of 12-18 students four days per week, with each day’s lunch period serving as an additional class period enabling students to seek further instruction or individual practice time. The class is open to students of all high school years (9-12) allowing a rare occasion for teens of different ages to interact on a level playing field in a collaborative setting.
There are also two after school sessions per week, which give students an opportunity to either practice alone, or to join in group music-making, which is the ultimate intention of all AFP music programming. Faculty also participate, further enriching the overall experience of the students, and the teachers learn just as much as the kids!
The goal of the program is for every student to be able to play at least one complete song. Toward this goal, all students learn the basic mechanics of music in general, and to develop proficiency on least one instrument. Although much of the class time is spent building and developing skills, the focus of the program is ultimately on giving students the tools to express themselves.
The semester begins with discussions about students’ musical interests and experiences, with everyone having an opportunity to choose a song by an artist or group that they like to share wi[...]
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9 years ago
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Thanks to Chanel's recent Cruise 2017 fashion show in Havana, Cuba, it's official! The fashion world is truly fascinated with the beautiful and mysterious island nation of Cuba.
Karl Lagerfeld in Cuba. Photo Credit: Jezebel
From gorgeous architecture to free healthcare, Cuba is a country that is definitely top of mind right now. And the Chanel Cruise collection gleaned inspiration from "Cuba’s cultural richness, traditional guayaberas, and Tropicana-influenced bouclé separates, ruffle skirts, fedoras, and berets."
Chanel models taking over the Paseo del Prado street in Havana. Photo Credit: Rex
And with a country that boasts a 99.8% literacy rate, not to mention the first ever lung cancer vaccine, the Chanel showcase is a history-making event that Karl Lagerfeld once thought would be never happen. “It was like a private joke because I thought it was impossible,” Lagerfeld told Women’s Wear Daily.
According to Yahoo!, the showcase involved 700 models, editors, and celebrities, including Gisele Bündchen, Tilda Swinton, Vin Diesel, and more.
These lucky ducks were transported to the Caribbean island via cruise ship from Miami. How amazing!
Another scene from Chanel carnival that followed the showcase. Photo Credit: @SarahMower_
“I think that [Chanel is] taking advantage of this moment in which Cuba is in view on a worldwide scale,” Glensy Palay Alonso, a psychology student at the University of Havana, tells Refinery 29.
“Suddenly, Cuba is the most tal[...]
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In a recent interview with Nylon, indie artist Mitski spoke on the potential musicians have to be representatives and role models to listeners, especially the younger ones in the internet age, saying: “...it’s so valuable that kids confused about their identity can go out and be like, ‘I’m going to Google search this’ or ‘I want to look for other people like me.’ If they look hard enough they can find those communities online..." Anyone googling Mitski at the moment will quickly be directed towards her most recent single, “Your Best American Girl” and it’s accompanying video.
Mitski’s “Your Best American Girl”
In the video, directed by Zia Anger, Mitski is contrasted with the stereotypical indie girl, who enters stage left in a flower crown and press-on tattoos to steal the video's love interest away. It's a timely comparison given that this year's Coachella, a festival known for it's outlandish and occasionally culturally insensitive outfits, is only just behind us. The video also comes at a time at which musicians are using their videos to communicate messages about identity, self-respect, and self-acceptance. Think: Beyonce and the anthem that is "Formation." Even though the temptress wins "the All-American boy" as Mitski calls him in this video, her spirits aren't so easily dampened. After some reflection, Mitski returns renewed and with a smirk shreds her guitar, as if to say 'Sure, I lost the guy, but I also sold out the Bowery Ballroom in June and wrote an ama[...]
