After Paris Attacks, a Slow Reawakening for City’s Cultural Offerings

"On Wednesday morning, May Zhang, a tourist from Shanghai, was outside the Louvre using a selfie stick to snap photographs with a friend. The courtyard is normally packed with tourists, but they had it mostly to themselves — and to the dozen or more heavily armed police officers pacing in the background. 'We aren’t too worried,' said Ms. Zhang, 36, a sales manager who began her first trip to Paris just days after assailants killed 129 people and wounded hundreds of others. 'I think security is now at a very high level,' she added, not long after the police finished a raid in St.-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris, in which at least two people, including a female suicide bomber, died, and eight people were arrested. Museums and cultural institutions were closed last weekend by executive order, and movie theaters shut until Sunday. ..."
NY Times: After Paris Attacks, a Slow Reawakening for City’s Cultural Offerings
Jacobin: Turning Tragedy Into War
Jacobin: France Returns to the State of Exception

The Attic Tapes - John Renbourn (2015)

"The Attic Tapes is a 20-song archival hodgepodge cobbled together from early recordings of the late British guitarist John Renbourn, who died in March. Renbourn sourced the core of the tracklist from a tape labeled '1962' that he discovered in the attic of fellow folk revivalist Mac MacLeod, pairing those few songs with various onstage collaborations from his salad days, before he and his guitar-sparring partner Bert Jansch and their band, Pentangle, helped redefine the scope of modern folk. Renbourn had yet to sign a record deal, so these takes are rough with their age and his youth. ..."
Pitchfork
World Music Network
amazon
YouTube: Anji, Rosslyn, Candyman, I Know My Babe, The Wildest Pig in Captivity, Judy

2011 September: Faro Annie, 2011 April: Cruel Sister (1970) - Pentangle, 2012 November: John Renbourn - Sir John Alot, 2013 May: The Lady and the Unicorn, 2014 February: Bert &; John (1966), 2014 October: The Hermit (1976), 2015 March: John Renbourn: ceaseless explorer of song – appreciation.

"They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)" - Pete Rock & CL Smooth (1991)

Wikipedia - "'They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)' is a song by Pete Rock & CL Smooth, inspired by the death of their close friend Troy Dixon (better known as 'Trouble' T. Roy of Heavy D & the Boyz) in 1990. The song was the lead single off their debut album, Mecca and the Soul Brother, released in 1992, and later became a staple of classic early 1990s hip hop. ... Over a saxophone and bass sample of Tom Scott's cover of 'Today' by Jefferson Airplane, CL Smooth unravels fond memories of his own childhood, being the son of a young teenage mother, her father and four siblings, and the love he feels for other family members in working class Mt. Vernon. The chorus' ad libs are provided by Pete Rock. The 12 second intro is sampled from the 1971 song "When She Made Me Promise" by The Beginning of the End. The b-side of the 12" pressing is 'The Creator', which is taken from the group's 1991 EP, All Souled Out. ..."
Wikipedia
Genius
Spotify
YouTube: They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.), The Creator

Why New York Subway Lines Are Missing Countdown Clocks

"There are people who stand every morning outside the Carroll Street station in Brooklyn staring dead-eyed into the middle distance. They stand still in ones and twos, clearly strangers to one another, mostly quiet, as though they’d stopped on their way to work to take note of some spectacular disaster in the sky. But you look in the general direction they’re all looking and there’s nothing there. They are, as it turns out, waiting for the F train. Carroll Street is one of the rare New York subway stations whose trains are boarded underground but where you can stand outside to see them coming. When you spot the F rolling down the bridge, you have just enough time to run inside to catch it. So people stand there waiting. They wait for as long as it takes, for as long as their patience will allow, because in 2015 there is no app, no screen, not even a scratchy voice over a PA system that can tell them when the train is actually going to arrive. ..."
The Atlantic

Winter on Fire (2015)

"It's blood in the streets in this arresting and immediate documentary portrait of the Maidan protests in Kiev that, in the winter of 2014, forced Viktor Yanukovych, then president of the Ukraine, to flee to Russia. Yanukovych had once before been booted from the presidency — in 2004, the Ukrainian supreme court determined that his recent election had been fraudulent. This time it was months of protests in the capital that sent him packing, but only after his Berkut security forces assaulted the citizenry with stun grenades, tear gas, and rubber bullets, ultimately killing 125 people. The uprising of thousands at first targeted Yanukovych for his refusal to follow through on plans to bring Ukraine closer to the European Union, but the crackdown of his troops inspired such outrage that the crowds swelled. ..."
Voice: Bracing Doc ‘Winter on Fire’ Puts You in the Heart of Ukraine’s Maidan Protests
Slant
NY Times - ‘Winter on Fire’: The View From the Trenches of a Political Uprising
YouTube: 'Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom' Comes to Netflix

The Paul Butterfield Blues Band - Complete Albums 1965-1980

"Many a musical artist has made their bones by singing the blues, but it's not just about singing them, it's about playing them, too. In the 1960s, many a young Caucasian found success by sitting at the knees of his favorite African-American blues artists, and the best of the bunch were never afraid to give credit where credit was due. Take Paul Butterfield, for instance, who - along with his buddy Nick Gravenites - spent a good deal of time making the rounds of Chicago blues clubs, meeting and sometimes even jamming with such greats as Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Otis Rush, and Muddy Waters, all of whom encouraged Mr. Butterfield and his colleague. ..."
Rhino
amazon

2014 January: The Paul Butterfield Blues Band (1965), 2015 July: East-West (1966)

Rashid Johnson: Anxious Men

"Since distinguishing himself as the youngest artist in Freestyle, the landmark 2001 exhibition at the Studio Museum in Harlem, Johnson has established himself as one of the preeminent artists of his generation. Invoking such varied themes as the black experience in America, the dialogue between abstraction and figuration, and the relationship between art and personal identity, Johnson has been discussed within the context of contemporary painting, photography, sculpture, video, installation art, and even performance. Now, with the Anxious Men, drawing enters that list. ..."
Drawing Center
NY Times: Looking Deeply at the Art of Rashid Johnson
Hauser & Wirth
New York’s Prestigious Drawing Center Showcases Star of the ‘Post-Black’ Art Movement
Nowness: Rashid Johnson's Post-black Art
Guggenheim: Storylines: Rashid Johnson

Mark Alan Stamaty

Wikipedia - "Mark Alan Stamaty is an American cartoonist and children's book writer and illustrator. During the 1980s and 1990s, Stamaty's work appeared regularly in the Village Voice. He is the creator of the long-running comic strip Washingtoon, as well as the earlier comic strip MacDoodle Street, and the online strip Doodlennium for Slate magazine He is also a spot illustrator for Slate. He produced a monthly comic strip in the New York Times Book Review called 'Boox' in 2001–2004 that made fun of publishing trends. Stamaty has published several books, including collections of his strips and graphic novels for children, notably Alia's Mission: Saving the Books of Iraq (2004) and the cult classic Who Needs Donuts? (originally published in 1973 and reprinted by Random House in 2003."
Wikipedia
Mark Alan Stamaty
The New York Comics and Picture-Story Symposium: Mark Alan Stamaty
New Republic: A Pre-Election Washingtoon Round-Up
Slate Illustrated, 2009
amazon: Mark Alan Stamaty

The Sounds of Memphis

"The Memphis Grizzlies will be honoring the old Memphis Sounds for their Hardwood Classic games this season by wearing the Sounds’ red-and-white jerseys. Given that the Sounds were around in the early 1970s and were of the ABA, the jerseys are pretty slick and sweet. Even better is the logo of the Memphis Sounds. Just gorgeous. Of course that name, the Sounds, is the most appropriate name ever given to a Memphis pro basketball team. The Tams and Pros of the ABA and the Grizzlies of the NBA don’t speak to the soul of that Tennessean city as well as the Sounds do. The Mighty Mississippi passes by and gives Memphis a steady rhythm. The pastoral hinterlands stand by providing a certain patience to Memphis as well. The confluence of these geographic entities gives Memphis a unique feel, a particular sound, that deserves a little more exploration. ..."
Pro Hoops History (Video)

2011 June: American Basketball Association, 2012 July: Doin’ It In The Park: Pick-Up Basketball, NYC, 2012 November: Your Guide to the Brooklyn Nets, 2013 March: March Madness 2013, 2013 October: Rucker Park, 2013 November: Free Spirits', 2014 January: History of the high five, 2015 February: Dean Smith (February 28, 1931 – February 7, 2015), 2015 June: Basketball’s Obtuse Triangle, 2015 September: SLAM Magazine, 2015 September: Joint Ventures: How sneakers became high fashion and big business, 2015 October: Loose Balls - Terry Pluto (2007).

OverUnder: “My Sentiments Abstractly” Opens in Oakland

"A mark. That is all most of us can hope to make on the world, or even to get through it. The Celebrity Industrial Complex that is busily distracting us also routinely overlooks masses of beautiful people who are daily just trying to pay the rent, tend to their ill, worship their deity, grow their garden, pen their poem, make their mark. 'My Sentiments Abstractly' says the title of OverUnder’s solo show opening tonight in Oakland, California, continues the fine/Street Art/graffiti artists’ examination of his mark making, and . Feeling mortal, OverUnder is taking a wider view of the path with this collection of recent wheatpastes, painting, photography, mixed media and site-specific installation. ..."
Brooklyn Street Art

Three Historic Performances at Paris’ Le Bataclan: The Velvet Underground (1972), Genesis with Peter Gabriel (1973) & Jeff Buckley (1995)

1972: John Cale, Lou Reed and Nico
"After every terrible tragedy in the West, we expect celebrities to weigh in. And they do, with comments insightful and heartfelt, appalling and boorish, perfunctory and banal. Often, the larger the public profile, the more self-serving the soundbite. One take in particular has provoked sneers and ridicule: Bono—who paid respects with his band at music venue Le Bataclan—told an interviewer, 'this is the first direct hit on music we’ve had in this so-called War on Terror.' ... One can understand the sentiment, without excusing the verbiage. Le Bataclan—scene of what has rightly been called a 'bloodbath'—has occupied a significant place in pop music history since it started booking rock bands in the 1970s; and it has hosted famous musicians and singers—like Edith Piaf—since its opening in 1864. ..."
Open Culture (Video)

12'' Vivian Jones - Red Eyes (1993)

"... By the mid-90s Vivian Jones had established his own Imperial House label, and he escaped his lovers rock image when in 1994 he released the rootsyIyaman, an approach that continued with The King. In 1994, ‘Happiness’ reaffirmed his status as one of the UK’s top lovers rock performers. In 1995 he recorded his debut for Fashion Records, ‘Dedicated To His Majesty’, which featured an outstanding performance from the contemporary DJ Nico Junior. ..."
allmusic
W - Vivian Jones
YouTube: Red Eyes, Got a Light

Brian Eno & Harmonia '76 - Tracks and Traces (2009 Reissue)

Wikipedia - "Tracks and Traces is the one and only album credited to Harmonia '76, but it is generally regarded as the third album by the highly influential Krautrock/Kosmische Musik group Harmonia. Harmonia was formed by the addition of Neu! guitarist Michael Rother to Cluster, the duo of Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius. British ambient musician Brian Eno joined the group at Harmonia's studio in Forst, Germany for the September 1976 recording sessions which resulted in this album. ..."
Wikipedia
The Quietus
popmatters
YouTube: Tracks and Traces Full Album (2009 Reissue)

Interviews William Faulkner, The Art of Fiction No. 12

"William Faulkner was born in 1897 in New Albany, Mississippi, where his father was then working as a conductor on the railroad built by the novelist’s great-grandfather, Colonel William Falkner (without the 'u'), author of The White Rose of Memphis. ... Encouraged by Sherwood Anderson, he wrote Soldier’s Pay (1926). His first widely read book was Sanctuary (1931), a sensational novel which he says that he wrote for money after his previous books—including Mosquitoes (1927), Sartoris (1929), The Sound and the Fury (1929), and As I Lay Dying (1930)—had failed to earn enough royalties to support a family. ... Recently, though shy and retiring, Faulkner has traveled widely, lecturing for the United States Information Service. This conversation took place in New York City, early in 1956."
The Paris Review

2011 September: Southern Gothic, 2014 February: William Faulkner, 2015 October: William Faulkner Draws Maps of Yoknapatawpha County, the Fictional Home of His Great Novels

When Women Ruled Fashion

The Empress Eugénie Surrounded by Her Ladies-in-Waiting, by Franz Xaver Winterhalter, 1855.
"As the story is usually now told, Charles Frederick Worth (1825–1895), often described as a French couturier of British origin, created the institution of haute couture. This take on fashion history defines the most respected sector of the fashion world—the sector where the economic stakes are highest—as having always been what it largely is today: a male preserve. It’s true that, despite such notable exceptions as Coco Chanel, beginning with the founding of the Maison Worth in 1858, the great fashion houses have been run by men. From today’s vantage point, it seems as if it’s always been the same scenario: men designing women’s clothing and dictating not only color and skirt length but the ideal shape for the female body—even the types of undergarments to be used to achieve perfect proportions. But the history of haute couture is more than an all too predictable chronicle of famous tailors. ..."
Laphams Quarterly

Three Teams of Coordinated Attackers Carried Out Assault on Paris, Officials Say; Hollande Blames ISIS

The Guardian
"Three teams of Islamic State attackers acting in unison carried out the terrorist assault in Paris on Friday night, officials said Saturday, including one gunman who may have traveled to Europe on a Syrian passport along with the flow of migrants. 'It is an act of war that was committed by a terrorist army, a jihadist army, Daesh, against France,' President François Hollande told the nation from the Élysée Palace, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State. 'It is an act of war that was prepared, organized and planned from abroad, with complicity from the inside, which the investigation will help establish.' As the death toll rose to 129 victims — with 352 others injured, 99 of them critically — a basic timeline of the attacks came into view. ..."
NY Times (Video)
Guardian: Paris attacks kill more than 120 people – as it happened (Video)
BBC - Paris attacks updates (Video)
France24 (Video)
The Atlantic: What ISIS Really Wants (2015 March)
What is “Islamic”? A Muslim Response to ISIS and The Atlantic (2015 February)
Nov. 15:
NY Times: The Opinion Pages | What Will Come After Paris
NY Times: To Save Paris, Defeat ISIS
NY Times: How ISIS Expanded Its Threat

Buddy' Moss (January 16, 1914 – October 19, 1984)

"Eugene 'Buddy' Moss (January 16, 1914 – October 19, 1984) was, in the estimation of many blues scholars, one of the two most influential East Coast blues guitarists to record in the period between Blind Blake's final sessions in 1932 and Blind Boy Fuller's debut in 1935 (the other being Josh White). A younger contemporary of Blind Willie McTell, Curley Weaver and Barbecue Bob, Moss was part of a coterie of Atlanta bluesmen, and among the few of his era who had been involved in the blues revival of the 1960s and 1970s. A guitarist of uncommon skill and dexterity with a strong voice, he began as a musical disciple of Blind Blake, and may well have served as an influence on the later Piedmont-style guitarist Blind Boy Fuller. Although his career was halted in 1935 by a six-year jail term, and then by the Second World War, Moss lived long enough to be rediscovered in the 1960s, when he revealed his talent had persevered throughout the years. ..."
Wikipedia
Jas Obrecht Music Archive (Video)
American Music
Spotify
YouTube: Buddy Moss Recorded Works (1933-41) In Chronological Order, Rediscovery, Going To Your Funeral In A Vee Eight Ford, Four Songs From 1963: "Untitled Instrumental No 1", "Hey Lawdy Mamma", "In The Evening" and "A Thousand Women Blues"

The Masses,1911 - 1917

June 1914 cover of The Masses depicting the Ludlow Massacre
"The Masses was a graphically innovative magazine of socialist politics published monthly in the United States from 1911 until 1917, when federal prosecutors brought charges against its editors for conspiring to obstruct conscription. It was succeeded by The Liberator and then later The New Masses. It published reportage, fiction, poetry and art by the leading radicals of the time such as Max Eastman, John Reed, Dorothy Day, and Floyd Dell. ... their magazine. ... It was more open to Progressive Era reforms, like women's suffrage, than Emma Goldman's anarchist Mother Earth. At the same time it fiercely criticized more mainstream leftist publications like The New Republic for insufficient radicalism. After Eastman assumed leadership, and especially after August 1914, the magazine’s denouncements of the war were frequent and fierce. ... "
Wikipedia
Modernist Journals Project
A Short History of THE MASSES

St. Mark’s Place: It’s Party Time in the East Village!

"St. Mark’s Place may be named for a saint but it’s been a street full of sinners for much of its history. One of the most fascinating streets in the city, St. Mark’s traces its story back to Peter Stuyvesant, meets up with the wife of Alexander Hamilton in the 1830s, experiences the incredible influx of German and Polish immigrants in the late 19th century, then veers into the heart of counter-culture — from the political activism of Abbie Hoffman to the glamorously psychedelic parties of Andy Warhol. And that’s when the party really gets started! St. Mark’s is known for music, fashion, rebellion and pandemonium. In the 1970s and 80s, clothing stores like Limbo and club nights like Club 57 helped define its character — punk, new wave, alternative, raucous. ..."
Bowery Boys History
The Strange History of the East Village's Most Famous Street
What an Electrifying Past: 19-25 St. Marks Place
St. Marks Place in 20 Years of Photos
Rockit Scientist Records Packs Up Its Crates
On the Stoop of Rock ‘n’ Roll History
Voice: Our 10 Best Things to Eat on St. Marks Place in the East Village, NYC
YouTube: Saint Marks Place NYC Historical Photos, St. Marks Place NYC

2011 October: Saint Mark's Place

The Body Politic: The battle over Pablo Neruda’s corpse

"The were all there for Pablo Neruda, but nobody seemed to like Pablo Neruda. The members of the Chilean media had assembled on a rock formation that rose up from the beach, a formation that now bristled with tripods like a sea urchin, a dozen lenses trained on the darkened windows of Neruda’s hillside home. Nothing was happening there; the poet lay still in his grave. 'He wrote all these love poems, but he was a son of a bitch,' said a reporter from a wire service. She poured Nescafé from a thermos into a styrofoam cup and recited a brief history of the poet’s amorous cruelty. She wondered about Neruda’s first divorce, a hasty arrangement in Mexico, possibly unofficial. Was Neruda a bigamist? ..."
Harpers

February 2009: Pablo Neruda, 2011 November: 100 Love Sonnets.

A Political History of Hip-Hop: South Bronx to the Arab Spring Exhibition at IMA

"With American hip-hop dominating the radio and record sales, many would be surprised to know that France is the second biggest (behind the USA) consumer and producer of hip-hop music in the world. In a unique new exhibition covering political, cultural and musical themes, the Institut au Monde Arabe in Paris have traced the multicultural genealogy of hip-hop from old school rap of New York’s South Bronx to the streets of the recent Arab Spring via France in ‘HIP-HOP, du Bronx aux rues arabes‘. With hip-hop music now a global phenomenon with incredible commercial power and influence, it’s hard to imagine that just a few decades ago it emerged on the margins of American society. ..."
LOPA
LOPA Magazine
Time Out Paris
YouTube: What Ever Happened to Hip Hop (Documentary) 54:44, From Mambo to Hip-Hop: A South Bronx Tale 56:06, What is Beef? Hip-Hop/Rap (Documentary) 1:42:55

2012 January: The Hip-Hop Family Tree: A Look Into the Viral Propagation of a Culture,  2012 November: An Intro To Rebel Hip-Hop Of The Arab Revolutions, 2014 June: Born in the Bronx: A Visual Record of the Early Days of Hip Hop, 2014 December: How to Raise Hell in Three Steps: on RUN-D.M.C, Parliament, Blackness and Revolution, 2015 April: Hip-Hop Revolution, 2015 April: Hip-Hop History Tuesdays: Joe Conzo (Born In The Bronx) Amoeblog Interview, 2015 July: Nas presents the Real Hip-Hop – video, 2015 September: Hip Hop Family Tree 1975-1983 Gift Box, 2015 October: Rubble Kings – The Mixtape.

Times Insider: Reporting Europe's Refugee Crisis

"Stories of Hope, Courage and Loss As Historic Journey Unfolds By Richard W. Stevenson. Sometimes it is clear in an instant that the world has changed: a jetliner slices into an office tower; a leader is felled. But more often, history unfolds incrementally. For months, we have watched it do so in literally millions of steps, as hundreds of thousands of people trudge from some of the world’s most conflict-ridden and poorest regions toward Europe and what they hope will be more secure and prosperous lives. It is a development remarkable in its scale, and in what it says about the limits of borders in a globalized, interconnected world. And it is producing countless stories of courage, loss, heroism and avarice that are forcing societies to confront issues of race, religion, security and national identity. ..."
NY Times
This map shows the routes of Europe's refugee nightmare — and how it's getting worse

CR Newsmakers Interview: Ben Towle, Craig Fischer

"I was looking for ways to throw a spotlight on this weekend's HeroesCon in Charlotte -- an extremely well-liked, much-lauded show -- when Ben Towle contacted me to remind that he and Craig Fischer were doing an ambitious panel this weekend on comics and music. That's a good subject for a big panel at a comics show, particularly one where Ed Piskor and Peter Bagge are in attendance. I'm also sort of interested in comics programming right now as its own thing -- it has improved across the board in recent year due in no small part to people like Ben and Craig doing ambitious presentations like they will be this weekend. ..."
Comics Reporter

The Bootleg Series Vol. 12: The Cutting Edge 1965–1966

Wikipedia - "The Bootleg Series Vol. 12: The Cutting Edge 1965–1966 is a set of recordings from 1965 and 1966 by Bob Dylan, released in November of 2015 on Legacy Records. It compiles mostly unreleased session demos and outtakes from recording sessions for the albums Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde. Three different versions of the set were released simultaneously: a two-disc Best of edition in the packaging and format standard to the rest of the series after the first installment; a six-disc box set Deluxe edition similar in packaging to its counterpart from the previous Bootleg set; and an 18-disc limited Collector's Edition available exclusively by order from Dylan's official website. Stated on the website as being limited to 5000 copies total in manufacture ever, the Collector's Edition is unique as it includes "...every note recorded during the 1965-1966 sessions, every alternate take and alternate lyric.' ..."
New Yorker: Bob Dylan and the “Hot Hand”
Salon - Bob Dylan’s “electric trilogy” masterpieces: I played all 18 discs and 357 tracks. Here’s why you should
NPR - Review: Bob Dylan (Video)
YouTube: Visions of Johanna, Just Like a Woman - Take 1, It Takes a Lot to Laugh It Takes a Train to Cry - Take 1, Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again - Take 13, Sitting On a Barbed Wire Fence - Take 2, Subterranean Homesick Blues (alternate music video)
YouTube: The Story Of The Cutting Edge, UPDATED unboxing Bob Dylan's The Bootleg Series Vol. 12: The Cutting Edge 1965 - 1966

Life After God - Douglas Coupland (1994)

Wikipedia - "Life After God is a collection of short stories by Douglas Coupland, published in 1994. The stories are set around a theme of a generation raised without religion. The jacket for the hardcover book reads 'You are the first generation to be raised without religion.' The text is an exploration of faith in this vacuum of religion. The stories are also illustrated by the author. Several critics have suggested that this publication marks an early shift in the stylistic vocabulary of Coupland and, according to one critic, he was 'excoriated presumably for attempting be serious and to express depression and spiritual yearning when his reviewers were expecting more postmodern jollity'. However, the short story would later come to garner more praise (see below) though critics and academics have paid little attention to the publication in terms of academics' articles and commentary. ..."
Wikipedia
amazon
Douglas Coupland’s Life After God: A Case of Style Over Substance - by Dan Geddes
Life After God? No Answers from Gen-X Guru
Interview with Douglas Coupland

Deloris Ealy & The Roadrunners Band

"This 45 captured my attention not only for its extended title, but also for its fetching ebay price of nearly $1,000. 'Deloris is Back (To Blow Your Mind) with Jerome and His Band' has one of the funkiest, most primal drum grooves on vinyl. That's an even more impressive feat if you're to believe Deloris when she wails that her drummer is only thirteen years old! It's three minutes of simple reel-to-reel recording technology, but therein lies the charm behind the most expensive mp3 file in my collection. Enjoy!"
Deloris Is Back With Jerome & His Band- Deloris Ealy
YouTube: It's About Time I Made A Change, Honeydripper, In Your Town, How I Wish You Were Mine, Traveler In Space, Kenyatta's In Your Town

The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now

New Orleans–style group photo in painter Wadsworth Jarrell’s backyard, c. 1968
"The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now links the vibrant legacy of the 1960s African American avant-garde to current art and culture. It is occasioned in part by the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), a still-flourishing organization of Chicago musicians whose interdisciplinary explorations expanded the boundaries of jazz. Alongside visual arts collectives such as the African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists (AfriCOBRA), the AACM was part of a deep engagement with black cultural nationalism both in Chicago and around the world during and after the civil rights era. Combining historical materials with contemporary responses, The Freedom Principle illuminates the continued relevance of that engagement today. ..."
The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now
artsy
Guardian: The Freedom Principle review – an astounding fusion of jazz and art
YouTube: The Freedom Principle

American Qur'an

"A project to hand-transcribe the entire Qur'an according to historic Islamic traditions and to illuminate the text with relevant scenes from contemporary American life. Nine years in the making, the project was inspired by a decade of extended travel in Islamic regions of the world. ... Collected together and grouped generally according to length (rather than chronologically), the 114 chapters ('suras') form a collection of sermon-like 'revelations' that are the fundamental text of Islam, the fastest growing religion in America. At a time when the United States was involved in two wars against Islamic nations and declared itself to be in a cultural and philosophical struggle against Islamic extremists, American artist Sandow Birk’s latest project considers the Qur’an as it was intended – as a universal message to humankind. ..."
Sandow Birk
Atlantic: American Qu’ran Makes a Sacred Text Familiar
GOOD
amazon

Ruth & Marvin Sackner

Miami Beach, 2005
"Concrete! Ruth and Marvin Sackner share their love of words and images with an intimate tour of their Miami Beach home/museum -- the worlds largest private collection of concrete/visual poetry from such twentieth century art movements as Italian Futurism, Russian and Eastern European Avant Garde, Dada, Surrealism, Bauhaus, De Stijl, Ultra, Tabu-Dada, Lettrisme, and Ultra-Lettrisme. Over sixty-thousand objects from around the word speak volumes about a compulsive and joyful life of collecting art, poetry, and artist books. with art by Guillaume Apollinaire, Allen Ginsberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Matta, Bob Cobbing, Tom Phillips, Katharina Eckhart, Gertrude Stein, Ben Vautier and many, many more... and with music by Terry Riley, Arnold Dreyblatt and more. Ruth and Marvin Sackner founded the Archive in Miami Beach, Florida in 1979. Its initial mission was to establish a collection of books, critical texts, periodicals, ephemera, prints, drawings, collages, paintings, sculptures, objects, manuscripts, and correspondence dealing with precedent and contemporary, internationally produced, concrete and visual poetry. ..."
UbuWeb (Video)
Ruth Sackner R.I.P.
The Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry
Encounters with Concrete and Visual Poetry (Video)
The Miami Rail
A Human Document: Selections from the Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry
Collecting Art, Without Knowing What Kind of Art You're Collecting

Politics by Other Means - Arundhati Roy

"Although I do not believe that awards are a measure of the work we do, I would like to add the National Award for the Best Screenplay that I won in 1989 to the growing pile of returned awards. Also, I want to make it clear that I am not returning this award because I am 'shocked' by what is being called the 'growing intolerance' being fostered by the present government. ... Life is hell for the living too. Whole populations — millions of Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims, and Christians — are being forced to live in terror, unsure of when and from where the assault will come. ..."
Jacobin

2008 May: Arundhati Roy, 2010 April: "Walking With The Comrades"