I definitely have to give credit where it’s due. CCCADI continues to put together some great events. Tonight, they’re set to launch their truly unique art exhibition for Women’s History Month. Check out the details below…
In honor of Women’s History Month, the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI) is pleased to present “Wearing Spirit: Aesthetically Personifying the Feminine in African Sacred Traditions” a multi-media exhibition of paintings, sculpture, photography, textile art, video and installations honoring the power of the Feminine present in African Sacred Traditions.
While African Sacred Traditions exist within a context of gender duality of masculine/feminine, this exhibition specifically explores the complex fabric of female personalities in indigenous African spirituality. Work in the exhibition captures the essence and power of the female deities, priestesses, and prophets that have served as instruments of balance and grounding within indigenous African spiritual systems and their derivatives.
Artists attempt to answer such questions as: Who are the gatekeepers of the spirit and physical realms? Who are the most prominent female divinities? What are the roles of female priestesses and prophets in a contemporary context? How is feminine energy shaping the future of these traditions?
This show is an awe-inspiring reflection of the universal essence that is cosmically feminine. It also highlights the traditional West African systems of Akan, Vodun and Yoruba and their Diasporan counteparts along with other rituals and rites-of-passage ceremonies.
In 2010, people are still being persecuted for their devotion to these indigineous belief systems. Most recently, there are reports of Haitian earthquake survivors being denied food and assistance as well as having their temples and altars desecrated and destroyed by evangelical Christians, simply for their practice of Vodun. Additionally, there needs to be a resurgence of earth-based practices during times of environmental disintegration. These traditions must be preserved and celebrated and this exhibition further educates the general masses to the cosmic energy that is Feminine and Sacred.
Check out a full listing of the artists involved and a video interview with Imo Nse Imeh, Ph.D as he discusses his piece “Mechanisms in Uyai,” after the jump…
For a while I never knew who the actual artist was behind Dr. Evil, but he was always popping up mixes and doing silly impressions. Well those of you that don’t know its Leftside, formally from Leftside & Esco. The track “Transform” has been out for a while where Leftside uses his alter ego to do various impressions, see for yourself.
While Haiti’s problems are far from gone, and while lives of people are still far from what it used to be, life still moves forward. One of the best things is despite all the hardships certain staples of Haitian culture won’t die - namely art and music. I threw up a report a from the NY Times a few weeks ago about the hardships of Haitian artists. This NY Times video shows how artist are still pushing on, making music, painting and surviving.
Here is a crazy story I heard about. A Haitian family that survived the quake in Haiti, was relocated to Chile through one of their sons who lives in Chile. The son who is part of a Haitian reggaeton band, Reggaeton Boys, had connections with the Chilean Embassy in Haiti. They arrived in Chile on the 23 of January to only be in the middle of another quake on February 28th. While the family survived again this was another shock to them.
And if you were thinking what I was you must be wondering about a the Haitian Reggaeton group, I added a video on them to confirm things a bit.
With 2010 World Cup just 99 days away, ESPN has reopened an old topic about Joe Gaetjens the hero during the US victory over England in the 1950 World Cup. The article tries into kill all the misconceptions that were portrayed about Joe Gaetjens and show him as he truly was. In the movie “Game of Their Lives”, he was portrayed as a voodoo fanatic when he was actually Catholic. There are mangled facts about Gaetjens family origins and the English media trying to call his goal a fluke as well as his mysterious demise.
Joe Gaetjens was not Belgian. And his father wasn’t, either.
His name sounded Flemish. The Flemings are the Dutch-speaking half of Belgium. Considering the tidal wave of Flemish immigrants that washed over North America in the 19th century, the assumption that Gaetjens was of Belgian descent held credence. But Gaetjens, in spite of the ‘-jens’ suffix, is not a common name in Flanders.
Genealogic research shows that Joe’s great-grandfather, Thomas, migrated to Haiti from Bremen, in northern Germany, where the Gaetjens name is rather common. (A close variation on Gaetjens — Gätjens — is also oft-heard just north of there, over the Danish border.) Thomas arrived in Haiti shortly after 1825 (when France officially recognized Haiti’s independence) and married Leonie Dejoie, whose father was a general and had played a part in Haiti’s self-determination. That connection opened a path to prosperity for the Gaetjens family…
Joe Gaetjens did not practice voodoo.
“Absolutely not!” shouts his indignant younger sister, Mireille, reached in Puerto Rico.
“The Game of Their Lives,” the 2005 movie about the historic upset, had been ludicrously inaccurate. The film made light-skinned Gaetjens, played by dark-skinned Jimmy Jean-Louis, out to be some sort of voodoo nut.
The Gaetjens family was appalled. In real life, Gaetjens was Catholic, like most Haitians, and went to church every Sunday…
After the U.S.-England game, a barrage of excuses was blasted from the England camp. It had been too hot. Travel had been strenuous. But this one would stick: Gaetjens’ goal had been a lucky one.
All Americans and most English present on the scene dispute that.
Supreme releases a video interview with Lee Scratch Perry, Jamaica’s Musical Shaman. The interview gives us an overall brief history into the life of Lee Perry, one of the most important creative, artistic and musical figures to emerge from Jamaica in the latter half of the 20th Century. Along with his musical achievements, he has also directly influenced numerous important figures active in other genres, including everyone from Paul McCartney and Brian Eno to the Clash, the Beastie Boys and Jay-Z. For Supreme’s 2010 Spring Collection, they collaborate with Lee Perry on two t-shirt designs featuring his written word and original artwork
New film on the way directed by a close friend of the artist. Check out the details below…
In his short career, Jean-Michel Basquiat was a phenomenon. He became notorious for his graffiti art under the moniker Samo in the late 1970s on the Lower East Side scene, sold his first painting to Deborah Harry for $200, and became best friends with Andy Warhol. Appreciated by both the art cognoscenti and the public, Basquiat was launched into international stardom. However, soon his cult status began to override the art that had made him famous in the first place.
Director Tamra Davis pays homage to her friend in this definitive documentary but also delves into Basquiat as an iconoclast. His dense, bebop-influenced neoexpressionist work emerged while minimalist, conceptual art was the fad; as a successful black artist, he was constantly confronted by racism and misconceptions. Much can be gleaned from insider interviews and archival footage, but it is Basquiat’s own words and work that powerfully convey the mystique and allure of both the artist and the man.
