The Arts Today Ezine vol 5.11 by Arts Today Ezine

STANLEY NELSON KDHX INTERVIEW pg #10

W/ EDIE ANDERSON (EDIE BEE)

'ALL COLORS' EXHIBIT JAMES MARTIN pg #118

Vol 5.11

September 30, 2019

View this and past issues from our website.

READING THE LONG DREAM

JERRY WARD, JR. pg #142

USED CAR...

PHOTOGRAPHY...

YEAR 1619...

pg. #50

pg. #66

pg.#112

BERNIE HAYES

SHAW PHOTOGRAPHY GRP.

KEVIN POWELL

Opening Lecture for The Shape of Abstraction: Selections from the Ollie Collection

Black in the Abstract: Meditations on Black Artists Working with Abstraction from the 1950s to the Present Valerie Cassel Oliver Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts This talk considers the history of black artists working in abstraction beginning in the 1950s to the present. In this meditation, Cassel Oliver considers how artists have engaged in abstract painting as an act of resistance, as a marker of identity, as narrative, and as innovative form.

Photograph by Travis Fullerton

Saturday, September 21, 2019 11 am The Farrell Auditorium $5/free for Members

Advance tickets recommended. Tickets may be reserved in person at the Museumâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Information Centers or through MetroTix at metrotix.com or 314.534.1111. All tickets reserved through MetroTix incur a service charge; the service charge is waived for tickets reserved at the Museum. Same day tickets, if available, can be obtained on-site only. This lecture has been rescheduled from the original date of September 20.

Supported by a grant from the Trio Foundation of St. Louis

One Fine Arts Drive, Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri 63110â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1380

pg.

11 SEPTEMBER

COLLOQUIUM SERIES

TAZARA Stories:

Remembering work on a China-African railway project TAZARA Stories tells the story of a train through the memories of those who built it. Set in Tanzania, Zambia and China, the film interweaves oral and visual narratives of workers from three nations who found themselves laboring side by side in a massive infrastructure project at the height of the Cold War. Remembering and reliving their youth, the workers take us on a journey in time from the exhilaration of construction through disappointments and derailments to their own hopeful resilience in the face of enduring change.

Department of African & African-American Studies at Washington University in St. Louis

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

IN THIS

ISSUE:

...Listen people... Life is a giant, invisible scale with two sides; Good and bad You and your beliefs Are the weights The things you do each day Determine the balance Your conscience is a flawless Judge and jury; It only questions you when you're wrong...

The Temptations,

"You Make Your Own Heaven and Hell Right Here on Earth" (Regarding the last line of this quote from "You Make Your Own Heaven and Hell Right Here on Earth": "It only questions you when you're wrong" Sang by The Temptations on the recording. "The only question is what you want" Written by: BARRETT STRONG, NORMAN WHITFIELD, NORMAN J. WHITFIELD)

Established 2014 Volume 5.11 St. Louis, MO www.artstodaye.com/ Layout/Design www.bdesignme.com

NOTE:

As the publishers of The Arts Today Ezine we take care in the production of each issue. We are however, not liable for any editorial error, omission, mistake or typographical error. The views expressed are those of the contributors and not necessarily those of their respective companies or the publisher.

pg.

This Ezine and the content published within are subject to copyright held by the publisher, with individual articles remaining property of the named contributor. Express written permission of the publisher and contributors must be acquired for reproduction.

6 IN THE NEWS

Moline Acres Police Department INT. TRADE College Scholarship Program in partnership with Infinite Scholars Program

The Moline Acres Police Department College Scholarship Program wishes to acknowledge some of the students in our city that have accepted the promise of a college scholarship for accomplishing the following criteria: 1. 2. 3. 4.

95 percent school attendanceOTHER NEWS 3.3 or better cumulative grade averageLINKS NEWS 22 or better composite ACT score No major discipline problems

Through our mentorship program with Infinite Scholars, the Moline Acres Police Department wishes to help fulfill the hopes and dreams of families in our community wishing to send their children to college. The Infinite Scholars program uses it extensive nationwide network of 500+ colleges and universities to find a college scholarship for students who achieve the criteria above. The Moline Acres Police Department is committed to helping our students accomplish these criteria. The motto for this program is “Our Badges Create Scholars.”

STANLEY NELSON INTERVIEW Moline Acres is located in North St. Louis County, Missouri. To learn more, contact the Moline Acres EDIE BEE (KDHX) Police Department at 314-868-2433 or Infinite Scholars at 314-499-6997.

24 EDITORIAL OP/ED

34 LIVE/WORK/PLAY CALENDAR

USED CAR BUYERS... BERNIE HAYES

66 78

Pictured are Moline Acres Chief of Police Colonel Ware, Police Officer Donaldson, and students Charmaine and Charles.

FEAT. PHOTOG. SHAW PHOTOGRAPHY

FEAT. COMIC BLACK GOD

SENIOR READERS... DR. JERRY WARD

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

IN THE NEWS

Export Opportunities in the Americas: Brazil, Canada & Mexico TIME | DATE | PLACE 8:00 am registration 8:30-10:00 am program Thursday, December 7, 2017 Please note NEW ADDRESS: World Trade Center St. Louis 120 South Central Ave. Suite 1200 St. Louis, MO 63105 REGISTRATION $20 REGISTRATION One-on-one appointments available following the program.

Learn about export opportunities in three major markets in the Americas region. Brazil is recovering from recent political and economic upheaval and reforms have seen growth in the energy and agricultural sectors in particular. Canada's economy has enjoyed greater than expected growth, outpacing all other members of the G7. Mexico continues to offer a wide range of opportunities for US exporters from industrial equipment and inputs to agricultural products. Speakers: Mr. Fabio Yukio Yamada Director, Missouri International Trade & Investment Office - Brazil Mr. Ludovic Ortuno Director, Missouri International Trade & Investment Office - Canada Ms. Gloria Garcia Director, Missouri International Trade & Investment Office - Mexico Click here to view speaker bios and learn more.

Contact John Hensley to schedule.

pg.

Your Source for Art Appreciation

Volume 2.1 March 4, 2015

St. Louis

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE Please support our sponsors, many ofFEAT. ARTIST | HERB JONES .............................................................. pg. 88

fer events or programs with an emphasis on the arts and creativity.

YEAR 1609... | KEVIN POWELL .......................................................... pg. 112 'ALL COLORS' EXHIBIT | JAMES MARTIN ..................................... pg. 118 ART OF FOOD | A.T.E.Z ......................................................................... pg. 124 THE LONG DREAM | JERRY WARD, JR. ....................................... pg. 142 OPPORTUNITIES | A.T.E.Z .................................................................. pg. 150 CAREERS | A.T.E.Z ................................................................................. pg. 152

#ArtsTodayEZ

Volume 5.11 Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019 September 30, 2019 www.the-arts-today.com

www.the-arts-today.com

OTHER

NEWS: RUDY JULIANI...

"SLAVE PLAY"...

POLITIC USA

AMERICAN THEATRE

US GOVERNMENT...

MANHATTAN VILLAGE

THE 7 HARDEST...

APPALLING: GENERAL...

HEALTHY FOOD HOUSE

PETA PIXEL

KOLUMN VILLAGE

MONEY & MARKETS

NAPPILY EVER AFTER: H&M ISSUES STATEMENT ABBOUT BLACK GIRL'S ‘NATURAL’ HAIR, NO APOLOGIES THIS TIME 82 YEAR OLD...

COLLECTIVE EVOLUTION

CANCER INDUSTRY... NATURAL NEWS

THE ROOT

ATTORNEY GENERAL'S... RIVER FRONT TIME

BOMBSHELL INVESTIGATION... POLITICUS USA

pg.

CHEMIST: THE SHOCKING.. YOUTUBE

NEARLY EXTINCT PINK ... HEALTHY FOOD HOUSE

79 YEAR OLD VET WITH DIMENTIA EVICTED... THE ROOT

THE FUTURE OF US... DENVER POST

THE COLLEGE... ESQUIRE

OVER 20,000 TURN OUT ... POLITICUS USA

TEEN MASTURBATED ... HUZLERS

CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER,... ST. LOUIS AMERICAN

CIRCUSES STRUGGLING... DAILY SQUAT

HOW BLACK BABIES...

LIBERTY WRITERS AFRICA

AN 'EXTINCT' TAIWANESE... DIPLY

CIA REVEALS FORMER SPY.. NEWSWEEK

JUDGE RESIGNS... HUFFINGTON POST

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

pg.

Stanley Nelson INTERVIEW

Interview of Stanley Nelson for Arts Today & 88.1 KDHX

tarian, Mr. Stanley Nelson of Firelight Media.

I remember when I was young, leaving my childhood home for the first time and whenever someone would ask me where I was from, I’d say “I’m from East St. Louis, where Miles is from!”

I want to thank ARTS-TODAY Newszine and KDHX FM for this opportunity to share my conversation with Mr. Nelson, with all of you. Enjoy:

So, of course when I just happened to hear about the documentary Miles “Birth of the Cool “being shown at the Tivoli, it wasn’t a question of if Jeff and I would go, it was just a matter of when? I ended up going twice. After Jeff and I got there the first time, the first person we saw was one of his musician buddies…I heard him say to my husband, “Where the Cats at Man?” First, it was great to hear straight ahead jazz musicians still calling themselves “Cats” (I like that)! Secondly, I knew exactly what he was saying…Where were all the jazz cats? The Tivoli should have been swarming with St. Louis and East St. Louis Jazz musicians paying homage to the “Biggest Cat” of them all, the man who Birthed the Cool. Miles Davis The documentary was everything and more! Intimate input from the immediate family and close friends of Miles, I was moved to tears at times… I’ve been a study of Miles all my adult life. I will not profess to know all the stories, but the ones I know are the ones I love, and to get facts about them was epic for me. I finally got the opportunity to hear from Francis Davis, in her own sweet way…may she forever RIParadise. The film was directed by Award Winning documentarian Mr. Stanley Nelson of “Firelight Media” out of New York. Mr. Stanley was at both screenings I attended. I was so moved by the film I just had to let him know just how much I enjoyed it. When I saw him coming my way, after the Q & A. had ended, I went for it. We were friends after the first hello. Just a cool guy, but extraordinary at the same time. You’ll see. I was able to interview him. What I didn’t mention in the interview is that Mr. Nelson comes from history himself, his Mom A’lelia (Ransom) Nelson, was the last president of the Madame C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company. His father Dr. Stanley Earl Nelson Sr. was a dentist who was a pioneer in reconstructive dentistry and taught at New York University. Miles Davis’s father was a dentist too! I would suggest little Stanley Nelson Jr. didn’t have a chance, he had to be somebody great! He did not disappoint. Ladies and gentlemen the following is my interview with Award-winning documen-

EDIE ANDERSON: Stanley Nelson, Edie Bee interview for ARTS-TODAY Magazine and 88ONE KDHX Beginning in 3-2-1 EDIE: Greeting Everyone! I’m your Lady Edie B. with a special guest inside the KDHX Studios for ARTS_TODAY Magazine and of course my jazz show R.S.V.P (Rare Songs, Very Personal), I am honored to welcome Documentarian, Mr. Stanley Nelson…Welcome Mr. Nelson to the show. NELSON: Thank You so much. EDIE: Mr. Nelson is back home in New York right now but he was recently here in town showing East St. Louis and St. Louis your documentary on Miles Davis Birth of the Cool, and I must Say Mr. Nelson when you left here last week you left as a HERO! Everyone I know who saw the film absolutely loves it! NELSON: Well thank you that’s great! EDIE: Yeah, and those of my friends that didn’t see it, they’re jealous and they want to see it, so… NELSON: Okay… EDIE: I’m glad it’s still uh, still happening. Now usually in an interview the interviewer (which is me) reads off the accolades of the interviewee (which is you), but if I did that we would be here for hours and hours and extended until the next day because Mr. Nelson you are an icon within yourself. You have many documentaries to be proud of under your belt, and I was looking through information about you, and the “Story of Access” is one of you documentaries, it examines the history and impact of racial profiling in public spaces, and this documentary was screened at a mandatory training for 175 thousand Starbucks employees across 8 thousand stores. You have got to be proud of that? NELSON: Yeah, I am, you know it’s a film that we did, it’s 10 minutes long and I can say this, people can see it if they go to “Stanley Nelson and Starbucks” they can find www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

STANLEY NELSON.. cont.

it there and you know it’s 10 minutes long it’s very short, a short little film, but um this is when Starbucks closed all their stores… EDIE: Yeah, we’re familiar with the controversy. NELSON: (Crosstalk) It’s on You tube, put in Stanley Nelson, Starbucks and it will be the first thing that pops up. EDIE: Now, “Tell Them We are Rising’-The Story of Black Colleges and Universities, that is another one of your documentaries…The Black Panthers; Vanguard of the Revolution; which won the 2016 NAACP Image Award for “Outstanding Documentary Film. One of my favorites, “Two Dollars and a Dream” 1989 biography of Madame C.J. Walker, one of my favorite she roes (giggle) …You have many documentaries…and as a matter of fact you did one on Jim Jones, (as a matter of fact), I remember seeing that one. But this is what stuck out to me as I was researching you Mr. Nelson, and it sums up your greatness all in one short paragraph. Edie reads from script: "Stanley Nelson is among the premier documentary filmmakers working today. Nelson, a MacArthur “genius” Fellow, awarded an individual Peabody Award for his body of work in 2016. He has received numerous honors over the course of his career including the 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award for the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. In 2014, Nelson received the National Medal in the Humanities from President Barack Obama.," and to me you can kind of just drop the mic after that one (giggling) I’m sure you were excited when you received that….

EDIE: (laughing) How many documentaries have you done so far with your company “Firelight Media”? NELSON: Uhm, that’s hard to say because you know they range from, you know what do you call a doc? Is “The Story of Access” the thing we did for Starbucks a doc, only 10 minutes long, So, we’ve probably done maybe (15) fifteen or so feature length documentaries probably in my career, but as you said the first one was “Two Dollars and a Dream” which was 1989 and that was 30 years ago so, you know I’ve been around for a while doing what I do. EDIE: Wow…Oh yes you have. Let’s talk Miles! NELSON: Okay! EDIE: How did the Miles project come about? Who came knocking on your door at Firelight Media and said, hey, let’s do Miles Davis.? NELSON: Well it was kind of a bit of um knocking on our door and our knocking on other doors it was a film that we had been thinking about for a while and we talked to American Masters which is a show on PBS and they were immediately all in and then we went to a company called Eagle Rock, which is part of Universal Film out of London and they bought in too and so this one was financed by Eagle Rock and by American Masters and it will be on TBS next year in late February, but I urge everybody who can to go and see it this year. EDIE: YEAH (Laugh) Why did you call it “Birth of the Cool”?

NELSON: Yeah that was just an incredible day I was very fortunate that Obama was in the White House … (Edie giggles “I know”) NELSON: so, I could, wholeheartedly accept the award. It was just a beautiful day you know the award was given by Obama and Michelle in the White House, and, you know they invite you to bring your family and whoever you want to bring and you kind of make a day of it.

NELSON: UHH, You know that was one of the names of one of Miles’s first and most important albums (he made a lot of important albums) but we just thought that kind of typified Miles you know, and you know in some ways you got to call a film something (Edie laughs) I mean we could have called it “Kind of Blue” or you know “Bitches Brew” or something else, but ….

EDIE: Now was that one of the ones they televised?

EDIE: Oh no “Birth of the Cool” sums it up yes indeed…Are you a Miles Davis fan?

NELSON: Umm They might have, I think they did televise it afterwards…(cross-talk inaudible) but they did televise it afterwards, it was just one of those great things that (Edie: “that is so cool”) that just kind of I don’t know, it was surreal almost too me.

NELSON: Yeah, I’m a big fan of Miles’s music my Father was a jazz fan and jazz lover and I’ve been listening to Miles kind of seeped in you know as a kid with my Father playing Miles around the house, but I’m a huge Miles fan. And yeah making the film allowed me to kind

pg.

of do nothing but listen to Miles for a few years… EDIE: Gotta be the best assignment in the world that’s for sure. NELSON: Yeah that part of it was great, but you know there’s also that trepidation that comes with making a film like this cause you know I’m making a film about Miles Davis you know one of the great icons and heroes of the 20th century in so many ways, and you know, I don’t want to mess it up. (Edie: right!) There’s also that kind of tension that comes with being given this kind of opportunity. One of the things that kind of happens is that you really want to do it, you’re trying to raise the money to make this film, you’re trying to do it, you’re trying to do it…and you finally get the finances in place and you’re like YES! And then the next thing is like OH NO, now I have to actually do this… (Edie laughing)

Miles had done it’s kind of like the text, and we had an actor Carl Lumbly voice Miles’s words. So that, it’s kind of that the story is being told from Miles’s point of view a lot of times, and all the words are really Miles’s words. EDIE: That was, I just thought that was fascinating because as I was listening to it, I said to myself now, when did Miles narrate his own…(laughing) You no, I thought that was just so cool. NELSON: Yeah, well the film premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January and you know at the beginning of the film we didn’t say anything about Carl Lumbly and we found that we were constantly getting questions you know, that was one of the first questions we’d get affectionately…Is that Miles? Is that Miles? So, we put a card in at the beginning says that Miles words are his own and their voiced by Carl Lumbly…

EDIE: Right…and you got to get it right, right?

EDIE: (Interrupts) Boy he did a great job!

NELSON: Yeah…

NELSON: (continues) …so, the people wouldn’t sit there and be thinking you know and not, not watch the film and not listen to them film like their wondering is that Miles, is that Miles. No, he’s incredible and one of the great things for us when we showed the film to Miles’s family and they said, you know that sounds just like Miles…

EDIE: Now one of the things I found intriguing about the film is the narration, mostly done by Miles himself, but through the sound-alike voice of Carl Lumbly, that right? Tell us how that came about?

EDIE: (Interrupts)Well how did you know that that actor NELSON: Well you know Carl, we thought early on that the film could be narrated kind of by Miles himself. We could have Miles narrating and we arranged with the writer, Quincy Troupe who wrote Miles’s autobiography ( inaudible) so we get these tapes… when Quincy did the autobiography he did it by sitting a little cassette recorder on a table and just talking to Miles for hours and hours. See he had (40) forty of these tapes that range from an hour to an hour and a half. And we arranged with Quincy to use them and gather rights to use them. And we got them and for maybe 6-8 months we tried to fashion a narrative out of these tapes, but the sound was bad the mic was bad, and they’d be listening to TVs you know in the background tapes weren’t clean… EDIE: Yeah and I heard Miles was eating at some point… NELSON: Yeah, and Miles, they would order dinner and the doorbell would ring, dinner would come, and they’d keep talking and eating you know. So, at some point we said this is not going to work, I think that was one of the best decisions that we made in making the film and so, we then went to his autobiography and other interviews that

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

STANLEY NELSON... cont.

EDIE: I’m sure he wished he had not talked, but you know…How can you tell Miles Davis not to talk.

could sound like Miles, how did you know that? NELSON: Well Carl Lumbly is an actor that I know Carl a little bit, he did the narration for an earlier film of ours and I know he’s a very good actor and you know we talked to him on the phone, he said he was willing to give it a shot so we sent him some tapes of Miles, you know Miles’s real voice to listen to and then we kind of auditioned him over the phone, he was in California we’re in New York and we just said , you know okay, give it a shot, we felt it was close enough it was passing…(Edie interrupts) EDIE: Close enough are you kidding! It was (laughing) NELSON: Yeah we knew after we got in the studio we worked some and we said slow it down, don’t be so southern, all those kind of little things that if got even closer it would be okay…but we were very nervous about it…you know EDIE: You can tell him that he fooled me and I…(laughing) NELSON: He’s done of couple of Q&A’s with us in California and he’s just been great, and he’s really proud of his work…(inaudible) EDIE: He should be, and you know another thing, I did hear about this story of how Miles lost his voice through another documentary that I saw on Chaka Kahn, because Chaka had the same operation that he had, and she had heard about what he did, by talking when he wasn’t supposed to talk and how he ruined his voice, could you kind of elaborate on that for our audience? NELSON: Yeah Miles had an operation which in fact my understanding it’s not in some ways that…it shouldn’t have to be that serious but you know, as close as I can come is to say they were removing palates from his throat, I mean this was early on in the 50s and the doctor said okay you know you cannot talk you have to just let it heal for a couple of weeks, you can’t talk and something happen and Miles got mad at somebody and yelled at him and (using Miles’s voice) his voice just became just like that, for the rest of his life, that was Miles’s voice. So, we tell that story in the film because we thought you know everybody kind of wonders why Miles talks like that and most people don’t know why. It wasn’t an affect; it wasn’t something he was doing to be cool; his voice is like that for the rest of his life.

NELSON: Right, right! EDIE: I’m wondering about Mr. Troupe’s autobiography of Miles was that used sort of like a Bible to you? NELSON: Well we figured that was Miles’s autobiography and I made the decision that within the film we could use those as Mile’s words, because that’s what they are… EDIE: And that’s what I like, I like to hear what he said about himself or what he said to somebody else about himself and he talked to Mr. Troupe through that autobiography and using that as a guide, must have been awesome for you. NELSON: Yeah it was great! And you know the great thing about the autobiography is that is was written later in Miles’s life as Miles starts to kind of look back on his life and is very open about some of the mistakes he made and other things in his life so, you know he’s very honest, very candid, he also, you know uses that salty language that Miles always use doesn’t pull any punches so, we thought it was great. One of the funny things that happened in the film is that whenever people tell stories about Miles when it came to be the time for them to talk about him, they would always go into his voice. EDIE: Umm Umm They do everybody does that. (laughing) NELSON: And finally, we noticed that the first three or four people that we interviewed did it we said... EDIE: Hey don’t do that…(laughing) NELSON: …if you’re telling a story and it you say Miles said this, just go into the voice that you can because people have already established that it’s the best feature in the film, so we better stay with it. EDIE: (laughing) You know now there are two things that I had always wanted to know about Miles, and you

pg.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

STANLEY NELSON... cont.

answered those two things in your documentary. And one of them was the story of Dr. Davis and Miles when Dr. Davis went to New York to bring Miles home, could you tell us about that story? NELSON: Yes, you know Miles goes to Paris in 1949 and falls in love with Juliette Greco, French singer and actress (inaudible) it’s actually very short because he was only there for a couple of weeks, a very hot and heavy relationship. He also sees a different way that the world can relate to him as a black man and as a black jazz musician. He’s finding you know, celebrated there in Paris and coming back to the United States, Kenny Clark went over there with him and stayed, he said “Miles you shouldn’t even go back, I’m going to stay”. So, Miles goes back, he’s from the United States, you know, that’s his home, so he comes back and kind of spirals into his depression a downward spiral starts using drugs and get into a heavy drug habit and ends up going back to East St. Louis because he… the word has gotten out that Miles is in really bad shape, and his Father comes from East St. Louis, as Jimmy Heath says in the film. “I was on the bandstand with Miles at that time” Jimmy Heath tells the story of how they’re playing, and Miles Father just takes him off the bandstand…

NELSON: Right Jimmy Heath says he left the horn right there, his father said “No you’re coming with me we’re going home". EDIE: Wow NELSON: Them Miles goes home and finally (inaudible) locks himself in the house for over a week and just kicks cold turkey (inaudible) cold turkey and comes back to New York and come back with a vengeance comes back with some decree. EDIE: Yeah, exciting story and I didn’t know exactly how it went down, you know, I didn’t know that Dr. Davis actually went up on stage and got the boy off the stage, I’m like (what?) And what did Miles say in that narration, on his way back he felt like a little boy. NELSON: Yeah, he said he felt like a little boy and he says it’s probably the last time in his life he ever felt like that. Kind of like the little boy being taken home by his Daddy… EDIE: Yeah, if you remember at the Q&A after the…I’ve gone to see this film twice and I think it was the first time I went, Mayor Parks, the former Mayor of East St. Louis, Mayor Parks got up and said to you and I’m paraphrasing that, having that film in East St. Louis for young people to see is going to be a motivational tool for them. That film in East St. Louis to show to our youth is going to be very very powerful and we can’t thank you enough for doing it.

EDIE: (interrupts laughingly) Comes up to the stage and takes him off the bandstand.

pg.

EDIE: Another one of the stories that I had always been curious about is… I wondered about the love affair between Francis and Miles Davis…I LOVED the WAY THEY LOVE. (giggle) and I just really enjoyed her she was definitely a character in the film and the music that came out of that love, Flamenco Sketches, and Fran Dance and Someday My Prince Will Come. I’ve loved those songs all of my life, just the mere fact that Miles Davis was Frances’s prince it just let me know early in life that black people can have a Prince too you know what I’m saying…and to hear her talk about that…Oh it just meant a lot to me. That scene where Miles is standing up under his name in New York at one of the clubs that he was performing at, and the Police hits him in the head because he wouldn’t move along like he asked him to and Francis comes down and rescues her man from

the big bad police officers. (Edie laughs) Now that’s just my fantasy part of that story but I just want you to know that telling that entire story meant a lot to me because oh it wasn’t all peaches and cream, let me ask you this… did Miles’s children have any input in what to put in and what not to put in? NELSON: No, No Miles family did not, they were cooperative with us we made the film with their blessings, but after they gave the blessings, they did not see the film until we had finished and I sent them a cut of the film. So, no they were not, they had no influence over this, the contents of the film, at all, and it is a good thing, you don’t want the family influencing the direction of the film. EDIE: Right because you want the truth in the film and that’s exactly what you did. NELSON: Yeah, Yeah, I mean I was very nervous about how they were going to see the film, cause as you say it’s a kind of worse and all portrait of Miles, we don’t shy away from his abusive relationship with women, or his use of drugs and those kind of things. Miles could be a very hard person to kind of get along with, but they loved it from the moment we sent them the cuts, they never said change a word, they said we love it let’s go and they’ve been incredible I mean as you saw it, they flew with us to East St. Louis and to St. Louis their in Atlanta now we’re going to New Orleans tomorrow they did L.A. they flew to New York for the opening they’ve been the stanches supporters of the film of anybody they’ve been incredible, doing Q&A’s and all that. EDIE: (And you know just to see…Just for them to be okay with the fact that Miles left his family in East St. Louis and you know that whole bit. But what was good for me to see was the fact that Okay, he left his lady in East St. Louis goes to New York City makes it big and then…what I was happy about is the fact that Francis was a black woman, you know because a lot of entertainers back in the day, when they got on top they would have white women with them, but Miles was, I just thought that was so cool it was so heartening for me and that why the whole love affair between Francis and Miles Davis is a great story for me and the fact that he chose as his queen, he chose a black woman as his queen, and I like that. NELSON: Well I think that there is also a text in the film where he takes the white woman off his cover, the record

company put a white woman on the cover of Miles Ahead and he protest that (Edie Laughs) I don’t want to give it away but it’s hilarious what he does and you know, in a typical Miles Davis way, and then when he comes out with “Someday My Prince will Come” he has Francis on the cover. Yeah look Francis was one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen in my life. (EDIE (Interrupting) Me too! I mean, I’m a woman and I will say that.) Nelson continues… you can’t believe how beautiful she was. I remember sitting there looking at my Father’s cover of “Someday My Prince Will Come” I might have been 10 you know (as far as) I didn’t even know what I was looking at, I was just looking at her I was like Dang, there’s something here. EDIE (Interrupts): I mean Miss Fine right? NELSON: She’s grabbing looks! It’s hard to explain you’ll have to see the film because she’s hilarious, open and honest and just really a trip, she’s a trip. EDIE: She was my favorite in the whole film, now is she still with us today? NELSON: No Francis actually passed away last Thanksgiving, umm just two days after Thanksgiving, she passed away. Unfortunately, she never got to see the film, and one thing we all lament you know the family and everybody around the film … I mean could you imagine doing a Q&A with Francis? (Edie & Nelson laugh together) it would have been hysterical, she’s really funny. EDIE: She was something else, and I’m so glad you were able to get that before she passed away… (NELSON: Yeah, yeah, she was great.) You know, I’m reading a book right now called “Three Wishes”, and it’s about… Have you heard of that book? NELSON: No, I don’t think so EDIE: Yeah, it’s about great jazz artist from back in the day and the author of the book went around and asked each musician if they had three wishes what would those wishes be, and she asked everybody Miles, and everybody is in this book. And I’m not going to tell you what Miles said, he had three words and not even going to tell you on-mic. NELSON (Interrupts): Wait, wait I think, I think I’ve www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

STANLEY NELSON... cont.

heard the rancor from that… (Edie and Nelson laugh together inaudible) EDIE: What I did want to say about this book is the essence of the entire book and some of the things the artists said answering the question of the three wishes seem like everybody was saying that one of the things they wished is for their music to be legit and for them to be accepted. Oh and it just, I know it just strikes me as so sad in a way that these great musicians from back in the day, it made me feel bad for them because they were such great artist and doing such great musician majesty that they all felt that way…and even Miles going away to Europe and then coming back home and seeing wow, look at how their treated, and look at how they look at us, you know. So, it’s amazing your film awakened that with me as well. EDIE: I wanted to ask you this, noticeably Ms. Cecily Tyson was not…well she was shown in the film, but you didn’t have any words from her. NELSON: Yeah, you know, we couldn’t get Cecily to sit down and be interviewed, she is in the process of writing her own autobiography, we just couldn’t pin her down, but we tried, we tried everything we possibly could, but you know she’s talked about in the film, we do talk about her and Miles talks about her in his own words, other people talk about how she kind of rescued Miles from horrible drug period from 75-81 when Miles didn’t , as he said pick up his horn for 4 of those years didn’t even touch his horn he didn’t play any concerts didn’t do anything really just in his house and just kind of drugged out. Interesting she’s part of the rescue squad, you know one of those people responsible for Miles coming back to life from 81-90 on the last 10 years of his life (inaudible) EDIE: Yeah, I’ve heard some stories from musicians who visited Miles during those times, and they were some really eye-opening events that happened, but she was very instrumental in getting him out of that funk…What was your favorite thing in the film? NELSON: My favorite thing…I think you know, my favorite thing was just being given honor to do a film about Miles Davis and to be immersed in Miles music for a couple of years and meeting you know, Herbie Hancock, and Wayne Shorter, and Jimmy Cobb, and Francis Taylor and George (inaudible) and all those people, it was just incredible! I find it incredible that Wayne Shorter knows my name. (Edie & Nelson laugh together)

pg.

EDIE: Let me ask you that, you know he played with all the best musicians, well as a mater of fact he made them…no, I won’t say that either, I won’t say that because… NELSON: Well he sure did help; he helped their careers in many ways. EDIE: Right so, when you asked to talk to these people was there any problem, did Herbie say, “Oh No, I don’t have time to talk to you”. NELSON: No I don’t think anybody said that…the main problem was just pinning them down, a lot of these guys are super, super, super, busy still, a lot of them still go to this…they do this kind of concert tour in Europe in the Summer that’s were they’ve gone) they’re still gigging they’re still recording, and so, how do you pin them down, that was really the thing for us. You know it’s just making a (inaudible) film, you don’t want to try to shoot one interview a day, you’ve got to try to do three to four interviews in a day, so how do you get Herbie Hancock and then get another couple of people and do that same day, because you know you’re paying the crew the cameras and sound person assistant camera and all those people by the day, so you want to try to load up in the day and so if Herbie Hancock say ok “I can do February 12th at noon so then we’ll have to find somebody to do that same day at 9 and somebody else that same day at 3 and kind of fill the day, that was kind of our struggle. EDIE: Now your company Firelight Films have announced an upcoming film to be released on PBS in 2021 tell us about Creating the New World (the Transatlantic Slave Trade)? NELSON: Yeah that’s a film I’ve been thinking about for years it’s a 4-hour series on the transatlantic slave trade I’m looking at the trade the trade of human beings as a business that changed the world that we live in. So, we’re looking at the economics of the trade how it affected shipping, how it affected insurance, how it affected banking (EDIE: WOW) how it changed the makeup of the world how slave trade invented the whole idea of race it was invented to justify the slave trade. It’s a huge, huge, huge undertaking for us and we’re very excited about it. We’ve raised the money to do it, so it’s not just a fantasy it is happening as we speak. We haven’t started shooting yet but we’re looking forward to it, part of like once again it’s like Miles like Oh, now that we’ve got the money

Okay now what do we do. (EDIE Interrupts: Now what, I think that…) NELSON Continues: This is a hard one because 95% is pre- photography you know so using a lot of paintings and drawings and diaries and other things, some re-creations and some great interviews but we’re just…

EDIE: Is it really the way it works

EDIE: Yeah just reading about it is fascinating…

NELSON: Umm Well you know, no. You don’t have time if you finish the project then you announce it and you might be on the air in two or three months, you know, this is a huge undertaking we’re gearing up, PBS is gearing up we want the local stations to gear up (EDIE: Okay) incredible amount of research. To give you and idea we got a grant to do research and we held 4 convening of the top scholars of the slave trade around the world and we held the first meeting at Brown University in Providence, the Center for the City of Slavery. We’re partnering with them and we met at Brown we brought experts from all across the United States to be apart of that, a couple of people came in from Brazil. Then we had another convening in Amsterdam we brought a European Scholar to talk about the trade… then we had a convening in Johannesburg South Africa where we brought more scholars, African Scholars namely to come and talk about the trade and then we had another convening in New York. So you know I mean that this is a massive huge undertaking so that’s why we announce when it will be just to kind of clear room for it, because we’re hoping it’s going to be a big thing and look at the role of enslavement of people in this trade in a whole new light and give it the importance it should be given.

NELSON: Yeah, it’s an incredible story (inaudible) there’s a lot of scholarship on the slave trade and it hasn’t kind of filtered down to the general public so we can open a lot of people’s eyes. But we want to make the slave

NELSON: Yeah, yeah… EDIE: Why did I think you had to finish the project first?

EDIE: Now what’s the one that’s been tugging at you from day one that documentary that you really want to do but can’t seem to get there. What does that look like?

trade one of the cornerstones of the world that we live in. Where we live is (inaudible) there’s some black and brown people and unless they are native people, they got here, or their ancestors got here because of the trade of human beings. EDIE: I Think this is gonna be really exciting and for you to say you haven’t started yet and you’re already announced when it will be released. That’s amazing! (Edie laughs) NELSON: Well that’s kind of the way it works.

NELSON: I don’t know I use to say I wanted to do a film on James Brown and I still would love to, one was done a couple of years ago, but I still think there’s room for another one. But, I’m just so happy and excited about the Miles film that I’m not looking to jump into another music film right away. But you know I’ve been very lucky in the last few years , we just got a contract to do a film on Harriet Tubman and another film on Frederik Douglas from Maryland Public TV and it will be on TBS so you know what can be better than to do a film on those two icons. So, you know we’re just jugging away. (cross talk) EDIE: You’re making all of us smarter…You’re making all of us smarter.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

STANLEY NELSON... cont.

EDIE: Here’s a question I used to ask back in the day. You’re given a round trip ticket to heaven and you can visit three in your case historical people, three historical people that you’ve always wanted to talk to who would those people be and why …what would you say to them? NELSON: Who knows, I don’t know what I would say but one’s got to be Miles, because I’ve been working on Miles and so I would love to see what that was really like. And I guess it would be icons of religion, I would love to see who Jesus Christ really was and I would like to see who Mohammad really was…You know those things would be …and I would also be able to come back and tell people…EDIE…(Yeah laughingly) NELSON Continues: And here is what they are really like.

NELSON: Oh, thank you so much, I’m so glad you did it’s really good to know you and let’s keep it going. EDIE: Oh Absolutely, now Miles Davis Birth of the Cool, directed by Mr. Stanley Nelson still being held at the Tivoli Theatre 6350 Delmar Blvd. in the loop and the film is one hour and 55 minutes long but it just breezes right through, and it’s absolutely beautiful with pictures and the music and its just awesome, and I think its going to be here till the 19th ? NELSON: Ahh…well that’s news to me… EDIE: You don’t know you’ve done your part?

EDIE: Very good…you know in my opinion Mr. Nelson you have opened Miles’s heart in this film, for the first time we’re allowed to look inside and see the entirety of what made Miles Davis Miles Davis. And to me the scene where Dr. Davis went on that stage and got his son and brought him back to East St. Louis, to me that was what made Miles, Miles, having a father like Dr. Davis because in a lot of ways Miles is just like his Dad, and one day maybe somebody will write that story, but that’s just my opinion. (Edie laughs)

NELSON: Oh no we’re moving so fast the film opens today in Baltimore, Atlanta and New Orleans and I’m going to New Orleans tomorrow to talk about the film , we’ve got people in Baltimore and in Atlanta and stuff, (inaudible) on this treadmill, it’s a great treadmill to be on but you know we’re moving quick and sometimes we’re making calls and saying you’re still in St. Louis, what’s going on. So, it’s great, its great…(inaudible) EDIE: Now you can read more about the documentary online just google Mr. Stanley Nelson Miles Davis Birth of the Cool, and it pops right up. NELSON: They can reach me at info@firelightmedia.org info@firelightmedia.org EDIE: Ok…Now I didn’t get a chance to talk to you about your awesome crew…as a matter of fact I looked at the picture of you and the people who work behind you…they’re all women! All women of beautiful colors and oh hairstyles and all of that! I’m like…no wonder his documentaries are so good and so heartfelt.

NELSON: You got a point EDIE: Anyway, I’m so glad I got this opportunity to talk to you I’m glad I was brave enough to go up to and introduce myself which actually brought on this interview and I appreciate that.

pg.

NELSON: Well yeah. What we believe at Firelight is that people should tell their own stories and we try to put our theory into practice so we hire a lot of people of color and we also run a thing we call the “Documentary Lab” where we work with filmmakers of color… 10 -15 filmmakers only have one time to get their films made and done and on the air and it was very successful we have a film called “Always in Season” about lynching, done by an African American woman who won the special “Jury

Prize” at Sundance this year we had another alumni that won two prizes a Sundance this year, so you know we’re just kickin you know and trying to… they let me get my foot in the door and I’m trying to hold it open for people to get in.

to milesdavismovie.com and that tells about where the film is screened all over the country in St. Louis and East St. Louis but also everywhere text milesdavismovie.com and you can find out any information about where this film is and where it is screening.

EDIE: So, what is it…is it no men allowed in your group or what…(Laughing)…I’m just teasing…

EDIE: Very Good, for ARTS_TODAY Magazine and 88ond KDHX we want to thank you so much Mr. Stanley Nelson, we really appreciate you talking to us today

NELSON: NO, I don’t want to be like that, yeah but we do have lots of men. You know I think that, this would be a much longer discussion but, there’s a lot more women of color out there in the film industry than there are of men and we’re an equal opportunity employer. So, we don’t like to look at it as we got too many women, we’re like ok we want the most qualified people we can and one thing we do try to do whenever we can is work with people of color. EDIE: Thank You so much Mr. Stanley Nelson

NELSON: My pleasure thank you so much. EDIE: Thank you bye bye! An Interview with Documentarian Stanley Nelson /Director of Miles Davis (Birth of the Cool) By: Author, Playwright, Radio Personality Edie Anderson (aka) Your Lady Edie Bee of 88one KDHX for ARTS_TODAY NEWSZINE

NELSON: Thank You I really appreciate it and if anybody want to find information about the film they can go

BIO

Edie Anderson (aka) Your Lady Edie Bee has been pre-eminent in the field of jazz and R&B in St. Louis for years as one of its most popular hosts and promoters.

She has taken the lead in jazz appreciation and presentation in various positions with leading St. Louis Radio stations, hosting her own very popular shows showcasing the best in jazz. From the standpoint of the experience that Edie has—and in the truest spirit of love for music and enjoyment of radio and its associated facets—she feels ready to continue her career in radio with the presentation of new challenges. After many years off air “Your Lady Edie B.” is once again host of her own straight-ahead jazz show R.S.V.P (Rare Songs, Very Personal) aired live each Sunday now from 10pm till midnight on 88one KDHX FM in St. Louis MO. She has also added “Playwright” to her resume with the writing of her first stage play, “Jazz in My Soul/a Marvin Gaye Fantasy”, now in book form. Bringing Jazz & Community together has always been Edie’s goal, she is now CEO of JIMS Inc., and founder of the National Jazz Heritage Foundation in her home city, she also serves as a board member of the National Black Radio Hall of Fame. Edie is married to jazz musician (bass & sax) Jeffrey Anderson of St. Louis MO.

BIO

Stanley Earl Nelson Jr. (born June 7, 1951) is an American documentary filmmaker and a Macarthur “genius” fellow known as a director, writer and producer of documentaries examining African American history and experiences. He is a recipient of the 2013 National Humanities Medal from President Obama. He has won three Primetime Emmy Awards.

Among his notable films are Freedom Riders (2010), Wounded Knee (2009), Jonestown: The Life & Death of People’s Temple (2006), Sweet Honey in the Rock: Raise Your Voice (2005), A Place of Our Own (2004),The Murder of Emmett Till (2003), The Black Press: Soldiers without Swords (1998), The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution (2015), Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities (2017), Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool (2019) and Boss: The Black Experience in Business (2019)

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

pg.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

OP / ED SECTION

Moline Acres Police Department College Scholarship Program in partnership with Infinite Scholars Program

95 percent school attendance 3.3 or better cumulative grade average 22 or better composite ACT score No major discipline problems

Pictured are Moline Acres Chief of Police Colonel Ware, Police Officer Donaldson, and students Charmaine and Charles.

pg.

Editorial Rebeccah Bennett TRUTH: This is not the first time that this country has been run by a bigot. It is not the first time that we have experienced political isolation and social rejection. Founder and principal of Emerging Wisdom LLC.

nd it is not the first time that we have had to figure out how to metabolize our grief and fear in ways that did not immobilize us, but caused us to actualize our power to change the world.

PERSPECTIVE:

Right

and forefathers lived through horrors that were generational in scope and scale. They persisted through times when there was little chance of a better tomorrow, much less a better life â&#x20AC;&#x201C; not even for their kids. Yet they responded to their lot in life by creating resistance movements, aid societies, educational and religious institutions, banks and co-ops, art forms, innovations and spiritual practices that continue to make our lives

better today. Remember that their blood is our blood. Their strength is our strength. They are the ROOTS and we are their FRUITS.

PRAYER:

We call upon our ancestors, those upon whom the sky fell. We call upon our ancestors who experienced all manner of degradation, humiliation, violation and death. We call upon our ancestors, people who swung from trees and were forced to live on their knees. We call upon our ancestors, many of whom persisted, survived and endured without destroying themselves or others. May whatever it is that nourished and sustained them come more fully alive in us. Ashe.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

Mother Wit by Malaika B. Horne

Yes! Please send me Mother Wit by Malaika B. Horne $16.00 • ISBN: 978-1-4809-4550-0 Ship ___ at $16.00/book $ * Please add $3.99 shipping & handling for the first book ordered and $1.00 for each additional book. Shipping is USPS First Class.

SUBTOTAL $ ** Shipping and Handling $ TOTAL DUE $ Order from your bookseller or direct from:

DORRANCE PUBLISHING CO BOOK ORDER DEPARTMENT

NAME

585 Alpha Drive, Suite 103 Pittsburgh, PA 15238

ADDRESS

Please add me to your mailing list.

To order call

STATE

CITY

1-800-788-7654

ZIP

or visit our website at

www.dorrancebookstore.com PHONE or cut along dotted line and mail to address listed above along with credit card information or check or money order.

Visa [ ] MC [ ] AmEx [ ] Disc. [ ] Signature

Exp. Date

Mother Wit by Malaika B. Horne

SUBTOTAL $ ** Shipping and Handling $ TOTAL DUE $ Order from your bookseller or direct from:

DORRANCE PUBLISHING CO BOOK ORDER DEPARTMENT 585 Alpha Drive, Suite 103 Pittsburgh, PA 15238

NAME ADDRESS

Please add me to your mailing list.

To order call

1-800-788-7654

CITY

STATE

ZIP

or visit our website at

www.dorrancebookstore.com PHONE or cut along dotted line and mail to address listed above along with credit card information or check or money order.

Visa [ ] MC [ ] AmEx [ ] Disc. [ ] Signature

pg.

Exp. Date

8 1

TH ARY S R IVE

N N A

You are invited to celebrate the 18th year of UrbArts by joining us this Saturday, Sept 28th for our special event or making a donation at UrbArts.org/ giving. This year, we recognize the efforts of key people in the UrbArts community during the anniversary event. Dinner is provided for our VIP ticket holders. But if you don't get a VIP ticket and only want to celebrate this occasion, we offer the general admission ticket tomorrow for $25.00. If you cannot join us tomorrow, be on the look out for some exciting news about the future of UrbArts.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

QUICK REVIEW AUGUST

Tonight, or perhaps tomorrow, you might want to take your kids, my kids, or someone else’s kids to the City Museum to enjoy the spectacle of Circus Harmony! It promises to delight audiences of all ages and it runs all month long! If it’s bluegrass and blues, it’s bound to be an awesome weekend of music at Atomic Cowboy in The Grove. Tonight, you can check out JJ Mofro w/Johnny Lang as they bless the stage! Also tonight, you’ll want to take a lawn chair and some

ry about a little girl and her tastic evening. Blues at the magical powers. Show- Arch is a free concert series ing on the The Muny stage that takes place each Friday August 5th through 11th. in the month of August. This week, the incomparable Kim Massiewill bless the stage, On the 6th is Faust Sum- along with Kennedy Holmes. mer Concert Series in Chesterfield with music by Scott Laytham and Karl Holmes, cool-down food for purchase such as Kona Ice, and a Kid’s Zone featuring the Bubble Bus, a rock climbing wall, and much more! From August 1-31 you can view two unique exhibitions: Central Print presents: FLOCK andBLACK/WHITE Because of the rains a few All Media Art Exhibit (Lilweeks ago, they have ex- lian Yahn Art Gallery) 13th tended the Whitaker Music through 18th 2019 St Lou

great food from all over St. Louis, several stages of live music, and a host of other art and activities- including a ferris wheel over Forest Park! Even Ewok was there last year.. not sure if he rode the ferris wheel though. On Saturday the 17th there’s so much going on in and around St. Louis...Kimmswick 5K And 1 Mile Walk And Fun Run to fight ALS presented by Blue Owl Bakery; Rise Up Festival on Washington Blvd.; and Red White & Floyd - A Tribute to Pink Floyd at Pop’s.

19 The 20th is one of many Happy Hour Tuesdaysat Saint Louis Hop Shop. Stop by and check out the wide variety of craft beers -you will not leave thirsty. Slaying Dragons Theater, in conjunction with theMissouri History Museum, presents Voices in the Woods on the 21st. The dramatization explores a West Virginia family’s dealings with a matriarch›s mental illness. You’ll have to see the play to grasp a powerful message.

friends over to Forest Park to watch The Goonies on the big screen. The movie is part of the Art Hill Film Series, The search is on for buried treasure… and free popcorn with your art museum membership card! Support the arts in St. Louis tonight at A Midsummer Night’s Drink on the rooftop at Centene Center for the Arts, which features signature cocktails, appetizers, and a sweeping view of the St. Louis skyline. Something else for the kids is Roald Dahl’s “Matilda”, and enchanting sto-

Festival for a week! Join me on Wednesday August 7th at the Missouri Botanical Gardens for an evening of great music, drinks, food, & friends asTonina will be closing down the festival for this season. This week on the 7th Kranzberg Jazz Jam, hosted by Bob Deboo is part of the Wednesday night Jazz Crawl in Grand Center, featuring various St. Louis musicians. On Friday, the 9th, you might find me downtown at the Gateway Arch for a fan-

pg.

Fringe Festival inGrand Center Arts District Might you be up for a boat ride on the river in the dead of night? If so, paddle out on the Big Muddy Adventures Full Moon Float, on Friday the 16th. Ah yes! One of the best new festivals in St. Louis returns on the 16th, 17th and 18th! The St. Louis World’s Fare is upon us for the 3rd or 4th year. I can›t remember exactly how long, but I promise that it is always a good time, and you will find me there along with

An inspirational teacher for many, Iyanla Vanzant offers words of wisdom atThe Touhill Performing Arts Center on Thursday the 22nd. Your new tattoo is waiting to take form on the 23rd and 24th at Trader Bob’s 6th AnnualTattoo Flash Revival.This year’s them is “Born to Raise Hell”... Alright, I’m excited.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

AUGUST

QUICK REVIEW

continued

pg.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

pg.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

LIVE WORK PLAY

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019 St. Louis

We have said goodbye to summer until next year, it’s been a great one. Now, we usher in Fall Festival Season and there are so many splendid things this month that I can hardly stand it! September is one of my favorite months of the year, and I hope that you’ll join me in checking out some of the special events that our beloved St. Louis has to offer. All the best. –Nate

SEPTEMBER

thru

SEPTEMBER

Tonight, join me a the kickoff of the St. Louis Art Fair in Clayton! You’ll find great food, entertainment, people, and of course, art! Meet the artists and find that special something at one of St. Louis’ premier annual events all weekend long. It will be gettin’ hot in heere, more specifically, hot in Alton as Nelly will be on stage at (Liberty Bank Amphitheater. Also on Friday night, you can head down to Cherokee Street to check out the hip-hop fusion group Illphonics as they kick off the release of the session beer, Illixir, brewed in their honor @ Earthbound Brewery. The hapless yet honorable Don Quijote inspires us with his optimistic view of life in Man from La Mancha at Stages St. Louis. Opening night is Friday the 6th. Don’t miss out on checking out PAUL GAUGUIN: THE ART OF INVENTION at the St. Louis Art Museum. It is in its final days and will wrap up on the 15th. The BBQ, Beer, & Bourbon Crawl is here St. Louis and it will be better than ever. Come stroll through Soulard eating the BEST BBQ, enjoying exclusive bourbon and beer specials on Satuday. Saturday the 7th is a day to explore what it means to be black and proud, authentic and brilliant in St. Louis. Experience Consciousfest: Creators of Culture. Also on the 7th Science Trivia at Glaziers

pg.

Local Events SEPTEMBER

Hall on The Hill benefits 500 Women Scientists in St. Louis Pod. A great event, not only for smart women supporting smart women, but for anyone who wants to know more. Sophie’s Lounge Sessions returns this Saturday September 7th. It›s truly the best kept secret in the city. The ambiance in Sophie›s is unique and it brings out some the best spins for the DJ. come see and listen for yourself. Enjoy a fly atmosphere in Clayton, booming with culture, Japanese dishes and cocktails all to a live soundtrack w/ DJ Reminise at Zen Saturdays at Tani Sushi Bistro. Head over to Creve Coeur on Sunday morning and Stay in that Zen state of consciousness while relaxing with Yoga in the Park, which takes place in the beautiful Creve Coeur Lake Memorial Park.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

LIVE WORK PLAY

From the 9th through the end of September, the Apple Fest at Eckert’s Country Store & Farms is the perfect reason for you to try recipes of all sorts, and make the most of this season’s fruit. The whole family will enjoy an outing to Belleville. He is quite the showman. And the hair? Lenny Kravitz dons his guitar, shades, and locks to put on a show. Come ready to rock on Tuesday the 10th at The Fabulous Fox. The fall season of Twilight Tuesdays is upon us at the Missouri History Museum! This free outdoor concert series offers spectacular musical lineups each week. Grab your blankets and lawn chairs, enjoy the food trucks or pack your own picnic basket, and enjoy great music under a beautiful Forest Park sunset.

SEPTEMBER

thru

Thursday the 12th highlights several cool events around town: On your mark… get set… go to the 2019 Biz Dash 5K coordinated by Big River Running and happening at Soldiers Memorial. It’s an invigorating way to spend time with friends and meet other fitness-minded folks. Also on the 12th the TedxGatewayArch Crash Course at The Pageant is an opportunity to rub elbows with some of our area’s most talented minds as speakers share their perspectives on topics that affect our region and our world. Then the music plays under the stars on Art Hill. Relax to the sounds of the St. Louis Symphony Forest Park Concert!

SEPTEMBER

15 cont.

Kirkwood Greentree Festival kicks off on Friday, September 13! Enjoy games, crafts, a wine garden, dog show, and even a parade all weekend long in Kirkwood. There will be great live music as well,including Falling Fences, Tonina, Marquise Know and the Jeremiah Johnson Band! The black culinary scene in our town is also worth sampling. Head over to Tower Grove Park on Saturday the 14th for Taste of Black St. Louis. Sample, savor, and see the sights that bring to life a rich cultural heritage. Taste of St. Louis is back this year and better than ever, coming back home to downtown St. Louis with a Chef Battle Royale, a host of local live music, and amazing food! This great festival will satisfy each and every one all weekend long at Soldiers Memorial Park. Then from 11am-12pm you can hear the lecture: Porcupine Quill Embroidery on the Plains: from Center to Fringe at the Saint Louis Art Museum. Also at the museum, on view through Sunday the 15th, is Paul Gaugain: The Art of Invention.

pg.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

LIVE WORK PLAY

River Styx Poetry Reading on Monday the 16th features Meagan Cass and Lee Ann Roripaugh. On the 17th Ron Clyne Acoustic Duo - Honky Tonk 20 Year Anniversary at Off Broadway will be a good reason to relax after work. It’s also opening day to see The Shape of Abstraction: Selections from the Ollie Collection at SLAM. The Alzheimer’s Foundation of America’s National Educating America Tour stops at Saint Louis University’s Busch Student Center on the 19th to discuss the mysterious condition that impacts the lives of millions of older Americans; also, the Compass Improv Festival reveals the magic of improvisation with performances and workshops.

SEPTMBER

16 thru

SEPTEMBER

The Great Forest Park Balloon Race is here this weekend! The Balloon Glow is on Friday and the race is on Saturday. Come and join me at yet another signature St. Louis community event that you won’t want to miss in Forest Park. Did I mention the food trucks and fireworks finale?

Groove to some rhythm and blues with Ke’ira Presents “Finally” at The Grandel on Friday the 20th. On Saturday, the 21st, The Soulition, your trusted collective of forward-thinking, culture-pushing deejays, invite you to our 5th annual PARK JAM -- Come bring the family and groove to Soul, Funk, Afro Beat, Afro House, Salsa, Soca, Reggae/Dancehall, Hip-Hop, Trap, Bounce, Afro Pop, R&B, and more at Strauss Park in the heart of Grand Center. Meet me there, it will be a great time! Also on Saturday, The Old Webster Jazz & Blues Festival returns! Enjoy nonstop jazz and blues from two stages in Webster Groves’ downtown historic district, along with food and drinks from your local favorites. This event showcases St. Louis’ most talented performers. Bring some kids, pets, strollers and lawn chairs. One more stop for me on Saturday will be at the South Grand Fall Fest, which is now in its fifth year, will include more than 60 retail vendors and community organizations, as well as craft activities and games like gigantic Jenga, lifesized Connect Four and bing bag toss. Great music, people, food, and fun. What more could you want?

As this is the last day of summer, Saturday the 21st is a special day indeed. Life Outside: Free Festival of the Outdoors is your motivation to enjoy every season with zest. Jo Jo Siwa is at Chaifetz Arena on the 22nd. On Sunday, 8 pizzerias will -- Square Off -- for the title of “Best St. Louis Style Pizza” and all the bragging rights that come along with it at this St. Louis Pizza Festival! It all happens at Berra Park on the Hill where you›ll also find the most delicious toasted ravioli, gooey butter cake, Italian meats, cheeses and wines and.. and more! The festival piazza will feature 50+ local artists, crafters, and small businesses, along with games and giveaways.

pg.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

LIVE WORK PLAY

From the 23rd-25th the Hispanic Festival Fiesta en St. Louis in Soulard Park brings together our region’s Spanish-speaking neighbors. Enjoy interesting and diverse cultures from around the world, all in three days in our great city! Pack up the family for an evening together outdoors at the Maplewood Summer Concert Series featuring Big Mike & the Blu City All Stars on Wednesday the 25th. On Monday nights, continuing through September 26th, it’s a fun time at Boathouse Trivia. Gather a group of pals to find out who-knows-what in Forest Park...and win prizes! If you arrive early there can be time for a paddle around Post-Dispatch Lake.

SEPTEMBER

23 thru

SEPTEMBER

The Strange Folk Festival descends upon Carondelet Park on Friday the 27th and lasts all weekend. You won›t want to miss all the rad makers, music, and vibes! They say that even though you›ve never heard of it, you›ve always wanted to go. They also promise one of the vendors will sell claws. I can›t wait! Old Warson Country Club is the place to be on Friday the 27th for Winter Opera Saint Louis - Fall Gala. Also all weekend, you can go hog wild at the 5th annual Q in the Lou! Grab an ice-cold brew and sample pure smoked bliss from the world’s best pitmasters, at Kiener Plaza downtown. The Ste. Genevieve Farmer’s Market is renowned for its wide array of fresh, local produce, crafts, and many intriguing and unique treasures. Make a day of it on Saturday the 28th. Join thousands of committed others from the 28th-29th who support the Pedal the Cause event. Together we can create a world without cancer. On Sunday the 29th you have a couple of choices -- and they are excellent ways to enjoy the day/evening: Art in the Park, St. Louis Hills and the COCA Dance-A-Thon. A tough choice, for sure! Also on Sunday, explore the St. Louis Art Museum’s collection of Korean art at Free Family Sundays! Celebrate Chuseok, a Korean harvest festival, with an afternoon of performance and art making. Learn about Korean culture, enjoy a dance performance, and take part in story time in the Museum’s Asian art galleries. Let’s close out the month with Art in the Park, a 14 year tradition that returns to Francis Park in St. Louis Hills on Sunday, Sept. 29. Artists fill space on both sides of the lily pond to showcase their talent amid live music, delicious food and children’s activities. As always, admission is free and open to the public.

pg.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

LIVE WORK PLAY

& OCTOBER The baseball great Willie Stargell once said "I love October, especially when we're in it." Of course, he was talking about his team in the playoffs, and this year, our Cardinals are definitely in it, so what's not to love! Yes, Autumn is in the air, a month full of sweaters, pumpkin patches, warm beverages, and leaves crunching beneath our feet. St. Louis is a great place to be this month as we embrace the fall excitement with amazing festivals, Oktoberfests, and spooky Halloween activities for everyone. Of course, I hope that you'll join me in enjoying our great town in this great month!

All the best. –Nate

OCTOBER

thru

OCTOBER

Tonight, you can visit The Sheldon for an opening reception of not one, but 5 new Fall exhibitions! Yes, it is First Fridays where you can enjoy a remarkable array of visual arts at all of the museums and galleries in Grand Center Arts District, which are free and open until 9pm! Also, this evening, it is your last chance of the season to check out Sauce Magazine’s Food Truck Friday in Tower Grove Park. You’ll enjoy great live music and drinks, and of course, some amazing food! For a different flavor, you could head over to Earthbound Beer as the Fattened Caf will be taking over and blessing the attendees with their tender Filipino barbeque! Bachtoberfest is upon us at the Anheuser Busch Biergarten in the historic Soulard neighborhood where you can enjoy a festive evening of beer, wine, German fare and Deutschland’s favorite drinking songs! If you are in the mood for a Zombie Love Murder Mystery Dinner Theater, you can join the folks at the Lemp Mansion for an exciting evening of murder, mystery and mayhem at the most dangerous comedy dinner theater show in town. The Best of Missouri Market kicks off today and goes all weekend long! Come over to the Missouri Botanical Garden and appreciate some of the good things made, grown, and created by talented artisans in our great state. Dance and creative movement is the central theme on Saturday afternoon, October 5th, at the 3rd Annual Common Sound Festival in historic Dutchtown’s Marquette Park. The celebration of diversity centers on bringing the community together and fostering neighborhood vitality. Tomorrow, I’ll be showing some homes to a few clients, however, I hope to sneak by the 14th Annual Grove Fest, which is a FREE One day street festival in The Grove! An amazing lineup awaits us, including Jay-E, Dirty Muggs, Rubi, Root Mod, Bleach, School of Rock, Over 90 Vendors, World Hoop Day, Fire Performers, Arch City Roller Derby , African Dancers, Magic House, Fashion Show,The Bubble Bus and More! It will be great! I hope to see you there. Another great annual event that I hope to make it to this weekend is the Shaw Art Fair! Located on the tree-lined parkway of beautiful Flora Place in the Shaw Neighborhood, this is one of the premier fine art and fine craft fairs in the St. Louis area. Roughly 135 top caliber artists and craftspeople from around the

pg.

country are selected each year to participate in the professionally juried event. Of course, there will also be food and drinks and live entertainment. Grant’s Farm in South County celebrating fall with its second annual Fall Fest every Saturday and Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Budweiser Clydesdales Stables. For another oberfest, check out Zootoberfest! You’ll enjoy a zoo-themed family-friendly Oktoberfest including fall-related kids’ games and crafts; live music; German specialty food for purchase; and German bars serving a variety of beers at the world famous St. Louis Zoo. Also on Saturday, Tunes on Tap is on tap (see what I did there :), both a neighborhood/house tour and a local music festival. The afternoon will feature eight bands/songwriters performing at eight different locations in the historic Benton Park neighborhood. Dutchtown South Community Corporation’s 3rd annual Common Sound Festival. This year they are looking to continue the fun and take the dance talent up a notch in Marquette Park on Saturday, October 5th, 2019 Canine Carnival celebrates the bond between people and their pets! Head over to beautiful Tilles Park in Ladue to be part of the Carnival where the dogs play the games and win great prizes. Bring your pooches and join the APA Adoption Center for the festivities! On Sunday, you can hit up a few of the weekend festivities that you didn’t get to yesterday. You can also head over to Cherokee Street to check out Earthbound Beer Lazy Sunday Flea Market, hosted by Green Earth Art Company and Earthbound Beer. Vintage and Modern Finds: Glassware, t-shirts, jewelry, furniture, gemstones and crystals, original art, decorative home and garden pieces, craft beer, nibbles, and more.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

LIVE WORK PLAY

Performed by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra on Tuesday the 8th, Songbirdsongs at the Pulitzer Foundation transports listeners to a musical forest where nature sounds play among indoor concert instruments and lush environs of the outdoors. A Night with Janis Joplin at Stifel Theatre on the 8th and 9th is a surefire way to rock your weekend! From the 9th-13th Jazz St. Louis treats you to stellar performances by a renowned international troupe of women artists, known as Artemis, who demonstrates that musical excellence knows no gender.

OCTOBER

thru

OCTOBER

To commemorate the German heritage of St. Louis, there’s a party going on -- Friday and Saturday, the 11th and 12th. Soulard Oktoberfest highlights German food and beer at Soulard Farmers Market. On Friday, poet and writer Quincy Troupe will be performing with trumpeter and composer Keyon Harrold at the St. Louis Art Museum as part of The Shape of Abstraction exhibition. This exhibit features paintings, drawings, and prints by five generations of black artists who have revolutionized abstract art since the 1940s. Your pooch (and you!) will want to join in the fun at Arch Bark from 9am-1pm on the 12th for a one-mile fun walk, photo ops, dock diving, agility course, and more! On Saturday, you can head out to Fenton for their Fall Craft Fair at the Market in Olde Towne Fenton Pavilion. On Sunday, The Field House Museum will be host to a day of family fun! There is something for everyone between the historic house, current exhibitions, and interactives. Each Kids Corner will feature new crafts and activities the whole family is sure to enjoy. The 13th, Magic House 40th Birthday Party includes face painting, juggling, and more excitement for children. All the best. –Nate Let me know if there is anything that I can do for you.~Nate Nate K. Johnson ABR,AHWD,CIPS,CRS,GRI,SRES Real Estate Solutions Group Redkey Realty Leaders 314-575-7352 Direct 314-514-9600 Office nate@livingstl.com www.livingstl.com

pg.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

Who are YOU when you're not at work? Forgit who you is, be who you are Don't be stressed, vacate your desk Leave work at work, its time to twerk Adjust yo' 'tude, fine tune yo' mood Ain't gon' hurt if you came to flirt Come ride wit us, git on da bus

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18 Dinner buffet at Bentil's Event Space & Galleries, 5561 Enright Ave 63112 Featuring salad, broccoli pasta, Jerk chicken, fried plaintains, jollolf rice & more Doors open at 7pm, buffet starts at 7:30pm OTHER DESTINATIONS: The Bridge Bar & Grille Access the WEBSITE below, then look for: Lowes Lounge

"CLUB CRAWL TICKETS!"

$40 buys dinner & transportation to several destinations

"OH BUY THE WAY" Website pg.

“Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

LIVE WORK PLAY

Sept. 26- Oct. 1

| GRAND CENTER ARTS - Cry Bab

A O Oct. 4-13th

Oct. 5th

| .Zack - TLT / Chasing Waterfalls

| Chaifetz Arena: Erykah Badhu pg.

Oct. 1-13 th

19th

| FOX THEATRE - Hello Dolly

Also In OCTOBER Oct. 18th

Oct. 22nd

| Fox TheatreDear Evan Hansen

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

pg.

Used Car Buyers

BEWARE!

lood-damaged vehicles from the recent floods are making their way into the St. Louis used car market and being offered for sale as perfectly trustworthy vehicles. There are scores of cars and trucks with water up to their windows and in some cases over the hood and roof being bought by local and regional used car dealers. Auto dealers are expecting a surge in business once areas recover and used-car values are already close to a record high according to an auto auctioneer, and prices could climb even higher due to the tighter supply. According to reliable consumer reports, tornados, hurricanes and major storms consistently damage a large number of cars and trucks, and unfortunately, many waterdamaged cars can make it to the used-car market, masked as ordinary used automobiles. That’s a problem because water damage can be hard to spot and these cars often are transported well beyond their original region, where consumers may be less wary for such damage.

With so many vehicles in the latest floods, auto insurers are busy handling claims and cutting checks so flood victims are able to buy another car or truck. Water damage can be hard to detect, but there are some revealing signs you should be aware of, such as checking to see if the carpets show signs of having been saturated, such as smelling musty or having caked-on mud. You should check the seat-mounting screws, inspect the lights, search around the engine compartment, and hardto-clean places, such as gaps between panels in the trunk and under the hood. Mud and debris may still appear in these places. Headlights and tail-lights are expensive to replace, and a visible water line may still show on the lens or the reflector. If you are in the market for a used auto, truck or SUV, consider having a mechanic and a trusted professional evaluate the vehicle before you buy it. Be aware! ~Bernie Hayes

Submersing a car in water can ruin electronics, lubricants, and mechanical systems. The impact may not be immediately obvious, for it can take months or years for the emerging corrosion to find its way to the car’s vital electronics such as airbag controllers. Key protections depend on accurate reporting to insurance companies, and they to national registries, and careful pre-purchase inspections. Copyright © 2017 - All rights reserved.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

â&#x20AC;&#x153; â&#x20AC;&#x153;

An artist's duty, as far as I am concerned, is to reflect the times. (Nina Simone)

I choose to reflect the times and the situations in which I find myself. How can you be an artist and not reflect the times? (Nina Simone)

pg.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

pg.

THE TEARS OF MOTHER EMANUEL

John Jennings Associate Professor Visual Studies SUNY Buffalo tumblr: http://jijennin70. tumblr.com/

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

SENIOR READERS AND AFRICAN AMERICAN NARRATIVES

eople Program, a continuing education opportunity sponsored by the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in New Orleans, is a site where cultures of reading are practiced with alacrity. Senior citizens who volunteer to share their expertise in skills and disciplines with senior citizens who hunger to learn and renew themselves model a civility that is rare in the academic world. Blessed are the elderly, for they shall be elsewhere sooner rather than later, and they shall take with them a neat paradox: the unpleasant pleasure of the text, the African American narrative.

The People Program directors stress that senior citizens should have fun, should discover or re-discover the joy of learning. Since spring of 2018, I have volunteered to direct four classes that focus in whole or in part on African American narratives, displacing traditional student/teacher exchanges in a classroom with conversations about what actually happens as we read, i.e., have transactions with fiction without being encumbered with oppressive theories and worry that our gut reactions lack aesthetic validity. We have not created any remarkably new knowledge in general about readers and literature. The senior readers and I have merely affirmed the value of African American narratives as tools for living, as microscopes for seeing contradictions with greater clarity, and as instruments for discovering why we may have made certain choices and not others in our life histories. In a special issue on “Cultures of Reading,” the editors of PMLA 134.1 (January 2019) suggest that academic scholars “have been moving away from the imperatives of interpretation and critique” and acknowledging “there are rich pragmatic as well as ethical implications to the new perspectives opened by scholarship that focuses on the mechanics of reading and on the cognitive processes that the act of reading involves” (10) And some of the scholars “have also asked why over the last fifty years the discipline of literary studies has tended to leave the exploration of those [intricacies concealed by the simple term text comprehension] to other disciplines such as psychology or education” (10). Has it taken fifty years for literary study to discover it has all along been cultural study in disguise and in service to the hegemonic templates of higher education which still kick much African American writing to the margins of attention? In certain “confessions of racial ignorance” which have emerged from time to time in our People Program classes/ forums/conversations, we senior readers have found provisional answers which encourage us to applaud academic scholars for their belated efforts. It is indeed right for Evelyn Ender and Deidre Shauna Lynch, the editors of the special issue, to conclude that “reading demands many diverse acts of translation, acts that involve more than characters on a page. It demands a way of conversing about and exchanging ideas that helps cross boundaries between various cultures of reading”(16). We

pg.

senior readers applaud without having delusions that new recognitions about literature and reading will really become standard or commonplace in American education higher or lower. As far as we know, the only genuine, relatively unfettered site for a pedagogy of liberating that includes the nexus of race, ethnicity, class, and gender is in conversations had outside the Academy. In designing the People Program forums, I tried to leave space for a possibility addressed by Peter McMahan and James Evans in “Ambiguity and Engagement.” American Journal of Sociology 124.3 (November 2018): 860-912. They argue that “ambiguous scholarly language acts like a boundary object between researchers and their communities, drawing competing interpretations into conversation with one another as they build on it.” Thus, ambiguity and uncertainty “create zones of social and intellectual engagement” [ quoted from the abstract]. We needed zones but minimal academic jargon. Ambiguity in the forums would be vernacular, not dependent on literary language, and the zones would be organic. That is to say, the zones would evolve without self-consciousness of theory, without the desperation of philosophical explanation of ourselves to ourselves. We might recognize as Felicia Martinez proposes in “Literary Forms of Life.” Philosophy and Literature 37 (2013): 247-256 that narratives can give form to human life only “if what I am is something like the shifting relations between myself, the world, and language” (255). The nature of the zones would also be determined by who the participants were; the members of the audience changed from one forum to another. Moreover, I had in mind the power of African American narratives as they were dealt with in Jacqueline Jones Royster’s Traces of a Stream: Literacy and Social Change Among African American Women (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2000), Elizabeth McHenry’s Forgotten Readers: Recovering the Lost History of African American Literary Societies (Durham: Duke University Press, 2002) and Toni Morrison’s Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992). The four forums or extended conversations demonstrated that a pedagogy of liberating is not exactly free of limits, of considerations external to the phenomenology of reading which color thought. For example, for the Spring 2018 forum on works by Richard Wright I proposed that each participant could make a significant contribution to (1) elements of the reading experience, (2) our discovery of Wright’s quest to understand the world in which he lived and why his legacy has continuing relevance, and (3) our discovery of how themes function in diverse ways in literature and culture. Reading Black Boy, The Outsider, The Color Curtain and A Father’s Law in chronological order of publication, we set about the task of emphasizing (a) autobiography as genre, (b) a novel’s emphasis on existentialism and ideologies, (c) a travel report’s emphasis on an international affair (the Bandung Conference of 1955), and (d) a novel’s depiction of religious, moral and ethical choices as aspects of the rule of law. The senior readers drew upon their memories and life experiences to illuminate these issues, but they also insisted that I explain why Wright’s authorial intrusions gave birth to frustrations.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

SENIOR READERS... cont.

Thus, I wrote a blog for them on the productive frustration of reading for older readers. Frustration enabled us to understand our guilt and our innocence during the years of our being under the stars. Given that I co-directed but did not design the Summer 2018 forum on the impact of black writing on classic American literature, the forum was marked by discord. The white male who designed the forum knew very little about African American literature, and he had the gall to stress to senior readers that actually reading texts was not mandatory. They could learn about impact by watching Arnold Weinstein’s video lectures from Brown University on Benito Cereno, Uncle Tom’s Cain, Huckleberry Finn, Invisible Man, and Beloved. They could have white fun. Such nonsense would not obtain and prevail at the expense of my being complicit in promoting shallow, arrogant reading. Stopping short of calling the fellow a Trump-stricken idiot, I went on the offensive by way of mini-lectures contra Weinstein on D. H. Lawrence’s 1923 Studies in Classic American Literature and Toni Morrison’s 1992 Playing in the Dark: on how to read Ellison’s Invisible Man; on Mark Twain’s macroaggressions in Huckleberry Finn; on the contrast between Frederick Douglass’ The Heroic Slave and Herman Melville’s Benito Cereno; on James Baldwin’s opinions about what is lacking in Uncle Tom’s Cabin; on Morrison’s anatomy of enslavement in Beloved. Cultures of reading must ever challenge the disabling racial properties of the white reading imagination. The lessons learned from a summer of discontent served me well in designing the Fall 2018 forum on five African American writers and the Spring 2019 forum on Southern writers, because the senior readers and I could return to conversations predicated on shared authority. We returned to the joy of reading how Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, and Ernest J. Gaines chose to deal with vital 20th century topics and discussing why the issues they addressed have relevance in our 21st century practice of everyday life. One reader wanted to know if the grandfather’s deathbed advice in Invisible Man was reflected in our country’s present day climate and whether, as she put it so poignantly -----”Is there something faulty in my response, my milquetoast feelings toward the narrator ,as I respond today? In retrospect, I believe that long long ago, when I first read Invisible Man, I think I cared more. Perhaps I don’t want to engage in intellectual fight of the type the book requires. In other words ---is there something faulty that I would not choose to take this book on a deserted island, if I could only take one?” In our current Spring 2019 forum, senior readers devised their own strategies of making sense of Toomer’s modernism in Cane; of Eudora Welty’s peculiar Southern humor in The Ponder Heart, of Ellen Douglas’s creative architecture in Can’t Quit You, Baby (they absolutely loved listening over and over to Willie Dixon’s singing “Can’t Quit You, Baby” and turned the forum into a blues session); of remaining in uncertainty about fathers, sons, and corruption in Wright’s The Long Dream. I suspect the senior readers will have a profound, collective response to Minrose Gwin’s The Queen of Palmyra.

partial recovery of sanity and civility. In our cultures of reading we have communion. Appendix:

Spring 2018-----Richard Wright: Selected Works Black Boy The Outsider The Color Curtain A Father’s Law Summer 2018 --African American Impact on Classic American Literature The Heroic Slave Benito Cereno Uncle Tom’s Cabin Huckleberry Finn Invisible Man Beloved Fall 2018 ----Five African American Writers Invisible Man Go Tell It on the Mountain The Third Life of Grange Copeland The Bluest Eye A Lesson Before Dying Spring 2019 ---Southern Writers Cane The Ponder Heart Can’t Quit You, Baby The Long Dream The Queen of Palmyra

~Dr. Jerry Ward

When senior readers explore the territory of African American narratives or the American mindscape inspired by those narratives, what really happens is a

pg.

PEOPLE PROGRAM CLASSES

DISPLACED

&ERASED

The history of Clayton, Missouri's uprooted black community. emmakriley.com

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

pg.

Socks that heal broken a he a rts DONATE Socks for Courtney is a fund-raiser/Sock Drive in memory of Courtney Adavia Kemp

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

BEN LAMAR GAY

LIVE

Performance

Saturday, October 5, 2019 Doors open at 7pm | Show starts at 8 pm Off Broadway ( 3509 Lemp Ave, St. Louis, MO 63118) ALL AGES $20.00 Regular Admission / $10.00 Students & Struggling Music Supporters - seated event Advanced tickets (recommended) here | RSVP on the facebook event page here Ben LaMar Gay: cornet, synth, flute, vocals, compositions Tommaso Moretti: Drum Will Faber: guitar, flute , voice Matthew Davis: tuba, bansuri, voice

Chicago cornetist Ben LaMar Gay is one of the city’s most adventurous and boundary-pushing performers, with sound that touches upon avant-garde jazz, hip-hop, indie rock, Brazilian traditions, and experimental electronic composition. A member of the AACM, Gay (who also spent time traveling and living in Brazil) emerged in the 2000s singing and playing a variety of instruments. He was a core component on Makaya McCraven’s Highly Rare and a cornet cameo on Jaimie Branch’s Fly or Die, both of which releases were included in the New York Times’s “Best Albums of 2017”. Suffice it to say, Ben LaMar Gay is nearly omnipresent in the current zeitgeist of progressive jazz sounds sprouting from Chicago. “There is no one universe for Ben LaMar Gay, he just sonic booms from one sound to another. His solo debut, Downtown Castles Can Never Block the Sun, moves from fuzz-caked weirdo-psych to mutant synth-funk to giddy electronics to progressive jazz at a seamless, whiplash-free warp speed.” – NPR

pg.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

pg.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

Featured

Photography Submission

pg.

Shaw Photography

Group

Documenting Your Life...

www.shawphotographygroup.com www.memorialimprints.com

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

pg.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

pg.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

pg.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

Black History Man

Black Archaeologist

a.k.a

uses his time machine to witness black history as it happens.

Dvd’s for season # 4, mid season finale, with five episodes (Two Unreleased) soon to be available, along with seasons #1,#2,#3 at, BlackArchaeologist.com http://kunaki.com/msales.asp?PublisherId=109447&pp=1 GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/manage/black-history-man-season-4

WONDERFUL GIFTS FOR BLACK HISTORY pg.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

pg.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

Featured

Comic

Submission

pg.

Black

God Comics

Blackgodcomics is

pushing for the representation of black characters in the comic medium. We are offering our services to other creators as well, to help others get access to quality work with affordable rates. Email me at blackgodcomics@gmail.com and follow blackgodcomics on all social media !!!

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

pg.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

pg.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

pg.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

BLACK COMIX RETURNS - African American Comic Art & Culture

A hardcover collection of art and essays showcasing the best African American artists in today's vibrant comic book culture.

pg.

September 12, 16, 18, 23 & 25: Sullivsn in St. Louis Series American architect Louis Henry Sullivan is considered the father of skyscrapers and modernism. Join us for a series of discussions examining the work and impact of this influential architect.

September 19: Not So Quiet! Live on The Road Javier Mendoza's Hobo Cane SLPL proudly presents NSQ! Live On The Road featuring Javier Mendoza’s HOBO CANE. Don’t forget to bring a lawn chair or blanket to enjoy this free, outdoor concert.

September 21: Play Date Theater Presents St. Louis Arches Join us as Circus Harmony’s presents “St. Louis Arches.” See the acclaimed youth circus troupe perform juggling, tumbling, object manipulation and more.

September 28: Combatting the Local Opoid Crisis This adult program will educate the community about the opioid crisis in St. Louis and spotlight a few of the organizations addressing the crisis each day.

St. Louis Public Library 1301 Olive Street St. Louis, MO 63103 314-241-2288 slpl.org

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

Featured

Artist

Submission

pg.

Herb

Jones

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

pg.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

pg.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

pg.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

pg.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

pg.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

pg.

100

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

pg.

102

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

Available -

NOW!

on lulu.com and Amazon.com pg.

104

Would you like a printed copy(s) of an issue mailed to your home? Send your request to us by email **Remember to include the volume/issue** Cost may vary per issue.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

pg.

106

PRE-ORDER TODAY::

2018 marks the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King death. Here is my new book "My Mother. Barack Obama. Donald Trump. And the Last Stand of the Angry White Man," honest look at America 50 years later on race, sexual violence, guns, more.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

pg.

108

ART OF BEAUTY

Walk

Your Way Into Good Health

re you looking for a way to jumpstart a healthy "you" routine? One of the simplest ways to get your body active is by walking.

Walking is an exercise that is free and normally does not require training, gym membership, or special equipment. It can be done daily at almost any juncture in life. Walking is an important "learned" step that sets one on a path of indepence from infancy to toddler, and can continue to direct our paths

Step it up!

Walking can be gradually increased to achieve better health results. Resistance can be added by carrying or wearing weights on arm, ankles or waist. Several ways that you can add more steps into your day are: • By taking the stairs instead of the elevator • Set a step goal using smartphone, smartwatch or Fitbit • Walking to lunch instead of driving or ordering in • Parking at a parking lot farther from the office • Use the restroom furthest from your desk • Walk to co-workers instead of call or email • Pace or walk in place while watching tv or on calls • Walk a longer route if walking your dog • Take the scenic route home from work, school or store

Speed it Up!

Every body is different so walk speeds and steps are custom to you. By increasing the number of steps and arm swings, your heart rate increases. This increase in heartbeats also increases lung function to process the blood that is flowing faster, this results in increased oxygen production and raises metabolism (which can cause weight loss). Exercises that raise your heart rate, breathing and lung function are called Cardio. Walking is the perfect low impact exercise that can be done daily, indoors or outdoors as a great cardio work out. All you need is a sturdy pair of shoes and the motivation to get started. through a healthy adult hood. Did you know that by walking, you can increase cardiovascular and pulmonary fitness, increase metabolism, increase energy, improve the management of conditions like high cholesterol, hypertension, joint and muscular pain/stiffness, and diabetes? You can also lose weight, strengthen muscles and tone muscles of the legs, abdomen and arms (if you pump them as you walk). There are also mental and emotional benefits of walking. It helps to reduce stress, anxiety and depression, assists with clearing thoughts, and improves memory, learning, and concentration. Walking in the mornings or when the sun is up can also help your body to acquire and process Vitamin D which is essential for healthy bones and teeth. Vitamin D also helps facilitate normal immune system function which helps the body to fight certain cancers, diabetes, and other diseases.

Walking speeds are: • Casual Walking - Normal walking speed • • Brisk Walking - Slightly faster than normal with increased arm swings (about 20 mins. per mile) • • Speed (Power) Walking - Very quick steps and arm swings (about 6 - 11 mins. per mile) Regardless of what walk speed or type you choose

Get Up!

Walking daily is beneficial to your overall just physical and mental health.

As with starting any other work out routine, consult your doctor before starting a regimen if you have serious health conditions.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

pg.

110

Walking the Blue Line: A Police Officer Turned Community Activist Provides Solutions for the Racial Divide By Terrell Carter Bettie Youngs Book Publishers

$15.00 paperback

“As I recall my experiences, I find it incredulous that people in law enforcement honestly believe and say that a racial divide and racial profiling don’t exist. An officer’s mind is divided: first, between the police and the general public and second, between the police and minorities.”~ Terrell Carter Walking the Blue Line follows the author’s experiences growing up as a black child in St. Louis, MO, a racially charged city still trying to overcome its divided past, and his five year journey as a law enforcement officer which led him to reevaluate his views on citizens and police alike. Readers are taken on a compelling journey as he details personal stories of the challenges of navigating this new world, including how he had to testify against a former partner for falsifying a major drug arrest. Terrell details the thoughts and tactics of police officers based on their training in the police academy and lessons they learn on the streets and how this information can help citizens better understand why officers do what they do while still holding them accountable for protecting and serving their communities. Walking the Blue Line can be ordered from www.terrellcarter.net, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and traditional booksellers.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

pg.

112

1619 What the Year

Means to Me

have very mixed feelings about the 400th

skin color, to our diets, born of necessity and desperation

anniversary of the arrival of African slaves, my

on those plantations, that wreak havoc on our health. 1619

ancestors, to Jamestown, Virginia. It is because I

means, to me, the mental brainwashing and physical and spiritual devastation of an entire race of people, and that

know well American history, and it is because while

truism undermined the morality of America right from

a visiting scholar at James Madison University

the very beginning; and we are paying the price for it in

in Virginia earlier this year, I decided to make my first trip to Jamestown. I know what I had been taught

this 21st century when we see so many trafficking in the same kind of hatred, violence, and fear-mongering that was levied against my ancestors back then.

from grade through high school about this momentous date. I barely was taught anything else about slavery, how my ancestors had been stolen from Africa, stripped of their names, languages, cultures, identities. But I knew, minimally, they were not “indentured servants,” as there was never a choice to not be a slave. I knew that from 1619 to 1865, 246 long and soul-stripping years, they were beaten, raped, terrorized, reduced to human property, and killed as they, these profoundly wounded persons, literally built the economic infrastructure of America for free. What we need in America, what has not happened, is an honest national conversation on race that tells the entire As I walked through that Jamestown settlement, I could

truth about the legacy of slavery, while also acknowledging

feel the energy of those first slaves. I struggled to read the

that, per Dr. Ivan Van Sertima’s landmark book They Came

history the way it was told in parts, as if slavery was not

Before Columbus, the history of this part of the world does

so bad. Yes it was so bad, as we still deal with the legacy of it in America. Many of the founding fathers were slave owners even as they were declaring all were created equal. Several of the early presidents of the United States participated in slavery. Much of what slaves were taught continue to trigger Blacks, from divisive conflicts around

not and did not begin with European history, that Black people and other people of color have been in these many spaces and places all along. What we need in America at schools, public and private, and from educators of every background, are lessons which do not whitewash slavery, which do not ask Black children, when discussing slavery,

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

THE YEAR 1619... cont.

to be slaves. What we need in America is a steady gaze in

my single mother and me, generations of poverty and

the mirror, accepting that inseparable of any talk about

hand-me-down depression and traumas we can never

history, about democracy, from 1619 to the Civil War to

seem to escape. This is why there have been calls for

Dr. King to Black Lives Matter, is the story of those who

reparations from we descendants of African slaves

were brought here as slaves, and how that painful legacy

across decades and eras. There has never been a true and

of White supremacist thinking and behavior remains a

consistent repairing of the human damage done—

nasty open sore on the American democracy.

So, if 1619 should mean anything now, it should mean it is past time to pause, to be equally comfortable and

I did not think about any of this until I got to college, because in spite of being a straight-A student K through 12, 1619 and what it wrought was watered down— nor were we ever taught the Civil Rights Movement and its efforts to right the wrongs, ever. As a result I grew up as

uncomfortable in our American skins, as we face this tragic history, and ourselves, once and for all. Otherwise it is just another celebration, another anniversary, that will fade away like the haunting cries of those packed at the bottom of those slave ships so long ago.

dutifully self-hating as a Black slave on those plantations. It was not just me; it was most Blacks in my community. It was not until I got to that college, Rutgers University in my home state of New Jersey, and began to truly study

Kevin Powell is a civil and human rights activist, and author of 13 books including his autobiography, The Education of Kevin Powell: A Boy’s Journey into Manhood. An upcoming book will be a biography of Tupac Shakur, the global pop culture and hip-hop icon.

American history through a different lens—my lens—that it blew me away what slavery had done to us. I cried reading slave narratives and historical texts. I cried as I imagined what it must have felt like to be un-free for one’s entire life. I cried at how ashamed I had been for so long of Africa, of how I had swallowed whole the distorted and racist images of that motherland from whence my people had come. And yes I cried that day earlier this year when I walked the grounds of Jamestown wondering to myself how any people enslaved could still manage to worship God; to build and create numerous inventions; to put forth songs and sounds that are the foundation for much of American music; to be so patriotic that we have fought in virtually every American war, even as we were being denied our own freedoms; and to be so humanly resilient that we have bounced back time and again, even as what began in 1619 birthed, for many of us, including

pg.

114

“

”

Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity. -- Charles Mingus

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

Past Issues

Translate

View this email in your browser

Moving towards a safe and thriving community We're inviting you to come to CAPCR’s September 12 meeting to get an update on Cure Violence. It’s been a difﬁcult but productive time for Cure Violence in St. Louis since you attended our assessment events in June. Gun violence has only increased. We’ve all seen and mourned the tragic results, and the community is calling for decisive action. On September 12, we’ll be giving the highlights of the Cure Violence assessment. We’ll also be giving an udpate on the city's bureaucratic process, and outlining next steps. We hope you’ll attend. To help with our planning, Please RSVP at capcr2050@gmail.com.

When: September 12, 2019 6 pm--7:30 pm Where: Deaconess Center for Child Well Being 1000 N. Vandeventer See you there!

pg.

116

Shop Online Today at NOrepublicansNEEDED.com

Wear Your Disgust on Your Tshirt

N e w s .T s h i r t s . C h a r i t y

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

‘All Colors’ EXHIBIT Makes Inaugural Kansas City Appearance

industrial arts in the Oakland, California, school district, Powell had his students make three-dimensional sculptures. After teaching in Oakland, he moved and joined the staff of the University of MissouriSt. Louis. In 1989, he founded Portfolio Gallery and Educational Center. Among other honors and recognitions, Powell received the prestigious Missouri Arts Award in 1995.

by James Martin

Over the course of Portfolio Gallery’s long history, Powell has shown many Kansas City-area artists, including members of “The Light in the Other Room,” an organization founded by Lonnie Powell, Robert’s younger brother, that advocated for African American artists. Lonnie Powell is participating in “All Colors,” which also features works by KC-area artists including the late Leroy Allen, NedRa Bonds, Michael Brown, Anthony High, Keith Shepherd, Gregory Summers, Sonié Joi Thompson-Ruffin and Sherry Whetstone-McCall.

KC Artists Featured in Group Show Highlighting Talent from Mid-America

Longtime St. Louis-based gallerist and nonprofit leader Robert A. Powell is bringing the annual “All Colors” exhibition to Kansas City this fall. The salon-style group show founded in 2017 will run from Oct. 4 to Nov. 30 at the Leedy-Voulkos Arts Center. “There is a treasure trove of fine art — created by people of all colors — that is ignored or minimized by art critics and academics that only want to focus on the two coasts,” Powell said in a recent interview. “The ‘All Colors’ fine arts exhibit is an opportunity to showcase the exceptional fine art produced by the many artists working in MidAmerica.” Powell founded the nonprofit Portfolio Gallery and Educational Center in St. Louis in 1989. The “All Colors” exhibit aligns with its mission: “To educate, enrich lives and foster a greater awareness of American artists of African American heritage.” Forty-nine artists were selected for the show, not all of whom are African American. About half the artists are from the St. Louis area, while 15 to 20 percent are based in or near Kansas City. The remaining artists hail from all over, including one from Ghana and one living in France. A larger iteration of the exhibition, opening at the St. Louis Artists Guild in January 2020, will include a juried component. The Kansas City version of the show came about when Powell approached Leedy-Voulkos Art Center last fall, during the exhibition “Cultural Legacy: What’s Going On?” curated by Sonié Joi ThompsonRuffin, who is one of the artists in “All Colors.” According to gallery manager Erin Woodward, “The LeedyVoulkos Art Center strives to be an all-inclusive and approachable contemporary visual arts exhibition venue. We enjoy having guest curators or organizations who approach us about exhibiting group shows, because this typically exposes us to new artists and expands our geographical radius. Robert is planning on exhibiting 49 artists, only seven of whom we have displayed here before. We’re very excited to expose this fresh roster of artists to our art-loving community in Kansas City.” Powell has deep roots in Kansas City. He grew up here, attended the KCMO school district, and then entered Lincoln University, where he earned a B.S. degree in education. He taught industrial arts at Manual High School before entering the U.S. Coast Guard in 1968. According to a 2013 profile by “St. Louis Magazine,” Powell began making art in 1973 from driftwood that he found while stationed in California. In a telling illustration of his lifelong commitment to art, while teaching

pg.

At press time, confirmed St. Louis-based participants included quilt maker Angee Turner and painter and mixed-media artist Andrea “Kahrizma” Hughes. Turner states that her inspiration comes from life experience, art, architecture and history, and that her design aesthetic is influenced by architecture and mathematics. Hughes says she was “born an artist, (and) draws upon life!” A self-taught artist, she credits a lot of her training to travel, trial and error, museums, the internet and library books. Portfolio will collect a portion of the proceeds from any sales to award grants to artists and small non-profits and to offer art classes and programs. The exhibit is sponsored by Midwest Regional Bank and Midwest Bank Centre. “All Colors” opens Oct. 4 First Fridays from 6 to 9 p.m. and continues through Nov. 30 at the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center, 2012 Baltimore Ave. Hours are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Saturday. Open 6 to 9 p.m. for November First Fridays. For more information, 816.474.1919 or www.leedy-voulkos.com.

|Bio James Martin is an independent consultant, curator, educator and writer based in the Kansas City area. Since 2001, he has focused on working with art located outside of typical art venues, such as public art and corporate and hospital art collections.

http://kcstudio.org/all-colors-exhibit-makes-inaugural-kansas-city-appearance/

118

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

pg.

120

LABOR DAY SPECIAL!! ACCEPTING NEW CLIENTS FOR WEEKLY MEAL PREP, CONTACT INFO BELOW!

Meal prep plans, personal chef, and health coaching services available. Plans starting as low as $75.00- For limited time only!! For more information contact fabulouslyveganme@gmail.com and visit fabulouslyvegan.com!

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

PeaceFest 2019

Vendor Registration PeaceFest 2019 Sunday, September 29th

Bellefontaine Park 9565 Bellefontaine Road | St. Louis, MO 63137 Company Name: Contact Person: Phone Number: Email Address: Product /Services: Information for Distribution:

11am â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 8pm (9am Set Up) Vendor: $100.00

Food Vendor: $200.00 (Food permit required)

To register by email: complete this form and send to ntaylor@betterfamilylife.org V. Najwa Taylor 314.367.3440 x304

Make checks payable to: Better Family Life, Inc. c/o PeaceFest Return to: Better Family Life c/o PeaceFest Vendor 5415 Page Blvd. St. Louis, MO 63112 Please fax completed forms to (314) 669-9413

NOTES:

Vendor Booths consist of (1) Six Foot Table and Two Folding Chairs.

Please bring your own table cloth to represent your company. If you have a tent and/or tables they may be place to occupy your six foot booth space. For more information, contact: Better Family Life Community Outreach Dept. 314.381.8200

pg.

122

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

pg.

124

ART OF FOOD

Fall Taste Festivals THE TASTE OF ST. LOUIS SEPT. 13 - 15 , 2019 - DOWNTOWN ST. LOUIS As in the past, this year's Taste of St. Louis featured some of the region's best food, music, and beverages. Some of the most popular attractions are Sauce Magazine's "Restaurant Row" and the "Culinary Stage". Purchased items range in price from $4 to $8. Many vendors accept cash (some can accept cards). Festival attendees enjoyed samples, exhibits and displays from local vendors that highlight the emerging culinary talent in our region. St. Louis proudly showcased some of the best and most diverse eateries of the region. Culinary offerings range from Brussle Sprout Pizza to Eggplant -Goat Cheese Quesadilla, from Swordfish Speidini to Pumpkin Harvest Cupcakes. The following vendors were part of Restaurant Row:

(Note: GF - Gluten Free, Veg - Vegetarian, Vegan, DF - Dairy Free, Diab) Meskerem Ethiopian Restaurant (Veg, Vegan, GF) Sameem Afghan Restaurant (Veg, Vegan, GF, Diab) Drunken Fish Crispy Edge (Vegan, Veg, Diab, Meat) Hot Wok Cafe (Vegan, Meat) Kimchi Guys Mandarin House (Veg, Vegan, Meat) PokeDoke The Rice House (Veg, Vegan, GF, Meat) Bogart's Smokehouse (GF, Meat) Pappy's Smokehouse (GF, Meat) Sugarfire Smokehouse (GF, Meat) Hi-Pointe Drive-In (GF, Veg, Meat) Shake Shack (Veg, Meat) Joe Boccardi's (Veg, GF, Meat) The Midwestern Meat & Drink (Veg, Vegan, Meat) Bayou Seasoning & Catering Anis Hyderabad House (Veg, Meat) Aya Sofia Restaurant (Veg, Vegan, GF, Diab, Meat) Soulard Gyro (Veg, Meat) Ruth's Chris Steak House (Veg, Meat) Mission Taco Joint (GF, Veg, Meat) Mom’s Chicken Sausage Tivanov Catering (Veg, Vegan, GF, Meat) Rearn Thai (Veg, GF, Diab, Meat) Tapped (Vegan, Veg, Meat) Vito's Sicilian Pizzeria & Ristorante (Veg, Meat) Boardwalk Waffles & Ice Cream Hank's Cheesecakes (GF) Kakao Chocolate (Veg, GF, DF) The Cup (Veg, GF) Clementine's Naughty and Nice Creamery (Veg, Vegan, DF) Park Avenue Coffee / Ann & Allen Baking Co. (Veg, Vegan, GF, Diab) The Melting Pot (Veg) Nothing Bundt Cakes Ices Plain & Fancy (Veg, GF) Southside Alchemy

www.tastestl.com

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

ART OF FOOD... cont.

THE TASTE BLACK ST. LOUIS Sept. 14 - 15, 2019 - TOWER GROVE PARK ST. LOUIS With inspiration from a Chicago food festival, Aisha James, founder of Everybody Eats STL, created the Taste of Black St. Louis to showcase the city's black residents and chefs. But the event is not exclusive for black restaurants, it is open to any vendor/business owner. The event was designed to be a networking tool, and avenue to show there is no shortage of black-owned food vendors and chefs. Of course there was food tasting, shopping and learning about what African Americans contribute to the culinary arts scene of St. Louis. This year, a record 16,000 people attended and over 50 food and/or retail vendors participated. www.tasteofblackstl.com

pg.

126

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

ART OF FOOD... cont.

THE ST. LOUIS GREEK FESTIVAL Aug 30 - Sept. 2, 2019 - ST. NICHOLAS CHURCH - FOREST PARK AVENUE 2019 was the 102nd year of the STL Greek Festival. Gyros, pastitsio, spanakopita, baklava and more was available over the Labor Day weekend. Patrons enjoyed Greek Food, live music, church tours, Greek Folk Dancing, books, and a gift shop. This event was voted the best local festival by St. Louis Magazine. WWW.OPASTL.COM

pg.

128

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

ART OF FOOD... cont.

pg.

130

THE TASTE OF AFRICA Aug. 31 - Sept. 15, 2019 - O'FALLON PARK ST. LOUIS Ashanti traditions were honored with Kente cloths, food, music inspired by the AfroBeats scene, and lots of culture was shared during Labor Day weekend in O'Fallon Park. This event was created in 2018 by Tory Russell, executive director Ashley Bailey, activist Chrystal Gates and Alderman John Collins-Muhammed to be a community event that will be held in the community. This year showcased old and new North City vendors and the communities of O'Fallon and College Hill. In three days over 3,000 patrons attended the free event, and there were no incidents. This is a much needed, positive reflection on the improvements and future of O'Fallon park and the communities surrounding it. Click here for 2019's Facebook Event Page. If you missed any of these events, follow them or check back here for dates and times for next year's summer festival season.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

A digital dispatch from your friends at Forest Park Forever

View this email in your browser

Meet the New & Improved Emerson Central Fields

Photo by Steve Jett

Emerson Central Fields, the 30-acre Forest Park site that has long hosted community events and competitive sports, has undergone $5.8 million of donorsupported improvements since it went under construction in June 2017. From completely rebuilt ﬁelds to a new pavilion, concession stand and new restrooms, the improvements have transformed this 'central' Forest Park site.

CLICK TO VIEW IMPROVEMENTS

pg.

132

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

pg.

134

GIVING YOU ALL THE LITTLE THAT MAKE LIFE WORTH RE BY

PINXIT

PHOTO

We're excited to get to l<now your family WE SPECIALIZE IN

Looking Forward to shooting Family Sessions Weddings Proposals Birth Photography and more

WEDD

Wedding Coverage $400/hr Cinema/Video avaliable Custom Italian Wedding albums as well email info@pinxitphoto.com for ;=��='more information.

WE LOVE

RT RA

T S

Mini Sessions $300 Full Sessions $600 The cml part is that there is no session fee, so the full amount you spend on the pachage goes towards prints, wall art, albu ms, etc

w 0

:,: w w 0

ff-

2 0

u 0 f-

0 0...

z 0...

WE HONOR

RT H

Bi rt h p h o t o g r a p h y Includes photographing the journey all the way to actual birth. We're excited to offer this amazing service to our clients Coverage starts at $1200

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

ART OF HEALING Your Ad or Article could be here!

pg.

136

RICKKITA EDWARDS

CARDIO-CORE & MORE AT NORTH COUNTY REC. CENTER

TIMES: MON WEDS FRI 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM

She teaches a class 2 Mondays a month at Faith Miracle Temple 7:15 pm - 8:00 pm. (ALL CLASSES ARE FREE)

COMING SOON! WAIST-NOT FITNESS PERSONAL TRAINING #GETWAISTEDBYRICKKITA

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

#BlackDollsMatter

Buy Now!!!

Bring a sense of pride and strength to the extraordinary girl in your life. Madeline Delilah Doll and chapter book www.stagemotherproductions.com pg.

138

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

pg.

140

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

pg.

142

READING THE LONG DREAM: punches our inner eyes so we can see better. READING THE LONG DREAM: Exploration #1 Six decades after its publication, Richard Wright’s novel The Long Dream (1958) has not lost its power to impart lessons about the commerce of the American Dream. The narrative is a frozen speech act of interconnected themes -- the ethics of living Jim Crow; the ambiguous , often cruel, and destructive relationships between fathers and sons; the function of race in the crucible of capitalism; sexism and objectification of women; the defensive and deceptive postures of the African American middle class in the Cold War South; homophobia and androgyny; the oppressive tactics in the practice of “whiteness.” Reading the narrative thaws the ice of American propaganda . It allows the story to go fishing in a reader’s consciousness. Wright’s artistry, his aesthetic, is uncanny in its relevance for our struggles to make sense of the intersectional nature of the actual. Even before the emergence of critical race theory, a few readers, picking up clues from Albert Murray’s The Omni-Americans (1970), had become a bit cautious and contra-theoretical in reading and interpreting literature. If the assent of theory created distance between ourselves and texts, the skepticism which trendy theory deserves made old-fashioned close-reading desirable along with becoming more intimate with history. The role of the middle-woman or middle-man in the business of literature is not exactly defunct. It is simply less important than one’s direct experience of a writer’s text. In the case of African American literature, imaginative writing is neither married to nor divorced from the permutations of humanity. Wright recognized that possibility far better than many of his peers. And he doesn’t mask the irony implicit in the phenomenology of reading (itself theoretical in its philosophical claims) that feeds desire to be more aware that representations (fictions) trigger entanglements at many levels. Richard Wright’s body of fiction and non-fiction sufficiently integrated the humanities and the social sciences to be our touchstone. And it may be argued that The Long Dream is a better model of integration than Savage Holiday, The Outsider, or A Father’s Law, because it’s a capital example of how the American Dream should be prepared for burial. Reading The Long Dream invites our being very attentive to Wright’s use of language, especially his delight in creating images, and to how images play a key role as we follow Wright’s plotting of transactions among characters and his creation of privileged transactions between the focusing narrator and ourselves . The myth of transcending (i.e., getting away from brutal facts) doesn’t seem to obtain in our reading of the novel, no matter how much we yearn for what a dream long or short refuses to deliver. Wright Copyright © 2017 - All rights reserved.

READING THE LONG DREAM: Exploration #2 It is noteworthy that Keneth Kinnamon , one of Wright’s most astute critics, judged the final sentence of the novel to be “badly overwritten poetic prose” (“Foreword,” xii, Northeaster University Press edition). One might argue, of course, that self-conscious, occasionally stilted prose that threatens to become poetry, abounds in this novel. Many readers might be “turned off” by that fact. If we give passionate attention to the final sentence, we may be “turned on” by what we discover. The overwriting has a purpose, a meta-interpretive function. It is a correlative for the dissatisfaction very critical readers have as they weigh the propaganda constituted by the American Dream, which Wright relentlessly critiqued in the novel. The final paragraph of The Long Dream, which stirs up memory of a certain kind of British Romantic poetry--more Matthew Arnold than William Wordsworth---, summarizes the goal toward which Wright moved : the reward for the rising middle-class black Southerners who embraced the American Dream as well as a bittersweet recognition that enshrouds dreamers. At some point in time, dreamers have to awaken to their positioning in American ideology and cosmology. “Nervous fatigue made him sigh as the waves of his emotions washed between shores of dread and desire, straining like the heaving, trapped sea in the darkness far below. All that night he did not close his eyes and now and then his restless body gave a slight shudder as the images of his waking dream whirled tensely in their too-tight orbits. He peered out of his window and saw vast, wheeling populations of ruled stars swarming in the convened congresses of the skies anchored amidst nations of space and he prayed wordlessly that a bright, bursting tyrant of living sun would soon lay down its golden laws to loosen the locked legions of his heart and cast the shadow of his dream athwart the stretches of time.” Isolate segments of prose as you listen to the drumming of consonants and the concrete renderings of abstractions and the personification of natural and man-made objects

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

LONG DREAM... cont.

---· emotions washed between shores of dread and desire · the heaving, trapped sea in the darkness · the images of his waking dream whirled tensely in their too-tight orbits · vast, wheeling populations of ruled stars · swarming in the convened congresses of the skies · anchored amidst nations of space · bright, bursting tyrant of living sun · lay down its golden laws · locked legions of his heart · cast the shadows of his dream athwart the stretches of time The dense accumulation is a Romantic surrealist portrait of man’s location in the universe, his subservience to the imagined rule of law in cosmological metaphysics. Those who remember that Claude McKay alluded in his sonnet “America” to Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Ozymandias” can figure out what Wright might have wanted us to do with his final paragraph of overwritten poetic prose. Having arrived at the end of the novel, readers have to recuperate what its surplus of imagery has led them to think about people, race, corruption and the imperfections of law, 20th century history, the South, and belief in the American Dream. A serious reading and interpretation of the final paragraph is itself a deconstruction of that dream. ~Jerry W. Ward, Jr.

pg.

144

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

Experience You Can Trust. Our products and services have helped millions of American families and businesses prepare for life’s major events and their related expenses. As a licensed agent,* I can help you: • Meet your everyday needs • Save for your children's education • Save for retirement • Preserve your estate • Prepare for the unexpected • Care for elderly parents

Frenchaire Gardner

Gateway Division Office 314-319-5405 frenchaire.gardner@mutualofomaha.com Insurance products and services are offered by Mutual of Omaha Insurance Company or one of its affiliates. 3300 Mutual of Omaha Plaza, Omaha, NE 68175 *In WA and OR: producer AFN41485_1014

Follo

Read Article Elaine Young Artist

pg.

146

Jonathan Fenderson Building the Black Arts Movement: Hoyt Fuller and the Cultural Politics of the 1960s

Wednesday, Oct. 30 • 4:30 p.m. John M. Olin Library, Room 142 As both an activist and the dynamic editor of Negro Digest, Hoyt Fuller stood at the nexus of the Black Arts Movement and the broader black cultural politics of his time. Jonathan Fenderson uses historical snapshots of Fuller’s life and achievements to rethink the period and establish Fuller’s important role in laying the foundation for the movement. Join us for a discussion about Building the Black Arts Movement between Jonathan Fenderson, assistant professor of African and African American studies in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, and Monique Bedasse, associate professor of History and of African and AfricanAmerican Studies at Washington University.

A reception will follow the discussion. Free and open to the public.

University Libraries Faculty Book Talk Series

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

COMEDIAN

Dave Jones

Is THE COUNTRY'S NEW #FavoriteSIDEcomic "YOU CAN KEEP YO MAIN!" Watch As He Receives Standing Ovation At The World Famous Apollo Theater in #NYC & Makes NBA All-Star Shaquille O' Neal Laugh!!!

pg.

148

Click Here!

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

pg.

150

OPPORTUNITIES

CLICK HERE TO VIEW AD

The Bernie Hayes Show Talk and interviews about affairs of the day with a St. Louis slant. The Bernie Hayes Show can be seen: Friday’s at 9 A.M. Saturday’s at 10:00 P.M. Sunday’s at 5:30 P.M.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

pg.

152

CAREERS

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 5.11 September 30, 2019

pg.

154

A big Thank You to our CONTRIBUTERS

The Arts Today Ezine vol 5.11

Articles inside

Stanley Nelson (Interview)

What the Year 1619 Means to Me

Senior Readers and African American Narratives