— LANGSTON HUGHES, 1926
CONVERSATION SERIES: INTERROGATIONS OF FORM CULTURE IN A CHANGING AMERICA
In collaboration with the Aspen Institute Arts Program Sunday, February 19, 2017 Thompson Arts Center at Park Avenue Armory Artists, activists, academics, and community leaders gather for a daylong series of conversations, performances, and open studios that explore the role of art, creativity, and imagination in addressing or challenging the social and political issues bound up in what it means to be an American today.
SESSION 1 1:00pm-2:00pm What Makes an American?: The Culture of Citizenship Board of Officers Room (first floor)
2:00pm-2:45pm Staying Visible: The Power of Storytelling Company D (second floor)
Nisha Agarwal (Commissioner, Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs), Tania Bruguera (artist, Armory Artist-in-Residence), Sarah Lewis (author, curator and Assistant Professor of History of Art and Architecture and African American Studies, Harvard University), and Jose Antonio Vargas (activist and journalist) join moderator Eric Liu (Founder, Citizen University) in a debate over the role of culture and the nature of citizenship in a changing America. Tom Finkelpearl, Commissioner, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, responds.
Cristela Alonzo (creator, Cristela, ABC network), Christopher Myers (illustrator, author, and artist), and Erika Wurth (Apache/ Chickasaw/Cherokee writer and Professor of Creative Writing, Western Illinois University) join moderator Elizabeth Hutchinson (Associate Professor of Feminist and Cultural Theory, Barnard College) in a discussion about the essential role of the arts in preserving forgotten stories, collective memories, and fragile histories.
1:00pm–4:00pm Artist Salons Artist Salon featuring works by Carrie Mae Weems and guest artists Company C (second floor) Salon tour with guest artists at 2:15pm Artist Salon featuring artworks by Elizabeth Colomba Curated by Deborah Willis and Kalia Brooks Colonels Room (first floor) Salon tour with Deborah Willis and Kalia Brooks at 2:45pm
Artist Salon featuring works on film by Paola Mendoza Parlor (first floor)
3:00pm-3:45pm The Movement in Movement Veterans Room (first floor) Jookin’ innovator Lil Buck and flex pioneer Reggie (Regg Roc) Gray discuss and showcase their dance styles and how they are working for social progress through movement. Hosted by Damian Woetzel, former Principal Dancer of the New York City Ballet and Director of the Aspen Institute Arts Program, Vail Dance Center, and DEMO at the Kennedy Center.
SESSION 2
SESSION 3
4:00pm-4:45pm Sounding Off Board of Officers Room (first floor)
7:00pm Person Place Thing Veterans Room (first floor)
Jason Moran (jazz pianist, composer, curator), Toshi Reagon (singer, musician, composer), Davóne Tines (opera singer), and Camille Zamora (soprano, co-founder of Sing for Hope) join Ric Leichtung (Webster Hall Talent Buyer and Adhoc founder) to discuss how music can lead, accompany, and inspire America now.
Person Place Thing is an interview show based on the idea that people are particularly engaging when they speak not directly about themselves but about something they care about. Guests talk about one person, one place, and one thing that are important to them to reveal surprising stories from great talkers. Ta-Nehisi Coates (journalist and author) and Sonia Sanchez (scholar, poet, playwright, and activist) debate these topics with host Randy Cohen (formerly “The Ethicist”); members of The Ebony Hillbillies are musical guests.
The session opens with a dedication of a Sing for Hope Piano, painted by French artist Lady JDay, for the Lenox Hill Neighborhood Women’s Shelter, located on the Armory’s fourth floor. Special performance by Jason Moran and Davóne Tines. The Sing for Hope Pianos Program places pianos on city streets for public use, before sending instruments to community centers, schools, health facilities, and other sites around New York City. 4:00pm–7:00pm Artist Salons Artist Salon featuring works by Carrie Mae Weems and guest artists Company C (second floor) Salon tour with guest artists at 5:15pm Artist Salon featuring artworks by Elizabeth Colomba Curated by Deborah Willis and Kalia Brooks Colonels Room (first floor) Salon tour with Deborah Willis and Kalia Brooks at 5:45pm
Artist Salon featuring works on film by Paola Mendoza Parlor (first floor) 5:00pm-5:45pm Where in the World is America? Board of Officers Room (first floor) Award-winning filmmaker Mira Nair (Queen of Katwe, Amelia, The Namesake, Monsoon Wedding, Mississippi Masala) and Warrington Hudlin (President of the Black Filmmaker Foundation) discuss the perception of American culture in film and its impact on global audiences. 6:00pm-6:45pm Open Mic with Yosimar Reyes, Negin Farsad, and special guests North Hall (second floor) Yosimar Reyes hosts an open mic session featuring spoken-word poetry that challenges myths about identity in America. Reyes is joined at the mic by youth poets Karlyn Boens, Madeleine LeCesne, Ashley Gong, and N’kosi Nkululeko. Negin Farsad (comedian, actress, writer, and filmmaker) concludes the session with her pioneering brand of social justice comedy.
ABOUT THE ARTIST SALONS Artist Salon with Carrie Mae Weems and guest artists Company C (second floor) Carrie Mae Weems invites visitors to engage with her latest work, and that of four rising stars - Kambui Olujimi (Visual Artist), Jennifer Hsu (Artist, Teacher, Writer), Nyame O. Brown (Visual Artist), and Lava Thomas (Multi-media Artist) - who each ask us to contemplate this pressing question: “What does our art look like outside of tragedy?” Salon tours with guest artists at 2:15pm and 5:15pm Artist Salon featuring artworks by Elizabeth Colomba Curated by Deborah Willis and Kalia Brooks Colonels Room (first floor) Deborah Willis (University Professor and Chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University) and Kalia Brooks (Curator) invite visitors to view and discuss the work of French Martinican visual artist Elizabeth Colomba. Nicknamed “the black Vermeer”, Colomba’s work creates a space for her subjects to inhabit a re-writing of their own histories and analyzes the tangled interrelationships between past and present collective identities. Salon tours with Deborah Willis and Kalia Brooks at 2:45pm and 5:45pm Artist Salon featuring works on film by Paola Mendoza Parlor (first floor) Visitors are invited to engage with the work of Colombian-born writer, filmmaker, and actress Paola Mendoza whose works explore the American immigrant experience by highlighting with empathy and honesty the stories of the disenfranchised.
North Hall
SECOND FLOOR
Company E
Company D
Company C
PARK AVENUE
Field and Staff
Parlor
FIRST FLOOR
Veterans Room
Entrance PARK AVENUE
Colonels Room
MEET THE PARTICIPANTS NISHA AGARWAL NYAME O. BROWN Nisha Agarwal (Commissioner, Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Nyame O. Brown (Visual Artist) is a California based visual artist. Affairs) is an accomplished public interest lawyer and a leading voice in immigration reform at the local and national level. Her tenure as the Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs is marked by her entrepreneurial drive and proven record of enacting pro-immigrant legislation. She was previously Deputy Director of the Center for Popular Democracy, the groundbreaking nonprofit advocacy group dedicated to advancing pro-immigrant, proequality, and pro-justice policies at the grassroots and national levels, which she co-founded in 2012. Honored by numerous recognitions, including Crain’s New York Business’ 40 Under 40, Commissioner Agarwal received her B.A. summa cum laude from Harvard College and her J.D. from Harvard Law School and was a Marshall Scholar at Oxford University.
He is primarily a painter, printmaker and draftsman. Brown’s work addresses the Black imagination as a space for new ways to perceive diaspora not just through unity and similarities but looking at the dynamics of difference to further comprehend diaspora. He uses folklore cultural practices and symbols from the diaspora to make paintings of contemporary black mythologies. Brown has held exhibitions at the Studio Museum of Harlem and the Hearst Museum in California among others. He is the recipient of the Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors grant, The Richard Driehaus Foundation individual Artist Award, the Richard Dixon Wellington Prize Excellence in Drawing and has been published in numerous periodicals.
TANIA BRUGUERA CRISTELA ALONZO Tania Bruguera (Performance Artist) is a Cuban-born installation Cristela Alonzo (Comedian, Producer) is an American stand-up and performance artist. Bruguera researches ways in which art can be comedian, actress, writer and producer. Alonzo made TV history by being the first Latina to create, produce and star in a network TV sitcom, Cristela. Alonzo released Some of the Hits, a stand-up album through Comedy Central, was a viewer favorite as a featured guest host on ABC’s The View, and made her feature film debut in The Angry Birds Movie. In January 2017, Alonzo released her first Netflix comedy special Lower Classy.
KARLYN BOENS Karlyn Boens (Poet) is a 19-year-old spoken word artist. Born
and raised on the west side of Chicago, she is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Social Work at Trinity Christian College. Karlyn is a former Guthman Intern with Young Chicago Authors and has twice performed at Louder Than A Bomb, the world’s largest youth poetry festival. She continues to write, perform, and teach for organizations including Young Chicago Authors and Between The Lines. She serves as a Civic Practice Scholar for the Aspen Institute Arts Program.
KALIA BROOKS Kalia Brooks, PhD, (Curator) is a New York based independent
curator and educator. Brooks is currently an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Photography and Imaging at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Brooks holds a Ph.D. in Aesthetics and Art Theory from the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts. She received her M.A. in Curatorial Practice from the California College of the Arts in 2006, and was a Helena Rubinstein Fellow in Critical Studies at the Whitney Independent Study Program 2007/2008.
applied to the everyday political life; focusing on the transformation of social affect into political effectiveness. She established the Arte de Conducta (Behavior Art) program, the Immigrant Movement International and The Instituto de Artivismo Hannah Arendt. Her work has been shown at Documenta 11, Venice Biennale, Tate Modern, The Guggenheim, among other venues. Selected as one of the 100 Leading Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy magazine, an Herb Alpert Award winner, a Hugo Boss Prize finalist, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a Radcliffe and Yale World Fellow. Bruguera was the first artist-in-residence of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA).
LIL BUCK Charles “Lil Buck” Riley (Choreographer, Dancer) is a leader of
the dance style known as jookin’, and co-founder of Movement Art Is, an organization focused on using movement artistry to inspire change in the world. In 2011, his YouTube collaboration “The Swan” with cellist Yo-Yo Ma went viral and has been viewed more than 2.9 million times to date. In October 2014, Lil Buck performed with Ma at the U.S.-China Forum on the Arts and Culture in Beijing. A former Harman-Eisner Artist in Residence at the Aspen Institute, Lil Buck has performed on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, with Madonna on tour and during her Super Bowl XLVI halftime performance, and in the Cirque du Soleil production Michael Jackson.
TA-NEHISI COATES Ta-Nehisi Coates (Writer, Journalist) is a writer and National
Correspondent for The Atlantic. His book Between The World And Me won the National Book Award. Coates is a 2015 MacArthur Fellow.
RANDY COHEN NEGIN FARSAD Randy Cohen (Writer) is a five time Emmy Award-winning writer Negin Farsad (Comedian, Filmmaker) is an Iranian-American and humorist for newspapers and magazines (The New Yorker, Harpers, The Atlantic, Young Love Comics). His first television work was writing for Late Night with David Letterman for which he won three Emmy Awards. His fourth Emmy was for his work on Michael Moore’s TV Nation. For twelve years he wrote “The Ethicist,” a weekly column for The New York Times Magazine. His most recent book is Be Good: How to Navigate the Ethics of Everything. Cohen is the host of the public radio program and podcast, Person Place Thing.
ELIZABETH COLOMBA Elizabeth Colomba (Contemporary Artist) is from France, of
Martinican descent, and lives and works in New York City. She received a degree in applied art from the Estienne School of Art, Paris and also studied at the École nationale supérieure des BeauxArts, Paris. Colomba’s paintings have been exhibited at the California African American Museum, Los Angeles; the Balthus Grand Chalet, Switzerland; the International Biennial of Contemporary Art (BIAC), Martinique; Volta, New York, and the Fondazione Biagiotti Progetto Arte, Florence. The Moon is my only luxury was the artist’s first solo exhibition and catalogue in New York which opened in the spring of 2016. Her work is included in the permanent collections of The Studio Museum in Harlem and Princeton University
THE EBONY HILLBILLIES The Ebony Hillbillies are not only one of the last black string bands
in America, they are also the only string band based in New York City. The Ebony Hillbillies are reviving a lost art-form and American legacy. Consisting of fiddle, banjo, washboard, and bass fiddle, they have successfully created a following that has bridged a gap in audiences in Pop, Country, Bluegrass, Folk, Jazz, and beyond while maintaining their grassroots credibility. Their 19th-century string dance band sound was popular in the 1920’s and 1930’s and was a key element in the genesis of jazz and virtually everything after. They have performed extensively at esteemed venues (Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center), on TV (BBC, Good Morning America, NBC, CBS, etc.), at international music workshops and festivals, and in collaborations with museums (The Whitney, Smithsonian, and others).
TOM FINKELPEARL Tom Finkelpearl (Commissioner, New York City Department
of Cultural Affairs) oversees city funding for nonprofit arts organizations across the five boroughs and directs cultural policy for the City of New York. Prior to his appointment by Mayor Bill de Blasio, Commissioner Finkelpearl served as Executive Director of the Queens Museum for twelve years, overseeing an expansion that doubled the museum’s size while positioning the organization as a vibrant center for social engagement in nearby communities. He also held positions at MoMA PS1 and served as Director of the Department of Cultural Affairs Percent for Art Program.
filmmaker and social justice comedian. Farsad was named one of the 50 Funniest Women by the Huffington Post and one of the 10 Best Feminist Comedians by Paste Magazine. A senior 2013 TED Fellow, Farsad’s recent projects include 3rd Street Blackout, an indie-rom com, the activist comedy The Muslims Are Coming!, and the recent memoir-meets-social-justice-comedy-manifesto, How to Make White People Laugh. She is the host of the political comedy podcast FAKE THE NATION on the Earwolf network. She has appeared on Comedy Central’s The Nightly Show, A&E’s Black & White and has written for and appeared on IFC, MSNBC, MTV, and NPR.
ASHLEY GONG Ashley Gong (Poet) is a Connecticut based writer and first-year
student at Harvard University. First Lady Michelle Obama named her a National Student Poet, the nation’s highest honor for teen poets presenting original work. Her work has been recognized by the National Young Arts Foundation, the National Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, and was anthologized in The Best Teen Writing of 2015. She currently serves as Poetry Editor for Persephone’s Daughters, a national literary magazine dedicated to empowering women.
REGGIE (REGG ROC) GRAY Reggie (Regg Roc) Gray (Choreographer, Founder of The
D.R.E.A.M. Ring) is a Brooklyn native and pioneer of Flex dancing. He choreographed his largest production FLEXN at the Park Avenue Armory and toured with this production to Brisbane, Australia, France, Italy, and across the U.S. In May, FLEXN kicks off its summer tour at the Park Avenue Armory. He recently choreographed The Odyssey, for Public Works, a Public Theater production. Gray has won several top dance titles, danced for music videos, television shows, and reality competitions; he appeared on the third season of America’s Best Dance Crew. Gray is an Artist-in-Residence at the Park Avenue Armory and National Sawdust. He is the founder of a dance company and dance competition called The D.R.E.A.M. RING (Dance Rules Everything Around Me).
JENNIFER HSU Jennifer Hsu (Artist, Teacher, Writer) is an artist who believes in
increasing empathy and subsequent social change across the board: between artists and viewers, between writers and readers, between teachers and students, between resistance and social groups, between rich and poor, between humans and non-humans, including flora. Hsu’s work has been exhibited in the United States and abroad at the Guild Hall Center for the Visual and Performing Arts, the Syracuse International Film Festival, Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, Flux Factory, Everson Museum of Art, and numerous Super 8 Film Festivals. Hsu was among the 2016 artists in residence for the inaugural Guild Hall Artists in Residence program in East Hampton, NY.
WARRINGTON HUDLIN SARAH LEWIS Warrington Hudlin (Filmmaker, Producer) is a veteran producer of Sarah Lewis (Author, Curator, Professor) is an author, curator, and motion pictures, television, and online media. His work challenges the dichotomy between social concerns and popular entertainment. Best known as the producer of the landmark African American films, House Party, Boomerang, and Bebe Kids, and television specials, Cosmic Slop and Unstoppable, Hudlin is now developing a genre busting, episodic drama, The Siege of Detroit. The founding president of the Black Filmmaker Foundation, Hudlin has been a pioneering community organizer in the black film movement for over three decades. Hudlin is currently the Vice-Chairman of the Museum of the Moving Image.
Assistant Professor at Harvard University. She is the guest editor of the acclaimed “Vision & Justice” edition of Aperture and author of The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times, New Yorker, Artforum, Art in America and publications for the Smithsonian, The Museum of Modern Art, and Rizzoli. She received her bachelor’s degree from Harvard, M. Phil from Oxford, and Ph.D. from Yale. She has held curatorial positions at The Museum of Modern Art and the Tate Modern.
ERIC LIU ELIZABETH HUTCHINSON Eric Liu (Founder, Citizen University) is the founder and CEO Elizabeth Hutchinson (Associate Professor of Art History, Barnard of Citizen University and executive director of the Aspen Institute College) is a Professor at Barnard College and scholar of North American Art and Feminist and Cultural Theory. Her work uses the tools of close visual analysis, feminist and postcolonial theory, and cultural history to bring out objects’ contributions to historical and current cultural debates. Professor Hutchinson has recently held Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute and Winterthur Museum and Country Estate. Her teaching and mentoring has been recognized with a Gladys Brooks Junior Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award and a Star Teaching Award from Barnard College.
MADELEINE LECESNE Madeleine LeCesne (Poet) is a New Orleans native and second-year
student at Princeton University. She was awarded a gold medal at the National Scholastic Art & Writing Awards and was appointed a National Student Poet by First Lady Michelle Obama. She currently is pursuing a degree in anthropology and recently edited Scholastic’s annual anthology, Best Teen Writing of 2017.
RIC LEICHTUNG Ric Leichtung (Curator, Editor, and Co-Founder of AdHoc) is the Co-founder of AdHoc Firm, a New York-based music publication and events collective. AdHoc’s editorial work and events have a symbiotic dynamic where long-form music writing about punk, noise, and forward-thinking dance music is brought to life from the page to the stage with adventurous curation. Known for pushing the boundaries of the live event space, the publication often uses non-traditional settings like local bodegas and delis, dim sum and soul food restaurants, vacant rooftops and abandoned warehouses, beautiful churches, and massive car washes in its mission to showcase artists in settings as unique as the company it keeps.
Citizenship and American Identity Program. He is the author of several books, including You’re More Powerful Than You Think: A Citizen’s Guide to Making Change Happen (March 2017), A Chinaman’s Chance, The Gardens of Democracy, and The Accidental Asian. Eric Liu served as White House speechwriter and policy adviser for President Bill Clinton. He is a regular columnist for cnn. com and a correspondent for TheAtlantic.com.
PAOLA MENDOZA Paola Mendoza (Actress, Filmmaker) is
an actress, director, screenwriter and author. As a director, Mendoza was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film.” She has directed both short and feature length films and documentaries including, Entre Nos, Half Of Her, Autumn’s Eyes, and La Toma. Mendoza’s work has been embraced by Sundance Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Berlinale, Tribeca Film Festival, Full Frame and South By South West. Mendoza was a nominee for the 2008 & 2010 NALIP Estel Awards, given to Latino filmmakers who show extraordinary promise in the field of directing. Mendoza served as the Artistic Director of the January 21st Women’s March on Washington.
JASON MORAN Jason Moran (Musician, Curator) is a jazz pianist, composer,
educator and curator. Moran is currently the curator of the Artists Studio Series at the Park Avenue Armory and in 2014, was named artistic director for jazz at the Kennedy Center. His album All Rise: A Joyful Elegy for Fats Waller was nominated for a 2015 Grammy as Best Jazz Instrumental Album and in 2014 he composed his first feature film score for Selma, directed by Ava DuVernay. He is the creator of the original score for the Netflix documentary 13th. In spring 2018, Moran will have his first solo museum exhibition at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN.
CHRISTOPHER MYERS TOSHI REAGON Christopher Myers (Artist, Author, Illustrator) is an award-winning Toshi Reagon (Singer, Musician, Composer) is a talented, versatile author and illustrator. A graduate of Brown University and the Whitney Museum of Art Independent Studio Program, Myers is the acclaimed illustrator of Love: Selected Poems by E. E. Cummings; Harlem: A Poem, a Caldecott Honor Book; Jazz, a Coretta Scott King Honor Book; and Blues Journey, a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book. He is also the author-illustrator of Black Cat and H.O.R.S.E.: A Game of Basketball and Imagination, both Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Books; We Are America: A Tribute from the Heart; A Time to Love: Stories from the Old Testament; Looking Like Me; Wings; and Fly!
singer, composer, musician, curator and producer with a profound ear for sonic Americana--from folk to funk, from blues to rock. Her many accolades include the Black Lily Music and Film Festival Award for Outstanding Performance and the 2015 Art of Change Fellowship by the Ford Foundation. She received a 2016 NEFA National Theater Project Creation & Touring Grant and is the first University of North Carolina Mellon Foundation DisTIL fellow. Toshi is currently developing an opera based on Octavia E. Butler’s novel Parable of the Sower, directed by Eric Ting and set to debut in fall 2017.
MIRA NAIR YOSIMAR REYES Mira Nair (Filmmaker) is an internationally accomplished writer, Yosimar Reyes (Poet, Activist) is a nationally acclaimed poet, producer, and Academy Award-nominated director best known for her films Salaam Bombay!, Mississippi Masala, The Namesake, and Monsoon Wedding. Her most recent film, Queen of Katwe, stars David Oyelowo and Academy Award-winning actor Lupita Nyong’o, telling the true story of a young Ugandan woman who aspires to be a chess champion. Mira Nair is currently working on the forthcoming Broadway musical adaptation of Monsoon Wedding.
educator, performance artist, and public speaker. Born in Guerreo, Mexico, and raised in Eastside San Jose, Reyes explores the themes of migration and sexuality in his work. His first collection of poetry, For Colored Boys Who Speak Softly was self published after a collaboration with the legendary Carlos Santana. Reyes holds a B.A in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University and is an Arts Fellow at Define American. He is currently working on his one man show with Guerrilla Rep Theater to premiere in the near future.
N’KOSI NKULULEKO N’kosi Nkululeko (Poet) is a New York based poet and the 2016 SONIA SANCHEZ New York City Youth Poet Laureate. Nkululeko is a Callaloo Fellow Sonia Sanchez (Poet, Activist, Scholar) is a Poet and National and and The Watering Hole Fellow. He has received nominations for the American Voices Award, Independent Best American Poetry and Pushcart Prize. Nkululeko was a member of the 2014 Urban Word NYC Slam Team and 2015 Urbana-NYC Slam Team. His work is currently published or forthcoming in decomP, No Token, The New Sound, Rose Red Review, Hobart, and elsewhere.
KAMBUI OLUJIMI Kambui Olujimi (Visual Artist) is a New York based visual artist
whose work manifests the collective psychic space latent in our social practices, policies, and economies. He has had solo exhibitions at the MIT List Visual Arts Center, MA; apexart, NY; and Art in General. His works have premiered nationally at The Sundance Film Festival, Park City, Utah; Los Angeles County Museum General, NY. His work has been exhibited at the Studio Museum in Harlem, NY and the Museum of Modern Art, NY. Internationally he has exhibited at The Jim Thompson Art Center, Bangkok, Thailand; Museo Nacional Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain; Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland; and Para Site, Hong Kong.
International lecturer on Black Culture and Literature, Women’s Liberation, Peace and Racial Justice. One of the foremost leaders of the Black Arts movement, Sonia Sanchez is the author of over sixteen books of poetry including Homecoming, We a BaddDDD People, and Love Poems. She is the recipient of both the Robert Frost Medal for distinguished lifetime service to American poetry and the Langston Hughes Poetry Award. Sanchez is one of 20 African American women featured in the interactive exhibit “Freedom Sisters,” at the Cincinnati Museum Center.
LAVA THOMAS Lava Thomas (Visual Artist) is an artist whose work takes a variety of
material and thematic approaches. Her work has been exhibited at various institutions including the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco, the CA African-American Museum in Los Angeles and the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art in CO. Honors include the Joan Mitchell Award for Painters and Sculptors (2015) and an Arts Residency at the Headlands Center for the Arts (2017). Her work is included in the permanent collections of the U.S. Consulate General in Johannesburg, South Africa, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the M.H. de Young Museum in San Francisco. She is represented by Rena Bransten Gallery in San Francisco.
DAVÓNE TINES ERIKA WURTH Davóne Tines (Bass-Baritone), deemed a “…singer of immense Erika Wurth (Author, Associate Professor of Creative Writing, power and fervor…” by The LA Times and a “...charismatic, fullvoiced bass-baritone...” by The New York Times, commands a broad spectrum of opera and concert performance as a singer and creator. Highlights from last season include performances with the Dutch National Opera, Ojai Music Festival, London Symphony, and LA Philharmonic in collaborations with Kaija Saariaho, John Adams, Matt Aucoin, Caroline Shaw and Peter Sellars. Upcoming engagements include the Finnish National Opera, San Francisco Opera, Paris Opera, Orchestre National de France, BAM, and the American Repertory Theater.
Western Illinois University) is an author and poet of Apache/ Chickasaw/Cherokee heritage raised outside of Denver, Colorado. Her published works include a novel, Crazy Horse’s Girlfriend and a collection of poetry, Indian Trains. Her collection of short stories, Buckskin Cocaine and her collection of poetry, A Thousand Horses Out to Sea are both forthcoming. A writer of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, she teaches creative writing at Western Illinois University and was a guest writer at the Institute of American Indian Arts. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in numerous journals including Boulevard, Drunken Boat, The Writer’s Chronicle and South Dakota Review.
JOSE ANTONIO VARGAS Jose Antonio Vargas (Journalist, Activist) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning CAMILLE ZAMORA journalist, filmmaker, and media entrepreneur whose work centers Camille Zamora (Opera singer, Co-founder, Sing for Hope) is coon the changing American identity. He is the founder and CEO of Define American, a non-profit media and culture organization that seeks to elevate the conversation around immigration and citizenship in America; and the founder of #EmergingUS, a media start-up that lives at the intersection of race, immigration, and identity in a multicultural America. He has written for daily newspapers (Philadelphia Daily News, San Francisco Chronicle) and national magazines (Rolling Stone, The New Yorker), and was a senior contributing editor at the Huffington Post.
founder and visionary officer of Sing for Hope, one of the country’s leading nonprofit organizations dedicated to positive social change through its mission of art for all. An internationally renowned soprano, Zamora has performed with leading companies, including Los Angeles Opera and Glimmerglass Opera, and with collaborators ranging from Plácido Domingo to Sting. Zamora has performed at the United Nations, received a World Harmony Run TorchBearer Award, and has been honored by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
CARRIE MAE WEEMS LENOX HILL Carrie Mae Weems (Multi-media Artist) has created a complex body NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE of work that centers on her commitment to better understanding Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, widely recognized as one of New the present by examining our collective past, through image and text, photography and performance, film and video along with her historic convenings of artists, composers, and pubic intellectuals across disciplines. A recipient of numerous awards including the MacArthur “Genius” Award, the Rome Prize, and The U.S. Medal of Art, her work can be seen internationally and found in major public and private collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tate Modern, and the Museum of Modern Art.
DAMIAN WOETZEL Damian Woetzel (Director, Aspen Institute Arts Program, Vail Dance
Center, and DEMO at the Kennedy Center) has taken on multiple roles in arts leadership following a 20-year career as Principal Dancer with New York City Ballet. Woetzel is the Director of the Aspen Institute Arts Program, Artistic Director of the Vail Dance Festival, Director of the DEMO series at the Kennedy Center, and is active as an independent director and producer. Woetzel served for 8 years on President Obama’s Committee on Arts and Humanities (PCAH) where he worked to create the national Turnaround Arts education program. He holds a Master in Public Administration Degree from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and has been a Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School. Woetzel was awarded the Harvard Arts Medal in 2015.
York’s premiere nonprofit organizations, is a 123-year-old settlement house that provides an extensive array of effective and integrated human services—social, educational, legal, health, housing, mental health, nutritional and fitness—which significantly improve the lives of thousands of people in need each year, ages 3 to 103, on the East Side of Manhattan. Located in the Park Avenue Armory, the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House Women’s Mental Health Shelter is a 24-hour program that addresses the critical issues facing homeless women age 45-and-over living with severe and persistent mental illness. The experienced, multidisciplinary staff provides an array of holistic services including health, psychiatric, social, recreational, fitness, counseling, legal and other supportive services that: help homeless individuals move off the street and out of the shelter into permanent housing; and help formerly homeless adults retain their housing and independence. The Women’s Shelter not only addresses each client’s immediate needs for food, clothing and shelter, but also tackles the root causes that led to their homelessness, such as undiagnosed mental illness, substance abuse, lack of education, poor health care or a lack of job skills.
ABOUT PARK AVENUE ABOUT ASPEN INSTITUTE ARMORY ARTS PROGRAM Part American palace, part industrial shed, Park Avenue Armory The Aspen Institute Arts Program was established to support and is dedicated to supporting unconventional works in the visual and performing arts that need non-traditional spaces for their full realization, enabling artists to create, students to explore, and audiences to consume epic and adventurous presentations that can not be mounted elsewhere in New York City.
Since its first production in September 2007, the Armory has organized and commissioned immersive performances, installations, and cross-disciplinary collaborations by visionary artists, directors, and impresarios in its vast drill hall that defy traditional categorization and push the boundaries of their practice. In its historic period rooms, the Armory presents small-scale performances and programs, including its acclaimed Recital Series in the intimate salon setting of the Board of Officers Room and the Artists Studio series in the newly restored Veterans Room. The Armory also offers robust arts education programs at no cost to underserved New York City public school students, engaging them with the institution’s artistic programming and the building’s history and architecture. Built between 1877 and 1881, Park Avenue Armory has been hailed as containing “the single most important collection of nineteenth century interiors to survive intact in one building” by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. The 55,000-square-foot Wade Thompson Drill Hall, with an 80-foot-high barrel vaulted roof, is one of the largest unobstructed spaces in New York City. The Armory’s magnificent reception rooms were designed by leaders of the American Aesthetic Movement, among them Louis Comfort Tiffany, Stanford White, Candace Wheeler, and Herter Brothers. The building is currently undergoing a $210-million renovation designed by Herzog & de Meuron and Platt Byard Dovell White Architects as Executive Architects.
PARK AVENUE ARMORY YOUTH CORPS ADVISORY BOARD The Youth Corps is a group of New York City public high school students and graduates who are immersed in the art and creative processes of the Armory’s artists over multiple years. They advise the Armory staff and teaching artists, create events for peers and students, and preview productions, bringing their years of combined experiences in the arts to every endeavor. Today, the Advisory Board have introduced and welcomed the artists, activists, and community leaders participating in this symposium to the Armory. In addition,Youth Corps members are also working as production assistants and front of house staff for today’s programming.
invigorate the role of arts and culture in public life through initiatives, public and private convenings, and strategy work across the United States and globally. Directed by Damian Woetzel, it brings together artists, advocates, educators, foundations, government officials, and others to exchange ideas and develop policies and programs that strengthen the reciprocal relationship between the arts and society. Program activities include the Creative Young Leaders Alliance; ArtStrikes; Civic Practice Scholars; and the Race, Arts, and America initiative. The Arts Program produces curated conversations, events, and performances in New York City and elsewhere around the country, as well as arts-focused discussions for the Washington Ideas Roundtable Series and film screenings for the New Views Documentaries and Dialogue Series. The Aspen Arts Strategy Group meets in various American cities to strategize on ways the arts can solve problems in realms such as education and community development. The Harman-Eisner Artist in Residence Program brings distinguished artists to participate in the Aspen Ideas Festival and other Institute programs throughout the year. Artists-inresidence for 2016-17 are Renée Fleming and Theaster Gates.
ASPEN INSTITUTE CIVIC PRACTICE SCHOLARS Selected from college-bound alumnae of the Creative Young Leaders
Alliance, the Civic Practice Scholars serve as formal representatives of the Arts Program, online and in person, for one year or more. They share their art and evolving thinking on their roles as artists in society through a monthly blog and regular social media presence provided by the Institute. In a further step of leadership development, they also engage as mentors for new students taking part in the seminar, and when possible, Civic Practice Scholars return to Aspen for the summer seminar to help direct and guide the larger group building off of their past program experience.
NEXT IN THE SERIES A HAIRY APE FOR THE 21ST ARTISTS-IN-RESIDENCE: CENTURY: ARTIST TALK OPEN HOUSE Friday, March 31 at 6:00pm Saturday, September 16 at 1:00pm Director Richard Jones, Bobby Cannavale (Hank), and Robert M. Dowling (Eugene O’Neill scholar and Professor of English, Central Connecticut State University) discuss the challenges of presenting Eugene O’Neill’s play nearly 100 years after its first production by the Provincetown Players in 1922.
Armory artists-in-residence host a series of work-in-progress performances, presentations, and conversations in their studio spaces housed in the historic Company rooms on the Armory’s second floor. 2017 artists-in-residence include: Tania Bruguera, Reggie Gray, Lynn Nottage, Marvin Sewell, and Carrie Mae Weems.
OUT: ARTISTS TALK THE HAIRY APE & NEW YORK BLANK Saturday, September 23 at 6:00pm Composer and director Michel van der Aa and collaborators discuss CITY: CLASS VS. IDENTITY the creation of chamber opera and 3D film, Blank Out. Friday, April 14 at 6:00pm Catherine Combs (Mildred), Valerie Paley (Chief Historian, The New York Historical Society), and Jill S. Dolan (Annan Professor in English and Professor of Theater, Princeton University) discuss the play’s opposing forces of class and identity, issues that continue to entangle the social fabric of New York City today.
CONFRONTATIONAL COMEDY Monday, May 22 at 7:00pm
Following a sold-out event in 2016 headlined by Hari Kondabolu, Confrontational Comedy returns to the Armory featuring an afternoon of comedy sets performed by challenging and relevant comedians and a conversation highlighting the power of humor to confront stereotypes and engage audiences around uncomfortable topics.
HANSEL & GRETEL: THE COURAGE OF ART SYMPOSIUM Wednesday–Saturday, June 7–10
Jacques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron, and Ai Weiwei discuss the inspirations, ideas, and creative process behind their latest collaboration in an Artist Talk. The symposium continues with artists, activists, academics, and journalists responding to the artistic collaboration by engaging in a series of debates about the role of artists as catalysts for change. Participants to be announced.
RÉPONS: ARTIST TALK Saturday, October 7 at 6:00pm
Conductor Matthias Pintscher and Pierre Audi discuss composer Pierre Boulez and their realization of his spatial work in a live performance setting.
PERSON PLACE THING Friday, November 17 at 7:00pm
Randy Cohen and Person Place Thing return to the Armory for a special Fall edition in front of a live audience. Participants to be announced.
ROBERT LEPAGE AND THE MNOUCHKINE METHOD: ARTIST TALK Friday, December 8, 2017 at 6:00pm
Director Robert Lepage and other members of the creative team and cast discuss the creative process behind the development of this epic work.
KANATA PERSPECTIVES Friday, December 15, 2017 at 6:00pm
Performers, activists, and native Canadians respond to KANATA and discuss the role of art in highlighting indigenous issues and concerns.
· NISHA AGARWAL · CRISTELA ALONZO · KARLYN BOENS · KALIA BROOKS · NYAME O. BROWN ·TANIA BRUGUERA · LIL BUCK · TA-NEHISI COATES · R ANDY COHEN · ELIZABETH COLOMBA · THE EBONY HILLBILLIES · TOM FINKELPEARL · NEGIN FARSAD · ASHLEY GONG · REGGIE (REGG ROC) GRAY · JENNIFER HSU · WARRINGTON HUDLIN · ELIZ ABE TH HUTCHINSON · MADELEINE LECESNE · RIC LEICHTUNG · SARAH LEWIS · ERIC LIU · PAOLA MENDOZA · JA S ON MOR A N · C HR IS T OP HE R MYERS · MIRA NAIR ·N’KOSI NKULULEKO · KAMBUI OLUJIMI · TOSHI REAGON · YOSIMAR REYES · SONIA SANCHEZ · LAVA THOMAS · DAVÓNE TINES · JOSE ANTONIO VARGAS · CARRIE MAE WEEMS · DEBORAH WILLIS · DAMIAN WOETZEL · ERIKA WURTH · CAMILLE ZAMORA ·