Thursday, June 13, 2013

Miami Todays' Best of Miami 2013 features Diaspora Vibe

Founder and director of Diaspora Vibe Virtual Gallery and Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator, Rosie Gordon-Wallace was featured in the newspaper Miami Today as “Best of Miami 2013”.


Read the article below:



Miami Today
Best of Miami 2013


Diversity thought builds our gateway


By Blanca Venegas

Miami is the gateway to Latin America and has also become a major business capital of the Americas. But it is only through its global-minded residents that welcome the diversity of backgrounds and who supporter arts and culture that the city continues to uphold such position.

Delancyhill attorney Marlon Hill said one of the individuals who have been strong contributors and supports of global culture is Laura Quinlan, executive director of The Rhythm Foundation, a Miami Beach-based, non-profit cultural organization.

“Laura brings the best if Brazil and Africa to our shores and develops strong cultural and trade ties with those regions,” Mr. Hill said.

Ms. Quinlan, a Miami Beach native, has served as executive director at The Rhythm Foundation since its beginnings in 1988. The Rhythm Foundation has been the leading presenter of “world music” in Florida, with over 500 concerts and festivals by a variety of international artist from places such as Brazil, Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia and Europe performing throughout South Florida.

“One of the strengths of The Rhythm Foundation is that we truly live here,” Ms. Quinlan said. “It is very gratifying, as we celebrate milestones like our 25th anniversary, to recognize the small but meaningful part that our work has played in the development of Miami as a true capital of the Americas.

“Music is an universal language, and sharing cultural experiences helps us better relate to each other,”
she said. “Our audience, which continues to grow every year, is Miami’s global-minded residents and visitors… who think internationally and who care what is happening right now in other world cities.”

In addition, Mr. Hill also attributes the cultural growth in Miami to individuals such as Rosie Gordon-Wallace, founder and director of Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator Inc., a local arts organization offering support and exhibition opportunities to emerging artists from Latin America and Caribbean.

“Our mission is to promote, nurture and help [artists] cultivate their vision,” Ms. Gordon-Wallace said.

Ms. Gordon-Wallace – born in Jamaica, a licensed medical microbiologist and former senior consultant for Searle Pharmaceuticals – is the founder, curator and director of Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator.

Ms. Gordon-Wallace has initiated and produced transnational creative programs that “redefine concepts od ‘diaspora’”, including the International Cultural Exchange program, the Caribbean Crossroads Series, the Artist-In-Residence program and an ongoing contemporary exhibitions program, as well as multiple community-based outreach projects.

Diaspora Vibe Gallery and Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator specializes in Caribbean and Latin art focusing on emerging artists and supporting the development of new work by resident artists by offering exhibitions opportunities, artist talks, workshops and other skill-building core values for emerging artists.

“We empower Caribbean artists to become architects of their artistic lives,” she said. “We assist them in navigating their resumes and we assist them in expediting the work.”

“This is a vocation,” Ms. Gordon-Wallace said. “I absolutely love working with the individual artists, looking at their portfolios, helping them navigate through the art world.”

“That’s what I do every day,” she added.

Ms. Gordon-Wallace said that, even though the organization is only 17 years old and has the same matrix as any other “diasporic” organization, Diaspora Vibe Gallery and Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator is different because it specializes in visual arts.

“If you compare us to a mainstream organization, we would be a baby,” she said, “But we are a new community.”


“I love that Miami is geographically close to the Caribbean,” she added. “It’s am emotional connection to me to live here.”



Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Sharon Bridgforth – River Meets Sea

Sharon Bridgforth talks about the development of her upcoming project, “River See”


Article and photo by Bruna indalecio






On her last visit to Miami, Sharon Bridgforth took a big step in the development of her new work, “River See”. The script is now finalized and the project is close to coming together for its premiere next year, in Chicago, and for the awaited Miami debut, which will take place either in late 2014 or beginning of 2015.

In an interview with Diaspora vibe – her Miami commissioner and supporter – she talks about her life in arts, influences and the growth of “River See”.


Diaspora Vibe: How did you start getting involved with art?

Sharon Bridgforth: I’ve been writing since I was 15, but I didn’t share my work publicly until I was 30. And when I was 30, I moved from Los Angeles to Austin, Texas, and I was working in social services, I was a community organizer and I was working around issues having to do with HIV, aids and early intervention and family planning. And I fell in with a group of activists who were artists that used art as a vehicle for social justice. I feel that that was my graduate school, they trained me and also gave me space and access and nurturing support. So, I kind of took my work out of the suitcase, so to speak, and started sharing work publicly. Initially I was using my work as a way to invite people to access services, so myself and the other artists that were involved in the social justice work that we were doing, that that’s how we would attract people that hopefully would then want to access the services that we were working to provide. Then, at some point, it just flipped and I realized that art could be service and it could be the thing that I did as social justice action.


DV: Who are your influences to compose your body of work?

SB: I am very inspired and influenced by Lori Carlos, she was one of the original cast members in the original production of “For Colored Girls Who Consider Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf”, also by Ntozake Shange, who was the writer of that piece. Robbie McCauley, who was also in “For Colored Girls” and is also known for a piece she did called “Sally’s Rape”, amongst other pieces; Sekun Sundiata, who transitioned I think it’s been a couple of years now. Many aspects of Sekun’s work, but particularly his last piece, the piece that he was completing when he died, called “51st (dream) State”, the way that he put the piece together and toured was really astonishing to me and really inspiring and I got to see it in development and talk to him. Also Hannibal Lokumbe, who lives in Texas, is based in Texas and I got to meet some years ago, and he kind of took me in and exposed me to a way of touring really big pieces that I found inspiring, affective and exciting. And Daniel Alexander Jones, Helga Davis, Johnny Jones,  Sonja Perryman, and many others.


DV: Tell us little more about you new project, “River See”.

SB: “River See” is a series of blues stories that I’ve written that documents a young girl’s journey in her spiritual growth and development and also in her physical journey, from the delta south to the north. So See, the girl, is about to become part of the great migration here in the US. Her stories take place kind of the moment before that migration happens. In her stories, See tells us about her ancestors, her community, her family and her own struggle as she moves towards this really big change in her life, and culturally it was a big change for people at that time.

The pieces become activated as jazz, through the live performance, so in the live performance one actor plays See and tells the stories and then through an improvisation process that happens during performance, I compose the rest of the story live with singers and dancers, and musicians and the audience, we create together a moving soundscape that supports See in her journey and in the story that she’s telling.


DV: How do you expect to integrate the story with the Miami scene?

SB: The touring party for “River See” is myself and the actor Sonja Parks, so everywhere that “River See” goes Sonja and I go. And, with the support and help of the presenting organization, we cast locally, so there will be local singers, dancers and musicians that will be in the piece and because it is an improvisational process that brings the piece to life, I depend on each performer to create the architecture that holds the story. The dance, the specific ways of singing, the collective experience and knowledge of the region will be embodied in the performers and it will come through as they respond to the improvisational signals that I give them. Also, the audience is invited to participate as what I call “witness participants”, so I will ask the audience to translate texts, to speak some the text and I’ll ask the audience to offer gestural language. Then, at the top of each show, I ask who wants to participate in these various ways, and then we practice with them and we incorporate them to the piece as well. So, really, the structure, because this is jazz, is the story, though See is kind of holding the structure together and I, as composer, am holding the structure down, but how it unfolds will be specific to Miami, because we’re depending on the Miami artists and audience to help us.


DV: How is the experience of bringing the show here with the support of Diaspora Vibe?

SB: I adore Rosie Gordon-Wallace and I’ll go anywhere she says ‘go’ and I’d do anything she asked me to do. And she is an exquisite host, with Rosie’s support and Diaspora Vibe’s backing I’ve been introduced to the community here in Miami, I have not been in Miami before and it has just been an exquisite blessing. I mean, I feel that I’m being nurtured and supported with a lot of grace and generosity and there is an unending amount of talent here, so it’s inspiring and I feel filled and I love the international flavor that is here and I’m really excited to work with and be inspired by that in the work. It just doesn’t get any better, because the river is here and I’ve been to the spots where the river meets the ocean and that is the heart of the story. It’s perfect.


DV: What are the next steps to continue the project?

SB: I’m in a really great position now because with support from the National Performance Network (NPN) commissioning funds I have five commissioners. Diaspora Vibe is one of the commissioners, so I have had the support of five commissioning communities plus NPN and I’ve been really spending a lot of time developing not only the text, but also the technique to make this project successful and to bring these ideas to life in an affective way in performance. I feel that I’m coming towards the way of that development process. I feel that I, now, have the tools to actually do what it is and I have the experiences and I have had the support of many individuals and communities, to know how to do the work and I’m almost done with the script. So the next step is that I really have to package this work to tour. I need to now create the promotional packages. I need to make sure that I have a lighting and scene design that is tourable, a technical writer that is doable, an internet presence for the work that is meaningful and has a far reach, so that, as the work premieres, and the work will premiere in Chicago, at Links Hall, in 2014, we can be sure that it will live in many communities on the road. This moment is really interesting because it’s right before the premiere and it’s right as the development process is over, but in some ways it’s as important as the development itself, because now I have to make sure that all the parts are together for it to succeed after the premiere. That’s where I’m at now, looking towards that. 


DV: Any other future projects?

SB: This trip I’ve focused on completing the script for “River See” and I’m very, very, close. And the next project that I will do, that I’m already kind of feeling in my heart, is a song cycle. I want to write a series of songs that are about love in the sense of infinite love. My goal is to have the songs installed in spaces like museums, maybe outdoor spaces too, so that the performers travel with the songs and the audience travels with the performers, but instead of singers I want there to be a chorus of people speaking different languages, so that the musicality of languages are the music that carries these words about love. I’m excited!


Friday, May 24, 2013

Memorial Day Weekend Events


PIETA
O Cinema

Winner of the Golden Lion at the 2012 Venice Film Festival,
Pieta is the acclaimed film from the celebrated and controversial Korean director Kim Ki-Duk. In this intense and haunting story, a loan shark living an isolated and lonely existence uses brutality to threaten and collect paybacks from desperate borrowers for his moneylender boss. He proficiently and mercilessly collects the debts without regard to the pain he causes his countless victims. One day, a mysterious woman appears in front of him claiming to be his long-lost mother. After coldly rejecting her at first, he gradually accepts her in his life and decides to quit his cruel job and seek a decent, redemptive life. However, he soon discovers a dark secret stemming from his past and realizes it may be too late to escape the horrific consequences already set in motion from his previous life.

Showtimes:
Friday, May 24, at 9 pm
Saturday, May 25, at 5 pm & 9 pm
Sunday, May 26, at 5pm & 9pm

Price: $10.50

O Cinema
90 NW 29th Street
Miami, FL  33127



DESIGN ART AT FAIRCHILD: SITTING NATURALLY
Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden

Fairchild Garden's current exhibitions “Design at Fairchild: Sitting Naturall” showcases a diverse collection of new works by seven internationally renowned artists commissioned by the Cristina Grajales Gallery in New York City. Inspired by Fairchild's tropical landscape, Gael Appler, Sam Baron, Pedro Barrail, Christophe Côme, Michele Oka Doner, Sebastian Errazuriz and John Paul Philippe created each two sculptures to be exhibited amongst the park’s natural beauties. The pieces are made of silver, green, and copper-colored industrial aluminum.

When: Monday – Friday, from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday, from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Price: $25 for adults, $18 for seniors, $12 for children 6-17 and free to children 5 and under and to Fairchild members.

Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden
10901 Old Cutler Road, Coral Gables
305-667-1651



GREAT AMERICAN SONGBOOK
South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center

Singer and actress Connie James will perform this weekend songs from George Gershwin and Cole Porter to James Taylor, Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell and Chaka Khan.

When: Friday, May 24 at 8:30pm; Saturday, May 25 at 8:30pm and 10:30pm; and Sunday, May 26 at 3:30pm.

Price: $25 in advance and $30 on the day of the show.

South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center
10950 S.W. 211th Street, Cutler Bay
786-573-5300



GUIDED TOUR OF ROSARIO BOND'S SHOW TOO GOOD TO FAIL
Curator's Voice Art Projects

Dr. Milagros Bello will lead a Guided tour of Rosario Bond's show analyzing the concepts and styles of her works. Bond explores elements of both figuration and abstraction in multidisciplinary aesthetic approach to painting. Her canvases are compounds of blended and torn lines along with imaginary shapes that mingle between bright and contrasting colors.

When: Saturday May 11, 2012 from 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM EST

Curator's Voice Art Projects
Wynwood Art District
299 NW25th Street/
On the corner of NW 25th St & NW 3rd Ave
Miami, FL 33127



THE PETER LONDON GLOBAL DANCE COMPANY
Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts

Miami's newest multicultural dance troupe, The Peter London Global Dance Company, will perform a two-night stint at the Arsht Center's Carnival Studio Theater. The program will feature a choreographic sampler of six new works, “Spring Nights at the Arsht”. Peter London's choreography has received critical acclaim at Alvin Ailey's Summer Sizzler at the City Corp Theater in New York, at New World School of the Arts performances and at the International Dance Festival in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

When: Friday & Saturday, May 24 & 25 at 7:30 p.m.

Price: $35 for general admission and $20 for students and seniors.

Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts
1300 Biscayne Boulevard, Downtown Miami
305-949-6722 (Box Office)

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Sharon Bridgforth brings River See to Miami




Lambda-award winning author and visual artist Sharon Bridgforth will come to Miami this week to continue the research on her upcoming presentation of the work ‘River See’, which will be host in the city for the first time in 2014.

In partnership with Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator (DVCAI), Sharon will explore local artists (musicians, singers, actors, and dancers) as well as the community, to be integrated to the show.

River See investigates blues stories as living arrangements of jazz, through an improvisational process that happens during performance, with singers, dancers, musicians and audience members. Black traditions are the base for bringing together people from different ethnicities, religions, generations, gender and sexual identities, places of origin, class backgrounds, abilities, and aesthetics.

“This is a living composition made of jazz technologies: polyrhythms, dissonance, simultaneity, playing time, breaking form. Bodies move in circles and lines. Performers sing and speak bits of text throughout the entire room versus only on the stage. During the rehearsal process I create physical language to signal directions to the performers. What they enter the (rehearsal) room with-their lived experiences, artistic expertise and impulses are the architecture for the signals. The audience is invited to choose how they will be active witnesses or participants. Some will listen or hold space. Some will translate bits of text, some will offer gestures. Some will share in telling the story. Some will chant. We all work to serve SEE as she tells her story. Through a collective process, we become responsible to one another in the art of creating a piece about love”, says Bridgforth.

River See is a NPN Creation Fund Project co-commissioned by Links Hall in partnership with Diaspora Vibe Gallery, Living Arts of Tulsa, Pillsbury House Theatre, The Theatre Offensive, and NPN. 

Video of Rosie Gordon Wallace talking about the project