Say It Loud: I’m Hybrid And I’m Proud from ivan cruz on Vimeo.

This is a three-minute audio vignette about the New York Times Special Edition. On the morning of the action, I followed a Brooklyn couple, Michelle and Maikel, as they spread the good news of the war’s end to perplexed New Yorkers.

The music clip is from Podington Bear.

The animation was made in about two days because it needed to be ready for a NYC City Council hearing about the above issue.

it was great to see works that i recognized and admire, like a large print from the Beehive Collective. they are good friends with an old roommate, morgan, who is himself a great political puppetista and propagandist. years ago he did a show about mr. block, of IWW fame, it was the first that i had heard of mr. block. part of me cried out “morgan’s work should be in this show!” okay so there are a ton of political printmakers. i suppose it was a recognition that morgan’s work is part of a strong heritage, a tradition that the Exit Art curators emphasized.

my only ‘complaint’ is that i wanted more.  maybe next time around, a similar exhibit could show the historical roots of political graphics further back than the 1960’s.

finally, there was one poster in particular that was among the Otra Campaña works. it is a poster with Mafalda as a militant Zapatista. i had seen that same poster in the Wooden Shoe and thought about buying it for Ana. but i didn’t. and then a few weeks later when i went back to the store, they had run out. grrr. wish i could find a copy somewhere. been thinking of getting a Mafalda tattoo. maybe that graphic would work well.

Exit Art is also teaming up with 16 Beaver to put on a screening series. It looks like a very impressive line-up of hard to find films.

I was also excited that my son, Noam, got to meet them.  He had a lot of fun playing around with Angela’s interactive flash / video piece – which can be seen below.

Check out some pics from the event below:

next event:
Mixer & Presentations
Thursday / / 11.15.07 / / 7 – 10p

Hunter College Black Box
695 Park Ave. / / Room 543 HN

6 train to 68th St / / F train to 63rd St.
enter on 69th St. btwn Park and Lexington
elevator or stairs to fifth floor

free & open to public
electronicsocialclub {ATT} gmail {dot} com

eyespeakima.org

Try. I just finished listening to Anna Deavere Smith’s book on CD Letters to a Young Artist: Straight-Up Advice on Making a Life in the Arts while driving to pick up noam. It’s a self-help survival manual written in the form of personal letters to a fictional reader named “B.Z.,” a high school-age painter who is struggling to gain support for an art program. The title is a play on Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet.

Deavere Smith’s Letters is a kick-in-the-ass. It is uplifting yet unafraid of grittiness. She encourages readers to get-going, practice practice practice, to exercise, concentrate, find mentors and press palms. On the other, it is written with a mentor’s parent-like tough love. At times, she releates conversations with people who she has connected with through her research for acting, play writing or social life. For instance, she quotes a bull rider whose determination astounds her. She feigns a rough, masculine voice and says, “you’ve got to ride with all the try you got.” Or something to that effect. Personally, I think her character acting voices ingratiating. It would, for me, be more effective if she spoke in her normal voice – which on its own sounds New Yorker, ex-smokery.

While the theater is her milieau, the book is equally appropriate for any type of artist trying to make it in the world. And to the author, “making it” does not have to mean monetarily. She shared a story about a long-time friend of hers who works half of the year at a fancy french restaurant and spends the rest of the time traveling around the world.

Artistically and professionally speaking, Deavere Smith herself is very successful on many levels. She is a well recognized performer, has taught at highly regarded universites, done speaking tours, started an organization called the Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue. On top of all that she was granted a MacArthur “genius” award among other notable funding. Beyond that, she seems confident, super hard-working, and friendly but fierce. I’d love to sit-in on a class of hers, ’cause being that she teaches at NYU’s Tisch School, you know those courses cost an arm and a leg.

Ultimately the book is beneficial because I need the kind of encouragement that she offers. I think I should listen to it a second time.