Latest News

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    Humanities Preparatory Academy, our flagship music education program, suffered a budget cut of $130,000 this year.  As a result, they have to eliminate half of the music classes AFP has been providing for the past 6 years. The school is located in Chelsea, but it’s mostly attended by students from under-served communities in Harlem and the Lower East Side. AFP’s music program is the only music program at the school. With each year, there are more students that want to take music classes than we can accommodate.

    As we’ve seen time and again, music and art classes are the first to go when cuts like this happen. Our goal is to raise $10,000 to supplement the budget and fund the program for the upcoming school year. If we can raise the necessary funds, we can continue to serve as many kids as possible and maintain the vital music and arts presence that has become a signature of the school’s culture. Our mission is to provide creative arts programs for all New York City public school students. Every child should have the opportunity to learn creative skills and problem solving.

    Please make a donation right now to help us fulfill our mission. We have some exciting gifts that we’re offering to exceptional contributors as an added incentive, including artwork and private music performances and lessons. Thank you in advance for your help!

    Please watch this short video from AFP’s Director, Frank Jackson and Educator, Barry Komitor.

    Take a look at the suggested donation levels and associated gifts and make a donation:

    • $50 donation  – a BIG hug and a shout out!
    • $75 donation  –  a comp ticket to our next event!
    • $100 donation – a limited edition art book, “Critical Mass” (image below) 5 available
    • $250 donation – Large, limited, signed prints, various artists (info, images below) 3 available
    • $350 donation – Black and White one hour photo session with award winning photographer Berette Macaulay (Seattle area only, inquire for more information, admin@artforprogress.org)
    • $500 donation – Original paintings, various artists, mediums (info, images below) 3 available
    • $750 donation – Choice of 3 private guitar lessons (Barry Komitor) or DJ lessons (Frank Jackson) 2 of each available
    • $1,000 donation – a two hour music performance, venue of your choice (local), Barry Komitor
    • $1,000 donation – a two hour DJ performance, venue of your choice (local), Frank Jackson
    • $2,000 donation – an original painting by artist Artem Mirolevich (info, images below)
    • $2,000 donation – an original painting by artist Juan Manuel Pajares (info, images below)
  • Statik Vsion album releaase at The Point, Hunts Point, Bronx courtesy of The New York Times

    Statik Vsion album releaase at The Point, Hunts Point, Bronx courtesy of The New York Times

    So many exciting things have been going on in the world of Art for Progress’ Arts and Music Education Program. We have been helping young people throughout the city to cultivate their artistic expression and proudly watching that effort bear fruit. Our continuing school and after school programs provide opportunities for students to learn skills and form friendships and alliances while our community efforts give those students and others real life experience through performing, showing work, and recording music. We are honored to have received two grants this spring, as well, which will help our ongoing mission to make sure arts stay in public schools despite consistent budget cuts.

    This has been a landmark year for Art for Progress’ Arts and Music Education Programs. Our music programs at Humanities Preparatory Academy, The James Baldwin School, and Hudson High School for Learning Technologies have been developing astonishing talent; and our visual arts programs at Forsyth Satellite Academy and Essex Street Academy continue to expose students to new perspectives on fine arts and design.

    We’re especially proud of the work we’ve done developing the bands in the AFP Young Adult Music Enrichment and Recording Program. Statik Vision is now a staple on the NYC rmusic scene, and their album release was featured in a photo essay in the New York Times’ Lens section showcasing the Bronx punk art scene. Big Sweater and Bad Faces got to play alongside musical heavyweights Nels Cline (Wilco), Billy Martin (Medeski, Martin & Wood), Marc Ribot (TomWaits) and bassist Chris Lightcap at NYC’s famed venue, (le) Poisson Rouge for AFP’s Once In A Lifrtime concert event. The event was a huge success and helped raise money to support our school programs. We also finished mixing Big Sweater’s much-anticipated album, which sounds like an instant classic; and their previously released single, Platform Stare already has over 37,000 plays on Spotify. For our next recording project, we have begun tracking an album with powerhouse singer/songwriter Celeste Pasian and her band Daizeez. This album will incorporate the best elements of organic performance and production magic to showcase Celeste’s uniquely emotive style.

    Thanks to a grant we are thrilled to have received from the Matisse Foundation, we are currently hosting a Summer Arts and Music Program. The program is designed as an introduction for young people interested in careers in the arts, and has been a fantastic opportunity for kids to learn about what the real life of an artist or musician is like. In each session we address many of facets and considerations of being a working artist. Each week, we host an arts professional to give a short talk and answer questions, which has spawned spirited discussions and debates about the current state of the arts culturally and commercially. Guests have included fine artist Artem Mirolevich, trumpeter and music producer Albert Leusink, and fashion designer Cathy Chuang.

    Another grant from the Sansom Foundation, our longtime source of support, has made it possible for us to continue our music recording and production program through the summer, as well, and will enable AFP to supplement after school programs in the Fall and throughout the school year.

    Unfortunately, in addition to all the success we’ve been having, there are still challenges we’re working to overcome. We are facing a huge budget cut at Humanities Prep, where we host our flagship music program. We already have over-enrollment and every semester students have to be denied music because we don’t have room. In an effort to make up the difference and save the program, we’re launching a fundraiser on Facebook with the hope that our friends and supporters can help us serve as many kids as possible.

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  • Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

    Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

    A raw, unconventional film about the last years of iconic German musician/muse Nico, Susanna Nicchiarelli’s Nico, 1988 portrays its subject as an earthy, unglamorous woman and an uncompromising artist. It’s a far cry from the popular image of the icily mysterious chanteuse who performed with the Velvet Underground in the late 1960s, and that’s a big part of the movie’s fascination. As embodied with fierce intensity by Danish actor/singer Trine Dyrholm, Christa Päffgen (Nico’s real name) in her late 40s was as dismissive of her younger incarnation as Warhol figurine and rock star paramour as she was passionate about reconnecting with her troubled son, Ari. Nico, 1988 is a refreshingly unromantic portrait of a heavily romanticized persona.

    Nicchiarelli based her loose, impressionistic film on actual events, including interviews with Nico that are recreated throughout. There are also hazy flashbacks, actual footage of the Velvet Underground and the young Nico, provided by filmmaker Jonas Mekas. In casting Dyrholm, who bears no physical resemblance to Päffgen, Nicchiarelli opts to create her own character for this story, which may not sit well with some diehard fans. Truer to history is the film’s sound, and Dyrholm, an impressive musician in her own right, nails Nico’s deep, stark vocals. (Dyrholm performs all songs in the film, including “These Days” and “All Tomorrow’s Parties.”)

    Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

    Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

    Nico, 1988 begins in 1986, with the singer giving an interview in Manchester, England, where she lives and which she compares with post-WWII Berlin. (Throughout the film, she has flashbacks and memories of her childhood during the war, a major influence in her life and work.) She instructs club owner and soon-to-be manager Richard (a solid John Gordon Sinclair), “Don’t call me Nico; call me by my real name,” signaling her distance from the past. Richard, who is clearly devoted to the singer, finds her an apartment and arranges a European tour for what would be her last studio album. Still a heroin addict, she immediately shoots up in the bathroom of her new flat, but not before recording the noise of its water heater.

    In another interview she talks about her son, Christian Aaron (“Ari”), though it clearly pains her. Raised by his paternal grandparents, he has been institutionalized after a recent suicide attempt. (The fact that actor Alain Delon was the boy’s father is never mentioned, in keeping with the film’s disinterest in Nico’s storied love life.)

    We see several live performances of the singer performing her dark, droning music with a backing band of young musicians. Dyrholm injects these scenes with an almost palpable energy. During a show in Italy, Nico loses her temper and leaves the stage. Later, she makes up for the shortened set by performing a  sublime version of “Nature Boy” with the hotel’s jazz combo. Here, as throughout the film, she’s unpredictable, as likely to crack a joke as to cut someone dead. Dyrholm captures her restless junkie distraction, eyes alternating between dull weariness and steely determination.

    Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

    Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

    In one scene, Nico bonds with her Italian host, chowing down happily on spaghetti and Limoncello. Despite its generally somber subject matter, the film has a few light moments, some of its humor stemming from Nico’s almost childlike bluntness. Complicating the tour (and the movie) are an on-off liaison between Richard and his co-tour manager (Karina Fernandez), who remains unimpressed with Nico’s music; plus a romance between violinist Sylvia (Anamaria Marinca) and bassist Alex (Calvin Demba), though the latter’s heroin habit dooms the relationship.

    In France Nico visits Ari (Sandor Funtek) at his psychiatric institution and there seems to be real affection between them. When the band reaches Prague, Nico and some of the others are jonesing for heroin. Richard makes inquiries, but the stuff is absolutely off-limits as the concert itself is illegal (ah, the days before the fall of the Iron Curtain). Despite—or maybe due to—their drug sickness, she and band perform an incendiary “My Heart is Empty” to a huge, roaring crowd before the show is shut down by the authorities; it’s one of the film’s highlights and a scene that illustrates her onstage power.

    By 1988, thanks to Richard’s efforts, Nico is on methadone and Ari has been sprung from the hospital and has joined the tour. Despite a devastating setback for him, things seem to be going relatively well by the end of the film, though we know that Nico is not long for the world.

    Though messy and unfocused at times, Nico, 1988 is an audacious film made compelling by Dyrholm’s commanding performance.

    Nico, 1988 opens at Film Forum on Wednesday, August 1.

    Marina Zogbi

  • Bioman

    Art For Progress sits down with creative mastermind Alfie Rustom to learn more about his debut novel: The Bioman™ Chronicles: #2084 (Book 1).  Learn more at www.thebiomanchronicles.com

    Do you see yourself in this imaginary character?

    Yes, I see myself in this character. But, I also see every other post-modern human in this character, too. Culturally, we have forgotten our connection to nature. Bioman is designed to help us reconnect with our own miraculous biology and remember our intimate connection and oneness with nature.

    What are Bioman’s best traits as a super hero?

    At first glance, Bioman can appear serious, formal, and proper.  He loves traditions and old-school values that uphold patience, hard work, honor, and social and cultural responsibility.

    In #2084 story, he begins as a ‘norm’ who has been programmed to dislikes difference but then slowly loosens up and learns to embrace and celebrate his ‘anomalous’ self and diversity in others.  Although, this is a constant struggle for him.

    Does Bioman fit in with the other marvel comic superheros or is Bioman standing alone in his quest?

    Bioman offers an alternative to Marvel/DC’s duopoly on superheroes designed for needs of the last century.  Bioman is designed specifically for the concerns/aspirations of the 21st century.

    Millennials, in particular, know they have inherited an eco-system and political economy that was created by the excesses and eco-ignorance of baby boomers. They are seeing their children being programmed by media, consumed by technology and threatened by faceless terrorist hordes.

    The constant worrying about the kind of planet their children will inherit leads them to feel helpless. The Bioman experience is designed to change all that. The franchise will allow parents and their children to explore, evolve and expand what it means to be human, encouraging them to reconnect with their biological-selves and reclaim their place in the cosmic order of things and gain the courage to take effective action to defend nature.

    What would you say are the most important goals for this project?

    Bioman’s explorations of science, technology, and consciousness will attract audiences worldwide who long to deepen their connection with nature, with each other and who want technology to be used for human as well as planetary well-being.

    Who are some key people working with you on this project? Are there any names people will/should know?

    I’m currently in development of a short animation with an upcoming studio. I’m in dialogue with some legends from the superhero business including a former CEO of Marvel.

    Tell us about your plans for the film? Do you have a date in mind for the film release?

    The live action movie has been budgeted/scheduled with an Oscar winning team.  The epic budget means I will develop an anime for theatrical release, first. A successful anime should attract a large enough studio to partner on the project.

    Do you have any upcoming events or any recent events to share regarding this project?

    I’m fairly active on social media – @RealBioman (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter), and will be planning more events as the fan-base for Bioman grows.

    What inspired you to become a writer?

    I arrived in NYC a few days prior to 9/11, and experienced the horror of ground zero at first hand. Shortly after, I developed a passion for screenwriting from a screenwriter who was also the daughter of legendary the playwright of The Elephant Man. She helped me realized that stories have the power to transform how we see the world.

    What does the phrase Art for Progress mean to you?

    In my current view, art that’s not for progress is not real art.  Now, more than ever, we need art to take a stand against the tyrannical forces vying for domination.

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  • One of the things I used to detest so much as a child was watching the Spanish actress Charo shaking her ass and screaming out “cuchi, cuchi!” on stage. Her famous act would make my blood boil. Please, Charo, forgive me (for we are both Spanish, Latin women) but you’re capitalizing on broken English and the need to be sexy all the time, and I wonder if you helped shape the brand, image for Latin women.

    There is more to my personal history with Charo’s legacy than growing up watching her on television: my paternal grandmother was a performer too and there was a crossing of paths between these influential Latin women. Seeing such a beautiful Latin woman depicted in Charo’s characteristic way was beyond me. I questioned this image constantly, wondering about the advantages of being famously sexy and vulnerable.  As opposed to all the women in my family who were immigrants and championed higher education.  They worked as professionals, speaking fluent English, and every single one of them was extraordinarily attractive.

    On one hand, I saw Charo as a brilliant entrepreneur. She seized the opportunity to commoditize a stereotype and hence became a star with a net worth of twelve billion dollars. In a society where money is synonymous with power, that is a ton of power.

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    Sandra Eleta (Panamanian, b. 1942), “Edita (la del plumero), Panamá” (Edita [the one with the duster], Panama), 1977, from the series “La servidumbre (Servitude)” 1978-1979. Black and white photograph. 19 × 19 in. (48.3 × 48.3 cm). Courtesy of Galeria Arteconsult S.A., Panama. Artwork © the artist

    In contrast to Charo’s sexy Latina character, Panamanian artist Sandra Eleta tapped into another Latin female stereotype by photographing housemaids, albeit, with a much different attitude depicted in her subject’s countenance than say Charo’s blaring “Cuchi, cuchi!” and blank expressions. The women depicted in Eleta’s work were laborers, and yet, had a “different face than what you might expect from a domestic worker,” observed assistant curator Carmen Hermo when discussing the works of Eleta during a recent interview in The Guardian Magazine about the group exhibition Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960-1985 at the Brooklyn Museum. The problem with the latter is the artist went unnoticed for her work, for years. Like all the Latin artists in the group exhibition, Eleta was using the body as protest without any seductive intention, however as assistant curator Hermo, noted the faces on the subjects were distinct from what one expects from the “cliché housemaid.”  After I examined the photograph Panamá (Edita [the one with the duster] Panama), 1977 I agree that there was something subtly peculiar exuding from the subject’s face and body that was powerful, authoritative, relaxed and sensual.

    Why is it that the Latin woman came to be depicted with such contrasting messages? Regardless of culture, is this not true of women in general?  Artist Kara Walker presents this discussion in her work, Subtley, 2014 at the Domino Sugar Factory in New York. The giant foam sculpture covered in sugar greeted viewers on one side with juicy, kissable lips on her face, and on the other side, her vulva exposed, while wearing a headpiece associated with the stereotypical mammy in African-American culture. Walker successfully mirrored an image controversially in the middle of sexual fantasy and political incorrectness. It becomes slippery when a female uses the body as a form of rebellion: it all depends on which context it is being understood, and that is directly linked to the viewer.   With recent sexual allegations against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein,  surfacing from many actresses (a diverse group of color and race), it is apparent that the female revolution has turned into a war between the sexes to protect our rights to our bodies and how we use it.

    Meanwhile,  Afro-Latina artists like Cardi B who use their body to get what they want as she confidently belts out in songs like “Bodak Yellow, or “I Like it Like That.”  Who’s not to say she is using her body as a weapon. Cardi B hit instant success on social media for candidly discussing her history as a stripper and hard life. In her video for “Bodak Yellow,” the artist raps about all her financial accomplishments due to stripping and goes on readily admitting to “using guys” and “feeling damn powerful.”  The drawback I have with using the body so freely is: why give away the core to sex so easily? Isn’t this where the power is at?

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    Illustration of Lysistrata by Aubrey Beardsley, 1896

    In Lysistrata, a comedy written by Aristophanes in 400 BCE, the queen orders the women of the village to abstain from *sex with the men to force submission as an entrance to negotiate peace. Of course, the women groan and complain but fulfill the request and the plan worked. Later on, in 2013, Independent UK covered a story on Colombian women who refused to have *sex with their spouses and significant others until a hazardous 35-mile road was repaired. Both of these instances illustrate women using their bodies in rebellion, but this time they are adamant about withholding sex. We can ask ourselves if the platform to the truest female power is this simple. Is using our body as a performative vessel without sex the key to the ultimate power we seek? At least, just to get the message across of true empowerment.

    Cardi B declares “He wanna swim with his face / I’m like okay, I’ll let him did what he want / He buys me, Yves Saint Laurent.” She goes on to say that she works hard. Well, many women work very hard and as mentioned in the instance of Radical Women: Latin American Art 1960-1980 whose roster of Latin female ( although it would have been great to include contemporary artists) exemplified women who went unnoticed while using their bodies stupendously in silent dissent.  The ammunition in creativity was intellectually superior and their tactic to inject themselves into political protest through the arts was indeed “clever.”

    All in all, the Latin woman is defined as a radical extremist as she focuses heavily on conversations dealing with the political dictatorship, misogyny, and abuse common in all Latin American and Latin Caribbean nations.

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    Sonia Gutierrez (born Colombia, 1947). Y con unos lazos me izaron (And they lifted me up with rope), 1979. Acrylic on canvas. Museo de Arte Moderno La Tuertulia, Cali, Colombia. © Sonia Gutierrez.

    This discussion is not meant to compare the unfortunate historical events that have unfolded for the African-American or Latina woman. This is a conversation meant to highlight stereotypes that exist in the West about cultures considered “other.” To further elaborate, women in the West have received recognition in popular culture for shaking their asses, banking on looks, while those in fine arts who question dictatorships, abuse, inequality, the objectification of body and sexual assault are oftentimes operating under the radar of popular culture and/or ignored. Another work in Radical Women: Latin American Art 1960-1985 by artist Sonia Gutiérrez, And they lifted me up with rope, 1977, depicts a woman wearing a bright pink dress with rope wound up around her ankles as she suspends in mid-air. The image reveals bright, appealing colors against the nightmarish reality of the hunted on display like a trophy. It’s as though being a woman with a vagina is asking for trouble, more so, if the woman happens to be attractive, sexy and sensual.

    On the contrary to the aforementioned, Gutiérrez’s subject is wearing a homely, frumpy garment. There is nothing sexy about the attire, so what caused the subject to fall victim to such a violent act of assault? It is apparent that anytime a woman, regardless of color, race or sexual preference decides to investigate topics (like Gutierrez did in her work which isn’t a favorable one or requires uncomfortable participation from the viewer, think men here, sorry fellas), they are ostracized, labeled as difficult and pushed out of society with the consequence of a harder life—in all aspects. Is it easier to view works that don’t confront this stigma because it is un-disturbing and easy to see a beautiful woman but not have to hear her?

    I have often wondered if the stereotypes were created as a form of psychological warfare on members of society that those in power wanted to oppress. Which begs the question: why do women who play along with these stereotypes gain financial wealth and social recognition while the brash, intellectual woman is snubbed?

    It is really difficult to persuade those unaffected by inequality or abuse to understand what the protesting is about. I invoke on Curator Cecelia Fajardo-Hill’s statement, “You can’t say it didn’t exist when speaking about the female artists in Radical Women:  Latin American Art, 1960- 1985. These women, among many other great Afro-American, Indian and non-Western artists have been lamenting the need for change, silently in their works for years and it has been falling on deaf ears. It is so painful knowing this truth. It is not a myth and it shan’t be disregarded.

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    Activists with Atitude: ● 2006, Colombia — Proclaiming a “strike of crossed legs,” women in Pereira withheld sex to stop gang wars and drive home the point that violence is not sexy. The ten-day strike may have worked. By 2010, Pereira’s murder rate declined by 26.5 percent.

    As I sit back and watch the (gender) social earthquake take place, raising the stinking, hidden hell, sitting beneath us for centuries, I applaud female curators such as Cecelia Fajardo-Hill and Carmen Hermo (among others not mentioned) step into the exhibition arena. It is exhibitions like this, focusing on women, that will continue to address haunting issues women face and hopefully eliminate inequality: or maybe the exhibition space and the help of the curator will provide the support we need to capitalize on our intelligence and desire for social change.

    Maybe the female raucous will bring in the proper respect we have been waiting for while making a hefty living too. Besides, men have figured out how to go to war and make money, and Charo banked on a stereotype and look at her today. I guess we can learn a thing or two about stereotypes.

     

    by Beláxis Buil

    Edited by Abel Folger

     

    • Other Sex Strikes:

    https://qz.com/958346/history-shows-that-sex-strikes-are-a-surprisingly-effective-strategy-for-political-change/

    http://activistswithattitude.com/sex-strikes-and-birth-boycotts-no-laughing-matter/