Monthly archives:January 2017

  • America and AFP Brace for the Next Chapter in our History…

  • 7 years ago
  • With an unprecedented climate of change and concern dawning in the United States, Art for Progress arts education programs are more essential than ever. AFP is embracing the ever-growing need for alternative and supplemental art, music, theater, and fashion programs for young people representing the voice of true expression in our city. Once again this has been an exciting semester for existing Art for Progress arts education programs in New York City’s public schools, and there are some new programs in the works for the second half of the school year. Our flagship music program at Humanities Preparatory Academy, which includes school day sessions as well as after school, is flourishing and has produced and cultivated a bunch of wonderful talent this semester. Everyone at the school is looking forward to the talent show on February 16th, which will include solo vocal and instrumental performances, and a variety of ensemble pieces and even a dance number.  AFP’s after school program at the James Baldwin School is also going strong and was well represented in the recent school-wide talent show on Friday, January 20. Students from both schools have been working hard after school every day, choosing songs and rehearsing. Especially impressive is the spirit of mutual encouragement among the students as the shows approach. As for AFP’s Young Adult Music Enrichment Program, tracking is nearly completed on Bronx rock band Statik Vision’s full-length album, and we are preparing [...]

  • Sins of the Father

  • 7 years ago
  • A solid directorial and screenwriting debut by Australian actor and theater director Simon Stone, The Daughter borders on melodrama, but still manages to pack a considerable wallop. Stone originally converted Henrik Ibsen’s 1884 play The Wild Duck into a production set in present-day Australia for Sidney's Belvoir St Theatre in 2011. Like that version, some of the original story's details have been stripped away for The Daughter, yet the film retains a Nordic moodiness. As with live plays, the actors often sell the thing and The Daughter is no exception; Geoffrey Rush, Sam Neill, Miranda Otto and Ewen Leslie, especially, deliver intense performances that make the film’s escalating drama compelling throughout. These events are set in motion by Christian (Paul Schneider), who returns to his Australian hometown after 15 years in the U.S. to attend the wedding of his father Henry (Rush)—a wealthy lumber mill owner—to his much younger housekeeper, Anna. There is obvious friction, as the son seems disgusted both by Anna’s age and the fact that his father is still using the car that belonged to his late wife, Christian’s mother. Complicating things, Henry has just shut down the mill, leading to an exodus of unemployed workers and their families from the town. Christian’s childhood friend Oliver (Leslie) is one worker who hasn't left; he and his wife Charlotte (Otto) dote on their daughter Hedvig (Odessa Young in a tough role), a bright high schooler who is also very cl[...]

  • Wearable Art: What You Don't Know About 'Hidden Figures' Costume Design

  • 7 years ago
  • Have you seen the movie 'Hidden Figures' yet? It's the first film, with an all female (and predominately black) cast, to remain the Number 1 movie in America for two weeks in a row since 2011's 'The Help,' according to Huffington Post! And after Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, the movie is poised to surpass the $100 million dollar mark. Yas, kween! What's also extraordinary about the 60s-era gender and race-barrier-breaking movie is the costuming by Renee Ehrlich Kalfus who recently a nomination for Excellence in Period Film by the Costume Designers Guild of America (CFDA).   "In many ways it's not a flashy picture, so the costumes have a fresh reality in a period way that's not... flashy," Ehrlich Kalfus tells Fashionista. To create the stunning looks seen in the movie, Ehrlich Kalfus referenced vintage issues of Ebony magazine, while adhering to NASA's ironclad rules for office attire. However, Ehrlich Kalfus managed to find inventiveness and individuality when it came to the film's vibrant looks. Regarding Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson)'s costuming, she adds: "There was some liberty in terms of colors, styles and shapes, because she did make her own clothes and I took advantage of that." Photo Credit: Hopper Stone/20th Century Fox Film Corp. h/t Fashionista Vivid and rich colors abound in 'Hidden Figures,' including 60s-era jewel-toned 2-piece suits and soft prints -- a sharp contrast to the male costuming of white button-down [...]

  • The Uncertainty Principle

  • 7 years ago
  • How much do we really know someone? That’s the main question posed by Claire in Motion, a quiet, uneasy new film co-written and directed by Lisa Robinson and Annie J. Howell. A sort of hybrid mystery/character study, the movie stars Betsy Brandt (best known for her role as Marie Schrader in Breaking Bad) as a math professor at a Midwestern university whose husband—a fellow academician—fails to return from a hiking trek. There’s no hysteria or big, crashing emotions in this missing-persons drama; conversely, it's a slowly-unfolding account of a woman traditionally ruled by logic and order, as she comes to terms with the unexpected and (initially) incomprehensible. When Claire Hunger’s husband Paul, an ornithology professor and nature-loving survivalist type, fails to return from his solo hiking trek on schedule, she doesn’t immediately panic. That emotion sets in slowly as the days turn into weeks, the police call off their fruitless search, and the couple’s young son Connor (an exceptionally poised Zev Haworth) begins to accept the inevitable—that his father probably died somewhere out in the wilderness. Even then, however, Claire refuses to believe Paul is gone and keeps going back into the woods to hunt for him. (Overcast skies and a slightly greenish palette give everything a heavy, muted tone that accentuates the sense of disquiet.) When the town's police chief mentions having interviewed a grad student with whom Paul was working on an art project, the usually unde[...]

  • Wearable Art: 3 Epic Fashion Moments To Look Out For In 2017

  • 7 years ago
  • Sayonara 2016! As we wait to learn and experience more of what this new 2017th year of existence has in store for all of us, one positive thing is for certain: New year = new start! And for starters, there are a few epic moments that we already know will happen in 2017. Check out three of the most amazing below. Happy new year! Alexander McQueen Biopic  Announced in late October 2016,  a biopic, based on the Alexander McQueen biography "Blood Beneath the Skin" by Andrew Wilson will start filming Spring 2017, and will hit movie theaters later the same year. Starring former "Skins" heartthrob Jack O'Connell, all of buzzy buzz surrounding this movie seem to unanimously agree that the actor closely resembles the troubled designer, who committed suicide in 2010 at the age of 40. We can't wait to see McQueen's incredible life story be brought to life. Below Alexander McQueen, left and actor Jack O'Connell Photo Credit: Getty Gingham, Ruffles and Wide Legs, Oh My!  Key clothing trends to expect in 2017 are ruffles, gingham, and wide legged pants — items that you might still have in your closet from seasons past, might be ready to take centerstage again. Below: London Fashion Week Looks from L-R: Toga, Peter Pilotto, House of Holland, Simone Rocha and Molly Goddard.   Photo Credit: Imaxtree/Fashionista More Over, "It" Bag, Make Way For Mini Purses When Nicolas Ghesquiere debuted an iPhone case shaped like a bag October 2016, little did we know that there was a bi[...]