First Person Arts Salon 5/2009
Friday, May 15th, 2009
I attended my second First Person Arts Salon on Wednesday night. My friend Andrew, who is one of the good people at FPS and, has been trying to get me to submit something for the salons for 2 years now (the horror). Instead, I've gone to 2 of the 3 new salons at their new venue at the Arts Bank on Broad/South. Presenting at this salon, to a packed house of 50 or so, were the filmmakers, Barbara Attie and Janet Goldwater and associate producer Shannon Kane-Meddock, behind Mrs. Goundo's Daughter
MRS. GOUNDO'S DAUGHTER is the story of a young mother's quest to keep her baby daughter healthy and whole. It is also the story of the African tradition of female genital cutting, which dates back thousands of years—and how it affects people's lives in just two of the many places where the practice is being debated today.
Mrs. Goundo's husband fled drought and ethnic conflict in his native Mali, West Africa sixteen years ago. Mrs. Goundo came to the United States in 1999. Together, they are raising three young children in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
It was a powerful clip of the film which is almost finished. Over three years in the making now, it's almost ready for some major festivals coming up later this year. It'll hopefully be on TV thanks to major funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Watch a clip here.
Second in the lineup was my friend Gabi Revlock [at left] and Co's performance of a piece of modern dance which is part of a larger production she's working on called SHARE! which will premier at the nEW Festival next month. I might actually even be in one of her video pieces at some point. I helped out making hand masks a few weeks ago at the fan-cay Jeanne Ruddy Dance studio.
Modern dance is usually not my thang, but having a friend as a dancer, I'm quite willing to explore the medium more than I have in the past. It's been fun seeing Gabi perform her pieces.
Closing out the night was Mark Rudd, one of the founding members of Weather Underground who read from his new memoir: Underground: My life in SDS and the Weathermen. Hearing him read from his book made me want to read it. He read his words well, not all writers can do that. He talked very plainly about his past during the Q&A session. I want to know more about this guy.
The salons are really cool events. They happen the second Wednesday of every month and they're $8 which, I think, is quite reasonable. Lots of intellectual stimulation to be had. I had to run home afterwards and couldn't mingle because my right contact ripped in half, in my eye, during Rudd's talk. Such is life. I stuck it out through the end of the salon though, but I was in pain and had quite blurry vision.
On another note, FPS is putting on a national competition called First Person Arts: In These Hard Times. From their blog:
Now, as Americans are again experiencing financial hardship and uncertainty, First Person Arts invites artists to document how this generation of Americans is coping.
Inspired by the artists of the WPA [Works Progress Administration], who documented the experiences of Americans in every part of the country, First Person Arts is asking artists to help craft the first draft of the history of our era by capturing, in photographs, on video, or in writing, the stories of America and its people during these difficult times.
Our goal is to gather stories from all 50 states.
It's like the NYT's effort: Living With Less which has reader submissions as part of the documentation. Walker Evans is my photographic idol, he did a bunch of work along side the WPA for the Resettlement Administration. A few more photos from the night starting here in my flickr stream.
