check out Renee Stout at the Phillips

here she is talking about the new Man Ray exhibit that opened at the Phillips a few weeks back!
check it out:

around my way:Anacostia Foto Week Events: Nov 7- 14!!!

Fotoweek Anacostia: November 7th - November 14th

Honfleur Fotoweek Poster 2009

Click either the image or the link for more info

Tickets Still Available! Silent Auction + Reception hosted by Senator Al and Franni Franken to celebrate the kick-off of DCFotoWeek in Anacostia and the opening of Owen Franken : A Photography Retrospective. The Senator will be drawing his famous free-hand map of the US to be auctioned off during the event. Tickets are $25 – email bferraro@archdc.org or call 202-365-8392.

A preview of Owen Franken’s, “A Photography Retrospective” at The Gallery at Vivid Solutions is free and will open at 6:30 pm.

Saturday, November 7 – Saturday, November 14: (all openings at 7PM on the 7th)

Honfleur Gallery, 1241 Good Hope Road SE

Women Photojournalists of Washington: Including works by Astrid Riecken, Allison Shelley, Abby Greenawalt, Ashely Twiggs, Algerina Perna, Amanda Lucidon, Andrea Bruce, Carol Guzy, Gabriela Bulisova, Jamie Rose, Katie Falkenberg, Laura Pohl, Melina Mara, Sarah L. Voisin, and Yanina Manolova.

Alternative Art Space, 2200 MLK Ave SE

BK Adams’ and Steven M. Cummings’ I AM ART: Presenting an experimental installation with interactive components.

Gallery at Vivid Solutions, 2208 MLK Ave SE

Owen Franken, A Photography Retrospective: Owen has traveled to over 100 countries and covered everything from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the culture of food and wine in his home city of Paris.

This is a great excuse to check out Anacostia for the first or the hundredth time. Come on over!

(text courtesy of And Now, Anacostia)

thinking of….

“finally, I come to believe in loss as a way of knowing.”
-Sekou Sundiata from “Open heart”

For some reason on these rainy days
I feel a loss i cannot easily assign
words to -when i feel loss i turn
to poetry and more often than not
when I think poetry and loss
I think of Sekou Sundiata…
that’s all i have to say about that

around my way: more RIVER. EAST. ART

Updated 9/08.09 — F. Lennox Campello (http://dcartnews.blogspot.com/) blogged about yet another feather in the cap of RIVER. EAST. ART that i forgot to mention. Vivid Solutions, specializes in the new digital printing technique, Digigraphie and is the first Digigraphie certified lab in the United States!

Click here to find out more about Vivid Solutions.

around my way: Big Chair Coffee sighting

photo courtesy of http://twitpic.com/g4dvh
Almost a year ago now my parents and I were thinking about opening a coffeeshop franchise (GreenBerry’s) in River East preferably in downtown Anacostia, we have not given up on the idea but the timing just was not right for that type of venture for us.
Shortly after we shelved the idea i was happy to hear that another enterprising business person is moving forward with plans to open Big Chair Coffee (pictured above) at 2122 MLK Ave. Despite not being the first to the River East market with a coffeeshop/cafe, i am super excited about this and provided that the service and offerings are up to par, i will be supporting it regularly in fact it may become my office away from the office.

check out some other pics from the And Now, Anacostia blog

around my way: RIVER. EAST. ART

I try to keep up with all the interesting neighborhood bloggers around town, renewshaw is one that I read regularly.

When i checked it out today there was an interesting article up there about the financial woes of both the building owner and the gallerist at the well known art complex at 1515 14th Street NW.

in his/her post shaw rez suggested that the galleries should relocate to Shaw, because of lower rents (for now) and centralized buildings with architectural character. While I cannot disagree with him/her, I can think at least two other solid locations with just as much potential if not more than the 9th Street Corridor.

Firstly, the H Street Corridor, with help of the Great Streets Initiative and the efforts of a lot of good organizations and individuals H Street is quickly becoming a desired destination by those in the know and those willing to venture East of 11th and U Sts NW, not mention North Capitol Street.

Secondly, Downtown Anacostia, I know as some of you are reading this you are already scoffing at the idea but what many of you may not know is that there are already three Fine Art galleries there that have been adding to the art scene of this city for almost 4 years, Honfleur Gallery, Vivid Solutions and American Poetry Museum’s Gallery, have been showing work by locally, regionally, nationally and internationally known artists since opening their doors. Additionally they have been participating in ongoing cultural exchanges programs with artists and galleries in France (Dorothy’s Galerie), Wales, Belfast (Belfast Exposed), Cuba (Lazaro Baptisa), these collaborations have sent Washington DC and River East based youth and adult artists around the world showing their art…..

So i started thinking to myself although Shaw would be a good place move for the 14th Street galleries, i think it would be a wiser move to have those galleries plug themselves into a community that has created an international arts community without the help of all the critical attention, foot traffic, and the brut force of an economic development engine that continues to support the neighborhood. Additionally in considering Downtown Anacostia would probably give these gallerist the opportunity to buy their own space and not have to immediately worry about their taxes increasing at an alarming rate (500% in the case of another Shaw artspace, The Warehouse).

I am hopeful that someday soon business like these soon-to-be displaced galleries will come to communities further East and perhaps even as far as River East. I think they will be pleasantly surprised to find a community spawned unofficial arts district already hard at work in the heart of Downtown Anacostia.

around my way: a cool interview with David Garber of “And Now, Anacostia”

image courtesy of ReadySetDC

Read the interview here!

RIP Rashied Ali

RIP Rashied Ali

Ali was John Coltrane’s last drummer, he played with Trane on The Olatunji Concert and Interstellar Space….

I am glad i got a chance to check him out..I saw him at Twins Jazz on U Street and i may have seen him in B’more at An Die Musik…amazing musical moments and memories.

“things that make you go hmmmm…”

I was going through my normal Google Reader morning routine and the title of an entry from my boyJomo’s blog caught my attention. The title was The Whole Foods Conundrum, in the post, he was pondering the question whether he would continue to shop at Whole Foods because of the logical implications of the opinions of John Mackey’s op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Mackey is the CEO of Whole Foods.

In a nutshell, basically Mackey, using an interpretation of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, opines that “a careful reading of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution will not reveal any intrinsic right to health care, food or shelter.”..WHOA!!
I am not a law student like my man Jomo, but something in Mackey’s analysis does not sit well with me.

Perhaps I am a little naive and ignorant of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, but “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” , establishing Justice, insuring domestic Tranquility, promoting “the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity” , sound pretty comprehensive to me, surely health care, food or shelter fall in there somewhere, but again I am not serious student of the Constitutional Law so I could be wrong.

Perhaps even more disturbing is the question that Jomo raise on this blog poemusing, he quests

Based on the “historical background” surrounding the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, would Mackey support repeal of every amendment that granted “new” rights… to Blacks? to women? etc.?

In addition to my feelings about health care as a right, the line of questioning that Jomo poses is making me consider going down the same rabbit hole…I, too, would be interested in hearing more of Mackey’s opinons about the rights of African Americans, Women, etc as a function his “careful reading” that seeks to “to codify a pre-existing right, rather than to fashion a new one.”

Besides I already have a bone to pick to with Mackey for not putting a Whole Foods somewhere in DC east of the 14th Street NW or better yet east of North Capitol Street..;-)

Check out Jomo’s poemusing and then check out Mackey’s op-ed in the WSJ

Habanecer: Un viaje habanero en colores cubanos” the work of Lázaro Batista at Art + Media House

Habanecer: Un viaje habanero en colores cubanos” the work of Lázaro Batista at Art + Media House, 3035 15th St. NW, Washington, DC 20009.

The show will run July 31-August 3, with a reception on Saturday, August 1, at 7 p.m.

This show will feature some of his latest work, all concerned with his experienced of his city, La habana, and his barrio, Calle hueso.