Creative Cocktail Hour at Real Art Ways

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Creative Cocktail Hour
Live music, art exhibitions, food and drinks, and you. Come as you are!

Creative Cocktail Hour is about the people. Everybody is welcome, conversations abound, people connect.

Live Music:

Fabian Almazan – Piano 

A black and white image of a person sitting and playing the piano.

Fabian Almazan is a Cuban-American pianist/composer. During the completion of his jazz piano bachelor’s degree at the Manhattan School of Music, Almazan immersed himself in the realm of orchestral composition studying instrumentation and orchestration with Mr. Giampaolo Bracali. He is the founder and director of Biophilia Records and has worked diligently towards ensuring a continued dialogue of awareness concerning music and environmental justice. He has toured his music extensively as well as accompanied artists such as Linda May Han Oh, Terence Blanchard, Gretchen Parlato, John Hollenbeck, Mark Guiliana, Dave Douglass, Avishai Cohen and Ambrose Akinmusire among others.

Awards include 2 Grammy nominations, the SWR New Jazz Meeting commission, the Copland Fund, the Jerome Fund for Emerging Composers Award, the Jazz Gallery Residency, Rockerfeller Brothers Residency, Cintas Foundation Award in Composition and the Sundance Composers’ Lab.

For more information on Fabian Almazan, please visit their website.

Linda May Han Oh – Bass 

A woman in a blue dress with a bass behind her.

“Her innovative range and stellar improvisations have made [her] one of the most dynamic rising stars in jazz today.” – The Wall Street Journal

“Engrossing, shapeshifting… [her] vibrant tone, close control and confident attack immediately established why she is such an in-demand performer.” The Financial Times

Linda May Han Oh is a Grammy award-winning bassist and composer and recorded with artists such as Pat Metheny, Kenny Barron, Joe Lovano, Dave Douglas, Terri Lyne Carrington, Steve Wilson, Geri Allen and Vijay Iyer. She was voted the 2018-2021 Bassist of the Year by the Jazz Journalist’s Association, as well 2022 Bassist of the Year in Jazztimes. Linda also was voted 2019 Bassist of the Year in Hothouse Magazine and was the 2020 recipient APRA award for Best New Jazz Work. In 2023 she received the prestigious Herb Albert Award for music.

Linda is currently Associate Professor at the Berklee College of Music in the bass department and is also part of the Institute for Jazz and Gender Justice led by Terri Lyne Carrington. Linda was featured on bass in the 2020 Pixar movie “Soul” under the musical direction of Jon Batiste (The Late Show with Stephen Colbert) alongside drummer Roy Haynes and was the model for the character in the film – bassist “Miho.”

For more information, please visit her website.

Troy Roberts – Tenor Saxophone

A man holding up a saxophone

“He amply demonstrates that it’s possible to pay homage to the great tenor players of jazz and still create a fresh approach that leaves the listener always in anticipation of what he’ll come up with next.” – James Morrison

Troy Roberts is a two-time Grammy nominated Australian saxophonist & composer. He is based in New York City, maintaining a busy performance & recording schedule around the globe with some of the greatest jazz artists of today, and is currently celebrating his 14th release, ‘Nu-Jive: Nations United’ (Toy Robot Music).

Roberts has received numerous accolades including three DownBeat SM Jazz Soloist Awards, 2 Grammy Nominations, and was semi-finalist in the 2008 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition.  Graduating with a Bachelor of Music at the young age of 19, he has performed around Europe and the US extensively with artists such as Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts, Joey DeFrancesco, James Morrison, Aretha Franklin, Van Morrison, Christian McBride, Sammy Figueroa, Billy Hart, Dave Douglas, Orrin Evans and Kurt Elling to name a few, and also completed a Masters Degree at The University of Miami.  As an educator, Roberts has presented numerous masterclasses and clinics at prestigious colleges, conservatoriums and universities around the world.

In 2012, he shared the stage in an international septet comprised of jazz giants Wayne Shorter, Richard Bona, Vinnie Colaiuta and Zakir Hussein for Herbie Hancock’s launch of International Jazz Day at The UN, NYC.  He was also part of Hancock’s 2014 International Jazz Day held in Osaka, Japan performing with jazz luminaries such as Gregory Porter, Marcus Miller, Roy Hargrove, Esperanza Spaulding and John Scofield.  As a long-time New York City resident, Troy maintains a busy performance and recording schedule around the globe with some of the greatest jazz artists of today, and is currently celebrating his fourteenth release as a leader, ‘NU-JIVE: Nations United’ (Toy Robot Music).

For more information, please visit his website.

Zack O’Farrill – Drums 

A man sitting and playing a drum set.

Zack O’Farrill is a multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-musical artist. He has studied with musicians such as Dave Meade, Vince Cherico, Victor Jones, Kendrick Scott, Justin Dicioccio, John Riley, Miles Okazaki, Roy Nathanson, Arturo O’Farrill, Joe Gonzalez, and many more.  He received a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts from the CUNY Macaulay Honors College at City College.  He is currently working on his Master’s Degree in Jazz Percussion from the Manhattan School of Music.

O’Farrill is also a dedicated educator who has taught in after-school music programs in New York City since 2010.  He is the director of the Fat Afro Latin Jazz Cats youth big band, which offers free instruction to talented and deserving high school students from all boroughs. He has been a faculty member of the Flynn Center Latin Jazz for Teens camp in Burlington Vermont for 7 years. He also teaches privately at his home in Brooklyn. If you’re interested in studying with Zack, click here.

As a composer Zack has had compositions featured on recordings with the Marquès Stinson O’Farrill Trio, the Eco-Music Big Band, and his composition “There’s a Statue of José Martí in Central Park” closes the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra’s Grammy-winning record Cuba: The Conversation Continues (listen here). Zack currently leads his own quartet, performing his original music, and is in the process of planning his first record as a leader.

For more information, please visit his website.

 

DJ Mr. Realistic

A man behind the DJ booth.

Art Exhibitions:

Alan Neider: ‘Round About Midnight 

Karl Goulet: Real Wall 

Three new gallery exhibition openings in our far, middle, and main galleries!

Food Truck

Rolling Roti: an authentic Guyanese food truck serving the downtown Hartford area

 

Hands-on Art Making Activities led by Real Art Ways Staff

& You!

Creative Cocktail Hour is about community and expression.

Buy your tickets online!
Real Wall: Karl Goulet
Real Art Ways presents a Real Wall installation by Karl Goulet. Curated by David Borawski.

Goulet works between painting and sculpture to create layered abstract forms that embody concepts of identity and memory. In Goulet’s words, these works “glorify larger bodies – bodies that aren’t typically represented or appreciated in our society.” Using acrylic, latex, paper and fabric, Goulet connects “the physicality of [his] materials with the fleshiness of the body.”

“There is a powerful negative public mentality that plus-sized bodies are shameful or undesired and should be hidden or covered, which has always tormented me. I want to use this series to embrace a change in mentality and to become more comfortable in my own skin by revealing and emphasizing the power of fat and flesh.”

Real Wall is a series of wall-mounted exhibitions taking place in between formal gallery spaces. Artists are invited to experiment with the space in short-run exhibitions.

About the Artist

Karl Goulet was born and raised in northwest Connecticut. He received his Bachelors of Fine Arts Degree in Painting from the Hartford Art School, University of Hartford, in 2014. In 2012, Goulet began an internship at Five Points Gallery, where he has grown through the ranks and is currently the full-time Gallery Director and co-curator at Five Points Gallery, the flagship location of the Five Points Center for the Visual Arts. As a curator, Goulet has worked to curate over 100 group and solo exhibitions, working alongside hundreds of artists from across the world. Outside of Five Points, Goulet has served as juror and curator for multiple exhibitions throughout CT including for The Warner Theatre, Melanie Carr Gallery, and Trinity Lime Rock Gallery. Goulet has had the opportunity to work with the DECD, Connecticut Office of the Arts as a juror for Public Art in 2018 and as a judge for the Litchfield Hills Creative Awards in 2019. Also in 2019, he was selected to speak on a three-person panel on the role of artists in the community and as an artist and activist at the University of Hartford’s Alumni Forum. Goulet creates work across multiple disciplines including painting, drawing, sculpture, and mixed-media. Goulet has exhibited his work nationally. He is a member of the Five Points Launchpad. In 2021, he was awarded an Emerging Recognition Fellowship from the Connecticut Office of the Arts.

‘Round About Midnight
Alan Neider
Real Art Ways presents a solo exhibition by Alan Neider. Curated by David Borawski.

Neider’s circular paintings incorporate quilted moving blankets and fabric, handled in an expressive and gestural manner. Working on up to ten pieces at once, Neider feels his studio process leads to moments of surprise, where paintings begin to inform one another.

“My work has always been about painting. I built out from the surface of my first paintings because the forms needed to come out into space…I create/build difficult and challenging surfaces to paint. I believe these surfaces in conjunction with the inherent textures of wood, fabric and ceramics lead to a richer, more complex experience.”

For Neider, color, patterns, and texture from found fabrics are “used as a stand in for painting. The fabrics are cut into random shapes, sewn onto the substrates in a collaged manner. This step is repeated a number of times until a visually complex, thick textured surface is created. The painting process often takes months to complete since I work in layers and spend a great deal of time ‘looking’ at the work(s).”

‘Round About Midnight brings together work from Neider’s Circle Paintings series, alongside a smaller piece from Loops in Space.

About the Artist

Alan Neider received an AA from El Camino Jr. College, a BA in Ceramics from California State Un. at Long Beach, an MFA in Sculpture from Washington Un. in St. Louis, MO. While in graduate school he received a Robert Rauschenberg Change Inc. Work Grant and was accepted into the MacDowell Artists Colony. Moving to Chicago, he was represented by the Jan Cicero Gallery and later the Nancy Lurie Gallery. In Chicago, he was commissioned to create a free-standing painting on top of Navy Pier. He was selected to The CETA artists in residence program in Chicago. He was also represented by the Henri Gallery in Washington, DC. Neider moved to the East coast in 1980, where he has continued his painting practice. Neider has had two solo exhibitions in CT, a solo show in Bushwick, NY and a solo show in Montclair, NJ. He has been in group exhibitions including Galerie Kremers in Berlin, the 490 Atlantic Gallery, the Overlook Gallery in Chicago, IL, the Carter-Burden Gallery in Chelsea, NY, Equity Gallery, NY, Un. of WI, Lowe Museum, FL. Ten paintings titled Hot Loops were installed in five large windows at Saks Fifth Ave., Toronto. Neider was invited to the Cutlog Art Fair, NYC, 2014 and the Spring Break Art Fair, NYC, 2020. In 2002 he received a grant from the CT Commission on the Arts.

Supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

Andy Warhol Foundation logo

Artist Talk: Kate Bae
Thursday, March 30, 6:00 PM. Free admission, no RSVP required.

You’re invited to a gallery talk with artist Kate Bae, who will discuss the current exhibition A Rite of Passage at Real Art Ways. Bae is a recipient of a 2021 Real Art Award.

Born in Busan, Korea, Kate Bae is a New York-based independent curator and artist working through painting and site-specific installations. Bae’s practice is concerned with multiple identities, memory, neuroses, and psychological borders. Bae holds an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in painting. Bae is a founder of Women’s Cactus for the Arts and has exhibited nationally and internationally, including solo shows at the Sunroom Project Space at Wave Hill, Bronx, NY and the Deiglan Gallery in Akureyri, Iceland. She is a grant recipient of a Real Art Award, MVP Chapter Lead Grant from Malikah Gender Justice Institute, Ora Lerman Trust, Creative Capital Professional Development Program and the NYFA Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program. She has attended many residencies including the Golden Foundation, the Studios at Mass MoCA, Trestle Gallery, Wassaic Project, Chashama and Lower East Side Printshop Keyholder Residency, among others.

 

Artist Talk: Howard el-Yasin
Thursday, March 9, 6:00 PM. Free admission, no RSVP required.

You’re invited to a gallery talk with artist Howard el-Yasin, in conversation with writer and curator Sarah Fritchey. el-Yasin and Fritchey will discuss the process and concepts behind the current exhibition Specific Matter at Real Art Ways.

Howard el-Yasin is a New Haven, CT-based interdisciplinary artist, curator and educator holding degrees from Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA ’16), Wesleyan University, and New England College. They have exhibited their artwork nationally, and have work in several private collections. They are currently an adjunct faculty member at MICA, and the co-founder/curator of SomethingProjects, an artist-run curatorial initiative. They were a recipient of MICA’s Leslie King-Hammond Award (2016) and the Faculty and Staff Queer Alliance Award (2015). They are a trustee of the Vermont Studio Center and a former VSC residency fellowship recipient (2012). el-Yasin has also served as a volunteer leader with numerous Connecticut-based non-profit organizations, including as Director/Curator of Arts Literature Laboratory (2002-2009).

Photo Credit: Steven Laschever

Sarah Fritchey is an independent Curator and Writer who works at the intersections of art, justice, civic engagement, memory and belonging. Fritchey served as the Curator at Artspace New Haven from 2014 to 2020, organizing group exhibitions, solo projects, and public programs that mobilized partnerships between long term and transient residents, local organizations, and major institutions. She has curated exhibitions across the country, including the African American Museum in Philadelphia, Lyman Allyn Art Museum (New London, CT), the Hessel Museum of Art (Annandale-on-Hudson, NY), Sideshow Gallery (NYC), Franklin Street Works (Stamford, CT), and Real Art Ways with the exhibition Statues Also DieShe has contributed writing to Artforum.com, Hyperallergic, Art New England Magazine, Big, Red & Shiny, Artscope Magazine, and the Hartford Courant. She serves as an organizer and advisor to Nasty Women Connecticut, and holds an M.A. in Curatorial Studies from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard, and a B.A. in Comparative Literature and Studio Practice from Hamilton College, and is an alum of No Longer Empty’s Curatorial Lab.

 

Artist Talk: Rashmi Talpade
Friday, March 3, 6:00 PM. Free admission, no RSVP required.

You’re invited to a gallery talk with artist Rashmi Talpade, who will discuss her photo collage practice and the current exhibition Every Little Thing at Real Art Ways.

Rashmi Talpade is a professional artist with a Fine Arts degree from Mumbai, India, specializing in painting and photography. Since immigrating to Connecticut in 1991, she has been involved in the local arts community and has exhibited her work statewide, in New York, New Mexico and India. She is a recipient of an Artist Fellowship from the Connecticut Commission of the Arts and she has received numerous grants from the State of Connecticut and the National Endowment for the Arts to support her public art projects. These projects include works at the New Britain Museum of American Art, the Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital, the five branches of the New Haven Public Library, the Wallingford Public Library, the Essex and Southington Elementary Schools, and the Bandra Municipal School in Mumbai, India. She also has upcoming projects at the New Britain Public Library and with the Spanish Community of Wallingford. Her photo collages are in the permanent collection of the New Britain Museum of Art and the Roopankar Museum of Modern Art, India.

Photo Credit: Steven Laschever

 

Creative Cocktail Hour
Live music, art exhibitions, food and drinks, and you. Come as you are!

Creative Cocktail Hour is about the people. Everybody is welcome, conversations abound, people connect.

Live Music:

La Banda Chuska:

A group of six musicians all in white standing in front of a psychedelic background

La Banda Chuska are re-imagining the vintage sounds of Peruvian cumbia and surf through the lens of their New York City home and diverse musical and cultural backgrounds (Peru, PR, Argentina, USA). They take inspiration from the twangy 1960s surf bands of Lima (Los Belkings, Los Siderals) as well as the psychedelic flavors of 1970s chicha (Los Destellos, Los Orientales de Paramonga). Their post-punk energy and subversive playfulness have also evoked comparisons to a tropical version of the B-52s.

The band has been playing their dance-y and experimental tunes around NYC for three years, building up a loyal local following through a monthly residency at Brooklyn’s Barbès and opening for touring groups including Meridian Brothers and Son Rompe Pera. An NYC fixture, they’ve performed at the Brooklyn Museum to celebrate Latinx history month, as well as venues like the Sultan Room, TV Eye, and the SoundWaves Festival at White Feather Farm, among others. Internationally, they’ve toured in Mexico including an appearance at the popular international festival, Carnaval de Bahidorá.

They have self-released their debut EP vía streaming services and cassette and are finishing work on their debut LP. With Adele Fournet on keys/vocals, Felipe Wurst and Sam Day Harmet on guitars, Erica Mancini on accordion/vocals, Abe Pollack on bass, and Joel Mateo on drums.

For more information, check out their Instagram!

DJ Mr. Realistic

A man behind the DJ booth.

Art Exhibitions:

Alan Neider: Exhibition opening and reception at CCH

Karl Goulet: Exhibition opening and reception at CCH

Kate Bae: A Rite of Passage 

Howard el-Yasin: Specific Matter

Food Truck

Munchers International: A Taste of Jamaica!

 

Hands-on Art Making Activities led by Real Art Ways Staff

& You!

Creative Cocktail Hour is about community and expression.

Buy your tickets online!
Riverwood Poetry Series

 

The Series takes place in-person on the second Wednesday of the month from September 2022 through May 2023. Each night begins with a poetry reading featuring regionally- or nationally-known poets, followed by an open mic – one poem, one page.

Join us for this in-person reading! Audience mask wearing is strongly encouraged, but not required.

Bring a poetry book–gently used, or new–to the book swap. If you bring a book, you may take a book. Start the new year with new reading!

The author’s books will be available to buy for book signing and conversation. Beer, wine, soft drinks, and snacks will be available for purchase.

April’s Poet:

January Gill O’Neil is an associate professor at Salem State University, and the author of Glitter Road (forthcoming, 2024) Rewilding (2018), Misery Islands (2014), and Underlife (2009). From 2012-2018, she was the executive director of the Massachusetts Poetry Festival. Her poems and articles have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-A-Day series, American Poetry Review, Poetry, and Sierra magazine, among others. The recipient of fellowships from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Cave Canem, and the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, O’Neil was the 2019-2020 John and Renée Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi. She currently serves as the 2022-2023 board chair of the Association of Writers and Writers Programs (AWP).

A woman of color in a blue shirt standing in front of a bench with her arms crossed.

About Riverwood Poetry Series
Riverwood Poetry Series

The Riverwood Poetry Series, Inc. is a non-profit arts organization committed to the promotion and appreciation of poetry in Connecticut. RPS, Inc. is invested in providing entertaining and thought-provoking programming, while responding to the needs of our neighbors through community outreach and collaboration. From their Facebook page: “The Riverwood Poetry Series has innovated many programs since our inception, all of them free to the public. We provide entertaining and thought-provoking poetry in a relaxed atmosphere.” 

Improvisations Now

 

An experience of music imagined and created in real time. A journey with preconditions through waves of sonic discovery.

Check out the entire series here.

Tony Malaby – Tenor and Soprano Saxophone

“One of the best saxophone players of their generation.” – The New York Times 

“One of the most riveting saxophone players in Jazz.” – NPR 

Tony Malaby (b. 1964) is an American jazz tenor saxophonist. He has played with several notable jazz groups, including Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra, Paul Motian’s Electric Bepop Band, Mark Helia’s Open Loose, Fred Hersch’s Trio +2, and Walt Whitman project. He has also played with bands led by Mario Pavone, Chris Lightcap, Bobby Previte, Tom Varner, Marty Ehlrich, Angelica Sanchez, Mark Dresser, and Kenny Wheeler. Other collaborators included Tom Rainey, Christian Lillinger, Ben Monder, Elvind Opsvik, Nasheet Waits, and Michael Formanek. His first album as a co-leader was Cosas with Joey Sellers. 

A black and white image of a man playing a saxophone.

Nasheet Waits – Drums

Nasheet Waits (b. 1971) is an American jazz drummer. Waits’s longstanding projects include Jason Moran & The Bandwagon, a trio with Moran, Waits, and Tarus Mateen, Tarbaby, a trio with Eric Revis and Orrin Evans, and his band Equality.

Waits has recorded or performed with Fred Hersch, Antonio Hart, Joe Lovano, Jason Moran, Andrew Hill, Ron Carter, Tony Malaby, Bunky Green, William Parker, Eddie Gomez, Casimir Liberski, John Medeski, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Mark Turner, and Amir ElSaffar.  

Instagram

A black and white image of a man playing the drums.

Joe Morris – Bass

“One of the most profound improvisers at work in the United States.” – Wire Magazine

Morris was born in New Haven Connecticut in 1955. He began playing guitar at the age of 14 first playing rock music, progressing to blues, then to jazz, free jazz and free improvisation. He released his first record Wraparound (riti) in 1983. He has composed over 200 original pieces of music. Morris has performed and/or recorded with many of the most important contemporary artists in improvised music including, Anthony Braxton, Evan Parker, John Zorn, Ken Vandermark, Mary Halvorson, Tyshawn Sorey, Tomeka Reid, Fay Victor, Tim Berne, William Parker, Sylvie Courvoisier, Agusti Fernandez, Peter Evans, David S. Ware, Joe Maneri, Dewey Redman, Fred Hopkins, Sunny Murray, Wadada Leo Smith, Leroy Jenkins, Lawrence D. “Butch” Morris, Marshall Allen, Barre Phillips, Barry Guy, Matthew Shipp, Gerald Cleaver, and many others.

Morris is featured as leader, co-leader, or sideman on more than 200 commercially released recordings on the labels ECM, ESPdisk, Clean Feed, Hat Hut, Aum Fidelity, Avant, OkkaDisk, Not Two, Soul Note, Leo, No Business, Rogue Art, Relative Pitch, Incus, RareNoise, Fundacja Sluchaj, and his own labels Riti and Glacial Erratic. Morris has toured extensively throughout North America and Europe as well as in Brazil, Korea and Japan.

He has lectured and conducted workshops on his own music and on improvisation in the US, Canada, and Europe including at Princeton University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Bard College, University of Alberta, and University of Guelph. He was the recipient of the 2016 Killam Visiting Scholar Award at University of Calgary. He has been on the faculty at Tufts University, Southern Connecticut State University, Longy School of Music of Bard College, and New School. Since 2000, he has been on the faculty in the Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation Department at New England Conservatory. Morris is the author of the book, Perpetual Frontier: The Properties of Free Music (Riti Publishing 2012).

A man with a beard playing the electric guitar.

Improvisations Now

 

An experience of music imagined and created in real time. A journey with preconditions through waves of sonic discovery.

Check out the entire series here.

Ingrid Laubrock- Tenor Saxophone

Ingrid Laubrock (b. 1970) is a German jazz saxophonist, who primarily plays tenor saxophone but also performs and records on soprano, alto, and baritone saxophones. In 1998, she released her first solo album Who Is It? and was nominated for the ‘Rising Star of the Year’ award at the 1999 BT Jazz Awards. She was also nominated for the BBC Award ‘Rising Star’ in 2005 and in 2009 won the SWR Jazz Award for her recording Sleepthief, featuring pianist Liam Noble and drummer Tom Rainey (her husband). They recorded a 2011 album called The Madness of Crowds.

She has played and recorded with Brazilian singer Monica Vasconcelos’ band NÓIS and the Brazilian quartet NÓIS4 of which she is a founding member. Other musicians she has made guest appearances with include Kenny Wheeler, Norma Winstone, Polar Bear, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Scott Fields, and Anthony Braxton.

Facebook

A woman playing a tenor saxophone.

Tom Rainey – Drums

Tom Rainey (b. 1957) is an American jazz drummer. He has played with Tim Berne, Nels Cline, Drew Gress, Mark Helias, Fred Hersch, Tony Malaby, Simon Nabatov, Tom Varner, and Kenny Werner. Rainey worked with Berne in the 1990s and 2000s in the bands Big Satan, Hard Cell, Paraphrase, and Science Friction. After thirty years as a sideman, he released his first album, Pool School (Clean Feed, 2010) in a trio with guitarist Mary Halvorson and saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock.

A man on stage playing a drum kit.

Brandon Lopez – Bass

Brandon Lopez (b. 1988) is a composer and bassist working at the fringes of jazz, free improvisation, noise and new music. His music has been praised as “brutal” (Chicago Reader) and “relentless” (The New York Times).

Lopez has worked beside many luminaries of jazz, classical, poetry, and experimental music, including Fred Moten, John Zorn, Okkyung Lee, Ingrid Laubrock, Tony Malaby, Tyshawn Sorey, Bill Nace, Chris Potter, Edwin Torres, Tom Rainey, Cecilia Lopez, Sun Ra Arkestra, Susan Alcorn, Mette Rasmussen, and many others.

As a 2019–2020 Artist in Residence at Roulette, Lopez will play with his trio consisting of Gerald Cleaver, & Steve Baczkowski, a 4tet adding Cecilia Lopez, as well as a solo performance and duet with Greg Kelley. This continues Lopez’s work as 2018 Artist-in-Residence at Issue Project Room and 2018 Van Lier Fellow at Roulette Intermedium, Recent highlight performances include opening the 2018–2019 season of the New York Philharmonic as a featured soloist in Ashley Fure’s “Filament” and a number of works with John Zorn, including the Zorn’s 35th anniversary of “Cobra”.

Website 

A man playing the base under a red light.

Joe Morris – Guitar

Morris was born in New Haven Connecticut in 1955. He began playing guitar at the age of 14 first playing rock music, progressing to blues, then to jazz, free jazz and free improvisation. He released his first record Wraparound (riti) in 1983. He has composed over 200 original pieces of music. Morris has performed and/or recorded with many of the most important contemporary artists in improvised music including, Anthony Braxton, Evan Parker, John Zorn, Ken Vandermark, Mary Halvorson, Tyshawn Sorey, Tomeka Reid, Fay Victor, Tim Berne, William Parker, Sylvie Courvoisier, Agusti Fernandez, Peter Evans, David S. Ware, Joe Maneri, Dewey Redman, Fred Hopkins, Sunny Murray, Wadada Leo Smith, Leroy Jenkins, Lawrence D. “Butch” Morris, Marshall Allen, Barre Phillips, Barry Guy, Matthew Shipp, Gerald Cleaver, and many others.

Morris is featured as leader, co-leader, or sideman on more than 200 commercially released recordings on the labels ECM, ESPdisk, Clean Feed, Hat Hut, Aum Fidelity, Avant, OkkaDisk, Not Two, Soul Note, Leo, No Business, Rogue Art, Relative Pitch, Incus, RareNoise, Fundacja Sluchaj, and his own labels Riti and Glacial Erratic. Morris has toured extensively throughout North America and Europe as well as in Brazil, Korea and Japan.

He has lectured and conducted workshops on his own music and on improvisation in the US, Canada, and Europe including at Princeton University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Bard College, University of Alberta, and University of Guelph. He was the recipient of the 2016 Killam Visiting Scholar Award at University of Calgary. He has been on the faculty at Tufts University, Southern Connecticut State University, Longy School of Music of Bard College, and New School. Since 2000, he has been on the faculty in the Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation Department at New England Conservatory. Morris is the author of the book, Perpetual Frontier: The Properties of Free Music (Riti Publishing 2012).

A man with a beard playing the electric guitar.

Improvisations Now

 

An experience of music imagined and created in real time. A journey with preconditions through waves of sonic discovery.

Check out the entire series here.

Daniel Carter – Tenor & Alto Sax

Daniel Carter is an American free jazz musician who plays the saxophone, trumpet, and the flute. Carter has recorded and performed with many distinguished musicians, including William Parker, Federico Ughi, The Negatones, Thurston Moore, Yo La Tengo, Soul-Junk, Anne Waldman, Cooper-Moore, Matthew Shipp, and scientist/musician Matthew Putman, among others. He is a member of the cooperative. free jazz groups Test, and Other Dimensions in Music.

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Reviews

A man playing the saxophone on stage.

Michael Wimberly – Drums

Michael Wimberly is a percussionist performing in the soul, funk, rock, jazz, and classical music genres. A drummer and percussionist, Michael Wimberly is also a triple threat: he is a composer of note and has written for prestigious New York dance companies (Alvin Ailey Dance Theater and Joffrey Ballet). Although his percussive repertoire is replete with traditional rhythms, Michael is known for playing cutting-edge music involving a meld of visuals and audio, not to mention a penchant for contemporary jazz.

As a composer and sound designer, Wimberly’s compositions have been performed by dance companies Urban Bush Women, Joffrey Ballet II, Alvin Ailey, Ailey II, Philadanco, Forces of Nature Dance Theatre, Joan Millers Dance Players, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Ballet Noir, Alpha Omega, Purelements, and The National Song and Dance Company of Mozambique. Film scores include As An Act of Protest by Dennis Leroy Moore, and Atlantic City Lights by Brent Owens for HBO. Sound design for theatre includes Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream for the Classical Theatre of Harlem, Saint Lucy’s Eyes by Bridgette Wimberly for the Women’s Project & Cherry Lane Theatre, and Iced Out, Shackled and Chained for the National Black Theatre for which Wimberly received two Audelco nominations.

Website

A headshot of a man with his head rested on his hands

Jamie Saft – Piano

Jamie Saft is an American keyboardist and multi-instrumentalist and composer. He has performed and recorded with an eclectic variety of artists including John Zorn, Wadada Leo Smith, Iggy Pop, Steve Swallow, Bobby Previte, and Marc Ribot. He has also written several original film scores including Murderball and God Grew Tired of Us; selections from these were released by Tzadik Records as A Bag of Shells. The same label has released several of Saft’s recordings. 

Website 

A man with a long beard playing the piano.

Joe Morris – Bass

“Joe Morris is the preeminent free music guitarist of his generation.” –DownBeat Magazine

“One of the most profound improvisers at work in the U.S.” – Wire Magazine 

Morris was born in New Haven Connecticut in 1955. He began playing guitar at the age of 14 first playing rock music, progressing to blues, then to jazz, free jazz and free improvisation. He released his first record Wraparound (riti) in 1983. He has composed over 200 original pieces of music. Morris has performed and/or recorded with many of the most important contemporary artists in improvised music including, Anthony Braxton, Evan Parker, John Zorn, Ken Vandermark, Mary Halvorson, Tyshawn Sorey, Tomeka Reid, Fay Victor, Tim Berne, William Parker, Sylvie Courvoisier, Agusti Fernandez, Peter Evans, David S. Ware, Joe Maneri, Dewey Redman, Fred Hopkins, Sunny Murray, Wadada Leo Smith, Leroy Jenkins, Lawrence D. “Butch” Morris, Marshall Allen, Barre Phillips, Barry Guy, Matthew Shipp, Gerald Cleaver, and many others.

Morris is featured as leader, co-leader, or sideman on more than 200 commercially released recordings on the labels ECM, ESPdisk, Clean Feed, Hat Hut, Aum Fidelity, Avant, OkkaDisk, Not Two, Soul Note, Leo, No Business, Rogue Art, Relative Pitch, Incus, RareNoise, Fundacja Sluchaj, and his own labels Riti and Glacial Erratic. Morris has toured extensively throughout North America and Europe as well as in Brazil, Korea and Japan.

He has lectured and conducted workshops on his own music and on improvisation in the US, Canada, and Europe including at Princeton University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Bard College, University of Alberta, and University of Guelph. He was the recipient of the 2016 Killam Visiting Scholar Award at University of Calgary. He has been on the faculty at Tufts University, Southern Connecticut State University, Longy School of Music of Bard College, and New School. Since 2000, he has been on the faculty in the Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation Department at New England Conservatory. Morris is the author of the book, Perpetual Frontier: The Properties of Free Music (Riti Publishing 2012).

A man playing the bass.

Riverwood Poetry Series

 

The Series takes place in-person on the second Wednesday of the month from September 2022 through May 2023. Each night begins with a poetry reading featuring regionally- or nationally-known poets, followed by an open mic – one poem, one page.

The authors’ book will be available to buy for book signing and conversation. Beer, wine, soft drinks, and snacks will be available for purchase.

Bring a friend! Free of charge. Ample parking available at Real Art Ways. Audience mask wearing is encouraged, but not required.

March’s Poets:

Julie Choffel

Julie Choffel is the author of the The Hello Delay (Fordham UP) and, most recently, the chapbook The Inevitable Return of What We Do Not Love (Finishing Line Press). Born and raised in Austin, TX, she now lives near Hartford and teaches at the University of Connecticut.

A woman with bangs standing in front of a building.

Aaron Caycedo-Kimura

Aaron Caycedo-Kimura is a writer and visual artist. He is the author of two poetry collections: the full-length collection Common Grace (Beacon Press, 2022), and Ubasute, which won the 2020 Slapering Hol Press Chapbook Competition. His honors include a MacDowell Fellowship, a Robert Pinsky Global Fellowship in Poetry, a St. Botolph Club Foundation Emerging Artist Award in Literature, and nominations for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and Best New Poets anthologies. His has appeared or is forthcoming in Beloit Poetry Journal, Plume Poetry, Poetry Daily, RHINO, Pirene’s Fountain, Cave Well, and elsewhere. He currently serves as a member of the Slapering Hol Press Advisory Committee and as a reader for Beloit Poetry Journal. Aaron earned his MFA in creative writing from Boston University and is also the author and illustrator of Text, Don’t Call: An Illustrated Guide to the Introverted Life (TarcherPerigee, 2017).

A man with glasses holding his hand up to his face.

 

John Stanizzi

A former Wesleyan University Etherington Scholar, and New England Poet of the Year (1998), John Stanizzi has just been awarded an Artist Fellowship in Creative Non-Fiction – 2021- from the Connecticut Office of the Arts and Culture for work on his new memoir, Bless Me, Father, For I have Sinned. 

John’s work has been widely published in Prairie Schooner, American Life in Poetry, Praxis, Rust and Moth, The New York Quarterly, Paterson Literary Review, the Laurel Review, Heron Clain, Impspired, the Caribbean Writer, Blue Mountain Review, Tar River, Poetlore, Rattle, Potomac Review, the Cortland Review, Stone Coast Review, Hawk and Handsaw, Plainsongs, and many others.

A man speaking into a microphone with glasses.

About Riverwood Poetry Series
Riverwood Poetry Series

The Riverwood Poetry Series, Inc. is a non-profit arts organization committed to the promotion and appreciation of poetry in Connecticut. RPS, Inc. is invested in providing entertaining and thought-provoking programming, while responding to the needs of our neighbors through community outreach and collaboration. From their Facebook page: “The Riverwood Poetry Series has innovated many programs since our inception, all of them free to the public. We provide entertaining and thought-provoking poetry in a relaxed atmosphere.” 

Creative Cocktail Hour
Live music, art exhibitions, food and drinks, and you. Come as you are!

Creative Cocktail Hour is about the people. Everybody is welcome, conversations abound, people connect.

Live Music:

Elliott Sharp and Eric Mingus: Longtime collaborators, Mingus and Sharp have worked together for decades in a dizzying variety of musical situations culminating in their distinctive duo project Fourth Blood Moon in which they create a mashup of poetics, electronica, blues, opera, improvisation, funk, and the cosmic.  They will be performing songs from their latest album on zOaR, Songs From A Rogue State with Mingus on vocals and Elliott Sharp on guitar and laptop.

Elliot Sharp is a 2014 Guggenheim Fellow, and a 2014 Fellow at Parson’s Center for Transformative Media. He received the 2015 Berlin Prize in Musical Composition from the American Academy in Berlin. He has composed scores for feature films and documentaries, created sound-design for interstitials on The Sundance Channel, MTV and Bravo networks, and has presented numerous sound installations in art galleries and museums.

Eric Mingus is the son of the legendary jazz bass player, Charles Mingus, who also plays bass! When not performing with Sharp, he works as a session musician and backing singer, playing on dates with artists such as Carla Bley, Bobby McFerrin and Karen Mantler.

 two men playing the guitar on stage

 

DJ Mr. Realistic

A man behind the DJ booth.

Art Exhibitions:

Kate Bae: A Rite of Passage

Rashmi Talpade: Every Little Thing 

Howard el-Yasin: Specific Matter

 

Hands-on Art Making Activities

Food Truck: East-West Grille (Laotian and Thai food with vegan and vegetarian options)

& You!

Creative Cocktail Hour is about community and expression. We’d love for you to be a part of it this month!

Buy your tickets online!
A Rite of Passage
Kate Bae
Real Art Ways presents a solo exhibition of recent work by 2021 Real Art Award recipient Kate Bae.

Bae’s painting installation explores societal barriers and personal relationships, touching on themes of hope, inclusion, uncertainty, and love. Her latest project, A Rite of Passage, started with the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, during which time Bae experienced physical assaults and psychological violence living in New York City. COVID-19 exposed many ugly facets of our society – notably pervasive bias-related violence against perceived minorities in the United States. The shift in social and power dynamics deeply impacted Bae’s way of life. As an Asian woman and an immigrant from South Korea, Bae was regularly targeted and treated with hostility because of her identity. While still fearful and grieving the loss of many loved ones, here Bae offers an inclusive space for hope and for processing uncertainty.

Her foldable paintings invite the audience to walk through the “passage” between them. For Bae, the installation is a metaphor for small movements, transformative journeys, forms of acceptance, life, death – even experiences of stagnation and depression. Bae’s work turns toward hope by embracing uncertainties with love.
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About the Artist

Born in Busan, Korea, Kate Bae is a New York-based independent curator and artist working through painting and site-specific installations. Bae’s practice is concerned with multiple identities, memory, neuroses, and psychological borders. Bae holds an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in painting. Bae is a founder of Women’s Cactus for the Arts and has exhibited nationally and internationally, including solo shows at the Sunroom Project Space at Wave Hill, Bronx, NY and the Deiglan Gallery in Akureyri, Iceland. She is a grant recipient of a Real Art Award, MVP Chapter Lead Grant from Malikah Gender Justice Institute, Ora Lerman Trust, Creative Capital Professional Development Program and the NYFA Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program. She has attended many residencies including the Golden Foundation, the Studios at Mass MoCA, Trestle Gallery, Wassaic Project, Chashama and Lower East Side Printshop Keyholder Residency, among others.

About the Real Art Awards

The Real Art Awards is an annual opportunity for emerging artists living in New England, New Jersey, or New York. The open call, offered with no entry fees to artists, attracts hundreds of applicants each year, of which 6 artists are chosen. Selected artists receive a solo exhibition, with a commissioned essay, professional documentation, and a cash prize of $2,500. The 2021 Real Art Awards was juried by artist and writer Kameelah Janan Rasheed; Hasan Elahi, artist and Director of the School of Art at George Mason University; and Real Art Ways Executive Director Will K. Wilkins. The 2021 Real Art Awards is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Photo Credit: John Groo

Riverwood Poetry Series

 

The Series takes place in-person on the second Wednesday of the month from September 2022 through May 2023. Each night begins with a poetry reading featuring regionally- or nationally-known poets, followed by an open mic – one poem, one page.

The authors’ book will be available to buy for book signing and conversation. Beer, wine, soft drinks, and snacks will be available for purchase.

Bring a friend! Free of charge. Ample parking available at Real Art Ways. Audience mask wearing is encouraged, but not required.

February’s Poets:

Elizabeth Thomas

Elizabeth Thomas is a published writer and educator for students of all ages. She was a member of three national slam teams, organized and coached the Connecticut National Youth Slam team and was a Master Teaching Artist who has taught throughout the United States. She uses poetry as a way to unclench the fist that sometimes squeezes her heart.

A headshot of a woman in front of a river.

Kate Rushin

Kate Rushin is the author of “The Bridge Poem,” and The Black Back-Ups. She has held fellowships from The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and the Cave Canem Foundation. Her work is included in African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song from the Library of America, and POETRY Magazine. “The Williams Sister Play Doubles on Center Court,” was featured as a Poem-of-the-Day selection by The American Academy of Poets. She is a Professor of English and Poet in Residence at Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut.

A headshot of an African American woman smiling at the camera.

Photo by: Rachel Eliza Griffiths

About Riverwood Poetry Series
Riverwood Poetry Series

The Riverwood Poetry Series, Inc. is a non-profit arts organization committed to the promotion and appreciation of poetry in Connecticut. RPS, Inc. is invested in providing entertaining and thought-provoking programming, while responding to the needs of our neighbors through community outreach and collaboration. From their Facebook page: “The Riverwood Poetry Series has innovated many programs since our inception, all of them free to the public. We provide entertaining and thought-provoking poetry in a relaxed atmosphere.” 

Creative Cocktail Hour
Live music, art exhibitions, food and drinks, and you. Come as you are!

Creative Cocktail Hour is about the people. Everybody is welcome, conversations abound, people connect.

Live Music:

Habbina Habbina: The New York Trio led by guitarist Amit Peled, channel the rare repertoire of Mediterranean guitar with music by giants such as Aris San and Omar Khorshid. Retro-Mediterranean-hits are brought to life with renditions to songs by Umm Kulthum, Ahuva Ozeri, Farid Al-Atrache, Tzlilay Ha’Oud, TLC, Daklon, Britney Spears, Margol, Blondie, and many more.

The band is set to make every concert turn into a loud, unforgettable celebration of life. Their dedication to the lineage of Mediterranean music along with their unstoppable live energy, and one-of-a-kind sound is what makes Habbina Habbina one of the most interesting bands to come out of New York City today.

For more information, please visit their website and Instagram!

 

 

DJ Mr. Realistic

A man behind the DJ booth.

Art Exhibitions:

Kate Bae: Opening at Creative Cocktail Hour; an immersive installation that explores the artist’s Korean background, history, peace and hope.

Rashmi Talpade: Every Little Thing 

Howard el-Yasin: Specific Matter

Food Truck

Rolling Roti

 

Hands-on Art Making Activities

& You!

Creative Cocktail Hour is about community and expression.

Buy your tickets online and skip the line at the door!
Improvisations Now

 

An experience of music imagined and created in real time. A journey with preconditions through waves of sonic discovery.

Check out the entire series here.

Wadada Leo Smith – Trumpet

Finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Music for his composition Ten Freedoms of Summers (Defining Moments in the History of the United States of America).

Was named Downbeat’s Composer of the Year in 2013.

Received the Doris Duke Artist award in 2016.

Received an honorary doctorate from CalArts.

Wadada Leo Smith (b. 1941) began his musical journey steeped in the musical traditions of the South. Smith received his formal musical education from his stepfather, composer/guitarist Alex “Little Bill” Wallace, one of the pioneers of electric guitar in Delta Blues. He was further educated through the U.S. Military band program at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri (1963); Sherwood School of Music (1967-69); and Wesleyan University (1975-76). He has researched a variety of music cultures, including African, Japanese, Indonesian, European and American.

Smith defines his music as “Creative Music,” and his diverse discography reveals a recorded history of music centered in the idea of spiritual harmony and the unification of social and cultural issues of his world. He has created Ankhrasmation, a symbolic image-based language for performers or musicians. He started his research and designs in search of Ankhrasmation in 1965, and his first realization of this language was in 1967, when it was illustrated in the recording of The Bell (Anthony Braxton: ‘Three Compositions of New Jazz’).

Smith’s Ankhrasmation language scores have been exhibited in major American museums including The Renaissance Society at The University of Chicago, which in October 2015 presented the first comprehensive exhibition of these language scores. In 2016, the Hammer Museum’s ‘Made in L.A.’ exhibition featured the scores and presented Smith with the Mohn Award for Career Achievement honoring “brilliance and resilience.” His scores have also been shown at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts in Michigan, the Kadist Art Foundation in San Francisco, The Museum of Rhythm Łódź, Poland and the Clemente Gallery in NYC.

Smith has performed and/or recorded with Anthony Braxton, Leroy Jenkins, Roscoe Mitchell, Henry Threadgill, Lester Bowie, Joseph Jarman, Cecil Taylor, Steve McCall, Anthony Davis, Carla Bley, Don Cherry, Jeanne Lee, Tadao Sawai, Muhal Richard Abrams, Ed Blackwell, Kazuko Shiraishi, Han Bennink, Marion Brown, Charlie Haden, Malachi Favors Magoustous, Jack DeJohnette, Vijay Iyer, Ikue Mori, Min Xiao Fen, Bill Laswell, John Zorn, Ronald Shannon Jackson, Frank Lowe, among many others.

Smith is a member of the historic and legendary Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. He is also a member of ASCAP.

Visit his website here.

Read his artist statement here.

A man holding up a trumpet.

 

Joe Morris – Guitar

“Joe Morris is the preeminent free music guitarist of his generation.” –DownBeat Magazine

“One of the most profound improvisers at work in the U.S.” – Wire Magazine 

Morris was born in New Haven Connecticut in 1955. He began playing guitar at the age of 14 first playing rock music, progressing to blues, then to jazz, free jazz and free improvisation. He released his first record Wraparound (riti) in 1983. He has composed over 200 original pieces of music. Morris has performed and/or recorded with many of the most important contemporary artists in improvised music including, Anthony Braxton, Evan Parker, John Zorn, Ken Vandermark, Mary Halvorson, Tyshawn Sorey, Tomeka Reid, Fay Victor, Tim Berne, William Parker, Sylvie Courvoisier, Agusti Fernandez, Peter Evans, David S. Ware, Joe Maneri, Dewey Redman, Fred Hopkins, Sunny Murray, Wadada Leo Smith, Leroy Jenkins, Lawrence D. “Butch” Morris, Marshall Allen, Barre Phillips, Barry Guy, Matthew Shipp, Gerald Cleaver, and many others.

Morris is featured as leader, co-leader, or sideman on more than 200 commercially released recordings on the labels ECM, ESPdisk, Clean Feed, Hat Hut, Aum Fidelity, Avant, OkkaDisk, Not Two, Soul Note, Leo, No Business, Rogue Art, Relative Pitch, Incus, RareNoise, Fundacja Sluchaj, and his own labels Riti and Glacial Erratic. Morris has toured extensively throughout North America and Europe as well as in Brazil, Korea and Japan.

He has lectured and conducted workshops on his own music and on improvisation in the US, Canada, and Europe including at Princeton University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Bard College, University of Alberta, and University of Guelph. He was the recipient of the 2016 Killam Visiting Scholar Award at University of Calgary. He has been on the faculty at Tufts University, Southern Connecticut State University, Longy School of Music of Bard College, and New School. Since 2000, he has been on the faculty in the Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation Department at New England Conservatory. Morris is the author of the book, Perpetual Frontier: The Properties of Free Music (Riti Publishing 2012).

A man with a beard playing the electric guitar.

Catalytic Sound Festival

On Sunday, 12/4 at 3pm, Catalytic Sound Festival comes to Real Art Ways!

Catalytic Sound is a music based co-operative designed to help create economic sustainability for its artists through patron support. Put simply, 50% of the money you spend at Catalytic Sound will always go directly to the musicians.

$15.00 for general admission, $12.00 for RAW members, $5.00 for students!

Catalytic Sound Festival Poster

Day With(out) Art 2022:
BEING & BELONGING
Real Art Ways is proud to partner with Visual AIDS for Day With(out) Art 2022 by presenting Being & Belonging, a program of seven short videos highlighting under-told stories of HIV and AIDS from the perspective of artists living with HIV across the world.

For one week starting Thursday, December 1st (World AIDS Day), Real Art Ways will show the Being & Belonging program as a looping presentation in our video room.

The videos will also be available to stream at dwa2022.visualaids.org.

The program features newly commissioned work by Camila Arce (Argentina), Davina “Dee” Conner and Karin Hayes (USA), Jaewon Kim (South Korea), Clifford Prince King (USA), Santiago Lemus and Camilo Acosta Huntertexas (Colombia), Mikiki (Canada), and Jhoel Zempoalteca and La Jerry (México).

From navigating sex and intimacy to confronting stigma and isolation, Being & Belonging centers the emotional realities of living with HIV today. How does living with HIV shift the ways that a person experiences, asks for, or provides love, support, and belonging? The seven videos are a call for belonging from those that have been stigmatized within their communities or left out of mainstream HIV/AIDS narratives.

Visual AIDS is a New York-based non-profit that utilizes art to fight AIDS by provoking dialogue, supporting HIV+ artists, and preserving a legacy, because AIDS is not over.

Image: Santiago Lemus and Camilo Acosta Huntertexas, Los Amarillos, 2022. Commissioned by Visual AIDS for Being & Belonging.

Riverwood Poetry Series

 

 

The Series takes place in-person on the second Wednesday of the month from September 2022 through May 2023. Each night begins with a poetry reading featuring regionally- or nationally-known poets, followed by an open mic – one poem, one page.

The authors’ book will be available to buy for book signing and conversation.  Beer, wine, soft drinks, and snacks will be available for purchase.

Free of charge. Ample parking available at Real Art Ways. Audience mask wearing is encouraged, but not required.

January’s Poets:

Rayon Lennon

Rayon Lennon was born in rural Jamaica. He moved to New Haven County, Connecticut when he was 13. His work has been published widely in various literary magazines, including, The Mainstreet Rag, Step Away Magazine, Folio, The Connecticut River Review, The African American Review, Noctua Review, New Haven Review, Indianapolis Review, The Connecticut Review, Callaloo, The Columbia Journal, and Rattle. He has won numerous poetry contests including the 2017 Rattle Poetry Prize. His poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. His first book of poems, Barrel Children, was released in March, 2016, by Main Street Rag Publishing Company. Barrel Children was a finalist for the 2017 Connecticut Book Award for Best Poetry Book.

A man with a beard smiling in front of a wooden door.

Josh Brown

Josh Brown, known as AnUrbanNerd, is a rap and spoken word artist as well as a visual artist with a background in education and engineering. He served as the current New London Poet Laureate. He has been writing and performing for more than 15 years. Josh spent years suppressing his gift trying to avoid being a stereotypical Black man who raps. He learned, however, that “our gifts are not our own,” and now he gives his gift back whenever he can. He has published several poems through Magik Press and has written and distributed two music EP’s. He currently works as the SCHOLA2RS House Director, teaching and mentoring young Black men at the University of Connecticut Storrs Campus.

A man with a beard standing in an alleyway.

About Riverwood Poetry Series
Riverwood Poetry Series

The Riverwood Poetry Series, Inc. is a non-profit arts organization committed to the promotion and appreciation of poetry in Connecticut. RPS, Inc. is invested in providing entertaining and thought-provoking programming, while responding to the needs of our neighbors through community outreach and collaboration. From their Facebook page: “The Riverwood Poetry Series has innovated many programs since our inception, all of them free to the public. We provide entertaining and thought-provoking poetry in a relaxed atmosphere.”