Riverwood Poetry is a FREE series that takes place on the second Tuesday of the month September 2019 – May 2020. Each night begins with an open mic, followed by a poetry reading featuring regionally-or nationally-known poets.
March Poet | Elizabeth Thomas
Elizabeth Thomas is a widely published poet, performer, advocate of the arts and teacher. She has read her work throughout the United States, in other parts of the world, and has been a member of three Connecticut National Poetry Slam teams. She is the author of two poetry books: Full Circle and From the Front of the Classroom. Thomas is an arts educator who has taught all ages from pre-K to senior citizens. She has taught in most of the Hartford schools, and is a master teaching artist for the Connecticut Commission of the Arts and the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts. Elizabeth says “…poetry helps us understand who we are in relation to the world around us…”. Thomas has recently completed a memoir.
About 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. Learn more at their website.
Get comfortable in our lounge for Real Board Games & Chess Night, our free game night on the first Tuesday of every month.
We’ll provide the games! Bring your friends and, if you want, a game or two that you don’t think we’ll have.
For chess players, all levels are welcome, including beginners.
Want to donate a game to us? Email Us.
NEW THIS MONTH: PUZZLE SWAP
Ready to trade-in your familiar jigsaw puzzles for a new challenge?
Bring up to THREE high-quality, gently used jigsaw puzzles for a “Yankee swap”-style puzzle exchange!
Puzzles over 500 pieces only, with no missing pieces and an intact box. Pieces must be secured with a ziplock bag inside the box.
We will be collecting your puzzles at 6 pm. Come, relax, have a drink and work on a puzzle while we set up the swap. Then, you’ll draw numbers to select your new-to-you puzzles!
Every third Thursday of the Month, creative, interesting and open-minded people gather to experience all kinds of art and connect with one another.
Featuring a concert by This Is Our Music Ensemble paying tribute to Jerry Gonzalez and the Fort Apache Band.
This Is Our Music Ensemble includes:
Matt Chasen – vocals • Brian Simontacchi – trombone • Zaccai Curtis – piano • Alex “Apolo” Ayala – bass • Joel Mateo – drums • Nelson Bello – congas
Opening Receptions:
Time-Space Compression by Geoffrey Detrani
Americana Vibes curated by Sam Goldenberg
Hail Eve, Full of Grief and Earthly Delights by Alexis Christina Crowley.
February’s Creative Cocktail Hour will also have pop-up food provided by Mini Munch.
You are invited, solo or with company, for a relaxed and playful Valentine’s Day event.
Roger Clark Miller (Mission of Burma, Alloy Orchestra) will host an evening of drawing and word games that were developed during the heyday of surrealism. Games include the Exquisite Corpse drawing game (advanced drawing skills not required!),
the Dream Game (a board game where you end up creating a
dream!), and many varieties of surrealist word games.
Miller will not only explain and lead the games to kick off the event,
but he’ll also DJ – providing a surrealistic soundtrack to the evening.
Says Miller, “The wonder of these games is the unexpected juxtapositions that occur,
creating amazingly synchronistic sequences and unexpected meanings and connections.”
Original photograph: Salvador Dali By, Philippe Halsman
You are invited to experience three documentary films that brilliantly evoke the Civil Rights Movement in ways that all ages can appreciate.
– Free Admission
– In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
11 AM | Mighty Times: The Legacy of Rosa Parks (40 min.) Rosa Parks’ simple act of defiance on Dec. 1, 1955, against racial segregation on city buses inspired the African American community of Montgomery, Alabama, to unite against the segregationists who ran City Hall. Over the course of a year, the Montgomery Bus Boycott would test the endurance of the peaceful protestors, overturn an unjust law and create a legacy of mighty times that continue to inspire those who work for freedom and justice today. A project of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
12 PM | Selma: The Bridge to the Ballot (40 min.) This film tells the story of a courageous group of students and teachers who, along with other activists, fought a nonviolent battle to win voting rights for African Americans in the South. Standing in their way: a century of Jim Crow, a resistant and segregationist state, and a federal government slow to fully embrace equality. By organizing and marching bravely in the face of intimidation, violence, arrest and even murder, these change-makers achieved one of the most significant victories of the civil rights era.
1 PM | Soundtrack for a Revolution (80 min.) A fresh and exhilarating take on one of the most important social movements in American history, Soundtrack for a Revolution explores the Civil Rights Movement, brought to life by the music that it inspired, and that inspired it. Sung by some of today.s greatest artists: John Legend, Joss Stone, Wyclef Jean, The Roots, & more.
More than 3,000 students view these films in our Film Field Trip Program every year.
Come for one or stay for all three.
Every third Thursday of the Month, creative, interesting and open-minded people gather to experience all kinds of art and connect with one another.
Featuring a concert by internationally renowned Danish Klezmer band Mames Babegenush on their US Tour.
Mames Babegenush unleash a sonic crossroads where east unexpectedly meets north! The band’s unique musical fusion marries their strong Scandinavian roots and elements of jazz with the vibrant dance music and klezmer traditions of eastern Europe. From the contemplative ambience of Nordic snowscapes to the lively weddings of Romania, the music of Mames Babegenush exudes a sense of both poignant melancholy and irresistibly danceable exuberance.
Since forming in Copenhagen in 2004, the six-piece group has dazzled audiences and critics alike with their fresh vision and musical gumption, establishing themselves as one of Europe’s premiere klezmer-jazz ensembles. Their long list of awards includes the Danish Music Award for Best World Album of The Year and three prizes awarded by the prestigious International Jewish Music Festival in Amsterdam, including the Jury and Audience Prizes.
It’s impossible to listen to their exciting energy without feeling the urge to dance, move some part of one’s body, or simply feel better about the world in general.
– Dr Judith Schlesinger, AllAboutJazz.com
Mames Babegenush features: Andreas Møllerhøj: double bass // Lukas Rande: saxophones // Morten Ærø: drums // Nicolai Kornerup: accordion// Bo Rande: flügelhorn // Emil Goldschmidt: clarinet
Real Art Ways will also be hosting the opening receptions for Skinny Boy Lookin’ Like Deer in Headlights by 2019 Real Art Awards recipient Julian Johnson and Space Around a Porcupine by Morgan Bulkeley.
Food and Activities TBA
Free screening and post-film conversation led by Shanique Reid, Youth and Development Specialist of Planned Parenthood of Southern New England.
Real Art Ways is proud to partner with Visual AIDS for the thirtieth annual Day With(out) Art by presenting STILL BEGINNING, a program of seven newly commissioned videos responding to the ongoing HIV/AIDS epidemic by Shanti Avirgan, Nguyen Tan Hoang, Carl George, Viva Ruiz, Iman Shervington, Jack Waters/Victor F.M. Torres, and Derrick Woods-Morrow.
Nguyen Tan Hoang, “I Remember Dancing”, 2019. Commissioned for Visual AIDS’ Day With(out) Art 2019. Still courtesy of the artist
The seven short videos range in subject from anti-stigma work in New Orleans to public sex culture in Chicago, highlighting pioneering AIDS activism and staging intergenerational conversations. Recalling Gregg Bordowitz’s reminder that “THE AIDS CRISIS IS STILL BEGINNING,”* the video program resists narratives of resolution or conclusion, considering the continued urgency of HIV/AIDS in the contemporary moment while revisiting resonant cultural histories from the past three decades.
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. In 1989, Visual AIDS organized the first Day Without Art, a call to the art world for mourning and action in response to the AIDS crisis. For Day With(out) Art’s thirtieth year, over 100 institutions worldwide will screen STILL BEGINNING, recognizing the important and necessary work of artists, activists, and cultural workers who have responded to AIDS while emphasizing the persistent presence of the epidemic.
*Gregg Bordowitz, The AIDS Crisis is Still Beginning (2019) was recently on view at the Art Institute of Chicago. Hear Bordowitz discuss the work here.
Shanti Avirgan, “Beat Goes On,” 2019. Commissioned for Visual AIDS’ Day With(out) Art 2019. Still courtesy of the artist
Back by popular demand: CRAFTED 2019!
Free Admission! Meet local business owners, join in craft classes and shop amazing local artisans. Crafted will span between Hartford Flavor Company and Real Art Ways, at 30 & 56 Arbor Street, Hartford. Bring your friends & family for a fun day in Parkville!
Featuring:
– Pop up Dance Performances by The Dance Collective
– Weaving Demos by Hartford Artisans Weaving Center
– Bracelet Making Classes by Marie’s Maille, Pets & Paracord
– Vegan Snacks by Hen & Hound Catering
– Hair and Makeup Demos and styling sessions by Mood Studio and CT Bridal Hair
Vendors:
– Jag Ink Studio
– Kate Stephen Jewelry
– Hartford Prints!
– Herd Supply Co.
– Laurie Lynne’s Jewelry
– the house she loved
– Cottage Potter
– KnitSquid
– Poppy Prints
– Avé Rivera Studio
– Quilting After Dark
– Baker’s Woodshop
– Healthy Chicks
– New Park Creative
– b. kind
– GRASSILLINI CREATIONS
For questions please contact Sage@HartfordFlavor.com
FREE ADMISSION
All are invited to attend an artist conversation and reception. Reception will begin at 2:30 PM with light refreshments and mingling before the conversation begins at 3 PM.
Real Art Ways presents Somewhere in the Sequence, a group exhibition curated by David Borawski. Funded in part by a grant from the Artist’s Resource Trust (A.R.T.) Fund, a fund of Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, Somewhere in the Sequence brings together artists from across New England to explore personal, political and artistic stances, resistance to the status quo, meaning and aesthetics, and strategies for artistic and social communication.
Incorporating sculpture, video, installation, painting, and photography, Somewhere in the Sequence explores a wide breadth of material and conceptual approaches.
Exhibiting artists include Fafnir Adamites, Monique Atherton, Katie Bullock, Alyssa Freitas, Debbie Hesse, Matt Neckers, and Soo Sunny Park.
Image: Plato’s Dichotomy, 2018, Soo Sunny Park
FREE ADMISSION
All are invited to attend an artist conversation and reception with Jeanne Jalandoni, one of six 2019 Real Art Awards recipients. Reception will begin at 2:30 PM with light refreshments and mingling before the conversation begins at 3 PM. Joining her in conversation is Dr Jason Chang, Director of the Asian and Asian American Studies Institute at the University of Connecticut.
Click here to learn more about Sowing Mythology.
From Jalandoni’s Artist Statement
Combining media and materials parallels bicultural identity; a mixture of experiences that were essential to my upbringing and cultural inheritance. I am expected to sustain them, but am subject to disassociate because I am “American” before I am “Filipino.” This tension between “real” and “imagined” elements in my paintings invites viewers to question bicultural tangibility, while allowing me to explore and take authorship of my identity.
About the Artist
Jeanne F. Jalandoni (b. New York, NY) lives and works in Uptown Manhattan. She works primarily with oil paint and textile. Jalandoni received her BFA from New York University with a concentration in painting. In 2018, she was an artist-in-residence at 36 Chase & Barns Residency (North Adams, MA; affiliated with Erica Broussard Gallery, Santa Ana, CA). Her studio is located at Cornerstone Studios in Washington Heights, NY.
Click here to learn more about her work.
Click here to learn more about the Real Art Awards.
The 2019 Real Art Awards is supported in part by the National Endowment of the Arts.
Image: Mourning Dove, 2019, Jeanne Jalandoni
Every third Thursday of the Month, creative, interesting and open-minded people gather to experience all kinds of art and connect with one another.
The final Creative Cocktail Hour of the year will feature a Makers Market, showcasing local artists and vendors. Get your last minute holiday shopping done! Buy local and have a great time.
Vendors include:
3236 Tin Ave
Avé Rivera Studio
BAHocker Designs
Basic Bars Soap
Black Orchid Skincare
Carianne Mack Garside Studio
Cinder + Salt
Cottage Potter
Empowered By Love Enterprises
Grassillini Creations
Hartford Prints!
Homeprep Products
Island of Misfit Crafters
Kate Stephen Jewelry
Laurie Lynne’s Jewelry
Lisa Mareé Designs
Night Fall
Quilting After Dark
Sox in the City
Stock the Bar Candles
Tomiko Pottery
Verdilune
Check our social media for more Vendor updates.
Music by Aimee Chambers
Every third Thursday of the Month, creative, interesting and open-minded people gather to experience all kinds of art and connect with one another.
Opening Receptions
Jeanne Jalandoni: Sowing Mythology
Somewhere in the Sequence, a group exhibition curated by David Borawski featuring: Fafnir Adamites, Monique Atherton, Katie Bullock, Alyssa Freitas, Debbie Hesse, Matt Neckers, and Soo Sunny Park.
Performance Art
Glacier Elegy by Jaanika Peerna – part of her exhibition, Cold Love also on view.
Live Music – Erica T. Bryan & The New Mosaic (video above)
Following the 2017 release of her debut solo EP, “Young”, Erica T. Bryan of West End Blend brings her powerhouse vocals to a fresh neo-soul project. Together, with Tom Sullivan (West End Blend), Mike Carabello (The Lost Tribe), and Dwayne Keith (Keepers of the Vibe) the quartet lays down a collage of R&B, funk and jazz inspired by the artistry of Erykah Badu, Chaka Khan, Sade and more.
Erica T. Bryan | Vox
Tom Sullivan | Electric + Synth Bass
Mike Biagio Carabello | Keys
Dwayne Keith | Drums
Food Truck – Wing It On Wheels; true Buffalo-quality wing experience
SAVE THE DATE!
November Creative Cocktail Hour! A reunion for everyone who has ever attended a Creative Cocktail Hour!
Every third Thursday of the Month, creative, interesting and open-minded people gather to experience all kinds of art and connect with one another.
Live Performance by Toko Telo – a trio of musicians from Madagascar. D’Gary, Monika Njava and Joël Rabesolo honor and reinvent traditional musical styles – tsapiky, jihe and beko.
Opening Reception
Jaanika Peerna: Cold Love (NEW)
More Exhibitions on View
Kyle Andrew Phillips: Standing Room
Kylie Ford: Places/Spaces
Mike Estabrook: Video Installation
Breweries
Hanging Hills Brewing Company
Labyrinth Brewing Company
Firefly Hollow Brewing
Food Truck
The Whey Station (voted CT’s best food truck!)
More details TBA
Every third Thursday of the Month, creative, interesting and open-minded people gather to experience all kinds of art and connect with one another.
August is all about summertime joy and nights under the stars.
This month, we’re bringing the campsite to us!
We’ll have s’mores, a fire pit, outdoor games, a picnic and more.
Live salsa music with Nelson Bello & Los Calientes.
Exhibiting artist Binwanka will DJ in the main gallery in tandem with his video work. Binwanka is a DJ for WKPN.
Food Truck: Uncle D’s Blazin’ BBQ
Exhibitions on View
Kyle Andrew Phillips: Standing Room (NEW)
Park Art Exhibition (NEW)
Kylie Ford: Spaces/Places
Binwanka: Artifacts
Mike Estabrook: Video Installation
Real Art Ways welcomes the return of Cimafunk for a FREE summer concert!
Opening at 6:15 PM
Trombeatz
More than 500 people saw the afro-Cuban band at our April Creative Cocktail Hour and we’re excited to welcome them back for another unforgettable, high-energy performance!
Singer, composer and producer, Erik Alejandro Iglesias a.k.a. Cimafunk offers a subtle and bold mix of funk with Cuban music and African rhythms.
Cimafunk is by far Cuba’s revelation of the year. Named by Billboard as one of “10 Latin Artists to watch in 2019”, he has taken every stage by storm. His debut album Terapia and his electric live shows are conquering a multitude of audiences from Havana to Paris, breaking attendance records in iconic venues such as SXSW, Tipitina’s in New Orleans, the Grammy Museum in LA and La Tropical in Havana.
Click here to listen to Cimafunk’s latest release, “Ponte Pa’ Lo Tuyo”
You don’t want to miss this performance!
Support of this concert comes from the Evelyn W. Preston Fund
Real Art Ways welcomes the return of New York Times bestselling author and long-time friend, Steve Almond (Candyfreak, Against Football) for an evening of film, reading and discussion, exploring the ways that novels impact our lives.
The evening will begin with a screening of The Act of Becoming, a documentary about the 1965 novel Stoner by American writer John Williams. After the film, Steve will read briefly from his new book, William Stoner and the Battle for the Inner Life, and lead a group discussion on how our favorite novels can help us come to know ourselves.
About Steve Almond
Steve Almond is the author of eleven books of fiction and non-fiction, including the New York Times bestsellers Candyfreak and Against Football. His essays and reviews have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, and his fiction has been anthologized in the Best American Short Stories, Best American Mysteries, Best American Erotica, and Pushcart Prize. He lives with his wife (a Hartford native!) and three children outside of Boston. Click here to learn more about Steve.
About Stoner by John Williams
William Stoner is born at the end of the nineteenth century into a dirt-poor Missouri farming family. Sent to the state university to study agronomy, he instead falls in love with English literature and embraces a scholar’s life, so different from the hardscrabble existence he has known. Stoner encounters a succession of disappointments. Driven ever deeper within himself, Stoner rediscovers the stoic silence of his forebears and confronts an essential solitude.
John Williams’s luminous and deeply moving novel is a work of quiet perfection. William Stoner emerges from it not only as an archetypal American, but as an unlikely existential hero, standing, like a figure in a painting by Edward Hopper, in stark relief against an unforgiving world. The New Yorker describes it as, “The greatest American novel you’ve never heard of.”
Every third Thursday of the Month, creative, interesting and open-minded people gather to experience all kinds of art and connect with one another.
We’re excited to celebrate summer by welcoming the Hartford Yard Goats – sponsoring our July Creative Cocktail Hour and bringing the spirit of baseball 
to Real Art Ways!
– Hang out with their mascots
– Try samples of their new food
– Receive giveaways and prizes
– Take part in fun games including: giant Jenga, a pitching machine, cornhole and a wiffle ball/ home run derby sponsored by Wiffle®.
Performing live – Brooklyn’s Los Hacheros will bring rhythms from the mountains of Puerto Rico. A band of only 5 musicians, they can sound like a conjunto of 12, reviving and combining the folkloric styles of son montuno and guaracha of Cuba with salsa and traditional bomba of Puerto Rico.
“The new album from New York’s Los Hacheros is a consistent work of truly soulful Afro-cuban/Puerto Rican/Nuyorican neotraditional popular music.” – Afropop
Opening Receptions
Kylie Ford: Spaces/Places
Binwanka: Video Installation
Mike Estabrook
As always – Hands-On Creative Activities – led by Lauren Perrault
Food Truck: Mini Munch Food Truck
More details to come!
Every third Thursday of the Month, creative, interesting and open-minded people gather to experience all kinds of art and connect with one another.
Both commemorating the 50th Anniversary of Stonewall and looking towards the future, we present a night of queer themed activities and experiences!
– Interactive performance by Journey Writers
– Queeraoke (queer-karaoke)
– Drag queens reading from romance novels, and more!
M.A.K.U. Soundsystem will perform unique sounds that express their immigrant experience. Juxtaposing traditional Colombian percussion, drum-set, electric bass, guitar, and vocals they create an explosive performance filled with unshakable grooves.
DJ Ephraim Adamz will spin some fierce dance grooves throughout the night!
Exhibitions on View
Nomad/9 MFA: PARK: Bridging Communities (opening reception)
Keith Clougherty: Homestead Metabolism
Mateo Nava: Encuentro
Food Truck: Samba’s Cuisine
Plus – Hands-On Creative Activities – led by Lauren Perrault
Schedule
6 – 7 PM | DJ Ephraim Adamz opens & Pride Poster-Making
6 – 8 PM | Opening reception of Nomad/9 MFA: PARK: Bridging Communities
7 – 7:45 PM | M.A.K.U. Soundsystem & Drag Queens Reading Romance Novels
7:45 – 8 PM | One Hot Night performance led by Anne Cubberly
8 – 9 PM | Queeraoke!
8:15 – 9 PM | M.A.K.U. Soundsystem
9 – 10 PM | Music & Dancing with DJ Ephraim Adamz
Connecticut writers are taking over all five galleries here at Real Art Ways! Each space will offer programming and prose. All are invited for a day of panels, readings, food trucks, and a spectacular book fair.
Readers’ Marketplace
Beyond spotlighting some of the region’s premier artists through talks and readings, the CT Lit Fest also welcomes and highlights the achievements and work of publishers, presses, and literary organizations.
Typewriter Gallery
Typewriters will be set up on podiums for visitors to type and print out stories, poems, missives – and maybe even secrets. Plus, there will be mini-prose and poetry workshops.
Panel Gallery
Curated panels will offer a forum for leading thinkers, writers, and educators to discuss writing and the arts in our culture.
Tiny Reading Gallery
Podium + mic = all-day readings in an intimate setting
Theater Talks
Features writers reading their work followed by moderated conversations and Q & A.
RAW Cafe
The café will host presentations by writers and musicians throughout the day in a coffeehouse-style setting.
Visit the official CT Literary Festival page for a list of authors, presenters and additional information.
