A Night of Surrealist Games at Real Art Ways

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A Night of Surrealist Games

 

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.

Says Miller, “The wonder of these games is the unexpected juxtapositions that occur, creating amazingly synchronistic sequences and unexpected meanings and connections.”

“(Roger’s) knowledge of Surrealism and his skill in getting strangers to play together was a smashing success!” – John Andress, ICA, Boston

”At the end of the evening, the wall was covered with new creations made by people who don’t think of themselves as artists.” – Tom Johnson, First Night, Boston

“Fantastic night — a hilarious, creative, and healthy mix of mind-bend, head-clearing, and humor-refraction. And met great new people.” -Attendee, Cliff Lazenby

Community Film Screenings In Honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day

 

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, you are invited to experience a day of curated film programming and community building. This event is free to the public!

Come for one film or stay all day. Feel free to drop in at any time!

11 AM

MIGHTY TIMES: THE LEGACY OF ROSA PARKS (40 min.)

A 2002 short documentary directed by Robert Houston and produced by Robert Hudson about the 1955/1956 Montgomery bus boycott led by Rosa Parks. Thousands of students have viewed this film during our Film Field Trips Program. Children and families are welcome.

 

11:45 AM

Guided Discussion led by Film Facilitator Derek Hall

 

12:15 PM

Lunch / Hands-On Art-Making Activity led by our Learning & Engagement Manager, Miller

 

1:00 PM

SING SING (1hr 47 min. Rated R)

A theater group escapes the reality of incarceration through the creativity of staging a play. This film features a cast that includes actors who have been incarcerated.

 

3:00 PM

Guided Discussion led by Film Facilitator Derek Hall

 

Bagged lunch will be available for purchase (a $5 donation is recommended). You may also bring your own!

About Derek Hall:

Derek Hall is a dynamic anti-racist intergroup dialogue facilitator, public speaker, and activist committed to challenging beliefs and institutional culture rooted in systemic racism and other forms of oppression. Derek has worked in the diversity, equity, and inclusion field for over fifteen years, partnering with public and private school systems and for-profit and non-profit organizations locally and nationally.

His passion for decolonized education, human connection, and implementation of racial equity strategies has inspired sustainable change at the internal, interpersonal, and institutional levels within the organizations he works with. Derek uses his gifts of facilitation, storytelling, and community building to increase the racial & social consciousness of individuals and organizations.

A man staring into the camera wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and a yellow beanie.

Seven Secrets to The Perfect Personal Essay: Book Talk
Join us Sunday, January 19, at 6 pm for an evening of readings and conversation with author Nancy Slonim Aronie to celebrate the launch of her new book, Seven Secrets to the Perfect Personal Essay: Crafting the Story Only You Can Write.

Nancy will be joined by fellow writers who will each share their own personal essays:

TONY SHALHOUB (UPDATE: Tony will not be able to attend the event on Sunday 1/19.)

GLENN BERGENFIELD

KATE FEIFFER

KATE TAYLOR

STEVE KEMPER

JULIA KIDD

SUZY TROTTA

BRAD HAMERMESH

TERRY MCGUIRE

LINDA PEARCE PRESTLEY

GERRY YUKEVICH

$35 General Admission (includes purchase of the book; books will be distributed the night of the event by our bookstore partner, River Bend Bookshop.)

If you’re planning to attend as a couple or household and do not want to purchase multiple copies of the book, we can offer you a $10 admission for the 2nd person.

Nancy Slonim Aronie is the author of Writing from the Heart; Finding the Power of your Inner Voice (Hyperion). She has been a commentator for National Public Radio’s All Things Considered and was a Visiting Writer at Trinity College in Hartford, CT. Aronie wrote a monthly column in McCall’s magazine and was the recipient of the Eye of The Beholder Artist in Residence Award at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Nancy was recognized for excellence in teaching for all three years she taught with Robert Coles at Harvard University.

She is the founder of The Chilmark Writing Workshop on Martha’s Vineyard and teaches Jumpstart your Memoir; Write it from the Heart at Esalen, Kripalu, Omega Institute, Open Center in NYC and Blue Spirit in Costa Rica.

Her column, From The Heart, appears biweekly in The Martha’s Vineyard Times. She is the author of WRITING FROM THE HEART, FINDING YOUR INNER VOICE, (HYPERION)  MEMOIR AS MEDICINE: The Healing Power of Writing Your Messy, Imperfect, Unruly (but gorgeously yours) Life Story, (New World Library) and THE PERFECT PERSONAL ESSAY: Crafting The Story Only YOU Can Write.

 

 

Improvisations Now
Experience music imagined and created in real-time. This series runs from September 2024 to May 2025. Check out the full schedule here!
April 13 Performance:

Matt Mitchell on keyboard

Matt Mitchell-piano

Matt Mitchell is a pianist and composer interested in the intersections of the various strains of acoustic, electric, and composed and improvised new music. He currently composes for and leads several ensembles featuring many of the current foremost musicians and improvisers, including Tim Berne, Kim Cass, Kate Gentile, Miles Okazaki, Ches Smith, Tyshawn Sorey, Anna Webber, and Dan Weiss.

Learn more about Matt here.

 

Kim Cass-bass

Kim Cass is from an island off the coast of Maine, where he was introduced to bass playing at age 10. He quickly developed a unique style on the electric bass and began playing the upright bass at age 13. Developing this instrument in a jazz context became Kim’s passion, as did composing music featuring his upright playing.

When studying at the New England Conservatory of Music, Cass received personalized instruction from several virtuoso musicians, including George Garzone, Ran Blake, Joe Morris, and Joe Maneri. Cass currently resides in New York City. He has been featured in a wide variety of ensembles, executing music that is ever-challenging and beautifully mysterious.

Cass has performed with the likes of Matt Mitchell, Tyshawn Sorey, John Zorn, and Bill McHenry. The solo album KIM CASS, released on Table and Chairs, is a showcase of Kim’s upright bass playing and compositions.

Learn more about Kim here.

 

man strumming a guitar

Joe Morris-guitar

Joe Morris is a composer/improviser multi-instrumentalist who plays guitar, double bass, mandolin, banjo, banjouke electric bass and drums. He is also a recording artist, educator, record producer, concert producer/curator and author. His is considered to be one of the most original and important improvising musicians of our time. Down Beat magazine called him “the preeminent free music guitarist of his generation.” Will Montgomery, writing in The Wire magazine called him “one of the most profound improvisers at work in the U.S.”

He is originally from New Haven, Connecticut. At the age of 12 he took lessons on the trumpet for one year. He started on guitar in 1969 at the age of 14. He played his first professional gig later that year. With the exception of a few lessons he is self-taught. The influence of Jimi Hendrix and other guitarists of that period led him to concentrate on learning to play the blues. Soon thereafter his sister gave him a copy of John Coltrane’s OM, which inspired him to learn about Jazz and New Music. From age 15 to 17 he attended The Unschool, a student-run alternative high school near the campus of Yale University in downtown New Haven. Taking advantage of the open learning style of the school he spent much of his time playing music with other students, listening to ethnic folk, blues, jazz, and classical music on record at the public library and attending the various concerts and recitals on the Yale campus, including performances by Wadada Leo Smith. He worked to establish his own voice on guitar in a free jazz context from the age of 17, drawing on the influence of Coltrane, Miles Davis, Cecil Taylor,Thelonius Monk, Ornette Coleman as well as the AACM, BAG, and the many European improvisers of the ’70s. Later he would draw influence from traditional West African string music, Messian, Ives, Eric Dolphy, Jimmy Lyons, Leroy Jenkins, Steve McCall and Fred Hopkins. After high school he performed in rock bands, rehearsed in jazz bands and played totally improvised music with friends until 1975 when he moved to Boston.

Learn more about Joe here.

Hartford Film Showcase

UPDATE: We are now at capacity for all screenings on 2/1! You’re more than welcome to try the standby line if you arrive on Saturday and do not have a ticket, however we cannot guarantee a seat for you if you have not registered.

Join us Saturday, Feb 1, for our first Hartford Film Showcase! Presented by The Hartford Film Company, in partnership with Real Art Ways. The Hartford Film Showcase is an all-day event highlighting Hartford’s filmmaking talent!
SUBMISSIONS

Filmmakers interested in showcasing a feature film, series, or short film at the showcase can submit their work for free using the online form.

Selected short films or series will receive a $250 screening fee, and feature films will receive a $750 screening fee. There will also be a short screenplay competition – a panel of judges will select one script to receive $500 towards production. 

The deadline for submissions has passed.

EVENT

Hartford Film Company presents short films, narratives, and a documentary spanning styles and genres – all made here in Hartford, by Hartford filmmakers. Stay for the panels to learn how these films were made and get to know some of the creative talent in this region.

From New Yorker’s top movies of 2024, “The Featherweight,” to the #1 streaming movie on Starz last month, “Midas” (also the #1 movie seen at Real Art Ways in 2024!) to a tribute for a beloved hockey team, “The Whalers” – there is something for everyone.

This showcase is made possible by the generous support of the Greater Hartford Arts Council

Admission is free, but tickets should be reserved in advance. Get the full schedule and RSVP for your spot at: https://www.hartfordfilm.com/showcase

Read the full story at the Hartford Courant:

https://www.courant.com/2025/01/24/hartford-film-showcase-at-real-art-ways-celebrates-local-filmmaking-achievements/

 

 

Creative Cocktail Hour
Join us Thursday, February 20, from 6 to 9 PM for our Creative Cocktail Hour.
Admission is free.
We’ll have music, a food truck, custom cocktails, hands-on art-making activities, and exhibitions on view!
But most importantly, you’ll be there!

 

Opening Reception for Solo Exhibitions:

Thin Ice by Joseph Slominski

Distant Bystander by Priya N. Green

Shadows Taller Than Our Souls by Christa Whitten

On View:

Real Wall: Bethani Blake

False/Idle by Doug Beattie (2FL 56 Arbor)

Live Music:

Felipe Fournier Latin Jazz Quartet

Performers:

Latin Grammy-Winning Artist Felipe Fournier – Vibraphone

Dan Martinez – Bass

Fernando Garcia – Drums

Nelson Bello – Percussion

Food:

Craftbird

 

(This CCH is made possible by generous support from the Greater Hartford Arts Council)

 

 

Improvisations Now
Experience music imagined and created in real-time. This series runs from September 2024 to May 2025. Check out the full schedule here!
March 16 Performance:

Korean woman playing a gayageum

DoYeon Kim-gayageum

DoYeon Kim is a traditionally trained Korean artist who plays the gayageum, a traditional Korean string instrument, and has developed a uniquely broad approach to music, incorporating Korean music, jazz, and improvisation, among other influences. Notably, she introduced the gayageum into the improvisational music scene worldwide. Her recent collaborative projects have broadened to include dancers, actors, and visual artists.

During her traditional Korean training, she won numerous international competitions for her gayageum performances, including the Dong-A Ilbo Traditional Music Competition (Gold Prize, 2009), and the On-Nala Korean Music Competition (Gold Prize, 2011). DoYeon is also a graduate of the Contemporary Improvisation Department at the New England Conservatory of Music, where she was the first student ever admitted to the school playing any kind of Korean traditional instrument. She joined the faculty at her alma mater (2022). She also holds graduate degrees from Berklee’s Global Jazz Institute.

She has worked with numerous composers, performing several world premieres, and has been an invited guest lecturer for gayageum and Asian music at Franz Liszt Academy of Music, Universidad Nacional De Colombia, Dartmouth College, and many other universities. The Gyeonggi Sinawi Orchestra, a traditional music orchestra in Korea, has invited her as a music director (2021), and improvisation conductor (2023). DoYeon makes an effort to share a new and broader approach to music, drawing from Korean traditional music, improvisation, and development of original playing techniques.

DoYeon has performed throughout the world leading the Kim Do Yeon Band, and alongside many improvisers, including Tyshawn Sorey, Joe Morris, Agusti Fernandez, Tony Malaby and Anthony Coleman. Her first album, GaPi (2017), intimately combined traditional Korean music and jazz, and was nominated for a 2018 Korean Grammy Award in the crossover album category. The same year, DoYeon released the free improvisation album Macrocosm with Joe Morris, and performed on Jim Snidero’s Korean themed jazz album Project-K (2020), alongside Dave Douglas, Orrin Evans, Linda Oh and Rudy Royston. DoYeon Kim was recognized by Grammy.com as one of 7 Musicians Pushing Ancient Asian Instruments Into The Future (2021), and is performing projects at Roulette as a Van Lier Fellow (2023).

Learn more about DoYeon here.

 

man playing instrument

Dan O’Brien-saxophone, clarinet, flute

Dan O’Brien is a woodwind player (alto sax, flute, clarinet) who was quite active in the early Contemporary period prior to the pandemic. He performed with Leap of Faith, The Leap of Faith Orchestra & Sub-Units project at Third Life Studios in Somerville, 3 of the 6 Graphic Scores for the full Leap of Faith Orchestra, Mekaniks, and Turbulence. He came to our scene along with Zach Bartolomei, also a reed player, and they performed together on most of the sets.

Learn more about Dan here.

 

man playing upright bass

Brad Barret-bass

“A true virtuoso of the double bass with unlimited abilities. The possibilities of Free Music afford him the challenge to operate on the frontier of music, while his great technique grounds him with precision and musicality.” – Joe Morris

Brad Barrett is a bassist, improviser, and educator. His practice engages the tools of improvisation and southern musical traditions to interrogate the complex interplay between freedom and structure. The Jazz Times has described Barrett’s style as “diced bits of Derek Bailey skronk” infused with “Delta blues twang,” and the Free Music Collective has lauded his playing as “singularly rhythmically genius.” In 2019, his first album, Cowboy Transfiguration—featuring Joe Morris on guitar and MacArthur Fellow Tyshawn Sorey on percussion—garnered critical acclaim for its distinctive sonic landscapes and virtuosity. Unlike conventional approaches to composition that place decision-making authority in the hands of a single composer, the compositional frameworks in Cowboy Transfiguration challenge players to maximize their creative freedom while adhering to rules for shared leadership. Over the past decade, Barrett has worked as an in-demand freelance musician; has performed with jazz luminaries such as Jason Moran, Sheila Jordan, Julian Lage, Evan Parker, Jerry Bergonzi, George Garzone, Taylor Ho Bynum and Rakalam Bob Moses; and has appeared on several noteworthy albums. In addition, Barrett is an award-winning educator whose innovative teaching practice has been consistently supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Barrett holds a DMA in Contemporary Improvisation and a MM in Jazz Performance from the New England Conservatory.

Learn more about Brad here.

 

Man standing in front of drum set

Joe Morris-percussion, electronics

Joe Morris is a composer/improviser multi-instrumentalist who plays guitar, double bass, mandolin, banjo, banjouke electric bass and drums. He is also a recording artist, educator, record producer, concert producer/curator and author. His is considered to be one of the most original and important improvising musicians of our time. Down Beat magazine called him “the preeminent free music guitarist of his generation.” Will Montgomery, writing in The Wire magazine called him “one of the most profound improvisers at work in the U.S.”

He is originally from New Haven, Connecticut. At the age of 12 he took lessons on the trumpet for one year. He started on guitar in 1969 at the age of 14. He played his first professional gig later that year. With the exception of a few lessons he is self-taught. The influence of Jimi Hendrix and other guitarists of that period led him to concentrate on learning to play the blues. Soon thereafter his sister gave him a copy of John Coltrane’s OM, which inspired him to learn about Jazz and New Music. From age 15 to 17 he attended The Unschool, a student-run alternative high school near the campus of Yale University in downtown New Haven. Taking advantage of the open learning style of the school he spent much of his time playing music with other students, listening to ethnic folk, blues, jazz, and classical music on record at the public library and attending the various concerts and recitals on the Yale campus, including performances by Wadada Leo Smith. He worked to establish his own voice on guitar in a free jazz context from the age of 17, drawing on the influence of Coltrane, Miles Davis, Cecil Taylor,Thelonius Monk, Ornette Coleman as well as the AACM, BAG, and the many European improvisers of the ’70s. Later he would draw influence from traditional West African string music, Messian, Ives, Eric Dolphy, Jimmy Lyons, Leroy Jenkins, Steve McCall and Fred Hopkins. After high school he performed in rock bands, rehearsed in jazz bands and played totally improvised music with friends until 1975 when he moved to Boston.

Learn more about Joe here.

Improvisations Now
Experience music imagined and created in real-time. This series runs from September 2024 to May 2025. Check out the full schedule here!
February 16 Performance:

 

William Parker-bass, flutes, n’goni

William Parker is a bassist, improviser, composer, writer, and educator from New York City. He has recorded over 150 albums, published six books, and taught and mentored hundreds of young musicians and artists.

He has been called “one of the most inventive bassists/leaders since [Charles] Mingus,” and “the creative heir to Jimmy Garrison and Paul Chambers…directly influenced by ‘60s avant-gardists like Sirone, Henry Grimes and Alan Silva.” The Village Voice called him, “the most consistently brilliant free jazz bassist of all time.” Time Out New York named him one of the “50 Greatest New York Musicians of All Time.”

Parker’s current active bands include the large-band Little Huey Creative Orchestra, the Raining on the Moon Sextet, the In Order to Survive Quartet, Stan’s Hat Flapping in the Wind, the Cosmic Mountain Quintet with Hamid Drake, Kidd Jordan, and Cooper-Moore, as well as a deep and ongoing solo bass study. His recordings have long been documented by the AUM Fidelity record label and on his own Centering Records, among others. He also has a duo project “Hope Cries For Justice” with Patricia Nicholson Parker, which combines music, storytelling, poetry, and dance

Over the decades, Parker has developed a reputation as a connector and hub of information concerning the history of creative music, recently culminating in two hefty volumes of interviews with over 60 avant-garde and creative musicians, Conversations I & II.  He is also the subject of an exhaustive 468-page “sessionography” that documents thousands of performances and recording sessions, a remarkable chronicle of his prolificness as an active artist.

He has been a key figure in the New York and European creative music scenes since the 1970s and has worked all over the world.  He has performed with Cecil Taylor, Don Cherry, Peter Brotzmann, Milford Graves, Peter Kowald, and David S. Ware, among many others.

William Parker works all over the world, but he always returns to New York’s Lower East Side, where he has lived since 1975.

Learn more about William here.

 

Taylor Ho Bynum-cornet, flugelhorn

Taylor Ho Bynum is a musician, teacher, and writer, with a background including work in composition, performance, interdisciplinary collaboration, production, organizing, and advocacy.

His expressionistic playing on cornet and other brass instruments, his expansive vision as composer, and his idiosyncratic improvisational approach have been documented on over twenty recordings as a bandleader and over a hundred as a sideperson. Bynum enjoys playing with friends in collective ensembles like his duo with Tomas Fujiwara, Illegal Crowns (with Fujiwara, Benoit Delbecq, and Mary Halvorson), and Geometry (with Kyoko Kitamura, Tomeka Reid, and Joe Morris), and as a sideperson in Fujiwara’s Triple Double and Shizuko, Reid’s Stringtet and Septet, Jim Hobbs & the Fully Celebrated Orchestra, and Bill Lowe’s Signifyin’ Natives.

Learn more about Taylor here.

 

man drumming on stage

Jerome Deupree-drums, percussion

Jerome Dupree is an American musician, based in Massachusetts. He is best known as the original drummer in the alternative rock band Morphine.

Jerome started playing drums at the age of six, with the help of his two older brothers. In the early 1970s, he formed a band with his brother Jesse. After high school, he moved to Bloomington, Indiana, where he got to record for the first time. After a few years he again relocated to Santa Cruz, California, where he played with Humans, who toured with Squeeze and opened for Patti Smith and Iggy Pop.

In 1981 he moved to Boston, and has lived there since. His early Boston projects included stints in Sex Execs and Either/Orchestra.

Learn more about Jerome here.

 

man strumming a guitar

Joe Morris-guitar, banjouke

Joe Morris is a composer/improviser multi-instrumentalist who plays guitar, double bass, mandolin, banjo, banjouke electric bass and drums. He is also a recording artist, educator, record producer, concert producer/curator and author. His is considered to be one of the most original and important improvising musicians of our time. Down Beat magazine called him “the preeminent free music guitarist of his generation.” Will Montgomery, writing in The Wire magazine called him “one of the most profound improvisers at work in the U.S.”

He is originally from New Haven, Connecticut. At the age of 12 he took lessons on the trumpet for one year. He started on guitar in 1969 at the age of 14. He played his first professional gig later that year. With the exception of a few lessons he is self-taught. The influence of Jimi Hendrix and other guitarists of that period led him to concentrate on learning to play the blues. Soon thereafter his sister gave him a copy of John Coltrane’s OM, which inspired him to learn about Jazz and New Music. From age 15 to 17 he attended The Unschool, a student-run alternative high school near the campus of Yale University in downtown New Haven. Taking advantage of the open learning style of the school he spent much of his time playing music with other students, listening to ethnic folk, blues, jazz, and classical music on record at the public library and attending the various concerts and recitals on the Yale campus, including performances by Wadada Leo Smith. He worked to establish his own voice on guitar in a free jazz context from the age of 17, drawing on the influence of Coltrane, Miles Davis, Cecil Taylor,Thelonius Monk, Ornette Coleman as well as the AACM, BAG, and the many European improvisers of the ’70s. Later he would draw influence from traditional West African string music, Messian, Ives, Eric Dolphy, Jimmy Lyons, Leroy Jenkins, Steve McCall and Fred Hopkins. After high school he performed in rock bands, rehearsed in jazz bands and played totally improvised music with friends until 1975 when he moved to Boston.

Learn more about Joe here.

Improvisations Now
Experience music imagined and created in real-time. This series runs from September 2024 to May 2025. Check out the full schedule here!
January 19 Performance:

Jacqueline Kerrod-harp

Described as ‘exceptionally virtuosic and sensitive,’ South African harpist Jacqueline Kerrod is perfectly at home across multiple genres and performs throughout the United States and Europe.

Most recently, she has been touring internationally with composer and multi-reedist Anthony Braxton, both in duo and as part of his ZIM music ensemble. She was a founding member and co-songwriter of the pop duo Addi & Jacq, who were winners of NYC’s Battle of the Boroughs in 2015, and recently toured her show, ‘Harps Uncovered’ featuring vocalist Hannah Sumner through 12 states of the US. Currently, she is working on a solo project further exploring her love of improvisation, songwriting, and the use of electronics to augment and manipulate sound.

As a champion of contemporary music, Jacqueline has performed with the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), the Argento Chamber Ensemble, Talea Ensemble, Wet InkAlarm Will Sound, and Metropolis Chamber Ensemble. As a native South African, she is passionate about commissioning and performing music written by South African composers and has performed over a dozen works written for her. She has also performed with elite chamber groups such as the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players.

Described as an ‘eclectic harpist’ by Lucid Culture, her discography includes a recently released duo with Anthony Braxton on the ‘dischi di angelica’ label. Recorded live on May 27th, 2018 at the AngelicA, Festival Internazionale di Musica at the Centro di Ricerca Musicale / Teatro San Leonardo, Bologna, Italy. Available on Bandcamp.Contemporary music, 3 self produced albums with Addi & Jacq, Greg Spears’ Requiem (New Amsterdam Records), Robert Paterson’s Star Crossing and Book of Goddesses (American Modern Recordings), and MAYA – In The Spirit(Perspectives Recordings). Other notable recordings that feature Jacqueline include Tristan Murail’s Winter Fragments (AEON), Anthony Braxton’s Trillium J, and the single Crazy in Love by Antony and the Johnsons (Secretly Canadian/Rough Trade Records). Her recording, “Candlelight Carols” with Grammy®-nominated vocal ensemble Seraphic Fire debuted at #11 on the Classical Billboard charts.

She has performed with Kayne West, Antony & the Johnsons, Jane Birkin, Rufus Wainwright, Santigold, Jónsi & Alex, to name a few.

Learn more about Jacqueline here.

 

Joe Morris-guitar

Joe Morris is a composer/improviser multi-instrumentalist who plays guitar, double bass, mandolin, banjo, banjouke electric bass and drums. He is also a recording artist, educator, record producer, concert producer/curator and author. His is considered to be one of the most original and important improvising musicians of our time. Down Beat magazine called him “the preeminent free music guitarist of his generation.” Will Montgomery, writing in The Wire magazine called him “one of the most profound improvisers at work in the U.S.”

He is originally from New Haven, Connecticut. At the age of 12 he took lessons on the trumpet for one year. He started on guitar in 1969 at the age of 14. He played his first professional gig later that year. With the exception of a few lessons he is self-taught. The influence of Jimi Hendrix and other guitarists of that period led him to concentrate on learning to play the blues. Soon thereafter his sister gave him a copy of John Coltrane’s OM, which inspired him to learn about Jazz and New Music. From age 15 to 17 he attended The Unschool, a student-run alternative high school near the campus of Yale University in downtown New Haven. Taking advantage of the open learning style of the school he spent much of his time playing music with other students, listening to ethnic folk, blues, jazz, and classical music on record at the public library and attending the various concerts and recitals on the Yale campus, including performances by Wadada Leo Smith. He worked to establish his own voice on guitar in a free jazz context from the age of 17, drawing on the influence of Coltrane, Miles Davis, Cecil Taylor,Thelonius Monk, Ornette Coleman as well as the AACM, BAG, and the many European improvisers of the ’70s. Later he would draw influence from traditional West African string music, Messian, Ives, Eric Dolphy, Jimmy Lyons, Leroy Jenkins, Steve McCall and Fred Hopkins. After high school he performed in rock bands, rehearsed in jazz bands and played totally improvised music with friends until 1975 when he moved to Boston.

Learn more about Joe here.

 

Riverwood Poetry Series
The series takes place in person on the second Wednesday of the month from September 2024 through May 2025. Each night typically begins with a poetry reading featuring regionally or nationally known poets, followed by an open mic featuring readers with one poem (one page).

Authors’ books will be available to buy for book signing and conversation. Food and drinks will be available for purchase.

This monthly event is free of charge. Ample parking is available via the 56 Arbor parking lot.

On Wednesday, February 12, at 7 PM, Riverwood Poetry Series @ Real Art Ways will host two married couples as we celebrate Valentine’s Day: Denise Abercrombie & Jonathan Andersen and Margot Schilpp & Jeff Mock.

There will not be an open mic this month, so each couple can have a full half hour for their poetry.

About Riverwood Poetry Series

The Riverwood Poetry Series, Inc. is a non-profit arts organization committed to promoting and appreciating 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 free to the public. We provide entertaining and thought-provoking poetry in a relaxed atmosphere.” 

Denise Abercrombie’s work has appeared in Minnesota Review, Fireweed, Connecticut Review, Phoebe: Journal of Feminist Scholarship, Theory, and Aesthetics, The Lumberyard: A Radio Magazine, Struggle, Writing on the Edge, Yale Global Health Review, English Journal, Blue Collar Review, Waking Up to the Earth: Connecticut Poets in a Time of Global Climate Crisis, Earth’s Daughters and elsewhere. She helps coordinate Curbstone Foundation’s Poetry in the Julia de Burgos Park series in Willimantic. Denise teaches theater at E.O. Smith High School and lives in Storrs, Connecticut.

 

Jonathan Andersen’s two full-length collections of poems are Augur, awarded the David Martinson-Meadowhawk Poetry Prize by Red Dragonfly Press in Minnesota and published in 2018, and Stomp and Sing, published by Curbstone Press in 2005. He is also the editor of the anthology Seeds of Fire: Contemporary Poetry from the U.S.A. (Smokestack Books – UK, 2008). His poems have appeared in various periodicals, including Hanging Loose, New American Writing, Nimrod International Journal, North American Review, The Progressive, Rattle, and Salt, among others. For twelve years, he was a high school English and special education teacher. Since 2008, he has been a professor of English at Connecticut State Community College – Quinebaug Valley in Danielson and Willimantic.

 

Margot Schilpp teaches at Southern Connecticut State University and Quinnipiac University. She is the author of four volumes of poetry, all from Carnegie Mellon University Press, the most recent of which is Afterswarm, winner of the 2020 Connecticut Book Award in Poetry. She lives in New Haven with her husband, the poet Jeff Mock, and their two daughters, Paula and Leah.

 

Jeff Mock is the author of Ruthless. His poems appear in American Poetry Review, The Atlantic Monthly, The Georgia Review, New England Review, The North American Review, The Southern Review, and elsewhere.  He directs the MFA program at Southern Connecticut State University and lives in New Haven, Connecticut, with his wife, Margot Schilpp, and their daughters, Paula and Leah.

 

December CCH
Join us Thursday, December 19, from 6 to 9 PM for our next Creative Cocktail Hour.
Admission is free.
We’ll have music, a food truck, hands-on art-making activities, and exhibitions on view!
But most importantly, you’ll be there!

 

Current Exhibitions:

Past Curfew by John Guzman

Memories Misused by Peter Brown

False/Idle by Doug Beattie (2FL 56 Arbor)

DJ & Live Music:

Sonia Sol

Food Truck:

Samba’s (Brazilian)

Riverwood Poetry Series
The series takes place in person on the second Wednesday of the month from September 2024 through May 2025. Each night typically begins with a poetry reading featuring regionally or nationally known poets, followed by an open mic featuring readers with one poem (one page).

Authors’ books will be available to buy for book signing and conversation. Food and drinks will be available for purchase.

This monthly event is free of charge. Ample parking is available via the 56 Arbor parking lot.

On Wednesday, December 11, at 7 PM, we will host poets Martha Collins and Charles O. Hartman. UPDATE: Martha and Charles will not be able to join us. There will be an extended open mic for readers.

Martha Collins has published eleven books of poetry, most recently Casualty Reports (Pittsburgh, 2022) and Because What Else Could I Do (Pittsburgh, 2019); the latter won the Poetry Society of America’s William Carlos Williams Award. She has also co-translated five volumes of Vietnamese poetry, most recently Dreaming the Mountain by Tuệ Sỹ, with Nguyen Ba Chung (Milkweed, 2023), which was a PEN America Poetry in Translation Award finalist. Collins founded the U.Mass. Boston creative writing program and, for ten years, served as Pauline Delaney Professor of Creative Writing at Oberlin.
Learn more about Martha here: marthacollinspoet.com

Charles O. Hartman has published eight collections of poetry, including Downfall of the Straight Line (Arrowsmith Press, 2024), as well as books on jazz and song (Jazz Text, Princeton 1991) and on computer poetry (Virtual Muse, Wesleyan 1996). His Free Verse (Princeton 1981) is still in print (Northwestern 1996), and Verse: An Introduction to Prosody was published by Wiley-Blackwell in 2015. In 2020 he co-edited, with Martha Collins, Pamela Alexander, and Matthew Krajniak, a volume on Wendy Battin for the Unsung Masters series. He is Poet in Residence Emeritus at Connecticut College. He plays jazz guitar.

About Riverwood Poetry Series

The Riverwood Poetry Series, Inc. is a non-profit arts organization committed to promoting and appreciating 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 free to the public. We provide entertaining and thought-provoking poetry in a relaxed atmosphere.” 

Open Studio Hartford

 

Visit venues throughout Hartford to discover or connect with artists in their studios. Over the weekend, four floors of studios in 56 Arbor will be participating – including the studios of Barbara HockerBonnie AparicioKathi PackerKelly TrujilloToby GonzalezElena Grossman, Lauren Be Dear, Warm Jungle, and Rachel Harriette.

For venue and artist information, check the full lineup here.

2024 Annual Holiday Jazz & Latin Jazz Parranda: Papo Vázquez and the Mighty Pirates Troubadours
Poster for 2024 Holiday Parranda
Saturday, December 7, at 7 pm – Real Art Ways welcomes trombonist, composer and arranger Papo Vázquez for our annual concert and holiday parranda. Bring an instrument and get in free! Otherwise, general admission is $10.
Parranda de aguinaldo (Christmas folk music), is an Afro-Indigenous musical form played during the holidays in various Caribbean and Latin American countries including Puerto Rico, Cuba, Trinidad, and the coastal area of the states Aragua and Carabobo in Venezuela.

Papo Vázquez is a trombonist, composer, and arranger with over 40 years of a career spanning Jazz, Latin, and Afro-Caribbean music. Papo is a National Endowment for the Arts Master Artist and Grammy Nominee and was featured in the 2020 NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll.

“En fin, Vázquez junto a sus Mighty Pirates Troubadours e invitados exponen un proyecto exquisito y cadencioso que se transforma en un banquete para los amantes del género.” – El Vocero, 2020
(In short, Vázquez along with his Mighty Pirates Troubadours and guests present an exquisite and lilting project that becomes a banquet for lovers of the genre.)

•Musical Director for the National Puerto Rican Day Parade Orchestra, (NYC/WABC) 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019
•Commissioned by Wynton Marsalis to compose music for Jazz and Art series, conducted and performed with J@LC orchestra, CD release August 2019
•New York Pops Education, Board of Education certified, 2018 and 2019
•Commissioned new music for Afro Latin Jazz Alliance for “Nueva Musica” concert series
•Grammy nominated for Papo Vázquez’ Mighty Pirates, Marooned/Aíslado, 2008

Papo was deeply moved by jazz at a young age. His appreciation and knowledge of the indigenous music of the Caribbean provides him with a unique ability to fuse Afro-Caribbean rhythms with freer melodic and harmonic elements of progressive jazz.

Learn more about Papo by visiting his website.

Real Art Ways le da la bienvenida de regreso al trombonista, compositor y arreglista Papo Vázquez a nuestro concierto anual y parranda navideña.

Parranda de aguinaldo (música folclórica navideña), es una forma musical afro-indígena que se toca en temporada de vacaciones en varios países del Caribe y América Latina, incluidos Puerto Rico, Cuba, Trinidad y la zona costera de los estados de Aragua y Carabobo en Venezuela.

Band of Pirates:

Papo Vázquez – Trombone, Leader

Jose Mangual Jr. – Vocals

Ivan Renta – Sax

Rick Germanson – Piano

Carlos Mena – Bass

Willie Martinez – Drums

Carlos Maldonado – Percussion, Vocals

Reinaldo Dejesus – Percussion, Vocals

 

 

Far Out: Life On & After the Commune – Screening & Q&A
On Saturday, 11/23, we will be hosting a Q&A post-screening. Filmmaker Charles Light and cultural worker, performer, writer, and poet Verandah Porche and musician Patty Carpenter will be available for questions on stage. Tickets for Saturday will be $20 for general admission. All other showtimes will be regularly priced.

In the summer of 1968, a group of radical journalists from Liberation News Service (LNS) left New York City for the country in the middle of a left-wing faction fight. They founded two communes – at Packer Corners in Guilford, VT, and Montague, MA. After leaving the city and turning away from national politics, the group of young city slickers became pioneers in the back-to-the-land and organic farming movement.

With the help of their neighbors, they spent the first five years learning rudimentary agricultural skills and how to live and work with each other as a communal family. In 1973, when the local utility proposed a giant twin nuclear plant four miles from the Montague Farm, they became active opponents. In a dramatic act of civil disobedience, Sam Lovejoy, from the Montague Farm, toppled a 500-foot weather tower on the planned nuclear site. He turned himself in and was acquitted after a trial where he represented himself and drew national attention.

Subsequently, the group became leaders in the burgeoning No Nukes movement–from the battles over the Seabrook nuclear plant to Diablo Canyon in California and scores of reactor sites in between. In 1979, they teamed up with Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Graham Nash, and other committed rock stars to help produce five nights of sold-out concerts at Madison Square Garden and a 250,000-person rally in New York City. The Packer Corners farm also returned to politics, aiding in the anti-nuclear fight, but also by engaging with the local community through producing outdoor plays such as
Midsummer Night’s Dream, Alice in Wonderland, and The Tempest. Blending contemporary interviews and a remarkable trove of original archival footage, Far Out is lively, humorous, inspiring, and irreverent. The point of view is honest rather
than nostalgic. The film is vital, telling the history but hewing to the universal themes of how we grapple–over a lifetime–with politics, relationships, morality, spirituality, civic engagement, and finding our home.

The movie takes advantage of an exceptional collection of archival material, much of which is produced by commune members. Producers Charles Light and Daniel Keller were community members and filmed the nuclear battles–in titles such as Lovejoy’s Nuclear War, The Last Resort, and Save the Planet–and many hours of daily life at the farms. Far Out also uses material from other professional filmmakers, notably Alan Dater and John Scagliotti’s The Stuff of Dreams, Robbie Leppzer’s Seabrook ’77, Nora Jacobson and Alan Dater’s The Vermont Movie, and Barbara Kopple and Danny Goldberg’s No Nukes.

Far Out documents communal life in the ‘70s with footage shot by Harry Saxman and Don McLean and photos by Peter Simon and others. Books by commune members (among the many: Ray Mungo’s Famous Long Ago and Total Loss Farm; Steve Diamond’s What the Trees Said; Verandah Porche’s The Body’s Symmetry; Harvey Wasserman’s History of the US; Peter Gould’s Burnt Toast; Tom Fels’ Farm Friends; Marty Jezer’s The Dark Ages; and Verandah and Patty Carpenter’s music album, Come Over, as well as the group’s Home Comfort), and the poetry, visual art, plays and music that the farms produced adds detail.

The film traces fifty years in the lives of this group of New England writers, activists, and artists. It conveys how these “hippies” transformed Vermont and western Massachusetts and how rural life and the people they met changed them.

CT Mirror Post-Election Conversation
One week after the election, we will host a conversation with CT Mirror to discuss the results. Our host for the evening will be John Dankosky, Director of News and Audio for the public radio program Science Friday.

Special guests include Mark Pazniokas and Lisa Hagen of CT Mirror and Colin McEnroe of Connecticut Public.

CT Mirror will livestream the event. You are invited to join in the conversation!

This is a free event.

November CCH
Join us Thursday, Nov 21, from 6 to 9 PM for our next Creative Cocktail Hour.
Admission is free.
We’ll have a food truck, art-making activities, and exhibitions on view!
But most importantly, you’ll be there!

 

Current Exhibitions:

Past Curfew by John Guzman

Memories Misused by Peter Brown

Food truck:

Samba & Favela Cuisine

Live Music:

Alexander Pastrana Sotto & Friends

Performing at 7pm:

Alex Pastrana Sotto – piano
Maria Escobar – vocals
Alex Apolo – upright bass
Julian Miltenberger – drums

Exhibiting Forgiveness: Screening and Conversation

We will host a post-screening conversation with Real Art Ways Board Member, community facilitator, speaker, and activist Derek Hall on Saturday, October 26.

Derek Hall is a dynamic anti-racist intergroup dialogue facilitator, public speaker, and activist committed to challenging beliefs and institutional culture rooted in systemic racism and other forms of oppression. Derek has worked in the diversity, equity, and inclusion field for over fifteen years, partnering with public and private school systems, for-profit and non-profit organizations both locally and nationally. Derek uses his gifts of facilitation, storytelling, and community building to increase the racial & social consciousness of individuals and organizations.


Synopsis:

Tarrell is an admired American painter who lives with his wife, singer Aisha, and their young son, Jermaine. Tarrell’s artwork excavates beauty from the anguish of his youth, keeping past wounds at bay.

His path to success is derailed by an unexpected visit from his estranged father, a conscience-stricken man desperate to reconcile. Tarrell’s mother, a pious woman with a profound and joyful spirituality, hopes that Tarrell can open his heart to forgiveness, giving them all another chance at being a family.

Tarrell and La’Ron learn that forgetting might be a greater challenge than forgiving.


New Haven-based artist, MacArthur Genius, and co-founder of NXTHVN, Titus Kaphar, “decided to dive into the director’s chair for his film “Exhibiting Forgiveness” to help his teenage sons understand the adversities of his upbringing.” This is Kaphar’s feature film debut, and we are excited to present this remarkable story to the Real Art Ways audience.

Life’s Short, Talk Fast: A Reading and Conversation
Join us Wednesday, November 20, at 7 pm for a book event celebrating the publication of “Life’s Short, Talk Fast: 15 Writers on Why We Can’t Stop Watching Gilmore Girls,” an anthology that explores 15 writers’ perspectives on the hit show and cultural phenomenon, “The Gilmore Girls.” Editor Ann Hood and contributing writers Rand Richards Cooper and Tracey Minkin will be present for a conversation that evening. 

$25 General Admission ticket includes the purchase of the book. River Bend Bookshop is our official book partner for this event – they will be onsite with books in hand.

Glögg and warm apple cider will be available for sale at concessions (while supplies last).


Fifteen leading writers explore what Gilmore Girls means to them in this delightful celebration of a contemporary TV classic.

Fast-talking, warm-hearted, and endlessly re-watchable, Gilmore Girls has bonded real-life mothers and daughters since 2000, when its iconic pilot introduced us to Lorelai, Rory, and their idyllic Connecticut town of Stars Hollow. More than twenty years later, it has become one of the most-streamed TV shows, ever.

In an anthology as intimate and quick-witted as Gilmore Girls itself, best-selling author Ann Hood invites fifteen writers to investigate their personal relationships to the show. (“It’s a show? It’s a lifestyle. It’s a religion.”) Joanna Rakoff considers how Emily Gilmore helped her understand her own mother; Sanjena Sathian sees herself—and Asian American defiance—in Lane Kim; Freya North connects with her son through the show; Francesco Sedita discovers an antidote to pandemic loneliness; Nina de Gramont offers a comic ode to the unreality of Stars Hollow. For anyone who identifies as Team Logan, Team Jess, or even Team Dean, Life’s Short, Talk Fast reveals what Gilmore Girls tells us about ourselves—and why it matters.

October CCH

Join us Thursday, October 17, from 6 to 9 PM for our next Creative Cocktail Hour.
Admission is free.
We’ll have a food truck, art-making activities, and an exhibition opening that night! But most importantly, you’ll be there!
Opening Reception:

Past Curfew by John Guzman

Current Exhibitions:

Memories Misused by Peter Brown

Common Property: Sun Washed Waste of the West by Sophia-Yemisi Adeyemo

Live Music:

Brandon Serafino

The band consists of:

Brandon Serafino – vocals

Andy Sorenson – guitar

Tim Weissman – bass

Richard Kirby – keys

Jonathan Barber – drums

Brandon Serafino is a singer, songwriter, and producer based in Hartford. His soaring vocal arrangements pair with lush production, creating a vibrant and soulful soundtrack for millennial restlessness. His unique blend of soul, indie pop, R&B, and world-beats has contributed to his songwriting landscape.