Kelly Andrew’s Book Launch Celebration at Real Art Ways

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Kelly Andrew’s Book Launch Celebration
Join us on April 6 at 6:00 PM at Real Art Ways to celebrate the release of YOUR BLOOD, MY BONES by local author Kelly Andrew!

Set in the same sinister New England as The Whispering DarkYOUR BLOOD, MY BONES is a New England gothic, perfect for anyone who love the darkness that lurks in the woods and a slow-burn enemies-to-lovers.

To learn more about the book, please click here!

Kelly will be in conversation with fellow young adult author, M.K. Lobb. This event is in collaboration with River Bend Bookshop.

Each ticket comes with a copy of YOUR BLOOD, MY BONES and will include all the swag from the exclusive River Bend pre-order campaign. There are also a limited number of 2 ticket, 1 book bundles.

*Please purchase tickets through the eventbrite portal below. Books bought through the River Bend website do not automatically come with a ticket*

GET YOUR TICKETS HERE!

IF YOU HAVE ALREADY PRE-ORDERED AND WOULD LIKE TO REGISTER FOR THE EVENT, please email events@riverbendbookshop.com with your name and order number, with the subject “Kelly Andrew – Eventbrite Pre-order”

IF YOU ARE A RBB MEMBER AND WOULD LIKE TO REGISTER FOR THE EVENT and have NOT yet pre-ordered, please email events@riverbendbookshop.com with the subject “Kelly Andrew – Eventbrite RBB Member)

Your Blood, My Bones book cover.

 

CCH
Real Art Ways’ monthly social hour. Featuring a DJ, performances, art exhibitions, and more. Come as you are.

Everybody is welcoming, conversations abound, people connect.

Come with friends, come by yourself, hangout. Creative Cocktail Hour is a great way to meet new people!

8-10pm DJ: Kasey Cortez

Kasey Cortez is a multidisciplinary artist currently working to merge her many realms of creative expression. She has delved into worlds of music, theatre, photography, design, fashion, & installation art. Her work across mediums is inspired by a deep fascination with collective trends/culture, the minutiae of human choice & the mundane passing of time. She’s also a yoga teacher of nearly 10 years, & DJing has become her new favorite form of expression!

DJ Kasey Cortez laying down in front of a plain background.

Art Exhibitions:

6-8pm Exhibition Opening: Greenness by Alex Dolores Salerno

No Bodies: Clothing as Disruptor, Curated by Alva Greenberg

Meaningful Adjacencies by RJ LaRussa

Food Truck:

Samba’s Cuisine: Brazilian and Spanish food truck!

Hands-on art making activities led by Real Art Ways staff
The Silent Book Club
The Silent Book Club: The Introverts Happy Hour at Real Art Ways

Good news, book lovers! The Presidents’ College and Alumni Engagement at the University of Hartford are partnering with Real Art Ways bringing you the Silent Book Club. Bring a favorite book and a favorite friend. Thirty minutes to mingle. An hour to read quietly [maybe near a work of art that pleases you], and a final half-hour to chat with other lovers of the written word – or explore the galleries or duck into a late evening film at RAW’s cinema.

Co-sponsored by Real Art Ways and the River Bend Bookshop.

Beverages and popcorn for purchase at the concession stand. Admission includes a $5 River Bend Bookshop gift card, plus snacks to keep your brain happy.

Click here to register!

 

CCH
DJ, performances, art exhibitions, DJ. Come as you are.

Everybody is welcoming, conversations abound, people connect.

Come with friends, come by yourself, hangout. Creative Cocktail Hour is a great way to meet new people!

DJ:

Our house DJ Mr. Realistic!

DJ Mr. Realistic

Dance Composition Roulette with the Hartford Dance Collective.

Create & compose a dance with The Hartford Dance Collective. In this interactive experience, audience members have an opportunity to write down words or phrases on pieces of paper that will be dropped into a bucket. The facilitator of the group will pick out four phrases from the bucket for the performers to create with. Watch as the dance unfolds before your eyes as you help create the style, emotion, quality, setting, music of each dance piece.

The Dance Collective

Photo: Nicole Stevens

Art Exhibitions
Soft Opening: No Bodies: Clothing as Disruptor

Get a sneak peak into Real Art Ways’ next exhibition No Bodies: Clothing as Disruptor. Curated by Alva Greenberg.

Join us for the Opening Reception on Saturday, February 17 from 5-8pm. More information here.

Unknown, Unknowns by Steven DiGiovanni
Meaningful Adjacencies by RJ LaRussa
Food Truck

Nibbles n’ Noms: a Connecticut based taco truck!

Hands-on art making activities led by Real Art Ways staff
Riverwood Poetry Series
Join us for this in-person reading! An open mic will precede the featured reader—one poem, one page.

Since we are always trying to perfect our open mic, this month we will draw 10 names from all those who sign up by 7 PM.

The series is also updating their contact list!

If you would like to receive email notifications of upcoming events, please leave your name and preferred email address at the book sales table.

The authors’ books will be available to buy for book signing & conversation, and beer, wine, soft drinks, and snacks will be available for purchase. Bring a friend! Free of charge. Ample parking available at Real Art Ways.
March’s Readers:
Daniel Donaghy

Daniel Donaghy is the author of five poetry collections, most recently Somerset, which was named co-winner of the 2019 Paterson Poetry Prize. His previous poetry collections are Start With Trouble (University of Arkansas, 2009), winner of the University of Arkansas Poetry Prize and the Paterson Award for Literary Excellence and a Finalist for the Connecticut Book Award and the Milt Kessler Poetry Book Award, and Steetfighting (BkMk Press, 2005), a Paterson Poetry Prize Finalist.

He earned a BA in English from Kutztown University, an MA in English/Creative Writing from Hollins College (now University), an MDA in Creative Writing (Poetry) from Cornell University, and a PhD in English from the University of Rochester. Donaghy was awarded the 2022 Auburn Witness Poetry Prize and a 2019 Artist Fellowship by the Connecticut Office of the Arts. He is a professor of English at Eastern Connecticut State University, where he edits Here: a poetry journal with his students, and serves as Poet Laureate of Windham, CT. He grew up in the Kensington section of Philedelpha, PA, which has inspired many of his poems.

Frederick-Douglass Knowles II

Frederick-Douglass Knowles II is a professor of English at Connecticut State Community College (Three Rivers Campus). He is a Hartford Poet Laureate Emeritus. Knowles has been the recipient of the Nutmeg Poetry Award and the Connecticut Office of the Arts Fellow in Artistic Excellence for Poetry/Creative Non-Fiction. He is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee and the author of BlackRoseCity. 

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. This series runs from September 2023-May 2024. Check out the full schedule here!

March’s Performance:
Sam Newsome – Soprano Saxophone

“Newsome expands the sound of a single soprano into a one-man band.” – All About Jazz

Sam Newsome is a saxophonist, music professor, and accomplished writer. Newsome’s avant-garde approach, particularly in the realm of prepared saxophone, has positioned him as a sought-after player in New York’s improvised music scene. His innovative voice has resonated in collaborations with notable artists such as Elliot Sharpe, William Parker, Fay Victor, Daniel Carter, Joe Morris, and Dave Liebman. For more information, please visit his website.

Nick Neuburg – Percussion

Nick Neuburg is is a drummer/percussionist, pianist and composer originally from the greater Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Nick attended the New England Conservatory of Music, where he studied with the legendary drummers Rakalam Bob Moses and Billy Hart and studied composition and improvisation with pianist Anthony Coleman and Guitarist Joe Morris. Upon graduating in the spring of 2014, Nick remained in the greater Boston area until the summer of 2018, during which time he both remained active in the creative music scene as a performer and became busy working and teaching. Now living in NYC, Nick has performed as a part of the bands Aykroyd, Letter Castle, Particulars, Ryan Power, Los Greys, Every Kim Parcell, Listening Woman and Creative Healing, among others.

Taylor Ho Bynum – Cornet, Brass

Taylor Ho Bynum is a musician, teacher, and writer, with a background including work in composition, performance, interdisciplinary collaboration, production, organizing, and advocacy. Bynum plays 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 Tomas Fujiwara’s Triple Double and Shizuko, Jim Hobbs & the Fully Celebrated Orchestra, and Bill Lowe’s Signifyin’ Natives.

Bynum has worked for two decades with Anthony Braxton. This partnership is recognized as one of the most generative partnerships of that legendary composer’s career, with projects ranging from duos to orchestras and everything in between. During Bynum’s stewardship of the Tri-Centric Foundation (which he served as executive director from 2010-2018), he produced many major Braxton projects, including two massive Trillium operas, two immersive Sonic Genome performances, and multiple festivals, box sets and albums. Bynum also worked closely with such departed masters as Bill Dixon and Cecil Taylor, with other collaborative credits including The Aardvark Jazz Orchestra, Nels Cline, Emily Coates, Bill Cole, Kris Davis, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Stephen Haynes, John Hebert, Fred Ho, Jason Kao Hwang, Titus Kaphar, Ingrid Laubrock, Living by Lanterns, Nicole Mitchell, Joe Morris, Kwaku Kwaakye Obeng, Mali Obomsawin, William Parker, Matana Roberts, Eliott Sharp, Wadada Leo Smith, Tyshawn Sorey, Yo La Tengo, and Zemog El Gallo Bueno. For more information, please visit his website here.

Joe Morris – Bass

“The preeminent free music guitarist of his generation.” – Downbeat Magazine

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

“The guitar revolutionary to pay attention to.” – The Boston Phoenix

Joe Morris 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. Joe Morris and Real Art Ways have a longstanding creative relationship. Joe has performed multiple times since the 1980’s and has organized concert series of improvisational music for several years.

To learn more about Joe Morris:

Facebook

Website

Riverwood Poetry Series
Join us for this in-person reading of 6 Poets Laureate! An open mic will precede the featured reader—one poem, one page.

Since we are always trying to perfect our open mic, this month we will draw 10 names from all those who sign up by 7 PM.

The series is also updating their contact list!

If you would like to receive email notifications of upcoming events, please leave your name and preferred email address at the book sales table.

The authors’ books will be available to buy for book signing & conversation, and beer, wine, soft drinks, and snacks will be available for purchase. Bring a friend! Free of charge. Ample parking available at Real Art Ways.
This month’s readers include:

Andrea Barton, Tony Fusco, Ben Grossberg, Anthony Paticchio, Virginia Shreve, and Faith Vicinanza.

Click here to view the reader’s bios!
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.” 

Tomeka Reid Quartet // Tomas Fujiwara’s 7 Poets Trio

On Sunday, February 25 at 3pm, Real Art Ways presents a performance from Tomeka Reid Quartet and Tomas Fujiwara’s 7 Poets Trio. Tickets are $15 general admission, $12 for RAW members, $5 for students.

Tomeka Reid Quartet

Tomeka Reid is one of the most original, versatile, and curious musicians to emerge from Chicago’s bustling jazz and improvised music community over the last decade. As a cellist, composer, and bandleader, Reid melds the Western classical tradition with modes rooted in the African diaspora and avant-garde to produce a rich and textured palette of sounds. She participates in several musical groups as a member or bandleader and composes and arranges works for small and large ensembles with varied instrument combinations. 

Reid released her debut recording as a bandleader, Tomeka Reid Quartet, in 2015 with the Tomeka Reid Quartet, featuring herself (cello), Jason Roebke (bass), Mary Halvorson (guitar), and Tomas Fujiwara (drums). The album provided a vibrant showcase for the cellist’s improvisational acumen, as well as for her dynamic arrangements and compositional ability. The quartet’s second album, Old New (2019) has been described as “fresh and transformative…striking out in bold, lyrical directions, with plenty of Reid’s singularly elegant yet energetic and sharp-edged bow work.” A new record is anticipated in spring 2024.

Tomeka Reid Quartet

Tomas Fujiwara’s 7 Poets Trio

Tomas Fujiwara assembled his 7 Poets Trio with Patricia Brennan and Tomeka Reid for the first time during his residency at The Stone in April 2018, after having previously played with Patricia in Michael Formanek’s Ensemble Kolossus, and with Tomeka in her Quartet. As has been the case with his past ensembles (Tomas Fujiwara & The Hook Up, The Tomas Fujiwara Trio, Triple Double, and the Tomas Fujiwara Percussion Quartet), Fujiwara brought together two musicians who had never played together before, creating a brand new combination of musical personalities. The rapport was instantaneous and their debut was described by All About Jazz as “a meshing of chamber jazz, modern classical composition and improvisation, although most of Fujiwara’s music sounded well organized in advance. All three players rose to an individual expression, working as a composite unit to deliver solo embellishments. Roles were malleable, as the listener decided whether everyone was soloing, or no-one. All three members were devoted to establishing a sensitive group consciousness, and they succeeded eminently.” Their eponymous debut came out in 2019 on Rogue Art, with a follow up album, Pith, released in September 2023 on Out of Your Head Records.

Tomas Fujiwara's 7 Poets Trio

 

Saturday Soup with Simon Benjamin
Please join us on Saturday, January 13th at 3pm for Saturday Soup; a discussion with Simon Benjamin and writer Gervais Marsh about Benjamin’s current exhibition sub–marine: Jeweler of Memory.

Real Art Ways presents an artist talk with Jamaican artist Simon Benjamin on Saturday, January 13 at 3PM. The exhibition is on view through Sunday, January 14 2024. Gallery hours are everyday from 2-9pm. Admission is free. Real Art Ways is located at 56 Arbor Street, Hartford.

Join Simon Benjamin and writer, curator, and scholar Gervais Marsh for Saturday Soup, an informal conversation on the occasion of Benjamin’s solo exhibition at Real Art Ways—and the culminating event of his 2022 Real Art Award Exhibition. In the spirit of his Jamaican roots, cups of soup will be served. Catered by Fire & Spice in Hartford.

For more information on Simon and his exhibition at Real Art Ways, click here.

About Gervais Marsh

Gervais Marsh is a writer, curator and scholar whose work is deeply invested in Black life, concepts of relationality and care. They received a PhD in Performance Studies from Northwestern University and are currently a Helena Rubinstein Curatorial Fellow with the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program.

Their writing has been published in several books and exhibition catalogs including Denzil Hurley (monograph), Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art, Forgotten Lands Vol. 5, KMAC Museum Triennial (2022), as well as online art publications such as Hyperallergic, C Magazine, Brooklyn Rail, ARTS.BLACK, Musée Magazine, and PREE: Caribbean Writing, among others.

A headshot of Gervais Marsh.

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

 

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr., you are invited to experience a day of film programming and community building. Free admission!

Come for one film or stay all day!

Programming
11 AM | Mighty Times: The Children’s March (40 min.)

The mostly unheard story of the youth of Birmingham, Alabama, who braved fire hoses police dogs and jail in 1963 to bring segregation to its knees.

This film is a part of our Film Field Trip Program. All children are welcome. (Sensitive images are used in the film).

Hall will lead those present in a discussion about Mighty Times: The Children’s March after the film. 

12:30 PM | The First Rainbow Coalition (55 min. Suitable for teens and adults.)

This film charts the history and legacy of a groundbreaking multi-ethnic coalition, “The Rainbow Coalition” that rocked Chicago in the 1960s. It sparks new dialogue about the 1960s, providing an unparalleled platform for contemporary discussions on race and class in an increasingly divided United States.

1:30-2:30 PM | Guided Discussion led by Film Facilitator Derek Hall

Hall will lead those present in a discussion about The First Rainbow Coalition 

2:30PM | Rustin (106 min. PG-13)

This 2023 biographical film tells the story of the charismatic, gay civil rights activist Bayard Rustin. Despite incredible odds, he managed to organize the March on Washington in 1963, one of the high points of the civil rights movement in the United States.

Art-Making Activities Throughout the Event!

There will be a table with art activities open throughout the event! Great for all ages – drop in at any time!

Lunch

Bagged lunch will be available for purchase or bring your own lunch! $5 donation recommended.

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, for profit and non-profit organizations both 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.

Thousands of students view these films in Real Art Ways’ Film Field Trip Program. 

CCH
Live music, art exhibitions, DJ. Come as you are.

Everybody is welcoming, conversations abound, people connect.

Come with friends, come by yourself, hangout. Creative Cocktail Hour is a great way to meet new people!

Music/DJ:
DJ Kasey Cortez

Kasey Cortez is a multidisciplinary artist currently working to merge her many realms of creative expression. She has delved into worlds of music, theatre, photography, design, fashion, & installation art. Her work across mediums is inspired by a deep fascination with collective trends/culture, the minutiae of human choice & the mundane passing of time. She’s also a yoga teacher of nearly 10 years, & DJing has become her new favorite form of expression!

A woman behind a DJ set table.

Tarot and Palm Readings from Adam Latin!

Limited Space available from 7-9pm.

Adam Latin is a tarot and palm reader who has been working professionally since 2001. He has read for tens of thousands of people since he started reading. He offers support in areas around personal empowerment, relationships, career, family communication, love, and trauma. He wants a deeper sense of victory and passion for his clients.

A headshot of Adam Latin.

Art Exhibitions

Exhibition opening from RJ LaRussa.

Langit Lupa (Heaven and Earth) by Bhen Alan

Unknown, Unknowns by Steven DiGiovanni

Tubular Times curated by Terri C. Smith 

Food Truck

Muncher’s International, authentic Jamaican cuisine.

Hands-on art activities led by Real Art Ways Staff
Improvisations Now

An experience of music imagined and created in real time. This series runs from September 2023-May 2024. Check out the full schedule here!

Febuary’s Performance:
Matthew Shipp – Piano

“Monumental.” – Chicago Tribune

“Shipp is the connection between the past, present and future for jazz heads of all ages.” – Downbeat

Matthew Shipp is a pianist, bandleader, and composer who creates an animated melodic tone by using a mix of traditional and free jazz. Shipp was raised in Wilmington, Delaware where he began playing piano at six years old. Shipp attended the University of Delaware for one year, then the New England Conservatory of Music. He has since gone on tour around the world and has created, recorded, and performed with numerous musicians while simultaneously improving his repertoire.

To Learn More About Matthew Shipp:

Facebook

Website

Jerome Deupree – Drums

Jerome Deupree is an American musician, based in Massachusetts. He is best known as the original drummer in the alternative rock band Morphine. Deupree started playing drums at the age of six, with the help of his two older brothers. Deupree has played frequently with jazz guitarist and Improvisations Now curator Joe Morris, performing at Real Art Ways several times in the past.

To learn more about Jerome Deupree:

Instagram

Facebook 

Website

Joe Morris – Guitar

“The preeminent free music guitarist of his generation.” – Downbeat Magazine

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

“The guitar revolutionary to pay attention to.” – The Boston Phoenix

Joe Morris 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. Joe Morris and Real Art Ways have a longstanding creative relationship. Joe has performed multiple times since the 1980’s and has organized concert series of improvisational music for several years.

To learn more about Joe Morris:

Facebook

Website

Improvisations Now

An experience of music imagined and created in real time. This series runs from September 2023-May 2024. Check out the full schedule here!

January’s Performance:
Mark Helias – Bass

Mark Helias is a renowned bassist and composer who has performed throughout the world for more than three decades. After his studies at Rutgers University (B.A. 1974) and The Yale School of Music (M.M. 1976), he began his international career in the Anthony Braxton Quartet. Up to the present time he has performed with a panoply of world class artists including: Edward Blackwell, Anthony Davis, Dewey Redman, Uri Caine, Marcel Khalife, Abbey Lincoln, Oliver Lake, Andrew Cyrille, Marilyn Crispell, Julius Hemphill, Don Byron, Bobby Bradford, Barry Altshul, Ray Anderson, Michael Moore, Don Cherry, Cecil Taylor, and Gerry Hemingway.

A prolific composer, Helias has written music for two feature films as well as chamber pieces and works for large ensemble and big band. His orchestra piece “Stochasm” was premiered by the American Composers Orchestra in June of 2011. He has produced many recordings for other artists including Ray Anderson, Tony Malaby, Bobby Previte, Jerome Harris, and Mark Dresser.

His trio, Open Loose with Tony Malaby and Tom Rainey, has become an archetypal improvising ensemble on the New York scene. He continues performing and recording with BassDrumBone, a four decade long collaboration with Gerry Hemingway and Ray Anderson. Mr. Helias performs solo bass concerts and can also be heard in the innovative bass duo, “The Marks Brothers”, with fellow bassist Mark Dresser. He teaches at Sarah Lawrence College, The New School University and SIM (School for Improvisational Music).

Anna Webber – Tenor Saxophone and Flute

“Visionary and captivating” – The Wall Street Journal 

“Music that appeals to the rest of the body” – NPR Jazz Critics Poll 

Anna Webber is a flutist, saxophonist, and composer whose interests and work live in the aesthetic overlap between avant-garde jazz and new classical music. In May 2021 she released Idiom, a double album featuring both a trio and a large ensemble, and a follow-up to her critically-acclaimed release Clockwise. Her 2020 release, Both Are True (Greenleaf Music), co-led with saxophonist/composer Angela Morris, was named a top ten best release of 2020 by The New York Times. She was recently named a 2021 Berlin Prize Fellow and was voted the top “Rising Star” flutist in the 2020 Downbeat Critic’s Poll.

Webber is a 2018 Guggenheim Fellow. She has additionally been awarded grants from the Copland Fund (2021 & 2019), the Shifting Foundation (2015), the New York Foundation for the Arts (2017), the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, and the Canada Council for the Arts and residencies from Exploring the Metropolis (2019), the MacDowell Colony (2017 & 2020), the Millay Colony for the Arts (2015), and the Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts (2014).

Originally from British Columbia, Webber studied music at McGill University in Montreal before moving to New York City in 2008. She holds master’s degrees from both Manhattan School of Music and the Jazz Institute Berlin.

Joe Morris – Guitar

Joe Morris is a composer/improviser multi-instrumentalist who plays guitar, double bass, mandolin, banjo, banjouke, electric bass and drums.

Morris has performed and/or recorded with many of the most important contemporary artists in improvised music including Braxton, Evan Parker, John Zorn, Ken Vandermark, Tomeka Reid, Fay Victor, Tim Berne, William Parker, Sylvie Courvoisier, Peter Evans, David S. Ware, Joe Maneri, Dewey Redman, Wadada Leo Smith, Leroy Jenkins, Lawrence D. “Butch” Morris, Marshall Allen, Barre Phillips, Barry Guy, Matthew Shipp, Gerald Cleaver, and many others. He has been curating Improvisations Now at Real Art Ways for many years.

To learn more about Joe Morris, please visit his website.

Creative Cocktail Hour

Creative Cocktail Hour (CCH) returns for December! on 12/21 from 6-10pm, enjoy live music from several local musicians, exhibitions and openings, hands-on art making activities, food and beverages, and community!

Live Music:

DJ Kasey Cortez: Kasey Cortez is a multidisciplinary artist currently working to merge her many realms of creative expression. She has delved into worlds of music, theatre, photography, design, fashion, & installation art. Her work across mediums is inspired by a deep fascination with collective trends/culture, the minutiae of human choice & the mundane passing of time. She’s also a yoga teacher of nearly 10 years, & DJing has become her new favorite form of expression!

DJ Kasey Cortez laying down in front of a plain background.

Exhibitions:

Exhibition Opening from Bhen Alan: 

Langit Lupa (Heaven and Earth) by Bhen Alan (Exhibition Opening): this exhibition spotlights the banig – a Filipino indigenous mat – to investigate the artist’s relationship with cultural objects, relocation, diaspora, and experiences as an immigrant. Bhen Alan is the recipient of a 2022 Real Art Award. On view through Sunday, January 28.

Opening Reception 6-8pm

A large art piece hanging on a wall.

Exhibition Opening from Steven DiGiovanni

In this exhibition, Steven DiGiovanni seeks to navigate in the liminal terrain between the disinterested aesthetics of forensic photography and the poetics of space and narrative. These paintings are based on pictures that Steven took in his Westville, New Haven neighborhood. Others are based on photos taken around Nagoya and Tokyo, Japan.

A painting of buildings interlaced by wires.

Opening Reception 6-8pm

sub-marine: jeweler of memory – Simon Benjamin 

Tubular Times – Curated by Terri C. Smith

Food Truck:

Nibbles N’ Noms: gourmet food truck!

Hands-on art making activities led by Real Art Ways staff!
Holiday Parranda: Papo Vázquez and the Mighty Pirates Troubadours
Real Art Ways welcomes back trombonist, composer and arranger Papo Vázquez for an annual concert and holiday parranda. Bring an instrument to receive free admission!

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 (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.

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, Vocals, Leader
Raul Rios – Vocals, Trumpet Ivan Renta, Tenor Saxophone
Rick Germanson, Piano
Ariel Robles, Bass
Alvester C Garnett – Drums
Carlos Maldonado – Percussion, Vocals
Reinaldo Dejesus – Percussion, Vocals

Papo Vázquez
Trombonist, composer, arranger has 40+ years of career spanning Jazz, Latin and Afro Caribbean music. National Endowment for the Arts Master Artist, Grammy Nominee. 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

Vázquez 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 at his website.

Improvisations Now

An experience of music imagined and created in real time. This series runs from September 2023-May 2024.

December’s Performance:
Reggie Nicholson – Drums

Reggie Nicholson is one of the most distinctive, inventive and inspirational drummer/percussionist of his generation. Nicholson first gained a reputation as a drummer and percussionist in his hometown of Chicago. During his early days before moving to NYC, Nicholson worked around Chicago with many great musicians, and performed regularly at the famous organ club, The Other Place.

Nicholson has performed and recorded with a wide variety of jazz and new music luminaries such as Jon Logan, Larry Frazier, Mendai, Vince Willis, Phil Cohran, Muhal Richard Abrams, Amina Claudine Myers, Henry Threadgill, Ernest Dawkins, Leroy Jenkins, Edward Wilkerson, Hanah Jon Taylor, Anthony Braxton, Sam Newsome, Myra Melford, Wilber Morris, Elektra Kurtis, Billy Bang, Butch Morris, Yuko Fujiyama, Oliver Lake, Fay Victor, Roy Campbell, just to name a few.

As a composer, he was nominated twice for the Cal Arts Composition Award in 1993/1994. Concerts of his compositions have been presented at Roulette, Interpretations, Jazz Shares, Firehouse 12, Constellations, Vision Festival, and AACM concert series. Nicholson has also toured throughout USA, Europe, and Japan.

For more information, please visit their website.

A man playing the drums.

Ray Anderson – Trombone

Ray Anderson is an American jazz trombonist based in New York. He started playing trombone when he was eight, and moved to New York City in 1972. Trained by the Chicago Symphony trombonists, he is regarded as someone who pushes the limits of the instrument, including performing on alto trombone and slide trumpet. He is a colleague of trombonist George E. Lewis. Anderson also plays sousaphone and sings.[2] He was frequently chosen in DownBeat magazine’s Critics Poll as best trombonist throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s. He picked up a wide variety of musical experience, played in the booming loft scene and spent important periods with Barry Altschul’s trio and Anthony Braxtons’ quartet. These bands have included the wild funk unit Slickaphonics and a trio with bassist Mark Helias and drummer Gerry Hemingway called BassDrumBone. Now Anderson can be heard leading his quartet (piano or guitar, upright bass and drums), his Wishbone Ensemble (which adds percussion and violin to the quartet), his Alligatory Band (electric bass and guitar, drums, percussion and trumpet) his Bonified Big Band (classic big band instrumentation) and Ray’s latest incarnation, The Pocket Brass Band featuring Jack Walrath on Trumpet, Bob Stewart on Tuba and Charli Persip on Drums. Ray is also a member of Slideride, a four trombone cooperative featuring Craig Harris, George Lewis and Gary Valente.

A man playing the trombone.

Joe Morris – Bass

Joe Morris is a composer/improviser multi-instrumentalist who plays guitar, double bass, mandolin, banjo, banjouke, electric bass and drums.

Morris has performed and/or recorded with many of the most important contemporary artists in improvised music including Braxton, Evan Parker, John Zorn, Ken Vandermark, Tomeka Reid, Fay Victor, Tim Berne, William Parker, Sylvie Courvoisier, Peter Evans, David S. Ware, Joe Maneri, Dewey Redman, Wadada Leo Smith, Leroy Jenkins, Lawrence D. “Butch” Morris, Marshall Allen, Barre Phillips, Barry Guy, Matthew Shipp, Gerald Cleaver, and many others. He has been curating Improvisations Now at Real Art Ways for many years.

To learn more about Joe Morris, please visit his website.

A man playing the bass.

Riverwood Poetry Series

The Series takes place in-person on the second Wednesday of the month. An open mic will precede the featured reader—one poem, one page please.

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

Free of charge. Ample parking available.

Luisa Caycedo-Kimura

Luisa Caycedo-Kimura is a Colombian-born writer, translator, and educator. Her honors include a CT Office of the Arts Emerging Recognition Award, a John K. Walsh Residency Fellowship at the Anderson Center, an Adrienne Reiner Hochstadt Fellowship at Ragdale, and a Robert Pinsky Global Fellowship in Poetry. A three-time Pushcart Prize nominee and Best of the Net nominee, her poems appear or are forthcoming in The Cincinatti Review, Shenandoah, Rattle, Mid-American Review, RHINO, Diode, Tupelo Quarterly, Nashville Review, The Night Heron Barks, On the Seawall, Sunken Garden Poetry 1992-2011, and elsewhere.

A headshot of a woman smiling into the camera.

Nadia Sims

Nadia Sims is a Manchester based poet spreading her message of grace across Connecticut, New York, and Massachusetts. The Princeton graduate is the proud author of A Soft Place to Land and We Know The Dark. Her spoken word album, The Weight of Grace, is available everywhere.

A headshot of a woman standing in front of a yellow back drop.

 

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.” 

The Silent Book Club
The Silent Book Club: The Introverts Happy Hour at Real Art Ways

Good news, book lovers! The Presidents’ College and Alumni Engagement at the University of Hartford are bringing you the Silent Book Club at Real Art Ways. Bring a favorite book!

Thirty minutes to mingle, an hour to read quietly (maybe near a work of art that pleases you), and a final half-hour to chat with other lovers of the written word – or explore the galleries or duck into a late evening film at the venue’s cinema. Co-sponsored by the River Bend Bookshop (book-hunters, their book truck awaits!). Popcorn and drinks for purchase at the concession stand. Admission includes a $5 River Bend Bookshop gift card, plus hors d’oeuvres!

Click here to register!
Creative Cocktail Hour: Reunion
Every November, Creative Cocktail Hour celebrates another year at Real Art Ways. We invite you to come see old friends and make new ones, while enjoying everything that Real Art Ways has to offer.
Live music, art exhibitions, DJ. Come as you are.

Everybody is welcoming, conversations abound, people connect.

Come with friends, come by yourself, hangout. Creative Cocktail Hour is a great way to meet new people!

Live Music: Nigel Bello Group & DJ Mr. Realistic

Nigel Bello, a 16 year old junior at East Hartford High School, is a trombonist out of Hartford. Being exposed to the trombone at the age of 6, he has shared the stage with musicians such as Nat Reeves, Gary Bartz, Steve Davis, etc.

Nigel has been playing for 10 years and has studied with Steve Davis, Dr. Emmett Goods, and Hommy Ramos just to name a few. He has attended numerous music camps such as Litchfield Jazz Camp, Newport Jazz Camp, and New England Music Camp all with scholarships provided. This July, he is flying to France with the New Jersey Youth Symphony’s Jazz Orchestra as their 2nd chair trombone.

His band includes:

Nigel Bello: Trombone

Alex Pastrana: Piano

Matt Dwonszyk: Bass

Fernando Garcia: Drums

Nelson Bello: Percussion

A man in a pink suite standing next to a statue of a lion.

Immersive Art Exhibitions

sub-marine: Jeweler of Memory by Simon Benjamin

Ayiti, I Saw It In A Dream by Steven Baboun 

El Disco Es Cultura by Adrian Martinez Chavez 

Tubular Times

Food Truck:

Mama Nena, serving fresh, hand made tapas from across Spain.

Hands-on art making activities led by RAW staff!
Improvisations Now

An experience of music imagined and created in real time. This series runs from September 2023-May 2024.

November’s Performance
Ikue Mori – Electronics

Ikue Mori (b. 1953) is an electronic musician expanding the range of sonic and technical possibilities for experimental and improvisational music. She creates rhythmic and ambient soundscapes using digital processing techniques, a laptop computer, and repurposed elements of electronic drumming equipment. She is known for transforming the use of percussion in improvised music and has inspired generations of electronic musicians.

She has collaborated with numerous musicians in diverse genres and styles throughout the US, Europe, and Asia, while continuing to produce and record her own compositions. Ikue Mori was recently received a MacArthur Genius Grant in 2022 for transforming the use of percussion in improvisation and expanding the boundaries of machine-based music.

For more information, please visit her website.

Nate Wooley – Trumpet

Nate Wooley (b.1974) was born in Clatskanie, Oregon and began playing trumpet professionally with his father, a big band saxophonist, at the age of 13. He made his debut as soloist with the New York Philharmonic at the opening series of their 2019 season. Considered one of the leading lights of the American movement to redefine the physical boundaries of the horn, Wooley has been gathering international acclaim for his idiosyncratic trumpet language.

Wooley moved to New York in 2001 and has since become one of the most in-demand trumpet players in the burgeoning Brooklyn jazz, improv, noise, and new music scenes. He has performed regularly with John Zorn, Anthony Braxton, Eliane Radigue, Annea Lockwood, Ken Vandermark, Evan Parker, and Yoshi Wada. He has premiered works for trumpet by Christian Wolff, Michael Pisaro, Annea Lockwood, Ash Fure, Wadada Leo Smith, Sarah Hennies and Eva-Maria Houben.

Click here for his full bio.

Joe Morris – Percussion

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).

For more information, please visit their website.