Improvisations Now – Sunday, Dec. 11 2:30 at Real Art Ways

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Improvisations Now – Sunday, Dec. 11 2:30

 

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

Check out the entire series here.

Angelica Sanchez – Piano

“In her piano playing as well as her compositions, Angelica Sanchez seeks out the lyrical heartbeat within any avant-garde storm…” – The New York Times 

“Sanchez’s provocative writing – full of evocative harmonies and open-ended forms showcases her flair for counterpoint and marks her as a formidable talent…” – JazzTimes Magazine

Pianist/Composer/Educator Angelica Sanchez moved to New York from Arizona in 1994. Sanchez leads numerous groups, the most recent being her Nonet which features Chris Speed, Michael Attias, Thomas Heberer, Kenny Warren, Ben Goldberg, John Hebert, Omar Tamez, and Sam Ospavot.

Her music has been recognized in national and international publications including Jazz Times, The New York Times, Chicago Tribune amongst others. She was also the 2008 recipient of a French/American Chamber Music America grant, the 2011 Rockefeller Brothers Pocantico artist residency and the 2021 Civitella Fellowship, Italy.

Sanchez’s debut solo CD “A Little House” was featured on NPR’s Weekend Edition and her recording “Wires & Moss” featuring her Quintet was chosen as one of best Releases of 2012 in “The New York City Jazz Record (formerly AllAboutJazz-New York).”  Her recording “Twine Forest” a duo with Wadada Leo Smith received Honorable Mention as one of the best releases of 2013 in “The New York City Jazz Record.” Her latest trio project “Float The Edge” features Michael Formanek and Tyshawn Sorey and has garnered wide critical acclaim.  Her new piano duo”How to Turn the Moon,” with Marilyn Crispell was voted as one of the top 50 best recordings in 2020, NPR critics poll.

Angelica Sanchez has a Masters Degree in Arranging from William Paterson University. She is currently on faculty at The New School of Jazz and Contemporary Music and Princeton University.

A woman playing the piano.

Hery Paz – Tenor, Soprano Saxophones, Clarinet

“Paz’s melodic lines are made with art, his lyricism does not fit anything you anticipate listening to, having the ability to surprise.” – Jazz Trail 

“Excellent…Interesting…Paz’s playing is rich in varied stylistic elements and endowed with a truly remarkable expressiveness.” – All About Jazz

“Hery is an excellent jazz saxophonist and a great example of crossing over artistic borders. His work inspires on several levels: imagination, discipline, intriguing and full of energy…in other words, pure beauty.” – Dave Liebman, American Saxophonist

Hery Paz is a saxophonist and visual artist from Cuba. He has won the acclaim and respect of legendary jazz musicians such as Fred Hersch. Who called him “… a revelation, a musician of extraordinary strength”. At the heart of his artistic vision we find a resolute dedication to expand  his cultural philosophy, crystalizing an amalgam of expressions between improvisation, visual arts and contemporary composition. His solos are imbued with a depth of purpose, a sense of patience and a willingness to venture into the unknown.

Paz is an integral element of the creative music scene in New York City where he has worked with artists such as, Fred Hersch, Dave Liebman, Thomas Morgan, George Garzone, Francisco Mela, Kris Davis, Ralph Alessi, Ethan Iverson, Miguel Zenón, Tom Rainey, Gerald Cleaver and Joe Morris… As a painter Hery is a published cover artist for IRAZÚ RECORDS, RED PIANO RECORD and PYROCLASTIC RECORDS (Kris Davis/Craig Taborn “Octopus”). In addition he was the commissioned artist for the 4th Season of the prestigious NEWVELLE RECORDS label, involving artist like Tim Berne, Dave Liebman, Hank Roberts, Kenny Werner and Bill Frisell.

EDUCATION: MA degree from the New England Conservatory (Boston) and active professor for the New England Conservatory Jazz Lab and the University of Maine Jazz Camp in Farmington.

A man on stage playing saxophone.

Juan Pablo Carletti – Drums

“A tuneful drummer…Carletti creates a strong platform and the next entry in his discography should be eagerly awaited.” – All About Jazz

“Strongly melodic, near minimalist.” – New York Jazz City Records 

Juan Pablo Carletti was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He grew up in a musical environment in which his father played percussion, and was instantly drawn to the drums. As he performed with a variety of bands, he focused mainly on improvised music and playing mainstream jazz. He began working with his own projects, and created a small label dedicated to new music. In 2005, Juan traveled to New York City and played with the David Haney Group at Cornelia Street Cafe. This trip was a pivotal turning point in his life, as he met influential musicians such as Mat Maneri, Tony Malaby, Mark Helias, Nasheet Waits and Tom Rainey.

One year later, he officially moved to America to continue his musical journey. Juan approaches playing in unique ways, influenced by different styles of music, especially the music created in the avant-garde scene in New York City in the last decades. Using mallets, hands, different sticks and extended techniques on drums, Juan illustrates how drums can be a rhythmic instrument as well as a palette of sounds. His teaching experiences have played a key role in transforming his rhythmic visions. Juan played with Tony Malaby, Andrew Cyrille, Daniel Levin, Mat Maneri, Chris Hoffman, Angelica Sanchez, Kris Davis, Michael Attias ,Rob Brown, Roman Filiu, Roman Diaz, Aruan Ortiz and William Parker. He is part of the Rob Brown Quartet  (record to be released) Duo with Daniel Levin, their debut record its on Out Now Records  (January 2015).

A man playing the drums.

Kenneth Jimenez – Bass

“Jimenez has a compelling artistic vision.” – All About Jazz

Originally from Costa Rica, Kenneth Jimenez is a bass player and composer currently based in New York City. He’s performed with artists Francisco Mela, Michael Attias, Tom Rainey, Satoshi Takeishi, Angelica Sanchez, Gerald Cleaver, Ingrid Laubrock, Stephen Scott, Brian Lynch, Gary Campbell, Roxana Amed, Martin Bejerano, Jose Luis de la Paz and Emilio Solla. He was a part of the 2017 Betty Carter Jazz Ahead Program at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, under the direction of renowned pianist Jason Moran. He has performed at important venues nationally and internationally. Some of those include the Millenium Stage at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, The Jazz Gallery, Bar Lunatico, Bar Next Door and Barbes in New York City, the Olympia Theater in Miami and the National Theatre in San Jose, Costa Rica, among others.

Currently he leads two projects, “Sonnet to Silence” feat. Hery Paz, Angelica Sanchez & Gerald Cleaver, and “Sublunary Minds” feat Jim Gasior & John Yarling. The latter released its debut album in 2019, under the avant-garde independent record label Irazu Records.

He co-leads “Triangulate the landscape”, a trio project comprised of drummer Francisco Mela, guitarist Drew Wesely and Kenneth on bass. Their debut album is scheduled to be released in Spring 2020. He also has two more releases scheduled for the second half of 2020; a duo project with Finnish singer Josefiina Vannesluoma and a collaborative trio project with saxophonist Hery Paz and drummer Rodolfo Zuniga.

A man in glasses and long hair playing the cello.

Joe Morris – Guitar

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

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

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

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

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

A man with gray hair playing the electric guitar.

Eastern White Pine: The Tree Rooted in American History

 

Eastern White Pine: The Tree Rooted in American History, a New England Forests documentary film, will be presented at Real Art Ways on Saturday, December 10th, 2022

Four hundred years ago, the first English Colonies were established in what would be known as New England and Virginia. What prompted this to occur?

The one-hour documentary uses vintage images, new footage, and aerial views to the four-century story of the eastern white pine’s critical contribution to America’s founding and history. You may be surprised to learn how significant a role the tree played in this country’s formation. The white pine’s importance to wildlife and people is related to three experts in their respective fields: famed Minnesota bear biologist Lynn Rogers; Trinity College neuroscientist Professor Susan Masino; and nationally known old-growth forest expert Bob Leverett.

This will be a multi-sensory program, where attendees will experience white pines via their senses of light, smell, and even taste!

Program details:

1:00pm: Enjoy a walk that includes large pine trees in Hartford. Meet at the parking lot accessed from 457 Tower Ave Hartford.

2:30pm: Real Art Ways will host a multisensory reception with pine-influenced snacks, pine needle tea, eastern white pine oil diffuser and pine trees.

3:00pm: Film showing in the theater with the filmmaker.

4:00pm: Post-film Q&A and continued reception.

**Inclement weather cancels the walk, the film and reception will still be held as scheduled.

Free admission provided by the Connecticut Valley Garden Club.

Reception sponsored by Trinity College.

Trinity College logo

Garden club logo

Creative Cocktail Hour: Reunion
Join us for the 20th anniversary of Creative Cocktail Hour on November 17, 2022 6-10pm.

Celebrating 20 years of community and expression!

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

Music:

QWANQWA is a supergroup of musicians from the baddest ensembles of Addis Ababa. Brought together by a shared passion for the power of Ethiopian music, this group shines an experimentalism based in the virtuosity of rooted traditions. With swirling masinko (one-stringed fiddle), wah-wah-violin, bass krar boom, and the unstoppable rhythm of heavy kebero (goat-skin drum) beats, powerful traditional lead African diva vocals, QWANQWA keeps the people wrapped in celebratory attention. After making a splash at world renowned festivals Roskilde and WOMEX, and after 3 European tours under their belt, this world traveling ensemble is hitting the road for a MacArthur Foundation backed Debut US tour in 2022.

QWANQWA draws inspiration from East Africa regions of Ethiopia and beyond. Delving deep into regional beats and moods, the repertoire ranges from a trance-like song of the Eritrean tribe of Blen to a Somalian rock number to Mahmoud Ahmed sing-a-longs. The music is characterized by tight arrangements and extended experimental moments. The live show ranges from intimate to wild, from whispery conversations to full blown rock show, and it is hard to believe these psychedelic sounds are coming from traditional harp and violin. It is driving, powerful, and different than anything else coming out of Ethiopia at this current Golden Age of Ethiopian music.

To learn more about QWANQWA, click here.

A group of people standing in front of a yellow wall.

DJ Mr. Realistic

A man behind the DJ booth.

Art Exhibitions from:

Howard el-Yasin

Joe Bun Keo

Rashmi Talpade

Danny Giles

 

Food Truck

Hands-on Art Making Activities

& You!

Buy your tickets online!
Artist Talk: Joe Bun Keo
Wednesday, October 26, 6:00 PM. Free admission, no RSVP required.

You’re invited to a conversation between artist Joe Bun Keo and Khmer artist-scholar Sokunthary Svay. Bun Keo will discuss the process behind bitter melons / bitter pillsan exhibition that focuses on sentimental, cultural and utilitarian values within the discussion of materiality and identity. Joe Bun Keo is one of six recipients of the 2021 Real Art Awards, which supports emerging artists in New England, New York, and New Jersey.

 

Joe Bun Keo (b. 1987) is a Khmer (Cambodian) – American artist living and working in Connecticut. His work “unpacks intergenerational trauma through the scope of ‘neomaterialism’ and the concept of ‘power objects.’”

 

Sokunthary Svay was born in a refugee camp inThailand shortly after her parents fled Cambodia after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime. They were sponsored to come to the United States and resettled in the Bronx where she grew up. A founding member of the Cambodian American Literary Arts Association (CALAA), she has received fellowships from the American Opera Project, Poets House, Willow Books, and CUNY, as well as commissions from Washington National Opera, the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, the Chautauqua Institution, and ISSUE Project Room. In addition to publishing a poetry collection, Apsara in New York (Willow Books, 2017), Svay has had her writing anthologized and performed by actors and singers. Svay’s first opera, Woman of Letters, set by composer Liliya Ugay, received its world premiere at the Kennedy Center in January 2020 as part of the American Opera Initiative. A recent recipient of the OPERA America IDEA grant, her second opera with Ugay, Chhlong Tonle, received its premiere in March 2022. She is a Ph.D. candidate in English at the CUNY Graduate Center and a Lecturer at CCNY.

Riverwood Poetry Series

 

 

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

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

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

James Finnegan

James Finnegan, past Poet Laureate of West Hartford, has published poems in Ploughshares, Poetry Northwest, The Southern Review, The Virginia Quarterly Review, as well as in the anthologies: Good Poems: American Places edited by Garrison Keillor; Laureates of Connecticut; Shadows of Unfinished Things; Imagining Vesalius; Waking Up to the Earth; and Walkers in the City. For a decade he served as president of the Friends & Enemies of Wallace Stevens (stevenspoetry.org). He posts aphoristic ars poetica on the blog ursprache

A man standing in front of a tree.

Joan Kwon Glass

Joan Kwon Glass is the mixed-race, Korean American author of NIGHT SWIM (Diode Editions, 2022) & three chapbooks. She serves as Editor-in-Chief for Harbor Review, as a Brooklyn Poets Mentor, is a proud Smith College graduate & has been a public school educator for 20 years. Joan serves on the faculty of Hudson Valley Writers Center & the Fine Arts Work Center of Provincetown, her work has won or been finalist for several prizes & her poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize & Sundress Anthology Best of the Net. Joan’s poems have been published or are forthcoming in Hayden’s Ferry Review, Prairie Schooner, Asian American Writer’s Workshop (The Margins), RHINO, Rattle, Dialogist & elsewhere. She lives in Connecticut with her family.

Visit her website here.

Follow her on twitter here.

A woman standing in front of a bookcase.

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 – Sunday, Nov. 13

 

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

Check out the entire series here.

Matthew Shipp – Piano

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

Matthew Shipp (b. 1960) is an American pianist, composer, and bandleader. Shipp was raised in Wilmington, Delaware, and began playing piano at six years old.

Shipp was a longtime member of saxophonist David S. Ware’s quartet with bassist William Parker and alternating drummers. He has recorded or performed with many other musicians including Barbara Januszkiewicz who, since 2011, has been exploring new territory through an avant-garde film called The Composer with Matthew Shipp / Barb Januszkiewicz. He has also collaborated with Michael Bisio and Newman Taylor Baker in The Matthew Shipp Trio, described as, “A must for free-jazz fans.” by MarlBank.net.

On September 24, 2013, Thirsty Ear Records released a solo piano CD by Shipp called Piano Sutras. Will Layman, writing for PopMatters, described it as: “the kind of record we talk about and play for each other decades later… This is music that frames up a whole history: of an artist, of listeners, of the artists who formed the history of the art form, of the culture and time that allowed this art to flourish.”

Shipp attended the University of Delaware for one year, then the New England Conservatory of Music, where he studied with saxophonist/composer Joe Maneri. He has cited private lessons with Dennis Sandole (who also taught saxophonist John Coltrane) as being crucial to his development.

Anna Webber – Tenor Saxophone

“Visionary and captivating” – The Wall Street Journal 

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

Anna Webber (b. 1984) 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 – Bass

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

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

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

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

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

 

Really Wild Wednesdays: Eager Ecological Engineers

 

 

On November 30, 2022, Real Art Ways will screen “Beaver Pond Wildlife: Part 5 – Fall to Winter”, the final segment of the Really Wild Wednesdays: Eager Ecological Engineers program, which begins at 7pm. Admission is free.

The 5-part documentary film chronicles wild animal and plant life above and below water at typical northeast beaver ponds over a year’s time span. 

In Part 5, we’ll see the dramatic change of colors from summer greens to autumn’s fiery reds and glowing golds, as the bounty of summer quickly wanes. All wildlife is now focused on the priority of surviving the coming winter. Some have migrated to warmer climes, or soon will be. Some are preparing to hibernate. Others are stockpiling as much food as they can to ensure they’ll have enough to get by until spring.

As always, there will be a Q&A session following the film.

Each evening will be hosted by filmmaker Ray Asselin and feature a reception from 6:30-7pm in the gallery and a short Q & A after the film. The film screening will start at 7pm. Donations are graciously accepted.

Thank you to Professor Susan A. Masino of Trinity College for organizing this series, which is part of the Frederick Law Olmsted 200th birthday celebration. 

Space is limited. Registration is strongly encouraged.

poster of a beaver looking cute and sizing up some future meal

Really Wild Wednesdays: Eager Ecological Engineers

 

The fourth film of a 5-part docuseries throughout 2022 on Beaver pond wildlife in Connecticut and Massachusetts. The Eager Ecological Engineers – the Beavers – have many friends and neighbors above and below water. Beaver ponds have something new and exciting happening all year, and the showings are scheduled to provide a front row seat for each season in the pond.

Each evening will be hosted by filmmaker Ray Asselin and feature a reception from 6:30-7pm in the gallery and a short Q & A after the film. The film screening will start at 7pm. Donations are graciously accepted.

Space is limited. Registration is strongly encouraged.

poster of a beaver looking cute and sizing up some future meal

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

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

Music:

Tipa Tipo (NYC/Lima) is a retro pop trio that fuses the spirit of 70s soft rock with latin rhythms and a modern analog production style. Their debut EP “El Chari” (with the single Voy Por Ella) is an homage to the electric pianos and lush arrangements of California yacht rock, but reimagined with Spanish lyrics and a feminist sensibility. The band is a wife-and husband collaboration between producers Adele Fournet (vocals, keys) and Felipe Wurst (vocals, guitars) who first met in 2010 in the Limeñan indie pop scene. They play live as a trio with Jordan Auber on drums, and the contagious disco energy of their live show has earned them a 2022 Wavy Award nomination for Best Live Performance. Their latest EP, “2 Al Azar,” came out in May and they are currently recording their first full-length album. Since their debut in 2021, Tipa Tipo has drawn attention from music journalists in Peru (Rock Achorao, Conciertos Perú) and Mexico (Milenio, Playlist Magazine, Reforma, IndieRocks!), and their songs have been featured on official Spotify playlists including Canción del Día, Dreamy, and Novedades Indie, as well as NPR’s Best New Latinx. They have played live in NYC at Elsewhere, The Sultan Room, Mercury Lounge, C’Mon Everybody, Trans Pecos and more.

To learn more about Tipa Tipo, click here.

A man and a woman standing on a rooftop playing the keyboard and guitar.

Art Exhibitions

Food Truck: East West Grille 

Hands-on Art Making Activities

& You!

Creative Cocktail Hour is about community and expression.

Buy your tickets online and skip the line at the door!
Riverwood Poetry Series

 

 

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

The authors’ 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 at Real Art Ways. Audience mask wearing is encouraged, but not required.

Edwina Trentham

Edwina Trentham was born and grew up in Bermuda. She is a Professor of Emerita of English at Asnuntuck Community College in Enfield, Connecticut, where she founded the poetry journal, Freshwater. She was also a Visiting Instructor in the Graduate Liberal Studies Program at Wesleyan University. She has been a fellow at Yaddo and has published her work in a number of periodicals, including the American Scholar, Nimrod, and Prairie Schooner. She also has work in six anthologies. A collection of her poetry, Stumbling into the Light, was published by Antrim House. She is a member of Connecticut River Poets and Poets for the Planet.

Visit her website here.

A woman speaking at a microphone.

Michael “Chief” Peterson

Michael “Chief” Peterson marries social consciousness with mellow poetic verses. Born and raised in Connecticut, Chief not only speaks about social inequities and individual struggle, but he acts to change the cycle. He is currently a Dean of Students at his alma mater, New Britain High School, and is also a part-time Child Development Specialist.

Chief is the playwright of and actor in his own one-man show, I Wish Life Had Training Wheels. He is Poet Laureate of his hometown, New Britain, and was recently voted into his second term. He finished in 5th place during the National Poetry Slam and is currently among the top 5 ranked poets in the Southern Fried National Poetry Slam.

From the high school where he works to the stages where he performs, this poet on the rise is about turning his art into action and inspiring people to do the same.

Visit his website here.

Picture of a man wearing a hat.

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.” 

September Creative Cocktail Hour
Live music, art exhibitions, DJ, and you. Come as you are.

A monthly gathering of people young and old, city, suburb and country, black, white, brown, gay, straight, trans, polkadotted and spotted.

Everybody is welcome, conversations abound, people connect.

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

Music:

Thabisa: Thabisa is a bi-continental rising star, a South African native now residing in New Haven, CT. She is a dynamic singer/songwriter and performer. Her raspy and powerful voice with her dynamic band of musicians pull together sounds that seamlessly string together influences from the likes of Angelique Kidjo, Miriam Makeba, Eryka Badu, Janis Joplin, as well as her unique approach to storytelling. Thabisa’s charismatic, warm and emotionally intelligent performances give you an entire experience. Her upcoming EP Petrichor, will lead to her 3rd album which will feature a cross between soul, jazz and African traditional folk as a way to tell stories of her becoming. When not on the stage, this songstress is busy working on projects aimed at community enrichment. Thabisa is also theFounder of nonprofit Rich Arts Collective that aims to build bridges through cultural experiences & human connection using music, art, and performances.

Thabisa Headshot

The Dance Collective: The Dance Collective aims to empower women to have a voice and an equal opportunity in dance by providing choreographic and leadership opportunities. By sharing professional contemporary dance with new audiences and providing performances in diverse locations, they work to bridge the gap between the arts and our community. Their studio space in Hartford, CT provides creatives with a home to hone in on their movement vocabulary and we hold the belief that everyone can dance and everyone should.

Dancers posing in a park.

DJ Mr. Realistic

Art Exhibitions – Two Exhibition Openings, Four Exhibitions Total

Food Truck: La Güera Mexican Grill & Pizza

Hands-on Art Making Activities

& You!

Creative Cocktail Hour is about community and expression.

Buy your tickets online and skip the line at the door!
Terry Jenoure & The Portal

 

 

On Sunday, October 30 at 2:30, Terry Jenoure & The Portal will perform at Real Art Ways!

“Jenoure is a force to be reckoned with.” – The Springfield Inquirer, Massachusetts 

“She’s clearly a talent deserving more attention.”- The Hartford Courant

“Touches of chamber jazz, lively gypsy dances and earthy call-and-response…sung expressively by violinist Terry Jenoure.” – The Washington Post 

Terry Jenoure composer, violinist & vocalist was born in the Bronx to a Puerto Rican and Jamaican family. She began playing violin at age 8. After 12 years of Classical European studies, she became a protégé of the Free Jazz movement. For over 40 years, she and has since collaborated with such greats as Archie Shepp, Leroy Jenkins, Marion Brown, John Carter, Lawrence “Butch” Morris, Andrew Cyrille, Henry Threadgill among many others. She studied voice with famed Edward Boatner (Sonny Stitt’s father), who also coached Josephine Baker and Dinah Washington. Her music has been recognized by Downbeat, The New York Times, Jazz Times, and has earned grants for composition and performance, including most recently from Massachusetts Cultural Council (2021), South Arts Jazz Road (2021) and NEFA (2022). Terry has masters and doctoral degrees in Education. She served as a university professor and arts manager for over 30 years.

Terry has assembled a sextet of longtime collaborators. The world-class lineup boasts impressive careers in genres across traditional jazz, free improvisation, and classical chamber music including Angelica Sanchez (piano), Wayne Smith (cello), Avery Sharpe (bass), Joe Fonda (bass), and Reggie Nicholson (drums). Over the past ten years, Jenoure’s performances have had a fascinating memoir focus. Merging story with innovation, in her new composition for Real Art Ways she continues the journey.

A woman holding up a violin.

 

Angelica Sanchez moved to the east coast from Arizona. She has worked with Paul Motian, Richard Davis, Nicole Mitchell, Tim Berne, Wadada Leo Smith, Mario Pavone. Her solo CD A Little House was featured on NPR, while her recording Wires &  Moss was chosen one of the best releases of 2012. Her trio “Float The Edge” features Michael Formanek & Tyshawn Sorey. She has earned awards from Chamber Music America and Rockefeller Brothers, and she currently serves on the Board of Trustees for New Music USA. Sanchez has a master’s degree in Jazz Arranging, was a lecturer at Princeton University, and is currently on faculty at Bard College.

A woman sitting at and playing the piano.

Wayne Smith gave his recital debut at the Kennedy Center. As a soloist & chamber musician he has performed in the U.S., Italy, Germany, Romania, Hungary, Austria, Poland, & China, & has recorded & performed with the Moody Blues, Joe, Richard Smallwood, Anthony Krizan of the Spin Doctors, and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. He completed undergraduate studies at the Eastman School of Music & pursued graduate studies at the U. of Massachusetts. He serves on the faculty of Amherst College.

A man playing the cello.
Avery Sharpe began his Jazz career performing with Archie Shepp & Art Blakey, then in 1980 began 20 years with McCoy Tyner, appearing on over 20 Tyner recordings. He has worked with Dizzy Gillespie, Wynton Marsalis, Yusef Lateef, Bobby McFerrin, Pat Metheny, Billy Taylor among many others. In ‘89, he wrote the soundtrack for movie An Unremarkable Life, & has composed for the Springfield Symphony Orchestra. Stage production Raisin’ Cane with Jasmine Guy (“A Different World”) has toured since 2007 with his trio. He taught at Williams College, and has been the recipient of grants from NAACP, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New England Foundation for the Arts.

A man playing the cello.

Joe Fonda has worked with countless greats, including Lou Donaldson, Kenny Barron, Dave Douglas, Curtis Fuller, Bill Dixon, Randy Weston, Barry Altschul. He worked closely with Anthony Braxton from 1984 through ’99, and was a member of The Creative Musicians Improvisors Forum, directed by Leo Smith. Also a member of the American Tap Dance Orchestra, directed by tap dancer Brenda Bufalino, he has led ensembles and collaborated with others on international festivals in Holland, The Czech Republic, Belgium, Germany, Portugal, Norway, Romania and the U.S. A grant recipient of Meet the Composer and the New England Foundation on the Arts, Joe Fonda has twelve recordings under his own name.

A man with a hat playing an instrument.

Reggie Nicholson hails from Chicago where he joined the iconic Association for the Advancement of Creative Music (AACM) in 1979. In those early years he worked closely with Muhal Richard Abrams, Amina Claudine Myers, Anthony Braxton, Douglas Ewart, and Joseph Jarman. Since relocating to NYC in 1987, he has brought his high energy and thoughtful playing to performances with Ahmed Abdullah, Myra Melford, Billy Bang, Roy Campbell, Marty Ehrlich, Dewey Redman, Jon Hendricks, Amira Baraka, Fay Victor, Oliver Lake throughout Europe and Japan, and was nominated for a Cal-Arts Award.

A man playing the drums

 

This event was made possible with funding by the New England Foundation for the Arts' New Work New England program, with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Rescue Plan, Seedlings Foundation, the Fund for the Arts at NEFA and individual donors. This grant is in honor of Dr. Larry Simpson, a NEFA board member from 2O06-2020, including six years as chair, and a champion of the arts. NEFA logo 
August Creative Cocktail Hour
Live music, art exhibitions, DJ. Come as you are.

A monthly gathering of people young and old, city, suburb and country, black, white, brown, gay, straight, trans, polkadotted and spotted.

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:

Nikita 

Coming from a rich musical background of Soul, Funk, RnB, and Rock, Nikita brings a vibe that is both sexy and psychedelic with an original sound they’ve dubbed “Purple Soul.” Passionate, energetic, and funky, their roots ensure that the Nikita family tree is ready to grow.

5 men staring at the camera.

DJ Sonia Sol

Sonia Sol is a traveling performing artist, open format DJ, singer, and acrobatic dancer currently living / touring in Latin America as well as North America. Born & raised in Hartford, Sonia draws a lot of inspiration from her Jamaican roots incorporating island sounds throughout her show experience. Through her voice she uses an eclectic blend of Neo-Soul, Reggae, & R&B sounds. As an open format DJ she blends all sounds but loves House, Hip-Hop, Afrobeats, and more.

Headshot of DJ Sonia Sol wearing a bandana and sunglasses.

Art Exhibitions

Food Truck: Rolling Roti

Hands-on Art Making Activities

& You!

Creative Cocktail Hour is about community and expression.

Buy your tickets online and skip the line at the door!
Gallery Performance:
Lani Asunción
Saturday, August 6, 7:00 PM. Free admission, no RSVP required.

You’re invited to a gallery performance and panel talk as part of Lani Asunción’s exhibition, Duty-Free Paradise, curated by David Borawski. The multimedia exhibition plays on the tensions of lived and imagined island life focusing on Hawai’i. Through the lens of ecotourism, around which the islands’ economy heavily revolves, this work explores the contradictions between perceptions and realities of island life as a constructed paradise.

Asunción will perform in and throughout this work in the Main Gallery on Saturday, August 06, 2022, 7-8 PM, followed by a panel discussion 8-9 PM with artists Billie Lee and Joe Bun Keo.

Lani Asunción (they/she) is a multimedia artist creating socially engaged art in both private and public spaces, independently and collaboratively. Weaving together a visual language guided by historical research, community engagement, and experimental performance connected to their identity as a queer multiracial Filipinx-American, Asunción integrates new media technologies and transmedia storytelling. Through ritualized performance, they encourage conversations that magnify connections and facilitate healing in the face of cultural violence, oppression, and ancestral intergenerational trauma narratives.

Asunción has shown their video performance work in CONTACT ZONE (2018) at the Honolulu Museum of Art School presented by Pu’uhonua Society, and had solo exhibitions at the New Bedford Museum of Art (2016) and Radial Gallery (2020) with the Department of Art and Design at Dayton University. They have performed live at Studios at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Little Berlin in Philadelphia, PAO Arts Center in Boston, and Aurora Picture Show in Houston, TX. Most recently, Asunción is the recipient of the 2022-23 Kala Fellowship at Kala Arts Institute in Berkeley, CA and was selected as a 2022-25 Boston Center for the Arts Studio Residency. They are an awardee of the 2022 Public Art for Spatial Justice grant from the New England Foundation for the Arts for their socially engaged project Revolutionary AYAT, in addition to receiving the Live Arts Boston Grant (2020) from the Boston Foundation, City of Boston’s Transformative Public Art grant (2020), and Dame Joan Sutherland Fund from the Australian American Association (2017). They are founding member and Producing Artistic Director of the Boston based multimedia collective Digital Soup. They received their master’s degree in Fine Arts in performance and video from the University of Connecticut.

Click here to visit the artist’s website.

Image Credit: Taylor Blackley

Angee’s Journey Screening

“Angee’s Journey is a true testament to how art can heal, to an artist’s devotion, to preservation of one’s spirit, and to the power of a mother’s love.” – LA Dance Chronicle

Event Details:

Angee’s Journey: a documentary dance film and conversation around mass incarceration’s impact on our families and communities with Ernst Fenelon Jr., Angee Fenelon whose lives are centered in the film, choreographer/film director Suchi Branfman, Tracie Bernardi-Guzman (who spent 23 years inside York Correctional Facility) and her mother, Laura Bernardi.

Synopsis:

Angee’s Journey retraces a mother’s pathway to visit her son, every month, during his fourteen-year incarceration; three trains, two buses, two cabs, and twelve hours each way.

Film: 40 minutes, followed by a conversation with Angee, Ernst, and Suchi

Photos Courtesy of Dancing Through Prison Walls

Movie poster for Angee's Journey
Free Admission

In lieu of ticket entry, we encourage you to bring donations for reentry kits, supplied through Community Partners in Action’s Welcome Center and/or make a donation to Dancing Through Prison Walls to support their work dancing with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated movers. Donations can also be made here.

The Reentry Backpack Drive

The Reentry Backpack Drive provides a person returning home from prison with immediate basic needs. Core reentry backpacks can include backpack, toothpaste, face mask, hand sanitizer, toothbrush, deodorant, face cloth, towels, comb, brush, umbrella, shampoo and conditioner, make-up, and other personal hygiene products (only new items please.)

Extend a backpack by including bus passes, food gift cards, clothing vouchers, and, most important, a low-cost Smart Talk pre-paid smartphone and phone card with 2 months of unlimited minutes, allowing participants to stay connected to virtual services during the pandemic.

Hartford Brass Band Bonanza
Real Art Ways presents the first Hartford Brass Bonanza! Featuring The Hartford Hot Several, Fly By Brass Band, The Expandable Brass Band, Hartford Proud, and Papo Vazquez Mighty Pirates Troubadours.

This performance is free to the public with performances starting at 12:00pm. Support for this event comes from the Evelyn W. Preston Memorial Fund.

Food truck: No Pork on Dis Fork & La Gúera Food Truck

Bringing lawn chairs is strongly encouraged!

12pm: The Hartford Hot Several

We’re Hartford’s pep band. We show up whenever we want, wherever we want, to play some tunes to make you smile and dance! Hartford needed a funky marching band to bring brass, ruckus, and joy to all the parties. In 2012, we set out to be that band.

1pm: The Expandable Brass Band

Loud, raucous, and full of fun, the Expandable Brass Band is dedicated to spreading joyful music to the people of Western Massachusetts and beyond. Inspired by the international street band movement, we want to spread that joy of playing in the street both for the fun of it and in support of others working on important social issues, especially in our community. We strive to be up, moving, and interactive. We are completely self-organized, without a leadership hierarchy. Most of all, we are expandable, welcoming all and becoming what our members want us to be.

2pm: Hartford’s Proud Drill Drum and Dance Corp.

Hartford’s Proud Drill, Drum, and Dance Corp. Integrate sound, movement and artistry in the overall development of young and expose youth to bigger and greater opportunities so that they excel academically, socially, and artistically throughout life. Hartford’s Proud serves youth between the ages of 5 – 24 and strives to accomplish our mission by using the power of sound and rhythm to support youth in the development of physical and emotional skills that will aid them in conducting successful lives.

3pm: Fly By Brass Band

We are a 12 piece brass band out of the greater Boston Area who enjoys playing interesting and approachable music. Born of the local Honk scene, we focus on bringing live horn harmonies to the people. Our tastes are eclectic, performing everything from second-line inspired jazz to upbeat rock. The main theme is: “Does this make us feel good and would it delight others?”

4pm: Papo Vázquez & Mighty Pirates Top Brass

Papo Vázquez is a trombonist, composer, and arranger. He has 40+ years of career spanning Jazz, Latin and Afro Caribbean music. He is a national Endowment for the Arts Master Artist and Grammy Nominee for his group Mighty Pirates. Born in 1958 in Philadelphia, PA, although his young formative years were in Puerto Rico. By age 17, Vazquez headed to New York City, recorded and performed with top artists in the salsa music scene like The Fania All-Stars, Ray Barretto, Willie Colón, Eddie Palmieri, Larry Harlow, and Hector La Voe. Vázquez became a key player in NYC’s burgeoning Latin jazz scene of the late 1970’s.
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. The Mighty Pirates Orchestra continues to allow Vázquez the opportunity to blend multi-faceted compositions and trombone style with rhythms of Afro Caribbean origins and jazz.

Brass Band Bonanza Flyer

Creative Cocktail Hour, July 2022

 

A monthly gathering of people young and old, city, suburb and country, black, white, brown, gay, straight, trans, polkadotted and spotted.

two people looking fly at CCH

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!

This month, featuring:

Live music by Mames Babegenush

a group shot of an eclectic klezmer band

A Danish band fusing their Scandinavian roots with elements of jazz and klezmer traditions from eastern Europe. Andreas Møllerhøj on double bass, Lukas Rande on saxophone, Henrik Hansen on drums, Nicolai Kornerup on accordion, Bo Rande on flügelhorn and Emil Goldschmidt on clarinet.

DJ Mr. Realistic

DJ Mr Realistic spinning

Six art exhibitions:

an artist performing at their exhibition with pineapples

Lani Asunción: Tensions between eco-tourism, industrialization, and militarization in Hawai’i.

 

an art exhibition by Ben Spalding

Benjamin Spalding

 

a surrealist painting of a subject and her mirror image

Heather Heckel

a digital quilt of dance floors

Jesús Hilario-Reyes
Video installation that incorporates club and rave spaces at the center of queer communities.

an artwork on the floor, plugged into an outlet, and lit from the bottom

Deep Pool

an underrepresented boy standing in front of an American flag

Real Wall:
Traé Brooks
Mixed media works examining our collective past and uncertain future.

Art activities for all ages: collage making!

Full bar and ice cream!

Food truck: East-West Grill

Creative Cocktail Hour, Thu June 16
Live music, four art exhibitions, DJ. Let’s get groovy, baby. Come as you are.

two guys dancing together

A monthly gathering of people young and old, city, suburb and country, black, white, brown, gay, straight, trans, polkadotted and spotted.

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!

This month, featuring:

Live music by Pascuala Ilabaca y Fauna. Presented with support from the New England States Touring (NEST) Grant.

Pascuala Ilabaca y Fauna group shot

DJ Mr Realistic

DJ Mr Realistic spinning

 

5 Exhibitions:

University of Hartford Nomad MFA Class of 2022

NOMAD photo
Curated by Mary Mattingly and Neil Daigle Orians
Featuring:
Julie Chen
Kathryn Cooke
Arnethia Douglass
Aiyesha Ghani
Katie Grove
Monica Kapoor
Roberta Trentin
Mauricio Vargas

 

Steven Laschever

Steve Laschever Odd ball scenic design photo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Real Wall: Traé Brooks

Traé Brooks art

Deep Pool

a black and white photograph

Christine Sciulli’s installation in the main gallery, as part of And all things hushed

a light-art installation piece by Christine Sciulli

 

T-shirt Tie-Dying. In celebration of Pride Month, guests can tie-dye RAW logo t-shirts during CCH. Free admission to CCH with the purchase of a shirt! You can pre-order through the ticket link or in person at Real Art Ways.

tie-dye shirts hanging on a clothes rack outside

 

Rolling Roti Food Truck. Guyanese food.

 

 

Artist Talk: Merik Goma
Tuesday, May 17, 6:30 PM. Free admission, no RSVP required.

You’re invited to a conversation between artist Merik Goma and Moriah Peoples of The Amistad Center, hosted by Visual Arts Manager Cody Boyce. Goma will discuss his work and process behind Your Absence Is My Monument, a moving exhibition that speaks to the isolation and pain experienced during the pandemic. Goma is one of six recipients of the 2021 Real Art Awards, which supports emerging artists in New England, New York, and New Jersey.

“After the loss of a close friend and then my grandmother, I came face to face with a new understanding of absence in my life. Grappling over this concept and my internal dialogue, I wondered if there is ever room for absence to exist. And by invoking the presence of absence, does something else take its place? Looking at the climate of this moment, this idea resonates with how so many of us are without family, stability, and certainty on a massive scale. Reflecting on my narrative practice of set building and re-examining contemporary themes, it feels urgent to bring this work into a public space.”

Merik Goma is a New Haven-based photographer and recent graduate of the NXTHVN Studio Fellowship Program, an arts incubator founded by renowned artist Titus Kaphar. Goma builds intricate sets within his studio that he uses both as subjects of tableaux and as backdrops for narrative portrait photography. His technique is painterly in execution, with close attention paid to color and lighting. His work has been shown by Tilton Gallery, and is in the collection of Yale University. In 2021, Goma was selected as the Joyce C. Willis Artist in Residence by the Amistad Center for Arts & Culture at the Wadsworth Atheneum. As part of the residency, Goma will present a solo exhibition in 2023.

Visual Arts Manager Cody and artist Merik

Click here to visit the artist’s website.

Click here to learn more about the Real Art Awards.

And all things hushed

 

An Immersive Theatrical and Dance Experience

In The Sonnets to Orpheus, written 100 years ago, Rilke wrote, “And all things hushed. Yet even in that silence a new beginning, beckoning, change appeared.”

Hartford-area-based choreographer Peter Kyle has conceived a theatrical, poetic and musical journey for audience members to travel through. Part 1 invites audiences to take their own journey through a series of connected hallways and rooms on the “other side” of Real Art Ways’ newly purchased building. In each space, guests will be immersed in a different environmental, sensory-rich experience incorporating references to Rilke’s poetic imagery. In Part 2 audiences convene in the Main Gallery at Real Art Ways for a culminating sit-down performance. Designed as a monument to listening, the work draws on the intersection of personal and shared memory, kinetic experience of quotidian gesture and rarified physicality, all inspired by Rilke’s cycle of sonnets, including his line, “you built a temple deep inside their hearing.”

The project showcases an intergenerational cast ranging in age from 15-68, including four soloists and a supporting trio of local youth. Original music for the project is by James Bigbee Garver, visual art/set design by Christine Sciulli, lighting design by RJ Larussa, and costumes by Elinor Watts. Performers include: Yueh-Ching Chung, Marielis Garcia, Holley Farmer, Raechel Manga, Kamryn DeAngelis, Alexis Delisle, Grace Zommer, and readers Ciaran Berry, Scott Giguere, and Clare Rossini.

And all things hushed is made possible in part by a Creation of New Work grant from the Edward C. and Ann T. Roberts foundation, faculty research funds from Trinity College, through contributions from many individual donors.

Creative Team

headshot of Peter KylePeter Kyle is a dancer, choreographer, teacher, filmmaker, and Artistic Director of Peter Kyle Dance, founded in New York City in 2006, and based in Connecticut since 2018. His work, known for its sense of humanity, creativity, and innovative cross-disciplinary collaborations, has been presented across the United States, and internationally in Germany, Norway, The Netherlands, Mexico, Scotland, China, Cyprus and Ukraine.
A highly versatile artist, described by choreographer Murray Louis as “an artist of the most gifted kind,” he has performed around the world as a principal dancer with Nikolais and Murray Louis Dance, and also worked with numerous other companies including Mark Morris Dance Group, Erick Hawkins Dance Company, Pittsburgh Dance Alloy, Gina Gibney Dance, Molissa Fenley and Company, and the theater company P3/east, among others. He began his professional dance career with Works/Laura Glenn Dance, in Hartford, CT.
Kyle’s Tiny Dance Film Series, a collaboration with composer James Bigbee Garver has been installed in galleries, theaters, and festivals around the world since 2006, including at the Dance on Camera Festival at Lincoln Center. His choreography for The Only Tribe (2008) at 3LD Art & Technology Center, was called “exquisitely choreographed” by Time Out New York. Among his many collaborators are musicians Michael Bellar, William Catanzaro, Lori Goldston, and Diego Vásquez; visual artists Caleb Nussear, Jaanika Peerna, Christine Sciulli, and Venske & Spänle; couture fashion designer Garo Sparo; and Ukrainian choreographer Anton Ovchinnikov, with whom he created Dancing Through Translation, a 2017-2018 research and performance project that toured across Ukraine with support from the Public Diplomacy Small Grant Fund of the U.S. Embassy, in Ukraine.
A highly regarded teacher of dance, performance, improvisation and composition throughout the U.S. and internationally, Kyle has taught at University of Washington, Marymount Manhattan, Bard, and Sarah Lawrence colleges, and since 2018 teaches at Trinity College in the Department of Theater and Dance, where he will become Chair in July 2022. He was Associate Director at Bearnstow, a summer arts retreat in rural Maine (2017-2020), served on the Board of Directors at Triskelion Arts, a vibrant arts center in Brooklyn, NY (2012-2019), and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the CT Dance Alliance. He has received awards from Concours Internationale de Danse de Paris, Pittsburgh Dance Council, Simpson Center for the Humanities, Washington State Arts Commission, American Music Center, New York Foundation for the Arts, Mertz-Gilmore Foundation (through Triskelion Arts), The Edward C. and Ann T. Roberts Foundation, New England Foundation for the Arts, and U.S. Embassies in China and Ukraine, where he was a 2016 Fulbright Specialist grantee.
For more information, visit www.peterkyledance.org.

headshot of subjectCiaran Berry is the author of the poetry collections Liner Notes, The Dead Zoo, and The Sphere of Birds, all published by The Gallery Press. His work has been featured in The Gettysburg Review, Poetry, Ploughshares, The Southern Review, and The Threepenny Review. Originally from the west of Ireland, he co-directs the Creative Writing Program at Trinity College and lives with his family in West Hartford.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tor Burwell headshotTor Burwell explores physics through visual art. He is a physicist and visual artist from Long Island, New York. His art focuses mostly on simulations but he does not steer clear of other forms of creation. His work has been shown at Guild Hall in East Hampton, and the Parrish Art Museum in Watermill. Through July 23rd his work can be seen in the Techspressionism show at Southampton Arts Center. Tor plans to study physics in college and is currently pursuing his pilot’s license. His Instagram is @torburwell, and some works are for sale on Foundation, https://foundation.app/@torburwell.

 

 

 

 

headshot of subjectCHUNG, YUEH-CHING 鍾悅卿 is the Founder-Director of Heights of Wellness (HOW), a state-of-the art movement and wellness studio in Hartford, CT, since 2005. Educated in Taiwan and the United States, Ching has studied extensively with some of the finest master teachers of Dance, Qìgōng, Tàijíquán, Stott Pilates, and Massage Therapy. She began her performance career as a dancer with Works Contemporary Dance, and later Works/Laura Glenn Dance. She was a member of the dance and choreography faculties at the University of Hartford Hartt School of Music, Dance, and Theater, the Greater Hartford Academy of Performing Arts high school, and at the School of the Hartford Ballet. Central to her approach to wellness and movement is Ching’s work in Qìgōng and Tàijíquán. She is a longtime student of world-renowned Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming, a master in martial and healing arts. Ching continues to study and draw from these rich traditions that resonate with her philosophy of how to best support the mind and body on the path to wellness. Ching enthusiastically instills in her students a sense of strength and empowerment. It is her mission to encourage awareness of the mind and body connection inherent in a healthy lifestyle. Ching is the author of One Body, One Life Within Your Control (Balboa Press, 2021). www.heightsofwellness.com

a headshot of Brianna D'AndriaBrianna D’Andria is a young aspiring individual with a unique outlook on life. Since elementary school she has been putting on shows and through that found a passion for production.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 KAMRYN DEANGELIS headshotKamryn DeAngelis is an upcoming senior at Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts and Farmington High School. She has been dancing at her home studio The Dance Connection for 12 years. As a competitive dancer for the past 10 years, she enjoys performing various styles, her favorite being contemporary.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ALEXIS DELISLE headshotLexi DeLisle is an upcoming junior at the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts (GHAA) dance program and RHAM high school. This year she participated in GHAA’s Choreographers’’ Showcase. In that she worked with Carter Alexander, a dance faculty member at SMU college and Kim Stroud, a former Martha graham soloist, as she staged Steps in the Street. She also was a member of Immix junior company, a local collaborative dance group. At her dance school, she is currently studying Vaganova and Horton technique. Though she also loves Laban and Cunningham modern.

 

 

 

 

 

 


headshot of Holley FarmerHolley Farmer
is originally from Fresno, CA. She earned her BFA in Dance from Cornish College of the Arts, and MFA in Dance from The University of Washington with a focus on critical theory. She performed with Merce Cunningham Dance Company from 1997-2009, receiving the New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award for Sustained Achievement. Her performances with MCDC include a repertory of over fifty dances and thirteen original roles created for her by Cunningham, with multiple seasons at Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Paris Opera, Théâtre de la Ville, the Barbican, and venues in 23 countries. After Cunningham’s passing, she danced on Broadway originating the principal role of Babe in Twyla Tharp’s Come Fly Away, for which she received an Astaire Award Nomination. In 2011, she began staging the work of Cunningham, and creating her own choreographies. Her solo work has appeared at New York Live Arts, the Museum of Arts and Design, LaMama, the Joyce Theater, and Jacob’s Pillow. For the last ten years, in higher education, she has taught theory and practice courses, and has served on the faculty at Mills College, Hunter College, Sarah Lawrence College, Nassau Community College, CSU Long Beach, among national guest teaching and lecture engagements including Stanford University, and Southern California Institute of Architecture. She dances with Molissa Fenley and Dancers, Peter Kyle Dance, and continues to teach at City Center Studios in NY for the Cunningham Trust. She is currently Assistant Dean and BFA Program Director at CalArts.

headshot of subjectMarielis Garcia is the Dance Artist in Residence within the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies at the University of Maryland. She is a Dominican American dance artist who has performed and toured with Brian Brooks (NY), Helen Simoneau (Winston-Salem, NC), and Peter Kyle Dance (NY), among others. She received her MFA
in Digital and Interdisciplinary Art Practice from City College of New York. Marielis’ work has been presented both nationally and internationally. She was recently named Ballet Hispánico’s Instituto Coreográfico Resident, and an Alvin Ailey New Directions Choreography Lab recipient. Photo Credit: Whitney Browne

 

headshot of subjectJimmy Garver has over 17 years of experience creating sound designs and composing music for live performance, films, & art installations. He works primarily with composed sound and the spoken word, often mixing the timbres of acoustic instruments and human voices with synthetic audio to sculpt imagined textures and environments. In addition to this work, Jimmy has also consulted on large, AI-powered, synthetic voice projects for Microsoft Research and Descript.
Some previous collaborators include Kimberly Bartosik/daela, Diane Coburn Bruning/Chamber Dance Project, Shana Cooper, Katie Pearl & Lisa D’Amour, Michael Garces, Derek Goldman, Elizabeth Klob/UMO, Peter Kyle, Duncan Macmillan, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Mary Stuart Masterson, linn meyers, David Muse, Christopher Petit, Aaron Posner, Kameron Steele, Matthew Torney, Eric Tucker, Yury Urnov.
Jimmy’s work has been heard at and/or commissioned by Pushkin Industries, Ballet Hispanico/Apollo Theatre, Lincoln Center’s Dance On Camera festival, the Smithsonian Institute, Microsoft Research, Descript Inc., UMO Ensemble, BAM, PS-122, Joyce SoHo, 92nd St. Y Harkness Dance, Bearnstow, Atlantic Theatre Company, Chamber Dance Project, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Signature Theatre (DC), Folger Theatre Company, Studio Theatre Company (DC), A Contemporary Theatre, Whitman College, Georgetown University, Bowdoin College.

headshot of Scott GiguereScott Giguere has recently relocated to Bloomfield, CT from New York City, where he has begun settling into a stone farm house built in 1835. He is an actor, teacher of acting and movement, and a director who has been fortunate enough to perform around the world including incredible experiences in Sibiu, Romania working in a 12th century monastery and in Kyoto, Japan working with famed Japanese director Shogo Ota. He has taught BAs, BFAs and MFAs at various institutions including Indiana University Bloomington, Marymount Manhattan College, Long Island University-Post, University of South Carolina and Rutgers University. As an actor he has appeared at regional theaters across the country including Florida Studio Theater, with the Steppenwolf Company at the Seattle Repertory Theater, On The Boards (Seattle), HERE Arts (NYC), PCPA in California, and the beautiful Monomoy Theater on Cape Cod among many others. His directing credits include Chekhov’s Seagull at Hartt; Swimming in the Shallows by Adam Bock, Pullman Car Hiawatha by Thornton Wilder, as well as solo work and original devised works based on Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, Chekhov’s Seagull, the Icarus myth and Hamlet. Scott earned his MFA in Acting from UW in Seattle and is a member of Actor’s Equity Association.

Kyle Grimm headshotKyle Grimm is a composer and double bassist whose music has been described as “feisty technicolor” (Roger Zahab). His compositions strive to strike a balance between the gritty and the beautiful through juxtaposition, layering, and synthesis; often employing electronics alongside acoustic elements. Improvisations I, a full-length album for double bass and electronics, is currently streaming on all platforms. In addition to the stage, Kyle’s works can be heard in the video game Hold the Fort, by Monster Tooth Studios, which is currently on Steam, and the short film The Autumn Waltz, currently on Amazon Prime. When not composing, he can be spotted visiting local breweries, making obscure The Simpsons references, and spoiling his two cats.

 

 

 


headshot of subjectRJ LaRussa
is a Director of Photography and Interdisciplinary Artist working locally in Hartford and New York City. As a Cinematographer, he specializes in story-forward projects across narrative, music video, and commercial work. RJ strives to bring naturalism and experimental techniques together to create visuals that serve the story of each individual project. His visual arts work focuses on interrogating the relationship between imperialism and cultural memory, mixing photography techniques with video, sculpture, and collage.
The relationship between people and the world around them is integral to his work as a storyteller. On set he considers experimentation and improvisation after careful planning as central to the artistic process. His recent work includes Cinematography for the upcoming web series Beige, the short film The Mundanes, and the digital collage series Through The Clear Blue Skies published in the Funnybone Record’s journal Import Sky.

 

headshot of subjectRaechel Manga is a Hartford resident that is a freelance artist and special education teaching assistant in the West Hartford school district. She received years of training at The Hartt School Community Division as well as Connecticut Concert Ballet for a brief period. She has been dancing since the age of two years old, her versatile training spanning from classical ballet, Horton technique, tap, jazz, and graham technique in her arsenal. Raechel has attended the Royal Ballet school in London, England, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Joffrey New York, Los Angeles and Dance Theater of Harlem. From the age of nine until eighteen she was a part of the Figments Youth Dance Ensemble being introduced to experimenting with choreographing. She also went to Greater Hartford Academy of The Arts as a dance major in high school. Aside from being a professional dancer she has branched out towards acting. She was an extra for Sneaky Pete season two, which can be seen on Amazon Prime, also featuring in the film The After Party that is on Netflix, and was an extra on season four of FBI that is seen on CBS . As of now Raechel is diving back into school in pursuit of being a forensic pathologist assistant. But never forgetting her lifelong passion of dance.

KYLEIGH OLIVIER headshotKyleigh Olivier began dancing at the age of three in Massachusetts and trained in a variety of styles, including ballet, jazz, tap, contemporary, modern, hip hop, and pointe. She graduated summa cum laude from The Hartt School in May of 2021 with a BFA in Dance and a concentration in Ballet Pedagogy, along with a Business Management minor. While she was training at The Hartt School, Kyleigh was delighted to perform repertory by multiple prominent choreographers, including Martha Graham, José Limón, Merce Cunningham, Jules Perrot, Gabrielle Lamb, and Lar Lubovitch. During her senior year, she had the opportunity to take on the role of stage manager in a main stage production, initiating her experience in the production side of the dance world. Kyleigh is also honored to have received the 2019 Elena Delvecchio Rusnak Dance Education Scholarship and the Hartt Dance Division Senior Outstanding Achievement Award while pursuing her BFA degree. In her time at The Hartt School, Kyleigh discovered her passion for teaching dance and community outreach as she worked with diverse groups of students in her internships. She is also grateful for her opportunity to serve as Dance Director of the Prism Project in 2020, leading movement activities for children with exceptionalities. Kyleigh has been teaching at Connecticut Dance Academy since 2019 and has greatly enjoyed helping the talented and ambitious students to continue to grow in their technique and artistry.

headshot of subjectClare Rossini has published three books of poems. Her poems and essays have appeared widely and are collected in numerous anthologies, including Best American Poetry 2020. She co edited The Poetry of Capital, published by the University of Wisconsin Press in 2020. Clare is Artist-in-Residence at Trinity College in Hartford, where she teaches classes in creative writing and oversees a program that places students in Hartford public school arts classrooms. Clare lives in West Hartford with her husband and son.

 

 

 

 

 

headshot of subjectChristine Sciulli is a visual artist whose primary medium is projected light. Her immersive installations have been shown in museums, galleries and festivals in the US and Europe. Her work has been included in the American Academy of Arts and Letters 2014 Invitational, Guild Hall Museum, Parrish Art Museum, and Cologne’s MAKK as part of the 2018 Collumina Light Festival. Sciulli’s work will be part of the ZFIL Center for International Light Art’s Fall 2022 show HYPERsculptures in Unna, Germany. She was the recipient of a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Grant and commissioned by Dalhousie Art Gallery to create Breath of the Sea with funding from the Canada Council for the Arts. Sciulli was the recipient of an IALD Award for the Rodin Pavilion in Seoul and a Lumen Citation from the Illuminating Engineering Society for her Smack Mellon installation of ROIL. She was the recipient of a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Grant for her public art project Intercepting Planes X. Christine was commissioned by the Global Poverty Project to create Expanding Circles, for the first Global Citizen Festival and was the recipient of an International Association of Lighting Designers Award of Merit for the Rodin Pavilion in Seoul.
Sciulli’s theatrical credits include light-video artist for the Mabou Mines waterfront production of,SongforNewYork:WhatWomenDoWhileMenSitKnitting directedbyRuthMaleczech(“…a distinctly urban feel, magnified by a glittering lighting design by Christine Sciulli, a video installation artist.” Melana Ryzik, New York Times) developed at the Sundance Institute Theatre
Lab Residency at White Oak. She has worked with Phantom Limb in residence at Dartmouth College’s Hopkins Center and Mass MoCA. Her video-electroacoustic collaborations with composer Doug Geers have been shown widely at European and American festivals.
Christine Sciulli holds an Architectural Engineering degree from Penn State University, graduating as a Besal Scholar, as well as BFA and MFA degrees from Hunter College. “Her work consists of intersections of the geometry and an intuitive sense of how to use everyday materials to give a sense of “spatialisation” – she plays with how we perceive the world around us in a way that leaves you with a kind of eerie sense of timelessness.”(Paul Miller aka DJ Spooky)
Her websites are http://www.christinesciulli.net and http://www.vimeo.com/xine.

Bridget SullivanBridget Sullivan has had the good fortune to work on special projects with several CT organizations: the International Festival of Arts and Ideas, Pilobolus, Night Fall; the Wadsworth Atheneum helped train her in art handling. The majority of her experience is in production management – highlights include TheaterWorks Hartford, Weston Playhouse Theater Company in Vermont, North Shore Music Theater. She’s managed productions, projects, celebrity concerts and some amazing venue renovations, and she’s grateful to work alongside the amazing AND ALL THINGS HUSHED artists.

 

 

 

 

 

headshot of subjectBrit Watts is a Connecticut based Costume Designer/Coordinator and First Hand. Over the years she has designed multiple productions for Trinity College. These include most recently The Pillowman, Fall Dance and Spring Dance. During her career in theatre she has worked at Goodspeed Musicals and Hartford Stage in various capacities. She currently works at John Cowles Studio as Assistant Manager and First Hand. As a First Hand she has built for many Broadway and Regional Theaters. A selection of these shows include Moulin Rouge! (Broadway and National Tour), My Fair Lady (Lincoln Center and London), Beautiful, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and South Pacific.

 

 

 

 

headshot of subjectGrace Zommer is an upcoming senior at the Greater
Hartford Academy of the Arts and Farmington High
School. She has been dancing for 13 years and plans on
majoring in dance in college. She loves contemporary
ballet and the Horton technique.