‘Arts’ Archives
Movie Corner: Melvin Van Peebles
He's the ManMelvin Van Peebles (1932-2021) Melvin Van Peebles. Photo by John Matthew Smith By HOWARD McQUITTER II The African American filmmaker-actor Melvin Van Peebles, a fiercely independent filmmaker, could make memorable and remarkable films on a shoestring budget such as the 1971 bombshell film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song about a Black pimp who kills two policemen for beating up a Black militant and how he eludes law enforcement. (His son Mario, is also an actor/director.) And with Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, in particular, but in conjunction with his body of work (his directorial debut is Watermelon Man in Hollywood), the man is often known as the "Godfather of Black cinema". (The late Black director Gordon Parks is also a modern pioneer of Black cinema.) Mr. Melvin Van Peebles graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University with a B. A. in 1953. He decided to travel heavily in Europe, Mexico and the United States taking on jobs such as postal worker, painter, [...]
Artists Invited to Submit Design Ideas for Light-Emitting Sculpture
By TIM SPRINGER The Midtown Greenway Coalition is issuing a call for artists to submit their ideas for a beautiful and stunning light-emitting sculpture. As mentioned in a previous Alley article, the purposes of the sculpture are to create exciting art that brings joy and makes you say “WOW!”, light up a dark area, and serve as a wayfinding beacon to help people find their way onto and off of the Greenway. This is a project of the Midtown Greenway Coalition with an Advisory Team composed of seven residents from the 2800 and 2900 blocks of 18th Avenue South, adjacent to the proposed sculpture location. I am honored to serve as Project Manager (a volunteer position) and work with the Advisory Team on this exciting project. The sculpture will be located at the top of the entrance ramp to the Midtown Greenway at 18th Avenue. It will be about 12 feet wide and will be suspended up in the air about 12 feet above the trail surface. The body of the sculpture will emit light; [...]
biskaabiiyang at All My Relations
biskaabiiyang (returning to ourselves) is a group exhibition investigating Indigenous Futurisms and the interconnectedness of nows through video installation, interactive gaming, mixed media and digital illustrations curated by Emerging Curators Institute Fellow, Juleana Enright. Featured artists: Santo Aveiro-Ojeda, Sequoia Hauck, Reyna Hernandez, Elizabeth LaPensée, Coyote Park, and Summer-Harmony Twenish. Biskaabiiyang is an Anishinaabeg word meaning the enactment of ‘returning to ourselves’ through the regeneration of our Indigenous ways of knowing. A counter to Western constructs of sovereignty, ownership and time, the works of biskaabiiyang explore the process of decolonization through ancestral knowledge, land stewardship, water protection and body and identity sovereignty. Using the context of an imagined future, we challenge our erasure and create ourselves into being, aligning past, present and future. It is always now. October 14- [...]
