featured artists

Each week CommunityAMP will feature the work of an artist submitting to reunion iv. Visit the website at communityamp.org, enter the camp section and click on “featured artist” to catch a glimpse of the latest contributors.

the flood

I have about 75,000 ideas for projects lately, but I can’t seem to begin! I am going to spend a solid portion of this coming weekend tweaking the site and publishing a recent assignment entitled “a day in the life” that a few of my peeps put together. For anyone interested (be interested!) the idea is to wake up, grab your camera, click away consistently throughout the day and pick 10 shots that would help a stranger or old friend get an idea of who-you-be. This could be 10 facial expressions, 10 pieces of food, 10 locations you regularly hit in any given day- the possibilities are endless!

day 4: what cool breezes do

day 3: le feu

day 2: waves

day 1: trees

National Novel Writing Month

What: Writing one 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month's time.
Who: You! We can't do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let's write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together.
Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era's most enchanting art forms! To write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work.
When: Sign-ups begin October 1, 2007. Writing begins November 1. To be added to the official list of winners, you must reach the 50,000-word mark by November 30 at midnight. Once your novel has been verified by our web-based team of robotic word counters, the partying begins.
Still confused? Just visit the How NaNoWriMo Works page!

the lingo

I recently came across an article by Bill Cleveland, director of the Center for the Study of Art and Community, based in Minneapolis, Minn, which outlined many of the basic concepts I am trying to build upon (or from, as it were) for the Community Arts Movement Project. Really interesting, inspiring and relevant stuff here:

When my colleagues and I established the Center for the Study of Art and Community these experiences informed both the philosophy and focus of our work. Our intention was to help the field learn from itself. As our work has evolved, we have developed a dictionary of sorts to help communicate with colleagues in and out of the arts. Building a common vocabulary has also been a critical aspect of our training efforts. The increasingly cross-sector nature of ABCD has demanded an increased clarity of focus and intent. In the mix, principals and definitions from other fields have been adopted and a lot of common ground has been discovered. Especially with the areas of asset-based and sustainable community development. Here are some of the basic definitions and core concepts that have found a place in our dictionary.

• The arts: Pertaining to the performing, visual, literary or media arts.
• Artist: A person who by virtue of imagination and talent or skill is able create works of aesthetic and/or cultural value in one or more arts discipline.
• Community: Our definition of community is derived from the one used by Alternate ROOTS:groups of people with common interests defined by place, tradition, intention or spirit.
• Community-based: Activities created and produced by and with community members that combine significant elements of community access, ownership, authorship, participation and accountability.
• Arts-based community development (ABCD): Arts-centered activity that contributes to the sustained advancement of human dignity, health and/or productivity within a community. These include:
  Activities that EDUCATE and INFORM us about ourselves and the world
  Activities that INSPIRE and MOBILIZE individuals or groups.
  Activities that NURTURE and HEAL people and/or communities
  Activities that BUILD and IMPROVE community capacity and/or infrastructure.
  Historically we see ABCD as a modern iteration of perhaps the oldest "field" with a lineage that stretches back to prehistoric shamanism.
• Sustainable development: We define sustainable development as locally generated economic, social and cultural development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
• Asset-based community development: The word "sustainable" has roots in the Latin subtenir, meaning "to hold up" or "to support from below." We concur with many in the community-development field who feel that a thriving community must be supported primarily from within—by its members, resources and capacities, for the present and future.
• Cross-sector: Many people feel sustained community development requires collaborative effort that emphasizes a holistic, systems approach. This is because many community issues are diffuse, multidisciplinary, multiagency, multistakeholder and multisector in nature. In this context, "cross sector" refers to community development activities among and between often separately defined areas of influence and expertise such as education, public safety, human services and the arts.

grants for NY artists

I had a really interesting meeting the other day with some fellow arts grantmakers and found out about this no-strings-attached program through NYFA. The deadline is October 3rd- submit an application, damn it!

a poem for max

my long, lost friend

i drank a beer in your honor just now
and found that my little kitchen plant- which has been a source of utter perplexity
sprouted a tiny blossom
that I’m sure nobody can see but me
because it’s the color of your laugh
it’s the shape of your scent
and it demands a presence of redefinition
perhaps, and hopeful might I say, like this rekindling
this spark
of remembrance

and ACTION!

We're live!

Please feel free to take a look at the site and offer suggestions, comments and most importantly, additions.

call-for-entries

Aloha wee campers. Good news, the communityAMP site is up-up-up! I am just waiting for all the nerdy codes to transfer over between host & domain and will post the link most immediately. In the meantime, I've come across some new art that I thought I would share with you. Call it my online gallery of plagiarization; I'm all about it these days. Enjoy!

culture calendars

Looking for something to do this week? Click on one of these handy calendars!

Poetry
Alliance for the Arts
Salsa
DanceNYC
Triathalons
Music

Summer picks

Anti-War Expressions @ The Brecht ForumWritten and Performed by Ollin ImaginationSaturday July 7, 2007, 7pm & Sunday July 8, 2007, 1pm
Brecht Forum 451 West (between Bank and Bethune Streets), New York, NY 10014
http://ollinimagination.blogspot.com/

Cherry Poppinʼ Daddies
July 7, 2007
BB Kingʼs Blues Club
237 West 42nd St, New York, NY 10036
http://www.daddies.com/

Hip Hop Karaoke
Sat, July 14th, 2007Knitting Factory74 Leonard St (@ Church St), New York, NY 10013
http://www.hiphopkaraokenyc.com/

Ani DiFranco
July 18, 2007Wednesday, 7:30 PM
Prospect Park BandshellBrooklyn, NY

Aeroplane Pageant
July 20, 2007
Mercury Lounge
217 East Houston Street, New York, NY 10002
http://www.aeroplanepageant.com/

The Sting
Monday, July 23, 2007
5pm
Bryant Park, New York, NY
http://www.bryantpark.org/calendar/film-festival.php

Caddy Shack
August 8, 2007
8pm
Pier 1 is located on the Hudson River at 70th Street. Take the 1 train to 72nd street and walk west to Riverside Park South and enter the park there.

Beastie Boys
August 09, 2007Thursday, 5:30 PM
McCarren Park PoolBrooklyn, NY