P A I D
A Solo Exhibition
of New Works by
Brandon Coley Cox

@ University of the Arts – Anderson Hall
333 S. Broad St. 6th Floor
Philadelphia, PA
On View: October 10-27th, 2011
Lecture: October 20, 2011 10:00am, Anderson Hall
*Reception: October 20, 2011 5:30-7:30pm
The word ‘paid’ is American slang, stemming from hip-hop, for success through money-making. ‘Getting paid’ and ‘staying paid’ tend to be essential ingredients of success in terms of Black manhood. Not too long ago in history, however, Blacks in America were being paid for as slaves. Cox references this irony through the use of an accountant’s ‘PAID’ stamp. Imagine .. one mark for every sold slave and their kin. Society has changed due to the struggles carried out by generations of Blacks determined to succeed in a country where the foundations are set against them.

Cox captures and questions this sense of progress and all of its possibilities. By realistically drawing popular notions of Black success and elements around it with just the stamp, he poses many questions to the viewer. How many generations did it take to shape this possibility? When is the image complete? Why?

As apart of an ongoing effort to contemplate the validity of popular imagery of Black men through a metaphorical means of creation, Cox presents a new untitled animation. Years ago, he began taking photographs of young Black men, corrupting (damaging) the image several hundred times via computer software, and collaging them back together to make one digital print. In this animation, Cox has taken 3,833 of these collages and presents them all in an ongoing 2-minute loop.

Cox is also presenting for the first time in Philadelphia what he terms as ‘masocuts’. The prints begin as photographs with models in the studio. He then combines these with scanned drawings and cuts the image into a piece of masonite with both his hand and a laser. When inked as relief prints, the resulting images contain photographic, vector, and handwork with soft brown tones. These more intimate prints reflect on gesture & position as a means of power.

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Brandon Coley Cox (a.k.a. B. COX)  is an award-winning emerging artist based in Brooklyn, NY. Cox moved from Baltimore, Maryland to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 2005 to attend The University of the Arts. From there he graduated in 2008 with a BFA in Printmaking, immediately started teaching and one year later was the second person in the school’s history to attend the prestigious Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture.

Since moving to New York City, he has been awarded a fellowship at the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop in Times Square, served as juror for the BRIO Award on behalf of the Bronx Council on the Arts, and has been in numerous solo & group exhibitions nationwide. Cox also has work in several permanent collections including The International Print Museum in Southern California and the Museum of Paper & Watermark in Fabriano, Italy.

National Park Service
                     U.S. Department of the Interior
                 African Burial Ground National Monument
                 Rediscovering the African Burial Ground
             Schedule for the 20th Anniversary Commemoration
                             Oct. 4-8, 2011
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
10:30AM: Film Series — Eric V. Tait, Jr., director of the film, “Then I’ll Be Free to Travel Home,” will conduct a screening of the documentary, and provide commentary about the making of the film. Part 2 (56 min.) of the film will be shown. A question and answer period will follow the screening of the film. RSVP required (212) 637-2019
NOON: 60 Seconds of Silence: The African Burial Ground National Monument will honor the lives of the estimated 15,000 enslaved and free Africans and African descendants who are buried in the African Burial Ground cemetery by observing 60 seconds of silence at 12 noon on each day of Youth Week (October 4-8, 2011). During this time frame, everyone is encouraged to stop, think and reflect upon the lives of those who are buried in the African Burial Ground and the horrors of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.
12:15PM: Gallery Talk — “The Slave Revolt of 1741”
1:00PM: Children’s Story Time
2:00PM: An Introduction to Ancient and Early African Writing Systems and the Philosophical Language of Adinkra by Pat Leonard. RSVP required (212) 637-2019
Wednesday, October 5, 2011

11:00AM: Workshop presentation on other rediscovered African Burial Grounds. RSVP required (212) 637-2019

NOON: 60 Seconds of Silence
NOON: Children’s Story Time

1:00PM: Film Series — “George Washington Carver” (29 min.)

2:00PM: Rev. Pat Singletary from the Harlem African Burial Ground Project. RSVP required (212) 637-2019

Thursday, October 6, 2011
11:00AM: A workshop on “Proverbs, Aphorisms and Mother Wits— Learning from the Wisdom of Ancestors and Elders” by Pat Leonard. RSVP required (212) 637-2019
NOON: 60 Seconds of Silence

12:30PM: “For Freedom’s Sake” — A first-person presentation by Nicola and Rufus James about the African presence in New York during the 18th Century. RSVP required (212) 637-2019

1:00PM: Children’s Story Time

2:00PM: Children’s Entertainment: face painting, a magician and animal balloons
3:00PM: Gallery Talk—Burial Practices and Pinkster
3:30PM: Film Series — “The Maggie Walker Story” (12 min.)

Friday, October 7, 2011*

10:45AM: F.R.E.E.D.O.M. Academy performance

11:00AM: Ceremony commemorating the 20th anniversary of the rediscovery of the African Burial Ground

NOON: 60 Seconds of Silence

1:00 PM onward — “Ceremony of Receiving African Names” conducted by Queen Mother Dr. Delois Blakely for the general public.

1:15PM: African Drum and Dance performance by F.R.E.E.D.O.M. Academy

1:30-4PM: Exhibit on slavery in New York in the visitor center. Gene Peters, the exhibit’s curator and an African Burial Ground NM volunteer,
will be on-hand to answer questions.
2:00PM: Film Series — Shawn Utsey will conduct a screening of his documentary, “Meet Me in the Bottom” (45 min.) a film about the Richmond
Burial Ground in Virginia. A question and answer period will follow the screening. RSVP required (212) 637-2019

4:30PM: Carolyn Evans will bring history alive through first-person interpretation of two African-American women who changed the world: Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth. RSVP required (212) 637-2019

6:00PM: Ifetayo Cultural Arts Academy (The name Ifetayo comes from the West African Yoruba word meaning, “love is enough for joy”) youth will provide a spirited performance incorporating African dance, drum and song.

6:30PM: Universal Creative Arts Ensemble-Universal African Dance and Drum Ensemble — traditional African songs, instruments, dance and stilt walker
7:15PM: Performance by the African Caribbean group Something Positive, Inc. (30 minute performance)
       *Memorial and Visitor Center will remain open until 8:00PM
Saturday, October 8, 2011

10:00AM: Libation ceremony with Gregory Carr featuring a drum circle

11:00AM: Family Memory Box Workshop. RSVP required (212) 637-2019

NOON: 60 Seconds of Silence

1:00PM: Poetry Slam, “A Shout Out to the Ancestors”

2:00PM: Red Storm Drum and Dance Troupe — This program offers insight into Native American history, art and music. It also showcases the music and dance traditions of America’s indigenous nations.

6:30PM: Candle lit “A Broader View” walking tour will leave from Federal Hall National Memorial and conclude at African Burial Ground National Monument’s outdoor memorial. RSVP required (212) 637-2019

6:30PM: Candle lit “Abolitionist” walking tour will leave from African Burial National Monument and conclude at the site’s outdoor memorial. RSVP required (212) 637-2019
          

All events are free. Schedule is subject to change.

       For more information visit www.nps.gov/afbg or follow us at  http://twitter.com/#!/AFBurialGrndNPS

WHO: Six playwrights, six directors and 18 actors

WHAT: Six classic African American plays, reimagined and reconceived as ten-minute works in a single festival, “48 Hours in Harlem”

WHEN: Sunday, Aug 14, 2011, at 7 p.m.

WHERE: Harlem School of the Arts, 645 St. Nicholas Ave., New York, NY 10030

Take six young playwrights - Ayanna Maia, Dominique Morisseau, Keith Josef Adkins, Derek Lee McPhatter, Mfoniso Udofia, and Harrison David Rivers – six directors - Christopher Burris, Tamilla Woodard, Melissa Maxwell, Russell G. Jones, Nicole A. Watson and LA Williams –  and 18 actors - Bruce Lemon, Laura Johnston, Axel Avin Jr., Chanel Carroll, Heather Simms,Crystal Dickinson, Gillian Glasco, Jamie Lincoln Smith, Jocelyn Bioh, Elain Graham, Samuel T. Gaines, Willie Teacher, Tamela Aldridge, Marcus Naylor, Alano Miller, Gerard Joseph, Ayo Cummings, and Charles Browning. Bring them together in a Harlem studio and give them one weekend to refashion six celebrated plays by black playwrights into ten-minute-long distillations.

This is the result. Harlem 9, a collaboration among nine producing companies dedicated to exploring the past, present and future of black culture, presents “48 Hours in Harlem,” a creative reimagining of

Dutchman by Amiri Baraka
Zooman and the Sign by Charles Fuller
Funnyhouse of a Negro by Adrienne Kennedy
Day of Absence by Douglass Turner Ward
Black Terror by Richard Wesley
The Colored Museum by George C. Wolfe

Tickets for this twist on the 24-hour theater festival are $15 in advance and can be purchased online. Tickets at the door are $20, cash only. For more information, visit the Harlem9 website.

48 HOURS IN HARLEM
with Harlem9
August 14th – Harlem School of the Arts

Sunday, August 14th at 7pm

645 St. Nicholas Avenue
New York, NY
www.harlem9.org
tickets: $15 advance (http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/186991)
       $20 door

Featured playwrights: Keith Josef Adkins, Harrison David Rivers, Dominique Morriseau, Derek Lee McPhatter, Ayanna Maia, and Mfoniso Udofia

Featured directors: Niegel Jason Smith, Nicole A. Watson, Christopher Burris, Melissa Maxwell, Russell G. Jones, and Tamilla Woodard

Harlem9: a collaborative of producers that explore the past, present and future of black culture and celebrate our rich history of storytelling. 48 HOURS IN HARLEM stimulates emerging African American artists. 6 playwrights are offered 6 classic, provocative plays. They are challenged to re-conceive these classics into a ten-minute format. 6 savvy directors and 18 accomplished actors will bring these raw impressions to life, all in a weekend, to be performed on Sunday evening.

Join PHILADANCO at the Joyce Theater in New York for a program of premieres and favorites!

The World Premiere of Ray Mercer’s Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

The New York Premiere of Bolero Too! by Christopher Huggins

The New York Premiere of By Way of the Funk, by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar

And back by popular demand, Christopher Huggins’ Enemy Behind the Gate

Performance Schedule:
Tuesday, March 29–Wednesday, March 30 at 7:30pm

Thursday, March 31–Friday, April 1 at 8pm

Saturday, April 2 at 2pm & 8pm

Sunday, April 3 at 2pm & 7:30pm

To purchase tickets call JoyceCharge at 212-242-0800 or visit www.joyce.org

Photo by Paul Goode

Tune in to On Point with Tom Ashbrook on Thursday, February 17 for a one-hour interview with Bill T. Jones as he discusses his life and his art, including his new role as Executive Artistic Director of New York Live Arts and the creation of new works for the Company. Broadcast live at 11 a.m. ET from WBUR in Boston with listener call-in, the segment will air again throughout the day and evening on more than 190 NPR stations coast to coast.

Experiments in a Jazz Aesthetic
Art, Activism, Academia, and the Austin Project
Book release party 12/16/10 in New York City!
6PM – 8PM at New Dramatists
424 West 44th Street,
New York, New York 10036.
Readers include: Omi Osun Joni L. Jones, Sharon Bridgforth, Monique Cortez, Angela Kariotis, Jaclyn Pryor, Ana Maurine Lara.
Please RSVP by calling 212-757-6960.
This event is free. Books will be available for sale.
Edited by Dr. Omi Osun Joni L. Jones, Dr. Lisa L. Moore, and Sharon Bridgforth, published by University of Texas Press
this book is both an anthology of new writing and a sourcebook for those who would like to use creative writing and performance to energize their artistic, scholarly, and activist practices. This book includes work  from Bessie Award–winning choreographer Laurie Carlos and writer/performer Robbie McCauley to playwrights Daniel Alexander Jones and Carl Hancock Rux.  Cover Art by Tonya Engel: http://www.tonyaengel.com. 
For more about the book go to: http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/books/jonexe.html
For more about The Austin Project go to: http://e-tap.org