https://www.jadethacker.org/services daily 0.75 2017-08-26 https://www.jadethacker.org/la-phils-van-beethoven daily 0.75 2017-09-23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/597b84ecd2b857b2f83fa7ea/1503732012781-TW0423UNHFAVRK577XMC/LAPhil-VANbeethoven_interior4_KelleRamsey.jpg LA Phil's Van Beethoven - Van Beethoven Van Beethoven is a https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/597b84ecd2b857b2f83fa7ea/1503732012781-TW0423UNHFAVRK577XMC/LAPhil-VANbeethoven_interior4_KelleRamsey.jpg LA Phil's Van Beethoven - Van Beethoven Van Beethoven is a https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/597b84ecd2b857b2f83fa7ea/1503731527952-LPAVS9JX8I6HEDGYY1R8/image-asset.jpeg LA Phil's Van Beethoven - LA Phil's VAN Beethoven: Behind the Scenes https://static1.squarespace.com/static/597b84ecd2b857b2f83fa7ea/59a11f0ef5e231745bacb528/59a11f4787da808b8640aeec/1503731500074/ LA Phil's Van Beethoven https://www.jadethacker.org/projects-as-artist daily 0.75 2017-08-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/597b84ecd2b857b2f83fa7ea/1503975058907-NTNE6VQRUFZ8VUAIR58C/DSC06335.jpg Practice - Coming soon. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/597b84ecd2b857b2f83fa7ea/1503976808500-G7J91K9458AEUB2I1ZBO/DSC06335.jpg Practice https://www.jadethacker.org/projects daily 1.0 2018-04-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/597b84ecd2b857b2f83fa7ea/1503938805652-QFRIENX5M55ISD0S1MJB/20861715_10154580321725216_1329567613331875379_o.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/597b84ecd2b857b2f83fa7ea/1505860134713-8MUNQW4S648TVTCXXZO8/walter-wlodarczyk-2017-02-23-_E4A8184.jpg Projects - GENERATION SHIP February 25–26, 2017 Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ DIRECTED BY Caitlin Baucom with SITED ORIGINAL PERFORMANCES BY Alexandra Drewchin, Kathleen Dycaico, Sarah Kinlaw, Hayley Martell, and Tara-Jo Tashna VIDEOS BY Jerome AB, Sigrid Lauren, and Colleen Marie SCORE BY Caitlin Baucom and Nathanael Gettings INSTALLATIONS BY Ben Gazsi and Colleen Marie CLOTHING BY Merritt Meacham BODYWORK by Christiana Cefalu TOUR PERFORMED BY Jerome AB, Caitlin Baucom, Gina Chiapetta, Sharleen Chidiac, Patrick Estabrook, Gabriella Garcia, and Quenton Stuckey PRODUCED BY Charlotte Gettings and Jade Thacker A TREVORSHAUS production Inspired by Mana’s distinct industrial landscape, GENERATION SHIP constructs a vision of sanctuary within a near dystopian future. Artists from a performative community in Bushwick, Brooklyn colonize the vast architecture with site-specific works, distilling what resources they have–themselves–into new ways to survive, create, communicate, nourish, and destroy. The audience is invited to tour this future, with its developed tools and sited memorials. The artists were chosen for their holistic use of physicality and sound, attention to politics embedded in our bodies, and ability to source healing out of bleakness and fear. As creators, they move in and out of each other’s work, developing common performative and emotional languages. GENERATION SHIP envisions this lived collaboration as a future closed culture with its attendant folk beliefs, ethics, and shared psychological realities on display. Trevorshaus is a curatorial experiment run by Caitlin Baucom and Patrick Estabrook with Charlotte Gettings and Nathanael Gettings. It aims to provide immediacy and evolving support to its community of artists, and to expand production of events and tangibles as a means of directly funding artists' lives and work. All photography by Walter Wlodarczyk, unless otherwise noted. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/597b84ecd2b857b2f83fa7ea/1503728371250-FS59SOBHYFD549QJK97W/TomTom_Mana-75.jpg Projects - The Oral History of Female Drummers by Tom Tom Magazine September 25, 2016 Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ The one-day event was an immersive sound installation performed by ten female-identifying drummers, each set up in different locations throughout Mana Contemporary during the Fall 2016 Open House. Designed to explore the undocumented history of female drummers, the participants are both hidden (an empty studio space, a distant corridor) and visibly featured (the BSMT courtyard, outside on the grass). They played simultaneously, out of sight and sound range of each other. The performances began short, and grew longer throughout the day to reflect the growth of visibility and presence of female drummers. This event was first performed at NYC's MoMA PS1 in January 2013; a similar piece, titled First Beat, was presented at Miami's Perez Art Museum Miami in December 2013. Most recently, The Oral History of Female Drummers was performed at the Brooklyn Museum in March 2016 to an audience of 10,000. Performers: LATREICE V BRANSON is the founder/creator of Drum Like a Lady and an internationally exhibited artist. Her DRUM4L.I.F.E. workshop has been welcomed by RHD (Resources for Human Development), PEEA (Project Elijah Empowering Autism), and The New Jersey Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired. APRIL CENTRONE is in the rock group Jane; the jazz group Acada; the all-female theatre group 11 Reflections; and the hard rock/experimental band Secret Chiefs 3. She leads music therapy groups for women, utilizing frame-drumming and singing, and has taught music to children in refugee camps in Lebanon via her project, Juthoor. She lectures on Arabic music and percussion, and is the co-founder of the nonprofit NY Arabic Orchestra. For more information, visit APRILDRUMS.COM. SEAN DESIREE is a multi-instrumentalist and producer artist based out of Albany, NY, and the solo musician behind the project Bell’s Roar. They have performed at the Brooklyn Museum; the University of Pittsburgh, Cornell, and Rutgers; at SXSW, Treefort, and Ladyfest. Much of the work focuses on LGBTQ rights, politics, gender identity, and love. They are signed to Firebrand Records, and have opened for MS MR, Mirah, K Flay, THEESatisfaction, and Chrisette Michele. For more information, visit BELLSROARMUSIC.COM. TARIESHA “RIESHA” FAYSON was voted 2014 champion of the “Hit Like a Girl” global drumming competition for female drummers, opening the door for her to perform at PASIC 2014, complete a 3-month tour playing in China and a TRX Cymbals endorsement. She is currently the drummer for No Last Call and 3 churches. KIRAN GANDHI is known by her stage name Madame Gandhi. She is an NYC artist and activist currently based in Los Angeles. Having gained recognition as the former drummer for M.I.A.—and as the iconic free-bleeding runner combatting menstrual stigma at the 2015 London Marathon—Madame Gandhi now writes her own electronic music that elevates and celebrates the female voice. Kiran holds an MBA from Harvard and a BA from Georgetown University. PIPPA KELMENSON has played in the bands Teen Wife and Cruger Island, and for Sean Henry of Double Double Whammy Records. She has created analog electronics to be used her own musical pieces that transmit the waves of the brain and heart into rhythm. Inspired by her own attention and hearing deficits, Pippa’s newest project will survey auditory illusions with self-made hardware, utilizing music as a form of art and media to investigate the body as a listening machine. AIKO MASUBUCHI is a poet, film curator, and drummer born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. She spent her summers steeped in matsuri festivals and was part of the local traditional taiko drumming group. She moved to New York in 2008, and began her first rock band, Bodega Bay, in 2013. She plays the rock kit standing up to incorporate her background in taiko drumming. She plays in multiple bands and is a blogger for Tom Tom Magazine. CHLOE SAAVEDRA is in the bands Smoosh and Chaos Chaos; and also plays with Samantha Urbani (the female voice of Blood Orange), with Fred Armisen on Late Night with Seth Meyers, and with Phil Collins in US Open commercials. She has developed her own percussive trademark by combining live drums with the Tempest drum machine and programmed beats. LAFRAE SCI is a founding teaching member of the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls in N.Y.C; the founder of the NGO Groove Diplomacy; a Cultural Ambassador for the U.S. State Department; and teaches at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Her band, The 13th Amendment?, is an educational collective focusing on the genius of Black American music. She has played drums for The Black Rock Coalition Orchestra, Keziah Jones, Nancy Sinatra (w/ Morrissey), Jr. Mack and Pinetop Perkins, Dr. Lonnie Smith, among many others. PAOLA VITERI has been playing the drums with different bands and venues in Ecuador and the U.S for twenty years. “I have been playing the drums for some time, and I want that to last forever until the day I die.” ABOUT MINDY ABOVITZ Mindy Abovitz is a self taught drummer and drum machine programmer with a Masters in Media Studies from The New School. She started Tom Tom Magazine, the first and only magazine for and about female drummers, in 2009. Mindy has lectured, performed, and held panels at: University of Cambridge, Smith College, NYU, Sarah Lawrence, Carnegie Melon, UCSD, UCLA, CalArts, RISD, The Apple Store, Perez Art Museum Miami, and MoMA PS1 among many other institutions. She has received press in Creative Review, Business Insider, FADER, i-D, BUST, Miami New Times, LA Weekly, Miami Herald, Gawker.com and The Smithsonian. She is a receiver of the 2016 She Rocks Awards. For more information, visit TOMTOMMAG.COM. All photographs by Keka Marzagao, courtesy Tom Tom Magazine. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/597b84ecd2b857b2f83fa7ea/1503552927675-WLY3SEOHWGTBU35DVDX8/IMG_5077.jpg Projects - LADY M 5.1 March 20–25, 2017 Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ LADY M 5.1 is a screen adaptation of Lady Macbeth’s soliloquy from William Shakespeare’s Macbeth—Act 5, Scene 1—in which Lady Macbeth, after inciting her husband into committing regicide, is destined to relive her most tragic moment in a never-ending loop, under the watchful gaze of a new bio-mechanical lifeform. The cyclical installation depicts a parallel universe, where the audience can witness, among the shadows and sounds, the alternative dimension in which Lady Macbeth is now destined to dwell. Directed by Mariano Baino, starring Coralina Cataldi Tassoni, accompanied by an installation designed by Baino & Cataldi-Tassoni. https://www.ladym5-1film.com/ https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/597b84ecd2b857b2f83fa7ea/1506136831852-HRJAJLBMS1WMYCUJIPOA/mike-kelley-mobile-homestead.jpg Projects - Mike Kelley's Mobile Homestead May 29 – July 28, 2014 The Geffen Contemporary, MOCA, Los Angeles, CA “Mobile Homestead covertly makes a distinction between public art and private art, between the notions that art functions for the social good, and that art addresses personal desires and concerns... It has a public side, and a secret side.” – Mike Kelley, 2011 Mobile Homestead is a permanent artwork by late artist Mike Kelley located on the grounds of the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit. It is a full-scale mobile replica of the house in which Kelley grew up, located in Westland, Michigan. The “homestead” was conceived by Kelley as a place to house a variety of community activities in Detroit, including a community gallery. It was Mike Kelley’s wish that Mobile Homestead not simply be an outpost of the museum, but that it represent the cultural interests of the community that exists in proximity to it. In that spirit, the structure has been designed with a removable facade mounted on a chassis; it is close in size to a traditional mobile home so that it may be driven around to provide various sorts of useful social services. The work made its first appearance in Los Angeles in conjunction with the retrospective exhibition, Mike Kelley, at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, which opened in April and was on view through July 28. It was the largest exhibition of Mike Kelley’s work to date, bringing together over 250 works, from 1974 through early 2012. In May 2014, for the first time since its conception, the facade of Mobile Homestead made a cross-country journey from Detroit to Los Angeles. On May 24, 2014 Mobile Homestead participated in “Walk the Talk”, a parade and performance event by Los Angeles Poverty Department that brings the history of the Skid Row community and activists to life. Mobile Homestead then relocated to the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA as a part of the retrospective exhibition, Mike Kelley. Over the following nine weeks, Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts partnered with neighboring social service and community organizations who elected to activate Mobile Homestead as a place to carry out public service, whether on site at The Geffen or as part of a journey in the nearby Downtown Los Angeles community. Mobile Homestead remained parked at The Geffen Contemporary from May 29 through July 28, at which point the Kelley exhibition closed. Mobile Homestead remained accessible during regular museum hours, and Saturday evenings in July. Widely regarded as one of the most influential artists of our time, Mike Kelley (1954–2012) produced a body of deeply innovative work mining American popular culture and both modernist and alternative traditions—which he set in relation to relentless self and social examinations, both dark and delirious. The Mobile Homestead was brought to LA by the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts in collaboration with MOCA LA, and MOCA Detroit. Mobile Homestead Activations: Los Angeles Poverty Department welcomed the Mobile Homestead’s arrival in L.A. by inviting us to join Walk the Talk 2014, the biennial Skid Row parade presented by the Los Angeles Poverty Department (LAPD) that celebrates the vibrant Skid Row community and the visionary initiatives of the residents. LAPD also installed art works within Mobile Homestead representing the Skid Row community and hosted performances written and enacted by people who live and work in Skid Row. L.A. Human Right to Housing Project/ Community Action Network hosted a rent control meeting open to all housed and un-housed LA tenants interested in developing solutions to the City's housing affordability crisis through pursuing reforms to the City's Rent Stabilization Ordinance. Critical Resistance Los Angeles installed a group exhibition including CRLA archives and several artworks addressing basic human rights and the social injustices within the Prison Industrial Complex. Workshops included a Homeless Bill of Rights presentation in conjunction with Los Angeles Community Action Network (LACAN), a presentation by LA No More Jails Coalition, and a Theater of the Oppressed workshop. Community Health Project Los Angeles temporarily relocated their office, activating the Mobile Homestead with an installation on CHPLA’s history, artist led workshops, on site client counseling services and informational talks relating to experiences of drug use, homelessness, and to remember those we have lost to overdose. L.U.N.C.H. (Local United Network in Combatting Hunger) hosted two lunch making events, where L.U.N.C.H. volunteers and MOCA visitors and staff helped make over 1,000 lunches to feed the homeless. The lunches were donated to Union Rescue Mission in nearby downtown L.A. American Red Cross Blood Drive staged a life-saving blood drive at the Mobile Homestead, where they collected 16 pints of blood. They considered this a huge success for a 1st time blood drive host. AIDS Healthcare Foundation Mobile STD Testing Unit provided a Mobile STD Testing Unit that offerring free HIV and STD testing, handed out educational materials, and distributed condoms. Echo Park Film Center presented films by underserved youth living in Echo Park for one day inside the Mobile Homestead. LAMP Arts Program installed art works by Skid Row community members and hosted a community art making workshop and musical performances by people that live and work in Skid Row. Our Skid Row hosted interactive design workshops to generate visions for a sustainable, beautiful, and thriving future for the Skid Row community. Schools on Wheels collected 10 grocery bags full of school supplies for homeless children. Union Rescue Mission collected 8 grocery bags full of hygiene supplies, shoes, socks, and clothing for the downtown homeless community. LA Mission collected 5 16x12x12 boxes and 5 grocery bags full of hygiene supplies, shoes, socks, and clothing for the downtown homeless community. Photo by Ruben Diaz. Mike Kelley’s Mobile Homestead arrived in Los Angeles on Saturday, May 24, 2014 to participate in Walk the Talk 2014, the biennial Skid Row parade presented by the Los Angeles Poverty Department (LAPD) that celebrates the vibrant Skid Row community and the visionary initiatives of the residents. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/597b84ecd2b857b2f83fa7ea/1503779587675-NH3KQEW6QLBZZTGDHNQR/mp-gallery-sept-17_21825158336_o.jpg Projects - Perfect Strangers: Machine Project and the Hamiltonians September 9–November 15, 2015 Hamilton, NY Perfect Strangers: Machine Project and the Hamiltonians is a collaboration between Machine Project, the Colgate Museum, and the town of Hamilton, NY. From September 9th to November 15th, 2015, we got to know this small town of Hamilton in the only way we know how – performances, psychic interventions, workshops, foliage analysis, lectures, and sonic massage – brought to you by some of our favorite friends and artists. This is our first collaboration with a whole town, and we are delighted to be here as the Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation Artists in Residence. Artists traveled from all over the US to contribute workshops, performances, and public interventions. Some stayed for weeks, while others came through for a few days. For the duration of our residency, Machine Project hunkered down at the famous Armstrong House where artists lived together during overlapping project timelines. Projects by: Krystal Krunch THE NEVER BEEN TO ME TOUR AT COLGATE UNIVERSITY Watch your intuitive powers magically grow! Marvel as you instantly connect with human beings! Uncover the deepest mysteries of art! Krystal Krunch introduces you to You in a fun workshop-plus-gallery tour revealing the hidden energies of the body, art, and architecture. Your inner journey begins with an intuition building workshop to open the mind’s eye, followed by a tour focusing on the art of the subconscious where dreams, fantasies, and visions manifest in artworks from the show. Workshops: Thursday, September 10th at 7pm // Zen Den Wednesday, September 16th at 4:30pm // Clifford Gallery, Colgate University Artist Lecture: Krystal Krunch with Mark Allen, Wednesday, September 9 at 4:30pm // Golden Auditorium, Little Hall, Colgate University Brian Crabtree and Kelly Cain computing with the dead: transmissions with the inventor Moonlit sounds conjuring spirits. Binary digits calling on John Vincent Atanasoff. Sun, earth and moon forming a right angle. Relaying messages of gratitude. Solving long lost equations of musical destinies. Friday, September 11th, 8pm // Merrill House, Colgate University A Friday night film series event. Adam Goldman I’d Rather Listen to a Bad Song Adam (Colgate ‘94) collaborates with members of the Colgate and Hamilton communities to convey their messages by translating them into Protest Songs — aiming to revive this lost art, or bury it forever! Utilizing a three-station assembly line process, Adam will assist participants as they write and record a protest song on the subject of their choosing. Local musicians will perform a selection at the end of his residency. Workshops: Saturday, September 9th at 10am // Homecoming Tailgate, Andy Kerr Stadium Monday, September 21st throughout the day // Hamilton Center for the Arts Tuesday, September 22nd at 4:15pm // Center for Women’s Studies Lounge, Colgate University Wednesday, September 23rd at 7pm // Trivia Night at the Colgate Inn Artist Lecture: Wednesday, September 23 at 4:30pm // Golden Auditorium, Little Hall, Colgate University Cliff Hengst Poetry, Wit and Wisdom: Taking the Pulse of Hamilton dentifying the poetics of everyday language and conversation, Cliff will gather phrases read and heard in our community, translating them into hand painted signs to be showcased in storefront windows. The signs will be given away to Hamiltonians at end of his residency. Hana Van Der Kolk spaces between us/the in-between spaces Collaborating with Colgate students, this project is dedicated to exposing and shifting institutional oppression at Colgate and beyond — a contribution to the ongoing dialogue about diversity and accountability through exploring ourselves and others, difference, diversity, and cooperation. Additional support: The Colgate Arts Council and The Dean of the College. Mercedes Teixido Notes for Hamilton Writing has become an act of drawing. Utilizing a custom polygraph machine modeled after that of Thomas Jefferson’s, Mercedes invites the public to read to her as she creates improvisational drawings and writings. Monday, October 19 – Friday, October 23, 10am – 7pm // Hamilton Public Library Residency: October 19th – 23rd 2015 Chris Kallmyer Archive of Regional Ranking Experimental music meets puritanical tidiness in a study of the regional raking practices of Hamilton’s residents. Performance in collaboration with Colgate Students on Thursday, October 29 at 6pm // 100 Broad Street Residence Hall Artist Lecture: Chris Kallmyer with Carmina Escobar – Wednesday, October 28 at 4:30PM // Golden Auditorium, Little Hall, Colgate University Carmina Escobar Imenso Massagem Sonora An immersive performative installation that explores the voice, intimacy, personal space and bodily resonance, building a relationship of discovery between individuals that allow others to find their own unique resonant geographies. Wednesday, October 28th – Friday, October 30th, ongoing // Hamilton Center for the Arts Thursday, October 29th, 3-5pm // Center for Women’s Studies Lounge, Colgate University Friday, October 30 at 5pm // Zen Den Artist Lecture: Chris Kallmyer with Carmina Escobar – Wednesday, October 28 at 4:30PM // Golden Auditorium, Little Hall, Colgate University Kamau Patton Open Archive, Hamilton NY Open Archive is an invitation to the Hamilton and Colgate communities to share and display their history. The project is an examination of the recent past as recorded on obsolete and soon to be obsolete machines. Equipped with media players found through Nextdoor Hamilton and yard sales, Kamau will set up a screening room/workshop to view, scan and archive media artifacts – bring your films, files, slides, recordings and other treasures. Tuesday, November 10 – Saturday, November 14, ongoing // Hamilton Center for the Arts Michael O’Malley Objects for Perfect Strangers Michael will create ten sculptures for ten residents of Hamilton, a process initiated by making a sculpture for his friend (and ours) Matt Malloy. Matt will introduce Michael to another friend, who will introduce Michael to another friend, etc. Michael did a similar project, Objects for Friends, in which he created special sculptures for people in his life, cited to their specific social, personal and architectural contexts. Wednesday, September 9 – Friday, November 13, ongoing // Clifford Gallery, Colgate University https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/597b84ecd2b857b2f83fa7ea/1514004570919-KT000LTXB6P5L4Q6ANH5/_MG_9446.jpeg Projects - Home Song January 28, 2017 Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ Home Song presented an intimate evening of music performed by legendary Syrian vocalist, Lubana Al Quntar, accompanied by musicians from the New York Arabic Orchestra: Eylem Basaldi on violin and April Centrone on oud and percussion. All proceeds from the event were directly transferred to Solidarity Through Humanity, a grassroots charitable initiative dedicated to providing relief, fuel for heat, and other vital supplies to Al Faour, a particularly isolated Syrian refugee camp in the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon, a region that had received very little aid from humanitarian organizations up until this point. Beqaa Valley is known for its treacherous winters, and many people living in this camp, mostly young children, died before the New Year due to extreme weather conditions. Without fuel, families had often resorted to to burning shoes and garbage to produce heat, resulting in the production of toxic fumes, and making a seemingly impossible situation even worse. Following the event, we received wonderful news reporting that Home Song raised enough funds to provide heat to all 221 families living in the Al Faour Refeugee Camp of Beqaa Valley for the remainder of the cold season. PERFORMERS Lubana Al Quntar, Eylem Basaldi, and April Centrone SPEAKERS Nisreen Nasser, Founder of Solidarity Through Humanity April Centrone, Co-founder of the New York Arabic Orchestra, teacher, and artist Issam Khoury, Syrian journalist With curated DJ sets by Rahill Jamalifard and Caroline Partamian. ABOUT SOLIDARITY THROUGH HUMANITY Solidarity Through Humanity is a grassroots initiative founded by Nisreen Nasser, who is based in Lebanon, and Shannon Brandt, who is based in New York, with the direct purpose of providing aid to isolated refugee communities within Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley. Solidarity Through Humanity believes in the power of empathy and compassion to connect with and provide aid to people all around the globe who are in need and have been displaced due to war or poverty. “We started the new year with a heating fuel delivery to the refugee camp we've been supporting since 2015. This delivery was possible because of fundraisers held in New York and New Jersey by April Centrone as well as the efforts of the 210 Tents organization in Vancouver, Canada. Yet, with all sorrow, we regret to break this devastating news that some newborn babies didn't make it through this winter because of the cold weather and complications accompanied by lack of heat and supplies. Thank you to every single person who donated, shared our events, and spread the word about our cause. Co-founder Shannon Brandt will be visiting the camp in few weeks for another delivery of supplies. Help us not let any baby die in the camp in 2017.” - Nisreen Nasser, January 5, 2017 ABOUT LUBANA AL QUNTAR Lubana Al Quntar is an acclaimed Syrian vocalist of both opera and traditional Arabic song. She headed the Department of Opera Singing and launched the Department of Classical Arabic Singing at the Syrian National Conservatory. ABOUT EYLEM BASALDI Turkish-born violinist and composer Basaldi performs in a wide array of settings featuring Balkan, Middle Eastern, North African and Southeast Asian musical traditions. ABOUT APRIL CENTRONE April Centrone is a drummer and percussionist, teacher and music therapist. Originally from New York, she has given concerts and lectures around the world in Arabic percussion. ABOUT ISSAM KHOURY Issam Khoury is a journalist and political activist from Syria with more than 15 years of experience in writing and conducting research in politics, governance, Islamic groups, human rights, arts, and culture for major news media in the Middle East and North Africa. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/597b84ecd2b857b2f83fa7ea/1514004251346-BMSEIMS1X67Q0C6QOCTA/4_color_fuf_small.jpg Projects - This Is Not A Gun December 3, 2017 Presented with Cara Levine during Forward Union Fair, Manhattan, New York A snickers bar is not a gun. A hairbrush is not a gun. A bible is not a gun. These items come from a list of 23 objects that have been mistaken for guns by police officers in civilian shootings since 2001. This Is Not A Gun is a collection of objects and a series of participatory ceramic workshops that encourage participants to give presence to these objects, calling attention to their not-gun-ness by sculpting their shape in clay. This Is Not A Gun endeavors to carve out time and space to site institutional racism, police brutality, and violence within each participant's own body and story, without presuming a total understanding of this historically dense and complicated crisis. Each gathering upholds a non-judgemental space for sharing amongst anyone who participates. Co-led by Jade Thacker, artist Cara Levine, and founders of MNDFL Meditation POC group Jessica Angima and Jen Martínez-Lynch. This was the third iteration of this event. The first workshop took place at the Tenderloin Museum in San Francisco, CA on March 30, 2017. The second workshop took place at the Santa Fe Art Institute on October 7, 2017. A fourth workshop took place at the Women's Center for Creative Work in Los Angeles, CA on December 16, 2017. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/597b84ecd2b857b2f83fa7ea/1523812167010-GQZE1TT9IGC6VAB6J3DN/markdavis_boom_contact_003.jpg Projects - Carriage Carriage is a site-responsive performance created by Matty Davis and Ben Gould that radically explores control and empathy, motored in part by the raw energy of Gould’s Tourette Syndrome. This performance is informed by evolving senses of the body—injury, trauma, healing, and growth—and offers a unique opportunity to create a work that draws from the variance of Davis and Gould’s distinct physicalities. The result is an intense, viscerally and sonically charged experience, where empathy is a physical tool, resistance offers stability, and we are all cast out into a space that levels us, brings us real fear, awakening, new vocabularies and physical structures. In collaboration with curator/producer Jade Thacker, the work will be shared at various venues and locations throughout the United States, responding to and recomposing itself according to the various demands and nuances of the light, sonic quality, surface, kinesthetic possibility, and historical context unique to each site. The work continuously evolves. 2018 U.S. Tour Dates March 29: Queens, NY at Queenslab, 7:00PM March 31: Brooklyn, NY, at The Roof, 7:00PM May 3: Headlands, San Francisco, CA at Battery Mendell, 6:00PM May 4: Oakland, CA at Creative Growth, 7:00PM May 6: Los Angeles, CA at Human Resources, 7:00PM June 9: Detroit, MI at Lightbox, time TBC Additional dates to be announced. “One of the most profound experiences in contemporary performance. Frustration, desolation, sadness and love are embodied in a wide-ranging programmatic structure both rawly virtuosic and tastefully sparse. Truly stunning physicalities, reminiscent of the sculpture of Henry Moore and Anthony Caro, create moments of austere isolation that are subsumed into a vital emotional unity.” –– Clifford Allen, Director of Archives, Watermill Center, NYC "The performance is visually stunning. The language of movement between Matty and Ben is uncannily harmonic, touching, and embodies and expands our notion of empathy." –– Holly Shen, Director and Curator of Visual Arts, BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) Carriage has been workshopped in New York City at Judson Church, the Watermill Center, the Edward F. Albee Foundation, the Philadelphia School, and Queenslab. It was supported through a residency at the Kickstarter Headquarters in NYC, and has received support from a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant. Matty Davis is an artist from Pittsburgh, PA, where his father’s plane crashed and his grandfather worked for decades in the steel mills. Described by the New Yorker as “fearless,” he has been noted for his combination of relentless, imaginative physicality and intimacy. Davis is invested in the body as a network of energy systems and architectures that can be activated and transformed through action, sparking visceral transformation and mining somatic memory. His multi-disciplinary practice yields live performances, films, objects, drawings, and photographs. In 2012, he co-founded BOOMERANG, a performance project based in New York City, and has performed works by or with David Hallberg, Gudio van der Werve, Andy de Groat, and Tino Sehgal. His work has been presented by the Art Institute of Chicago, Steppenwolf Theater, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Judson Church, the 92nd St. Y, the Watermill Center, Dixon Place, Danspace Project, and the Arts Arena in Paris, and the Max Ernst Museum, among others. He was the recipient of a 2016 Visual Arts Fellowship from the Edward F. Albee Foundation, and has recently been an artist-in-residence at the Watermill Center, Queenslab, and Kickstarter’s HQ in Brooklyn. Davis teaches at colleges and schools throughout the US, including New York University, Columbia College, Oberlin College, Muhlenberg College, Kenyon College, the Professional Performing Arts High School in New York, and the Philadelphia School. More information is available at www.mattydavis.net Ben Gould is an artist currently living and working in New York City. After being diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome, Gould’s studio practice has transformed to harbor a new investment in the body, exploring limits, resistance, and the loss of control. Grounded in performance, his multidisciplinary practice is built upon collaboration, intimacy, and urgency - cultivated by a deep interest in how energy is directed, rerouted, transformed and transferred. His condition has become an engine for movement-based performance work that is in search of stabilization, and driven by an evolving practice of energetic restraint and release. Within a growing mythos, a space for fantasy and freedom is created for the corresponding videos, images, and objects that emerge from this process. Gould has performed site-specific works across the country, from varied geographies to institutional spaces - leading to solo exhibitions at Plug Projects in Kansas City and Ballroom Projects in Chicago, and collaborations with musicians, rock climbers, singers, and designers. Gould has apprenticed with master craftsmen in California, was a 2015 Ox-Bow Fellow, a 2017 Kickstarter Artist in Residence, and Queenslab Space Grant recipient in 2018. He was born in Grass Valley, California in 1993 and was raised there, in the foothills of the Sierra Mountains, next to a decommissioned gold mine and a river. Most recently he has performed and shown new works in Kansas City, San Antonio, Miami, Los Angeles, and at the Watermill Center, Judson Church, and Queenslab in New York. More information is available at www.bengould.net Clothing by Gabriella Lacza Produced by Jade Thacker https://www.jadethacker.org/upcoming-olfactophilia daily 0.75 2017-09-26 https://www.jadethacker.org/open-engagement daily 0.75 2018-08-16 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/597b84ecd2b857b2f83fa7ea/t/5b74efb221c67c985a025af0/1534388621617/ Open Engagement https://static1.squarespace.com/static/597b84ecd2b857b2f83fa7ea/5b74e620575d1fc106ba7ea0/5b74e98d2b6a289572e113d5/1534388621617/ Open Engagement https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/597b84ecd2b857b2f83fa7ea/1534388718753-CK2N1L0PY2PTY61NT347/OE+Open+House+%281%29.jpg Open Engagement https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/597b84ecd2b857b2f83fa7ea/1534390177524-2ANPYZHZRO5VHJVNVFRX/OE+2018+%281%29.png Open Engagement https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/597b84ecd2b857b2f83fa7ea/1534388820079-KLQ4PJMMHJYKS1YWEV3I/OE+Open+House+%281%29.jpg Open Engagement - Open Engagement Open House Friday, May 11, 2018 To kick off Open Engagement––SUSTAINABILITY, the 10th Annual socially engaged art conference, Thacker organized “Open House” –– a day long pre-conference initiative highlighting unique work being done by 23 New York City based organizations, collectives, and institutions across all five boroughs of the city. Programming took place from 9am to 6pm including tours, exhibitions, panel conversations, interventions, and open hours. Open House breaks from a traditional conference model, considering sites and contexts of the city as both material and classroom. All Open House programming was free, and included accessibility and public transportation information. The 10th Annual (and last in it’s current form) Open Engagement conference took place May 11–13, 2018 at the Queens Museum. Open Engagement is an artist-led initiative committed to expanding the dialogue around and serving as a site of care for the field of socially engaged art. We highlight the work of transdisciplinary artists, activists, students, scholars, community members, and organizations working within the complex social issues and struggles of our time. Since 2007, OE has presented ten conferences in two countries and six cities, hosting over 1,800 presenters and over 7,000 attendees. In addition, OE managed a publishing arm, and assembled a national consortium of institutions, colleges, and funders all dedicated to supporting artists engaged in this necessary and critical work. Read the curatorial statement here. Download the catalogue here. https://www.jadethacker.org/about daily 0.75 2018-08-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/597b84ecd2b857b2f83fa7ea/1503508869306-AAIANG1WHT9YY8KK95XD/000057730034.jpg.jpeg About Photograph by Will Richter. https://www.jadethacker.org/services-1 daily 0.75 2018-04-05 https://www.jadethacker.org/read-me-forte daily 0.75 2025-05-09