four poets, many thoughts

by Roger Martin atca on February 01, 2012

DECISION bill yule You crave a love and think that it be mine This troubadour who comes and strums your strings Transforming tears to taste like vintage wine Forgetting that the pendulum still swings Indeed your touch ignites tinder-dry dreams In cruel paradox which mocks at me Who’s run these races on the winning teams On nights when he could pay the entry fee Too late to make an Eden on these sands Where harvest’s done before the planting’s through But there are seeds which sprout in aged hands So doubtless there is something we can do I could be kind and move myself from view If I were one of those who are well bred But I’ll be cruel and light this...more

BAD AS I WANNA BE

an exploration of excess, wealth and addiction

by Heike Wollenweber on January 31, 2012

On February 11th Primary Projects will open the doors for a solo show by Jessy Nite entitled “Bad As I Wanna Be,” and the artist is ready to share her artistic interpretation of Miami, obscenely wealthy housewives, and dessert. “Bad As I Wanna Be,” is Nite’s exploration of excess, wealth and addiction. She examines these darker sides to Miami’s opulence with an almost childlike innocence, and even though she is clearly linking the concepts of wealth and addiction, her work never comes across as cynical or judgmental. Most pieces are composed of a 1980’s Miami Vice inspired palette, all vibrant pastels that stop just short of exploding off the canvas. One series of paintings entitled “Money Hungry,” is a clever juxtaposition of the figuratively sweet, wealth symbolized by colorful jewelry, and the literally...more

Segway to Absurdity

If you’re not familiar, the Segway PT is described as “A two wheeled self-balancing personal transport.” Or as I like to call it – the Ultimate Douchemobile. The Segway is a sort of mutant vehicle that you drive standing up, whilst wearing a helmet and looking like the incarnation of the grade-school “kick me” sign. It would not be humanly possible to look like a bigger dork on this thing.

Brenda Alford, Diva With a Cause

If you see Brenda Alford perform, be prepared to be wowed by her incredible voice and vocal range. She gained a fan last year when I saw her perform in a show called ‘The Four Divas’ at the Broward Center in Ft. Lauderdale. When I interviewed her after the show, I inquired where has she been singing lately. She informed me that she is actually in retirement from show business. She answers to another calling, which is teaching. That calling manifested itself at an early age in her life. In lyrics to a song that she wrote for Sonny Rogers, she tells a touching story of how, as a kindergarten student, she helped an 80 year old man from her hometown learn to read. In Jan. 2010, Brenda participated in the National African American Read-In Day which took place in the Carlson Library of the University of Pennsylvania. Brenda was honored last year by Dade County and the City of Homestead V.F.W. Auxillary Post as “Teacher of the Year’. In a singing career that began in 1978 in Baltimore, Md., Brenda has performed jazz, pop and gospel in concerts in North America, the Caribbean and Asia. She worked with some of the greatest names in jazz. These include Pete Minger, Stanley Turrentine, Sonny Stitt, Philly Jo Jones, Sam Jones, Tommy Flannagan, Keter Betts, Lou Donaldson, Ron Carter, Al Foster, and Cyrus Chestnut. Alford has also performed in two movies: Jon Waters' “Hairspray” and Barry Levinson’s “Avalon”. You can hear her on records she made with Horace Silver on the Blue Note label. She recorded live in concert with sax innovator Flip Phillips, and on pianist Billy Marcus' c.d. “Hamp”. (Hampton asked her to perform with Billy at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival in Moscow, Idaho, for his 90th birthday). Her own recordings include “Brenda Alford at Morgan State”; a single, “Last Night in Baltimore”; and most recently, “My Favorite Things” in concert with Othello Molineaux at the Old Dillard Museum in Ft. Lauderdale. Fortunately, Brenda does a “Barbara Streisand” from time to time by coming out of retirement to delight her fans. For the last Martin Luther King Jr. celebration at the Clarion College Hart Chapel, she had the audience on their feet after singing “Got the World on a String” and “Girl from Ipanema”. She followed this with the heartbreaking “Body and Soul”. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. Then she did a cameo appearance at sax man Melton Mustafa’s benefit concert at Stu Grant’s Sunday Morning Jazz on 880AM, Miami. Grant announced that “South Florida's very own Brenda Alford stopped by to grace the audience with her rendition of "My Funny Valentine". (See video at end of column). “I haven't found the words to describe the beautiful sounds coming from her mouth” he said. Last month, the Stage in Miami featured Alford in their monthly rent party. I made sure to get their early to claim a good seat. I was rewarded with a star quality performance in this very intimate setting. Check out www.brendaalford.com for future engagements. Click on link to Brenda Alford video:- http://youtu.be/wBdf3KCB3RE

Activist Gone Wild

The witness sits in a room at a Madrid courthouse. Now in his late thirties, Quiché Indian Antonio Caba Caba is being asked to testify about that morning almost three decades ago, when army soldiers came to his village in Guatemala, burned the houses and killed his friends and relatives. He breaks down in tears and asks the question that has haunted him all these years: why? He is what genocide looks like. It's not just about the senseless bloodshed and rotting corpses, but about the psychological scars that those who live through atrocities like the Illom Massacre in 1982 carry with them for the rest of their lives. The new documentary Granito: How to Nail a Dictator aims to bring the man responsible for the deaths and “disappearances” of approximately 200,000 Maya people to justice, but with the exception of a handful of heart-rending moments like the one mentioned above, it's actually more successful as a mouthpiece for its socially conscious director. Activist/filmmaker Pamela Yates wants to give the victims of the Guatemalan genocide an opportunity to break their silence, but their testimonies are drowned out by her own indignation. The film is less about their human rights struggles than about her steadfast determination to Make a Difference. Yates is actually revisiting the subject matter she explored back in 1982, when she and cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel went to Guatemala with a 16mm camera to make a movie about those colorful Native Americans way south of the border. The result was Where the Mountains Tremble, and it gave eventual Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchú an ideal showcase for her plight on the world stage. That film is a vivid portrait of the Maya people, who at the time were stuck in the middle of a civil war between the country's military dictatorship and the guerrillas who rose up against it. Menchú does make an appearance in Granito, but it amounts to a glorified cameo. Yates makes sure to place herself up front and center, and her running commentary, in which she reveals that she had little idea of the full extent of the Guatemalan government's actions, quickly grows tiresome. It's an intrusive, ill-conceived storytelling device that dilutes the effect of some very powerful images that should – and occasionally do – speak for themselves. In this 60 Minutes context, Yates reduces the evocative When the Mountains Tremble to Exhibit A in her quest for accountability. She actually goes back to the vault for what she refers to as an “archeological dig” of her outtakes from 1982, and discovers interview footage in which General Efraín Ríos Montt indirectly admits to be responsible for his entire army's actions even as he's denying any wrongdoing. Is it enough to bring him to trial? What follows should unfold like an absorbing political thriller, but as Yates returns to the indigenous highlands she filmed as an up-and-coming documentarian, Granito devolves into a trip down memory lane. Indeed, editor Peter Kinow never misses a chance to juxtapose the old 16mm footage with present-day video images like Yates meeting the guerrilla sniper who shot down the army helicopter in which she was filming the government forces. Granito is full of such gripping anecdotes, but its disjointed parts fail to coalesce into a satisfying whole. It also doesn't help matters that Ríos Montt is a far more engaging figure than Yates and her posse of justice crusaders. Much like Errol Morris' The Thin Blue Line exonerated a death-row inmate from a crime he did not commit, Granito finally had its desired effect. One week ago, Ríos Montt was arrested and taken to court, where a public prosecutor read thousands of charges against him. Evildoers like that third-rate dictator can't be allowed to get away with his crimes against humanity, Yates forcefully proclaims. Now enough about him. Granito wraps things up with the self-serving sight of Yates showing footage from her earlier work to Guatemalan students who live in the same area where the massacres took place. Her film's title is a reference to the “grain of sand” collective philosophy, the belief that if we all contribute a small portion of ourselves, we can achieve anything. It's far from a subtle irony that the most prominent element in Granito is the director's boulder-sized ego. Pamela Yates and producer Paco de Onís are scheduled to attend Thursday night's screening of Granito at the Bill Cosford Cinema (cosfordcinema.com) and Friday night's screening at the Miami Beach Cinematheque (mbcinema.com). For more information go to the theaters' websites. (Yes, Miami, the ego has landed.) http://www.cosfordcinema.com/ http://mbcinema.com/

MAZ Arts Calendar

What's New in Town

FEBRUARY 2012 THEATRE Through February 5 The Motherf**ker With The Hat A furious study of lives in collision. GableStage at The Biltmore, 1200 Anastasia Ave, Coral Gables. 305-445-1119 www.gablestage.com Februay 9 – March 4 Top Gun The Musical Watch out! He's on your six! Empire Stage, 1140 N.Flagler Drive, Ft Lauderdale 954-678-1496 www.empirestage.com/ Through February 12 The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity Recently nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, this is a comedic look at the world of professional wrestling playing at The Caldwell Theatre 7901 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton, FL 561.241.7432 caldwelltheatre.com Through February 12 Next To Normal A musical about a family trying to take care of themselves. Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre, 280 Miracle Mile, Coral Gables. 305-444-9293 www.actorsplayhouse.org/ Through February 12 Brooklyn Boy A man without a home. The Studio at Mizener Park, Boca Raton. 561-291-9678 http://www.paradeproductions.org Through February 12 Winter Burying Momma. New Theatre, 1645 SW 107th Ave, Miami. 305-443-5909 www.new-theatre.org February 12, 13, 14 Love Stories An Evening of Short Plays About Flirtation, Romance and Love. The Sandbox at 9808 NE 2nd Avenue (adjacent to The Playground Theatre) Miami Shores, FL. 305-751-9550 February 17 – March 18 The Pitman Painters Palm Beach Dramaworks 201 Clematis Street, West Palm Beach 561-514-4042 www.palmbeachdramaworks.org/ Through March 4 Last of the Red Hot Lovers No job, lots of women. Stage Door Theatre, 8036 W. Sample Rd, Coral Springs. 954-344-7765 www.stagedoortheatre.com March 8 – April 1 Death and the Maiden The play explores the after-effects of repression on hearts and souls. Mosaic Theatre, 12200 West Boward Blvd. Plantation 954-473-4713 www.mosaictheatre.com CHILDREN’S EVENTS February 1 - March 11 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Down the rabbit hole with Alice at the Playground Theatre, 9806 NE 2nd Ave, Miami Shores. 305-751-9550 www.theplaygroundtheatre.com Through March 9 Alexander Who's Not Not Not Not Not Going to Move Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre, 280 Miracle Mile, Coral Gables. 305.444.9293 or www.actorsplayhouse.org. FILM The free SoundScape Cinema Series is held every Wednesday at the new Miami Beach SoundScape ExoStage, at the corner of 17th Street and Washington Avenue. Movies begin at 8:30 p.m. New World Center: Miami Beach SoundScape ExoStage, 500 17th St., Miami Beach. 305.673.7577 or www.mbculture.com. Art Film Cinemas Miami Beach Cinematheque, 1130 Washington Ave., Miami Beach. 305.673.4567 or www.mbcinema.com. Cinema O, 90 NW 29th St., Miami. 305.571.9970 or www.o-cinema.org. Coral Gables Art Cinema, 260 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables. 786.385.9689 or www.cinemateque.org. Bill Cosford Cinema – 2nd Floor, Memorial Building, University of Miami campus, Coral Gables 305.284.4861 www.cosfordcinema.com DANCE February 2 – 11 Here and Now: 2012 Emerging Artist Series at The Light Box at Goldman Warehouse, 404 NW 26 Street, Miami 305-576-4350 www.miamilightproject.com February 3 – 5 Miami City Ballet Program II: Viscera, In The Night, Ballet Imperial. The Broward Center, 201 SW Fifth Ave, Ft Lauderdale 954-462-0222 www.browardcenter.org February 11 – 12 Elemental Journey: Air, Land, Water Local dancers perform in world premiere with dance, words, music and multi media at The Colony Theatre, 1040 Lincoln Rd, Miami Beach. 305-674-1040 www.joseegarantdance.com February 17 -19, 24 - 26, March 9 -11 Miami City Ballet Program III: Giselle The Arsht Center, 1300 Biscayne Blvd. Miami 305-949-6722 www.arshtcenter.org Broward Center, 201 SW Fifth Ave, Ft Lauderdale. 954-462-0222 browardcenter.org Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd, West Palm Beach 561-833-8300 www.kravis.org March 3, 4, 10, 11 Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida Fairy Doll Aventura and Broward 305-948-4777 www.artsballettheatre.org MUSIC February 1 The Four Tops and The Temptations Motown Legends. 8 pm Broward Center, 201 SW Fifth Ave, Ft Lauderdale. 954-462-0222 browardcenter.org/thefourtops_thetemptations February 3 Beats After Sunset 8 – 11 pm The Bass Museum of Art 2100 Collins Ave, Miami Beach 305-673-7530 www.bassmuseum.org February 4 Miami Gay Men's Chorus The third annual MGMC South Florida Choral Festival. 7 pm Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, 464 NE 16th St, Miami. tickets.completeticketsolutions.com/MGC/Online/default.asp February 9 Singer Songwriter Craig Carothers UM Gusman Concert Hall at 8 pm February 9 – 12 Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance Virginia Key Beach Park, 4020 Virginia Beach Drive 786-332-4630 www.virginiakeygrassroots.org February 8 – 12 At Last: The Songs of Harry Warren Tribute to the three time Academy Award song writer. The Aventura Arts & Cultural Center, 3385 N.E. 188 Street, Aventura 877-311-7469 www.AventuraCenter.org. February 9 The Hilario Bell Ensemble The Van Dyke, 846 Lincoln Road, South Beach. For more information, call 305-534-3600 or visit thevandykecafe.com February 11- 12 The Miami Symphony Orchestra A Valentine Extravaganza Feb 11 8 pm at The Herbert and Nicole Wertheim Performing Arts Center Feb 12 at The New World Center 305-275-5666 www.themiso.org February 12 Lecuona at Twilight, Always in My Heart The music of Ernesto Lecuona. 5 pm Reception, 6 pm Concert. Coral Gables Museum. 285 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables 305-603-8067 www.coralgablesmuseum.org February 14 – 26 SoBay Festival of the Arts Deering Estate at Cutler 16701 SW 72 Ave 305-235-1668 www.deeringestate.org/pages/SoBay-Festival-of-the-Arts.aspx February 15 Felipe Lamoglia's Irsounds February 22 Fegroni's Trio with special guest Steve Kirkland on sax. Both are at 9 pm at PAX Performing Arts Exchange. 377 SW 8th Street, Miami. The performances are free. For more information, call 305-640-5847 or visit paxmiami.com. February 17 Robert Cray and Shemekia Copeland Jazz Roots – Blues and Soul. 8 pm Adrienne Arsht Center, 1300 Biscayne Blvd. Miami 305-949-6722 www.arshtcenter.org February 23 The Langston Hughes Project Multi media concert performance of the Jazz Poem Suite, "Ask Your Mama". South Miami Dade Cultural Arts Center, 10950 SW 211 St, Cutler Bay. 786 – 573 – 5300 www.smdcac.org February 24 – March 11 Hamlet Sound Theatre/Opera. World Premiere. SoBe Arts 2100 Washington Avenue, Miami Beach 305-807-9000 sobearts.org February 25 Elliot Sharp – Avant Guitar Composer, multi instrumentalist presented by Tigertail 8.30 pm at the Miami Dade County Auditorium, 2901 West Flagler St., Miami. 305-324-4337 www.tigertail.org/events_Sharp.html February 25 – 26 Tosca Miami Lyric Opera. Colony Theatre, 1040 Lincoln Rd, Miami Beach 305-674-1040 March 1 - 4 Miami Made Festival 2012 When The Sun Goes Down – new theatre, live music and visual art. Adrienne Arsht Center. 1300 Biscayne Blvd. Miami 305-949-6722 www.arshtcenter.org March 4 The Alhambra Orchestra Brahm's Symphony No. 2 and the Grieg Piano Concert Free admission. 7 pm Ransom-Everglades School, 3575 Main Highway, Coconut Grove 33133. (305) 668-9260 www.alhambramusic.org April 17 Ry Cuming Australian pop singer, song writer, guitarist. 8 pm Arsht Center. 1300 Biscayne Blvd. Miami 305-949-6722 www.arshtcenter.org COMEDY February 29 – March 3 South Beach Comedy Festival southbeachcomedyfestival.com/ ART February 16 Miami Art Museum Recent acquisitions and upcoming lectures. 101 West Flagler St., Miami 305-375-3000 miamiartmuseum.org February 16 – 20 Art Wynwood International Contemporary Art Fair. Art Wynwood Pavilion, 3101 NE 1st Ave, Miami www.art-wynwood.com Through March 18 Contemporary Artists from France in Florida Collections In collaboration with the Consul General of France and the France-Florida Foundation, this exhibition features paintings by French artists in private collections, many of which have never been presented to the public before. The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum at FIU, 10975 SW 17th St., Miami. 305.348.2890 or www.thefrost.fiu.edu Through February 19 Color on Color Color on Color marks the inaugural exhibition of the collaboration between The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum at FIU and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Buenos Aires. It includes works by Ilya Bolotowsky, Alexander Lieberman, Carlos Cruz Diez and Joel Stein, among many others. The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum at FIU, 10975 SW 17th St., Miami. 305.348.2890 or www.thefrost.fiu.edu Thru September 23 Saintly Blessings from Mexico Painted, devotional images of saints, called retablos, used primarily by Mexican peoples as objects of veneration and to seek favors, are on exhibition for the first time. The collection has been graciously donated to the Lowe by prominent art collectors Joseph and Janet Shein. Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, 1301 Stanford Drive, Coral Gables. 305.284.3535 or www.lowemuseum.org. Wooden Synagogues of Poland & the Florida Connection Since the 8th century, Jews lived in Poland. As their numbers increased, they lived in shtetls (small Jewish towns or villages in Eastern Europe) and built wooden synagogues that represent Jewish folk art. During World War II, the Nazis destroyed these early wooden synagogues in Poland. Englishman Peter Maurice studied these and made 10 models that he donated to the Jewish Museum of Florida. The exhibit will feature the rare models and stories of Jews who came from Polish shtetls to Florida. Jewish Museum of Florida, 301 Washington Ave., Miami Beach. 305.672.5044 or www.jewishmuseum.com. Submissions for the MAZ Arts Calendar should be sent to roger@miamiartzine.com with Calendar Listing in the subject line.