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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20081123T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20081123T160000
DTSTAMP:20230705T160241Z
CREATED:20081123T154900Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230705T160241Z
UID:10000857-1227441600-1227456000@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:Be The Media! Workshop: Beyond the Talking Head
DESCRIPTION:For this workshop\, the Sanctuary teams up with SACC TV Channel 16 – Schenectady’s public access television stations. Learn the skills and tricks of creating dynamic video pieces for television that go beyond “talking head” interviews. Learn about collecting b-roll\, covering edits\, and adding meaning and illustration to your interviews and documentary works. Get in touch with your creative side\, as the instructor helps you explore other genres and techniques to drive your message home. \n\n\n\nInstructor: Jim De SeveJim De Seve is a local documentary maker and media producer. In addition to his own acclaimed documentary work\, he has shot and produced videos for Nickelodeon\, MTV\, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and the American Museum of Natural History. Jim currently teaches documentary production at Union College.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/be-the-media-workshop-beyond-the-talking-head/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Workshop
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20081122T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20081122T210000
DTSTAMP:20230705T160010Z
CREATED:20081122T154400Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230705T160010Z
UID:10001028-1227380400-1227387600@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:Free Jazz from the Sanctuary presents   The Ras Ensemble
DESCRIPTION:Ras Moshe has been playing in various groups throughout New York City for almost 20 years\, with William Hooker\, Sabir Mateen\, Steve Swell\, Marc Edwards and others. His style has been compared to post-1965 John Coltrane and Frank Wright\, among others. Born and raised in New York\, and with a family history rich in the jazz tradition\, Ras has uniquely positioned himself to bring the lineage of free jazz into the present day.  \n\n\n\nLocal presentation of Ras Moshe is co-sponsored by the Arts Department at RPI and supported by the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York State Music Fund. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPress Release\n\n\n\nSaxophonist Ras Moshe is on the forefront of musicians keeping avant garde jazz urgent and vital. Moshe comes blessed with a jazz pedigree: his grandfather played with Lucky Millinder\, Earl Bostic\, Ella Fitzgerald\, and many others\, and his father worked with Carlos Garnett\, Stanley Cowell\, and other musicians in the new music scene in Brooklyn. As a result Moshe is well versed in jazz’s past\, but he uses his knowledge to envision the future. And he’s bringing as many musicians with him as he can: Moshe is founder of Music Now!\, a roving festival that regularly produces some of New York City’s most exciting concerts. \n\n\n\nRas Moshe has been playing in various groups throughout New York City for almost twenty years. He is a veteran of the groups of such leaders as William Hooker\, Sabir Mateen\, Steve Swell and Marc Edwards. His style has been compared to post-1965 John Coltrane and Frank Wright\, among others. Born and raised in New York\, and with a family history rich in the jazz tradition\, Moshe has uniquely positioned himself to bring the lineage of free jazz into the present day. \n\n\n\nRas has been writing and reciting poetry since childhood. He believes in the positive effect the new music will have on social and personal change. His new release is “Transcendence” on KMB Jazz.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/ras-moshe/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Jazz Music,Performance
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20081116T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20081116T210000
DTSTAMP:20230705T155128Z
CREATED:20221011T195316Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230705T155128Z
UID:10001635-1226858400-1226869200@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:Eliza Gilkyson and Robert Jensen
DESCRIPTION:Eliza Gilkyson has built a reputation as one of the most original and influential folk artists of our time over the course of 13 albums (most recently\, Beautiful World on Red House Records). Robert Jensen\, whose book All My Bones Shake: Radical Politics in the Prophetic Voice is forthcoming on Soft Skull Press\, is a professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin who has written extensively about foreign policy and U.S. power\, as well as race and gender. After a successful series of community events in Austin to raise these crucial issues\, the two are performing and speaking in a few cities this year.  \n\n\n\nCo-sponsored by Women Against War and supported by the New York State Council on the Arts. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPress Release\n\n\n\nEliza Gilkyson is a third-generation musician whose sociopolitical album “Land of Milk and Honey” was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2004. Daughter of successful songwriter Terry Gilkyson\, Eliza recently appeared on National Public Radio\, Austin City Limits\, and Air America Radio\, and has recorded with folk greats such as Patty Griffin\, Mary Chapin Carpenter\, and Iris DeMent. Eliza was inducted into the Austin Music Hall of Fame\, placing her next to Willie Nelson\, Townes Van Zandt\, Nanci Griffith\, and many others. Recently\, she was awarded three Austin Music Awards and four Folk Alliance Music Awards. \n\n\n\nGilkyson’s new CD “Beautiful World” has received rave reviews (“lush and passionate…edgy lyrics with piercing imagery\,” according to the NY Times). The first studio album since her award-winning 2005 release “Paradise Hotel\,” it is a radio-friendly collection of songs\, celebrating the beauty that shines amidst these dark days of war and corruption. \n\n\n\nOver the course of 13 albums\, Eliza Gilkyson has built a reputation as one of the most original and influential folk artists of our time. Robert Jensen is an activist and professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin who has written extensively about foreign policy and U.S. power\, as well as race and gender. In their most recent work\, both are confronting difficult questions about justice and sustainability. After a successful series of community events in Austin to raise these crucial issues\, the two are performing and speaking in a few cities this year–including Troy\, NY! \n\n\n\nThe seeds for “Beautiful World” sprang from a monthly gathering that Eliza and Robert hosted in 2007 with Presbyterian minister Jim Rigby called “Last Sunday.” Held at various venues around Austin\, these community forums covered a broad range of topics\, including politics\, art\, spirituality and the environment. \n\n\n\n“We wanted to provide a place to discuss\, grieve and mull over our future without having a need for an immediate solution other than the comfort of each other’s presence\,” Eliza says. “The first song I wrote for it was ‘Great Correction\,’ which I wrote as a way to console myself as I grieve the devastation of the human and natural world.” \n\n\n\nThis anthemic song spurred a whole cycle of tunes about perseverance and hope for a more beautiful world. \n\n\n\nRobert Jensen’s forthcoming book is “All My Bones Shake: Radical Politics in the Prophetic Voice.” He is an associate professor in the School of Journalism and director of the Senior Fellows Honors Program of the College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin. Jensen joined the UT faculty in 1992 after completing his Ph.D. in media ethics and law in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota. Prior to his academic career\, he worked as a professional journalist for a decade. \n\n\n\nAt UT\, Jensen teaches courses in media law\, ethics\, and politics. In his research\, Jensen draws on a variety of critical approaches to media and power. Much of his work has focused on pornography and the radical feminist critique of sexuality and men’s violence\, and he also has addressed questions of race through a critique of white privilege and institutionalized racism. In addition to teaching and research\, Jensen writes for popular media\, both alternative and mainstream. His opinion and analytic pieces on such subjects as foreign policy\, politics\, and race have appeared in papers around the country. \n\n\n\nJensen’s latest book\, “All My Bones Shake: Radical Politics in the Prophetic Voice\,” will be published in 2009 by Soft Skull Press. \n\n\n\nHe also is the author of “Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity” (South End Press\, 2007); “The Heart of Whiteness: Confronting Race\, Racism and White Privilege” (City Lights\, 2005); “Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our Humanity” (City Lights\, 2004); and “Writing Dissent: Taking Radical Ideas from the Margins to the Mainstream” (Peter Lang\, 2001); co-author with Gail Dines and Ann Russo of “Pornography: The Production and Consumption of Inequality” (Routledge\, 1998); and co-editor with David S. Allen of “Freeing the First Amendment: Critical Perspectives on Freedom of Expression” (New York University Press\, 1995).
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/eliza-gilkyson-and-robert-jensen/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Folk Music,Performance
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20081115T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20081115T210000
DTSTAMP:20220415T184804Z
CREATED:20081114T150700Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220415T184804Z
UID:10001025-1226768400-1226782800@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:2nd Annual Buy Local Bash!
DESCRIPTION:Buy Local Movement Important to Turning Economy Positive: Noted Entrepreneur and Author Laury Hammel Headlines and Talented Local Musicians Ben Karis-Nix and Ashley Pond to Perform at 2nd Annual Buy Local Bash! Shop ‘til you drop at your local\, independently owned businesses\, then join Capital District Local First to celebrate being local from 6-9pm. Local musicians\, local food and local independent businesses come together to show off all the fabulous things the Capital District has to offer. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAbout the Event:\n\n\n\nThe public is invited to sample local foods\, enjoy local music and shop for the holidays at the Buy Local Bash from 5 to 9 PM on Saturday\, November 15th. The event will take place at the Sanctuary for Independent Media\, 3361 6th Avenue\, Troy. Special guest speaker will be Laury Hammel\, noted entrepreneur and author\, who will discuss the linkage between building a strong local economy and the area’s ability to do business in a down economy. Hammel’s talk will take place at 6 PM. \n\n\n\nParticipating local\, independent businesses include the Honest Weight Food Co-op\, Brown’s Brewing Company\, The Bookhouse of Stuyvesant Plaza\, Roots and Wisdom\, Defazio’s Imports\, Le Marche Vert\, Tosca\, The Spinning Seed\, The Flower Girl\, Alabu Soaps\, The Placid Baker\, Java Jazz Cafe\, and more than a dozen other businesses from around the Capital District. In addition to samples of local products\, attendees are eligible to win gift certificates\, gift baskets\, movie tickets\, locally brewed beer\, and other door prizes. \n\n\n\nAccording to Karisa Centanni\, Honest Weight’s Education Coordinator\, “Laury Hammel’s talk will focus on the many advantages that accrue to communities when business is conducted between neighbors. When money stays in a local economy\, it is a strong bulwark against the ravages of a global economy gone badly. Given the current recession\, Hammel’s talk will provide important insights about how each of us by our personal buying decisions can help assure that our little corner of the world stays as healthy as possible.” \n\n\n\nAbout Laury Hammel\n\n\n\nThe evening’s highlight will be a talk by Laury Hammel\, author of “Growing Local Value – How to Build Business Partnerships that Strengthen Your Community.” Hammel founded and grew The Longfellow Clubs\, currently the 54th largest health club business in the US\, with $16 million in revenues. He is a recognized industry leader in innovative business practices\, social responsibility and community service. Among his other accomplishments\, Hammel is a founder of New England Businesses for Social Responsibility (NEBSR); Business for Social Responsibility (BSR)\, a national organization; the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Boston (SBN); and the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE). Hammel has also been very active in the areas of energy conservation and environmentalism\, with a particular interest in the sustainability of businesses. \n\n\n\nParticipating Local Musicians\n\n\n\nLocal musicians at the Buy Local Bash will include Ashley Pond\, Ben Karis-Nix and Amanda Rogers. Pond\, who released her debut album\, Dala\, in 2007\, is a gifted singer/songwriter/guitarist who has taken the capital region of New York by storm. Metroland Magazine named Ashley Pond “Best New Solo Artist” in their Best of 2007 issue and followed up with a cover story. In addition\, The Times Union\, interviewed Pond and gave her a spot in their top 10 local records of 2007. Ben Karis-Nix recently released his new solo EP\, We Are Giants Now. Ben’s recordings\, performances\, and songwriting have earned him features on the CW show “One Tree Hill\,” MTV’s “Road Rules” and “Real World\, “NPR’s “Weekend Edition\,” and MySpace Compilation Vol. 1. Similarly talented\, Amanda Rogers has opened for some of the most acclaimed rock\, emo\, and jam bands in the industry. She recently released an EP containing new songs and covers of songs by Radiohead and At The Drive-In\, played numerous shows in the States and two more tours in Europe. In 2008\, she headlined another European tour with friends “The Sketchy Indians” backing her up in support of her highly anticipated album Heartwood. \n\n\n\nAbout Capital District Local First:\n\n\n\nCapital District Local First is a nonprofit organization located in New York State’s Capital District. We work to promote the locally owned\, independent business community of the area. We believe that the locally owned\, independent business community plays a vital role in enhancing the diversity\, social fairness\, community spirit\, financial vitality\, and environmental health of the region.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/2nd-annual-buy-local-bash/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Community Event,Performance,Speaker
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20081114T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20081114T200000
DTSTAMP:20230705T154534Z
CREATED:20081114T161600Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230705T154534Z
UID:10000856-1226685600-1226692800@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:"Phantom of the Opera" with Alloy Orchestra
DESCRIPTION:An unusual combination of found percussion and state-of-the-art electronics gives the Alloy Orchestra the ability to create any sound imaginable as they perform live accompaniment to classic silent films. Working with an outrageous assemblage of peculiar objects\, they thrash and grind soulful music from unlikely sources. They’ll be performing the soundtrack to Rupert Jillian’s 1925 classic Phantom of the Opera\, one of the scariest and most influential horror films of all time- featuring Lon Chaney as the mysterious Phantom.  \n\n\n\nLocal presentation of the Alloy Orchestra and “Phantom of the Opera” is made possible by the support from New York State Council on the Arts and the Central New York Programmers Group. \n\n\n\nPress Release\n\n\n\nThe Alloy Orchestra is a three-man musical ensemble\, writing and performing live accompaniment to classic silent films. Working with an outrageous assemblage of peculiar objects\, they thrash and grind soulful music from unlikely sources. The members are TERRY DONAHUE (junk\, accordion\, musical saw\, vocals)\, KEN WINOKUR (director\, junk percussion and clarinet) and ROGER MILLER (keyboards). \n\n\n\nAccording to Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert\, Alloy Orchestra is “the best in the world at accompanying silent films.” \n\n\n\n“Phantom of the Opera” is a 1925 silent film directed by Rupert Julian adaptation of the Gaston Leroux novel of the same title. The film featured Lon Chaney in the title role as the masked and facially deformed Phantom who haunts the Paris Opera House\, causing murder and mayhem in an attempt to force the management to make the woman he loves a star. It is most famous for Lon Chaney’s intentionally horrific\, self-applied make-up\, which was kept a studio secret until the film’s premiere. \n\n\n\nThe film also features Mary Philbin\, Norman Kerry\, Arthur Edmund Carewe\, Gibson Gowland\, John St. Polis and Snitz Edwards. \n\n\n\nNow in its 18th year\, the Alloy Orchestra began its aural onslaught with an original score for “Metropolis” in 1991. In the intervening years\, the group has written scores for 28 feature length film presentations\, typically premiering their new scores at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado. \n\n\n\nPerforming at prestigious film festivals and cultural centers in the U.S. and abroad The Louvre\, Lincoln Center\, The Academy of Motion Pictures\, the National Gallery of Art and others)\, Alloy has helped revive some of the great masterpieces of the silent era. \n\n\n\nAn unusual combination of found percussion and state-of-the-art electronics gives the Orchestra the ability to create any sound imaginable. Utilizing their famous “rack of junk” and electronic synthesizers\, the group generates beautiful music in a spectacular variety of styles. They can conjure up a French symphony or a simple German bar band of the 20’s. The group can make the audience think it is being attacked by tigers\, contacted by radio signals from Mars or swept up in the Russian Revolution. \n\n\n\nAlloy collaborates with some of the world’s best archives and collectors (such as the George Eastman House\, the British Film Institute\, Paramount pictures\, Film Preservation Associates and the Douris Corporation) to present audiences with the very best available prints of some of history’s greatest film. \n\n\n\nThe gorgeous new print of “Phantom of the Opera\,” recently restored by Alloy’s sister company\, Box 5\, reproduces the extremely intricate color scheme of the original release with elaborate tinting\, the experimental 2 strip Technicolor sequence at the masked ball\, and luscious hand tinting. Combined with Alloy’s new score\, this astounding film is as creepy today as it was 75 years ago.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/phantom-of-the-opera-with-alloy-orchestra/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Performance,Screening
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20081113T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20081113T210000
DTSTAMP:20230705T153953Z
CREATED:20081113T160900Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230705T153953Z
UID:10000855-1226599200-1226610000@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:Abel Raises Cain with Media Prankster Alan Abel
DESCRIPTION:A roller coaster ride through the myriad of elaborate hoaxes and schemes pulled off over the years by the infamous underground media prankster\, provocateur and trickster par excellence Alan Abel\, offering and unprecedented glimpse into a life and bizarre career designed to provoke and amuse – while at the same time making people question everything that they see\, hear and read. Alan will be on hand to discuss the film.  \n\n\n\nThis event is made possible by the Experimental Television Center’s Presentation Funds. The Experimental Television Center’s Presentation Funds program is supported by the New York State Council on the Arts. \n\n\n\nAbel Raises Cain (trailer) is an unprecedented glimpse into the bizarre career of Alan Abel\, the infamous media hoaxer. Like a reverse Jon Stewart\, Abel has been producing fake news for the masses for over 50 years. He has made a name for himself several times over with stunts that are just ridiculous enough to be believed\, especially to a media that feeds on salacious\, lurid and wacky stories. \n\n\n\nAbel’s hoaxing career began in the late 1950s with S.I.N.A.\, the Society for Indecency to Naked Animals. This tongue-in-cheek moral crusade\, whose purpose was to clothe all animals for modesty’s sake\, was actually a commentary on censorship. After launching the campaign\, however\, Alan soon found himself in the midst of a national craze. Newspaper\, radio and television reporters couldn’t seem to get the story fast enough. Abel realized that\, with very little funds and very few props\, with a straight face\, he could convince America\, and the media\, that an absurd idea like S.I.N.A. truly existed. \n\n\n\nOver the years\, Alan continued masterminding scores of other allegorical satires and outlandish stunts\, all with the purpose to amuse and provoke. Ultimately\, with his hoaxes\, Alan’s goal has always been to give people\, what he calls “a kick in the intellect.” Abel continues to taunt the media and the masses with his nutty ideas\, imaginary organizations and seemingly nonsensical campaigns. In 2000\, Life Magazine recognized Alan as a cultural icon during the 20th century in their volume edition\, Century of Change. \n\n\n\nIn this loving documentary portrait of an eccentric father\, Alan’s daughter\, Jenny\, tells her firsthand account of what it was like growing up with a prankster dad. Abel Raises Cain takes the audience on a roller coaster ride through the myriad of elaborate hoaxes and schemes that Abel pulled off over the years\, all of which were designed to provoke and amuse… while at the same time\, make people question everything that they see\, hear and read. \n\n\n\nThe UTNE Reader praised the film for showing us that “long before the Yes Men satirized Exxon and Halliburton\, and before Ashton Kutcher was born\, Alan Abel was the undisputed king of media hoaxers.” Reviewers at slate.com called Abel Raises Cain “an invigorating and often hysterical look at a gifted comic and the nation of dupes he continues to use as his medium.” Abel Raises Cain has won numerous awards\, including Best Documentary (Slamdance\, Newport)\, Top Ten Audience Favorites (Hot Docs)\, and Best Feature (Brooklyn Underground).
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/abel-raises-cain-with-media-prankster-alan-abel/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Panel Discussion,Screening
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20081108T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20081108T203000
DTSTAMP:20230705T153508Z
CREATED:20081108T160400Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230705T153508Z
UID:10000854-1226167200-1226176200@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:A Night Out with "The Narcotic Farm"
DESCRIPTION:The U.S. Narcotic Farm just outside Lexington\, KY\, was a legendary meeting place for America’s drug addicts. This performance interweaves verbal\, visual\, and musical memories of a place that was a crossroads for drug addicts from 1935-1975. Authors Nancy Campbell and JP Olsen will read and screen portions of their works on this historic place\, mixed with jazz from musicians incarcerated at Narcotic Farm. \n\n\n\nThe list of Lexington Narcotic Farm musician alums reads like a who’s who of jazz: Chet Baker\, Tadd Dameron\, Joe Guy (Billie Holliday’s husband—she wasn’t at the farm but rather at Alderson\, the women’s prison in WV)\, Elvin Jones\, Stan Levey\, Jackie McLean\, Red Rodney (Charlie Parker’s sideman)\, Sonny Stitt\, Sonny Rollins. And there’s an interesting connection to MC5 (Wayne Kramer is the narrator of the film and part of the seminal pre-punk band\,); he spent time at Lexington in the 1970s). \n\n\n\nYou might find this month’s Jazz Times interesting; it has a photo feature on The Narcotic Farm. They also excerpted the chapter\, “The Greatest Band You Never Heard.” \n\n\n\nThere was a story about the project on NPR called “Americas First Drug-Treatment Prison Revisited” this weekend. \n\n\n\nPress Release\n\n\n\nThe author and the filmmaker of a new book and a video documentary airing on PBS called “The Narcotic Farm: The Rise and Fall of America’s First Prison for Drug Addicts” are presenting a multi-media performance/premiere with live jazz music at The Sanctuary for Independent Media on Saturday\, November 8\, 2008 at 7 PM. Admission is by donation ($10 suggested\, $5 student/low income). The Sanctuary for Independent Media is located at 3361 6th Avenue in north Troy (at 101st Street). Call (518) 272-2390\, email info@MediaSanctuary.org\, or visit www.MediaSanctuary.org for directions and more information. \n\n\n\nThe U.S. Narcotic Farm just outside Lexington\, KY\, was a legendary meeting place for America’s drug addicts. This performance interweaves verbal\, visual\, and musical memories of a place that was a crossroads for drug addicts from 1935-1975. Author Nancy Campbell and filmmaker JP Olsen will read and screen portions of their works on this historic place\, mixed with jazz from musicians incarcerated at Narcotic Farm–performed by a live band! \n\n\n\nA federal prison in Kentucky was a temporary home for thousands\, including Sonny Rollins\, Peter Lorre and William S. Burroughs as well as a lab for addiction treatments such as LSD. \n\n\n\nFrom 1935 to 1975\, just about everyone busted for drugs in the U.S. was sent to the United States Narcotic Farm outside Lexington\, Ky. Equal parts federal prison\, treatment center\, research laboratory and farm\, this controversial institution was designed not only to rehabilitate addicts\, but to discover a cure for drug addiction. \n\n\n\nNow a new documentary\, “The Narcotic Farm\,” reveals the lost world of this institution\, based on rare film footage\, numerous documents\, dozens of interviews of former staff\, inmates and volunteer patients\, and more than 2\,000 photographs unearthed from archives across the country. The film will appear on public television stations across the country throughout November. A book accompanying the documentary includes rare and previously unpublished pictures of “Narco\,” as the institution was called locally. \n\n\n\nAccording to the book\, the institution became a premier center for research into drug addiction and treatment\, advancing everything from the use of methadone to treat heroin withdrawal to drugs that blocked the action of opiates. Along the way\, Narco was frequented by legendary jazz musicians such as Chet Baker and Sonny Rollins\, as well as actor Peter Lorre and beat generation writer William S. Burroughs\, who recounted his experience in his first novel\, “Junkie.” \n\n\n\nThe documentary also chronicles how the Farm was shut down when Congress discovered that researchers there were using patients as human guinea pigs in CIA-funded experiments into LSD. Drug research on federal prisoners is now illegal. \n\n\n\nStill\, the filmmakers note accomplishments at the institution remain milestones in addiction science and treatment. Its most important contribution might be how it transformed the way society views addicts—”as people suffering from a chronic\, relapsing disorder that affects public health\,” says book co-author Nancy Campbell. \n\n\n\nNancy D. Campbell is an associate professor in the Department of Science and technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute who studies the history of drug addiction research. She lives in Troy NY. \n\n\n\nJP Olsen is a filmmaker whose work has appeared on The Discovery Channel and many other stations. He lives in New York City. \n\n\n\nThe Sanctuary for Independent Media is a community media arts and production center located in an historic former church in Troy\, NY. The venue is an intimate and acoustically excellent space which seats about 150. The Sanctuary hosts screening\, production and performance facilities\, training in media production and a meeting space for artists\, activists and independent media makers of all kinds.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/a-night-out-with-the-narcotic-farm/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Jazz Music,Panel Discussion,Performance,Screening
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20081105T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20081105T200000
DTSTAMP:20230705T153158Z
CREATED:20081105T155700Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230705T153158Z
UID:10000853-1225908000-1225915200@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:Filmmaker Matt McCormick
DESCRIPTION:A renowned artist and filmmaker whose success spans both the art and independent film worlds\, Matt is touring New York State with classic works like The Problem with Machines that Communicate and Light Tiger Eye as well as brand-spanking-new music videos\, absurdist narratives\, and random miscellaneous tidbits and surprises. Matt is also the founder of Peripheral Produce\, an internationally recognized video distribution label specializing in short experimental work\, and the director of the Portland Documentary and eXperimental Film Festival\, Portland’s premiere event for experimental\, documentary\, and otherwise obscure contemporary cinema. \n\n\n\nThis event is made possible by the Experimental Television Center’s Presentation Funds. The Experimental Television Center’s Presentation Funds program is supported by the New York State Council on the Arts. \n\n\n\nMore About Matt\n\n\n\nMatt McCormick is an artist\, filmmaker\, photographer\, and musician who has produced several well-received projects in recent years. His films defy genre distinctions and fashion witty\, abstract observations of contemporary culture and the urban landscape. His project Future So Bright maps and catalogs the abandoned spaces in the American West\, while American Nutria examines the plight of an imported species while chastising capitalism’s tendency to create its own disasters. The Subconscious Art of Graffiti Removal makes the observation that the process of destroying one art form unwittingly creates another\, while his installation piece Ride a Wave To Tomorrow’s Sunset reflects on society’s need for ‘synthetic meditation’. \n\n\n\nMatt’s work has been exhibited in film festivals\, art museums\, and microcinemas around the globe\, appeared on MTV and the Sundance Channel\, and received positive reviews from Art Forum\, The New York Times\, and Film Comment magazine. Matt has worked and collaborated with many artists and musicians\, including The Shins\, Miranda July\, Sleater-Kinney\, The Postal Service\, YACHT\, Patton Oswalt\, and Calvin Johnson. Matt has had three films screen at the Sundance Film Festival\, and been included in the traveling group exhibitions “Uncertain States of America” and “Baja to Vancouver.” He has received awards including Best Short Film from the San Francisco International Film Fest\, Best Experimental from the New York Underground Film Fest\, and Best Short from the Ann Arbor Film Fest\, and his film The Subconscious Art of Graffiti Removal was named in ‘Top 10 / Best of 2002’ lists in both The Village Voice and Art Forum magazine. Matt also won a 2007 Rosey Award for a series of global warming public service announcements he directed for MTV.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/filmmaker-matt-mccormick/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Panel Discussion,Screening
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20081028T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20081028T220000
DTSTAMP:20230705T152738Z
CREATED:20081028T145200Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230705T152738Z
UID:10000852-1225220400-1225231200@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:Camilo Mejia: The Private Rebellion of a Staff Sergeant
DESCRIPTION:After serving in the Army for nearly nine years\, Camilo Mejia was the first known Iraq veteran to refuse to fight when he applied for discharge from the army as a conscientious objector\, citing moral concerns about the war and occupation. The principled stand described in his memoir\, Road From ar Ramadi: The Private Rebellion of Staff Sergeant Camilo Mejia (just published by Haymarket Books)\, helped rally the growing opposition and embolden other soldiers. He was eventually convicted of desertion by a military court and sentenced to a year in prison\, prompting Amnesty International to declare him a prisoner of conscience. Camilo will speak about his experiences.  \n\n\n\nCo-sponsored by Women Against War and Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace. \n\n\n\nRegaining My Humanity \n\n\n\nBy Camilo MejiaCodePink.org \n\n\n\nThursday 17 February 2005 \n\n\n\nI was deployed to Iraq in April 2003 and returned home for a two-week leave in October. Going home gave me the opportunity to put my thoughts in order and to listen to what my conscience had to say. People would ask me about my war experiences and answering them took me back to all the horrors-the firefights\, the ambushes\, the time I saw a young Iraqi dragged by his shoulders through a pool of his own blood or an innocent man was decapitated by our machine gun fire. The time I saw a soldier broken down inside because he killed a child\, or an old man on his knees\, crying with his arms raised to the sky\, perhaps asking God why we had taken the lifeless body of his son. \n\n\n\nI thought of the suffering of a people whose country was in ruins and who were further humiliated by the raids\, patrols and curfews of an occupying army. \n\n\n\nAnd I realized that none of the reasons we were told about why we were in Iraq turned out to be true. There were no weapons of mass destruction. There was no link between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. We weren’t helping the Iraqi people and the Iraqi people didn’t want us there. We weren’t preventing terrorism or making Americans safer. I couldn’t find a single good reason for having been there\, for having shot at people and been shot at. \n\n\n\nComing home gave me the clarity to see the line between military duty and moral obligation. I realized that I was part of a war that I believed was immoral and criminal\, a war of aggression\, a war of imperial domination. I realized that acting upon my principles became incompatible with my role in the military\, and I decided that I could not return to Iraq. \n\n\n\nBy putting my weapon down\, I chose to reassert myself as a human being. I have not deserted the military or been disloyal to the men and women of the military. I have not been disloyal to a country. I have only been loyal to my principles. \n\n\n\nWhen I turned myself in\, with all my fears and doubts\, it did it not only for myself. I did it for the people of Iraq\, even for those who fired upon me-they were just on the other side of a battleground where war itself was the only enemy. I did it for the Iraqi children\, who are victims of mines and depleted uranium. I did it for the thousands of unknown civilians killed in war. My time in prison is a small price compared to the price Iraqis and Americans have paid with their lives. Mine is a small price compared to the price Humanity has paid for war. \n\n\n\nMany have called me a coward\, others have called me a hero. I believe I can be found somewhere in the middle. To those who have called me a hero\, I say that I don’t believe in heroes\, but I believe that ordinary people can do extraordinary things. \n\n\n\nTo those who have called me a coward I say that they are wrong\, and that without knowing it\, they are also right. They are wrong when they think that I left the war for fear of being killed. I admit that fear was there\, but there was also the fear of killing innocent people\, the fear of putting myself in a position where to survive means to kill\, there was the fear of losing my soul in the process of saving my body\, the fear of losing myself to my daughter\, to the people who love me\, to the man I used to be\, the man I wanted to be. I was afraid of waking up one morning to realize my humanity had abandoned me. \n\n\n\nI say without any pride that I did my job as a soldier. I commanded an infantry squad in combat and we never failed to accomplish our mission. But those who called me a coward\, without knowing it\, are also right. I was a coward not for leaving the war\, but for having been a part of it in the first place. Refusing and resisting this war was my moral duty\, a moral duty that called me to take a principled action. I failed to fulfill my moral duty as a human being and instead I chose to fulfill my duty as a soldier. All because I was afraid. I was terrified\, I did not want to stand up to the government and the army\, I was afraid of punishment and humiliation. I went to war because at the moment I was a coward\, and for that I apologize to my soldiers for not being the type of leader I should have been. \n\n\n\nI also apologize to the Iraqi people. To them I say I am sorry for the curfews\, for the raids\, for the killings. May they find it in their hearts to forgive me. \n\n\n\nOne of the reasons I did not refuse the war from the beginning was that I was afraid of losing my freedom. Today\, as I sit behind bars I realize that there are many types of freedom\, and that in spite of my confinement I remain free in many important ways. What good is freedom if we are afraid to follow our conscience? What good is freedom if we are not able to live with our own actions? I am confined to a prison but I feel\, today more than ever\, connected to all humanity. Behind these bars I sit a free man because I listened to a higher power\, the voice of my conscience. \n\n\n\nWhile I was confined in total segregation\, I came across a poem written by a man who refused and resisted the government of Nazi Germany. For doing so he was executed. His name is Albrecht Hanshofer\, and he wrote this poem as he awaited execution. \n\n\n\nGuilt \n\n\n\nThe burden of my guilt before the lawweighs light upon my shoulders; to plotand to conspire was my duty to the people;I would have been a criminal had I not. \n\n\n\nI am guilty\, though not the way you think\,I should have done my duty sooner\, I was wrong\,I should have called evil more clearly by its nameI hesitated to condemn it for far too long. \n\n\n\nI now accuse myself within my heart:I have betrayed my conscience far too longI have deceived myself and fellow man. \n\n\n\nI knew the course of evil from the startMy warning was not loud nor clear enough!Today I know what I was guilty of… \n\n\n\nTo those who are still quiet\, to those who continue to betray their conscience\, to those who are not calling evil more clearly by its name\, to those of us who are still not doing enough to refuse and resist\, I say “come forward.” I say “free your minds.” Let us\, collectively\, free our minds\, soften our hearts\, comfort the wounded\, put down our weapons\, and reassert ourselves as human beings by putting an end to war. \n\n\n\n–Camilo Mejia \n\n\n\nPress Release\n\n\n\nAuthor\, anti-war activist\, prisoner of conscience and chairman of the board of Iraq Veterans Against the War\, Camilo Mejia will speak about his experiences and his book “Road from Ar Ramadi: The Private Rebellion of Staff Sergeant Mejía” at The Sanctuary for Independent Media on Tuesday\, October 28\, 2008 at 7 PM. Admission is by donation ($10 suggested\, $5 student/low income). The Sanctuary for Independent Media is located at 3361 6th Avenue in north Troy (at 101st Street). Call (518) 272-2390\, email info@MediaSanctuary.org\, or visit www.MediaSanctuary.org for directions and more information. \n\n\n\nCamilo Mejia joined the military at the age of nineteen\, serving as an infantryman in the active-duty army for three years before transferring to the Florida National Guard. After fighting in Iraq\, Mejia became the first known Iraq veteran to refuse to fight the war in Iraq\, citing moral concerns about the war and occupation. He was eventually convicted of desertion by a military court and sentenced to a year in prison\, prompting Amnesty International to declare him a prisoner of conscience. \n\n\n\nMejía is a former student of the University of Miami in Coral Gables\, Florida\, where he intended to major in psychology and Spanish on a military-funded scholarship. Mejía spent six months in Iraq (his first combat tour after enlisting)\, then returned for a 2-week furlough to the US after which he did not return for duty. He was charged with desertion and sentenced to one year in prison for refusing to return to fight in Iraq. In March 2004 he turned himself in to the US military and filed an application for conscientious objector status. \n\n\n\nMejía was court-martialed\, and claimed that he left his post in order to avoid duties that could be considered war crimes: more specifically\, the abuse and torture of prisoners. One of his attorneys\, former United States Attorney General Ramsey Clark\, claimed that he was thus protected from desertion charges by international law. \n\n\n\nOn May 21\, 2004 Mejía was convicted of desertion by a military jury and sentenced to a year in jail and a bad conduct discharge. Under Article 85 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice\, conviction on the charge of desertion during time of war can result in a sentence of death. \n\n\n\nMejía served his time at the Fort Sill military prison in Lawton\, Oklahoma. During his time in custody he was recognized by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience and was awarded by Refuse and Resist with its Courageous Resister Award. \n\n\n\nCamilo was also recognized by the Detroit City Council with a commendation for his stand. Detroit was the first city where Mejía spoke at an anti-war rally. While confined\, local and national activists organized a series of vigils outside the gates of Ft. Sill\, including one attended by Kathy Kelly and other members of Voices in the Wilderness. \n\n\n\nCamilo Mejía was released from prison on February 15\, 2005. Since his release\, he has spoken at many peace protests and to the press about his experiences and his opposition to the war in Iraq. \n\n\n\nMejía has recently written a book entitled “Road from Ar Ramadi: The Private Rebellion of Staff Sergeant Mejía” (Haymarket Books\, 2008) which recounts his journey of conscience in Iraq: \n\n\n\n“I say without any pride that I did my job as a soldier. I commanded an infantry squad in combat and we never failed to accomplish our mission. But those who called me a coward\, without knowing it\, are also right. I was a coward not for leaving the war\, but for having been a part of it in the first place. Refusing and resisting this war was my moral duty\, a moral duty that called me to take a principled action. I failed to fulfill my moral duty as a human being and instead I chose to fulfill my duty as a soldier. All because I was afraid. I was terrified\, I did not want to stand up to the government and the army\, I was afraid of punishment and humiliation. I went to war because at the moment I was a coward\, and for that I apologize to my soldiers for not being the type of leader I should have been.” \n\n\n\nIn August 2007 Mejía was named the chair of the board of directors of Iraq Veterans Against the War.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/camilo-mejia-the-private-rebellion-of-a-staff-sergeant/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Panel Discussion,Speaker
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20081026T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20081026T170000
DTSTAMP:20230705T152422Z
CREATED:20081026T144800Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230705T152422Z
UID:10000851-1225026000-1225040400@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:Be The Media! Workshop with Andrew Lynn and Special Guests: Digital Media Labs
DESCRIPTION:Digital Media Labs (DML) are all ages (14+) monthly workshops introduced by popular demand. Whether you are working on a documentary\, making a music video\, or learning to blog and post video to the Internet\, these sessions will benefit you. Bring your own digital media projects and ideas\, or just commune and share skills with other makers. DML will focus on media production\, web publishing (html & blogging)\, digital imaging\, and video editing. Each session will highlight certain skills\, but will not be limited by any specific assignments or software applications. Participants will have access to Sanctuary computers and camcorders during lab hours. \n\n\n\nInstructor: Andrew Lynn & special guestsAndrew Lynn is an adjunct professor of electronic media at RPI and HVCC and has taught video and animation workshops to people of all ages up and down the Hudson for the last 7 years. He was the youth education coordinator at Manhattan Neighborhood Network from 2004-2007 and is currently the Media Alliance’s director of Education.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/be-the-media-workshop-with-andrew-lynn-and-special-guests-digital-media-labs-2/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Workshop
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20081025T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20081025T220000
DTSTAMP:20220722T160847Z
CREATED:20081025T193800Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220722T160847Z
UID:10001024-1224964800-1224972000@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:Morley
DESCRIPTION:Singer-songwriter Morley is a breath of fresh air in the current climate of political and social crisis. Her voice as a singer and as a lyricist is rich with honesty\, vulnerability\, introspection and compassion\, simultaneously gentle and urgent- a force that compels even the most cynical or apathetic to listen and be moved. Her newest recording\, Seen (2008)\, has just been released by Wrasse.  \n\n\n\nLocal presentation of Morley is made possible with the support from the New York State Council on the Arts. \n\n\n\n\n\n* More documentation below\n\n\n\nMore About Morely:\n\n\n\nIn the current social and political climate\, singer-songwriter Morley is a breath of fresh air. Her voice as a singer and as a lyricist is rich with honesty\, vulnerability\, introspection and compassion\, simultaneously gentle and urgent – a force that compels even the most cynical or apathetic to listen and be moved. Her newest album\, “Seen\,” is as reflective as it is generous. If music can be a mirror\, then this release is “a patient look into myself and a not-so-patient look into my country at this time\,” Morley explains. “To be looked at is one thing\, but to be seen is an experience.” \n\n\n\nSeen means “understood” in Jamaican patois. Its many meanings are explored and contextualized in different ways throughout the album. In “Bird Over The Ocean” Morley writes\, “All that is seen cannot be shown\,” while in “No Evidence” she discusses that which is “Sight unseen\, sound unheard\,” calling attention to the atrocities happening right in front of us to people whose voices are stifled or silenced behind a veil of false patriotism. “Temporary Lighthouses” (inspired by the Daniel Lanois album “Shine”) pays tribute to Morley’s musical heroes and heroines\, and you can hear echoes of Sade and Billie Holiday in her singing. Sure\, there are unabashed love songs\, like “Somebody New” and “Call On Me\,” but Morley’s political convictions unfold slowly\, surely\, with subtlety. By “No Evidence” we’re hearing about rape in the US military\, and “Crimes in the Garden” was inspired by the anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan. “Say What I Know” is an indictment of George W. Bush’s America\, and if there’s a “title track\,” it’s “Hearts Horn\,” which ties many themes together\, touching on the approaching environmental Armageddon. And of course\, there’s “Women of Hope\,” an homage to the many named and unnamed extraordinary women in war-torn countries who rise above and help others transcend circumstances to find hope. “A lot of the music that I’m drawn to is about growth and transformation\,” Morley says. “I believe in people’s capacity to change.” \n\n\n\nA former dance and yoga teacher in New York City’s public school system\, shelters and community centers\, Morley was born in Jamaica Queens\, New York. She spent her formative years absorbing the sights\, scents and sounds of this multi-ethnic community – an experience that clearly informs her worldview and the diversity of influences in her music. Morley’s artistic journey began not with music\, but with dance and poetry. She attended the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington\, DC and won a full scholarship to the Alvin Ailey American Dance Centre. After a knee injury derailed her career as a dancer\, Morley briefly worked as a fashion model in England\, but she soon returned to NYC and took up choreography and formed her own company\, Undercurrents Dance Theater. With her new company up and running\, she had the opportunity to work with jazz legend and civil rights activist Max Roach\, an experience that brought her face to face with the power of music as a vehicle for change. Although she was profoundly inspired\, music wasn’t yet the vehicle for Morley to express her ideas. It was in the late ’90s\, when Morley was spending time with great musicians like Amp Fiddler\, Toshi Reagon\, Hod David (Maxwell) and Joan Wasser (Joan as Policewoman)\, that her musical voice began to emerge. “They’re heroes to me\, music just pours from them\,” she says. “Hod David gave me a track to write to just for fun\, and said ‘don’t write a protest song\, write a love song’ because everything I was writing was very political.” These experiments and explorations expanded her artistic expressions from dance and poetry into music\, and ultimately became the foundation for her first album\, Sun Machine (1998)\, produced by David with Chris Dowd (Fishbone)\, and featuring Jeff Buckley on guitar for one track and contributions from Nigerian percussionist Babatunde Olatunji. Unfortunately\, the label folded at the time of release and Morley continued teaching and doing choreography before music called her back in 2001\, when she resumed her writing and picked up the guitar for the first time. \n\n\n\nBy the next year\, she had started performing in earnest and establishing her presence as a musician. Her urban-folk sophomore album\, “Days Like These” (2006)\, was the culmination of the years that ensued\, performing and writing mainly in New York City. Self-released and self-produced with co-producer Ken Rich and licensed to Universal France\, Days Like These brought Morley together with her current production team of Jay Newland and Jean-Philippe Allard\, and was a hit in France. Joining them on Seen are a stellar cast of great musicians\, including pedal steel maestro Larry Campbell (Bob Dylan\, Levon Helm\, Liz Wright)\, whose tasty licks lend a widescreen Americana feel. \n\n\n\nOn Seen\, Morley writes songs of love as opposed to love songs. And like the heroines in “Women of Hope\,” Morley is a woman with hope. But wishful thinking isn’t where she’s at: “It’s not hoping and wishing for the best\, it’s finding the confidence to do what you can\,” she explains. In this tender tribute\, she quotes Burmese human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi: “If you’re feeling helpless\, help someone.” It evokes the power to heal ourselves and each other at the same time\, and generates global change through our individual journey. As Morley says\, “If we allow ourselves to have hope\, while everything around screams\, ‘you’re only one\, you’re helpless\,’ then we give energy to real change instead of fear and complacency.” \n\n\n\nMorley’s music is the energizing elixir to create that change. “Music changes the feeling of a room\, I see and feel it happen all the time. When I collaborate with musicians from other countries\, we merge. We don’t have to speak the same language\, share the same religion\, or even philosophies\, but we can make music together! That for me is evidence that we can live together in harmony. But a lot of us are cut off from our sensuality – the music within – and find it too difficult to find our reflection in another\, so it makes it easier to be intimidated by\, dismiss\, or even cause harm. Music is a great teacher for me in that respect. It’s real and sensual.”
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/morley/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Performance
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20081024T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20081024T210000
DTSTAMP:20230626T165926Z
CREATED:20081024T143700Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230626T165926Z
UID:10000850-1224874800-1224882000@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:"A Summer in the Cage" with Filmmaker Ben Selkow
DESCRIPTION:A Summer in the Cage (2007) is a stunning portrait of a battle with manic-depressive (bipolar) disorder that puts a human face on an illness that affects millions of American families. As this dramatic story unfolds\, it also becomes a unique tale about friendship and the ethical responsibilities of a documentary filmmaker. The intent was to make a film about successfully living with\, and managing\, a mental illness- but when the Hollywood ending proves too elusive\, the filmmaker and the subject are forced to ask themselves\, “When do you turn off the camera?”  \n\n\n\nThis event is co-sponsored by The Independent Living Center of the Hudson Valley. \n\n\n\nPress Release:\n\n\n\n“A Summer in the Cage” follows Selkow’s friend Sam for seven years ashe suffers delusional manic episodes\, battles paralyzing depressions\,and tries to escape the legacy of his father. By showing the difficultemotional impact of being bipolar on Sam\, his family\, and thefilmmaker\, “A Summer in the Cage” hopes to put a human face on anillness that affects millions of American families. But as thisdramatic story unfolds\, it also becomes a unique tale about friendshipand the ethical responsibilities of a documentary filmmaker. Theintent was to make a film about successfully living with\, andmanaging\, a mental illness. When the “Hollywood ending” proved tooelusive\, the filmmaker and the subject are forced to ask themselves\,“When do you turn off the camera?” \n\n\n\n“I saw this film earlier this year at a film festival\,” says Sanctuaryprogrammer Penny Lane\, “and I had never seen anything like it. Thevideo diaries made by Sam during his manias are some of the most rawand powerful images I have ever encountered.” Lane was compelled tobring the film and its maker to her community after witnessing thedialogue the film provoked in the audience. \n\n\n\n“Quite frankly\, one of the most powerful documentaries I have seen\,”says author Peter Earley (CRAZY: A Father’s Search Through America’sMental Health Madness)\, “I do not know of any other filmmaker who hascaptured the frantic highs of mania\, the devastation of depression androller coaster of ordinary life that a person with a diagnosis ofbipolar disorder experiences.” \n\n\n\nDr. Kay Redfield Jamison\, well known professor\, author and psychiatrist\, highly recommended the film\, calling it “powerful\, affecting and honest.” \n\n\n\nBen Selkow is the director/producer/director of photography/writer of “A Summer in the Cage\,” which premiered on the Sundance Channel in October 2007 and is being distributed for home video by Indiepix. The film was nominated for a 2008 Prism Bipolar Disorder Depiction Award.In 2003\, Ben was a participant in the annual Sundance Producer’sConference at the Sundance Institute in Utah.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/a-summer-in-the-cage-with-filmmaker-ben-selkow/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Panel Discussion,Screening
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20081016T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20081016T210000
DTSTAMP:20230626T164557Z
CREATED:20081016T142500Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230626T164557Z
UID:10000847-1224183600-1224190800@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:"A Jihad for Love" with Filmmaker Parvez Sharma
DESCRIPTION:Muslim gay filmmaker Parvez Sharma has gone where the silence is loudest with a daring feature documentary\, A Jihad for Love (2007). Exploring the complex global intersections between Islam and homosexuality\, the film was created with great risk and secrecy in 9 languages and 12 countries where government permission was not an option. As a Muslim\, Parvez works from within the faith\, depicting Islam with the same respect that the film’s characters show for it.  \n\n\n\nCo-sponsored by Women Against War. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nStill from A Jihad for Love by Parvez Sharma \n\n\n\nPress Release:\n\n\n\nIn a time when Islam is under tremendous attack-from within and without-“A Jihad for Love” is a daring documentary filmed in twelve countries and nine languages. Muslim gay filmmaker Parvez Sharma has gone where the silence is loudest\, filming with great risk in nations where government permission to make this film was not an option. \n\n\n\n“A Jihad for Love” is Mr. Sharma’s debut and the world’s first feature documentary to explore the complex global intersections between Islam and homosexuality. Parvez enters the many worlds of Islam by illuminating multiple stories as diverse as Islam itself. The film travels a wide geographic arc presenting us lives from India\, Pakistan\, Iran\, Turkey\, Egypt\, South Africa andFrance. Always filming in secret and as a Muslim\, Parvez makes the film from within the faith\, depicting Islam with the same respect that the film’s characters show for it. “A Jihad for Love” is co-produced by Sandi DuBowski (director/producer of the award-winning “Trembling Before G-d”) in association with ZDF-Arte\, Channel 4\, LOGO\, SBS-Australia\, The Sundance Documentary Fund and The Katahdin Foundation. \n\n\n\nIn Western media\, the concept of “jihad” is often narrowly equated with holy war. But Jihad also has a deeper meaning\, its literal Arabic being “struggle” or “to strive in the path of God.” In this film we meet several characters engaged in their personal Jihad’s for love. The people in this film have a lot to teach us about love. Their pursuit of love has brought them into conflicts with their countries\, families\, and even themselves. Such is the quandary of being both homosexual and Muslim\, a combination so taboo that very little about it has been documented. \n\n\n\nAs a result the majority of gay and lesbian Muslims must travel a twisting\, lonely and often dangerous road. The majority of Muslims believe that homosexuality is forbidden by the Quran and many scholars quote Hadith (sayings attributed to the Prophet Muhammad) to directly condemn homosexuality. Islam\, already the second largest religion in the world\, is also the fastest growing. Fifty nations have a Muslim majority. In a few of those nations laws interpreted from alleged Quranic prohibitions of male homosexuality (lesbianism is allegedly absent from the Quran) are enforced by religious\, tribal or military authorities to monitor\, entrap\, imprison\, torture and even execute homosexuals. Even for those who migrate to Europe or North America and adopt Western personae of “gay” or “queer\,” the relative freedoms of new homelands are mitigated by persistent racial profiling and intensified state surveillance after the attacks of 9/11 and train bombings in Madrid and London. \n\n\n\nAs a result\, many gay and lesbian Muslims end up renouncing their religion completely. But the real-life characters of “A Jihad for Love” aren’t willing to abandon a faith they cherish and that sustains them. Instead\, they struggle to reconcile their ardent belief with the innate reality of their being. The international chorus of gay and lesbian Muslims brought together by “A Jihad for Love” doesn’t seek to vilify or reject Islam\, but rather negotiate a new relationship to it. In doing so\, the film’s extraordinary characters attempt to point the way for all Muslims to move beyond the hostile\, war-torn present\, toward a more hopeful future. As one can imagine\, it was a difficult decision for the subjects to participate in the film due to the violence they could face. It took the filmmaker six years to finish this film and he\, like those who have stepped forward to tell their stories\, feel that they are Islam’s most unlikely storytellers. All of them feel that this film is too important for over a billion Muslims-and all the non-Muslims in the world-for them to say no. They are willing to take the risk in their quest to lay equal claim to their profoundly held faith. \n\n\n\n“A Jihad for Love”’s characters each have vastly different personal takes on Islam\, some observing a rigorously orthodox regimen\, others leading highly secular lifestyles while remaining spiritually devout. As the camera attentively captures their stories\, the film’s gay and lesbian characters emerge in all their human complexity\, giving the viewer an honest rendering of their lives while complicating our assumptions about a monolithic Muslim community. \n\n\n\nCrucially\, this film speaks with a Muslim voice\, unlike other documentaries about sexual politics in Islam made by Western directors. In the hope of opening a dialogue that has been mostly non-existent\, in Islam’s recent history and defining jihad as a “struggle” rather than a “war\,” the film presents the struggle for love. \n\n\n\nParvez Sharma Biography:\n\n\n\nParvez Sharma (producer/director of “A Jihad for Love”) is a Muslim gay filmmaker born and raised in India. For three years\, Sharma worked as a broadcast journalist for Asia’s premiere and most highly-rated 24-hour news network\, the Star News Channel/NDTV\, covering major assignments across the Indian subcontinent and specializing in investigative/human rights stories and political profiles. He worked as producer and/or editor for BBC World Television’s Moneywise and IndiaTomorrow\, Central Television (UK)\, The Discovery Channel (US)\, and the World Bank Film and Video Unit (US). He was the assistant director for the award-winning feature\, “Dance of the Wind\,” produced by Pandora Film in Germany and NFDC India with director Rajan Khosa which won awards at the London\, Rotterdam and Nantes Film Festivals. In 2005\, he was a producer at Democracy Now!\, the nationally broadcast radio and television program which airs on 225 stations across North America with award-winning host Amy Goodman. He produced\, edited and did additional camera for the DVD of Peter Friedman’s Sundance Grand Jury Award winning film “Silverlake Life.” \n\n\n\nParvez Sharma received his bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Presidency College\, University of Calcutta (India) and three Masters degrees: Mass Communication (Film and Television) from India’s premier MCRC\, Jamia Millia Islamia University; Broadcast Journalism from the University of Wales College of Cardiff\, UK; and Film and Video from American University’s School of Communication. He has taught Indian film and other media courses at American University’s Department of Anthropology and its School of Communication in Washington\, DC. \n\n\n\nIn the nineties\, Sharma was a print journalist for several prominent Indian newspapers including The Telegraph\, The Statesman\, The Economic Times\, The Business Standard\, and India Currents Magazine. While at the Statesman he reported on what was the first ever detailing of the lesbian experience within India for a national newspaper-“Emerging from the Shadows” (July 3\, 1994)–which became a rallying point for lesbians around the country and was crucial in the formation of many lesbian organizations. As an activist he was instrumental in setting up the first organized LGBTQ effort in the eastern state of West Bengal\, setting benchmarks for many other LGBT organizing efforts around the subcontinent. Parvez has spoken internationally on distinguished film/media panels and panels on issues crucial to LGBT communities in a South Asian and Muslim context. He was a featured speaker at Yale University Law School\, at th Persistent Vision in San Francisco\, The Open Society Institute in New York\, The Center for Gay and Lesbian Studies in New York and at Amnesty International’s Human Rights Conference–Global Pride\, Global Action: Empowering the Spirit of Human Rights. \n\n\n\nSharma’s first feature documentary\, “A Jihad for Love\,” is co-produced with the UK’s Channel 4\, France’s ARTE\, Germany’s ZDF\, Australia’s SBS\, and U.S. MTV-LOGO. His work and the film have been profiled by The New York Times\, Variety\, The Atlantic Monthly\, Hollywood Reporter\, indieWIRE\, France’s Tetu Magazine\, San Francisco Gate\, on NPR-Chicago and numerous other publications. \n\n\n\nThe film has been supported by a wide number of foundations including The van Ameringen Foundation\, The Hartley Film Foundation\, The Mathilde Krim Foundation\, The Andrew Tobias Foundation-Stonewall Community Foundation\, the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation\, The Fledgling Fund\, The Bruce Bastion Foundation\, The Foundation for Fairer Capitalism\, The Ted Snowdon Foundation\, and The Mark D. Hostetter and Alexander N. Habib Foundation. He was honored with a nomination for a 2007 Rockefeller Film/Video/Multimedia Fellowship. \n\n\n\nWith his wide range of experience in film\, television and activism spanning three continents (Asia\, Europe\, and North America)\, and his proficiency in five languages (English\, Hindi\, Urdu\, Bengali\, and Punjabi)\, Sharma hopes to bring a rich cultural perspective and an honest and skillful depiction of Islam-and his very own communities- to this film and the courageous journeys it documents and the global dialogue it catalyzes.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/a-jihad-for-love-with-filmmaker-parvez-sharma/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Panel Discussion,Screening
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20081012T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20081012T170000
DTSTAMP:20230626T162747Z
CREATED:20081012T141800Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230626T162747Z
UID:10000844-1223816400-1223830800@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:Be The Media! Workshop with Devorah Hill and Jennifer Wager: Neighborhood Voices- Digital Storytelling
DESCRIPTION:This is an all ages (14+) workshop which combines spoken word\, photography\, and simple video editing to create powerful and personal narratives. Everyone has a story to tell. With the help of our experienced community media teachers\, it’s never been easier to turn your memories or dreams into material fit for television and beyond. Each participant will have the opportunity to create his/her own 3-5 minutes video piece.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/be-the-media-workshop-with-devorah-hill-and-jennifer-wager-neighborhood-voices-digital-storytelling/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Workshop
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20081010T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20081010T210000
DTSTAMP:20230626T165311Z
CREATED:20081010T141500Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230626T165311Z
UID:10001021-1223665200-1223672400@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:"Disaster and Resistance: Comics and Landscapes for the 21st Century"
DESCRIPTION:A live multimedia presentation of the work in Seth Tobacman’s new book Disaster and Resistance: Comics and Landscapes for the 21st Century (2008)\, just published by AK Press. The presentation/performance features Seth\, drummer Eric Blitz and guitarist Steve Wishnia. In his bold comic style\, the longtime artist\, activist\, and educator skewers the individuals and institutions wreaking havoc across the globe today\, musing not on the chaos of instability and fear but on the struggle against it.  \n\n\n\nCo-sponsored by Women Against War. \n\n\n\nPress Release:\n\n\n\nAccording to former New York Times art director Jerelle Kraus\, “I repeatedly tried to get more of Tobocman’s work onto our pages\, but it was deemed too radical. Tobocman won’t compromise his principles for money or fashion.” \n\n\n\nIn his new book\, he outlines pressing social and political struggles at the dawn of the twenty-first century\, from post 9-11 New York City to Israel and Palestine\, to Iraq and New Orleans. Fans of his classic works\, “You Don’t Have to Fuck People Over to Survive” and “War in the Neighborhood\,” will see that his punch has not softened\, and his work continues to skewer the individuals and institutions wreaking havoc across the globe today. In his bold comic style\, Seth chronicles events as they happen\, musing not on the chaos of instability and fear but on the struggle against it. Seth will sign books after the show\, which is about an hour long. \n\n\n\nHere’s what others have to say: \n\n\n\n“For years now Seth Tobocman has been taking on the powers that be for all of us. He’s not slowing down either.” -Harvey Pekar\, groundbreaking graphic novelist and author of the American Splendor series \n\n\n\n“A graphic revelation\, an artistic and political document of enormous value in our troubled world.” -Paul Buhle\, esteemed historian of American radicalism \n\n\n\n“Once again Seth Tobocman stares straight into the eye of the storm and casts light on the darkness. His complete command of visual storytelling is perfectly matched by his unwavering ability to dissect and explain the most complex and urgent topics of the day. He brings us a behind-the-scenes view from the frontlines\, with heart and clarity\, and turns static headlines into flesh and blood realities. When people look back on our history\, Seth Tobocman’s inspiring comics will provide more insight into this era than a thousand newscasts.” -Peter Kuper\, author of “Speechless” \n\n\n\nSeth Tobocman is one of the founding editors of World War 3 Illustrated\, author/illustrator of three collections\, an educator\,and has shown his work in streets and galleries across the globe—including Exit Art\, The Museum of Modern Art\, and the New Museum of Contemporary Art.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/disaster-and-resistance-comics-and-landscapes-for-the-21st-century/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Panel Discussion,Performance,Rock Music
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080928T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080928T170000
DTSTAMP:20230626T162408Z
CREATED:20080928T140800Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230626T162408Z
UID:10000843-1222606800-1222621200@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:Be The Media! Workshop with Andrew Lynn and Special Guests: Digital Media Labs
DESCRIPTION:Digital Media Labs (DML) are all ages (14+) monthly workshops introduced by popular demand. Whether you are working on a documentary\, making a music video\, or learning to blog and post video to the Internet\, these sessions will benefit you. Bring your own digital media projects and ideas\, or just commune and share skills with other makers. DML will focus on media production\, web publishing (html & blogging)\, digital imaging\, and video editing. Each session will highlight certain skills\, but will not be limited by any specific assignments or software applications. Participants will have access to Sanctuary computers and camcorders during lab hours.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/be-the-media-workshop-with-andrew-lynn-and-special-guests-digital-media-labs/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Workshop
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080926T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080926T210000
DTSTAMP:20230626T165106Z
CREATED:20080926T140400Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230626T165106Z
UID:10001018-1222455600-1222462800@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:Doug Henwood and the Crisis of Neoliberalism
DESCRIPTION:More than twenty years ago\, convinced that the 1980s experiment with free-market economics was a financial and social disaster and that much writing on economics was dry and dated\, Doug Henwood founded the critically-acclaimed Left Business Observer. Invited here as part of the Capital Region Social Forum\, he will address the current crisis of neoliberalism.  \n\n\n\nAfter the New Economy by Doug Henwood book cover.\n\n\n\nOur press release:\n\n\n\nDoug Henwood’s lecture serves as the capstone event for the Third Capital Region Social Forum\, a series of lectures\, films\, and events taking place across the region between September 19 and October 3. Taking its cue from the World Social Forum\, whose motto “Another World Is Possible” has become a touchstone for the global peace and justice movement\, the Capital Region Social Forum brings together activists\, organizers\, academics\, and members of the Capital District community to learn\, discuss\, and critique—and imagine alternatives to—neoliberal economic and social policies that have contributed to the vast inequality\, growing militarism\, ecological crisis worldwide. \n\n\n\nThis year’s forum\, “Cracks in the Edifice: Neoliberalism in Crisis\,” also includes lectures by Lori Wallach of Global Trade Watch and Steve Early\, a labor journalist and organizer. It coincides with the launch of the Globalization Studies Major at UAlbany on September 25. Past Forums have examined issues as varied as human rights\, U.S. militarism\, environmental crises\, labor organizing in Mexican maquiladoras\, universal health care\, food sovereignty\, and more. \n\n\n\nDoug Henwood Biography:\n\n\n\nDoug Henwood\, editor and publisher of Left Business Observer\, received his B.A. in English from Yale University in 1975. Henwood did graduate work in English at the University of Virginia\, concentrating on British and American poetry and critical theory. In the course of studying the theory and history of the U.S. political economy\, Henwood became more deeply interested in economic matters and less so in literary ones. After five years of contemplation\, convinced that the 1980s experiment with free-market economics was a financial and social disaster and that much “left” writing on economics was usually dry and dated\, Henwood decided that there was room for a newsletter addressing both these deficiencies. He founded Left Business Observer in September 1986. Almost from the first issue\, the newsletter was a critical success. \n\n\n\nLBO covers economics and politics in the broadest sense. Recent and persisting obsessions include the meaning of Bushism; income distribution and poverty in the U.S. and elsewhere in the First World; the globalization of finance and production; the worldwide attack on pensions; the 1990s boom and its gloomy aftermath; the economics of energy. Every issue includes a report on the world’s financial markets and central banks. \n\n\n\nBesides editing LBO\, Henwood is a contributing editor of The Nation\, and hosts a radio weekly program on WBAI (New York). His book “Wall Street” was published by Verso in June 1997 and is now available for free download. His social atlas of the U.S. (in the Pluto atlas series)\, The State of the USA\, was published by Simon & Schuster in the fall of 1994. His latest effort\, After the New Economy\, was published in late 2003 by The New Press. He is now in the early stages of a book on the current American ruling class.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/doug-henwood-and-the-crisis-of-neoliberalism/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Speaker
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080920T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080920T220000
DTSTAMP:20230626T161108Z
CREATED:20080920T161000Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230626T161108Z
UID:10001014-1221940800-1221948000@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:Free Jazz from the Sanctuary presents Empty Cage Quartet and Weasel Walter Trio
DESCRIPTION:One of the most powerful and original jazz groups to emerge from the West Coast\, Empty Cage explores imaginative new ways to integrate a diverse mix of musical influences ranging from shuffle swing to free jazz blowouts\, minimalist percussion loops to complex modernist gestures\, robotic grooves\, odd-meter marches\, heavy rock\, and nearly everything in between.  \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nLocal presentation of the Empty Cage Quartet and the Weasel Walter Trio is co-sponsored by the Arts Department at RPI and Albany Sonic Arts Collective\, made possible by volunteer labor\, small financial contributions from hundreds of patrons of The Sanctuary For Independent Media and support from the New York State Music Fund. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Empty Cage Quartet has consistently been praised as one of the most powerful and original new jazz groups to emerge from the American West Coast. For nearly six years the group has explored imaginative new ways to integrate a diverse mix of musical influences ranging from shuffle swing to free jazz blowouts\, minimalist percussion loops to complex modernist gestures\, robotic grooves\, odd-meter marches\, heavy rock\, and nearly everything in between. Performances of this music involve an elaborate system of on-stage cues to navigate the flow of improvisation in\, around\, and out of modular compositional structures designed to cycle\, overlap\, combine and recombine. The result is a continually evolving\, multidimensional approach to jazz and new music performance\, improvisational acuity\, and compositional craft that Amazing Sounds Magazine has likened to an “urban folk music of the future.” \n\n\n\nThe Empty Cage Quartet has toured extensively in the Western United States and in Canada and Europe\, and they have received support from the American Composers Forum\, the International Society for Improvised Music (ISIM)\, and Chamber Music America’s French-American Jazz Exchange. To date they have released six CD recordings that have been featured on jazz radio stations around the world and reviewed favorably in publications including Signal to Noise\, The Wire\, All About Jazz\, Cadence Magazine\, Jazz Hot\, Paris Transatlantic Magazine\, LA Weekly\, Tucson Weekly\, and Stride Magazine. Stratostrophic\, their most recent album\, is out now on the Clean Feed label\, and in September they will make their New York City debut with a concert at the Living Theatre co-sponsored by Clean Feed Festival III and the Sixth Annual Festival of New Trumpet Music. \n\n\n\nInstrumentationJason Mears – alto saxophone\, clarinet\, flutesKris Tiner – trumpet\, flugelhornIvan Johnson – double bassPaul Kikuchi – drums\, percussion\, electronics \n\n\n\nA drummer whose current material straddles the many lines between punk\, free jazz\, no wave\, improv\, and much more\, Weasel Walter will be playing with Mary Halvorson on guitar and Peter Evans on trumpet. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWeasel Walter (born Christopher Todd Walter in Rockford\, Illinois) is a composer and instrumentalist who founded the band The Flying Luttenbachers in Chicago in 1991 with late jazz cult figure Hal Russell. Over the years\, the band has included noted Chicago musicians such as Ken Vandermark\, Jeb Bishop\, Fred Lonberg-Holm\, Dylan Posa\, while creating an uncompromising and mercurial body of abstract music drawing equally from no wave\, death metal\, free jazz\, gamelan\, noise music\, hardcore punk and modern classical. Walter relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2003\, where he formed the latest of many Luttenbachers lineups\, remaining on percussion with the addition of bassist Mike Green (Burmese)\, and virtuoso guitarist Ed Rodriguez (ex-Colossamite\, Gorge Trio). Singular guitar phenomenon Mick Barr (Octis\, Orthrelm) joined the group in 2005. The Flying Luttenbachers ceased to operate in late 2007. In addition to leading various free jazz ensembles under his own name\, currently he is a member of XBXRX and Burmese. \n\n\n\nBefore relocating to the West Coast\, Walter was a major contributor to the Chicago no-wave/noise/improvised music underground during the ’90s and early 2000s. During this period\, he performed as a founding member of bands such as The Flying Luttenbachers\, Miss High Heel (with Jim O’Rourke and Azita of The Scissor Girls)\, Lake of Dracula (with Marlon Magas and Heather M. of the Scissor Girls)\, To Live and Shave in L.A. 2\, and Hatewave (replacing founder Nandor Nevai) among others. Walter has collaborated with artists like Marlon Magas and Jim O’Rourke\, Tom Smith in To Live and Shave in L.A.\, Henry Kaiser\, Damon Smith\, Vinny Golia\, Joe Morris\, Frank Gratkowski\, William Winant and Ken Vandermark as well as many influential underground rock bands including Bobby Conn\, U.S. Maple\, Cock E.S.P.\, Curse of the Birthmark\, the Scissor Girls\, Erase Errata\, The Chicago Sound\, Harry Pussy\, Quintron\, Sharon Cheslow\, and Cheer-Accident\, in addition to producing albums by the Coachwhips\, Burmese\, Total Shutdown\, Arab on Radar and Glenn Branca. \n\n\n\nMary Halvorson is a guitarist\, composer and improviser living in Brooklyn. She grew up in Boston and studied jazz at Wesleyan University and the New School. Since 2000 she has been performing regularly in New York with various groups and has toured Europe and the U.S. with the Anthony Braxton Quintet (Live at the Royal Festival Hall\, Leo Records) and Trevor Dunn’s Trio-Convulsant (Sister Phantom Owl Fish\, Ipecac Recordings). She has also performed alongside Joe Morris\, Nels Cline\, John Tchicai\, Elliott Sharp\, Andrea Parkins\, Marc Ribot\, Tony Malaby\, Oscar Noriega and Jason Moran. Current projects which Mary composes for and performs with include a chamber-music duo with violist Jessica Pavone (On and Off\, Skirl Records\, 2007); The Mary Halvorson Trio with John Hebert and Ches Smith; and the avant-rock band People (Misbegotten Man\, I & Ear Records\, 2007). She also performs regularly in ensembles led by Taylor Ho Bynum\, Ted Reichman\, Tatsuya Nakatani\, Jason Cady\, Matthew Welch\, Brian Chase and Curtis Hasselbring. \n\n\n\nPeter Evans is an American trumpet player based in New York\, who specializes in improvisation and avant-garde music. Evans has been a member of the New York City musical community since 2003\, when he moved to the city after graduating from The Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Peter currently works in a wide variety of areas\, including solo performance\, chamber orchestras\, performance art\, free improvised settings\, electro-acoustic music and composition. In addition\, he performs regularly as part of the Festival of New Trumpet Music\, which is held annually in New York City.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/empty-cage-quartet-and-weasel-walter-trio/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Jazz Music,Performance,Rock Music
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080916T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080916T210000
DTSTAMP:20230626T160646Z
CREATED:20080916T155900Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230626T160646Z
UID:10001013-1221591600-1221598800@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:Chiwoniso
DESCRIPTION:One of the most existing talents in African music today\, Chiwoniso performs entrancing and uplifting songs with ancient soul and modern spirit. Backed by the mesmerizing interlocking melodies of the mbira and the deep grooves of an all-star lineup featuring some of Zimbabwe and South Africa’s top musicians\, Chiwoniso’s voice resounds with defiant strength and profound tenderness. Her new recording\, Rebel Woman (2008)\, has just been released by Cumbancha. \n\n\n\nLocal presentation of Chiwoniso is made possible by volunteer labor\, small financial contributions from hundreds of patrons of The Sanctuary For Independent Media and support from the New York State Council on the Arts. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n“I am like a mirror\,” declares Zimbabwe’s popular music star Chiwoniso Maraire. “I basically sing about what I see happening in the world. If someone comes up to me in the street to ask for money I’ll sing about that. If people are jumping borders because their economic situation is too difficult\, I’ll sing about that. If the police are beating people up and intimidating them\, I’ll sing about that.” \n\n\n\nIn recent months\, Zimbabwe’s political and economic turmoil has thrust the turbulent African nation into international headlines. Based in the capital city of Harare\, Chiwoniso lives in the eye of the storm\, observing firsthand as her beloved homeland struggles to overcome the enduring legacies of colonialism\, war\, social inequality and political oppression. A devoted advocate of free speech\, human rights and social justice\, Chiwoniso’s music gives voice to the voiceless and speaks to the problems and joys of the world around her. \n\n\n\nOn “Rebel Woman\,” Chiwoniso’s first internationally released album in over ten years\, her soulful and deeply personal songs offer messages of hope\, inspiration and resistance\, and serve notice that this gifted singer and songwriter merits recognition as one of Africa’s greatest young talents. \n\n\n\nWhile Zimbabwe’s ancient musical traditions serve as the foundation of Chiwoniso’s music\, she is the child of a globalized world and her songs reflect her diverse\, multicultural influences. Her late father\, Dumisani Maraire was a respected scholar and musician\, who moved the family to the United States in the 1970s while pursuing a degree in Ethnomusicology at the University of Washington in Seattle. \n\n\n\nChiwoniso was born in Olympia\, Washington in 1976\, and although she spent the first seven years of her life away from Zimbabwe\, the music of her family’s homeland was a constant presence. \n\n\n\n“I was born into a very musical family\, both my parents were musicians\,” Chiwoniso points out. “My father was an amazing mbira player\, my mother was a beautiful singer\, so I was surrounded by this music from the day I was conceived\, really\, because they used to teach classes in the house as well. But at the same time they loved to listen to other people\, so I grew up exposed to James Brown\, Michael Jackson\, Roberta Flack\, Aretha Franklin\, The Rolling Stones\, Bach\, Mozart\, you name it\, it was being played.” In this dynamic home environment Chiwoniso was playing mbira by the age of four. \n\n\n\nHer first studio recording was at the age of nine with her parents\, an album called ‘Tichazomuwona’ (We Shall See You)\, dedicated to her late uncle\, Dr. Nkosana Aurthur Maraire. By the age of 11 Chiwoniso was performing with her father and siblings\, Tawona and Ziyanai\, in their family mbira group “Mhuri yaMaraire’ (The Maraire Family). She was also a musician in her father’s explosive marimba group ‘Minanzi III’ (Musical Sounds 3). \n\n\n\nWhile Chiwoniso’s musical influences range from soul and R&B to reggae and rock\, the entrancing sounds of the mbira serve as a central underpinning for the songs on “Rebel Woman.” Originating in the ancient Shona civilization of southern Africa\, the mbira is a musical instrument made of metal tines attached to a wooden board. The player plucks the tines with their thumbs to create captivating interlocking melodies\, which have accompanied ceremonies and celebrations for countless generations. While variations of the mbira exist across Africa\, it is an essential element of Zimbabwean music tradition and has a deep historical\, cultural and spiritual symbolism. \n\n\n\nIn 1990\, Chiwoniso’s family made their second move back to Zimbabwe\, and she quickly became a popular figure in the local music scene thanks to her role as lead vocalist for A Peace of Ebony\, the country’s first hip-hop band. Along with the group’s founders\, Herbert Schwamborne and Tony Chihota\, and fellow members George Phiri and Tendai Viki\, A Peace of Ebony created a new sound mixing rap and Zimbabwean ethnic-influenced melodies. This was when Chiwoniso and Keith Farquharson first met. In 1997\, she released her first solo album\, Ancient Voices\, which was warmly received and even earned her the prestigious Radio France International “Best New Artist” award. While she was developing her solo career\, Chiwoniso also toured and recorded with the powerful Zimbabwean group Andy Brown and The Storm. \n\n\n\nIn 1996 and 1999 Chiwoniso gave birth to her daughters Chengeto and Chiedza. Her decision to focus on raising her children saw her choose to step out of the active international scene for some years. Instead she did recordings for world-awareness groups including CARE\, UNDP\, The Nobel Peace and worked with other artists who were striking out in new directions musically. The groups included Women’s Voice\, brought together by Malika Makouff-Rasmussen\, and The Collaboration\, a band that drew together some of the leading Zimbabwean artists\, including Adam Chisvo\, Busi Ncube\, Charlie Summerfield\, William Hillman\, Roger Mbambo and Peter Mashasha. \n\n\n\nWith her feet back on the ground and revitalized creative energy\, Chiwoniso has spent the last three years working with producer Keith Farquharson on “Rebel Woman.” Recorded in Zimbabwe\, South Africa\, England and Vermont (where Cumbancha and its partner company Charles Eller Studios are based)\, the album features some of Southern Africa’s most respected musicians and an intriguing collection of guests. Louis Mhlanga\, who has also recorded with Nigeria’s King Sunny Ade\, South African icon Hugh Masekela and others provides the albums tasty guitar licks. Zimbabwean Drummer Sam Mataure\, a veteran of Oliver Mtukudzi’s band\, lays down his trademark rock solid rhythms\, while saxophonist/flautist Steve Dyer guides a crack horn section. Meanwhile\, members of Cumbancha’s extended family\, such as Idan Raichel Project percussionist Rony Irwyn\, Belizean producer/guitarist Ivan Duran and keyboardist Charles Eller lent their services for cameo appearances. \n\n\n\nThe result is an appealing collection of songs that range from the soothing\, unadorned mbira and voices of “Pamuromo” to the rousing\, celebratory dance beats of “Gomo.” The album opens with the raw electric guitar riffs of “Vanorapa”\, a song about the healing power of the elders whose lyrical theme is matched by its deep groove. Chiwoniso believes firmly in the power of traditional Shona spirituality and the ability of the elders to heal people even after they have died and entered the realm of the spirits. “Sometimes a person can die because there may be issues in their life when they were alive that weren’t taken care of and that’s when you have spirits roaming that need to be healed\,” she points out. Chiwoniso wrote the song based on one her late father used to perform with Mananzi III\, adding to its emotional depth. \n\n\n\nOn “Matsotsi” (The Land of Thieves)\, Chiwoniso sings of the economic struggles of the workingman. Many people leave their families to find work\, and they are only able to return home to visit their loved ones every month or so. In today’s tough economic times\, it’s harder for people to even earn enough money to make the trip back home. “How do I go home if I don’t have money?” Chiwoniso implores. The mood shifts on “Gomo”\, an upbeat tribute to the mountain regions where Chiwoniso’s family originated. “We play with hosho (a type of shaker)\, we play with drums\, we play with mbira. We are the children of the mountains\,” she shouts out\, encouraging you to enter the trance-like state of a traditional Zimbabwean ceremony. \n\n\n\nBecause of her American upbringing\, Chiwoniso is equally comfortable writing and singing in English\, which she demonstrates to full effect on the South African flavored “Listen to the Breeze”. The lyrics\, which tell of a wise elder who imparts words of wisdom\, came to her in a dream during a recording session in England. On “Only One World\,” Chiwoniso expresses her devotion to her children and how important it is for parents to make decisions that take future generations into account. “The children have got to be protected. If wemake selfish decisions as adults\, those are our decisions\, but the children are affected by everything we do.” Chiwoniso has long been an advocate for children’s rights\, and has been involved with an organization called MUSTLE Africa that helps teach literacy to the homeless\, orphans and other underprivileged children. \n\n\n\nThe album’s title track\, “Rebel Woman\,” takes inspiration from a poem about the role of women in Zimbabwe’s war for independence. “The song is about the physical conditions of fighting\, and the price people pay\,” she explains\, but it is also a tribute to strong women who suffer because they do not follow the restrictions society tries to place on them. “The truth is that when you’re a strong woman you might lose our husband\, your home\, because the way the systems are structured you’re not allowed to be strong as a women\, unless you follow the rules. This is a song about changing those rules.” \n\n\n\nThe song serves as a moving epilogue to a masterful album and confirms that Chiwoniso will continue to speak out on issues important to her\, regardless of the consequences. Recognizing that artists play a special role in society\, she believes they must not be afraid to speak out against injustice. “We have a responsibility. We are not bankers\, we are not doctors\, we are not nurses. We have another part that we play in society that must be done. So\, regardless of whatever world system is going to come in and say: ‘Cut what you are saying\,’ going to send riot cops in to your shows\, going to come and arrest you and say ‘We are going to try and put you in jail…’–it doesn’t matter. We have a responsibility.” \n\n\n\nCumbancha is a new record label founded by Jacob Edgar\, an Ethnomusicologist and music producer who for the past eight years has been the head of music research and product development at famed independent record label Putumayo World Music. It has been Edgar’s job to travel the world in search of exceptional artists and songs for Putumayo’s critically acclaimed and commercially successful compilations of music from all over the globe. Over the years\, Edgar kept coming across artists he felt deserved wider recognition and assistance in bringing their music to the world stage\, and he decided to form Cumbancha to address that need. \n\n\n\n“I believe exposure to music from different parts of the world can help open a doorway to other cultures\,” insists Edgar. “Listening to music is an excellent way to make a connection with people who are very different from yourself\, and it can create a common ground that overcomes some of the barriers that separate people of different walks of life.” \n\n\n\n“My experience at Putumayo has taught me that world music is much more popular than is generally recognized. People from all generations and backgrounds are looking for music with roots in cultural traditions\, even if that music isn’t as visible as it should be in the mainstream media.” \n\n\n\nEdgar is a global explorer with an insatiable curiosity for the diverse ways in which people express themselves through music. His research trips in search of music for Putumayo’s compilations have taken him to Cuba\, Brazil\, Turkey\, India and dozens of other countries\, not to mention hundreds of the world’s greatest international music festivals\, showcases and performance venues in search of exceptional musical talents. \n\n\n\nEdgar has helped produce compilation CDs that have sold a total of over ten million units worldwide. Always scouring the planet for new sounds\, he possibly listens to more world music CDs than anyone else in the USA and\, possibly\, the world. “My basic role at Putumayo has been to travel the world and dig up as much music as I could\, then review it to uncover those truly great artists and songs that rise above\, and that would appeal to both fans of world music and neophytes who are just interested in hearing something they like. I often tell people\, ‘I suffer so you don’t have to!’ What I mean is I have to listen to a lot of pretty banal stuff to find those musical diamonds\, but as a result I’ve gotten to know some pretty special artists and musical movements.” \n\n\n\nThe main motivation for Cumbancha sprung from Edgar’s desire to work more closely with some of the most extraordinary artists he has gotten to know over the years. “We used to say at Putumayo that doing compilations was like dating\, and signing artists was like getting married\,” says Edgar. “After years of flirting with some of my favorite artists\, it’s nice to finally make some commitments and settle down!” \n\n\n\nShortly after notifying Putumayo last fall of his intentions to leave the label strike out on his own\, Edgar’s former employer offered to become an investor in his new project and service his releases through Putumayo’s network of worldwide distribution. The relationship allows Edgar to continue to assist Putumayo in the development of their popular compilations\, while giving Cumbancha releases a powerful presence in over 60 countries around the world. Edgar also continues to assist Putumayo in the development of their popular compilations. \n\n\n\n“Many of the artists who will appear on Cumbancha have been on a Putumayo compilation over the years\,” notes Edgar\, “so in some ways this new label offers an opportunity for people who have become intrigued by artists on Putumayo’s collections to explore their work further.” At the same time\, Cumbancha will present many artists whose work falls outside of the aesthetic boundaries of a Putumayo compilation\, but whose work is particularly compelling or innovative. \n\n\n\nCumbancha’s first release in the United States\, Canada and Latin America was the album ¡Ay Caramba! by the UK-based band Ska Cubano\, whose appealing fusion of Jamaican ska with Cuban mambo\, salsa and son has earned them wide praise and accolades across Europe. Yet\, even though the group has played at some of Europe’s most prestigious festivals and concert halls\, won numerous “Best of” awards from dozens of magazines\, and even caused a stodgy audience of tuxedo-clad diplomats to bounce in their seats at last year’s Nobel Peace Prize Award ceremony\, Ska Cubano remained largely unknown among the broader public outside of Europe. Since their album was released in the United States they embarked on a hugely successful US and Canada tour\, playing in hi-profile venues such as Central Park SummerStage\, Montreal International Jazz Festival\, San Francisco’s Stern Grove and Grand Performances in Los Angeles among others. Praised by both the media and the public\, Ska Cubano’s album hit number 5 on the Billboard World Music Charts and number 1 on the College Music Journal’s World Music radio chart\, marking an auspicious beginning for the new Cumbancha label. \n\n\n\nThe first worldwide release by Cumbancha is the Israeli cross-cultural collaborative\, The Idan Raichel Project\, whose appealing fusion of Ethiopian folk music with Middle Eastern flavors have made them one of the most unexpected success stories in Israeli music today. While recent headlines are dominated by news of conflict and war in the Middle East\, this Israeli musical collaborative has achieved success by looking beyond intercultural differences and celebrating the value of diversity. With its blend of traditional Ethiopian folk music\, Arabic poetry\, Yemenite chants\, Biblical psalms and Caribbean rhythms\, The Idan Raichel Project has already taken Israel by storm with multiple number one hits and triple platinum sales. \n\n\n\nWhile the ensemble regularly fills large concert halls at home\, the upcoming international release of the recordings of The Idan Raichel Project on the Cumbancha record label promises to introduce the work of this inspirational collective to a wide global audience. “The Idan Raichel Project are already superstars in Israel and Israeli and Ethiopian communities worldwide\,” says Edgar\, “They have performed in some of the most prestigious venues in Europe\, the United States and Latin America\, yet almost exclusively to Israeli audiences. Cumbancha’s goal is to expose them to a wider public who will also enjoy this unique artist.” The Idan Raichel Project will be embarking on an ambitious worldwide touring schedule in an effort to introduce their music to a new public. \n\n\n\nThe headquarters for Cumbancha is an 1830’s farmhouse in the small town of Charlotte\, Vermont. Also home to one of New England’s most prestigious recording studios\, Charles Eller Studios (www.charlesellerstudios.com)\, the complex in Vermont will allow for a unique artist retreat where musicians from around the world can come together to record in a picturesque and tranquil setting free from outside distractions. While many of the records released on Cumbancha will be recorded on location in the countries where the music is from\, others will be recorded in this special setting. Most of the post-production work will be completed in Vermont\, in the shadows of the verdant Green Mountains. “I spend so much time traveling around the world\,” says Edgar\, “it’s nice to work in a place where I can focus and be surrounded by the region’s tremendous natural beauty.” \n\n\n\n“One of the things I enjoy most about the work I do at Putumayo\,” says Edgar\, “was knowing that thousands of people are exposed to music from cultures they might not otherwise get to learn about\, and in a small but not inconsequential way that helps pave the way towards greater appreciation and respect for diversity.” Cumbancha gives Edgar a chance to take that experience one step further. \n\n\n\n“Cumbancha” is a Cuban word of West African derivation that refers to an impromptu party or musical jam session. Many classic Latin songs refer to the “cumbanchero\,” a person who knows how to party and have a good time. For those who are familiar with the word\, “cumbancha” implies an opportunity to get together with family and friends to dance\, sing and celebrate life. “I like the creole nature of the word\,” says Edgar\, “that it is a blend of African and Spanish. Much of the greatest music in the world reflects this interaction between cultures and the ways in which people can gain inspiration for new expressions from people of different backgrounds.” \n\n\n\nLocal presentation of Chiwoniso is made possible by volunteer labor\, small financial contributions from hundreds of patrons of The Sanctuary For Independent Media and support from the New York State Council on the Arts. \n\n\n\nThe Sanctuary for Independent Media is a community media arts center located in an historic former church in Troy\, NY. The venue is an intimate and acoustically excellent space which seats about 150. The Sanctuary hosts screening\, production and performance facilities\, training in media production and a meeting space for artists\, activists and independent media makers of all kinds.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/chiwoniso/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:African Music,Performance
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080915T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080915T210000
DTSTAMP:20220607T151603Z
CREATED:20080915T165000Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220607T151603Z
UID:10001011-1221505200-1221512400@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:Chris Carlson and "Nowtopia": Practical Rebellion & A New Politics of Work
DESCRIPTION:How do the Open Source software movement\, bicycle subculture\, guerilla gardening\, and the Burning Man Festival fit together? Nowtopia (2008) author and Critical Mass co-founder Chris Carlsson connects these dots as he profiles the social networks that are cooperating outside of economic regulation and laying the foundation for a genuine movement of liberation from market life. The event will feature an installation by the Rhizome Collective. Valet bike parking available. \n\n\n\nCo-sponsored by Troy Bike Rescue and the New York Bicycling Coalition.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/chris-carlson-and-nowtopia-practical-rebellion-a-new-politics-of-work/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Panel Discussion,Performance
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