"The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks" Film Screening
2022-11-03 19:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
with filmmaker Yoruba Richen

Yoruba Richen will screen The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks at the Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy, NY. This film captures the unexpected story of Rosa Parks and her life beyond the historic bus boycott, revealing the intent behind her activism, her radical politics, and her courage. The screening will be followed by a discussion about the film, voter rights, and activism.

Curators: Elizabeth Press, Kathy High, Branda Miller.

Sponsored by: iEAR Presents! and the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at Rensselaer, made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of The Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

5pm – 6pm: Be The Media! Workshop: Social Issue Filmmaking with Yoruba Richen

7pm: The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks film screening and discussion, moderated by Dr. Veneilya Harden

***In line with our commitment to equity, love and justice, we ask that you please keep your mask on at our indoor events.

Photos by Robert Cooper

Yoruba Richen is an award-winning filmmaker whose latest film, The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks premiered at Tribeca Film Festival and will stream on Peacock this fall. Other recent films include the Emmy-nominated, How It Feels to Be Free and the Emmy and Peabody nominated The Sit In: Harry Belafonte Hosts the Tonight Show. Her film, The Killing of Breonna Taylor aired on FX/Hulu and won an NAACP Image Award. Yoruba is also a past Guggenheim and Fulbright fellow and recipient of the Chicken & Egg Breakthrough filmmaker’s award. Yoruba is the founding director of the Documentary Program at the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.

Moderated by:

Dr. Veneilya Harden received her Doctorate of Education and Executive Leadership in August of 2020 from St. John Fisher College and her Masters in Counseling in Community Psychology with a Forensic Mental Health Certificate from The Sage Colleges in 2015 at which time Dr. Harden was also appointed to The New York State Office Of Mental through Governor Cuomo’s Excelsior Fellowship Initiative where she has maintained her employment for the past seven years. Dr. Harden is also a Project Associate with The McLean Group focusing on Diversity, Leadership, Equity, Education, and Inclusion. Dr. Harden serves actively in the Capital Region community on the Albany Community Police Review Board as Vice Chair and Chair of Mission Accomplished and Peer Reviewer of the ACA Journal. Dr. Harden’s work has centered around advocacy, education, equity, and policing disparities.

Workshop

Be the Media! Workshop: Social Issue Filmmaking with Yoruba Richen

Yoruba Richen will show clips from a few of her recent documentaries and talk about her approach to social issue filmmaking. Yoruba will also examine different filmmaking genres – archival, investigative, verite- and discuss how stylistic choices, journalistic ethics, and advocacy shape her work.

Be The Media! Workshop: Social Issue Filmmaking with Yoruba Richen
2022-11-03 17:00 - 18:00 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
Join us for a workshop with Yoruba Richen who will show clips from a few of her recent documentaries and talk about her approach to social issue filmmaking. Yoruba will also examine different filmmaking genres – archival, investigative, verite- and discuss how stylistic choices, journalistic ethics, and advocacy shape her work.

Yoruba’s most recent film is The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks. An unexpected story of Rosa Parks and her life beyond the historic bus boycott, revealing the intent behind her activism, her radical politics, and her courage. Stick around after this workshop for a screening of this film at 7pm.

Curators: Elizabeth Press, Kathy High, Branda Miller.

Sponsored by: iEAR Presents! and the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at Rensselaer, made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of The Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

5pm – 6pm: Be The Media! Workshop: Social Issue Filmmaking with Yoruba Richen

7pm: The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks film screening and discussion, moderated by Dr. Veneilya Harden

***In line with our commitment to equity, love and justice, we ask that you please keep your mask on at our indoor events.

Photographs by Robert Cooper

Yoruba Richen is an award-winning filmmaker whose latest film, The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks premiered at Tribeca Film Festival and will stream on Peacock this fall. Other recent films include the Emmy-nominated, How It Feels to Be Free and the Emmy and Peabody nominated The Sit In: Harry Belafonte Hosts the Tonight Show. Her film, The Killing of Breonna Taylor aired on FX/Hulu and won an NAACP Image Award. Yoruba is also a past Guggenheim and Fulbright fellow and recipient of the Chicken & Egg Breakthrough filmmaker’s award. Yoruba is the founding director of the Documentary Program at the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.

Sponsored by iEAR Presents!, EMPAC and the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at Rensselaer, made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of The Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

Film Screening

Chris Hedges: "The Greatest Evil is War"
2022-10-21 19:00 - 21:00 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
Chris Hedges returns to The Sanctuary for Independent Media on the subject of his latest book titled The Greatest Evil is War, an unflinching indictment of the horror and obscenity of war. Pulitzer-prize-winner Chris Hedges draws from experience and interviews for this book that looks at the hidden costs of war, what it does to individuals, families, communities, and nations.

This event is IN PERSON but the audio will be carried live on Sanctuary Radio, heard in the Troy area on WOOC 105.3 FM and streaming live at www.mediasanctuary.org for everyone everywhere. We hope to post the video on Sanctuary TV shortly.

***In line with our commitment to equity, love and justice, we ask that you please keep your mask on at our indoor events.

Full Audio from Chris Hedges: “The Greatest Evil is War”

Images by Sina Basila Hickey

About the Book

In fifteen short chapters, Chris Hedges astonishes us with his clear and cogent argument against war, not on philosophical grounds or through moral arguments, but in an irrefutable stream of personal encounters with the victims of war, from veterans and parents to gravely wounded American serviceman who served in the Iraq War, to survivors of the Holocaust, to soldiers in the Falklands War, among others. Hedges reported from Sarajevo, and was in the Balkans to witness the collapse of the Soviet Union.

In 2002 he published War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning, which the Los Angeles Times described as “the best kind of war journalism… bitterly poetic and ruthlessly philosophical” and the New York Times called “a brilliant, thoughtful, timely, and unsettling book.” In the twenty years since, Hedges has not wanted to write another book on the subject of war–until now, with the outbreak of war in Ukraine. It is important again to be reminded who are the victors of the spoils of war and of other unerring truths, not only in this war but in all modern wars, where civilians are always the main victims, and the tools and methods of war are capable of so much destruction it boggles the mind. This book is an unflinching indictment of the horror and obscenity of war by one of our finest war correspondents.

Check out Chris Hedges’ “Our Class: Trauma and Transformation in an American Prison,” recorded on June 28, 2021 at The Sanctuary for Independent Media!

Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who was a foreign correspondent for fifteen years for The New York Times, where he served as the Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief for the paper. He previously worked overseas for The Dallas Morning News, The Christian Science Monitor, and NPR. He is the host of the Emmy Award-nominated RT America show On Contact.

Al Bilali Soudan
2022-10-16 19:00 - 21:00 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
Join us for a concert from Al Bilali Soudan from Timbuktu, Mali. Their performance is an improvisational tour de force of traditional instruments (incl. tehardant and calabash), rhythms, and scales. These traditional instruments are foundational to the development of the style that has evolved into the modern desert blues sound.

Tickets

***In line with our commitment to equity, love and justice, we ask that you please keep your mask on at our indoor events.

The group members all come from a well-known Tuareg griot family who have performed for generations. Aballow Yattara is the current group leader. Other members of the group are his uncle Aboubacrine Yattara and their sons Mohamed Ag Abellow and Tchiale Ag Aboubacrine.

Abellow and Aboubacrine Yattara began to play the tehardant, a three-stringed fretless instrument that some refer to as precursor to modern banjo, when they were adolescents. Both their fathers were master musicians. His uncle can be heard on the first recordings of traditional music in Northern Mali. Abellow Yattara can be heard on early recordings by Ali Farka Toure, on 1970’s recordings of the Orchestre de Tombouctou, and many Radio Mali broadcasts. He accompanied the vocalist, Khaira Arby, on recordings and on tour. In 2010 he gave a master class at Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Hear the interview with Al Bilali Soudan

“DIRT: The Secret Life of Soil” with Arm-of-the-Sea Theater
2022-10-08 14:00 - 15:00 | Freedom Square, 35 5th Ave, Troy, NY, 12180, United States
Join us for a theatrical production about the dirt under our feet by Arm-of-the-Sea Theater, an arts ensemble that fuses visual storytelling with live music in contemporary works of mask and puppet theater.

This production will take place outdoors in Freedom Square, a two-minute walk from the Sanctuary.

Where does food “come from” and from what is it made? Here’s a lively primer for urban bumpkins and upcountry gardeners alike. Fusing cutting-edge science and age-old puppetry, DIRT takes audiences on an extravagant journey of discovery into the Great Underneath—revealing the epic alchemy of plants, the fungi’s dance of mutual delight, and the microbes’ herculean labors. Fifty minutes in length, performed by a five- member company, and featuring live music and a myriad of puppet figures ranging from 12 inches to 12 feet tall, the show reminds earthly residents of all ages how profoundly essential the ground beneath their feet is.

Arm-of-the-Sea Theater’s mission is to inspire wonder, offer insight, spark joy and enrich the public imagination. They accomplish their mission through the symbolic visual language of mask and puppet theater. This handmade, low-tech form of communication is decentralized and locally adapted. It can bridge language barriers and engage people of many ages and walks of life.

Arm-of-the-Sea was founded in 1982 by Marlena Marallo and Patrick Wadden as an experimental hybrid performance group combining art, ecology and social action. They continue to experiment with this ephemeral art form as a symbolic visual language that can illuminate the links between human communities and the life-support processes of this blue ocean planet.

Photos by Robert Cooper from the performance at Freedom Square on October 8, 2022

Sponsored by NATURE Lab and People’s Health Sanctuary.

Les Filles de Illighadad- TOUR CANCELED
2022-09-21 19:00 - 21:00
Drawing from two distinct styles of regional sound, ancient village choral chants and desert guitar, Les Filles de Illighadad are sisters from the village of Illighadad, performing Tende, traditional music from Niger.

“MESMERIZING SOUNDS FROM THE SAHARA” – The New York Times

“HEADY, TRANCE-INDUCING SONGS THAT BURROW INTO YOUR BRAIN AND SPREAD THROUGH YOUR BODY” – Rolling Stone

***Please note that for everyone’s safety, we are following Covid protocols that include requirements that all attendees show proof of vaccination or a recent test for entry, and wear a mask. We will notify ticket holders if the protocols change.

Les Filles de Illighadad (“daughters of Illighadad”) was founded in Illighadad, Niger in 2016 by solo guitarist Fatou Seidi Ghali and renowned vocalist Alamnou Akrouni. In 2017, they were joined by Amaria Hamadalher, a fixture on the Agadez guitar scene, and Abdoulaye Madassane, rhythm guitarist and a son of Illighadad. Les Filles de Illighadad’s music draws from two distinct styles of regional sound, ancient village choral chants and desert guitar. The result is a groundbreaking new direction for Tuareg folk music and a sound that resonates far outside of their village. In the past years, the band has toured nonstop, bringing their highly specific sound to distant corners of the globe.

Les Filles de Illighadad’s third full-length, At Pioneer Works, was recorded over two sold-out shows in Brooklyn, NY in Fall 2019 at the tail-end of two years of nonstop touring in support of the band’s 2017 album Eghass Malan. Writing about the shows for The New Yorker, music critic Amanda Petrusich writes: “The crowd in Brooklyn was entranced, nearly reverent. Les Filles’ music is mesmeric, almost prayer-like, which can leave an audience agog… whatever rhythm does to a human body—it was happening.”

5th Anniversary of Hudson Mohawk Magazine on Sanctuary Radio
2022-09-11 16:00 - 18:00 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
Join us in a community gathering to commemorate 5 years of Hudson Mohawk Magazine, our locally-produced radio news hour, which launched on September 11, 2017 with the conscious goal of creating a community radio platform to nurture diverse voices in the Capital Region in response to increasing assaults on our civil liberties. This program is the product of many volunteer hours, so let’s unite to honor all who have invested ideas, skills, time, creativity, and heart into Hudson Mohawk Magazine with light snacks and refreshments, radio activities, and community.

Baccus Pizza, O’Malley’s Oven, Rareform Brewery will be providing some snacks and beverages.

***Please note that for everyone’s safety, we are following Covid protocols that include requirements that all attendees show proof of vaccination or a recent test for entry, and wear a mask. We will notify ticket holders if the protocols change.

In this time of escalating threats to our freedoms and the collapse of corporate journalism, meet our producers and recognize the essential role they play as independent grassroots journalists in a democratic society! We commemorate this anniversary not with flag waving and homogenized messages, but by celebrating the people-power and tools dedicated to creating independent media as the essence of freedom.

September 11, 2017 was the day HMM launched. Volunteer journalists joined together, dedicated to tell the stories that corporate media leaves untold. This date was chosen for its legacy of assaults on civil liberties and commemorates the September 11, 1973 military coup in Chile, which ended civilian rule in the government of Salvador Allende and transformed a beacon of democracy into a dictatorship, and the trauma of September 11, 2001 and the aftermath of restricted freedoms in the name of security.

Listen: 5 Years of HMM with Steve Pierce

Listen: The First Full Episode of HMM

We will also be memorializing our producer Meghan Marohn with an altar in collaboration with Nancy Weber. Listen here for a collection of memories and stories about Meghan by people impacted by her, produced by EP.

Be The Media! Hudson Mohawk Magazine Skillshare: Volunteer-Powered News, with Norman Stockwell
2022-06-27 20:00 - 20:30
Join the legendary independent journalist Norman Stockwell, who for 20 years was Operations Coordinator in Madison Wisconsin’s WORT-FM Community Radio during the glory years of one of the very best community radio stations ever! WORT is famous for having a very effective volunteer powered news department. Learn from Norman about how he and WORT successfully realized their independent journalism platform, and strategize how we can incorporate their successes into our volunteer-driven Hudson Mohawk Magazine.

Hudson Mohawk Magazine hosts monthly Be The Media! sessions on the last Monday of each month, where we invite seasoned community radio and radio activists to share their skills with HMM producers and the general public. Join us to learn about radio production, and how to have a voice to make a difference!

Email HMM@mediasanctuary.org for the zoom link

Norman Stockwell is publisher of The Progressive Magazine, a voice for peace and justice and the common good! Since 1909, The Progressive magazine has aimed to amplify voices of dissent and voices under-represented in the mainstream, with a goal of championing grassroots progressive politics.

Stockwell has spent the last 33 years at WORT Community Radio, a world-renowned listener-sponsored volunteer-driven station in Madison!

While at WORT he has covered national and international issues with radio reports, print articles and talk programs. For the past 21 years, Stockwell has served as Operations Coordinator at WORT. He also coordinated the Iraq Journal website in 2002-2003. In 2011, he regularly reported on protests in Madison for Iran’s PressTV and other outlets. His reports and interviews have appeared on Free Speech Radio News, DemocracyNow!, and AirAmerica, and in print in Z Magazine, the Capital Times, AlterNet, Toward Freedom, the Tico Times, the Feminist Connection, and elsewhere. Before that, he ran a folk music school, worked in a food cooperative, an IWW printshop, and as an archeologist, where he also marketed scientific publications and served as associate editor for a national magazine.

Norm Stockwell is co-editor of the book REBEL REPORTING: John Ross Speaks to Independent Journalists. Hamilton Books/Rowman-Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-7618-6660-2.

Before that, he ran a folk music school, worked in a food cooperative, an IWW printshop, and as an archeologist, where he also marketed scientific publications and served as associate editor for a national magazine.

Hudson Mohawk Magazine (HMM) is produced, engineered, and hosted by volunteers passionate about democracy and community journalism. There are many opportunities for anyone who wants to learn about broadcast journalism. Our virtual production meetings are on Monday nights at 7:07pm; contact us at HMM@mediasanctuary.org for information on how to attend!

Learn more about Hudson Mohawk Magazine!

"Witness," a documentary with filmmaker Masood Haque
2022-06-17 19:00 - 22:00
Please join us for a screening of Witness, a documentary film about the Aref-Hossain case, with filmmaker Masood Haque. The screening is followed by a panel with Lynne Jackson, Kathy Manley and Larry Rulison. This event is part of iEAR Presents! and co-sponsored by Project SALAM (Support and Legal Advocacy for Muslims), Coalition for Civil Freedoms, Capital District Coalition Against Islamophobia, and Muslim Solidarity Committee.

***Please note that for everyone’s safety, we are following Covid protocols that include requirements that all attendees show proof of vaccination or a recent test for entry, and wear a mask. We will notify ticket holders if the protocols change.

In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks a local pizza shop owner and the Imam of an Albany mosque found themselves at the center of an elaborate FBI sting operation. A convicted felon was sent undercover to lure the young men into a criminal plot as part of a plea bargain. They spent most of the next twenty years in prison while their accuser went on to a prominent role in the 2018 Schoharie limousine crash. Witness explores the difficult balance between civil liberties and security with a searing look at the impact of the War on Terror on everyday life.

WitnessDoc.com

Join us before the film screening for the Be The Media! workshop: “The Struggle to Tell Your Story,” with Masood Haque

Witness touches on a host of contemporary issues, ranging from the War on Terror to the balance between civil liberties and security. Most importantly, it examines the idea of due process. In pursuit of security, the American legal system is turned upside down. In cases involving terrorism, there is an almost automatic presumption of guilt based on fear, which is then exploited by prosecutors, who portray ordinary people as dangerous threats to safety and security. Thus, the jury system becomes an extension of law enforcement. Juries feel obligated to convict heavily bearded Muslim men with exotic, unpronounceable names because of their implicit faith in law enforcement and the FBI, and because of their fear that by acquitting, they might let a real terrorist go free.

Witness also grapples with the idea of preemptive prosecutions, used against hundreds of Muslims. Orwellian in its conceit, preemptive prosecutions target those deemed dangerous by engaging them in a variety of fictional plots and stress-testing their ideology in the quest to “prevent the next one.” Thus American law enforcement uses fear once again, this time to undermine long-standing, cherished legal principles. Ultimately Witness asks the question: How far are we willing to go to create the illusion of safety for ourselves?

Witness also examines the role of media in becoming an arm of the government’s disinformation campaign. Even though the print media acquitted itself well in the coverage of this case, asking critical questions that often earned the wrath of the prosecution, local television news reporters bought the government’s contrived story hook, line, and sinker. These reporters parroted the government’s often-dubious claims as fact, thus becoming a tool for manipulating public sentiment. The day the story broke, several reporters were told by FBI agents that the initial sheet of charges would outline the men’s involvement with terrorist organizations, yet in the actual court documents there was no mention of such connections––leaving some reporters to wonder on air what had happened to these nefarious ties. Check out more about the story here.

Masood Haque: Producer/ Director

Masood Haque graduated from NYU and subsequently received his MFA in documentary film production from CUNY. He has produced and directed several award-winning short form documentaries, including Stranger in Paradise which won the top prize at City Vision Film Festival and the jury prize at Jackson Heights Film Festival. Witness is his first feature documentary.

Listen to the interview:

Read More

Masood Haque on Creating the Film “Witness”

After the film screening Masood Haque will be joined in a Q & A with:

Lynne Jackson is a community activist, and will be the moderator for the panel. Lynne Jackson is a breast cancer survivor who has lived in Albany, New York for more than 40 years. She makes her living as a computer consultant, worked with Save the Pine Bush for more than 35 years, volunteers to work on the issue of preemptive prosecution of Muslims and gives presentations on these issues. She lives in the South End of Albany with her husband, Daniel W. Van Riper and two cats.

Hear the story: Jackson of the Muslim Solidarity Committee on “Witness” Documentary Film

Kathy Manley is a criminal defense attorney, speaking as Yassin Aref’s attorney. She is the Legal Director of the Coalition for Civil Freedoms and the President of the Capital Region Council of the New York Civil Liberties Union. She is also a founding member of Project SALAM. Her main emphasis is criminal defense and constitutional rights. She concentrates on appeals, and has written many winning briefs before a variety of courts., and has received several awards for her work.

Hear the story: Manley Discusses “Witness” Film on Aref-Hossain Muslim FBI Sting

Larry Rulison has been a reporter for the Albany Times Union since 2005. Larry’s reporting for the Times Union has won several awards for business and investigative journalism from the New York State Associated Press Association and the New York News Publishers Association. As a journalist, he has written about the informant, Shahed Hussain, the 2018 Schoharie limousine crash and the connections between the 2 cases.

Hear the story: Larry Rulison On Aref-Hossain Case

Additional interviews:

Read More

Reshifting the Narrative with Leena Al-Arian of CCF

Read More

Yassin Aref’s Daughter on Experiencing His Arrest

Read More

Aref-Hossain Case Showed Need for Muslim Support Network and Database

Sponsored by iEAR Presents! and the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at Rensselaer, made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of The Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

Be The Media! workshop: The Struggle to Tell Your Story, with "Witness" director Masood Haque
2022-06-17 17:00 - 18:00
Join us for the Be The Media! Workshop The Struggle to Tell Your Story, as Witness Director Masood Haque breaks down the process of creating his documentary about the Aref-Hossain “sting” case.

Learn from Haque as he shares the challenges and sacrifices that had to be made in order to create this documentary. He will focus on strategies to humanize documentary subjects and giving voice to individuals and communities that have been othered.

***Please note that for everyone’s safety, we are following Covid protocols that include requirements that all attendees show proof of vaccination or a recent test for entry, and wear a mask. We will notify ticket holders if the protocols change.

Workshop participants can stick around for the 7pm film screening of Witness.

Film Screening

Sponsored by iEAR Presents! and the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at Rensselaer, made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of The Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

"Outta The Muck" Film Screening with Ira McKinley & Bhawin Suchak
2022-05-07 19:00 - 21:00 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
A fiercely self-determined family in the deep south resists despair with love in this unique narrative of Black achievement.

Filmmakers Ira McKinley and Bhawin Suchak screened their film “Outta The Muck” for a hometown crowd at The Sanctuary for Independent Media on May 7, 2022 in Troy, NY. This is the Q&A that followed the screening.

www.mediasanctuary.orgouttathemuck.com

Family, football and history come to life in an intimate portrait of the Dean family, longtime residents of the historic town of Pahokee, Florida. As we take a journey back home, with filmmaker Ira McKinley, to the land of sugarcane, he reconnects with his niece Bridget and nephew Alvin and explores their shared family history that spans seven generations. Told through stories that transcend space and time, “Outta The Muck” presents an intimate portrait of a community that resists despair with love, remaining fiercely self-determined, while forging its own unique narrative of Black achievement.

BHAWIN SUCHAKDIRECTOR/PRODUCER/DOP/EDITOR

Bhawin is an educator, filmmaker, and founding member/co-executive director of Youth FX, a media arts organization focused on empowering young people of color in Albany, NY and around the world by teaching them creative and technical skills in film and digital media while supporting self-determined communities of emerging artists. Bhawin also co-directs NeXt Doc, a year-round fellowship program that exists to amplify the voices of documentary filmmakers of color between the ages of 20-24 years old. Bhawin is the co-director, producer, cinematographer and editor of Outta The Muck (2022), a feature length documentary supported by ITVS, JustFilms, Sundance, and Southern Documentary Fund. He previously co-directed, The Throwaways (2014) with Ira Mckinley, and Free To Learn (2004).

IRA MCKINLEYDIRECTOR/PRODUCER/WRITER

Ira McKinley is a filmmaker and activist and the director/producer of the award-winning documentary The Throwaways. Born in Upstate New York he is now based in South Florida where Outta The Muck is set. Ira started his activism in the 1980’s when he participated in Act Up in Ithaca, NY. During the winters of 2007/2008 he started a Homeless Arts Showcase in Northampton, MA’s Pulaski Park which was inspired by his fifteen years being homeless himself. Ira is the recipient of the 2014 ACLU Carol S. Knox award, 2013 MLK Storytelling + Activist Award from Siena College, 2009 Northampton Arts Council’s Emerging Filmmaker Award, and was the 2009 Producer of the Year for Northampton Community Television. His current film Outta The Muck tells the story of his family roots in Pahokee, FL and is being produced with support from ITVS, JustFilms, Sundance, and Southern Documentary Fund.

Sponsored by iEAR Presents! and the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at Rensselaer, made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of The Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

The Team:

BHAWIN SUCHAKDIRECTOR/PRODUCER/DOP/EDITOR

Bhawin is an educator, filmmaker, and founding member/co-executive director of Youth FX, a media arts organization focused on empowering young people of color in Albany, NY and around the world by teaching them creative and technical skills in film and digital media while supporting self-determined communities of emerging artists. Bhawin also co-directs NeXt Doc, a year-round fellowship program that exists to amplify the voices of documentary filmmakers of color between the ages of 20-24 years old. Bhawin is the co-director, producer, cinematographer and editor of Outta The Muck (2022), a feature length documentary supported by ITVS, JustFilms, Sundance, and Southern Documentary Fund. He previously co-directed, The Throwaways (2014) with Ira Mckinley, and Free To Learn (2004).

IRA MCKINLEYDIRECTOR/PRODUCER/WRITER

Ira McKinley is a filmmaker and activist and the director/producer of the award-winning documentary The Throwaways. Born in Upstate New York he is now based in South Florida where Outta The Muck is set. Ira started his activism in the 1980’s when he participated in Act Up in Ithaca, NY. During the winters of 2007/2008 he started a Homeless Arts Showcase in Northampton, MA’s Pulaski Park which was inspired by his fifteen years being homeless himself. Ira is the recipient of the 2014 ACLU Carol S. Knox award, 2013 MLK Storytelling + Activist Award from Siena College, 2009 Northampton Arts Council’s Emerging Filmmaker Award, and was the 2009 Producer of the Year for Northampton Community Television. His current film Outta The Muck tells the story of his family roots in Pahokee, FL and is being produced with support from ITVS, JustFilms, Sundance, and Southern Documentary Fund.

DARIAN HENRYPRODUCER

TRACY RECTORPRODUCER

SAM POLLARDEXECUTIVE PRODUCER

Read the VARIETY article

WORKSHOP

Register for the Be The Media! workshop before the film screening from 5pm-6pm on May 7.

Join documentary filmmakers Bhawin Suchak and Ira McKinley as they breakdown the process of their project Outta the Muck.

Be The Media! "Outta the Muck": Documentary Process from Vision to Completion
2022-05-07 17:00 - 18:00 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
Join documentary filmmakers Bhawin Suchak and Ira McKinley as they breakdown the process of their project Outta the Muck. From idea development through production through post-production through getting it out there, they will share how they navigated the documentary process to realize their vision. The Be The Media! workshop will include the filmmakers listening to participants’s documentary ideas and sharing strategies for realizing your documentary dreams.

Sponsored by iEAR Presents! and the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at Rensselaer, made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of The Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

The Team:

BHAWIN SUCHAKDIRECTOR/PRODUCER/DOP/EDITOR

Bhawin is an educator, filmmaker, and founding member/co-executive director of Youth FX, a media arts organization focused on empowering young people of color in Albany, NY and around the world by teaching them creative and technical skills in film and digital media while supporting self-determined communities of emerging artists. Bhawin also co-directs NeXt Doc, a year-round fellowship program that exists to amplify the voices of documentary filmmakers of color between the ages of 20-24 years old. Bhawin is the co-director, producer, cinematographer and editor of Outta The Muck (2022), a feature length documentary supported by ITVS, JustFilms, Sundance, and Southern Documentary Fund. He previously co-directed, The Throwaways (2014) with Ira Mckinley, and Free To Learn (2004).

IRA MCKINLEYDIRECTOR/PRODUCER/WRITER

Ira McKinley is a filmmaker and activist and the director/producer of the award-winning documentary The Throwaways. Born in Upstate New York he is now based in South Florida where Outta The Muck is set. Ira started his activism in the 1980’s when he participated in Act Up in Ithaca, NY. During the winters of 2007/2008 he started a Homeless Arts Showcase in Northampton, MA’s Pulaski Park which was inspired by his fifteen years being homeless himself. Ira is the recipient of the 2014 ACLU Carol S. Knox award, 2013 MLK Storytelling + Activist Award from Siena College, 2009 Northampton Arts Council’s Emerging Filmmaker Award, and was the 2009 Producer of the Year for Northampton Community Television. His current film Outta The Muck tells the story of his family roots in Pahokee, FL and is being produced with support from ITVS, JustFilms, Sundance, and Southern Documentary Fund.

Film Screening

Stick around after the Be The Media! workshop for a film screening of Outta the Muck with the filmmakers at 7pm.

Plant & Tree Swap
2022-05-07 12:00 - 14:00 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
Join us for a plant & tree swap at Collard City Growers garden, 3337 6th Ave. in North Central Troy!

what: an opportunity to share plant abundance!

how: bring your extra seedlings / saplings and trade with someone else for something new – perennials, annuals, house plants, anything goes!

why: a nice excuse to hang out in the garden with other families, meet some new plants and people, and celebrate Andrew Lynn’s birthday!

This is an event for the community and gardeners to get together and exchange seedlings for the season. Stop by to pick up some seedlings that you might want for your garden, drop off any extra flats that you don’t have room for, or just come on over to hangout and say hi 🙂

And remember, all plants that you give and take are FREE!

In a nutshell – we’d love to see you whether you have plants or not, so come say hi! Wear a mask and practice social distancing whenever possible. If it rains, we can gather in the hoop house.As always, there’s lots of work to do, so if you’re in the mood for garden chores – we got you covered! me ke hau ʻoli,azure’ – christian – ember – thasos

If you want to brush up on the vibe of this project – you can listen to us kūkākūkā on WOOC last year.

We're All Living in the Estroworld
2022-04-22 12:30 - 13:30 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
Join us for this virtual session of the series BioArt Talks @CBIS, presented in conjunction with RPI’s Center for Biotechnology, the ARTS department & the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, and the Sanctuary’s NATURE Lab.

How do bodies queer at the molecular level? How is this queering inextricably tied to industrial capitalism? Combining body and gender politics and environmental toxicity, we begin to unpack the concept of “open source estrogen,” the underlying premise that hormonal molecules are ubiquitously all around us – available for us to hack, mutate, and become-with. Through this process of unboxing their molecular mystique, we see that even in our sublime sea of toxic molecules, it is still a sea of co-mattering. With our extractive tools we can see only the tiniest picture in the macro cosmos of space and time. But perhaps this is all we need to transmute the traumas of our old world into the new.

Mary Maggic (b. Los Angeles, ’91) is a nonbinary artist working at the intersection of hormones, body and gender politics, and ecological alienations. Maggic frequently uses “biohacking” as a xeno-feminist practice of care that potentially demystifies invisible lines of molecular biopower. Completing their Masters in the Design Fiction group at MIT Media Lab, they received the Prix Ars Electronica Honorary Mention in Hybrid Arts (2017) for the project “Open Source Estrogen” and a 10-month Fulbright research award in Yogyakarta, Indonesia (2019). Maggic is a current member of the global network Hackteria – Open Source Biological Art, the tactical theater collective Aliens in Green, the Asian feminist association Mai Ling Vienna, as well as a contributor to the radical syllabus project Pirate Care and to the online Cyberfeminism Index. maggic.ooo/

See all BioArt Talks @CBIS here

BioArt Talks @CBIS are an online series of one hour lunchtime presentations given by internationally recognized bioartists. Bioartists work with biological materials, consider bioethics, and look at the materiality of biosystems and the technologies used in biotechnology and scientific research. These artists cover a broad range of fascinating topics including research into lost environmental microbial systems, cognitive states of mind and behavior, biomechanical prototyping of assisted device design, colony-building with non-humans, and queering hormone disruption. The BioArt Talks @CBIS artists include: Orkan Telhan, Heidi Boisvert, Aisen Caro Chacin, Anna Lindemann, and Mary Maggic.

Ending the Prohibition of the Mind: A Mushroom Symposium
2022-04-19 19:00 - 21:00 | https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/mushroom/
Join us as we explore the movement to decriminalize psilocybin, the challenges faced, and the way forward. This virtual event aims to connect local proponents to a larger movement, and give participants information, advocacy tools, and connections to pursue advocacy in this area. Co-sponsored by Collar City Mushrooms and the Peoples Health Sanctuary. Watch the recording below; see the Zoom chat here!

Psilocybin, the naturally occurring compound found in “magic mushrooms,” was banned by the federal 1970 Controlled Substances Act. It was classified as a Schedule I controlled substance that has “no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.”

Within the past ten years however, research from institutions like NYU, Johns Hopkins, Imperial College and others have consistently demonstrated psilocybin’s ability to help treat conditions like depression, anxiety, OCD, substance dependency, and many others.

This research has propelled a grassroots movement to decriminalize psilocybin starting in the late 2010s, with Denver, Colorado becoming the first city to do so in May 2019. Other cities have followed suit, such as Oakland and Santa Cruz, CA, Washington, D.C., and Somerville and Cambridge, MA. There are now more than 100 cities and close to a dozen states, including New York, considering either decriminalization or legalization of psilocybin.

Like any movement to change laws, there are several factions with often complementary but sometimes competing strategies and arguments. This panel will seek to discuss some of these issues, such as:

Should psilocybin use be limited to strictly medical use, especially considering how expensive and ineffective our current healthcare system is?

What are the differences between medical use, therapeutic use, and adult use?

Who will have access to psilocybin? Who will be allowed to start psilocybin-related businesses?

Should the movement to decriminalize psilocybin be a part of the broader movement to decriminalize all drugs?

How can we honor the cultural value of psilocybin to indigenous peoples who have been using psilocybin for centuries, and preserve peoples’ ability to use the substance in its purest form found in nature; while others claim concern over quality control and dosage and pursue efforts to extract psilocybin and turn the substance into a commercially-produced “medicine”?

….and many more.

Guest Speakers include:

Dee Dee Goldpaugh, LCSW, psychotherapist, educator, activist

Dee Dee Goldpaugh, is a psychotherapist, educator, and activist in Woodstock, NY. Dee Dee specializes in Psychedelic Integration Therapy with a focus on LGBTQIA+ people as well as survivors of sexual trauma. They are a member of the Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy team at the Woodstock Therapy Center and they are the Community Integration and Support Director of the Hudson Valley Psychedelic Society. Dee Dee has taught and published widely on psychedelics and mental health, sexuality, and trauma.

Hadas Alterman, attorney, Plant Medicine Law Group

Hadas is an Israeli-American attorney, born in Jerusalem and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. Hadas advises companies on matters of regulatory compliance, corporate transactions, policy advocacy, strategic planning, governance, and dispute resolution. She was the Policy Director of NYMHA, an organization that she co-founded that successfully lobbied for the introduction of a New York bill to decriminalize psilocybin. She is a Board Member of the American Psychedelic Practitioner’s Association and a Founding Board Member of the Psychedelic Bar Association. Hadas serves on the Equity Subcommittee of the Oregon Psilocybin Advisory Board.

Noah Potter, consultant, Legal Market Strategies

Brooklyn-based Noah Potter is a psychedelic policy consultant who joined the psychedelic legalization movement in 1993. He writes the blog Psychedelic Law. He has worked to call attention to the racial disparities of drug law enforcement, and in 2020 co-founded an advocacy group dedicated to psychedelic law reform in New York. He has advised the Decriminalize Denver campaign, and advocates immediate, safe, and equitable (affordable, culturally-relevant, and non-exploitative) access to a psychedelic experience for anyone anywhere who could benefit from it.

Dmitri Mugianis, activist, musician, poet, writer, and psychedelic practitioner

Dimitri Mugianis is an activist, musician, poet, harm reductionist and writer with over two decades of experience as a frontline harm reduction worker and psychedelic practitioner. He is a co-founder of Cardea. Dimitri’s story and work have been featured in numerous media outlets including The New York Times, Village Voice, Rolling Stone, NPR’s This American Life, VICE HBO, The Daily Beast, and Crimetown podcast. He was the subject of the 2009 documentary “Dangerous with Love” by Michael Negroponte. He has written for Chacruna, Salon, The Guardian, and Jacobin.

Pamela Jackson, Founder and Director, Psychedelic Sisterhood

Pammy Jackson is the founder and executive director of the womxn-led, not-for-profit organization, The Psychedelic Sisterhood. Pammy started The Psychedelic Sisterhood to provide womxn with a safe space to discuss, learn, and share experiences about the healing power of psychedelics and reclaim the association of medicinal plants as their original indigenous source; offering an inclusive environment to thrive and grow.The Psychedelic Sisterhood also collaborates with like-minded organizations for psychedelic advocacy and to support drug policy reform.

Linda Rosenthal, NYS Assemblymember, sponsor of A6065

Assemblymember Linda B. Rosenthal represents the 67th Assembly District, which includes the Upper West Side and parts of Hell’s Kitchen. Since taking office in 2006, Assemblymember Rosenthal has passed more than 140 laws that have helped to improve the lives of all New York State residents. In 2021, Assemblymember Rosenthal passed legislation into law establishing a medication assisted treatment program for people battling a substance use disorder in state and local correctional facilities. She also is the sponsor of legislation to authorize safer consumption sites throughout New York State, a cause she has championed since 2016. Assemblymember Rosenthal sponsors two bills related to psilocybin: A6065, which would decriminalize psilocybin by removing it from the list of scheduled substances; and A7928, which would establish the psychedelic research institute and the psychedelic substances therapeutic research program charged with studying and providing recommendations regarding the use of psychedelic substances in the treatment of addictive disorders, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, end-of-life anxiety and other pertinent outcomes.

Pat Burke, NYS Assemblymember, sponsor of A8569

Pat Burke hails from Buffalo and was first elected to represent the 142nd Assembly District in 2019. Assemblymember Burke’s notable legislative accomplishments include a ban on microbead plastics, a repeal of Sunday Blue Laws, a million-dollar emergency fund created to combat the opioid crisis and the formation of the Erie County Broadband Committee. He also introduced legislation that would make the pharmaceutical industry pay its fair share to keep our local drinking water free of medical waste, and not pass the burden onto taxpayers. Assemblymember Burke sponsors A8569, a bill that would amend the public health law to allow for the medical use of psilocybin in a tightly controlled set of circumstances.

Moderators:

Corinne Carey, co-moderator

Corinne Carey is a lawyer and a political and public affairs strategist who takes on bold public health initiatives backed by sound evidence and human rights principles. Her policy work is grounded in her long history in the harm reduction movement. She founded and directed the Harm Reduction Law Project, and has also worked for Human Rights Watch and the New York Civil Liberties Union. She serves as the state director for Compassion & Choices in New York, and also works as a political & public affairs correspondent for the Hudson Mohawk Magazine.

Aileen Javier, co-moderator

Aileen Javier is a Community Health Worker, an Outreach Educator, and a family advocate. She is passionate about fomenting community health by supporting and empowering people to successfully navigate the local social and health care system. Aileen collaborates with the Sanctuary for Independent Media’s NATURE Lab on its newest initiative: the People’s Health Sanctuary, and she is also a radio producer for the Hudson Mohawk Magazine, producing news segments on housing and local health resources.

Listen to Interviews:

Read More

Intro to Ending the Prohibition of the Mind: a Mushroom Symposium

Read More

Noah Potter on Psilocybin Legalization

Read More

Psilocybin to Increase Wellbeing and Reduce Suffering

Read More

Veterans Group Advocates for Access to Psychedelic Therapy

Read More

Expanding Access to Psychedelics

Read More

Why Harm Reduction is Important When Legalizing Drugs

Read More

Psychedelic Sisterhood ED Pammy Jackson Speaks About Psilocybin Mushrooms

Read More

New York Bill Would Decriminalize Psilocybin

Read More

The Theraputic Value of Psilocybin and Society’s Understanding of “Drugs”

Sponsored by

Capital Region Harm Reduction Roundtable

Suggested Background Reading:

Three Bills Seek to Shift Psychedelics Policy in New York State by Noah Daly in Lucid News (March 23, 2022)

Could Magic Mushrooms Become the Next Marijuana? by Tyler Wetherall in the Albany Times Union (December 15, 2021)

Noah Potter’s blog, PsychedelicLaw.com, particularly this article: Psychedelic legalization now

Psychedelic Markets of the Future, by Noah Potter

What About “Those” Mushrooms? by Avery Stemple, Collar City Mushrooms

The “Equity Elephant”: Why Psychedelic Mutualism and Cooperatives are Crucial for an Accessible Future by Colin Pugh in Psychedelics Today (April 19, 2021)

Global Coalition Launches Push To Reschedule Psilocybin Under International Rules, by Kyle Jaeger (January 11, 2022)

Cosmic Queries – The Fungus Among Us with Merlin Sheldrake, podcast with Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson (July 21, 2021)

A Conversation with Robin Divine, founder of Black People Trip on the Psychedelics Today podcast (August 10, 2021) Psychedelic Exceptionalism and Reframing Drug Narratives: An Interview with Dr. Carl Hart, by Sean Lawlor in Psychedelics Today (February 18, 2020)

This Bicycle Day, Celebrate Albert Hofmann’s Psychedelic Discovery. by Mary Jane Gibson in Rolling Stone (April 19, 2020)

Evo Devo Art
2022-04-15 12:30 - 13:30 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
Join us for this virtual session of the series BioArt Talks @CBIS, presented in conjunction with RPI’s Center for Biotechnology, the ARTS department & the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, and the Sanctuary’s NATURE Lab.

Anna Lindemann will present her work as an Evo Devo Artist. In her creative work, Anna combines animation, video, music, and performance to explore the emerging field of evolutionary developmental biology (Evo Devo). Her work seeks to uncover narratives within rigorous scientific research, to visualize biological processes in novel ways, to define new artistic creative processes modeled on biological processes, and to examine the human emotion and subjectivity behind scientific research. As part of her talk, Anna will highlight several Evo Devo Artworks including The Colony, an art-science performance about sisterhood and the evolution of social life in humans and ants.

Anna Lindemann calls herself an Evo Devo artist. Her work as an animator, composer, and performer explores the emerging field of evolutionary developmental biology (Evo Devo). Anna graduated magna cum laude with honors from Yale with a BS in Biology before receiving an MFA in Integrated Electronic Arts from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Digital Media & Design department at the University of Connecticut where she has pioneered courses integrating art and science. Anna has presented her Evo Devo Art at such venues as the Imagine Science Film Festival, New York, NY; ISEA, Vancouver, Canada; KLI Institute for Theoretical Biology, Klosterneuburg, Austria; EvoMUSART, Parma, Italy; Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, Troy, NY; SCINEMA International Film Festival, Australia; The State Darwin Museum, Moscow, Russia; The Franke Program in the Science and Humanities, Yale University; The ATLAS Center for Media, Art and Performance, University of Colorado Boulder; MATA Festival, New York, NY; Istanbul Fringe Festival; SEAMUS. She is the recipient of a Connecticut Artist Fellowship and her animation work includes commissions from the USS Constitution Museum and Boston Cyberarts. www.annalindemann.com

See all BioArt Talks @CBIS here

BioArt Talks @CBIS are an online series of one hour lunchtime presentations given by internationally recognized bioartists. Bioartists work with biological materials, consider bioethics, and look at the materiality of biosystems and the technologies used in biotechnology and scientific research. These artists cover a broad range of fascinating topics including research into lost environmental microbial systems, cognitive states of mind and behavior, biomechanical prototyping of assisted device design, colony-building with non-humans, and queering hormone disruption. The BioArt Talks @CBIS artists include: Orkan Telhan, Heidi Boisvert, Aisen Caro Chacin, Anna Lindemann, and Mary Maggic.

BioArt + Assistive Device Art: Transformation of Ability and Perception, the Plasticity of the Mind, and Human Expansion
2022-04-08 12:30 - 13:30 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
Join us for this virtual session of the series BioArt Talks @CBIS, presented in conjunction with RPI’s Center for Biotechnology, the ARTS department & the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, and the Sanctuary’s NATURE Lab.

Glowing rabbits, ears on arms, female human sperm are artworks that apply scientific methods and technology to explore and sculpt living systems. BioArt and Assistive Device Art are contemporary art practices that incorporate biological sciences and assistive technology as a form of artistic inquiry into biosystems and the human condition. Seeing through your tongue, listening to music through your teeth, navigating space through sonic vision, are examples of interfaces that are functional and assistive, yet can serve as interactive portals to gain new cross-modal perceptual abilities. Bio-artworks aesthetically and conceptually apply materials and methods from bioengineering, health sciences, synthetic biology, and medicine, generating work that deals directly with these bio-fields’ socio-cultural implications. The convergence of expertise necessary to create these artworks is a platform to generate discussions and new directions for research between health practitioners, bioethicists, and artists to envision alternative biofutures that are humanistically, socially, and aesthetically conscious and concerned.

Dr. Aisen Caro Chacin is an artist and the medical prototyping lab lead at the University of Texas Medical Branch. She holds a BFA in sculpture and a minor in visual studies from the University of Houston (UH), where she is an Affiliate Faculty of New Media Arts. She has an MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons, The New School, NYC, where she was an Adjunct Professor of Physical and Creative Computing. She created a framework for assistive technology and Device Art while attaining her Ph.D. in Human Informatics at the University of Tsukuba, Japan. She is the Chair for LASER Houston, a series of art and science talks sponsored by Leonardo, IAST, and Transart Foundation for Art and Anthropology, and she is also a Board Member of the Medicine and Media Arts Program at UCLA. Her work lies within the intersection of art, science, and technology, with a focus on new media art, human-computer integration, medical devices, sound art, and Assistive Device Art. She has presented and exhibited at Ars Electronica, Cite du Design, TEI, NIME, NYC Museum of Art and Design, The New York Hall of Science, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, World of Haptics, SXSW. www.aisencaro.com/

See all BioArt Talks @CBIS here

BioArt Talks @CBIS are an online series of one hour lunchtime presentations given by internationally recognized bioartists. Bioartists work with biological materials, consider bioethics, and look at the materiality of biosystems and the technologies used in biotechnology and scientific research. These artists cover a broad range of fascinating topics including research into lost environmental microbial systems, cognitive states of mind and behavior, biomechanical prototyping of assisted device design, colony-building with non-humans, and queering hormone disruption. The BioArt Talks @CBIS artists include: Orkan Telhan, Heidi Boisvert, Aisen Caro Chacin, Anna Lindemann, and Mary Maggic.

CCG Tree Day: Pruning Workshop with More Trees Arborists
2022-04-02 12:00 - 14:00 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
Join the arborists of the More Trees Arborist Collective for a workshop in the urban forest. Learn to identify common opportunist species of urban trees, discuss different techniques and objectives of pruning, when to remove trees, when to plant trees and help the crew manage the Sanctuary’s fledgling reforestation projects.

Meet at Freedom Square

Hudson Mohawk Magazine interviewed Christian Grigoraskos

More Tree Arborists

More Trees Arborist Collective is a worker-owned cooperative of ISA-Certified Arborists and support crew who work to provide environmentally conscious tree care for residential, municipal, and commercial clients throughout the Hudson Mohawk Region. We identify, assess, and mitigate tree risk while encouraging the preservation and planting.

Omar Sosa & Seckou Keita | SUBA Trio
2022-04-01 19:00 - 21:00 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
Omar Sosa & Seckou Keita | SUBA Trio featuring percussionist Gustavo Ovalles are coming to the Sanctuary for the CD release of SUBA Trio, presented in cooperation with The Egg Performing Arts Center.

Through the music we bring a message of peace, hope and unity. When everything around us falling apart, the one thing we have inside ourselves is a divine connection with our inner voice.
Omar Sosa

The Atlantic Ocean separates Cuba and Senegal, the respective birthplaces of piano virtuoso Omar Sosa and kora maestro Seckou Keita, a distance diminished by their shared ancestral connection to Africa. When the pair met in 2012, Seckou loved Omar for his musical spirituality, whilst Omar saw in Seckou a rare ability to collaborate but not lose his identity. Their debut album Transparent Water (2017) was hailed as ‘beautiful, rhapsodic… spiritual’ (Songlines) and ‘mesmerising, evocative and sophisticated’ (World Music Central).

Sosa has released over 30 albums during an incredible career that has included nominations for seven GRAMMY or Latin GRAMMY awards; Keita is a multi-award winner, most recently as the prestigious BBC Radio 2 Folk Musician of the Year (2019). Recorded during lockdown and released in October 2021, Sosa and Keita’s second album SUBA is a hymn to hope, to a new dawn of compassion and real change in a post-pandemic world, a visceral reiteration of humanity’s perennial prayer for peace and unity. Joining Omar and Seckou in the studio and for live performances is the inimitable Venezuelan percussionist Gustavo Ovalles.

Hear our interview with Omar Sosa

Six-time GRAMMY-nominated Cuban composer and pianist Omar Sosa is one of the most versatile jazz artists on the scene today. He fuses a wide range of jazz, world music, and electronic elements with his native Afro-Cuban roots to create a fresh and original urban sound – all with a Latin jazz heart. Mr. Sosa’s latest recording, Calma, reached the Billboard charts in February 2011, and his previous CD, Ceremony, receive an ECHO Jazz Award in Germany in June 2011 His recent CD, Afreecanos, explores the African roots of traditional musics throughout the Diaspora, using modern jazz harmonies and the latest audio technology. The Afreecanos ensemble fuses the folkloric with the contemporary, the ancestral with the urban. Howard Reich of the Chicago Tribune recently commented that “Cuban pianists often tower over their peers. But within this elite class of pianists, few have been more stylistically adventurous than Omar Sosa. Though deeply schooled in jazz improvisation techniques, Sosa always has pushed beyond jazz orthodoxy. https://omarsosa.com

Seckou Keita has arguably become the most influential and inspiring Kora player of his generation, an exceptional and charismatic musician and a modern global citizen, with seven centuries of tradition and heritage expressed through his music. Described as a ‘griot (praise singer), composer, djembe master, virtuoso and pioneer’, Seckou Keita is a rare type of musician, seated in tradition whilst constantly pushing the boundaries of his art. A true master of the kora – a 22 stringed West African harp – Seckou, from the Casamance art of the ancient kingdom of Gabou in Southern Senegal, was a childhood prodigy, born of a line of griots and kings. Cissokho, his mother’s family name, gave life to his talent; Keita, his father’s, gave him royal blood. Seckou has graced the international stage since 1996, earning worldwide acclaim for his kora playing; appearing with a host of respected artists of artists including Salif Keita, Paul Weller, Bassekou Kouyate, Damon Albarn… https://www.seckoukeita.com

Concert photos at The Sanctuary for Independent Media on April 1, 2022, by Sina Basila Hickey.

Also see Rudy Lu’s photos for Nippertown

Embodied Intelligence & the Future of the Performing Body
2022-04-01 12:30 - 13:30 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
Join us for the second event in the virtual series BioArt Talks @CBIS, presented in conjunction with RPI’s Center for Biotechnology, the ARTS department & the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, and the Sanctuary for Independent Media’s NATURE Lab.

Dr. Heidi Boisvert will discuss current empirical research methods and insights emerging from the Limbic Lab, which employs biometrics, machine learning and predictive models to isolate effective narrative ingredients across various mediums of expression. Boisvert will share how this research informs the creation of bio-adaptive, networked dance and mixed reality theatre performances that interrogate how our bodies carry intergenerational trauma, are surveilled, controlled, and spun out of balance by our dependence upon technology and speculate on future bodies.

Heidi Boisvert, TED Resident. May 13, 2019. New York, NY. Photo: Ryan Lash / TED

Heidi Boisvert (PhD) is an interdisciplinary artist, experience designer, creative technologist, and academic researcher who interrogates the neurobiological and socio-cultural effects of media and technology. Simply put, she studies the role of the body, the senses, and emotion in human perception and social change. Boisvert is currently mapping the world’s first media genome, while taking great care with its far-reaching ethical implications. She founded futurePerfect lab, a creative agency and think-tank that works with social justice organizations to design playful emerging media campaigns to transform the

public imagination. She also co-founded XTH, a company creating novel modes of expression through biotechnology and the human body. Presently, she is working with David Byrne on Theater of the Mind, a new immersive theater piece. Boisvert is an Assistant Professor of AI & the Arts at the University of Florida. She is also a Senior Research Fellow at the Norman Lear Center, a research affiliate in the Open Documentary Lab at MIT and a member of NEW INC’s Creative Science track. www.heidiboisvert.com/

See all BioArt Talks @CBIS here

BioArt Talks @CBIS are an online series of one hour lunchtime presentations given by internationally recognized bioartists. Bioartists work with biological materials, consider bioethics, and look at the materiality of biosystems and the technologies used in biotechnology and scientific research. These artists cover a broad range of fascinating topics including research into lost environmental microbial systems, cognitive states of mind and behavior, biomechanical prototyping of assisted device design, colony-building with non-humans, and queering hormone disruption. The BioArt Talks @CBIS artists include: Orkan Telhan, Heidi Boisvert, Aisen Caro Chacin, Anna Lindemann, and Mary Maggic.
