Vision Festival: Take a Stand

Details

Parent Category: Other Festivals

Category: Music

Published on Friday, 03 June 2011 05:00

Written by L E Shannon

The 16th annual Vision Festival is on from June 5 - 11, 2011 at Abrons Art Center, the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center and Campos Plaza Playground in Manhattan, New York.

The Vision Festival draws people from around the world who are interested in what is great, creative and innovative.

Arts For Art (AFA) leads the way in building opportunities for uniting the spectrum of creative arts. AFA has been working to strengthen the artistic communities by holding town meetings, panel discussions and creating opportunities for artists to perform and come together, so as to build a power through unity.

Special Events:

Peter Brötzmann - A Lifetime of Achievement
This year, Arts For Art and The Vision Festival celebrate a Lifetime of Achievement by Peter Brötzmann, one of the first practitioners of the Free Jazz movement in Europe. The 70-year-old has programmed his own evening to reflect his ongoing pursuit of musical innovation. Brötzmann is not interested in looking back -- only in looking forward and being as creative as possible in the present time. 

The Opening Night of the Festival is a tribute to another Giant of Jazz, Marion Brown, the great alto saxophone legend, visual artist and ethnomusicologist. The Group, an all-star collective featuring Andrew Cyrille, Hamiet Bluiett, Ahmed Abdullah, Charles Burnham, Bob Stewart.

Billy Bang – Honored
Violin legend Billy Bang was honored in last year‛s Festival with a special award for his leadership, vision, and musical genius. This year he was scheduled to perform on the last night of the festival. The music world lost Bang in April.

The Festival Finale is a Tribute performance of Bang‛s composition Mystery of the Mekong, featuring a 25 piece string ensemble, plus special guests, under the direction of William Parker.

Four tracks make up the Festival -- Music, Dance, Visual Arts, Word -- with such acts as:

Music:

• Tchicai's Ascension Unending – In the footsteps of John Coltrane
• Josh Roseman's Water Surgeons
• Dawn of Midi
• Tomas Fujiwara & The Hook Up
• Pulverize the Sound
• Planetary Unkown
• Connie Crothers Quartet
• Geraldine Eguiluz's Albedo Solo

Dance:

• Action Theory
• Emily Coates Dancers & Charles Burnham Violin
• Raging Waters, Red Sands

Visual Arts:

• The Films of Robert O'Haire and Jeff Burns
• Going to the Center, dir. Bill Dixon
• Earthtones, dir. Joseph Daley
• Rwanda 15, documentary by Kivu Ruhorahoza
• The Pied Cow /a rip improvisation
• Art Installations: Jeff Schlanger, Jorgo Schaeffer, Jackson Krall,
• Photo Exhibit: Gannushkin, Luciano Rossetti, Mark Sheldon, Michael Wilderman

Words:

• Invocation
• David Henderson & Bob Marshall
• Obama, Class Struggle, The Media & The Arts – Panel
• Imagining a Culture of Resistance & Radical Vision: Artists & Social Action – A panel of artists and activists from different perspectives
• Music and Politics – A Black Perspective with Amiri Baraka
• Organizing today/unions/artists/social action with Marc Ribot

For more information, visit www.visionfestival.org.

Vision Festival
June 5 - 11, 2011

Abrons Arts Center
466 Grand Street
New York, NY 10002
212-598-0400

Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center
107 Suffolk Street
New York, NY 10002
212-260-4080

Campos Plaza Playground
13 Street between Ave A & Ave B
New York, NY

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