Open Doors has Begun!

It's one of my favorite times of the year! Newark's Open Doors, an annual celebration of the art scene in Newark, NJ, encompassing the galleries, museums, artist studios and artists that comprise of Newark Art Scene. There will be a FREE SHUTTLE escorting you from and to each location!

Produced by the Newark Arts Council, this year's Open Doors Studio Tour began yesterday, October 20 and ends October 23, 2011.  Celebrating its 10th Anniversary, Open Doors is a 4-day arts tour and community event that is the kick-off to a month long city-wide celebration of Newark, New Jersey's diverse and celebrated contribution to the arts and American culture.  Participating each year are over 300 accomplished local, national, and international artists and all of the City's leading art galleries and cultural institutions.  Featured attractions include both professionally curated and juried exhibitions, private artist studio visits, group exhibits, music, dance, and poetry performances, and social events.

The weekend's grand finale culminates when the larger than life "Animodules" take over the streets of Newark for the Newark Art Parade, a Newark original experience presented in partnership with the Barat Foundation of Newark, NJ.
For an extensive list of events, visit: http://newarkpulse.com/articles/Open-Doors-2011-Highlights.html

These are my personal selection of events NOT to missed:
My OWN exhibit Saturday 4pm-7pm at The Coffee Cave, 45 Halsey St, Newark, NJ

Sip signature cocktails, listen to live music and enjoy decadent desserts during the opening reception of an interactive 1950s-inspired live model & fashion photography exhibit" Fashion Fades, Style is Timeless." from designer Meca McKinney of Jypsea Eclectic Handcrafted Leathergoods, photographer Luisa F. Pinzon of LFPVision and guest designer Stacey Angela of STAY.

We invite you to join us Saturday October 22nd, 2011 at The Coffee Cave
For an evening of Art, Fashion and great Music. Enjoy Live music by Incomunicao - Percussion Based Dominican Anti Pop accompanied by classic 1950's Latin and American Music. 
RSVP at https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=184936388247615 


Tonight:

The Kedar Studio of Art presents

LUMINOUS ANGLE
New works by KATI VILIM
October 21st to November 19th, 2011
RECEPTION: Friday, October 21st 7-10pm

Kati Vilim is a geometric abstract painter addressing the discipline of Constructivist tradition incorporated with mathematical concepts. The elements of structure, ratio, color and rhythm, with their varied qualities, are organized into new forms which seem to suggest musical or architectural harmonies.

The Kedar Studio of Art 585 Broad Street, 2nd floor
Newark NJ 07102
Tel: 973-985-4284 www.kedarstudio.com    
info@kedarstudio.com

HYCIDE MAGAZINE RELEASE PARTY: The 2nd Edition

 

10.21.11
HYCIDE MAGAZINE RELEASE PARTY
The 2nd Edition
6pm – 9pm
aljira, A Center for Contemporary Art
591 Broad Street, downtown Newark, NJ 07102
973.622.1600

On October 21st in conjunction with Aljira, A Center for Contemporary Art and the Newark Arts Council’s Open Doors Tour, photojournalist and filmmaker Akintola Hanif will introduce the 2nd print edition of HYCIDE, a photography magazine dedicated to subculture, art and conflict.

This issue features stories on the notorious Baxter Terrace housing projects, legendary Hip-Hop photographer Ernie Paniccioli, Grammy Award winning multi-media artist Shah Wonders, Legal Weed, Guns & Violence, a photo essay on the homeless, The(1)ne Drop Project and more.

“HYCIDE is about challenging elitist ideals and illustrating what's really going on in the minds, hearts and lives of some of America's finest yet forgotten people,'' Akintola Hanif explains. “Through stories of survival and freedom our goal is to create understanding and empathy for the misunderstood while providing a visual and literary voice for the voiceless.” 

Guests can also enjoy a sneak peak at the latest exhibition on display at Aljira, Dandy Lion: Articulating A Re(de)fined Black Masculine Identity curated by Shantrelle P. Lewis. Dandy Lion celebrates an alternative representation of Black manhood, men of style and grace with an African sensibility.  

RSVP:

https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=180773642001625

CELEBRATED NEWARK ARTIST
TO DISPLAY WORK AT PRUDENTIAL CENTER

Paintings to be featured in concourse display during
New Jersey Devils game on Oct. 21

Prudential Center, in working with the Newark Arts Council, will be featuring a gallery style showing of abstract impressionist and mixed media artist Anthony E. Boone's work during the Friday, October 21 New Jersey Devils game versus the San Jose Sharks.

The gallery display will be constructed on the main concourse near entrance to the PNC Tower. Boone, a self taught artist who was born in Newark, will have a number of unique pieces on exhibition including one especially created and inspired by the New Jersey Devils.
 
WHEN: Friday, October 21, 2011 at 3:30 p.m.

WHO: Artist Anthony E. Boone

WHERE: Prudential Center –Main Concourse
165 Mulberry Street
Newark, NJ

For more information & to RSVP, please contact
Kerry Graue: kgraue@prucenter.com, 973.757.6246


Sunday:

Creation Nation Parade

The Creation Nation Parade, October 23 11 am -1pm,  is free and open to the public to march with art, a banner for your community, friends and family. This is a gathering of people, and we invite people!  Please register to march or volunteer here: http://creationnation.info/

765 Broad Street 9-11am staging
March Down Broad Street 11-12 pm

HYCIDE Magazine Launch Party

HYCIDE Magazine Launch Party: June 3rd, 2011 from AllEyesOnWho.com on Vimeo.

Aljira, Center for Contemporary Art

Friday night I attended the launch of HYCIDE Magazine at Aljira, The Center for Contemporary Art, which is one of my favorite art galleries in Newark, NJ. It was transformed into a spectacular scene of Who's Who on the art scene of downtown Nwk in an intimate setting punctuated by the intense photography of Akintola Hanif. Everyone there loves and respects the work of this brilliant photojournalist/filmmaker-turned-magazine-editor & chief and the energy of support was palpable. The event was deliciously catered by the good people at HLS. The cherry on top of the perfect evening full of beautiful people, live painting by artist Baja Ukweli, and positive vibes was the poetry/scat session from my hero, the legendary poet/playwright/activist Amiri Baraka who is a lifetime resident of Newark.

HYCIDE is an online photography magazine dedicated to subculture, art and conflict and a limited quantity of print copies were available at the event. The purpose of HYCIDE is to "create understanding" and provide reflections of the segment of our population that is considered to "subversive" and have been "marginalized". His specialty, as a photographer and film maker, has been the bold images of the those who society has left behind.


The name of the magazine is based on a slang term, which originally meant "to rob,'' but was re-imagined by Hanif, who combined the meanings of the Hebrew prefix "hy'' and the Latin suffix "cide."
"HYCIDE /high-side/ Origin: Hy, derived from Hebrew "Hyram" for "noble" or "exalted.'' --Cide, from Latin "cida,'' for "killer or killing.'' 1: Noble Kiling
2: The act of killing or negating elitist ideals to create empathy, understanding for the disenfranchised or dispossessed. (nj.com)

Tamara Fleming of Femwork PR firm & me

Akintola autographing copies of HYCIDE

Beautiful people

Beautiful person, Samala R. Kelly

	Always fly curator Shantrelle P. Lewis has her copy Executive Director of The Newark Arts Council: Linwood J. Oglesby Photographer Dawan Wryet Alford & Amiri Baraka

Get yours:
Order a limited edition print copy: here
Read HYCIDE online: www.hycide.com
Learn more about Akintola Hanif here

BT: The Last Days-The Opening Reception

This story of the lives of the residents of Newark, NJ's demolished notorious projects, Baxter Terrace really struck a chord with me. The notable fine art photographer, filmmaker, and photojournalist, Akintola Hanif, establishes relationships with the residents during his continued studies of gang relations. He discovers that BT will soon be no more and begins his quest into how this will effect the many lives of its residents.
I was a small child coming up in Newark with my mom in the 7th Avenue projects until I was about 4-5 but I continued to visit my peoples out there occassionally until they were all knocked down in my late teens. I know the stigma attached to the "lower class" as if their conditions are hopeless and their lives are completely void of value. My mom, who lived in the projects for the 2nd half of her childhood into adulthood, went on to become a college professor and Director at one of NJ's largest hospitals. So much for this hopelessness theory.

For me, it was seeing the image of that brother with his head poking from the steel door entry on the marketing materials that reflected the weight of the burden of the Black poor and analogy of being shut away and hidden from "polite society".  His head stubbornly reveals the strength and utter determination of a people insisting on being acknowledged. His head beckons to be recognized. His eyes, though weary, pronounce, "YO, I'M STILL HERE!"




Akintola cleverly used this door, bolted to the floor of his studio, during the reception.

Check the video of the opening reception here:

Learn more about Akintola Hanif here :http://www.hycide.com/
See the exhibit in person here:
31 Central Avenue, Studio #7
Newark, NJ 07102
BY APPOINTMENT ONLY
(646) 434-7815