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Category Archives: Arts & Humanities

Blog: Truly Madly Deeply

May 11, 2012 | By Sari Krosinsky

Digby Wolfe taught me a les­son the very first time I met him. I was tak­ing a play­writ­ing class each semes­ter in UNM’s The­atre Depart­ment. Digby had just been hired to teach dra­matic writ­ing here. I asked him if he’d work with me one-on-one for a project I had agreed to tackle.

“Sure, lad. What are you writ­ing?” he said as he signed the nec­es­sary forms. I told him I was try­ing to write a piece for Mys­tery Cafe, but had never writ­ten a mys­tery before.

“Isn’t every play a mys­tery?” he asked. He chuck­led at my puz­zled look and sent me on my way.

Read the full blog post on Duke City Fix.

Posted in Arts & Humanities, UNM Talk | |

CWSR Fellow Speaks on Controversy and Conflict in Apollo’s Quest for Lunar Knowledge

May 10, 2012 | By Karen Wentworth
Hannah_Thompson3

Hanna Thomp­son, a Fel­low in the Cen­ter for South­west Research and Spe­cial Col­lec­tions at Uni­ver­sity Libraries speaks on “A Sci­en­tific Endeavor: Con­tro­versy and Con­flict in Apollo’s Quest for Lunar Knowledge.”

Thomp­son will com­plete her Master’s degree in the Land­scape Archi­tec­ture pro­gram in spring 2013. As a fel­low­ship and a Har­ri­son Schmitt scholar, she inves­ti­gated Schmitt’s role and the first and only scientist-astronaut in the U.S. NASA Apollo Program.

Each spring fel­lows work­ing at CSWR present their work in a col­lo­quim. This pre­sen­ta­tion was part of that event.

Lis­ten to: Thompson’s Talk.

Runs: 18:48

Media con­tact: Karen Went­worth (505) 277‑5627; kwent2@unm.edu

Posted in Arts & Humanities, Campus Community, University News | |

OUTSpoken Features UNM Graduate Student

May 4, 2012 | By Sari Krosinsky

The OUT­Spo­ken Queer Poetry Slam and the Local Poets Guild present a Trip­tych fea­ture and poetry slam on Thurs­day, May 10, at 7 p.m. at the Cell The­ater, 700 First St. NW. Fea­tured read­ers are Aaron Ambrose, Kenny Fries and UNM grad­u­ate stu­dent David Andrew Tala­mantes. Hosts are Erin North­ern and Patri­cia Gillikin, asso­ciate pro­fes­sor at UNM-Valencia.

This is a pre­cur­sor to (L)INK: The Write Dis­abil­ity, two days of events with a focus on dis­abil­ity orga­nized by Lisa Gill, UNM alumna and Local Poets Guild founder and co-artistic director.

Tala­mantes is a gay Pis­cean fron­ter­izo – border-lander – writer born and raised in El Paso, Texas. He earned a Bach­e­lor of Arts in cre­ative writ­ing from the Uni­ver­sity of Texas El Paso, where he began his writ­ing career. He has been pub­lished in the Rio Grande Review and other mag­a­zines and antholo­gies. He teaches cre­ative writ­ing and tech­ni­cal writ­ing at UNM while fin­ish­ing his Mas­ter of Fine Arts in cre­ative writing.

Ambrose was raised work­ing class in Rochester, N.Y., and has called New Mex­ico home since 1995. She is not only as queer as the day is long but also a step-parent, farmer, weaver, handy­man and resale queen. A life nav­i­gat­ing chronic illness/disability, addic­tion, home­less­ness, love and loss deliv­ered her into the arms of poetry.

Kenny Fries is the author of “The His­tory of My Shoes” and the “Evo­lu­tion of Darwin’s The­ory,” which received the Out­stand­ing Book Award from the Gus­tavus Myers Cen­ter for the Study of Big­otry and Human Rights, and “Body, Remem­ber: A Mem­oir,” as well as edi­tor of “Star­ing Back: The Dis­abil­ity Expe­ri­ence from the Inside Out.” His books of poems include “Anes­the­sia” and “Desert Walk­ing.” He has received awards and fel­low­ships includ­ing a Ful­bright schol­ar­ship. He teaches in cre­ative writ­ing at God­dard College.

The top three poets from the slam qual­ify to com­pete in the OUT­Spo­ken Cham­pi­onship Slam at Pride­Fest on Sat­ur­day, June 30.

A $5 dona­tion is sug­gested. Those plan­ning to attend may RSVP on Face­book.

Posted in Arts & Humanities, Events | |

‘(L)INK: The Write Disability’ Features UNM Alumni

May 2, 2012 | By Sari Krosinsky

The Local Poets Guild, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Base­ment Films, presents “(L)INK: The Write Dis­abil­ity,” a week­end of read­ings and work­shops by authors with dis­abil­i­ties designed to expand under­stand­ing of dis­abil­ity cul­ture Fri­day, May 11-Saturday, May 12. The event fea­tures UNM alumni Teresa Blankmeyer Burke and Lisa Gill.

“(L)INK” kicks off with “Beauty is a Verb: Poetry and Prose by Writ­ers with Dis­abil­i­ties” fea­tur­ing Gill, Denise Leto, Natalie Illum, Kenny Fries, Mary McGin­nis and Emily Rapp on Fri­day, May 11, at 7:30 p.m. at the Out­post Per­for­mance Space, 210 Yale Blvd. SE. Tick­ets are $15 gen­eral or $10 for stu­dents and Out­post members.

Work­shops on Sat­ur­day, May 12, are at the Trick­lock Per­for­mance Lab­o­ra­tory, 110 Gold Ave. SW, 9 a.m.-noon and at the Main Library audi­to­rium, 501 Cop­per Ave. NW, 2 p.m.-5:45 p.m. Top­ics include “Writ­ing to Heal & Writ­ing for Joy” at 9 a.m. and “Per­for­mance Strate­gies” at 10:30 a.m. After­noon ses­sions fea­ture keynote speak­ers Blankmeyer Burke, Fries and McGin­nis. Events close with a round­table dis­cus­sion and open mic at 4 p.m. These events are free and open to the public.

The coor­di­nat­ing orga­ni­za­tions also have a UNM con­nec­tion. Gill is founder and co-artistic direc­tor of the Local Poets Guild and Bryan Konef­sky, UNM cin­e­matic arts lec­turer, is pres­i­dent of Base­ment Films.

Spon­sors include the New Mex­ico Human­i­ties Coun­cil, National Endow­ment for the Human­i­ties and McCune Char­i­ta­ble Foundation.

For more infor­ma­tion, visit “(L)INK: The Write Dis­abil­ity.”

Posted in Arts & Humanities, Events | |

UNM Art Museum Book Sale Set for May 1

April 30, 2012 | By Mara Kerkez
Indian Nations

The Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico Art Museum is hold­ing a 20 per­cent off book sale Tues­day, May 1 through Sun­day, May 13.  All in-stock books are included in the sale. The Director’s Choice is “Indian Nations: Pic­tures of Amer­i­can Indian Reser­va­tions in the West­ern United States” by Danny Lyon, an inter­na­tion­ally renowned pho­tog­ra­pher. The book retails for $65 but is now on sale for $48.

Lyons spent four years vis­it­ing the Sioux, Apache and West­ern tribes, and cap­tured pho­tographs of the plains and desert, and por­traits that are haunt­ing, real and romantic.

Post­card gift sets will be 50 per­cent off dur­ing the sale. Each set includes 20 full color images of paint­ings by Geor­gia O’Keeffe, Arthur Wes­ley Dow and Gus­tave Baumann.

The UNM Art Museum is located in the Cen­ter for the Arts. Paid park­ing is avail­able in the UNM Visitor’s Park­ing Struc­ture. It is open Tues­day through Sat­ur­day 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is closed Sun­day and Mon­day. Admis­sion is free with a sug­gested dona­tion of $5. 

For more infor­ma­tion visit www.unm.edu/~artmuse/ or call (505) 277‑4001.

Posted in Arts & Humanities, Events | |

‘Motionetics’ Features Student Choreography

April 26, 2012 | By Sari Krosinsky

“Motio­net­ics” is an evening of dance chore­o­graphed by the finest stu­dent chore­o­g­ra­phers in UNM’s dance pro­gram, offer­ing a wide vari­ety of styles and explor­ing a vast emo­tional and aes­thetic land­scape. Six per­for­mances are in Carlisle Per­for­mance Space, Fri­day, April 27-Sunday May 6.

“Estu­dio intro­spec­tivo #1 (Can­tiña),” chore­o­graphed by Sol Acuña-Zamora, is a solo in which the dancer defies the biggest enemy we all strug­gle with: our­selves. It is an inward jour­ney towards the clar­i­fi­ca­tion of the mind, as well as the search for inner peace. This exis­ten­tial voy­age is pur­sued to accom­plish cre­ative free­dom and men­tal tranquility.

Mar­risa Manion’s duet, “Above the Tree­tops,” is an homage to the essence of nature and an explo­ration of the way life reveals itself to us. This part­ner­ship demon­strates inter­twin­ing ener­gies in life that con­tin­u­ally sep­a­rate and recon­nect while always grow­ing stronger.

Chore­o­graphed by Kevin Joseph Clark and per­formed by Tasha Willil­ams, the title “Toska” is a Russ­ian term refer­ring to a spir­i­tual or emo­tional depres­sion with­out a spe­cific cause. This piece is a brief look into being trapped deep in the con­fines of this afflic­tion, con­stantly search­ing for the light, an answer or both.

Luz Guillen and Ana Arechiga Gon­za­les co-choreographed the trio “In Tra(n)ce,” which explores the use of move­ment as a cre­ative abstrac­tion of the expe­ri­ences of the depths of the mind. The dance plays with the sen­sa­tion of a hyp­notic state to expe­ri­ence the feel­ings of being caught in one’s own mind.

The solo “Vul­tu­rus,” chore­o­graphed and per­formed by Scott Shaw, exam­ines the scav­enger bird, the vul­ture and depicts the dark­ness and neg­a­tiv­ity that sur­rounds the bird and its means of sur­vival. Even in the dark and grotesque nature of the bird, beauty can still be found.

“Good House­keep­ing” is an ensem­ble work chore­o­graphed by Emily Bulling and inspired by adver­tise­ments from Good House­keep­ing Mag­a­zine from the 1950s. It explores the wife’s role in mar­riage and ulti­mately cel­e­brates female com­pan­ion­ship and friendship.

Ana Mer­cedes Arechiga Gon­za­lez is chore­o­g­ra­pher of the quar­tet “Dis­tilled.” This piece illus­trates the con­cept of exis­tence in rela­tion­ship to oth­ers. It presents the yearn­ing for help and com­pany in times of need by recre­at­ing the dev­as­ta­tion expe­ri­enced with strong feel­ings of soli­tude and abandonment.

“Fiesta Charra,” chore­o­graphed by Este­ban Eduardo Garza, takes the audi­ence on a jour­ney in Mex­ico and its mari­achis. With vibrant col­ors and ocean like waves from skirt­ing, the floor is filled with poise and strength from pow­er­ful foot­work accom­pa­ny­ing the melodic sounds of the mariachi.

Crys­tal Fullmer is the chore­o­g­ra­pher of “Pour Apporter un Petit Peu de Joie,” an ensem­ble piece based in musi­cal visu­al­iza­tion. The dancers carve the space with both their path­ways and their move­ments cre­at­ing a joy­ful cel­e­bra­tion of life.

“Con­science” is a duet chore­o­graphed by Chelsea Costello. This dance explores a rela­tion­ship between a human and a “spirit form” and the aware­ness of a moral or eth­i­cal aspect of one’s conduct.

Dara Minkin is both chore­o­g­ra­pher and per­former for the solo “As Sin’s True Nature Is.” Minkin said of her solo, “I like to explore con­cepts that scare me, parts of myself that scare me. I don’t like talk­ing about it, so I express it through dance.  This piece is based, in part, on feel­ings of guilt, jeal­ousy and insecurity.”

“Sad­dle Up!” Is a large ensem­ble dance chore­o­graphed by Este­ban Eduardo Garza. This mid-western frontier-like work is filled with play­ful and joy­ful move­ment. Expe­ri­ences between cou­ples and larger groups are explored, giv­ing the work a sense of a small town with dif­fer­ent sto­ries, yet very united as a whole.

The quar­tet “Talk­ing Stick” is chore­o­graphed by Minkin and explores dif­fer­ent approaches to meet­ing our human exis­tence and the final out­come of our lives.

“Zama” is a solo chore­o­graphed and per­formed by Garza that researches the tra­di­tions and ways of ancient Mayan cul­ture. Through a con­tem­po­rary inter­pre­ta­tion, rein­car­na­tion and sac­ri­fice are approached, giv­ing an out­look of rebirth and a new begin­ning. Strength and power can be used to describe the move­ment exe­cuted by the char­ac­ter of a trans­form­ing Mayan warrior.

Jacque­line M. Gar­cia is the chore­o­g­ra­pher of “fis­sure,” an ensem­ble of four dancers. This work inves­ti­gates the fig­ments and illu­sions that haunt the mind and inhabit one’s memory.

Per­for­mances of Motio­net­ics are on Fri­days and Sat­ur­days, April 27, 28, May 4 and 5, at 7:30 p.m. and Sun­days, April 29 and May 6, at 2 p.m. in the Carlisle Per­for­mance Space in the Carlisle Gym. Tick­ets are $12 gen­eral admis­sion, $10 UNM fac­ulty and seniors, and $8 UNM staff and all stu­dents. Tick­ets are avail­able at the UNM Ticket Offices located at the UNM Book­store or the Pit and by call­ing (505) 925‑5858. For infor­ma­tion visit dance.unm.edu or call (505) 277‑4332.

Media Con­tacts:
Crys­tal Fullmer (505) 400‑2411, cfullmer@unm.edu
Kath­leen Claw­son: (505) 238‑6029, kclawson@unm.edu

Posted in Arts & Humanities, Events | |

LAII Hosts a Reception for Urban Artist Miguel Mejía

April 17, 2012 | By Mara Kerkez
Mejia

A recep­tion for Mex­i­can urban artist Miguel Mejía, mem­bers of the Con­sulado de Mex­ico and staff from Insti­tuto Cer­vantes will be held Thurs­day, April 19 from 4:30 — 6:30 p.m. in the Latin Amer­i­can & Iber­ian Institute’s lobby. It will serve both as an open­ing for an exhi­bi­tion of draw­ings by Mejía as well as a kick-off cer­e­mony for the week­long “Fes­ti­val Cer­vantes, Writ­ing Art.” Organized by Insti­tuto Cer­vantes, “Fes­ti­val Cer­vantes” is a community-wide cel­e­bra­tion of diver­sity through lit­er­a­ture, music and art.  For an out­line of the week’s activities, go to Fes­ti­val Cer­vantes. 

Mex­i­can urban artist Miguel Mejía, also known by his artist alias Neuzz, is an illus­tra­tor and painter from Mex­ico whose work has been pub­lished in numer­ous pub­li­ca­tions in Mex­ico, Europe and the United States. Neuzz is part of a new gen­er­a­tion of street artists who ref­er­ence Mexico’s rich visual cul­ture. His decon­struc­tive images are a fusion of retro aes­thet­ics and pre-Columbian graph­ics, mixed with influ­ences from con­tem­po­rary pop culture.

Mejía will be vis­it­ing Albu­querque as part of “Fes­ti­val Cer­vantes, Writ­ing Art,” to exhibit his work at the LAII as well as to cre­ate an urban art project based on what Span­ish speak­ers call “pop­u­lar sto­ry­telling cul­ture,” which will entail paint­ing a graf­fiti based on sto­ries and leg­ends his grand­fa­ther used to tell him when he was a child.  This graf­fiti art will con­sti­tute part of the Abuelo Goy­ito series, which has been already dis­played in sev­eral venues.  The beats of avant-garde DJs from Albu­querque and San Fran­cisco will cre­ate an envi­ron­ment of cre­ativ­ity.  This urban art project is set for Sat­ur­day, April 21 from 4 — 8 p.m. at Mar­ble Brewery.

Posted in Arts & Humanities, Events | |

UNM to Stage Port Twilight in Albuquerque, Beijing

April 13, 2012 | By Sari Krosinsky
Photo by Max Woltman

Photo by Max Woltman

The UNM Depart­ment of The­atre and Dance presents “Port Twi­light” by OBIE award win­ning play­wright Len Jenkin, Fri­day, April 20-Sunday, April 29, in Rodey The­atre, Cen­ter for the Arts.

This futur­is­tic sci-fi thriller, her­alded as “a work of true the­atri­cal genius,” takes us to the mys­te­ri­ous town of Port Twi­light where work­ers at the OPME, Off-Planet Mes­sage Exchange, scan radio waves for mes­sages from other plan­ets. Jenkin will be in Albu­querque for the pre­miere and will lead a post per­for­mance dis­cus­sion. UNM has been invited to take this pro­duc­tion to the Asia The­atre Edu­ca­tion Cen­tre Inter­na­tional The­atre Fes­ti­val in Bei­jing, China, this May.

On the out­skirts of the dark and des­per­ate city of Port Twi­light, a group of men and women appear. They are sci­en­tists who bear a strik­ing sim­i­lar­ity to the physi­cists who gath­ered in Los Alamos, N.M., 1942–45 to devise and test the first atomic bomb. The sub­ti­tle of the play is “The His­tory of Sci­ence, A Chron­i­cle of Folly, Wis­dom and Mad­ness.” The sci­en­tists seem to be wait­ing for something.

Cabaret per­form­ers and OPME employ­ees Dack and Donna serve as our guides as we travel through dif­fer­ent parts of the city. OPME is a secre­tive agency oper­at­ing from an aban­doned hotel. Its mis­sion is to con­stantly send inter­stel­lar mes­sages into outer space and lis­ten for a reply from intel­li­gent alien beings.

In “Port Twi­light,” new love is found and old love is rekin­dled, while a dis­grun­tled bio­chemist, a B-movie pro­ducer, a mys­ti­cal rabbi, and a team of danc­ing sci­en­tists, through video imagery, music and pow­er­ful poetic lan­guage, tell an apoc­a­lyp­tic tale of and sci­ence and the search for knowledge.

Jenkin is an award-winning play­wright and nov­el­ist. His hon­ors include three OBIE Awards, a Guggen­heim fel­low­ship, a Rock­e­feller Foun­da­tion Award, and four grants from the National Endow­ment for the Arts. He is pro­fes­sor of play­writ­ing at New York Uni­ver­sity. His works include “Dark Ride,” “Pil­grims of the Night” and “Like I Say.” They have been pub­lished by Broad­way Play Pub­lish­ing, Sun and Moon Press and have been pro­duced at the Joseph Papp Pub­lic The­atre in New York City, Yale Reper­tory The­atre, The Flea The­atre in New York and major regional the­atres across the U.S.

“Port Twilight’s” direc­tor, UNM Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor Bill Wal­ters, describes Jenkin as “one of the great sto­ry­tellers of the Amer­i­can the­atre. His plays tell won­der­ful, com­plex tales which often con­sist of a jour­ney. And as much ground as they travel phys­i­cally, they can also take us on an inte­rior jour­ney: a trek into the mind, the heart and the soul, into mem­ory and into the imag­i­nary.” Jenkin will attend the pre­miere and lead a post per­for­mance discussion.

“A ‘port,’” Wal­ters said, “is a tran­si­tional place, a door­way, an open­ing, a jumping-off point, it is a space between worlds. Like­wise, ‘twi­light’ is a time of change, of shift. It is a moment between day and night/night and day. ‘Port Twi­light’ is a jour­ney in both space and time: a jour­ney into the back alleys and aban­doned build­ings of the city and into the hid­den cor­ners of fear, des­per­a­tion, hope, and redemption.”

“Port Twi­light” fea­tures an ensem­ble of some of UNM’s finest stu­dent actors. The set design is by Dahl Delu, light­ing and sound design is by Bill Liotta, and cos­tume design is by Anna Avery.

The UNM Depart­ment of The­atre and Dance has been invited to par­tic­i­pate and bring this pro­duc­tion of “Port Twi­light” to the Cen­tral Acad­emy of Drama and the Asia The­atre Edu­ca­tion Cen­tre Inter­na­tional The­atre Fes­ti­val (ATEC) in May 2012 in Bei­jing. The fes­ti­val is hosted by China’s Cen­tral Acad­emy of Drama, con­sid­ered the best the­atre school in Asia. The ATEC fes­ti­val was cre­ated in 2005 to estab­lish an effec­tive net­work to con­nect the­atre schools and orga­ni­za­tions in Asia and to pro­mote the devel­op­ment of the­atre edu­ca­tion, cre­ation and research by pro­vid­ing a com­mu­ni­ca­tion plat­form for all stu­dents, teach­ers and researchers who are devoted to the study and prac­tice of the­atre in Asia.

Depart­ment of The­atre and Dance Chair Bill Liotta met with the academy’s pres­i­dent and for­eign exchange staff and received an invi­ta­tion to re-mount the pro­duc­tion of “Port Twi­light.” The con­nec­tion between the Cen­tral Acad­emy of Drama and this invi­ta­tion is due in large part to a multi-year rela­tion­ship with Wal­ters and Liotta. Both have been guest teach­ers and pre­sen­ters at the Fes­ti­val in the past and have worked to make a long-term con­nec­tion between Bei­jing and Albuquerque.

 

Per­for­mances of Port Twi­light will be at 7 p.m. Thurs­day, Fri­day and Sat­ur­day and at 2 p.m. Sun­day. Ticket prices are $15 gen­eral admis­sion, $12 UNM fac­ulty and seniors and $10 UNM staff and all stu­dents. Tick­ets are avail­able at the UNM ticket offices at the UNM Book­store The Pit and by call­ing (505) 925‑5858.

More infor­ma­tion is avail­able at the Depart­ment of The­atre and Dance or by call­ing (505) 277‑3660.

Story by and Media Con­tact: Kath­leen Claw­son, (505) 238‑6029

Posted in Arts & Humanities, Events | |

Blog: Auditions [Gulp]

April 13, 2012 | By Sari Krosinsky

I kept get­ting the emails: Land­mark Musi­cals was hold­ing audi­tions for 1776 this week­end. Hm. I hadn’t per­formed in 13 years. The idea was intriguing.

I’ve expe­ri­enced audi­tions from a vari­ety of view­points — as an audi­tioner, as an audi­tion coach, as a direc­tor, and as an observer. The ner­vous energy in any audi­tion room could power Times Square.

Last year, I watched audi­tions for the pro­duc­tion of My Fair Lady that came through Pope­joy in Feb­ru­ary. Just before audi­tions began, I spoke with direc­tor Jeff Moss and asked him what he would be watch­ing for. He said all he wanted to know was if they had the nec­es­sary skills for the job. He would read them for spe­cific char­ac­ters at call backs.

Read the full blog post by Terry Davis on Duke City Fix.

Posted in Arts & Humanities, UNM Talk | |

UNM Art Museum Hosts Art Critic David Pagel

April 12, 2012 | By Mara Kerkez
Pagel

As part of the Dis­tin­guished Lec­ture Series, the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico Art Museum presents “Get­ting it Wrong in Just the Right Way: Art on the Left Coast” with David Pagel on Tues­day, April 17 at 5:30 p.m.

Pagel is a Los Ange­les con­tem­po­rary art critic and Juror of the 18th Annual Grad­u­ate Exhi­bi­tion dis­played in the Ray­mond Jon­son Gallery through Sun­day, May 6. He received his B.A. from Stan­ford Uni­ver­sity with hon­ors and dis­tinc­tion in Human­i­ties, and a M.A. in Art His­tory from Har­vard Uni­ver­sity. He is an asso­ciate pro­fes­sor of art the­ory and his­tory at Clare­mont Grad­u­ate Uni­ver­sity in Cal­i­for­nia. Pagel has writ­ten and con­tributed to many art writ­ings and has curated many exhibitions.

The UNM Art Museum is located in the Cen­ter for the Arts. Paid park­ing is avail­able in the visitor’s park­ing struc­ture at Cen­tral and Stan­ford. The Museum is open Tues­day through Sat­ur­day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is closed on Sun­day and Mon­day. Admis­sion is free with a sug­gested dona­tion of $5.

For more infor­ma­tion, visit Art Museum or call (505) 277‑4001.

Posted in Arts & Humanities, Events | |