san-fermin-12

BRIC House announce Spring 2014 schedule (San Fermin, Kaki King, Joseph Arthur, Neon Indian & more)

San Fermin at LPR in September (more by Amanda Hatfield)

We just told you about that Milli Vanilli opera that is being staged as a work-in-progress this month at BRIC House, the multipurpose venue/studio/learning center from the folks behind Celebrate Brooklyn! (who just announced their 2014 opening show). BRIC House just announced their spring events lineup and that includes concerts by San Fermin (March 28), Kaki King & Glowing Pictures (March 6), Harriet Tubman & Cassandra Wilson Present: Black Sun (March 16), Joseph Arthur (March 29) and Les Nubians (February 14).

The space will also be hosting “BRIC House Parties,” a monthly Saturday series that will be all-day, all-ages events, with free family activities in the day and ticketed dance parties at night. The first one is February 8 with CHERYL / Bushwig, then on March 8 it’s with Ralph McDaniels’ Video Music Box, Special Ed and special guests; and then April 12 features AndrewAndrew and Neon Indian.

Tickets to all the above concerts and parties are on sale now. BRIC House’s full schedule of Spring 2014 events, performances and classes is listed below…

BRIC HOUSE SPRING 2013 PROGRAMMING HIGHLIGHTS

Contemporary Art Exhibitions

Art Into Music
On View: February 19 – April 27
Opening Reception: February 19, 7pm
Curated by Elizabeth Ferrer, Director of Contemporary Art
Gallery at BRIC House
Free

Art Into Music is devoted to artists whose work is inspired by music, a fitting theme given Brooklyn’s international prominence as a magnet for both visual artists and musicians. The exhibition will feature 12 artists working in varied media, such as installation, collage, video, painting, sculpture, and photography. The show will examine the myriad ways in which music and the platforms in which it is experienced inspire contemporary artists, as well as exploring the complex relationship between popular, mass media culture and so-called “fine” art.

Featured Artists: John Felix Arnold III, Karlos Carcamo, Friendly Falcons (Jeff Kurosaki and Tara Pelletier), Arturo Meade, Rashaad Newsome, Bayeté Ross Smith, Dread Scott, Ward Shelley, Valerie Tevere and Angel Nevarez, and Audra Wolowiec. A special project by BRIC House concert performer Joseph Arthur will also be presented.

The 26th Annual Contemporary Art Education Student Exhibition
On View: May 14 – June 15
Opening Reception: May 14, 6pm
Curated by Hawley Hussey, BRIC’s Director of Contemporary Art Education
Gallery at BRIC House
Free

BRIC’s annual celebrated contemporary art education exhibition will showcase work completed in BRIC’s public school residencies, as well as special commissions for the show. Professional artist teachers who are practicing artists in their own right are sent directly into the classroom, where they use visual art concepts and techniques to help students better understand a range of academic subjects. Art created in a wide variety of media by students in grades pre-K through high school from public schools across Brooklyn, as well as in Queens and the Bronx will be presented.

Expanded Practice: A Survey of Work by BRIC’s Teaching Artists
On View: May 14 – June 15
Opening Reception: May 14, 6pm
Curated by Jenny Gerow, BRIC Curatorial Assistant
Project Room/Ground Floor at BRIC House
Free

BRIC has provided arts education to New York City school children since 1982; a distinctive feature of the program being its commitment to matching students with teaching artists who are also practicing contemporary artists. During The 26th Annual Student Exhibition, we will highlight the work of our teaching artists in the Project Room as well as other parts of the ground floor at BRIC House, reflecting the talent and creativity of the artists who give so much to our organization and to the students with whom they work.

Featured Artists: Pamella Allen, Ellie Balk, Bill Brovold, Celia Caro, Judy Hoffman, Lizzy LeBlanc, Donna Maria deCreeft, Dana Perrotti, Anne Polashenski, Devin Powers and Emma Tuccillo.

Solo exhibitions:

Vandana Jain and Melissa Godoy Nieto
On View: May 14 – June 15
Opening Reception: TBA
Gallery at BRIC House
Free

These two Brooklyn-based emerging artists use symbolic languages to examine individuality, culture, history, and the social fabric. Vandana Jain is interested in examining the influence of corporate and consumer culture on modern life, contrasting handmade and machine; individual and conglomerate. Her work often uses well-known corporate logos, slogans, wrappers, and packaging, placing these elements into quasi-religious contexts and/or creating ritualistic spaces.

Multidisciplinary artist and designer Melissa Godoy Nieto created work that incorporates hand-made interactions, colors, and textures in a contemporary frame using alternative techniques and structures, often referencing ancient pre-Hispanic cultures and the vibrant palette, dynamic and hand-crafted aesthetic of her native Mexican culture.

Multidisciplinary, Music and Performance Programming

WOW (work-in-progress)
Created by Joe Diebes, Christian Hawkey & David Levine
Exhibition: January 16 – February 1
Work-in-progress performances: January 23-25 and January 30-February 1 at 8pm
$15 advance | $18 at the door
Various Spaces at BRIC House

BRIC continues its inaugural season with the presentation of work-in-progress performances of WOW, an experimental opera by Joe Diebes (musical composition), Christian Hawkey (poetry), and David Levine (theater) developed as part of BRIC’s Fireworks Residency. The themes explored in WOW stem from the legendary Milli Vanilli lip-synching scandal, challenging the endless repetition of the CD-skip moment that led to the destruction of the German pop duo’s career, and the encompassing tragedy of the digital. WOW will use BRIC House as a laboratory for a multi-layered experience, taking the audience through nearly all of its various spaces as they witness Milli Vanilli’s rise and fall. A group exhibition curated by Merkx&Gwynne is on view as an integrated element of the performances as well as a stand-alone display viewable for free during BRIC House open hours.

WOW was commissioned for the BRIC House Fireworks program, a residency and commissioning program for collaborative teams of artists who are interested in developing new, large-scale multidisciplinary work. Fireworks provides resources to develop large-scale creative projects that cross–or erase–artistic boundaries. Supported by the Rockefeller Foundation’s NYC Cultural Innovation Fund

Les Nubians in love
Special Valentine’s Day Concert
Plus DJ Aphrosoul
February 14 at 9pm (Doors open at 8pm)
$18 advance | $22 at the door
General Admission – Standing
BRIC House Ballroom

GRAMMY-nominated Les Nubians will harness the intimacy of the BRIC House Ballroom to perform hits from their past three albums while also tapping into a special romantic repertoire designed specifically for this show. USA Today describes the music of Les Nubians, sisters Hélène and Célia Faussart, as “unique Afropean soul” that “lifts the spirit and moves the feet,” and “intoxicating rhythms underpin their sensual ballads and pointed social commentaries.” The sisters’ mix of hip-hop, neo soul and African music brought them major international acclaim with their debut album Princesses Nubiennes (1998), which featured their hit song “Makeda.” Their much-anticipated third album Nü Revolution (2011) delivers on the promise of the duo’s breakthrough efforts, showcasing their relentlessly enchanting and energized music.

Opener DJ Aphrosoul, the “artistic-indigenous-bohemian of eclectic soul music,” will steady cupid’s arrow with his arsenal of love jams.

Kaki King & Glowing Pictures
The Neck is a Bridge to the Body
World Premiere
March 6 at 7:30pm and 9:30pm (Two shows. Doors open 30 minutes prior)
$18 advance | $22 at the door
General Admission – Seated
BRIC House Ballroom

The Neck is a Bridge to the Body is a work by Brooklyn’s Kaki King and Glowing Pictures. This hour-long immersive audiovisual performance turns every preconceived idea of what the guitar is on its head. As King has demonstrated through her original style of playing, innovative use of a simple instrument can be the transport her audiences to another world. In this World Premiere, King’s guitar is a projection surface on which Glowing Pictures’ original images, animations, and videos help tell a new kind of creation story where music is the origin of all things.

Harriet Tubman & Cassandra Wilson present: Black Sun
March 16 at 7:30pm (Doors open at 7pm)
$18 advance | $22 at the door
General Admission – Standing
BRIC House Ballroom

Harriet Tubman the band – drummer J.T. Lewis, guitarist Brandon Ross, and bassist Melvin Gibbs (longtime Brooklynites with many musical accomplishments) – is deeply inspired by the ideals of freedom and serves up a sound that plumbs the soul’s depth for liberated musical expression. Their form, Open Music, reflects a spirit of consciousness and change inspired by cultural movements of the 1960s and today’s search for meaning and love. Cassandra Wilson, widely regarded as the top jazz singer of her generation, will join Harriet Tubman. Known for her genre-defying and fresh interpretations of a wide variety of musical styles beyond the traditional American songbook, Wilson will add electric guitar to her vocal arsenal as she incorporates vintage blues, country, and folk music.

San Fermin
March 28 at 9pm (Doors at 8:30pm)
$18 advance | $22 at the door
General Admission – Standing
BRIC House Ballroom

This new Brooklyn-based orchestral folk-pop band’s music bursts with ambition, extreme joy, great storytelling and rich vocals. Unique arrangements turn their songs into cinematic vignettes using trumpet, sax, keyboard, violin, guitar and drums and the female vocalists are none other than Holly Laessig and Jess Wolfe of the terrific Lucius.

Joseph Arthur
March 29 at 9 pm (Doors open at 8:30pm)
$18 advance | $22 at the door
General Admission – Standing
BRIC House Ballroom

GRAMMY-nominated Brooklyn singer-songwriter and visual artist Joseph Arthur is a contemporary Renaissance man. From his membership in super-groups Fistful of Mercy and RNDM, to his varied solo performances and collaborations, and his latest album The Ballad of Boogie Christ; Arthur’s songs feature poetic lyrics and storytelling set to a diverse range of rock and roll. At BRIC House, Arthur’s visual work will be on display during BRIC’s spring contemporary art exhibition, and his special concert will include a full band performance and incorporate painting live on stage.

Cassandra
Created by Helga Davis with Robert Adams and Masha Froliak
Residency: March 17 – April 27
Work-in-progress performances: April 24 – 27 at 7:30pm
$15 advance | $18 at the door
Various Space at BRIC House

Extraordinary and dexterous performer Helga Davis (Einstein on the Beach) creates her first full-length music/theater work in collaboration with designer Robert Adams and filmmaker Masha Froliak. Grounding the Greek myth of cursed seer Cassandra in the 21st century, the gift of her prescience and the rage of her otherness combine in a raw and fiery telling of our possible future.

Cassandra was commissioned for the BRIC House Fireworks program, a residency and commissioning program for collaborative teams of artists who are interested in developing new, large-scale multidisciplinary work. Fireworks provides resources to develop large-scale creative projects that cross–or erase–artistic boundaries. Supported by the Rockefeller Foundation’s NYC Cultural Innovation Fund

BRIClab RESIDENCIES

Tectonic Theater Project
Square Peg Round Hole (Work-in-Progress)
Residency: February 5-15
Showings: Feb 14 and 15 at 7:30pm
$10 advance | $13 at the door
Artist Studio at BRIC House

Using personal narratives and scientific data, employing technologies and pushing the bounds of theatrical form, all within an historical context, this new work from the socially conscious Tectonic Theater Company (The Laramie Project) by Anushka Paris-Carter (co-writer) and Andy Paris (co-writer, director) illuminates what it means to live outside the bounds of ‘normal.’

Nora York & Jamie Lawrence
Water Water Everywhere (Work-in-Progress)
Residency: February 19 – March 1
Showings: February 28 & March 1 at 7:30pm
$10 advance | $13 at the door
Artist Studio at BRIC House

In their new multi-media song cycle, singer and conceptual artist Nora York and co-composer Jamie Lawrence investigate the poetic and scientific weight of water, oceans, rivers, aquifers, lakes, streams, wells, and our bodies. Inspired by Handel’s Baroque orchestral Water Music Suites, and using York’s signature methods of adaptation and appropriation to create layered and contemporary new work, Water Water Everywhere is both a love letter and a wake-up call about what is at stake in our current climate chaos.

Dean Moss
johnbrown (Work-in-Progress)
Residency: March 5-15
Showings: March 14 and 15 at 7:30pm
$10 advance | $13 at the door
BRIC House Ballroom

Dean Moss’s johnbrown, an interdisciplinary performance work created with visual artist Laylah Ali, meditates on the legacy of abolitionist John Brown using video, dance, theater, visual design, and community participation. In a series of spare yet emotional segments whose juxtaposition highlights the often contradictory legacy of the revolutionary, the work confronts the audience with their own sense of radicalism. At BRIC House, Moss will work with his company of performers and a group of teen artists selected to participate in the project.

Anna Moench
Hunger (Work-in-Progress)
Residency: March 12-22
Showings: March 21 and 22 at 7:30pm
$10 advance | $13 at the door
Artist Studio at BRIC House

In the sandy hills of China’s Loess Plateau, a farming couple mourns the death of their only son. Their search for an illegal afterlife bride is complicated by the fact that before his death, their son committed an act of horrifying violence, leaving them outcasts in their community. Told with actors and puppets, Hunger explores the boundary between life and death and the friction amid tradition and progress in contemporary China.

SPECIAL INVITATIONS

Dianne Reeves
Beautiful Life Record Release Party
February 12, 7:30 performance; 8pm mingle
$10 advance | $13 at the door; On sale February 1
General Admission – Standing
BRIC House Ballroom

One of the preeminent female jazz vocalists in the world, Dianne Reeves celebrates the release of her Concord Records debut, Beautiful Life, with a short preview performance and mingle. The album showcases Reeves’ sublime gifts by melding elements of R&B, Latin and pop within the framework of the 21st Century jazz. “At its essence,” says Reeves, “Life is beautiful and I wanted to celebrate that which is too often overlooked.” Co-presented with Revive Music

Felix Hernandez & BRIC present
THE RHYTHM REVUE DANCE PARTY

February 15, 9pm-2am (Doors open 8pm)
$22.99 from ClassicSoul.com
BRIC House Ballroom

Historically held at Roseland Ballroom (RIP!), this New York City institution is crossing the river after celebrating 23 years of sold-out shows. Come welcome the Rhythm Revue’s mastermind Felix Hernandez back to his own borough as he tears up the BRIC House Ballroom with his funky-fun dance party.

Ananda Nahu & Jeremy Thal
One Big City
Residency: February 24 – March 16
Public presentation: March 13 at 7:30pm
Free
The Stoop at BRIC House

Supported by CEC Arts Link’s One Big City program, this residency pairs Brazilian-based painter and muralist Ananda Nahu with NYC-based French horn player and socially engaged music practitioner Jeremy Thal to create a collaborative project engaging New York’s diaspora communities. After two weeks collecting stories in Brooklyn neighborhoods from Williamsburg to Bed-Stuy, Nahu and Thal will create a one-of-a-kind sound and art installation in BRIC House.

Playing on Air
March 24 and 31 at 7:30pm
$15 advance | $18 at the door
General Admission – Seated
BRIC House Ballroom

For the first time ever, Playing on Air, public radio’s showcase for contemporary short plays, is recording in front of a live audience – you! Broadcast across the nation, the show brings a mix of short works written and performed by Tony-, Pulitzer- and Emmy-Award winning theater artists, as well as emerging talents. Be part of the live audience at BRIC House to get up close with some of NYC’s most celebrated playwrights and performers, ask questions, and witness the making of this unique public radio program. Past programs have featured plays by Lynn Nottage, David Auburn, and John Patrick Shanley, and cast members Bobby Cannavale, Bill Irwin, Chris Cooper, Olympia Dukakis, Audra McDonald, Jerry Stiller, and Kathleen Turner, among others. Full line-up to be announced at a later date.

Look & Listen Festival
April 26 at 8pm and April 27 at 4pm
Stoop at BRIC House
$15 advance | $18 at the door

“The Look & Listen Festival stands out, even in a very crowded field, as a genuinely innovative series,”
– WNYC’s John Schaefer.

Now in its 13th year, the annual Look & Listen Festival showcases the best of contemporary classical music in a visual art setting–from galleries to museums. Showcasing solo works and chamber pieces, each show includes a line-up of multi-faceted musicians, ensembles, and composers who reveal the depth and breadth of 20th and 21st century new classical music. Full line-up to be announced at a later date.

BRIC HOUSE PARTIES

BRIC continues its series of all-ages House Parties, with special daytime family activities, including family dance classes, film screenings, lectures, art making, and more, and a nighttime musical main event, with a live band, DJ, and dance party. BRIC House Parties are held on the second Saturday of each month.

February 8
2pm with family activities, Free
8pm Dance Party, $10 advance | $13 at the door
featuring CHERYL / BUSHWIG

Find your WOW factor, as BRIC celebrates individuality and imagination with a host of all-ages activities, including a lesson in how to adopt a secret identity/be a superhero, screenings, and more. Dance the night away with performers from Bushwig, Brooklyn’s annual festival of queer expression, drag queens, and music. CHERYL, Brooklyn’s video and performance art group, caps off the night with its exuberant sound and high-spirited displays of creativity sure to bring out your inner party monster.

March 8
2pm with family activities, Free
8pm Dance Party, $10 advance | $13 at the door
featuring RALPH MCDANIELS’ VIDEO MUSIC BOX, SPECIAL ED and other special guests

For some, it’s Eat Sleep Break Beat–life is all about the fundamentals of hip hop: break dance, DJ, graffiti art, and rap. Daytime activities include Another Protest Song: Karaoke With a Message (a chance to sing your songs of protest) and screenings of street dance from YAK Films, followed by live dance throughout BRIC House. Hip hop pioneer Ralph McDaniels, creator of the groundbreaking public access TV show Video Music Box will spin and play videos from back in the day, plus performances by Crooklyn Dodgers’ Special Ed and a celebration of Biggie Smalls to close out the night!

April 12
2pm with family activities, Free
8pm Dance Party, $10 advance | $13 at the door
featuring ANDREWANDREW and NEON INDIAN DJ Set

What does the future look like? Initiate transport! Daytime fun and exploration includes a kid-imagined animation activity, divinations with BRIC’s resident fortune teller, and more. Duplicate DJs AndrewAndrew bring their clone-like ways to the turntable along with Neon Indian in the Ballroom for a dance party that future generations will remember as epic. Additional artists to be confirmed!

THE STOOP SERIES

The Stoop Series; free, drop-in programming including film screenings, storytelling, poetry, artist talks, lectures and performances. Tuesdays at 7pm, starting Feb. 11

February 11
Multi-instrumentalist Leyla McCalla (Carolina Chocolate Drops), celebrates her new album release featuring music reflecting her Haitian roots and eclectic life experiences. Dialogue with Regine Roumine of Brooklyn’s Haiti Cultural Exchange follows the performance.

February 18
Brooklyn goes to the Oscars, featuring nominated films selected by Filmwax Radio’s Adam Schartoff.

February 25
TBA

March 4
Friendly Falcons (Jeff Kurosaki and Tara Pelletier) in a presentation that blurs the boundaries of an art event, music show, and social experience.

March 11
Wes Jackson, founder of the Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival, is joined by VJ Ralph McDaniels, artists, and other interested parties in an exploration of the roots and trajectory of Brooklyn’s global hip hop scene.

March 25
Major players from Brooklyn’s small batch food and drink scene discuss Brooklyn’s indie food and drink revolution: where it all started, where it’s at, and where the movement is headed. Co-presented with Small Batch America.

Additional programs to be announced. Visit BRICartsmedia.org for details.

YOUTH PROGRAMMING

Brooklyn Youth Media Festival: Concrete Stories
May 29 and 30
BRIC House Ballroom
Free

A two-day showcase of media produced by Brooklyn-affiliated youth under the age of 20, celebrating Brooklyn’s talented young media makers who are capturing the “feel” of urban life through narratives, documentaries and animation. Concrete Stories is produced and curated by a group of media-savvy local high school students who are part BRIC’s Youth Media Education Internship Program. Full schedule to be announced.