January 2024 Digest

 

DIRT PALACE NEWS! JANUARY 2024   January 30th at the Wedding Cake House! Open house / open studios: 4:30-6pm! Hang out, explore the house, have a snack, make some friends, and most importantly, see what the artists have been working on! All are welcome No RSVP needed Artist presentations: 6-7pm Listen to presentations from each of the artists in residence! This event has very limited seating, to RSVP please reach out to dirtpalacepublicprojects@gmail.com First come first serve with RSVPs. ​ Both the open house and the artist talks will be masked events, and we will have masks on hand.  AMAZING LIST OF ARTISTS: Amanda Beard Garcia, Anne Elizabeth Moore, Elizabeth Duffy, Emily Pelstring, Emma Singer, Gina Favano, Erin Zona    Animation Screening this coming Sunday (28 January)!!! Doors at 7.30PM, Films at 8PM Theme is "ONE THING LEADS TO THE NEXT", and we will be exploring animation as intuitive, irrational, untameable movement. Featuring films from Mimi Chrzanowski, Annapurna Kumar, Lisze Bechtold, Amy Lockhart and more!  60 Minutes of animation. $10 Pay What You Can. Masked event.    Emotional/Weird/Heavy/Chaotic Music Night at the Palace   WINDOW GALLERY    DECEMBER WINDOW ARTIST SHELBY HEAD Shelby Head (pronouns fluid) is a sculptor known for their ability to incorporate social content into their accomplished forms. They constantly experiment and challenge themselves to create new work using varied materials to expand their visual vocabulary and scope. Head has worked in public art and exhibited widely in galleries, alternative spaces, and art fairs. They have received several professional awards, residencies, and fellowships, including the Tulsa Artist Fellowship 2020-22, the TAF Integrated Arts Award 2022-23, the THRIVE Powerhouse Grant in partnership with The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts 2022, and the Creative Projects Grant from the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition. Head lives and works in Providence, RI. shelbyhead.com @shelbyleehead It's a Girl! is a collection of mixed media works assembled from decorative and domestic objects commonly associated with the "feminine". Materials and mediums, through personal association, evoke memory and emotion. The series is not a memorial but rather moves with the subject of misogyny and the questions of gender. The work is both a product of the changing worlds around it and an element of interaction with these worlds. The objects of the work are the objects of the worlds with which it is concerned. By incorporating materials of lived experience – cookware, appliances, and décor – the work challenges a purist aesthetic hierarchy that privileges one set of materials over another based on gender association. This series is a collection of history, politics, and lived life. Check out our blog for an interview / conversation between Shelby and artist Jean Blackburn. Interview Link Here!! Storefront Window Gallery Projects are made possible in part through support from the City of Providence Arts Culture Tourism Department     *******UPDATES******* EXYL Hello! Oh my goodness it's been so busy. I'll get straight to it, here are some photos:   I recently built my downshooter in residency, and then brought it home to DP! It's now a portable little baby that I can bring around with me, and here is a picture of it at New Urban Arts, where I'm currently an artist-mentor we had our first animation screening, talked to some people.... animation work in progress night soon??? drinks n drawing night soon????? we'll see what covid allows us to do... I'm ENDLESSLY excited about animation, and I'm so happy to meet so many of you who're excited too!!!  I went back to Singapore in December. Here is a picture of me struggling through the equatorial heat (left) and eating dessert (right)  I finished animation for my newest film. It's about a man who needs to get a license plate. Did you know that you can access so many public traffic cameras online just by googling it? I could show you what the I-95 looks like right now.  Anyway, that's all for now. Come to the animation screening on the 28th! You won't want to miss this stellar lineup. Stay warm everyone, see you soon!  Q (John-Francis Quiñonez)    Ohhhhhhhhh - g a w d! Aquarius season! How did we get here?  The passing of time has felt heavy this early winter - less of a charming big-dog-thinks-it's-small-dog-and-so-is-crushing-lap way and more of I-need-to-seem-normal-at-the-gig-and-all-i-have-to-wear-is-this-granite-jumpsuit kind of a deal. Does that resonate with you? Can I get a Hell Yeah? Please forward me all your "Hell Yeah"s.   Luckily I've learned to appreciate Winter for asking us to slow down. Cozy season at the Dirt Palace has reconnected me to painting in a way that feels like actual play - beyond the sort of homework gravity that my visual art practice has brought to the table in recent years. I've been enjoying tacking up 2-6 sturdy pieces of paper and frantically bouncing between them. It's an easy joy to get lost in both the textural worlds I've been exploring as well as the near-weeping-12%-horny appreciation for color. Nice things tend to break me.  ~ Some H I G H L I G H T S ~ * I released an audiobook version of Part A from my book of Poems Keep Your Little Lights Alive ((Poems After Kate Bush's "Hounds of Love" and Others) - recorded as a semi-continuous read to 800 empty seats at the Columbus Theatre (which I think is funny).  You can check that out Here! * My first reading of 2024 is going to be here in Providence at RiffRaff Bookstore on FEBRUARY 8th in conversation with Zachary Pace!   I hope to hit the road again in SPRING so if you would like me to come through your Series, City, or Institution - Gorsh, I Love to Read Poems!  * Still chugging along in the ol' ice cream factory (toot toot) at Big Feeling! We just dropped a supremely lovely Citrus & Cream lineup this week. Pint drops are on Tuesdays at Noon! * We are back with a bunch of movies over at the Columbus Theatre!  This Documentary in particular looks dreamy! The series I've been curating is also doing its last installment on Jan 30th  - come through! * I'm hosting a Queer Open Mic amidst the rest of our stellar programming at Lost Bag! Figure Drawing! Rock-Music Shows! Movies! Writing Workshops! aaaand How!  * Also - Hey Y'all! I know your Gal clearly has a lot of Tasks going on, but what are the leads on a livelihood? I am currently seeking additional work where my thick resume in Events Coordination, Community Engagement, Project Management, and Education can be put to best use. Would appreciate leads be sent to johnfrquinonez@gmail.com! Need help with putting together a show here in PVD or Tour Managing though? Send an inquiry to themiddledistancetouring@gmail.com!  ~~ T H A N K     Y O U  S T A Y.   S W E E T. ~~   SES HOUGHTON My February booking is open!! Schedule a tattoo here! I’ve been so busy these past couple months! I’m renting a new studio with @bug.tattoos and @fruit_flavored_tats that we’re calling Love Bites and it’s been so much fun so far. I’ve got to do some custom tattoos that have really excited me in this new space that has really kept me feeling invigorated with this practice.    I’ve honestly done so many tattoos that I’m really proud of lately that I can’t even fit all of them! In other news, I’m going to be doing a flash day on 1/27/23 from 10AM-7PM at Lost Bag in Providence! I’m so so excited! This amazing flyer is by @cherizhou. There’ll be free hot cocoa!! Wear a mask and come through :) The Holiday Faire was a huge success despite the rain and I’m so happy to have been allowed to take the reins with planning it. I really couldn’t have done it without the help I got from Pippi and everyone!! Grief update: still grieving! This rainy past month has been kind of rough! I always forget that the normal depression + seasonal depression kicks everything into overdrive. This grief wave has manifested itself in: making art and slowly writing my Auntie Michi back, getting back into writing my physical daily lists instead of in my phone notes, endless fatigue, isolation, and lots of anger about various things! Therapy has helped, but so has creation for different purposes. I’ve been slowly designing a print that I’d like to sell to raise money for a bail fund and that has been a great outlet for a bunch of my Anger. Strange to think I’ve already been living at Dirt Palace for six months already?? Time is sprinting, but it feels like that it is in a Good Way.   NAFFISATOU KOULIBALY hey there :) it's been a while since we last talked. october, i think? and now it's basically february and that's cool? i guess?? the passage of time does not scare me!! anyhow...             this winter is reallllyyyyy wintering for me. it's been a slow, quiet one for me filled with a lot of sitting around with my kitty, doing puzzles, binge watching tv, crocheting, reading, dreaming. ~some of my favorite moments~ 1. seeing Danez Smith and Chrysanthemum Tran live @ the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum i've spent years reading Danez's poetry; underlining, rereading, scribbling notes in the margins, finding myself between the lines of their poetry. they're even more breathtaking in person. 2. discovering my mother is also a poet.            3. visting the Dominican Republic. mata tiempo means kill time. i wish i was still there.       4. envisioning a new youth program for ProvSlam! i don't believe in january being the "new year". i believe that this is the time of year to rest, relax, reflect, and plan. so that's what i've been doing in terms of my personal life and for ProvSlam. i have a clearer vision for where we are headed in terms of kick starting a new youth poetry/writing program. as220 has been playing a major role and i've been using my time there on wednesdays to do the work. announcements coming soon!!   KAI VAN VLACK Mini tour in a week! Big tour to follow at the end of February. See ya there I hope ;*   XANDER MARRO The dog's fur has gotten thicker with the season. We spend a lot of time by the river amongst the winterberry and ice. Its been a while since we sent out a digest and so I have yet to share the last form in this context. Here it is! Its possibly out of season now (it’s an ode to autumn) but its also about apples. If you take all of the oxygen out of a room and make it cold, apples will keep a long time. Which is to say apples are still around and maybe you want to tell me some thoughts about apples. Been working on some illustrations for the illusive book or manuscript, or whatever you’re supposed to call a long-form thing before it actually becomes a thing. PIPPI ZORNOZA Sneek Peak of  behind the scenes from filming the new Harpy music video shot by Anabel Vazquez Harpy will playing with some old friends March 15th at the News Cafe

BULLETIN BOARD!!!!! ************************* HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANNA KERBER!!!!!   ************ SOME UPCOMING OPPORTUNITIES:   Future Ministry Access is offering support to nourish a creative process, neighborhood-minded, with the Rochambeau Community Library! $4,000 artist stipend + $500 for materials and more. Read all the guidelines and apply at: https://clpvd.org/artintheneighborhood/   *************************