The politics of Music. What I choose to play and why.

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 Guest Editor:Lafayette Harris,Jr.,pianist, composer,educator

 
Lets  be real. We only play what we know. I play music that relates to my  culture. Being black, from a basically southern area, Baltimore, Md. (by  way of Virginia) and born of parents who went to church. Baptist  church. Black baptist of course.
 
I've made my living in New  York City  playing all kinds of music. Before I left my home for college  in the early 1980's I was in a funk/disco band called Life Unlimited.   We played weekends and rehearsed every week night. The repertoire? The  usual things you heard on the radio in the late 70's and early 80's:  Chic, Kool And The Gang, The Commodores, Bohannon, Donna Summer, Rick  James.
 
That was the music that people were familiar with and  that had been pushed on them by their local DJ's at the radio stations.  Of course the youngsters loved it. It was good fun-time music. My mother  often yelled for us to "turn that mess off!"
 
For the people who  went to church like she did, there was a whole 'nother dimension to  what they thought of music. It must relate to Jesus! Because praising  Jesus was what they wanted, needed and loved. Sometimes more than  anything or anybody else! Anyway, I relate to how they felt because I  experienced the feelings of sanctified church in both Baltimore and  during our frequent visits to my grandmothers home in rural Virginia.
 
When  I started becoming more educated in music I learned about our jazz  heroes. Clark Terry, Slide Hampton (my band teachers played brass  instruments) and Oscar Peterson. I'd already learned about Scott Joplin  and Eubie Blake from hearing Eubie on TV. 
 
Now that's three  major styles of music and I saw it in a black way even though some of my  teachers were white. Gospel, Pop and what I play mostly today Jazz.
 
A  few years ago I started playing pretty often with Houston Person. We  had played together and recorded quite a bit with Ernestine Anderson.
There  was a special chemistry I felt playing with both Houston and Ernestine.  I didn't understand what that was until I had some good conversations  with Houston.
The three of us are all southerners and therefore  share a common culture. Of course people from the north have some of the  same qualities but I began to realize that there was a significant  difference in how we were raised and what we were exposed to.
The  "down home" feeling in people from the south is something that was  constant and not seen as offensive or degrading. Northerners often are  embarrassed by their "fresh from the sticks" cousins with their country  accents and unsophisticated mannerisms. I think it's a social issue that  many of today's musicians black, white and otherwise have not thought  much about. They aren't aware of how this issue relates to their own  sound as a musician and even more so a singer!
 
James Brown ad Elvis Presley don't sound like they're from Boston do they? Neither does Ray Charles or Ella Fitzgerald. 
 
So  I started thinking: why haven't I been made aware of these significant  differences? One reason I think is that, not a lot of people understand  these concepts and therefore don't see what the importance of them are.  Two, I think a lot of people don't feel comfortable talking about how we  differ. That is that we see and respond to the world differently  depending on our backgrounds in religion, race, economic level, sexual  orientation, and very important; whether we're from below or above that  North/South cultural divide: The Mason Dixon Line.
 
I was  married to a woman from Chicago for several years. Many things about her  were very different from what I was used to. She was of Hispanic origin  and had a catholic background.  I was totally unprepared for how these  differences would affect our relationship.
 
Sometimes when we  listened to music together I'd notice that she liked plainer sounding  instrumentation and what I thought were white sounding voices. (In  hindsight they were people not from the south!) I, on the other hand  required some soul and funkiness to what I wanted to hear. I did  appreciate all types of artists. But I was stunned by what she thought  was good!
 
Now I look back and realize that we each had a certain  comfort level with things. Things that reminded us of our southern or  northern roots and our religious backgrounds. (Even though neither of us  went to church!)
 
Most jazz saxophone players have either Bird  or Cannonball as their alto saxophone hero. It seems that many  northerners, Detroit, Chicago, New York prefer Charlie Parker while many  southerners particularly cats from Florida follow Cannonball Adderley.  Now, no one can compare to Bird not even Cannonball Adderely. Bird  certainly was a super soulful player and master of blues. I think many  people like how Cannonball used blues more overtly vs  Charlie Parker's  sublime approach.
 
Then you have the Texas style boogie woogie piano players vs the Chicago greats like Earl Hines and Nat Cole. 
 
Now  a days many of my peers play jazz music that doesn't relate to the  southern roots of music. It is often very complex and difficult for the  musicians to learn. When it's played well the audiences are blown away  and they really enjoy the excitement of hearing something that sounds  new and fresh. But many people are left wondering?... "Where the soul  at?"
 
My choices of what to play boil down to whether or not I  can actually feel the music or not. If it doesn't give me a feeling  somewhere inside then I kind of have the urge to skip to the next thing.  I recently played with the great bassist and personal friend Lonnie  Plaxico. I had to study his original music for weeks before I could even  be ready for a rehearsal! I was so glad I tackled his music and was  able to do a gig with him. It greatly broadened what I thought I was  capable of learning and performing. He knew that I had learned many  Ragtime piano pieces as well as Charlie Parker solos. He said if I could  learn that music there was no reason why I couldn't learn his. (At  first I thought he was wrong but he proved he was right!)
 
What I  choose to compose and play though comes from a different point of view.  Yes, I've written things that only come from my intellect and aren't  hummable melodies. But I see that you can have strait forward  melodies  and rhythms and do them in creative ways so both the spirit and the  intellect get stimulated.
 
I think Duke Ellington (a DC native) was the master of "simple meets sophisticated!"
 
I  really relish an overall vibe when I write music. I will often think of  a nice swing or funk feel that dancers could "step" to and then write  to that. And the drummer I play with is always very important. They have  to have a feel that I can relate to, or else I'm constantly guessing  where and when to play.
 
So these are my music politics.
 
I've got to feel it or I ain't gonna play it!
 
  
Lafayette Harris, Jr.
www.lafayetteharrisjr.com
www.facebook.com/lafayette.harris

Newport Jazz Festival 2015

On Friday July 24^th Jazz Mobile Summerfest presented Barry Harris Jazz Group that included the BH chorus. At 8:15pm The Classical Theater of Harlem presented the Tempest with Ron Cephas Jones as Prospero. At the #7 bus stop on the way home I made a new friend. MP had already made extensive plans to attend  the NEWPORT JAZZ  FESTIVAL: car renting, hotel and tickets purchased on line.

NEWPORT JAZZ  FESTIVAL  is the oldest and grandest of jazz listening venues. It is a three day Friday-Sunday mega event, July 31- August 2, 2015. It is produced by Newport Festivals Foundation, Inc. a nonprofit, with generous support from NATIXIS global asset management. When my dream of attending began to percolate I surfed newportjazzfest.org. The list of scheduled artists were unfamiliar names. The location was Fort Adams State Park, a half hour drive from a friend’s summer home in Rhode Island.

It was a long slow drive from Manhattan on Friday afternoon. Giving me the opportunity to admire the variety of beautiful trees along the scenic and winding Highway 15. Je’dore Le Merritt. Young and old trees, small and large, some pruned, some sculptured by storms, small leaves, broad leaves but rarely a conifer.  As the sun set, a blue moon rose, large and bright.

Saturday morning  it was a pleasant drive on Highway 138 then parking in Jamestown. Taking the  $23 roundtrip ferry ride to the Fort Adams Park was a choppy 15 minutes.  The Jamestown exit (before the second bridge) avoided the traffic congestion in the town of Newport . In a party of two or more economically park in Newport  at $25, then ferry to Fort Adams $10 roundtrip. First mate Joy aided the boarding.   Captain Skip checking tables in Elderidge explained the unusually low tide associated with perigee. Mean low at Jamestown is 4.8feet.

In my starry eyes there appeared a gentleman up-holding Festival tickets. He gave me one.

The Fort Stage is the largest of the four  across the park. There are picnic tables near the Quad Stage. The Storyville stage is indoors and Harbor Stage is the shadiest, coolest spot. They all have chairs up front for 10am arrivals. The next option is rearmost ground seating in the sun. There were many arts and craft vendors: jewelry; hand-bags; paintings: abstract and portraits; fashionable clothes in African prints; WBGO  jazz station chairs for sale that were the regulated 39” height; a tent where you could purchase appearing artists’ CDs. Lots of food: lobster roll sandwiches, huge colorful open tacos, pulled pork, oysters, clams and chowder. Yum galore. The Brother Thelonius Beer Garden required ID for entrance. Jazz media: Jazz Times and Downbeat and radio stations including the New Jersey station WBGO which sponsored a daily bus trip to the Festival that departed from my neighborhood, the Westside of Manhattan.

Being overwhelmed by the immensity of the crowd I quickly spread an old ragtag patchwork quilt in the grassy area closer to the water  than to the Fort Stage. Maria Schneider introduced her orchestra with Jonathan Blake ( a name I know from Kaufman’s CD) on drums. I could hear him but I couldn’t see him. Then the person in the chair in front of me shifted; the giant screen monitor came into view. The breeze across the water hardly cooled too much sunshine. Next came Jon Batiste, Cassandra Wilson. My new friend, MP arrived with her mom from Baltimore with fruit, sandwiches and chips!   At 5:20pm as Irvin Mayfield and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra took the stage my heat addled brain couldn’t remember how to get home?

Donning my socks and sneakers I folded the quilt and began to stroll toward the Entrance Gate.  There was a short line to board the Jamestown Ferry, 15 minutes back. Then a van shuttle to the parking lot near Highway 138 and the half hour back to the BLS cabin.

The traveling challenge gave way to musing about this culture, this scene , this American musical art form: JAZZ. At all points of possible interaction with strangers a camaraderie was acknowledged. This was a warm and friendly crowd. Yet this audience did include some people who chatted the entire set away. No, this was not a concert, not a set in a club, not a gig nor a jam session. There was jumpin, swinging, bluesy music on four stages all day long. There was constant strolling from stage to stage. There as the opportunity to less intrusively leave or enter mid-performance for a recently vacated shady seat. This music with its cerebral chord structure tugs emotions without the listeners’ harmonic analysis. In the same way that an erotic impulse is an emotion with no guarantee of a committed relationship.

Sunday morning up early whizzing Highway 138, Jamestown exit, easily finding parking at the Conanicut Marine Services yard. Two other Festival goers boarded the van shuttle to the East Ferry Wharf. SH read the logo on my knapsack. She asked, ,"Are you a cytotech?" Not remembering the logo I was startled! SH works at Lab Core, a specialist like my retired self. She knows where George Papanicolaou is buried in New Jersey and visits there annually on our Professional Recognition Day, May 13^th. SH works at Lab Core a private lab in New Jersey; I worked in the hospital laboratory at Roosevelt/St.Luke’s. We exclaimed the perils of a sedentary career peering thru a microscope. And associated the ‘four stages’ with a prognosis. Her companion, LG is a sound engineer preparing for the Raritan, New Jersey Jazz Festival in September. Perhaps we three will meet again.

At the Admission Box Office $16 was returned from a $100 bill. Jon Faddis Triumph of Trumpets was blaring from the Quad Stage. At the nearby picnic tables I listened and lunched dinner leftovers. Over at the Harbor Stage Fred Hersch Trio performed a pianissimo set competing with chirping sparrows. Next Lou Donaldson introduced his set, "No confusion,  no fusion, no Kenny G, no 50¢ that’s not worth a quarter." The Brit Jamie Cullum with his band and a local big band up lifted the crowd to dancing.

WOW!

 Let’s plan 2016.

The Jazz Teacher

THE TEACHER

How to learn Jazz music is  a unique decision needing individual guidelines that cater to personality styles of learning. There is no one path toward accomplishment. No single continuum that outlines the broad spectrum that is Jazz. As there is no one level of mastery. Here are some choices:

·               Transcriptions (your own) from recordings        

·               Reading published transcriptions

·               Composing from charts in Real Book, etc.

·               Listening then reproducing a teachers’ riffs:Barry Harris

·               Studying Jazz theory textbooks :An Approach to Comping                                                                    Jeb Patton

·               Private piano lessons

The levels of mastery include the above that can be summaries as functions of the brain, the eyes, the ears and the fingers. Who trains the feeling?

There is a unique challenge for adults to learn. There is also a unique challenge to the teaching of adults. When I reentered my Hanon studies more that a year ago I was not thinking of Jazz. I was hearing Mozart. I’m still hearing Mozart  even after this first year studying Jazz. I am still playing classical piano and Hanon exercises.

When Dan Kaufman sits in the front of our classroom at Jazz Mobile Saturday Workshop, it is a concession on his part having agreed to be the TEACHER.

The style and methodology he uses is non-hierarchial and interactive. One gets the sense that he is merely contributing ideas to the study of music not espounding doctrines or even theories. But that sense is a mistake.  He gives suggestions that are accurate yet terse. However, a suggestion is an invitation. This is the ambience for success. It is only after you try these suggestions that you yourself will decide whether this is a useful theory or not.

In psychotherapy the discussion is simply a mirror of the thoughts verbalized to the therapist. The therapist may say, “Is this you?”  And the therapeutic work is with what has just been said. So it is when DK teaches privately or in a classroom setting. Whatever question we ask or whatever statement or observation is made or whatever tune is performed DK works from that point forward. This is a very efficient use of a student's time.  It is a guarantee that we will get something out of this class. It is the propellent for at home study. This is no minor skill for a professor.  It is the exhibition of a broad mastery of the music called Jazz, specifically piano performance solo or ensemble. The compensation and acknowledgment of this is inversely proportional to the gift to the student's experience.

The individual quidelines for learning Jazz are constructed by what the student has mastered and is ready to progress toward. In the classroom we are at various points in this continuum. It is chaotic! Teaching requires repeating, restating and rephrasing an explanation. DK manages to describe the numerical chord structures in multiple lectures without an attitude of, "Haven't I gone over this before?" And we take notes because we always hear a little something new.

When DK  abruptly shifts to an analogy my thinking shifts too. This happens when one level of explanation is not utilized by a listening student or when a restatement is indicated. Suddenly our listening is jarred to a new location: a baseball field, for example. It maybe a brain hemispheric shift.  The movement is from a (left) linear attempt to comprehend to a (right) feeling sense of understanding.  It is a noticable change.  It makes us laugh to try to compare the 'meaty' register on the keyboard to the 'sweet spot' of a baseball bat.

After we perform a piano piece DK always asks the students, "What did you like about the piece?" before he gives his comments. He listens to us. In this classroom filled with adult students, with our large egos, DK's persona is diminutive. This bring a generous helping of creative energy into the classroom. With his comments come a precision of language. We students, on the other hand search for something profound to say; but we always say something. Then DK plays his impromtu version the piece, smothering our infantile performance. Even after he has said, "I don't know that piece."

The only time DK's countenance falters is when the facility fails to facilitate.

Salsa after one year

Propose the word co-choreographer to the word follower.

“Follow”means in the cha cha when one partner turns to dance backwards. The following partner puts her hands on the partner’s back shoulders. They dance the same step one behind the other. Two people doing 12 123 12. Forward 2 123 back 2 123. In New York salsa on two the partners dance a mirror image of each others basic steps:123 versus 567. Sometimes even one partner’s move is not like the other partner’s move at all. So she is not “following”what her partner is doing; she is executing the dance step that her partner has suggested by his lead. For example if he suggests a right turn; she will perform a right turn. She is not “following” his right turn. He didn’t turn right. She is choreographing a graceful heads-up right turn of her own creation.

If the word follow simply means follow the lead given by your partner, who is the leader; then any beginner salsa student would be as good a dancer as any advanced salsa student. Because all she has to do is follow the lead. I have noticed that there is a giant difference between beginner dancers and advanced dancers. Beginners don’t follow until they study and learn the choreography. This includes the expense of time and money to practice.

Then there is the question of what to do when the cue for a right turn is given to the follower after the ideal count. Does the follower make a snappy awkward right turn arriving just in time for the ideal count? Does she follow his cue and make her turn at a normal gracefull speed arriving in front of her partner off his beat?

Similarly when a lead is unclear,a cue is missed or hand contact is broken a follower would be lost. She missed her cue and doesn’t know what to do! The co-choreographer steps into a makeshift shine or a fanciful basic. Each new lead from a new partner requires a different dance. She changes partners all night long. The men do the same step over and over with only a change of dance partner. Each new partner for the follower has a different way to lead. And that is the fun of dancing Salsa. That’s the fun of rotating in class. That’s the fun of going to clubs.The follower is a choreographer because she never knows what the dance will be. Does anybody listen to the music?

 

So if you think of your partner as a co-choreographer you will understand that she accepts your lead as a suggestion. By agreeing to dance with you she accepts you as a leader. She will try to perform the suggested step to the best of her physical capabilities but if she fails please spare me the guillotine.

  Next surviving the Copacabana.

Salsa Dancing

SALSA DANCING
Not really wanting to address”leading” in Salsa dancing from a feminist perspective but . . . The reason (one of the reasons) for the Women’s Liberation movement back in the 1960’s was to liberate both men and women. How could you not include both sexes in a movement that was destined to impact social engineering for generations to come. To anticipate a relationship on the dance floor where the man”leads” and the woman “follows” is ludicrous. Let us discuss.
The word follower will be substituted for woman to include the myriad of gender identifications.
You may understand the description of a “leader” if you acknowledge the following observations. The responsibility of leading in Salsa dancing is analogous to one half of a couple defined as the bread winner. What women said in the 1960’s Liberation Movement was that housework is significant for the total life of a couple/family. Educated women wanted to have a career in their lifetime. Sometimes the exigencies of a couple’s life together dictated rearrangements of gender identifications.
On the dance floor, of Salsa on two, a mis-step or a misinterpreted lead is a social exigency. The “shine” may be a deliberate reinterpretation of a lead. A follower may be inspired by the poly-rhythms of contemporary salsa music. A trumpet quartet blaring amid symphonic jazz can be trance inducing.
There is a consent implicit in accepting a dance leader. This is a limited opportunity for two people to dance together. It is not a behavior guide for the evening. A salsa dance relationship is not a relinquishing of decision making. There is a nanosecond of meanness in enabling grandiosity. A follower has to be cautious to not “lead on” the leader. The follower may not be too keen on housework.
When two people are dancing together the follower is a part of the together. Without a follower you dance alone. (Mondays Underground Hudson Hotel) If a follower missteps or doesn’t turn fast enough whose fault is it? What if the follower reinterprets a lead; who feels threatened? Who can laugh it off? If the follower does not like the style of the leader, for example grabbing, pulling/pushing or jerking a follower may a) say “gentle.” b) end the dance in the middle of the 1…2…3…
If a man is a leader why do women take Salsa Dance classes? The lead is a suggestion of choreography. Followers notice a variety of leads in the dance classes. All are leading somewhere. The success of the lead may be about dancing skills because men take Salsa dance classes too. The success of the leader may be about something else!

The Strivers Art Circuit

Discovering Arts in Harlem

Harlem has always been a source of specialized shopping such as for African textiles at Yara Fabrics at Fifth Avenue and 125th Street. This weekend The Strivers Art Circuit gave me a new discovery---Arts in Harlem. SAC is a self guided walking tour through artists studios and galleries surrounding the famed Strivers Row Historic district of Harlem, New York, New York. A contributing sponsor was the Harlem Arts Alliance’s Arts Advocacy Week. Postcards and posters mapped the location of thirteen spots to visit the week-end of October 9 and 10, 2010 to discover arts in Harlem.
Although geographically challenged finding the first gallery, Hamilton Landmark Gallery 647 West 144th Street was easily on the #101 bus line. The curator of this group exhibit “Trash to Treasure" was Aleathia Brown, a collage painter. The artists are from local neighborhoods and upstate New York organizations--- Harlem Arts Alliance and Black Dimension in Art. Taking recycling to a robust level these artists constructed fine art from ‘trash.’ A 12”X24” 3D piece by Catherine Reaves included plastic bags and embroidery thread that depicted flowers mounted on burlap. The piece by Patricia Murray was entitled "Over my Head I hear Music in the Air": fabric, yarn and earrings. A vintage wall hanging by Laura Gadson 42”X35” included square silk patches pieced and tied in a myriad of browns. For the wall hanging “Dazzling Star” Tina W. Raggio used cotton fabric. A 3D sculpture by Aleathia Brown was acrylic paint covering a shoe collage. The Albany photographer VR Grant exhibited black and white compositions that were not taken with his childhood Kodak box camera. The locations of these photographs included Topsail, North Carolina, “Fishing Pier;" Albany, NY ”Empire Place;" and “Boy” taken thirty years ago in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A nature construction by Slanwyck Cromwell included ½ inch tree branches amid starkly painted colors:12”X36”.
Searching for the second gallery on Hamilton Terrace found me lost in Harlem on Hamilton Place. Sunday was a warm and sunny afternoon for a walking tour. Pedestrians faithfully directed me to 62 Hamilton Place; this was not The Children’s Art Carnival, this was not 62 Hamilton Terrace. Retracing my steps to find Hamilton Terrace there were colorful balloons at the entrance to The Chirldren's Art Carnival. One of the fiber artists was Shaunda Halloway. She was exhibiting a variety of accessories decorated with hand dyed fabrics inspired by the Ibo of Nigeria. Bold, colorful graphics adorned handbags, belts and revamped T-shirts. Other works on the walls were pastels, ink drawings and vibrantly washed watercolors. The pottery in the rear was created by the young people educated at The Children's Art Carnival.
Strolling down unfamiliar tree lined streets acorns crushed underfoot. The towering old trees had roots pushing the sidewalk upward. The brownstones and occasional apartment buildings were quiet until the Terrace dead ended. The turn of a corner found me on Rev.Dr. John W. Saunders Place where the Bx #19 bus stops at 145th Street. Look at that a Bronx bus in the heart of Manhattan!
Shimoda, the jeweler provided the most hospitable home studio. http://www.shimoda-accessories.com/ Her upstairs studio space on Frederick Douglas Boulevard showcased her extravagant line of beads, bangles and bling. With mirrors all around we were enticed to imagine ourselves courageous enough to be so adorned. All the walls including the snack-filled kitchen demonstrated her expanse of creativity where jewelry becomes a three dimensional sculpture. Shimoda hosted two visual artists from Dallas, Texas: Frank Sowells, Jr. and Randy Leger.
The photographic essay at Strivers Gardens Gallery by Kwame Brathwaite is entitled “Gone: But Not Forgotten.” This is a segment of the photographer's massive collection of photographs of musical legends. The performance shots of Michael Jackson, Miles Davis and Betty Carter to name a few presented a walk down memory lane. If you never saw James Brown at the Apollo Theater how can you call yourself a music lover?
At the law office of Jayne M. Dennis;230 West 135th Street Beatrice Lebreton exhibited paintings that will be shown later this month at the Harlem Arts Alliance Office Gallery. The paintings of women are realistic yet framed by symbols and designs of color:"Femmes/Fragments." On the craft side Beatrice Lebreton has assembled prints of her original watercolors into a desk calendar. A large sheet contains two inch crops of prints of butterfly wings on a black background. Ibou Ndoye, paints on glass, sometimes broken glass. Then takes a digital image of this original for smaller prints matted in white. Next Ibou Ndoye He is is currently exhibiting at the Distrillery Gallery, Jersey City, New Jersey. “Mapping Race” http://www.destinationjerseycity.com/events/428
At the Harlem Arts Alliance Office Gallery the painter Eric Engles is showing neon paintings from the past few years in a showcase entitled “Phoenix” Most of the paintings are two feet by two feet in contemporary frames suitable for exhibiting under a black light. The colors are florescent hues from poster paints that swerve to dance and splatter as in “Pig Pen.” The layering of flowing streaks and brush strokes of fuchsia and chartreuse presents a dizzying moment.
The Gadson Gallery/Laura R. Gadson is a quilt lovers delight. Her work is large and small, traditional and contemporary, home decorous and museum quality. The traditional quilts with squares and rectangles use soft colored cotton fabrics blended by neat circular quilting stitches. The finishing edge, the binding is not limited to repeating the quilt’s motif but has an expression of independence. The masterful blue and white quilt shows giant snowflakes that seem to float aloft. It is hard for a mere photograph or a Banner hanging on 125th Street to capture the texture of quilting. Laura R. Gadson has a unique mobile hanging system for her wall hangings. These small story quilts are complemented with noir. And ah the fabric portraits! Billie Holiday and Noel Pointer has solo characters or small groups like Grandma with child come alive on a landscaped background. Her work exemplifies ”that fine art look that we are trying to impose on viewers.”

Harlem Arts Alliance Advocacy Week

This note is intended to express my gratitude to Michael Unthank and the Staff at Harlem Arts Alliance for the series of events during Harlem Arts Advocacy Week: October 4-9, 2010. The schedule for the programs was available at the September and October monthly meetings, as well as stuffing my e-mailbox. There were participants representing numerous arts, cultural and political organizations. The thoughts presented these last few days were challenging.

Theme: Collaboration.
The face of collaboration was demonstrated by the fact that varied arts organizations were seated on panels together. This is giving the organizations peer to peer contact. They described their recent and future events. 2) Artists can collaborate with these organizations. 3) Artists collaborating with media as Flo Wiley, publicist, has taught in a recent Workshop given by the Harlem Arts Alliance, “Artists need a Press List.” 4) Artist to artist collaborations could teach, share and support each other.
Beginning at the Monday Harlem Alliance monthly meeting on October 4th listening to the speakers on the panels there were two questions for me about collaboration. What is everyone really sharing and how does it apply to me? Were the representatives merely tooting their own horns; expressing a willingness to be a collaborative organization or telling me how to immediately sell the artwork back in my studio.
Kathy Hughes, Assistant Commissioner, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs shared a concern that the younger generation will be needed to staff the current arts and cultural organizations. Wondering who will have the interest to pursue careers in these organizations that serve to support the arts? This question was echoed by the panel, the keynote speaker and the audience on Wednesday evening at the Schomburg Center. Howard Dodson, Chief expressed support for these current cultural organizations imploring them to continue. But how to involve the younger generation was a questioning refrain? How, when today’s parents are not as involved themselves in the plethora of music, dance, and visual arts as parents were years ago. Years ago when there was more art in the schools and more venues where families were social. Fortunately the Community Boards 9 & 10 have Arts committees that have activities and solutions.
Will Maitland Weiss, Executive Director, Arts & Business Council of New York and Naomi Grapel, Director Marketing and Creative Services, Carnegie Hall had individual and organizational marketing solutions. The e-mails that are collaborations between Harlem Arts Alliance and Arts and Business Council describe a package of related events for a specific time period. Artists and businesses can submit their events for this online info commercial. Naomi Grapel outlined a marketing strategy for artists: a) Branding What is unique about your product b) Express your authentic voice in your press information. Skip the hype. c) Provide access to the artist; add a personal/biographical component to the event. d) Create a relationship with your customer/audience rather than a one time transaction of a ticket purchase.
Here is gratitude for the organizations who collaborated with Harlem Arts Alliance by participating and/or sponsoring Harlem Arts Advocacy Week. Here is gratitude for the sharing by the speakers who by tooting their own horns gave me an invitation to explore and support. An artist needs information. Information is needed about other artists, other arts, and other arts’ organizations. We got it!