Printmaker Mei Tei Smith at Fort Hayes Gallery

Mei Tei Smith

Printmaking, monoprints, etchings, lithography
March 6 - March 31, 2006

Artist homecoming reception: Friday, March 3, 6-8pm
Fort Hayes Shot Tower Gallery
546 Jack Gibbs Blvd,
Columbus, Ohio
info? call 614 365 6681

Ohio Art League presents "Assembly"

Assembly
March 4-25, 2006
Abby Ferguson
Mary Richards
Curated by Mary Richards
Opening Reception Saturday March 4, 6 - 9 pm

954 North High Street
Columbus, Ohio 43201
www.oal.org
oal@rrcol.com

CAPACITY is closing Studios, but remains in neighborhood

CAPACITY, CAPA's Youth Arts Program, will be closing the CAPACITY Studios on February 28 but we'll still be in the neighborhood.

Central Community House, our wonderful community partner, will host our CAPACITY workshops, open mics, and community garden project.

Next week at Central Community House we will hold our DJ Workshop (with BHB)
and Open Art Workshop (with Richard "Duarte" Brown) on Tuesday, Feb. 28 at 5:30 pm.

Breakdance with BHB will follow at 6:30 pm.

On Wednesday, March 1 Dionne Custer and Duarte will join forces at 5:15 pm for WORDPLAY, a workshop combining writing and visual art.

These workshops for young people ages 12-19 will be held weekly.

A complete schedule update (including dine-in discussions, media art, open mics and garden art) will be posted on the CAPACITY website by March 10.

See you at Central!!

For more information about CAPACITY programs and our generous funders please visit : www.ecapacity.org

For more information about Central Community House please visit: www.cchouse.org

Women at Play presents its last production: Hungry Hearts

This message was sent in By Katherine Burkman. Women at Play has produced many wonderful and memorable productions in Columbus for te past 12 years. Sadly, we are now informed that the company is disbanding. A real loss for all who love good theatre. -charlie

Dear Friend of Women at Play.

We wanted you to know that our group is disbanding after 12 years. Although somewhat sad, we are excited about our final production, an adaptation of Francine Prose's wonderful novel HUNGRY HEARTS, which will take place March 23 at 7:30, 24 at 2:00, 25 at 8:00, 26 at 2:00, 30 at 8, 31 at 2, April 1 at 8, April 2 at 2. All at the JCC at 1125 College Ave. Tickets $20, or $15 for students/seniors/members of JCC. Group rates available as well.

The play, which we will be giving its world premiere, is a dramatic but joyous romp about a Yiddish acting company who are rehearsing THE DYBBUK in New York in 1920 and take it to South America. The leading lady gets invaded by a real dybbuk (the spirit of a dead person) and the rest of the play involves solving this problem. Mimi Chenfeld is doing choreography and Arcadiy Gips will play live violin. Attached is our poster. For tickets/information: 457-6580.

Anna Bishop photograph

This image of Anna Bishop, failed to upload with the previous article (below) charlie

Anna Bishop - another historic tribute by Arnette Howard

Anna Bishop was a great friend of Hot Times, the annual music and arts festival, and also the poet laureate of the "Listen For The Jazz- Key Notes in Columbus History". Her poem: "That's Jazz" is a dedication printed on the opening page of this book that chronicles the history of Jazz in Columbus in collected oral histories, personal memories and family photo albums. Arnette Howard was a major contributor to the book. Much of the material included was culled from his extensive collection of stories and artifacts. Once again he sends us a fascinating bit of Columbus history.


My People,

I give my greetings with a heavy heart this day; my friend Eddie Colston, Jr. died yesterday morning. Eddie was a noted painter and educator, teaching at the Martin Janis Center, part of the Columbus recreation and Parks Department. His father, Eddie Colston, Sr., was an entertainer and journalist and much of his writing and photgraphy has helped me uncover the legacy of Columbus' Black entertainers. Eddie Jr. is to be honored with a funeral mass on Saturday at St. Dominic Parish on North Twenty-five Street.

The Mother of Black History in Columbus is Anna Bishop. In addition to being an educator in Columbus schools, a singer, poet, composer, actress and tireless community activist, she was the author of Beyond Poindexter Village: The Blackberry Patch.

In 1982, the first of four parts of her writings were published by the Columbus Metropolitan Library. Beyond Poindexter Village chronicled the community that began after W.W.I when Black southerners moved north to take advantage of the industrial boom that was occurring in many midwestern cities. The Blackberry Patch was settled in East Columbus bordering Long Street, Mount Vernon Avenue, Ohio Avenue and Mink Alley.

According to the book, southerners brought strange customs and cultural patterns to Columbus. "On warm days different people came through the streets selling different things. The watermelon man drove a flat bed truck with a hand made sign that said 'Georgia.' You could hear him coming, singing, 'Watermelon, watermelons! Georgia watermelons, red, ripe, red watermelons!"

Jake and Lena, Italian immigrants, had a horse drawn wagon and they sold vegetables. The people on Champion Avenue knew what Jake meant when he called out, "Epple! Epple! Good, juicy red Epple!" All of the people in the neighborhood would run out to get fresh apples, green beans, corn and potatoes.

One man rang a bright metal hand bell as he walked along the streets and all of the children ran out to the musical sound. The scissors grinder carried a contraption on his back that was machinery for sharpening knives and scissors, screwdrivers for umbrella repairing and for fixing things. He was their science and mechanics teacher.

When the rag man called out, "Iron, rags, glass," the people in the Blackberry Patch knew they could exchange the things that they had been collecting in buckets around the neighborhood for cash. The rag man was the original recycling business.

In her four volumes Anna Bishop interviewed the golden agers, born in the south at the beginning of the century, who had the recipes that helped families survive the terrible times of the depression years of poverty. She documented the details of neighborhood business, theaters, nightclubs, transportation and personalities.

One fascinating businessman was James Albert Jackson, a successful feed merchant in the day when Columbus citizens kept small flocks of chickens in their backyards. He and his business partner, James Williams, opened the Empress Theater at 768 East Long Street in the 1920s. When a theater owner on Mount Vernon insisted on keeping Black customers out, Mr. Jackson said that he'd fix them, "I'll build a theater better than any one in the United States."

When the Ogden (Lincoln) Theater opened in 1928, the whole interior took you back to Egypt with marble pillars carved and painted to look like Egyptian antiques. The carpeting was plush and the Club Lincoln was where Sammy Stewart's Orchestra performed and little Sammy Davis, Jr. was four years old when he made his first impromptu appearance onstage.

Anna Bishop passed in 2004, but the legacy that she not only left with her active life but documented in Beyond Poindexter Village, continues to inspire me.

A

http://creolefunk.com/historical/blackhistory/blackhistory.html

Winter over?

Here's proof! These yellow and white crocusses had the temerity to poke out of the ground in my front yard and show off color on Febryary 23.

Oh well, the temperarture is supposed to dip down into the single digits overnight. Brrrr. Hope these little suckers survive that, and the rest of us too. This is Ohio where we get weather... all kinds... whenever...
Keep the hope.

DooDah Parade Seeks Entries for "SLOGO"

THE FRIENDS OF DOO DAH


Design the Doo Dah Parade T-Shirt & Poster Slogo Contest!



“CELEBRATE LIBERTY & LUNACY”
Tuesday, July 4th, 2006
at the 23rd Annual Doo Dah Parade!

Due Date: 5:00 p.m. March 15, 2006

To: Mz Doo Dah, 235 Buttles Avenue, Columbus, OH 43215-1303

E-Mail: doodahparade@yahoo.com
0r Web-Site: www.DooDahParade.com
and join the blog: DoodahBlog

Lindsay Gallery presents WOOD

Lindsay Gallery, 986 N. High Street, Columbus, Ohio 43201, 614 291 1973.

WOOD

One definition of Folk Art is "ordinary people making art with materials they have at hand." For this show, the materials grow on trees and the not-so-ordinary people are:

Ricky Barnes, Roy Butcher, T.E.Hay, Tim Hitchcock,
& Edwin Jeffrey

Opening reception: Friday, March 3, 2006, 6-9 pm
www.lindsaygallery.com

School for Mime Theatre 2006 Summer Seminar at Kenyon College

The 2006 session of the School for Mime Theatre, at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio runs June 26 through July 7. The youth seminar is scheduled for June 12-22.

Inspired to foster the development and strenghtening of the skills necessary to create solo and ensemble mime and physical theatre, the School for Mime Theatre faculty invites you to attend the 27th annual summer seminar on the campus of Kenyon College, in Gambier Ohio.

Faculty: C. Nicholas Johnson, Rick Wamer, Lorie Heald, Stephen Chipps and Dan Griffiths.
Tuition: One week, $500; two weeks, $900. (Fees include tuition amd housing)

Contact:
C. Nicholas Johnson, 316 686 3640, alitheacreations@cox.net
Rick Wamer, 520 990 5425, ricgeocaps@msn.com

www.schoolformimetheatre.org
www.alitheacreations.com

Bread and Circus Theatre Auditions for "The Lion in Winter"

Bread and Circus Theatre Company will hold auditions for "The Lion in Winter" at the Tripleforce Artistic Center, 3979 Parkway Lane in Hilliard. 7 PM Sunday March 5, Monday March 6, Sunday March 12, and Monday March 13. 5 men, one woman. Resume and head shot requested; readings from script. Please note the part of Eleanor of Aquitaine has been cast. Call 614-470-4895 or visit www.bctco.org.

BREAD AND CIRCUS THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS IBSEN’S “A DOLL’S HOUSE”

Bread and Circus Theatre Company presents “A Doll’s House” at the Tripleforce Artistic Center, 3979 Parkway Lane in Hilliard. Evening performances at 8 PM Friday March 3, Saturday March 4, Friday March 10, and Saturday March 11; matinee Sunday March 5 at 2:30 PM. Reservations $10 for adults and $8 for students and seniors; call 614-470-4895 or visit www.bctco.org

Henrik Ibsen is rightfully regarded as the father of modern drama in theatre and literary circles. It was Ibsen who discarded the tired remnants of the romantic, idyllic Shakespearean drama of 250 years earlier, with its tales of old kings, faeries, ancient Greeks and Romans, and similar story elements rooted in a certain level of fantasy, for the doings of the great and near-great have little grounding in the travails of the common people.

It was partly in recognition of this detached tradition that Bread and Circus Theatre Company produced, in March 2005, Age of Wolves, a tale of great deeds and powerful people firmly rooted in the viewpoint and experiences of the common man. Likewise, it was Ibsen who recognized the bankruptcy of the drama of the nineteenth century, and resolved to create plays that reflected the reality of the ordinary for the first time. The result was the New Realism, a revolution in theatre, and its most eloquent realization, A Doll’s House.


A Doll’s House features Hilliard actors Christine Liberto as Nora, Briana Biffath as Ellen, and Frank Biffath as Krogstad; Columbus actors Carrie Hays as Anna, Manny Flowers as Dr. Rank, and Mony Carpenter as Christina; and Westerville’s Pete Swingle as Torvald. Artistic Director Howard Carpenter is directing, assisted by Kate Campbell and Carrie Hays.

Barbara Chavous, a Columbus Artist, honored by Arnett Howard

(I share Arnett's warmhearted tribute to this most anmazing artist, friend and neighbor. Her talent, way beyond her imaginative way of sculpting totems and spirit houses, was in the way she inspired so many others, children especially, to open up to the immense possibilities of imagination.) Charlie



What a blazing weekend; Cols. was on fire. Friday, Tim Commisky Trio at Worthington Inn, Saturday, the Cols. Children's Choir World Music Festival, Arti Gras at First Community Church in Marblecliff with real New Orleans Cuisine, The Cols. Jazz Orchestra saluting Diz and Bird with Jeff Clayton, Claudio Roditi and Deena DeRose, a jam session with Bryan Olsheski at the Cols. Music Hall, Sunday at Shiloh Baptist Church and a sellout at Cols. Music Hall that featured piano phenom Aaron Diehl. I'm overdosed!

For thirty years my artistic mother has been Barbara Chavous, painter and sculptor. I met Barbara in 1975 when I was living in East Columbus and she was looking for a space to work. She and her former husband, painter and engineer Stanley Sourelis, moved two doors away, above the then Pace Gallery at Taylor and East Broad Street.

Barbara was raised in Columbus, graduated from East High, Central State University and was married to movie photographer Adger Cowens in New York. She met Sourelis in New York and they resettled in Columbus. She says that he taught her the sense of color that now characterizes her work.

During those exciting days, Stanley and Barbara were the artistic mentors to many of us; Queen Brooks, Terry Logan, Pheoris West, Candy Watkins, Stephen Canneto, Walt Neal, Sandy Aska and countless others. They moved to 776 East Franklin Avenue, the former Henry Hallwood Mansion, and were one of the pioneering household in a diverse community now know as Olde Towne East.

One day in 1979, I was wrestling with the choice of accumulating thirty years and a pension in a lawn fertilizer factory or walking off into unknown to be a musician entrepreneur, I went to her for advise (or more like a shove off the gangplank). Her words I will carry with me forever, "If a bird stays too long in the nest they get too fat to fly." I jumped into history.

She can't remember those words of advise to me. If fact, my artistic mom can't remember very much because she has dementia; that loss of intellectual capacity has become so severe that it interferes with her social functioning. She has been patient for over ten years, but fortunately, she has been able to continue to create her amazing art pieces.

In 2003, I was honored to be nominated for the Arts Freedom Award, presented by Southside Settlement House and the Columbus Museum. The two other honorees that year were Steven Anderson, director of Phoenix Theater for Children and Barbara Chavous, my mom.

What a joyful evening; like the proverbial "Old Home Night." All of the Columbus arts family that we partied, exhibited and loved with during those frenzied days of the seventies and eighties came together to celebrate the recognition of our life's work.

To paraphrase a composition from my pastor Mary Kay Beale Carter, "With grateful heart I thank you, Lord, " for bringing Barbara Chavous into my life.

Enjoy. Feedback feels good. The Black History Blog Site is at http://creolefunk.com/historical/blackhistory/blackhistory.html
A www.creolefunk.com

Christopher Ries Master in Glass at OSU Faculty Club Gallery - March 1 through 30, 2006

This release was submitted by Marion Fisher, 614 888 3856

Internationally known glass artist Christopher Ries presents 12 crystal sculptures, with the help of Hawk Galleries of Columbus.
Opening reception: March 11, 1:00 to 3:00. More info, call the club at: 614 292 2262.

An Ohio native, Ries graduated from the Ohio State University in 1975 with a BA in ceramics and glass. While still an undergraduate, Ries helped establish the university's first glass "hot shop". After working with heated glass, he began exploring techniques of coldwork, sawing, grinding, slicing, cutting and carving glass. He has been an artist in residence at Schott Glass Technologies of Durea, PA. The company produces the highest quality of glass allowing transmittal of 99.8% of the light. His pioneering work lead him to create unique effects in glass using ambient light, maximizing the reflective and reactive properties of the optical quality of glass.

The Ohio State University Faculty Club is located at 181 S. Oval Drive, on the Campus of the Ohio State University.