Compagnie Thor

Alicia Adams has to have one of the best jobs in the world. She’s the vice president for international programs at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Her job takes her all over the world where she’s presented and introduced to new and traditional works in music, dance, theater, literature, and visual arts. She returns to DC with her treasures and transforms them into an annual festival of arts and culture focusing on a region, culture, or country in our global community.

This year’s festival is “Arabesque: Arts of the Arab World” (February 23 - March 15). Over 22 countries will be represented for performances of traditional and contemporary dance, theater, and music. There will be several programs devoted to literature including poetry by Suheir Hammad of Def Poetry Jam. I produced a public access program with Suheir and Ethelbert Miller several years ago at Provisions Library. It’s one of my favorite video pieces. I had to do a lot of research on Arab music and east coast NYC hip hop to keep up with Suheir’s references. It helped that my first DC job was with the American Arab Affairs Council where I coded the journal’s manuscripts for publication. The Council was co-founded by George A. Naifeh (1924-2006), a retired USIA officer.

Last year I read my second Mahfouz book, The Thief and the Dogs. My first introduction to his writing was Maghrib Alley. I recognized some of Naguib Mahfouz’s characters from my own encounters. I’ve never been to Cairo.

I’m looking forward to the festival. The arts have always been my bridge to people and places that are unfamiliar to my limited experiences, perspectives, and encounters. It’s hard to be creative in a chaotic world or perhaps the arts can make sense of it. At least it makes space to breath again.

Today is January 1, 2009. Nine is interpreted by some to be a spiritual number. I just asked my sister why - “Because it’s complete. The complete whole number before you get to 10″ — double digits.

Cuba celebrates their 50th anniversary of the Revolution today when the revolutionaries, led by Fidel Castro, made their entrance into Havana officially ending Fulgencia Batista’s rule. The lead up to this event came together for me in the film “The Godfather II.” I found this scene of a meeting set before New Years eve night 1958. Check out who’s seated at the table of power, how invicible and certain they all appear.

2009 will also be the 40th anniversary of Woodstock. Can’t say I was there, but I did see the movie sometime after. I heard the soundtrack a lot. I used to confuse it with the concert in Monterey, CA. I’ll probably get flamed for that. I do know the difference now. This clip is with Jimi Hendrix.

Without the assistance of a dream book, we used to say years with “8s” (1968) were devious. Those “1s” are getting ominous too (1941, 2001).

2008 turned the numbers theory on its head in so many ways. There will be an historic inauguration in 2009 of the 44th President who was elected in 2008. Barack Obama’s victory was all about the numbers and David Plouffe proved it so. 2008 introduced another numbers guru, Nate Silver and his website www.fivethirtyeight.com. Howard Dean had a Dream Book of his own, the 50 state strategy. People thought his numbers were wack; turned out it was more than just luck. Al Franken (D) may eek out a Senatorial victory over Sen. Norm Coleman (R) in MN by just a few numbers. Maybe it is about the math afterall.

Somehow the math didn’t add up for Wall Street and Main Street in 2008. Perhaps it was the curse of the “8.” Wall Street had a formula both a mathamatical and scientific formula for a boom market; but apparently “meaning” wasn’t in the equation. Integrity was missing too. Human nature has a way of trumping the math.

If ever you wanted to make friendly with a jazz musician, being a Freddie Hubbard fan was a sign you wuz no light weight. Freddie Hubbard died in Sherman Oaks, CA of complications from a heart attack he suffered in November. He was 70 years old.

Here’s Freddie with Art Blakey (drums) - “Moanin’”

Michael Kaiser
President
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Read the entire op-ed on Washington Post.com

Fifteen works (5 per theme) will be selected for the Inauguration exhibit. They will be selected by a panel of judges that include artist Shepard Fairey (creator of the now famous “Barackon” pictured in this post); filmmaker Spike Lee; community organizer/activist Van Jones. Manifest Hope: DC is issuing this call to art in partnerhsip with MoveOn.org Political Action, the Service Employees International Union and Obey Giant.

You have until 11:59 am EDT on Friday, January 9th, 2009 to upload your art at the Manifest Hope: DC website. Visit http://www.manifesthope.com.

Community Cinema, the ITVS outreach initiative for the PBS series, “Independent Lens,” is presenting [FREE] community screenings and discussions of the documentary TULIA, TEXAS. Community Cinema holds monthly preview screenings across the country to encourage community dialogue on social issues and opportunities to get involved with local organizations and institutions.

ABOUT TULIA, TEXAS: A product of the nation’s “war on drugs,” narcotics agent Tom Coleman was hired to work undercover in a now-infamous drug sting operation in Tulia, Texas. On July 23, 1999, Coleman executed one of the biggest drug busts in Texas history; by the end of that blazing summer day, dozens of residents of the small farming town of Tulia had been rounded up and thrown behind bars. Thirty-nine of the 46 people accused of selling drugs to Coleman were African American. Directed by Cassandra Herrman and Kelly Whalen, TULIA, TEXAS will have its television premiere on the Emmy® Award–winning PBS series Independent Lens, hosted by Terrence Howard, in February, 2009 (check local listings).

The Washington, DC Community Cinema screenings are…

Sunday, January 4 at 4 PM, Busboys and Poets, 2021 14th St., NW
presented as part of ACTOR (A Continuing Talk On Race)

Sunday, January 25 at 3 PM, Washington DCJCC, 1529 16th St., NW at Q

A panel will follow the screenings featuring attorney William E. White who helped lead the legal team that represented the 39 African American defendants; Sanho Tree of the Institute for Policy Studies Drug Policy Project; Naomi Long of the Drug Policy Alliance Network for the DC Metro area; and Kara Gotsch of The Sentencing Project (community partner for the TULIA, TEXAS DC screenings)

The screenings are FREE and open to the general public. To reserve for the DC screenings, email tuliatx@communitycinema-dc.org.

WPFW-FM, D.C.’s Pacifica station, has been promoting the first screening in DC on its social justice calendar for the past several weeks. On Thursday, January 1 at 7 PM - that’s New Years Day - this blogger will be on “2K Nation,” WPFW’s teen public affairs program with Netfa Freeman, director of the Social Action and Leadership School for Activists (SALSA) to talk about the film and the Community Cinema series.

SALSA, along with WHUT, Busboys and Poets, the Washington DC Jewish Community Center, and WETA TV 26 are partners for the January screenings of TULIA, TEXAS in Washington, D.C.

For screenings in other communities (over 50), visit www.pbs.org/independentlens/getinvolved.

For more information about DC’s Community Cinema, visit www.communitycinema-dc.org.

EARTHA KITT
My first introduction to Eartha Kitt was through the “Batman” television series of the 1960s. Was it just coincidence she had that last name or was she really a feline fatal? She was no Julie Newmar for sure, and in many ways I thought Eartha’s “sex kitten” Catwoman was more woman than Batman could handle. She made even Michelle Pfeiffer’s interpretation look anemic.

Looking back at the old TV series, I had no idea the cast of villains represented the best and brightest stars of Hollywood’s Golden era. They may have been past their glamorous prime as Hollywood was as well, but still pro enough to give 110%. In comparison Batman, Robin, and Bat Girl (was she 12 years old or what? - I digress) were the supporting cast compared to the body of work and talents of Eartha Kitt; Cesar Romero aka The Joker; Burgess Meredith aka The Penguin; Otto Preminger aka Mr. Freeze (also a director). But in the world of Batman, it’s always about the villains. There would be no Batman without them.

The second intriguing factoid about Eartha was her professional and maybe personal relationship with Orson Welles. Director, producer, writer, genius Orson Welles spotted Eartha Kitt at a performance of the Katherine Dunham dancers, and later in a Paris nightclub. He wanted to cast her as Helen of Troy in his 1950 production of “Dr. Faustus” [with music by Duke Ellington]. The role was already cast, but Orson decided he wanted to make a creative change.

Orson’s second creative move was to kiss Eartha in that way that would leave its mark: he bit into her lip causing her to bleed before the next scene. She reproached Orson and asked “Why did you bite me?” He said, “I got excited.” The role made her a star. Today’s obits carry Orson Welles’ quote that Eartha Kitt was “the most exciting woman in the world.” Eartha said of Orson…”Orson Welles really introduced me to a marvelous gourmet type of living.”

Eartha’s growl could leave its own mark. In 1968 she was invited to the White House for a luncheon party hosted by Lady Bird Johnson. During the event, she criticized the Vietnam war. She was immediately blacklisted by Johnson. Eartha Kitt returned to Europe as an artist in exhile at least until that war was over.

HAROLD PINTER
I had less interactions with British playwright Harold Pinter and his work, but nevertheless I can’t say I didn’t have impressions. I do remember in the days when I was writing plays, many new and more diligent playwrights were greatly influenced by his work. In fact, the greatest compliment was to be told your writing was “Pinteresque.” I saw this distinction as a mountain that had to be climbed by every playwright at some point in his/her career.

Harold Pinter wrote 29 plays. Pinter never held his tongue in regards to art or politics. He was praised and criticized on both fronts.

In 1958, he said:

“There are no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false. A thing is not necessarily either true or false; it can be both true and false.”

and later added:

I believe that these assertions still make sense and do still apply to the exploration of reality through art. So as a writer I stand by them but as a citizen I cannot. As a citizen I must ask: What is true? What is false?

This became the subject of his lecture, “Art, Truth & Politics” when he received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005. You can hear or read the entire lecture at the Nobel Prize site:
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2005/pinter-lecture.html

One of my favorite memories is the year my college roommates, dorm allies, and I led a petition to bring a pine tree into the main lounge just before the winter break. This was Oberlin College in Ohio, famous for it’s liberal arts and socially liberal or progressive traditions — the first U.S. college to educate women and men together, admit students regardless of race, and, I heard, the first college to have a co-ed dorm.

All the other dorms had decorated trees. We didn’t. We lived in a program dorm called “Third World House” that was both a “political and cultural community.” Most of the juniors and seniors in the dorm were down for the cause and the revolution, but not down with a Christmas tree. Their opinion of the tree was also shared by our dorm director. As freshmen, some of us felt the need for a certain holiday and cultural security blanket especially after spending our first Thanksgiving away from home. Plus what was wrong with having something beautiful to look at and make our dorm just a little more like a… home? Perhaps we would be imposing our cultural values and experiences on students who didn’t share them, but….(sigh) Why couldn’t we have a tree like everybody else?

When we approached the dorm director about the tree, he suggested that we make a political exercise of it. Start a petition, campaign for the tree, and if we could secure a majority in supprort, we would be allowed to purchase a tree for the dorm lounge.

The first order was a campaign narrative for our target audience that went to the root of the symbol - the tree itself. My roommate, now an attorney, argued that the tree is first and foremost a “pagan symbol of fertility”; its origins were not connected to the Christian religion. We also made the case for beauty, and bringing the outdoors indoors. The evergreen was a symbol of life in the bleakness of winter. And some of those Ohio winters were pretty bleak.

We drafted our petition promising that if we were successful, our little group would take responsibility for pick up, decoration, and disposal of the tree.

The third step, if our petition was successful, was a little fundraising.

It turned out the campaign wasn’t as hard as we thought it would be. In fact, some people found our efforts and enthusiasm amusing enough to sign on. We got our signatures, collected donations, and then set out to find our pagan symbol. One of the upper class persons who supported our petition, and also had a car, volunteered to drive and do the halling.

Ohio has beautiful pine trees. This is something I discovered when we pulled into the Christmas tree lot. My driver walked around and pulled out the perfect tree. I mean perfect. It was a tall, green pine in the shape of a perfect triangle. Just like the ones you see on the cards. But it was beyond our budget. We settled on a very tall, sturdy Austrian pine (see photo), the tree of choice for all the other dorms on campus. The tree was strapped to the top of the car and we headed back to town.

I found a trash can to anchor the tree. Somehow we got it to stand. We didn’t have ornaments. But it turned out several classmates were willing to improvise with me. The ladies brought their drop earrings, either the ones that were missing their mates or the jewely they didn’t wear often. I made paper roses from colored paper I had on hand. And when I ran out, I switched to toilet paper. An exchange student from Japan sat on the floor and folded origami animals.

What made the tree work, was the community it brought together in the effort to bring a little beauty into our temporary home.

Our dorm tree would never make the cover of Martha Stewart Living , or even grace Martha Stewart’s fireplace. Still, it is one of my most happy Christmas memories.

We made the case for bringing back the light - the origin of the holiday season. The light is community, love, beauty, peace, courage, hope, faith, compassion.

May the light shine bright for you during this holiday season and peace for all on earth.

For the press holiday party, WH pastry chefs prepared cookies in the shape of the first pets, Mrs. Beasley, the elusive Kitty, and the infamous Barney. I guess this was a way of giving the press a chance to bite back.

I understand there’s a mean White House egg nog made with bourbon, dark rum and cognac. Recipe please! Is it available in the gift shop during the month of December?

Meanwhile President-elect Barack Obama (44) is spending his holiday in his native Hawaii with family and close friends, but recorded his weekly address with a holiday theme, a message for American service men and women, a bit ‘o history on the first American Christmas, and some comfort and joy for the rest of us.