A Literary Event Presented in Conjunction with the FotoFest Exhibition Crónicas

Magnitud/e is one of the major programs for FotoFest’s new original multi-media exhibition “Crónicas,” showcasing seven contemporary Mexican visual artists who are interpreting, rather than documenting, the violence of the Mexican drug war.

This bilingual poetry event features three acclaimed poets from Northern Mexico and two from the Houston area. The work of each of these poets creates a dialogue around the on-going violence in Mexico using a variety of techniques from appropriation to translation, from slam poetry to post-conceptual writing.

FEATURED POETS:
Marco Antonio Huerta (Cd. Victoria, Mexico) - Translated by John Pluecker
Lupe Méndez (Houston)
John Pluecker (Houston)
Minerva Reynosa (Monterrey, Mexico) - Translated by Stalina Villarreal
Sara Uribe (Cd. Victoria, Mexico) - Translated by John Pluecker
Magnitud/e is co-sponsored with Make.Play.Speak and John Pluecker

For more information click here.

Special support from Nuestra Palabra. This event is supported by a grant from Poets & Writers, Inc.

IART professor Nick Flynn will be discussing his new book, THE REENACTMENTS—a memoir about glass flowers, memory, and the making of a movie—with David Eagleman at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston on Sunday, January 13 at 2pm.

Congratulations to UH faculty member Toni Leago Valle, the new general manager of Karen Stokes Dance (KSD). Valle brings 12 years of professional experience on and off the stage to KSD. As project director of Dance Source Houston for 11 years, Valle oversaw A Weekend of Texas Contemporary Dance at Miller Outdoor Theatre, the Dance Card, the Dance Source website and the Dance Table.

For its latest production, arts group Voices Breaking Boundaries (VBB) is hoping to shed light on Freedmen’s Town — one of the most historically dynamic (and most historically overlooked) neighborhoods in Houston.

Read the entire article on CultureMap here.

The chancellor and president of the University of Houston has had a very good year.

Read the interview in Texas Monthly this month by Jake Silverstein.

Engaging local musicians and poets to perform and read to native plants, the immersive Mitchell Center booth installation at the Texas Contemporary Art Fair this past weekend played with the framework that positions both audience and performer in the context of contemporary art.

Houston Press ranked the Mitchell Center among the 15 best pieces of the Fair, see the full list here.

“Booth: Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Performing Arts at University of Houston
While this “exhibit” was not technically one of the pieces on display at the Fair, it could and should have been included. A man sat in a chair, surrounded by green foliage — most likely an homage to The Woodlands, the home of the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavillion — and played off-tune notes, some long, and some short. All the while, he seemed to be quite enjoying himself. The message most likely being pushed out, through the scene, as a whole? “Check out the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Performing Arts Center at University of Houston”. Bravo, marketing whiz. Way to get the point across via art.”

RESONATE in 2012

This year, we’re excited to announce several new surprises. A new time of year, a new location, and new ideas to resonate with the world. We’ll explore the relationships between simplicity and complexity; we’ll search within and imagine without; and we’ll once again examine the full spectrum of diverse voices that resonate around us.

Applications close Wednesday, October 10th. Click here to apply to attend TEDx Houston on November 3rd.

Mitchell Center Fall Season 2012 on Vimeo.

Media Archeology Festival: Real Time 2012 from Aurora Picture Show on Vimeo.

The biannual Artadia Awards gives visual artists cash rewards as well as the opportunity to work side by side with renowned curators. Houston awardees will travel to New York for a three-month residency at the International Studio and Curatorial Program in Brooklyn. In adddition, the Exhibitions Exchange program allows awardees to hold exhibitions in other states currently receiving Artadia awards. Participating cities include San Francisco, Atlanta, Chicago, Boston and Houston.

The winners of the Artadia Award are split into two categories; two artists will receive $15,000 and five artists receive $3,000. This year’s winners will exhibit at Texas Contemporary Art Fair.

The Artadia Award application deadline this year: September 24th.

Click here for the online application or visit www.artadia.org.

The 30-year old alternative arts organization announced Wednesday it is relocating to 4102 Fannin Street (at Cleburne), vacating the warehouse north of downtown that it has occupied for 20 years.

The move has been discussed for years but change accelerated across all aspects of the DiverseWorks organization this year with the arrival of director Elizabeth Dunbar. “We knew we needed to shake things up,” she said.

The new site, which housed Cleburne’s Cafeteria from 1941 to 1969 and more recently was used as a small manufacturing facility, is 5,500 square feet — is about half the size of DiverseWorks’ current location at 1117 East Freeway.

The new location opens to the public September 7.

Read the full press release here.

After six fantastic years at Aurora Picture Show, Delicia Harvey will be leaving Aurora Picture Show to join Carrithers Studio, a film and video production business.

During her tenure, the organization has grown in budget and staff size, expanded collaborations, improved and expanded educational programming which now serves over 1500 Houston youth a year with mobile media workshops and four weeks of summer camps, and undergone an intense strategic planning process.

We wish Delicia all the best, and congratulate her on this next adventure!

Read the full job description here.