PRPACs Ryan Johnson-Travis and the Connective Corridor’s Linda Dickerson Hartsock take a break from their booths during Urban Cinematheque at the Everson Plaza on Friday night. This year were fortunate to meet and interview these two guiding lights in our city.
Fringe Technical Director Gabriel Pinto occupies Saturday night with a sax solo.
Finally a cross-town collaboration between Lemoyne and SU (well,sort of). Le Moyne alums Jacob Ellison and Justin Sullivan used creativity and crowd funding to pull together the inaugural Syracuse Fringe Festival last weekend, and it was held at the Community Folk Art Center along the Connective Corridor. The event featured three days of multi-disciplinary artistic endeavors. We checked out the final day of the program, which featured David Doyle, Ruth Arena and Anna Phillips. Fringe was very reminiscent of the THINC Sideshow parties from a decade or so ago (except the demographic for the Fringe was slightly older).
Live Art: Body Painting
What was most surprising on Saturday was to watch Phillips, who is the artistic equivalent of a love child between Missy Elliot (always ahead of the curve) and Steven Wright (wry humor), do a comedy show in the Black Box Theater and smoothly transition into a monologue about her life that was more compelling than a episode of HBO’s In Treatment.
Was it Something She Said? Anna Phillips kept it real for Spatial Profiling.
Not that it wasn’t good, just unexpected. We look forward to Anna’s upcoming gigs, where she will bring the noise again with jokes at two shows locally: Chicks are Funny and Guns n’ Syrup.
SALT District artists (and new neighbors) Juan Cruz and John Cardone (right) at the opening of Salt Quarters on Wyoming Street.
The Salt Quarters, a artist live/work space opened to the public on Wednesday. The artists who will occupy the space are John Cardone and Brooklyn’s Peter Edlund. The space is located along the Connective Corridor near the Delevan Center and the Lincoln Supply Building. The neighborhood continues to attract photographers, writers, painters and sculptors.
Cardone, who was on hand mingling with visitors, said he doesn’t make art but rather makes things that need to be made. His previous base of operation was at 601 Tully (aka the Treehouse) a few blocks away.
A newly installed creation by Zeke Leonard that is located at Lipe Art Park brings to mind the days of Fat Albert’s Junk Yard Band. Leonard’s piece is called Rust O Phone.
Author, educator, photographer and performance artist Josefina Baez came to the Point of Contact Gallery on East Genesee Street on Thursday. She read from her acclaimed collection Dominicanish (with a prologue written by SU professor Silvio Torres-Saillant). The reading alternated between Spanish and English and featured themes such as cultural identity and relationships. I don’t wait to be inspired, I just live, Baez told one of the students.
The Bread & Puppet Theater Co (based in Vermont) was in Syracuse this week as part of their tour for the firms 50th Anniversary. The company combines dance with political satire, street theater and puppetry. Here is a photo of their bus parked along the Connective Corridor.