DISSIDENT ARTS' 10th ANNIVERSARY
By John Pietaro
Dissident Arts Festival Day 1, 8/15/15: John Pietaro, Rocco John Iacovone, Adam Cadell
The Dissident Arts Festival, the annual gathering of revolutionary creativity, feted its 10th anniversary with a special weekend-long event on Saturday August 15 and Sunday August 16 at El Taller Latino Americano (Manhattan) and ShapeShifter Lab (Brooklyn), respectively.
The event was sponsored by the Len Ragozin Foundation
and the Rosenberg Fund for Children and endorsed by the National Writers
Union-New York UAW Local 1981 and DooBeeDooBeeDoo world music magazine; it was dedicated
to the struggle for unity and the memory of Ornette Coleman. The amalgam of the
performances and addresses to the audience by guest speakers amounted to a very
successful event. Festival performers offered a wide variety of progressive
socio-political statements that ranged from stirring to prideful to sad and
humorous. From an artistic perspective, the expanse of our reach into various
arts genres with more than one truly multi-media presentation, only exemplifies
the goal of breaking down barriers and forging new ground I envisioned 10 years
ago.
We
opened on August 15 at the brand new space occupied by El
Taller Latino American--now a part of ArtSpace PS 109. An absolutely beautiful
place for any performance with expert sound engineering. The enthusiasm of the Taller
staff--was deeply welcoming, especially as they had barely completed the official
move to the new space. After my opening remarks, the audience was treated to
the stirring spoken word by Raymond
Nat Turner, a jazz poet I have had the pleasure of working with several
times over the course of a few years. The Festival's dedication was toward the
struggle for unity; this in the face of a divided nation and a series of
ongoing, brutal police murders by area police departments. Raymond's pieces
addressed this vision and encountered the evening news head-on, but done so in
the jazz tradition with his vocalized basslines and riffs filling space around
his poetry.
After Raymond's set was a presentation of the
"other-world art music" of Sumari:
Matt Lavelle, Jack DeSalvo and Tom Cabrera. These guys had a four-star review
in this month's 'Downbeat' and were also positively reviewed in "NYC Jazz
Record" and "DooBeeDooBeeDoo" all at the same time. Anyone
present for this gig knows why the media is becoming terribly aware of this
wonderful trio.
Poet/author Sana
Shabazz next took the stage with several pieces which examined contemporary
mores, particularly the stealing of homes in these times of gentrification.
My own band the
Red Microphone's set was a special one for me. The only people in the house
who knew how anxious I was about playing vibes again after months of being
caught up in both my day job and writing were Ras Moshe, Rocco John Iacovone
and Phil Sirois. But there is something magical in this band and my concerns
were quelled as soon as we began the first phrase!
Steve
Dalachinsky is one of the best known and most beloved
jazz poets on the scene today. He was accompanied by Rocco John Iacovone (alto
saxophone) and Adam Cadell, a violinist who traveled all the way up from Brisbane
Australia. The set boiled over, flowed into a hush and then took off all over
again. Steve is haunted by the ghost of Kerouac, Hughes, Dolphy and Henry
Gibson, of this I am sure.
Bernardo
Palombo presente! Another beautiful, all-encompassing set of
what I call nueva nueva cancione by this man and his new ensemble. Compelling
music, regardless of the language it’s sang in, will pull you in--and this set
surely did.
The
12 Houses closed off the evening with an explosive set of
largely improvised music threaded through the compositions of leader Matt
Lavelle. The pieces were largely dedicated to the fight for social justice,
offering commentary on the preponderance of firearms in this nation and the
violence that grows from this. There was also a piece written for the recently
deceased jazz legend Ornette Coleman.
In the spirit of any other movement cultural event, we
also had some wonderful guest speakers on both days of the Festival. On Day 1
it was Peter from the National Writers Union-NY, Local 1981 of UAW, and Sohrab
of Musicians for Musicians.
On
Day two, August 16, we moved the event to ShapeShifter Lab,
a beloved home of new music for years now. What a gift to have two spaces that
have equally caring, professional and considerate staff members. We opened this
day with a jaw-dropping piece of multi-media art, downtown stalwart Trudy Silver's Where's the Outrage?
There was nothing missing, from both an arts and political perspective as this
presentation was performed in front of a screen projecting images of
generations of fight-back. The musicians, speakers and dancer had largely
interchangeable roles, producing a special new music performance art to life.
It made me think of the 1930s workers' theatre productions I have studied for
so long but one that straddled the eras of the 30s and the late 60s.
Next was a wonderful spoken word artist, poet and
actress Safiya Martinez, who offered
a deeply moving piece about personal transformation.
And then next was the band I put together specifically
for this event, one I called John Pietaro's
Literary Warrior Project. The writer/musician tightrope I regularly walk came
together in this inventive ensemble of gifted artists which interacted with my
readings of John Reed, Amiri Baraka, Langston Hughes, Woody Guthrie and Bertolt
Brecht excerpts over my own hand drumming. I asked Raymond Nat Turner to come
up and read one of the Hughes' works and I was so moved when, at the end of the
set, he presented me with a special award he called The Dissident Arts Award, in honor of the
fest's 10th anniversary.
Patricia
Nicholson Parker (a founder and administrator of Arts for
Art/Vision Festival but an artist in her own right) and her own multi-media
group Resurrection/Revolution:
post-modern dance of herself and Jason Jordon with music by two celebrated new
music/improvisation masters, Jason Hwang and Michael TA Thompson. The four were
“painted on” by the projected video art of Bill Mazza. An amazing presentation
by artists at the top of their game that easily tied together distinct genres.
Poet Chris
Butters joined our festival for the second time, having also wowed
audiences at Taller last year. Chris' hard-hitting poetics speak of real-time
struggles, echoing his many years of activism in the labor movement. Chris is
also host of WBAI's poetry show and a leader of the Workers Film Festival.
Dissipated
Face featuring Daniel Carter closed off the festival
with a set of music that defied description. The five piece band with the
celebrated jazz musician Carter had performed from 1981-86 and came together
again only recently, with this performance being a major focal point of their
reunion. We were thrilled to host such an event.
We also had guest speakers on Day 2: Tim Sheard of the National Writers Union, Mary
Lonegran of the Len Ragozin Foundation--who offered us a generous grant-- and Dawoud
Kringle of Musicians for Musicians, also a journalist of "DooBeeDooBeeDoo" magazine.
Unfortunately, no one from the Rosenberg Fund for Children was available to
join us (they are a Massachusetts-based organization), but these wonderful
folks have in the past and again this year aided our efforts with a grant.
We are forever appreciative of each of the
organizations that supported these efforts that made it possible to present
such a powerful pair of concerts. I am always happy to help all with an endorsement
or statement or action. In the case of the National Writers Union—my own
union-- I was very proud to have such an endorsement from this body. The
connection was very meaningful statement of the legacy of the Literary Left.
Many, many, many thanks.
