Midweek News, Mickalene Thomas, Pig Iron, Rutgers, Death and Art festival and much more

Venus Flytrap at Bartram’s Garden
https://venusflytrap.blackstarfest.org/

Eiko Otake:A Body in Laurel Hill
May 30 @ 6:00 pm – June 1 @ 4:00 pm

Eiko Otake:A Body in Laurel Hill

The Talk
Why and How I Perform in Cemeteries
https://www.philadelphiadeathandarts.com/

Franklin’s Key – Pig Iron at Plays and Players
June 3 @ 7:00 pm – June 29 @ 2:00 pm
Plays and Players Theatre
1714 Delancey Street

Franklin’s Key

Roberta: Hi everyone, it’s Roberta.

Ryan: And this is Ryan and this is the midweek news

Roberta: on Art blog radio.

Ryan: My car broke. My car broke

Roberta: Oh no.

Ryan: Over the last two weeks ago we’ve had just so much rain weeks. We were coming down after taking my, picking up my kids. And there was a giant puddle that I didn’t realize was a giant puddle at the time. And then when I got into it, it was a giant puddle.

Roberta: Car stalled?

Ryan: No. It, it kept going.

I’m like, wow, that was way deeper. So I’m like, so Jack was with me, so Jack drives. I’m like, so that, that puddle I just went through was not a puddle. That was a lake. And you would want to avoid lakes. Yeah. Don’t do what I just did. because that was not intentional. And water was so deep that it came over the top of the car.

Like it was that level of deep. The splash up, the splash up came all the way up and over was definitely halfway up the wheels, maybe you know, further up, oh, you were lucky. And then the next day the power steering failed. So then I was like looking around for the power fluid to see if it had drained or water had gotten in or need, you know, just to drain it and refill it or if it’s the pump or check on the.

The belt wasn’t squeaking. So I checked all that and then it doesn’t have a reservoir. I’m like, oh, that’s strange. Why would it not have a reservoir? And then it turns out it’s an electric motor not off of the, the, you know, the serpentine accessory belt. So then I started looking for the part, and then the part was just like, it’s non serviceable.

So basically it’s a car that you buy and you throw away all the pieces. You can’t rebuild or reuse them. This is a Subaru, this is a Subaru. What do we keep building these throwaway pieces and throwaway life. Anyway, so this is 2017, like it’s not an ancient car. And so then I called the dealer and they’re like, oh, we can get you a part in a week.

I’m like, oh, that’s a long time. So then I called another dealer. Oh, because I brought it to my mechanic. He’s like, we can’t get you apart. So then the dealer was saying, it’ll be a week to get you a part. So then they called the one in Delaware, so like no sales tax even. And he’s like, oh yeah, we get you one tomorrow.

I said, great. How much is it? $1,700. And that’s just for the part. That’s not them installing it. That was the parts department, not the like service department.

Roberta: So you have to replace the whole mechanism. The

Ryan: whole mechanism has to go, because the one little piece on it broke or failed. It’s just an electric motor.

It’s like, should be able to bolt it on, bolt it off, swap a new one. So Lord. Anyway, I found one on eBay from this junkyard in California and I called him a mechanic and I said, what do you think of? He is like, well, how much did the dealer want? I said, $1,700. He goes, holy moly, that’s a lot of money. And I said, yeah, that’s a lot of money.

He says, well, how much does the one on eBay? I said, $170. He’s like, it’s 90% off. He’s like, you, you could buy five of those with my install price and still. It’d be fine. It’s like it’s worth the risk. So I did it and it worked. Oh, thank goodness. Yeah. So 165 bucks plus whatever. Yeah. So 170 bucks with free shipping.

Four days later installed.

Roberta: Oh my gosh. So it’s installed,

Ryan: it’s done.

Roberta: So is a car drivable without the power steering?

Ryan: Yeah. Remember the good old days when there was no hydraulic support and you’re just like pulling as hard as you can? Yeah, it goes, it just takes all your effort. Parallel parking is the hardest, but obviously I only drive to pick up my kids.

Right. So that’s the only time I’m thinking about driving. I can’t

Roberta: imagine parallel parking

Ryan: this, it was tough. I definitely looked for spots that were big enough for me to just like lean into it. Slide

Roberta: in. Yes. That’s my favorite. Anyway.

Ryan: Yeah, those are the easiest. Yeah, once you got going, it’s fine. Like it’s not really a, a safety issue necessarily.

Mm.

Roberta: Do you think it was caused by going through the puddle or what? Oh, I

Ryan: think so. Yeah. So he pulled the part out and he is like, do you want the part or whatever. I’m like, yeah, I’ll take it back. because some, on some parts they charge you a core price. So it’s like if you don’t return it, they charge you an additional, like batteries or alternators or something like that.

because they remanufacture those. They can rebuild those, but this one’s non serviceable, so I don’t, there’s no core charge, but yet it was, it looked, it looked like it had a lot more miles on it than the car did and I think it may have just gotten pretty beat in the last little while. So anyway, cars handling better than it, or steering better than it.

Ever has did when I first bought it. Yeah. It just nice. Maybe I can’t remember that that far back, but

Roberta: Oh my gosh. What a story. Yeah, it’s been a while week. I’m so

Ryan: in the rain and just like, so I have rain, I have rain pants, rain jacket, you know, what’s the Scandinavian saying? There’s no bad weathers, this’s.

Just bad clothing but bad. You know, if you don’t have good wardrobe for dealing with the climate. Yeah,

Roberta: they are right.

Ryan: And I feel like I’m wet on the outside. I’m wet on the inside. This is like, I can’t catch a dry break. I’m going to wear a dry suit, like. Scuba suit.

Roberta: Well, and plus it captures all the moisture.

Anything that is like water resistant. Water resistant. Yeah. Just doesn’t let you breathe. Right. And so you are sweating. Yeah. So there’s that water.

Ryan: Yeah, that’s what I mean. So I, mine has zippers like along the side and so like. Let it breathe. But it’s, the humidity is already 110% outside. It’s 150% in my jacket.

It’s just, it’s raining outside. It’s raining inside. It’s just wet all over. Oh my gosh. So it’s been a, it is been a challenge. And when you get that wet, you kind of get a bit demoralized like.

Roberta: You just want to go home and have a shower or drink

Ryan: a nice towel time.

Roberta: Yes.

Ryan: So yes. But wow. Maybe next week we’ll be warmer, you know?

Then we’re going to get to summer and it’s just going to be hot. And then you’re going to be complaining about, oh, I’m just constantly hot.

Roberta: Brian Ryan, you’re going down a rabbit hole here. I’m just saying,

Ryan: I’m just saying maybe I got to look at a different perspective on

Roberta: rain is good for the flowers. Rain washes away the crud.

That’s on the sidewalks.

Ryan: But other than that, I’m fine. So we’re coming up to the end of the year, so there’s all the scholastic things that are wrapping up.

Roberta: Yes. How’s it going with your kids?

Ryan: Good. Fine. Also with cycling, all that’s high school related to, so that’s all wrapping up fairly soon. We had our, we had one big event where the bicycle coalition works with some other, like the Mayor’s 5K run in hunting Park. Was last Saturday. And so that was a lot of fun with the Bicycle Coalition and the Cy. I have

Roberta: not heard of the Mayor’s 5K Run.

Ryan: Yeah, I had not either. It was a fairly small group. The mayor wasn’t there. I wonder if they put the name, the mayor’s title in there just to see if they could invite whoever’s sitting, mayor to participate or throw some money their way.

Yeah.

Roberta: That sounds like a strategy. But she didn’t show up. That’s a shame. Yeah.

Ryan: That’s not, I don’t know they do that, but how was your weekend? I guess it’s late in the week. We don’t, we don’t usually do it. This podcast, not usually this late in the week. Who

Roberta: can remember back? It was Mother’s Day, which I don’t know about your household, but it’s a nothing day in my household.

We don’t really sit. Celebrate Mother’s Day except to send texts to our two daughters who are mothers, and then they send me a text. So Happy Mother’s Day. Happy Mother’s Day. Happy Mother’s Day. And that was, that was it? Nice. That was Mother’s Day.

Ryan: Yeah, my mother’s far away. Far away. She had things with her stepdaughters, so we chatted the Friday before.

It was good, but I also did text too.

Roberta: Thank God for texts. I don’t know what we would do.

There have been three articles that have been about art Blocks closing. One was a very nice video interview on Instagram. The Conrad Benner did. I sort of girded my loins for that one because it’s video, you know? Right. I’m. Beyond my expiration date for a video. And he had

Ryan: the stick out and was doing the thing with you?

Yeah. That’s always funny.

Roberta: But it was, it was, it went, he edited very nicely, so I didn’t look terrible anyway, or sound terrible. And then Peter Crimmins wrote. A very nice story on WHYY and then the Inquirer covered it and breaking news. Hyperallergic is going to cover Artblog’s, closing. We just got a notice from, or an inquiry from one of their writers, Maya Pontone, and she’s going to interview Libby and me tomorrow on Zoom, so that’ll be coming out good.

So it is a big thing. You know, I want to thank everybody that’s been writing in. Such sweet, generous, loving notes about how Artblog has meant so much to them. They got their first review on Artblog. They appreciated the editing. If they had been writing for us, and they just, it was part of their lives somehow for the last 21 years.

That is something I really take to heart and thank everybody for. So we Love You Back is all I can say. And we’re closing. Come to our celebration on October 23rd. Don’t be sad, okay? Don’t be sad. Please be happy. And think about the archive. We’re now getting all kinds of community support and ideas on how to keep the archive intact and supported through the years, and so we’ll be following up on that.

Yeah, we’ve had some wonderful pieces come in content wise. I hope you’ve been enjoying them. They’ll go out in the newsletter tomorrow. We’ll send the newsletter out. Janice Glasper wrote a very sweet thing that was a goodbye and her story of how she has been writing for Artblog for eight years. And it was a lovely thing.

And we posted Clayton Campbell’s historical fiction. Which is a first. We haven’t published fiction before that I recall. And it’s a rips and order of a story. Yeah, it’s a good, good one. It’s definitely worth a

Ryan: read.

Roberta: Worth a read. And especially if you downloaded and can print it out. because it’s 21 page.

21 pages long. Yeah. Single spaced. So it’s like a little novelette. Matthew Rose wrote about the end of the art world. His deconstruction of art history through time, which I thought was a nice read. Beth Heley wrote the Cecily Brown Review, which was lovely, great pictures, which she took herself.

Ryan: Yeah. The Barnes thanked us for that as well. Yes.

Roberta: Oh, I’m sure. It, it was a good show. It was a good show concern to be written about

Ryan: a good review.

Roberta: Yes. And Sharon Garvey wrote about Thomas Price at Hauser and Wirth. And that was Thomas Price is a Black British sculptor. And he makes monumental statues of everyday black people.

There was one that was a gold plated bronze. He works in bronze. That was in the. The time is always now, or now is always the time. I forget.

Ryan: Yeah.

Roberta: I’m dyslexic when it comes to things like that. So it was a show recently, the Afrofuturist show at the PMA. And coincidentally, and then I’ll stop talking.

Ryan, you’re doing great. Coincidentally. Once that post went up, we got an email from a former writer of Artblog’s called Stefan Zebrowski Ruben. Stefan wrote for us back in like 2011, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012. You know, sporadically off and on, a young writer, Canadian born who went off and I believe studied at the Al Institute in London and is still in London and facilitated the work of Thomas Price at Hauser and Wirth, wow. That Sharon had written about interest. So that’s full circle, you know, the circle of Artblog coming back around Wow. Which I thought was lovely. He was thankful. To see Sharon’s wonderful piece. And there he was still working in London and you know, he said Artblog love all the way. Yeah. Wow.

That’s great. It was. So that’s, I’ll stop now.

Shall we start with the news? Sure. Barrel the news. Okay, so I have one, two. Three. Yes. That’s all I have today. Three. So, but I’ll make ’em longer. You know, it, you know it first, and I’m excited for this. Mickaline Thomas is the commencement speaker at Rutgers University. Camden, yeah. May 20th. She’ll give her speech and she will receive an honorary doctorate of fine arts from Rutgers.

So That’s awesome. That is. Yes. So congratulations to Mickalene and to all those graduates who are, who are going to be in the audience to hear her speak. I’m not sure it’s open to the public. I’m guessing not. You probably need a ticket to get into the graduation. I hope they tape it and put it up on their website.

Mickalene for those who don’t remember, is a Camden native. And she was recently named one of time’s 100 most influential people, but she also recently had a show, a solo show at the Barnes Foundation that was a blockbuster wonderful show, which we covered, and is on Artblog

Number two, there’s a musician, guitarist, and conductor named Michael Paul. Mike Paul had written for Artblog. As a student when he, when he was at Penn and we did a, I think it was several lessons at Penn for a critical writing class that he was in, and we agreed to put the student’s writing if it came up to our standards on Artblog. So Michael Paul had his writing selected by us and appeared on Artblog.

So he was writing to say he was terribly sorry to hear that Artblog was closing. But did we know that he had written for us way back when and he was always appreciative of that. He now is a conductor and has a new album, his first album, coming out on Orchid Classics, and it’s with the Royal Phil Harmonic Orchestra, which I think is in Britain perhaps.

Doesn’t it sound like if it says Royal? I don’t know. There’s nothing in America that says Royal yet that we know of.

Ryan: Trump’s new plane.

Roberta: Yes, I know. So he’s a conductor of that and we’ll put in a link. It’s out already and you can listen to some of it and it’s really lovely classical music. Samuel Barber, who also has a Philadelphia connection.

Was at the Curtis Institute. It’s got a piece of his. Very sad music, and he also has other pieces out on iTunes, Spotify, and Amazon. So, congratulations to Michael Paul, a former Artblog writer when he was a student. My final story is about Thomas Jefferson University. They have a project Thomas Jefferson University merged with, or bought, I can’t remember the exact terminology they used.

Bought Philadelphia University, which was a design architecture school, and they now have a design architecture program and they got a commission for a piece of public sculpture in Huntington Long Island. And it honors the deep yet often, and I’m quoting here, overlooked history of African American communities in the area of Huntington Long Island.

And it was created with a unique collaboration. Again, I’m quoting being the African American Historic Designation Council, the town of Huntington, and designated by collective, a group of artists, historians, and educators from Thomas Jefferson University. It was designed by a collective, it’s called Collective, a group of artists, historians, and educators from Thomas Jefferson University.

So it’s a. Place marker. I’ve seen just a schematic of what it looks like, which is on the Thomas Jefferson website. We’ll put a link to that so you can see it. Very nice that they have this, that they’ve done. It’s honoring the community in this little town on Long Island. So congratulations to Grace Ong Yan.

Sorry if I’m mispronouncing the name, who is the associate professor of interior design, interior architecture in the College of Architecture and the Built Environment at Thomas Jefferson University. She was the leader on the project or co-leader on the project. Congratulations to them and go for your public art project. And that’s it for me. So over to you,

Ryan: Ryan. Thank you so much. Good list. So we are into the middle of May and so there already are on the calendar Juneteenth events. So take a look at those that are becoming available. And you want to start RSVPing for anything that has ticket related events.

Couple that I wanted to point out this week, there is a Philadelphia Death and the Arts or Death and Arts event happening at the end of May into the, into June 1st, that weekend. And there are several performances that are happening at Laurel Hill Cemetery, both east and west. And so the east is in Philadelphia off of Ridge and the West is in Bella, Kenwood off of Belmont.

And so they have performances and there’s talks. One I wanted to specifically point out was Aiko Otake a body in Laurel Hill, that’s in Laurel Hill East. There’s performances May 30th and into June there. I’m not quite sure the total number, but there are several different performances, so take a look at that.

We’ll have links for that. ICO’s. First solo project was called A Body in the Station, and it was a 12 hour performance at 30th Street Station in 2014. Since, since there’s been several different performances throughout the country, it looks really interesting. I think we have a very interesting relationship with death and cemeteries in particular, and it’s interesting to incorporate that.

And I think that’s. I think it’s worth doing. So there are five performers. All of these events are on connect, so you can see all the calendars. Then there’s links to anything you need to get all the ticketed items for those as well.

Roberta: Can I ask a question? Yeah. Is this organized by Laurel Hill?

Ryan: I’m not sure if it’s organized by Laurel Hill, but it’s in conjunction with, I think the artists are putting it together as artists led and directed, but I think.

It’s in concert with Laurel Hill. Like they, they’re, they’re the site, they’re the, the site. So they, they need to allow access. So they’re fully participant in that Sounds

Roberta: interesting as

Ryan: far as if they pick the work or whatever. I’m not sure what kind of say or oversight they wanted or whatever, but yeah.

So that’s happening. And those are the evening performances or towards sunset? Which will be really interesting, a really beautiful time to be there. Yeah.

Roberta: I have not been to the East Laurel Hill, but I have been to the West Laurel Hill. It’s quite amazing to just walk through it. To see all the historic markers and monuments.

Ryan: It’s the, it’s the one of the largest cemeteries and it’s interesting as sprawls both sides of the river with great views. And so it’s going to be really interesting to see that performance, especially in the east as the sun is setting on that side. I think it’ll be. I think it’d be really interesting

Roberta: Little known fact is that the train that now is the, used to be the R six, the K kin wood line on septa Regional rail. Which used to go across to Manion. And vice versa was the way people from the city would get there for the funerals to Laurel Hill West Cemetery.

Ryan: That path. Huh?

Roberta: The train? Yeah, they would take the train and then, oh, okay. I guess there was a stop at the cemetery.

Sure. And I mean, there was a stop at the Kenwood station, which still exists, but I think there was another stop along the WA way before you got to Manny on, and that would be where people went to get into Laurel Hill. Interesting. And that’s now a bike trail, Kenwood Trail.

Ryan: It is. The heritage trail there. Another outdoor performance is being put on in combination between Black Star and Bartram’s Garden. This is performances again, that same sort of time. It’s unrelated to the Philadelphia Death and Arts series, but this one is going to be performed by Zuri Manaya. It is several different pieces of over those three days, and each one is supposed to be a unique experience, not just the because of the time of day or the weather, but because the impetus is different each and every day.

And so it’ll be, the series is stated to have, is supposed to reflect on intertwined legacies of freedom, extraction, and ecology. In North America’s oldest surviving botanical gardens, it’s entitled Venus Flytrap. You can find that information on Connect and we’ll have links to Black Star site as well.

And those events are coming up May 29th and those will happen at 7:00 PM It’s going to be a really interesting performance weekend, the end of May, going into the 1st of June. A lot of interesting things happening. And then my third pick, and I’ll keep it at three. Last week I went a little crazy this week.

My theater pick is Franklin’s Key. Peg Iron is performing at plays and players. They are doing kind of a, a rethink of. What if Benjamin Franklin’s key actually controlled the weather? The British wondered if that was actually a thing, that there was some sort of scientific method that Ben Franklin had figured out some way to control the weather and defeat them in Oh

Roberta: wow.

Early science and what they didn’t know. Well,

Ryan: science and magic, the difference between the two. Right. They said how do you, how do you tell the difference between the two? They are going to play the game of what if it were true? The show combines object, transformation, stage illusions, and larger than life characters.

And what they call a pulse pounding, brainy adventure. Sounds hilarious. Pick Iron obviously is, is Philadelphia Staple. It’s a classic group. Plays and players is obviously on Delancey 1714. Shows are running from June 3rd through the end of the month, June 29th. So we will have a link to that as well as tickets to that show.

And that’s my theater pick of the week

Roberta: reminder to everyone that Pig iron was part of University of the Arts. And when the University of the Arts closed, they lost all kinds of stuff. They lost, I think they were owed back money and I’m not sure that they’ve received it back. So if you feel like you want to support pig iron as their.

Struggling this would be definitely the, the play to go see.

Ryan: Absolutely. So think of it as a fundraiser as well, I guess. But yeah, I think the show by itself should be a lot of fun. They, they do put on excellent shows.

Roberta: Can I slip in another one? Yeah. Sorry everybody. I just am remembering that on Instagram, teleporter.

The new zine from David Depe Wolf and Yuka Yoka. Yama and Marginal Utility has an open call. They’re looking for poetry, fla or flash fiction, any genre, and you can email submissions to Teleporter zine@gmail.com by May 24th. They have a poster on their Instagram, so we can put that in post to remind you of this.

Anyone Poetry and flash fiction. What is flash fiction?

Ryan: Short.

Roberta: Short? Is that what it means? Like one page? Like not what we just published. Right. That is a long, long flash. Not a hot flash or a flash fiction.

Ryan: I think it’s generally like, so there’s short story, which are 20 page, and this is just like an article, like 800 to 1200 words, just like flash fiction, something like that.

Okay. I don’t think it’s genre specific. I think it’s open. I think it’s just very short.

Roberta: Okay. Yes. And they’re asking for any genre, so it could be horror, it could be, I don’t know, ballet. It could,

Ryan: I think the fun thing about, well, yeah, I think the fun thing about of flash fiction is. Just like when you write a review or a critique of art, the worst thing you could be is boring.

So you have to draw someone in. You’re like, why am I even reading this? So if you can do that in flash fiction, like you’re creating a story in a thousand words, you’ve spoken to something that’s really a great skill. Yeah. So if you don’t have that, it’s, it’s a great practice for anybody interested in writing.

Roberta: Okay. Let’s all practice people. Yeah, let’s do some flash fiction. I’m all for it.

Ryan: Yeah, I think it’s fun. Come up with some ideas, brainstorm some things, write a draft, fix it, come back to it. Cut it in half, and then that’s probably a hundred. That’s the recipe. Yeah.

Roberta: Love it.

Ryan: Yeah, there you go.

Roberta: Okay. You heard it here?

All right, well, if there’s nothing else, then I guess we’ll say signing off. It’s Roberta. Thank you for listening. Come back next week. Bye.

Ryan: And this is Ryan, and this has been Artblog’s Midweek News. Thanks for listening everyone. See you next week. Bye-bye.