Artblog’s Imani Roach spoke with artist Lane Speidel about their experiences as an early childhood educator and curator of Make A Space For Me, a performance series for trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming artists, makers, thinkers and audiences. In their own artistic practice, Lane uses performance to re-establishing control over their body in the face of personal trauma and the daily demands of life under capitalism. Across all platforms of their work, safety is a paramount concern— proper grammar, less so. Find out why! Imani interviewed Lane at Moore College of Art and Design’s TGMR radio station on Sept. 21st, 2017; the podcast is 50 minutes long.
Read MoreArtblog’s Imani Roach and Roberta Fallon talked with Taji Ra’oof Nahl about his complex art practice that includes collaboration at its core. Nahl ran his own gallery in Old City from the late 1980s to 2010, where he showed, among others, Terry Adkins’ work. Taji was a friend of Adkins, and their practices both involve music, found objects, and researching under-known African American historical figures. In the interview Nahl tells Imani and Roberta about discovering the Colonial-era polymath, Benjamin Banneker, who became the subject of his installation in ‘Unlisted,’ the big multi-curator, multi-artist show at Icebox Project Space in 2016. We interviewed Taji Nahl at Moore College of Art and Design’s TGMR radio station on Sept. 14, 2017, and the podcast is 37 minutes long.
Read MoreArtblog was at the opening of Philadelphia Assembled at the Perelman Building of the Philadelphia Museum of Art last weekend. We talked with lead artist Jeanne Van Heeswijk about her vast 4-year project brewing in the community and now assembled in the Perelman Building, with art, conversations, programs and workshops. Jeanne told us she will be in attendance each day the show is open (to Dec. 10) to greet people, talk with them and serve coffee. Go, and be sure to talk with this amazing artist and her collaborators. The show encapsulates conversations — including uncomfortable conversations — that have taken place so far. They are now looking for you to come in and talk. Thanks to Artblog’s new Community Intern, Carly Bellini, for this great 3-minute video overview. We hope you enjoy.
Read MoreThis is the third year of the New Art Writing Challenge, a community-wide festival about the importance of art writing in Philadelphia. We invite you to submit your writings to our art writing contest. Five cash prizes will be awarded this year and we will be publishing the winning articles and honorable mentions on Artblog and on other publications partnering this year with us. Roberta Fallon and Matt Kalasky co-organized the Challenge again this year. Our partners this year are these great Philadelphia online publications: Curate This, Thinking Dance, Title, and Velvet Glove. Help us shine a light on Philadelphia’s great under-sung art writing community. Participate in the Challenge!
Read MoreCarl(os) Roa is bringing Andean Mountains, his Fringe Festival solo performance, to Taller Puertorriqueño Sept. 7-15, 2017. Roa tells Roberta and Imani that Andean Mountains is about a generational displacement between Latin youth who love anime and manga and their elders’ who love telenovelas. How can the children of immigrants reconcile the various streams of culture coming at them? By repurposing familial culture and making it your own, says Roa. Andean Mountains will have digital elements, movement, and storytelling, in English and Spanish. Get your tickets now, this is going to be great!
Read MoreEarlier this year, Karen Chernick wrote about the missing Royal Theater mural, a history mural on South Street commemorating the legacy of the Royal Theater, a once-thriving black theater where Billie Holiday, among many others, gave concerts. The mural, painted by Eric Okdeh depicted jazz greats who played at the Royal, and neighborhood greats, like Ron Washington, of Ron’s Ribs, a restaurant landmark at 1627 South St., across from the theater. In this podcast, Roberta and Imani Roach (Artblog Managing Editor) speak with Brandon Washington, son of Ron. Brandon talks about the neighborhood, his father’s important role as a community leader and of his own and his brother’s hope to revive Ron’s Ribs in the future in a Ron’s Ribs food truck.
Read MoreIn this podcast interview, Matt Kalasky talks with Amanda Buck and Alexa Smith, two of the editors of Apiary Magazine, a beautiful Philadelphia literary publication in print and online, started in 2009 and publishing a wide variety of community voices, in a variety of genres including poetry, fiction and non-fiction. Apiary also includes visual art.
Read MoreTake in two great shows with the good people of Artblog on Saturday, June 10 from 2–5 pm. Free and open to everyone!
Read MoreRon Klein is an artist, a sculptor who thinks big, travels the world to research and find materials, and whose works evoke the cosmos and thoughts about the place of humans in a bigger context. Ron’s got an installation at Abington Art Center now through June 23. Don’t miss it.
Read MorePeople got connected with art at our recent Look/Draw/Write workshops. We are very happy to share their responses written about the art of Michelle Angela Ortiz.
Read MoreArt & History, together at last, in this tour of the Callowhill neighborhood and its artist-run art spaces! Join us for an Art & History tour of the Callowhill Neighborhood with Hidden City’s Pete Woodall, this Friday, May 5, 2017, from 6:00–8:30pm.
Read MoreIn the gig economy many artists work multiple jobs. Grimaldi Baez works about seven, most of them in the community art realm, where he teaches and leads projects. For the Yabucoa, Puerto Rico-born, US-raised artist committed to idea of social justice, it makes for an exhausting but fulfilling life. Among other things in this wide-ranging interview, Grimaldi tell us how he relaxes.
Read MoreWorkshop participants shared their visions, memories, thoughts about Puerto Rico in poems written in response to Roxana Perez-Mendez’s complex and beautiful art. Perez-Mendez is Puerto Rican and her video installations at Taller Puertorriqueño embody the artist’s own fears and hopes for the island. The show closed March 25.
Read MoreEnjoy this podcast with Douglas Witmer, in which he talks about his community project, “Neighbor Who,” and about his love of art and music, and his family’s roots in the Mennonite community in Lancaster County, where he grew up, although not, he says, driving around in a horse-drawn carriage.
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