House Music Performed Live by the band TORTURED SOUL this Friday May 29 at the Black Rep!

The Afrosonic Collective and Providence Black Repertory are proud to present a very special AfroSonic Jump party featuring the band TORTURED SOUL.

This amazing trio from NYC has already blessed us with their soulful sounds for Sound Session a few years ago and is coming back for their CD album release " Do you miss me" Friday May 29th as part of their new WORLDWIDE tour.

Called "the future of house music" by Gilles Peterson, Tortured Soul was born of the simple yet adventurous belief that modern dance music can be performed completely live. Their unique live performances have astounded audiences around the world, from top nightclubs such as Fabric (London) to 15,000+ crowds at the Montreal Jazz Festival, while their recorded oeuvre pushes the genre boundaries of soul, dance, and pop. From their now-classic early singles such as "I Might Do Something Wrong," to their highly-lauded debut album Introducing (2006 Purpose/R2 Records), Tortured Soul's style is both an echo of the past and a challenge to the future, combining elements of old soul and funk with a modern dancefloor sensibility.

On March 6th 2009 Tortured Soul will drop their new album Did You Miss Me (TSTC001) on the band's own newly formed TSTC Records (released on Dome UK/Europe, Columbia Japan), a 13-song set that picks up right where Introducing left off. The title is both a tongue-in-cheek nod to the fans who have been waiting with baited breath for the band's sophomore effort, as well as an allusion to the primary motif of the album -- travel and it's various tribulations. Drummer/vocalist John-Christian Urich, bassist JKriv and keyboardist Ethan White have played close to 400 shows together worldwide in Tortured Soul's 5-year touring history, so it's no wonder they have transit on the brain.

This will be an amazing event also featuring an opening set by the AfroSonic Collective DJs BlackDove, Mikedelick, Nick de Paris and Dublin.

Cover will be $10, doors will open at 9pm, don't miss this very special occasion to see this amazing band perform LIVE at the Black Rep!

Young and Crochet-y

Hello, world!

I'm Cam, and I am a new contributor here. If there's anything my last four years in higher education have taught me, it's that identity can't be reduced to a few disconnected nouns and adjectives. But, I'm still going to give it a shot anyway. I'm a grad student, a pianist, a crafter, a cook, a writer, an athlete. I think too much, I love too hard, and I always make too much noise.

I'm going to be writing about a bunch of stuff here, but if I were to draw out a common thread it would probably have to be something along the lines of "art and identity."

You see, I've been toying with a lot of tough questions recently. I like to brand myself as a post-modern, third-wave, sex-positive feminist. At the same time, though, I love to crochet, plant flowers, and cook giant, elaborate meals. I can't help but wonder how to reconcile these aspects of myself.

Can I completely divorce crafting and cooking from their traditional associations with home-making? How can I and the hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of new-wave crafters and do-it-yourselfers escape these cultural tropes? Will we always have to be plagued by this weird, reductionistic dichotomy whereby women, the creators, embrace the world with their big round vaginas, and men, the destroyers, pound everything to a pulp with their penises? I refuse to believe that anything can be that simple.

So, come along with me as I over-analyze and ponder. Oh, and I might share some of my art. And some recipes, too. Stay tuned.

(You can also follow me at The Vintage Glue)

Perishable Theatre Seeking New RAPTors!

RAPT - Resident Artist at Perishable Theatre, hence RAPTors!

Perishable (Rhode Island’s Research and Development Theatre) is now accepting applications for new Resident Artists at Perishable Theatre. RAPT is an artistic development program created by Perishable Theatre Executive Artistic Director Vanessa Gilbert that aims to support new performance work generated by mid-career Rhode Island and South Eastern Massachusetts artists. All RAPT applications must be post-marked or hand-delivered by 6 p.m. on June 8, 2009 as a new wave of residencies is slated to begin in July 2009. For more information on the Resident Artists at Perishable Theatre program visit the Perishable Theatre website: www.perishable.org.

Providence Art Festival in Downcity - Saturday, June 13th

Come down and check out the first Providence Art Festival in Downcity!

Check out www.shopdowncity.com or www.oopstuff.com for more information about this event.

Narragansett Beer launches a new website!

Click here to check out the new Narragansett Beer Website!

AS220 Photo Lottery 2009 @ AS220 - Saturday, May 30th

AS220 Photo Lottery 2009

Event Date(s): 5/30/2009

Event Time / Additional Information: 6-9PM free event - optional $100 fundraising lottery tickets

Join us for the fourth biennial Photo Lottery! Each $100 ticket is guaranteed to win a piece from this amazing array. The Photo Lottery generates significant resources for the Paul Krot Darkroom & photo program of AS220, helping us continue to bring you inexpensive equipment rentals and low and no cost education, free events to grow the artistic community, and helps to sustain the only public darkroom facilities in Rhode Island. Purchase them at the AS220 bar or here.

You can think about buying a ticket to win an artwork as an investment or a donation, but either way, your $100 will be well spent. This year we've made it even easier to buy tickets, purchase them at the AS220 bar, by contacting us directly, or online. Go ahead and buy your tickets from your armchair or office via Brown Paper Tickets.

In the spirit of community, and since this exhibit is on view for only one evening, we encourage everyone to attend the Photo Lottery celebration free of charge regardless of if you purchase a ticket.

This year we are thrilled to announce donations from Jock Sturges, Henry Horenstein, Danny Lyon, and Mona Kuhn are among the work of a number of other prestigious & simply talented artists.

Everyone who buys a ticket wins a piece of art! How Democratic!

A Fragile Memory @ The Providence Public Library - June 1st to June 27th

A Fragile Memory: Photography Exhibition and Lectures at the Special Collections of the Providence Public Library

Runs Monday, June 1st to Saturday, June 27th
Opening Reception Monday, June 1st 6-8pm
Lectures begin at 6:30pm

Over one thousand glass plate negatives have long lain forgotten in the Special Collections of the Providence Public Library. Now a select handful of them will be hand printed and revealed to the public eye, possibly for the very first time. The project was conceived and curated by Agata Michalowska and was brought to bear through a close collaboration with local photographers working out of the AS220 Paul Krot Community Darkrooms.

Lectures:

"Glass plate negatives: A Look at a 19th Century Photographic Innovation" by
James DaMico, the Rhode Island Historical Society's Graphics Archivist

The Beehive of Industry: Providence in the Late Victorian Era, 1890-1910” by
Richard Ring, Providence's Special Collections Librarian

The contemporary use of the glass plate technique by Paul Taylor, a Master Photogravure Plate Maker, Director of Renaissance Press and a instructor at Rhode Island School of Design

Click here for more information.

Smitten Kitten: Sex and... Althusser

The picture above is of the French Marxist philosopher and theorist Louis 'Alluring' Althusser who, in his lifetime, was almost never referenced together with sex – his ideas on interpellation and ideological state apparatus seemed to fit quite nicely with the big things like politics and economics, and yet, until now, has failed to be applied to the really big issues like sex and fun.

But first, a lesson. Althusser saw society as, in a classic Marxist sense, a systemic mode of production that could only exist with the perpetuation of certain conditions, chiefly ideology. Ideology determines one’s place in society; the individual identity is mirrored in ideologies that are always-already interpellated.

And so it is with sex, the most basic and fundamental means of perpetuating society. A prevailing sexual ideology has come to determine what is and is not sex/sexy (ankles, oh my!), what is and is not ‘good’ sex/sexy, and what is and is not ‘possible’ sex/sexy. The individual then acts in accordance with or in defiance of the ideology to an extent by which one feels obliged to feel sexual, to have a sexual identity, and to the extent the ideology is enforced. Ideology however can only exist if it is interpreted through material action – hence, one is ‘vanilla’ if missionary is all you know; ‘kinky’ if more than 9 ropes are used; ‘perverted’ if the grin doesn’t wipe off; ‘wrong’ if I start to look at you funny.

This is not to say that an ideology is immutable – it merely describes the extent to which a certain identity can be defined. Even if one defies an ideological norm, one defies it within the scope of ideology – sex remains sex if one checks off on the List of Sex, but even if one doesn’t, one describes that encounter in terms of the List. Sex, every iteration of it, becomes a means of identifying oneself within the sexual spectrum. The always-already interpellated, the dimension in which one is identified within society as a sexual being, determined what sex is and could be; one then reflects that ideology in the identification of practitioners of a certain sexual act.

But what does this all mean for sex? One is into feet, acts upon it, and becomes podophilic. One enjoys the public eye, gets naked, and is an exhibitionist. One enjoys tight corsets, foregoes breathing, and becomes an hourglass. The most important thing is that one is and one becomes. The constraints of a sexual identity are also aspects of what is and what is not within the larger ideology of sex. Within reason (and within what is and is ‘good’), one should be aware of the sexual identities we subject ourselves to, and take pride in the fact that we, rationally, become them and are not subjected together into a larger fetish. We can enjoy the identity but we should never be consumed by the identity totally. Similarly, we can transcend the ideology and enjoy sex that is and is not part of the traditional, socially accepted band of sexual identification.

All this because what good is sex without intellectual justification?

---

The Smitten Kitten is brought to you by a budding sex columnist in Providence where, at the confluence of Brown and RISD, a haphazard collection of philosophy and intrepid curiosity has resulted in this eccentric conception of what it means to be sexual and have sex in this crazy mixed-up world where everyone tries to be sexy and post-modern, perhaps unadvisedly, at the same time.

The AfroSonic Collective presents: SONIC UNTY SAT May 23rd @ LOCAL 121

THE RETURN OF...SONIC UNITY
This SAT Mat 23rd we will be invading one of providence's
Hottest, Hippest Nitespots ...LOCAL 121
DJs Nick De Paris - Blackdove - Dublin - Mikedelick
along with LIVE percussion by the AfroSonic Drummers
will bring you an evening of deep dark & sweaty afro infused dance beats
a night for all you dancers to get down and out
an organic blend of soul, afrobeat, and underground deep house
beats start @ 11pm - No Cover!

Nerdsday - Providence's Original DJ-ed Tweet Up and Work Session

Nerdsday: Providence's Original DJ-ed Tweet Up and Work Session.
Come downtown tonight and nerd out with NES on the projector and music by DJ Ted James (Paper Eagles, Risque Bouquet, Hills & Valley).
Free WiFi and power for your laptops. Quirky chess sets by Oop!
Presented by Ted James, Live Downcity, Tazza Caffe and IndieArts/ri.

The 'MERICANS - Friday, May 15th @ Blackstone & Sunday & May 17th @ SouthSide Community Land Trust

The 'Mericans are about to go in the studio to finish
making a new record, and these 2 very different shows
are their last local gigs before they go into hiding . . .

The Blackstone - Friday, May 19th, 2009

The 'Mericans
The Blizzard of '78
Su Casa

Click here for more information.

Southside Community Land Trust 17th Unusual Plant Sale - Sunday, May 17th, 2009

The 'Mericans will be the grand finale of this weekend
event, wandering around the farm with their
own acoustic instruments playing acoustic farmer jams.
Thousands of plants, live music & more.

Click here for more information .

Providence Roller Derby's 1st Home Season Bout! The Mob Squad vs. The Old Money Honeys!

Come join us at our outdoor rink at the Bank of America Skate Center for our first home team game of the season! It will definitely be a night to remember, as the Old Money Honeys (2008 Champions) take on The Mob Squad in this rematch to kick off the home team season. Don’t expect things to be the same, as Baby Fighterfly, Barbie Biturate and Rhoda Perdition have all crossed over to the Honey side. As well, Jetta von Diesel is now a Mobster, with new additions Bleeding Rainbow and Alice Rumbledore.
Halftime entertainment is provided by The Midnight Creeps!
Buy your tickets online now for only $10 or pay $12 at the door on bout day! We also have our VIP seating available.. get trackside seating, goodie bags, food and drink vouchers and be waited on by derby girls! Only $30!
Music at the bout is provided by DJ Breezee and The Count!After party at Tazza250 Westminster StreetProvidence, RI 02903

Save the date for TORTURED SOUL at the Black Rep, Friday MAY 29th: Modern dance music performed completely live by this NY trio!

Called "the future of house music" by Gilles Peterson, Tortured Soul was born of the simple yet adventurous belief that modern dance music can be performed completely live. Their unique live performances have astounded audiences around the world, from top nightclubs such as Fabric (London) to 15,000+ crowds at the Montreal Jazz Festival, while their recorded oeuvre pushes the genre boundaries of soul, dance, and pop. From their now-classic early singles such as "I Might Do Something Wrong," to their highly-lauded debut album Introducing (2006 Purpose/R2 Records), Tortured Soul's style is both an echo of the past and a challenge to the future, combining elements of old soul and funk with a modern dancefloor sensibility.

On March 6th 2009 Tortured Soul will drop their new album Did You Miss Me (TSTC001) on the band's own newly formed TSTC Records (released on Dome UK/Europe, Columbia Japan), a 13-song set that picks up right where Introducing left off. The title is both a tongue-in-cheek nod to the fans who have been waiting with baited breath for the band's sophomore effort, as well as an allusion to the primary motif of the album -- travel and it's various tribulations. Drummer/vocalist John-Christian Urich, bassist JKriv and keyboardist Ethan White have played close to 400 shows together worldwide in Tortured Soul's 5-year touring history, so it's no wonder they have transit on the brain.

This will be an amazing event also featuring an opening set by the AfroSonic Collective DJs BlackDove, Mikedelick, Nick de Paris and Dublin.

Cover will be $10, doors will open at 9pm, don't miss this very special occasion to see this amazing band perform LIVE at the Black Rep!

Top Shelf Nite / Dance Party @ Tazza Caffe - Saturday, May 16th, 2009

This month's Top Shelf Dance Party proceeds go to support IndieArts/ri.

Located at Tazza Caffe

Call For Submissions - Girls Rock! Rhode Island @ Machines With Magnets - June 2009

*CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS*

*Seeking artwork for /Girls Rock! Rhode Island/ benefit art show at MWM, June 2009. *
Girls Rock! Rhode Island, a new organization in the state, is creating a camp where girls and women of all skill levels can learn guitar, bass, drums, vocals, and other positive skills, form a band, and write and perform an original song-- all in less than one week! The first Ladies Rock Camp for adult women will be held in summer 2009, and the first Girls Rock Camp will be help in summer 2010.

A music and art show of female and female-supporting musicians and visual artists will be held in June 2009 at Machines With Magnets to raise funds and friends for Girls Rock! Rhode Island. GRR! invites artists to submit 2D & 3D artwork by June 1^st , 2009. If you’re a generous person and rad artist who would like to submit work, please contact the show coordinator, Cara, at caraburgess@gmail.com. We encourage artists to submit work that will be affordable to the general public. 50% of the proceeds from the sales of artwork will benefit GGR!, while 20% will go to MWM and 30% to the artist.

The mission of Girls Rock! Rhode Island is to help girls and women empower themselves through the development of musical skills in order to foster self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-efficacy. Through this work we hope to build an environment conducive to the active participation and respect of women as creative producers of our culture. We envision a future where women and girls are prolific, independent creators of all aspects of modern culture.

Carolina Arentsen's "Pre-Internet Artwork" Trunk Sale - Thursday, May 14th

Thursday, May 14th - 4pm - 11pm
Located at 29 Ogden St., Providence, RI
2nd floor
(401) 286 - 1794

Call For Proposals: The Politics of Shoes

The Politics of Shoes:
Installations and Site-Specific Performances at Mobius

Seeking work and proposals for installations and performances of an experimental nature around the theme of "The Politics of Shoes".

For installations, particularly interested in works that have a strong spatial element (even if it should not be touched) OR which can be interacted with via live performance and/or which will be created and/or destroyed as part of a performance.

Site-specific Performances may include but are not limited to:Performance Art, Experimental Movement, Improvisation, performances which can be potentially performed concurrently with part or all of another performance.

About Mobius the space:
Mobius has a solid cement floor. The main gallery area is 2100 square feet with floor to ceiling glass windows and track lights. The ceiling has a couple of hooks in it which one could potentially hang something very lightweight from but generally speaking, for installations, nothing should be hung from the ceiling.

Performances: May 23-25, 2009
Exhibit: May 23-27, 2009

Deadline: Friday, May 8th, email proposals to politicsshoes@gmail.com

Click here for submission requirements and for more information.

Music Friday with Nick de Paris, Cliff Wood and Sidy Maiga at the RISD Museum 5-8-09

Come check out MUSIC FRIDAY this Friday May 8th at the RISD museum, Nick de Paris spinning the best soulful, jazzy and afro house with the live sounds of Cliff Wood on Sax and Sidy Maiga on drums. Event goes from 5:30 to 8:30pm.

The Providence Rock & Roll Yard Sale @ As220 - Saturday, May 9th, 2009

As220 will be jam-packed with music sellers and DIY crafters offering all sorts of vinyl records, compact discs & other music related stuff, silk -screened t-shirts & posters & lots of great local handmade DIY art, crafts, vintage stuff, Jennifer's famous vegan cupcakes and who knows what else...

Brought to you by Chris & Jennifer Daltry of
What Cheer Antiques + Vintage.

Free, 11am-5pm
Click here for more information.

Providence Roller Derby's Derbytaunt Ball!

Come out in your finest 80's Prom wear to Providence Roller Derby's Derbytaunt Ball! Help welcome and celebrate our newest named skaters! Dance the night away to your favorite 80's music. Spinning all night long: Hang the DJ and DJ Deliciti. Firehouse 13 located at 41 Central Street Providence, RI. Doors open at 9pm, Admission $5.00 at the door. For more information go to http://www.providencerollerderby.com/.

CHILDREN OF THE DNIPRO (Ukraine)

Apu/Anya Productions
presents
CHILDREN OF THE DNIPRO (Ukraine)
Written and Directed by David Eliet

At The Perishable Theatre
95 Empire Street – Providence, RI

Thursdays thru Sundays
June 4 – 14

Curtain 8:00 p.m.

Tickets $15.00 general admission
$10.00 Students and Seniors

For tickets and information call (401) 632-1263
e-mail: childdnipro@yahoo.com

CHILDREN OF THE DNIPRO (Ukraine) is a multi-media theatre piece employing, projections, videos and music. Written and directed by David Eliet, CHILDREN OF THE DNIPRO (Ukraine) tells of The Holodomor through the stories of children whose lives were irrevocably altered or destroyed by these events. Aside from dealing with The Holodomor, itself, the play is also an examination of the motivation of an artist who chooses to try and put a frame around such a subject, which like The Holocaust can never be viewed or presented in its full magnitude. What responsibilities does the artist have to his subject, his audience and to himself?

During the 1920’s Ukraine was allowed to pursue a policy of Nationalistic Communism, which saw an unprecedented flowering of its arts and culture. But by the end of the decade, Stalin saw a relatively autonomous Ukraine as an impediment to his plans to centralize as much power in his own hands. The undoing of Ukrainian nationalism began with forced collectivization of the peasant farmers, which led to The Holodomor or Great Hunger of 1932-1933. An estimated 3.5 to 10 million Ukrainians perished in The Holodomor, yet it remains one of the least known man-made catastrophes of the 20th Century.

David Eliet has spent time in Ukraine as both a director at The Little Globe Theatre and as a Fulbright Scholar at the Kirovohrad Social-Pedagogical Institute. When he was first there, he was told the story of one man’s grandmother who was sentenced to seven years in a forced labor camp for gleaning seven ears of wheat from a collective farm during the famine. This story led him on a seven year journey that resulted in the writing of the play while on an Edward F. Albee Playwriting Fellowship in August of 2008. Along the way he wrote and directed a documentary video called HOLODOMOR, which is now in the Kirovohrad City Museum archives, and which was shown last fall at the 75th Anniversary Commemoration at CCRI. The set and costumes of CHILDREN OF THE DNIPRO (Ukraine) have been designed by the noted Ukrainian designer, Pavlo Bosyy. The cast includes, Patricia Thomas, Jim Sullivan, Peter Deffet, Kristina Drager, Luis Astudillo and Andrew Stigler.

CHILDREN OF THE DNIPRO (Ukraine) will be presented at The Perishable Theatre Thursdays through Sundays, June 4 – 14. Curtain is at 8:00 pm. Tickets are $15.00 general admission and $10.00 for students and seniors. Reservations can be made by calling (401) 632-1263 or e-mail childdnipro@yahoo.com

The production of CHILDREN OF THE DNIPRO (UKRAINE) is supported by a grant from The Rhode Island State Council on The Arts.

Now at Perishable: The Thing That Ate My Brain...Almost

It feels miserly to dislike Perishable Theatre's The Thing That Ate My Brain...Almost but I had practically no choice. To like the show is to surrender to ragamuffin charm, fecklessness, irrational and obstinate joie de vivre. There are, to be sure, worse things to surrender to—cynicism, for example, or morbidity—but the point is not the nature of the forces to which one surrenders but the sour feeling of surrender itself. To resist the show on the grounds that its acting is indifferent, its writing disproportioned, its characterization vague, and its effect desultory, begins to feel priggish: by the end of its ninety minutes, you want to have liked it. The show wins you over (or wins over you) with its subject and its subjectivity. It is an autobiographical show about a young woman fighting and surviving Von-Hippel Lindau disease, a genetic condition caused by a mutation in the tumor-suppressant gene that results in tumors (or hemangioblastomas) appearing throughout her body. I do not think that Amy Lynn Budd, who wrote the play and stars in it, uses her condition crudely or coercively, or uses it at all; if anything, she is almost stubbornly discreet. There is real sentiment somewhere in Budd’s story, but her show is about the dance she performs around it, not the stillness she shares with it.

Actually, the show has several dance numbers, as well as a dastardly tumor named Voldemort (played with leering lubriciousness by Sarah Lewis: as if a tumor weren’t horrific enough, this one has Mick Jagger’s viscid voice), Barbie and Superman figurines (representing Budd and her boyfriend, Steve), and the sincere and deluded 1950s science fiction movie director Ed Wood, Jr. (Brien Lang), who appears to be making a movie about Budd’s grit and courage but who might just be an avatar of the show’s indefatigable, misfit spirit. Budd has subtitled her show, aptly, "A Neo-Burlesque Sci-Fi Extravaganza," which reveals either a terrific skepticism of genre or an obsessive wariness of direct contact. Either way, the show’s tone is tirelessly jokey, as though pop references and self-conscious acting were somehow a palliative to pathos. But sentimentality is not the disease, and irony is an over-prescribed treatment anyway--like irradiation, it tends to destroy what is healthy along with what is sick. The best moment in the show is when Budd mixes a dose of her acid worldview with the milk of human kindness: on a distant planet, Budd meets the ghost of her mother, who herself had Von-Hippel Lindau disease, and tries to pry from her the stories of her own growing up; but before she can begin—if she ever intended to—they are both shot repeatedly by a ray-gun wielding alien monster. Here, for once, the event and the metaphor meet.

Of course, burlesque and science fiction are both forms of parody; as the offspring of these bedfellows, The Thing That Ate My Brain…Almost is congenitally clever. What it lacks is engagement—a sense of responsibility to its audience, which, most likely, is made up of people who have never heard of hemangioblastomas before, let alone been nearly killed by a gang of them. So the show is a burlesque of a private experience, proof provided by a survivor to herself that she can, or must, laugh at the source of her suffering and uncertainty. But the audience gets only the parody, and not the experience being refigured through parody: we get the punch line, but have no idea what the joke was. Theatre, we feel, after seeing Budd’s show, is less about communion than closure. If it's all in her head, why have we been invited to watch?