Category Archives: Art

Curious Comedy Shows This Weekend

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This week at Curious Comedy:

Friday and Saturday
Closing weekend of Jean Louis in Communicatos. Don’t miss this incredibly funny and smart show about the hardships in communication. Starring Curious Comedy co-founders Stacey Hallal and Bob Ladewig and featuring a special long form improvised set by the Curious Comedy Playas. Doors 7:30, Show 8:00. $12 advance, $15 door, or just $10 for YOU. That’s right, simply type “loyalty” into the coupon box at the checkout online, or say the word “loyalty” at the door and get your tickets for only $10!
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Sherman: A Jazz Opera

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Sherman Jazz Opera poster

From NECN:

Sherman: A Jazz Opera (see attached poster) is loosely based on the life of saxophone player Sherman Thomas, who died tragically in the ’70s. But it also celebrates the legacy of post-war North Williams Avenue when it was known as “Black Broadway,” because live jazz by black musicians and singers from around the country – including Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong and Billy Holiday – was being played night and day in a least 10 clubs along the entertainment strip and in other parts of the city. Continue reading →

The Albina Mural Project: Filling a Void in Portland’s Public Art and History

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From McMenamin’s Kennedy School:

“The Albina Mural Project: Filling a Void in Portland’s Public Art and History”
Kennedy School Theater | Monday, January 31, 7 p.m. | Free | All ages welcome

In the late 1970s, a group of several artists of color created murals and sculptures that hung outside for five years in the historically African-American Albina neighborhood. They worked to depict the history of black culture, both within in and outside America, aiming to fill in the gaps left by silent history books. Mural scholar Robin Dunitz will explain the context in which the artists worked and the impact the project had on them and the community. We will also show a film on the Albina Mural Project created by Portland State University’s Center for Moving Images.

Robin J. Dunitz has been researching, photographing, and writing about murals for almost thirty years. The traveling exhibit “Walls of Heritage, Walls of Pride: African American Murals” is based on a book of the same name, which she co-authored with James Prigoff and which was published by Pomegranate Communications in 2000. In 2005, the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture hosted the exhibit. Her other books include Street Gallery: Guide to 1000 Los Angeles Murals and Painting the Towns: Murals of California, the latter also co-authored with James Prigoff. She holds a B.A. in people’s history from the University of California.

About History Pub Monday
Join us for beer and history, sponsored by the Oregon Historical Society, Holy Names Heritage Center and McMenamins, in which you’ll hear lively local or regional history while you enjoy a frosty pint or two of handcrafted ale.

The Kennedy School is at 5736 N.E. 33rd Avenue.

King Mural Proposal Chosen by PSU

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The King Mural Project proposal, on behalf of King Neighborhood Association, was chosen by the PSU community development colloquium. A group of graduate students from Portland State University’s Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning will be working to shape and define the scope of the project, partners involved, timeline, and other factors.

The envisioned project is a collaboration between one or more nonprofit groups that serve youth, one or more muralists, the King Neighborhood Association, and other interested community groups. The idea is that a group of King teens will receive paid employment to work with an experienced muralist to create a mural within King.

The PSU students will be working to answer these questions:
-which community groups wish to be involved?
-are there enough teens in King interested in being involved?
-where should the mural be sited?
-what grants are applicable?
-what is the overall budget?
-which artists will be involved?
-what role will each community group play, including the KNA?
-what is the overall timeline?

A rough timeline: research into these questions, and others, will take place between now and the end of the school year; grant-writing and planning to continue fall/winter 2011/12; actual project started not until summer of 2012.