WPKN Archives Archive Feed: marthawillettelewis

The Flux Capacitor with Martha Willette Lewis episode 62

Thu, 27 Jan 2022 10:00:00 GMT

Playlist:

MEAT LOAF: You Took The Words Right Out of My Mouth

Deerhoof: Be Unbarred oh Ye Gates of Hell

The Mountain Goats: Let me Bathe in Demonic Light,

```
The Ronettes: Lord, If You Are a Woman,
```
```
Ngaiiree: I Can't Hear God Anymore
```
```
Nadine Shah: Wasps Nest,
```
```
Modest Mouse: Leave a Light On
```
```
Fruition: Dawn,
```
```
AURORA: Everything Matters,
```
```
Elbow: What Am I Without You?
```
```
Talk Talk:  I Believe in You,
```
```
Gorillaz: Hong Kong
```
```
Rickie Lee Jones: Huston,
```

Cat Power: It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels,

Fantastic Negrito: Rollin' through California

```
Calexico: The Heart Of Downtown
```

The Ronettes: Why won't they Let Us Fall In Love?

```
Pavement: Be The Hook,
```
```
The Mountain Goats: This Year
```
```
Mondo Cozmo: Meant for Livin'
```

Will Butler: Hard Times( Blood Rave Remix)

```
Kae Tempest: More Pressure
```

Elvis Costello & Tshegue: Hetty O' hara Confidential

```
Morgane ji- Mon Nom est Personne 
```
```
 LEENALCHE: Tiger is Coming
```
```
Lorde:Hine-I-Awatea/Oceanic Feeling
```

The Flux Capacitor with Martha Willette Lewis episode 61

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 10:00:00 GMT

Love-Lore 2 (Knight Rider/Raymond Scott/Mauricio Kagel/Eddie Grant/Gary Numan)- Deerhoof
Flux- Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp
Every Day I Write the Book -Elvis Costello & The Attractions
Librarian - My Morning Jacket
Lemon's Make Lemonade (feat. Jon Batiste) -Grace Kelly
Solarised (Edit) - Jane Weaver
Solar Power -Lorde
Dirty Hercules (feat Nai Palm)- Ngaiire
Mystery Girl - Alexandra Savior
From the Back of a Cab- Rostam
Lover Automatic- I Know Leopard
Foolish Heart- Alicia Keys
Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby? (Live)- Grace Kelly
You'll Never Meet Anyone Like Me Again - Amy Shark
Hot & Heavy -Lucy Dacus
I Never Said I Was Deep (2020 Remaster) -Jarvis Cocker
Like I Used To- Sharon Van Etten & Angel Olsen
Damaged Goods (feat. Gang of Four) - IDLES
On the Outside- Ethan Gruska
Buckfast - Nadine Shah
Dialing Drunk- Ethan Gruska
Figure It Out - Blu DeTiger
Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High? (Live) - Arctic Monkeys
High In The Grass- Sleater-Kinney Sleater-Kinney
Stronger (from the Netflix Series "We The People")- Janelle Monáe

The Flux Capacitor with Martha Willette Lewis polyglot Spring Fling episode 58

Thu, 13 May 2021 10:00:00 GMT

Jálale- Mexican Institute of Sound, 2009
You Really Got Me -akiko, 2009
Batucada- akiko,2007
She's My Shoo Shoo (A Minha Meniña)- Os Mutantes,1968
Roy Allan (feat. Airto Moreira)- Gretchen Parlato, 2021
Só Tinha de Ser Com Você- Jane Monheit Aloysio Oliviera & Antônio Carlos Jobim, 2007
It Might As Well Be Spring (feat. Astrud Gilberto) [Live At Café Au Go-Go, 1964]- The New Stan Getz Quartet, 1964
Tropitransformación (feat. Camilo Colmenares & Yonny Javier Buenaños)- ConEctor, Lido Pimienta & Vozterra , 2021
Você mentiu -Anitta & Caetano Veloso, 2019
La Luna de Noviembre- Mexican Institute of Sound, 2021
I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter (feat. Chai-Chii Sisters)- akiko, 2012
Honeysuckle Rose - Jane Monheit, Lewis Nash, Geoffrey Keezer & Christian McBride, 2004
Stay Away- Randy Newman, 2020
Pata Pata- Angelique Kidjo, 2020
Paradise City - akiko, 2002
Summer (feat. Steam Down)- Sampa the Great, 2019
Feels Like Summer- Childish Gambino, 2018
Baby - Os Mutantes,1968
La Balada de la Aspirina- Mexican Institute of Sound, 2021
Do You Really Want To Hurt Me? - akiko,2009
Orange (feat. Molecule)- Honeychild Coleman ,2008
In Bloom- Sturgill Simpson, 2016
4Pajaritos- Vozterra & Rafrobeat , 2021
Like a Bird- Mondo Cozmo, 2020
Bird Song- Florence + the Machine , 2009
People Get Mad- Amy LaVere, 2007
I Lied - Lord Huron & Allison Ponthier, 2021

Live Culture with Martha Willette Lewis episode 65: Born to Document!

Sat, 26 Sep 2020 11:00:00 GMT

This month on Live Culture I am in conversation with photographer J.J. Gonson who has a beautiful new book of photographs coming out, as a set with the anniversary re-release of Elliott Smith's self-titled album on Kill Rock Stars. Gonson has been documenting with a camera since she was a child, and as a teenager began filming the local Boston music scene. She later moved to the west coast and has shot images of bands and music world-wide. She became close to Smith and his band Heatmiser, even going on to become his manager- as well as documentarian -when he went solo. Her work become his first two -now iconic- album covers. Gonson's photographs of bands like Nirvana, Sonic Youth and Black Flag are legendary, but she also has documented many lesser known acts and has many, never-been-seen bodies of work. We discuss her practice over the course of her life, her preferences and process. Gonson now runs an event space -Once- in Somerville Massachusetts, which has- because of COVID- moved over to YOUTUBE to become the Once Virtual Venue (OVV). Please join us for this special conversation.

To see more about J.J.'s Images, the venue Once, The Elliot Smith Project, and some press please visit:

https://www.jjgonsonphoto.com/projects
https://www.morrisonhotelgallery.com/photographers/Q9GhNm/JJ--Gonson
https://www.facebook.com/jjgonsonphotography/
https://www.oncesomerville.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ONCEsomerville/
https://www.killrockstars.com/
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/aug/26/jj-gonsons-best-photograph-a-smile-from-elliott-smith
https://www.interviewmagazine.com/music/elliot-smith-jj-gonson-exclusive-photos

DID YOU KNOW?
Past Episodes of Live Culture are available as PODCASTS and have their own convenient PLAYLIST onWPKN's Soundcloud page?The show has featured many fascinating voice, places and projects, and offers a wealth of cultural armchair voyages at the tip of your fingers! click here https://soundcloud.com/wpkn895/sets/live-culture-with-martha
- a user-friendly guide of who/what/where is coming soon....

If YOU have an idea for a future episode please drop me a line- I am always eager to hear what's going on! message me at https://www.facebook.com/livecultureradio

Live Culture is a monthly discussion about the arts, Hosted by visual artist Martha Willette Lewis and airing on WPKN, Radio 89.5 fm Bridgeport, available online at Wpkn.org. The show airs on the final Saturday of each month from 11-12 noon and is available for two weeks on ARCHIVES and *EVER AFTER* as a PODCAST, for ON-Demand Listening.

Live Culture with Martha Willette Lewis Episode 58: A conversation with Power Boothe!

Sat, 25 Jan 2020 11:00:00 GMT

Live Culture 58:
A conversation with Artist Power Boothe!

This month onThis month on Live Culture I am delighted to welcome artist, educator and thinker Power Boothe to the program. The program promises to be a heady mix of art, technology, ideas and books as well voyaging from the past to the NOW and the future, talking life in the New York artworld that was, and getting an advanced look at some of his upcoming exhibits and projects here in Connecticut.

Power Boothe has exhibited his paintings for over four decades. His work is represented in public collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney Museum, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the British Museum in the UK, as well as many private collections nationally and internationally. In addition to his studio practice, Power has spent years working in the theater- notably for Richard Foreman and the Ontological-Hysterical Theater Company in NYC . He has received awards for his designs for experimental theater, dance and video productions, including a Bessie Award for set design, a Film/Video Arts Foundation Award for film, and several Art Matters Grants for theater. He came to New York as a student in the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program in 1967, He continued to live and work as an artist for the next three decades in New York City. He studied classical archeology at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, Greece and linguistics and philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1989 he received an Honorary Doctorate of Arts degree from Colorado College for his mid-career accomplishments.

Locally, he exhibits at Fred Giampietro Gallery in New Haven and has a forthcoming exhibit at Five Points Gallery in Torrington. Boothe is currently Professor of Painting at the Hartford Art School, University of Hartford. He served as Dean of the Hartford Art School from 2001 to 2010, where he led a successful campaign to build the Renée Samuels Center, a studio facility focused on teaching art and technology. As Director of the School of Art at Ohio University from 1998 to 2001 he produced a symposium on cognitive theory and the arts: Art/Body/Mind. As Co-director of the Mount Royal Graduate School of Art at the Maryland Institute College of Art from 1993 to 1998, he curated the exhibition, Art + Necessity. Boothe served as Lecturer in the Humanities at Princeton University from 1988–1994 and served on the faculty of the School of Visual Arts from 1979 -1988.

Among his other talents Power can also list RADIO. A former radio presenter himself, we welcome him back to the live airwaves as we welcome in 2020!

To see some of Power's work online and to find out more please visit: https://www.powerboothe.com/

Live Culture with Martha Willette Lewis Episode 54: This Is Not A Drill- A conversation with members of Extinction Rebellion NYC

Sat, 31 Aug 2019 10:55:00 GMT

This month I am in conversation with two organizers from Extinction Rebellion NYC, a group dedicated to creative nonviolent civil disobedience in the cause of the Climate Emergency. This is a particularly poignant moment to talk with them as the G7 closes, Greta Thunberg is sailing her way to NYC and the Amazon Rain Forests are ablaze.

Extinction Rebellion is ready with a roster of creative Fall protests in time for the UN Climate Action Summit in September. I speak with Kim, from the XR Arts Collective, and Justin, a Regenerative Culture Coordinator about the goals, principals and demands XRNYC has generated, and what the role of a creative person can be in such initiatives. We go over the nuts-and-bolts behind such large-scale projects, and the myriad ways people can be involved.

Extinction Rebellion officially launched in London in late fall 2018, with Extinction Rebellion NYC (XRNYC) starting shortly thereafter in December, with a first action taking place in January culminating in a disruption at Rockefeller Center Skating Rink. The mission of XRUS is to “transform our society into one that is compassionate, inclusive, sustainable, equitable and connected” and to get the government to tell theTruth about Climate Change and to act on it.

Since their inception XRNYC have had multiple public actions, including a large roadblock/die-in staged outside of City Hall and a Memorial Service for Extinct Species in in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. XR Has many artists working with them and are defined by its colorful, bold and inventive events which involve such creative outlets as sculpture, design, social theater, music and fashion.

Xrebellion is a decentralized, non-hierarchical movement, using a self-organizing system to operate. They welcome everyone, so long as they support XR’s 10 Principles and 4 demands. These are available on their webpage at extinctionrebellionus and xrebellion.nyc . Of special interest on the XRNYC page are some climate facts is under the heading The Truth.

Starting at the end of September will be their Fall Call to Action culminating in October’s mammoth International Rebellion with actions taking place globally. All are invited to attend this major demonstration and call for change, taking place October 7 EVERYWHERE.

Other realted groups looking to attract creatives to get further involved in the issues of climate change include XR’s partner organization Culture Declares Emergency which is made up of artists and cultural producers taking a pledge. More can be found here http://culturedeclares.org/

Please join me for this fascinating conversation about Art, Protest and the grassroots movement that engages the economic and political Titans in “The Fight For Our Lives”.

XR on social media:
XRNYC facebook
XRNYC instagram
XRNYC Twitter
XRNYC Youtube

Live Culture with Martha Willette Lewis Episode 52: Digital Stitches

Sat, 29 Jun 2019 11:00:35 GMT

This month join me as I discuss artmaking, embroidery and the influence of the internet with artist Michelle Beaulieu-Morgan. Michelle can be defined many ways, including being a queer Mainer who is now based in CT and who - through her embroidery- is a self-proclaimed “Purveyor of Excessiveness”. Additionally, she is an Activist/Doyenne of Social Media/Visual Artist /Radio DJ /Writer/Spouse and Parent. Michelle has a PhD. in American Studies from Yale University and currently works as a Digital Accessibility Specialist.

Our discussion was recorded on a recent rainy afternoon, where we met to verbally unravel some of the complex interlacings formed by these various threads. Michelle - who began embroidering about 4 years ago- has had a meteoric rise through social media, and we talk about how Instagram has nourished her practice from its inception. This includes her first foray in digital needlework with her 1 year of stitches embroidery project, which used crowd-sourced content and went viral, giving a head-start to the over 24,000 followers she has today. We pick up with most recently, the story behind her commission by 4-time Grammy-Award winning artist Keb Mo, to make original art for his latest album cover. Oklahoma, which came out this month and features Michelle’s detailed custom embroidery, plus a variety of logoed items and memorabilia inspired by her images.

We peruse the how’s, when’s and why’s of what she does, the materiality involved, as well as the therapeutic aspects of hand-work and discuss her first- ever, brick-and-mortar solo art exhibition, coming up, IRL, this fall at the Whitney Humanities Center in New Haven. Her story is an inspiring tale of traditional needlecrafts, hard work, internet communities and a genre-breaking vision that connects them all.

More about Michelle here: https://www.instagram.com/mutuallyassureddeconstruction/?hl=en
More about Michelle’s radio show can be found here: https://www.wpkn.org/shows/michelle-morgan/
More about Keb Mo’s Oklahoma here: https://kebmo.limitedrun.com/store
More about the Whitney Humanities Center Art Gallery here: https://whc.yale.edu/gallery-whitney

see this episode's live culture Press Release here

Live Culture with Martha Willette Lewis: episode 50 Spring Sprung

Sat, 27 Apr 2019 11:00:00 GMT

https://mailchi.mp/ddcd21fd9550/this-saturday-on-live-culture-spring-sprung?e=8602659560

This Month on Live Culture I am delighted to present a conversation with curator/artist Fritz Horstman and artist Leila Daw about the forth coming exhibit Water Access at the Ely Center of Contemporary Art New Haven, located at 51 Trumbull Street. The show runs from May 5 - June 23, 2019. There will be an opening reception on Sunday, May 5, from 2-4pm.

The exhibit includes work by: Richard Barlow, Marilyn Crocker, Leila Daw, Daniel Eugene, Alexander Harding, Amy Jean Porter, James Prosek, Scott Schuldt, Gina Siepel, Joseph Smolinski and was curated by Fritz Horstman.

The artists in Water Access deal head-on with the ubiquitous and vital resource of water. Working in photography, sculpture, painting, drawing and beadwork, they show their sensitivities to the complicated human relationship with water. Some of the work is overtly political in its environmental concern. Others depict its sublime qualities, its mundane aspects, the life it supports, or the ways in which we interact with it. More about the exhibit here

During the second half of Live Culture there will be a discussion direct from the Colorblends House & Spring Garden's Artist's Reception & Spring Celebration in Bridgeport with the projects organizers and artists. The celebration is on Saturday, April 27th. from 10-6 pm, and offers a colorful garden of tulips and bulbs and an art exhibition featuring work by local artists: Benjamin Casiano, Bob Keating, Chandler Davis, David Joel Pratt, Jahmane, Jennifer Williams, JodiAnn Strmiska, Katie Jurkiewicz, looketha, Michael J Clocks, Nancy Moore, Patrice Barrett, Tara Blackwell and Vasilisa Romanenko in the newly renovated Colonial Revival mansion on the grounds.
Colorblends House & Spring Garden is located at 893 Clinton Avenue in Bridgeport, CT.
The event is free and open to the public and street parking is plentiful.. More about Colorblends House and Spring Garden here

Live Culture with Martha Willette Lewis Episode 42:Powerful Women

Sat, 25 Aug 2018 11:00:00 GMT

This month's show starts with a conversation with Stephanie Wiles the new Henry J. Heinz II Director of the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, a post she began this summer, on July 1st!

We talk about the future she envisages for the art gallery, and find out what might be in store for us under her tenure, as well as the challenges that lie ahead for museums and arts venues in this current social and economic climate. YUAG has a rich and encyclopedic collection that offers a myriad of possibilities, and Stephanie's record is one of innovative partnerships and initiatives.

Stephanie Wiles comes to Yale with over 20 years of experience leading college and university art museums. In her prior roles, Wiles has led efforts to connect the visual arts to other areas of university life by developing interdisciplinary courses, reimagining gallery spaces to be more inviting to visitors from campus and beyond, and spearheading exhibitions and publications to showcase research.

She has served on several committees at Cornell Tech, a science and technology graduate school in New York City, tasked with bringing art to the campus and into the curriculum. Wiles has successfully created educational and research opportunities across disciplines that take advantage of museum collections. She secured funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to develop eight semester-long courses that bridged the arts, humanities, science, and engineering.

Wiles began her career in the department of drawings and prints at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City; she later assumed leadership positions at Wesleyan University, Oberlin College, and, most recently, Cornell University.

One of the most visible of her projects at Cornell was the negotiation and completion of Cosmos, a site-specific light sculpture by Leo Villareal, made up of 12,000 LED lights. The work, named in honor of scientist Carl Sagan and visible across campus and from many parts of Ithaca, is a beacon attracting visitors to the museum.

For more information about YUAG please visit here

During the second half I speak with The Fairfield Museum’s Exhibitions Curator Laurie Lamarre, about the new exhibit: Flappers: Fashion and Freedom which opened August 16 and runs through February 2019.

This exhibition showcases women’s fashion of the 1920s and explores how “flappers” – locally and beyond – embraced a glamorous and rebellious identity. The New Woman of the 1920s represented a daring freedom of movement, behavior, and athleticism, and championed a new fashion aesthetic and attitude. The new styles included shorter skirts, freedom from corsets and bobbed hair. Flappers had social lives independent of the domestic landscape, that included frequenting dance halls, speakeasies and sporting events.

The year 1920 marked a watershed in the ongoing struggle for American women’s equality, as women secured the right to vote and claimed full citizenship alongside men. As they moved increasingly into colleges, workplaces, and public life, a new generation sought further social freedoms to move, dress, and behave as they pleased, flouting earlier standards of social behaviors for "respectable" women. Driving cars, smoking, and dancing, the flapper represented a youth-oriented search for freedom and parity. The flapper was as much cultural style as a reality, and women across social lines embraced the fashions of flappers and in doing so, embodied "modernity".

Despite this, nearly a hundred years later, we still inherit the internal contradictions that she faced as we continue to seek and advance American women's equality economically, in the workplace, at home and in self-determining our bodies. This exhibit examines that parallel and focuses on the intricate and exquisite fashions of the day and the lives of such women locally in Fairfield County, making for an innovative look at feminist history in visual format.

For more information about The Fairfield Museum please visit here

Live Culture with Martha Willette Lewis Episode 41: Cultural Reckoning

Sat, 28 Jul 2018 11:00:00 GMT

This month features a conversation with the Arts Council of Greater New Haven Director Daniel Fitzmaurice about Create the Vote CT, a nonpartisan public education campaign to raise awareness and support for the arts among voters and candidates running for public office. Daniel is one of the co-founders of this initiative which attempts to bring together CT's many arts organizations to
collectively make their voices heard.

On July 31st the public is invited to attend
Arts, Culture, & the Future of CT’s Economy: Gubernatorial Candidate Forum.
The event goes from 5:00 – 6:30 p.m.at the
Co-Op High School's Mainstage Theater,
177 College Street, New Haven, CT. and is free and open to all.
Please RSVP here.

The Forum will be an opportunity for the creative community to show the candidates that their commitment to the arts, culture, and creativity matters. Each candidate was given a questionnaire with six questions to respond to.

Confirmed attendees are: Joseph Ganim, Oz Griebel, Rod Hanscomb, Tim Herbst, Ned Lamont, Marisa Manley, and David Stemerman. The program will be hosted by WTNH-TV anchor Ann Nyberg, who is also a committed champion of the arts in Connecticut.

This is a gubernatorial election year and thus an excellent moment to discuss the strengths and challenges the state faces and to collectively form a vision for our community. While candidates spend much time talking about jobs, the economy, and education, they rarely talk about arts and culture as part of their campaign. Seeing the need to make arts and creativity part of the discussion, Connecticut Arts Alliance (CAA) and the Connecticut Alliance for Arts Education (CAAE) have launched Create the Vote CT. and instigated Arts, Culture, & the Future of CT’s Economy: Gubernatorial Candidate Forum to get the public involved.

Over 100 arts and culture organizations - including WPKN!- have signed up to be co-sponsors of this inspired event. Daniel knows all too well the challenges that face so many arts organizations throughout the state, as budgets get slashed, and yet it bears repeating that arts and culture are what bring so much revenue and other collective goods to our towns and cities. Join us as we discuss this exciting and timely project and the various candidates, questions and challenges that lie ahead in activating and informing the public before the election.

Are you registered to vote?
it's easy and it's online here at https://voterregistration.ct.gov

Live Culture with Martha Willette Lewis episode 40: Lost Again

Sat, 30 Jun 2018 11:00:00 GMT

During the summer I like to travel and this year is no exception. Being away from the station offers the chance to look back at past Live Culture episodes and to chose one for re-airing. This one seemed a natural fit: it is full of history, adventures, and stories of making art on the road, making it a great choice for summer listening. Lost Again is a re-broadcast of a show from January 2018 with British artist Abigail Reynolds about her BWW Art Journey- a prize that took her along the Silk Road on a motorcycle hauling a Bolex camera to document the sites of lost libraries. Her epic journey has resulted in a book, a film and an art exhibition. Abigail was live in the WPKN studios with me, during her recent US visit to libraries in New York, and was gracious enough to journey the extra miles to Bridgeport!

Her book, now published by Hatje Cantz, and the film: Lost Libraries are a part of the current exhibition Wish You Were Here: Journals, Journies and Expeditions, a group show up at the Gallery Upstairs at the Institute Library in New Haven until August 31st. more information on that is at Institutelibrary.org.

On her remarkable trip Abigail visited the following library sites:

Stone Steles, Xian, China- found about 1080
Xianyang Palace, Xian - lost 206BC
Baisigou Pagoda, Yinchuan, China - lost 1970
Mogao Caves, Dunhuang, China- lost 11th century, found 1900
Palace Library, Khanate of Kokand, Uzbekistan - lost 1876
Nishapur,Iran - lost 1154
Hidden Libraries of Tehran - hidden 1979
Roman libraries of Turkey: Celsus in Ephesus (lost 262AD) Pergamon (lost 41BC), Nysa (lost 1402AD)
Library of the Serapeum in Alexandria, Egypt - lost 392AD
Cairo Genizeh, Egypt - found 1900
Institute of Egypt, Cairo - lost 2011
Bibliotheca Ulpia, Rome, Italy - lost around 600AD
Villa of the Papyri, Herculaneum, Italy - lost 79AD, discovered 1752

More on Abigail.
More on the book Lost Libraries
More on the BMW Art Journey

Come arm-chair travel with us as we discuss her project.
Live Culture will air live next month on July 28 with an all-new show....

Thanks for Listening!

Martha Willette Lewis -- The Flux Capacitor episode #4

Thu, 14 Jun 2018 10:00:00 GMT

Playlist:
Joni Mitchell: You Turn Me on I'm a Radio,
Lizzo: Water me
Roots & Wings: Water my soul
Deap Valley: (She's a) Wanderer
Warren Zevon: Basket case
Imelda may: Sneaky freak
Eels: You are the shining light,
The Supremes: Floy joy,
Kelis: Floyd,
Father john Misty: Disappointing diamonds are the rarest of them all.
Arctic Monkeys: Science Fiction,
R.E.M.: Laughing,
The Beatles: And your bird can sing (take2),
Rockabye baby!: Yellow,
Pink Martini: Heliotrope Bouquet
Fats Waller: Smashing thirds,
Little Miss Higgins: Gather my fruit,
Madeline Peyroux: I'm gonna sit right down and write myself a letter,
Roger Daltry: How Far,
Jerry Lee Lewis: Pink Cadillac,
John Prine: Baby let's play house,
Loudon Wainwright III: Daughter,
Loretta Lynn & Conway Twitty: Your'e the reason our kids are ugly.
Carol Fran: Take my husband,
The Who: Baba O'Reilly(live from Shepperton studios 1978),
Ian Dury: Sex &drugs&rock and roll,
L7: Diet Pill
Marianne Faithfull: Conversations on a barstool,
Pink Martini: Hey Eugene,
The Kills: Stepping razor,
Tom Waits: Pasties and a g-string,
Kermit Ruffins: Careless love

Live Culture with Martha Willette Lewis Episode 39: What would you do?

Sat, 26 May 2018 11:00:00 GMT

This month on Live Culture my first guest is Toto Kisaku whose theatre production REQUIEM FOR AN ELECTRIC CHAIR is being featured in this year's International Festival of Arts & Ideas. The production runs June 22-23 at the Iseman Theatre at 1156 Chapel Street in New Haven.

A set designer, actor, and producer, Toto Kisaku was imprisoned for creating art that questioned the practice of child exploitation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. he was moments away from being killed by his government when his executioner showed him an unexpected moment of mercy. He has since found political asylum in the United States, where he has created a theatre production about this pivotal moment in his existence. This June the public is invited to experience his remarkable story at the world premiere of his new play.

Kisaku has organized theatre in communities across Congo and performed internationally before coming to the U.S. in December 2015. Toto created K-Mu Théâtre in 2003, a theatre company popularizing the performing arts in urban areas of Kinshasa. He is the winner of the 2010 “Freedom to Create Award” in Cairo, Egypt. In 2003 he was selected to represent Congo in the 20th edition of the Limoges Festival and to perform in two pieces by Bernard M. Koltes. Kisaku was also in the French version of “Topdog / Underdog” by Suzan L. Parks at the Forum de Blanc Mesnil, the Théâtre Louis Jouvet and the Théâtre de l’Athénée in Paris. Kisaku has also participated in the Avignon, Limoges, Paris Quartier d’Eté, Taz à Oostende, ICAF, Pilotobes, A/D Werf, Right About Now,Toseka, Mantsina, and Connexion Kin festivals.

REQUIEM FOR AN ELECTRIC CHAIR is co-directed by Hanifa Nayo Washington and Will MacAdams. The creative team includes Susan McCaslin, Yaira Matyakubova, Sara Zunda, Jamie Burnett, David Sepulveda, and Robert Barsky.

And in the second half, I am in conversation with Amy Kaplan and Trace Burroughs the two artists responsible for producing Reveries an exhibition event in Westport, CT., which opened on May 24th, benefiting Project Return. Trace and Amy are working to reconnect the community and energize the downtown Westport environment through art. Reveries is at 153 Post Road East and runs from May 24 - June 3, in downtown Westport. The show features 15 local artists, and a portion of sales will be donated to Project Return.

Project Return empowers young women in crisis to rebuild their lives by providing a safe, secure, and structured environment where they learn life skills, heal family relationships, and strengthen other life-long connections needed for healthy independent living.

The fifteen artists exhibiting works in the gallery are: Amy Kaplan, Trace Burroughs, Heidi Lewis Coleman, Noah Steinman, Liz Leggett, Dan Long, Katherine Ross, Lisa Silberman, Charles Douthat, Julie Leff, Scott Glaser, Melissa Newman, Holly Hawthorne, Erich Davis and Diane Pollack.

Trace Burroughs was raised in Westport has been involved in the arts since the age of 10, and has curated several shows in the area and participated in dozens. Through the years he has been involved in various creative endeavours: Author, Nickelodeon voiceover performer, comedy writer, broadcast designer, drummer and now a singer.

Amy Kaplan is an artist who is also a member of several local arts organization including Westport Artist Collective and elected RTM member in Westport. She sits on the Board of the Ridgefield Guild of Artists.

Live Culture with Martha Willette Lewis: Episode 37: Structive (De, Con & In)

Sat, 31 Mar 2018 11:00:00 GMT

On this month's show the first guests are Artist/Curator David Borawski and Artist Liz Sweibel to talk about their exhibit Abductions and Reconstructions up now at Real Art Ways in Hartford. Featuring the artists Meg Hitchcock, Ryan Sarah Murphy, Liz Sweibel, Abductions and Reconstructions offers fresh takes on abstraction, collage, and sculpture with works that are at once intricate and tough. The three artists present a diverse range of aesthetic considerations: Meg Hitchcock often uses letters from one text, such as the Bible, to craft passages in another text, like the Quran. Regarding this process, Hitchcock says:

“…by deconstructing and recombining the holy books of diverse religions, I undermine their authority and animate the common thread that weaves through all scripture.”

Ryan Sarah Murphy’s cardboard reliefs could be aerial views of farmland, architecture plans, or political maps of imaginary nations. She crafts these objects with a sense of seriousness and play befitting the found, casual nature of her materials. Liz Sweibel uses both found and acquired materials in her precarious sculptures and assemblages. Sweibel says

“The process is low-tech, immediate, and improvisational, and primarily takes form as spare, abstract sculpture, installation, and drawing.”

Abductions and Reconstructions is at RealArtWays, 56 Arbor St, Hartford and runs from Feb 15- April 8.

More about Real Art Ways here

During the second half we talk on the phone with artist Aliza Shvarts whose forthcoming exhibit at Artspace New Haven, Aliza Shvarts: Off Scene runs from May 11 - Jun 30. . Aliza recently ran a workshop based on her Banners Project as a part of the current Code Breakers Exhibit at The Ely Center for Contemporary Art, which invited women and gender variant people to exchange of stories in which the internet left them vulnerable to public shaming, and how these individual experiences of shame can be transformed to galvanize a collective demand. The title Aliza Shvarts: Off Scene, references the artists’ investment in performance, one that shifts our attention from the center to the social, historical, and material surround. At once linguistic and bodily, “off scene” refers to the circulation of gossip, rumor, viral text, and other forms of knowing. Using text, video,and audio she explores issues of how the body means and matters, how the subject consents and dissents.

The opening reception is Friday, May 18, 5-8pm. On Friday, May 18 from 6-8pm, Shvarts will host a roundtable discussion with Robert Post (Sterling Professor of Law, Yale Law School), Reva Siegel (Nicholas de B. Katzenbach Professor of Law, Yale Law School), which will consider the aesthetic, legal, and ideological frameworks that choreograph the body’s capacity to produce meaning within the fictive or the real. This event is free and open to the public. Artspace is located at 50 Orange Street in New Haven, CT.

more about Artspace here

This episode of Live Culture also features a new song performed by Jody Stecher in protest of the gun violence t in this Country. Cousins Jay Feldman and Jody Stecher found they each were hit hard by the Florida school shootings. Jay began writing a song expressing his feelings about it. Jody helped him finish the song. Also on the show will be an excerpt of music from the soundtrack to the film Ladybird by Jon Brion, and a song from The Mammals.

Live Culture with Martha Willette Lewis Episode 35: Lost Libraries

Sat, 27 Jan 2018 11:00:00 GMT

This month Live Culture offers an in studio conversation with British Artist Abigail Reynolds who is currently in the USA to launch her new publication Lost Libraries published by Hatje Cantz. Abigail, who Live Culture listeners will remember from Episode 18: The Mother's Bones, about her film project in a Cornwall Quarry, recently won the prestigious BMW Art Journey, a prize which sent her on a trip through China, Uzbekistan, Iran, Turkey, Italy, and Egypt following the Silk Road in search of destroyed libraries. She traveled for five months, visiting libraries that were lost due to political conflict or natural disasters. This book presents the photographs and recollections of her experiences.

About the BMW Art Journey:
Two artists are awarded the prize each year: one from Art Basel in Hong Kong and one Art Basel in Miami Beach. An independent panel of judges shortlists three artists from each fair, who are then tasked with crafting an itinerary for their proposed journey. Reynolds was unanimously selected from the 2016 Hong Kong shortlist, for a project she titled “The Ruins of Time: Lost Libraries of the Silk Road.”

Reynolds is best known for her collages, which splice together archival images in geometric, three-dimensional patterns. She is particularly interested in the passage of time, scouring old bookstores and flea markets for encyclopedias or guidebooks that offer decades-old views of a given landscape. She also incorporates images of what she terms “communal structures”—protest marches, highways, colleges.

On her New York visit Abigail will be participating in A Night of Philosophy & Ideas at the Brooklyn Public Library on Saturday January 27th. This is part of a 12-hour marathon, of 20 minute lectures happening from 7pm to 7am. The event is open to the public, more information is here.

As an accompaniment to our discussion this month's show features a selection of book and library themed music from James Horner ( for the film The Name of the Rose), Brian Anderson, Yellow Ostrich and My Morning Jacket. join us to find out more about this incredible adventure, the book, and the artworks that have resulted from the journey!

Live Culture with Martha Willette Lewis number 34: The Net Neutrality Episode

Sat, 30 Dec 2017 11:00:00 GMT

"Net Neutrality"-- what does this mean and why should you care?

This month I am in discussion with Thomas Kadri, a Ph.D. in Law candidate at Yale University whose his research spans the intersection of media, technology, and the First Amendment.

The FCC has repealed consumer protections that prohibit internet service providers - or ISP's- from discriminating against or favoring websites by blocking or throttling internet traffic. These ISP's will also be allowed to charge fees to websites and online services for faster and more reliable network access. We will discuss the ramifications of this, in particular for artists, non-profits and other small-scale producers of online content.

To sweeten this rather sobering topic for our final show for 2017, I am including some musical selections from my picks for the top 10 albums and songs for the year. Please join us for this live interview in a bustling downtown cafe surrounded by people sipping lattes, talking and playing with their phones, laptops and other devices.We close out this year by looking ahead to the challenges of 2018 for WPKN, creative artists and all who use the internet.

featuring music by Iggy Pop, Wolf Alice, Ezra Furman and Nadine Shah.

Live Culture with Martha Willette Lewis -- Episode 32 greetings from the Labyrinth part two!

Sat, 28 Oct 2017 11:00:00 GMT

In a broacast recorded Live from Mr Gilbert's office in historic Erector Square during the City-Wide-Open-Studios- Festival weekend, this edition of Live Culture featured discussions with Erector Square artists Mark Williams, Jane Miller, Oi Fortin, Sidney Harris, Tim Spratlin and Jacquelyn Gleisner. Open studios is a huge annual event where artists open their workspaces to the public. Erector Square offers miles of hallways, studios and art in an event that showcases both the historic building and the wealth of talent that resides within.

More about CWOS:
https://artspacenewhaven.org/cwos-home/
More about Mark Williams:
http://www.markwilliamsart.com
More about jane miller:
http://janemiller.xyz/
More about Oi Fortin:
http://oifortin.com/
More about Sidney Harris:http://www.sciencecartoonsplus.com/index.php
More about Jacquelyn Gleisner:
http://www.jacquelyngleisner.com/
More about Tim Spratlin: https://www.connecticutfurniturecompany.com/

Live Culture Episode 31: Sound Objects

Sat, 30 Sep 2017 11:01:00 GMT

Guests: Huihui Cheng and Spencer Topel.

During this September edition of the show I talk to two artists who experiment with sound and objects in very different ways. We begin with an interview with Huihui Cheng, an experimental composer I caught up with this summer at the Camargo Foundation in France. This is a recorded conversation in front of her prepared piano as she adjusts it for the premiere of a commission at the Royaumont Festival in France.

For Messenger 2017, Cheng has taken apart an upright piano, created a kind of chained harness for the musician to wear, binding the instrument to the player and allowing for unique methods of interacting with the instrument. This was played by Pianist Claudia Chan in the premier which took place on the 7th of September.

Cheng lives in France and Germany and has had her works performed internationally. In addition to deconstructing pianos, Her unique take on composing has included using the audiences to play the composition via their cell phones. Your Smartest Choice was a performance for four musicians, electronics, and an audience with smartphones which happened at the Eclat Festival in Stuttgart on February, 2017 with members of the 2e2m Ensemble of an original composition by Cheng.

We hear various selections from Cheng’s oeuvre during the show including an opening a selection from Etüde@S played on Tárogató and live electronics, and closing out with some pieces from Your Smartest Choice.

Huihui Cheng studied composition with Guoping Jia and Caspar Johannes Walter and electronic composition with Marco Stroppa and Piet Johan Meyer. She attended SWR Vocal Ensemble Academy and Cursus, practical training in composition and computer music at IRCAM, Paris. Her music has been played by Ensemble Courage, Ensemble TIMF Korea, Ascolta Ensemble Stuttgart, New Ensemble Amsterdam, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Saarbrücken radio symphony orchestra, Radio France, Vocal Ensemble EXAUDI. She has won the first prize of Con Tempo, 2007 in China and the Grand Prize of Isang Yun International Composition Competition 2011, She received the Giga-Hertz Produktion Preis in 2016 , and she has a fellowship for Musiktheater der Heute from 2016-18. Recently she has been awarded scholarships from the Baden Württemberg Art Foundation, Schloss Wiepersdorf, Künsterhaus Schöppingen and Foundation Camargo. She will publish her Portrait DVD by WERGO in the series “Contemporary Music Germany” in 2019.

During the second half of the program we have a live conversation with Spencer Topel who is Assistant Professor of Music at Dartmouth College. From October 25th to November 3rd, 2017 his installation PART DES ANGES will be at the World Music Hall, of Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT.

What drew me to Spencer for this month’s show was his collaboration with musician Seth Parker Woods and the construction of a cast ice cello for the performance by Seth of ICED BODIES: Ice Music for Chicago which happened on August 12th at the Arts Club of Chicago in Illinois. In 1972, Fluxus artist/printmaker Jim McWilliams devised a piece for cellist Charlotte Moorman called Ice Music for London. It involved bags of frozen ice cubes fashioned in the shape of a cello, which Moorman, nude, “played” with a plexiglass “bow” for multiple hours. On the 45th anniversary of the original work, Seth Parker Woods and Spencer Topel readdressed McWilliams’ concept with an immersive experience. Woods, in a wetsuit, played an obsidian Ice Cello. As it melted, the amplified sounds of dripping water and falling ice filled the space. The audience was invited to come and go as they pleased during the 4 hours when Woods performed this epic work in its first major realization in 19 years.

We will discuss this and Spencer's many projects involving sound and object-making.

Spencer Topel is an American composer of experimental music and sound installations that explore relationships between architecture, space, and form. He is a recipient of numerous awards and honors, including a Danish International Visiting Artist Residency in 2013 (DIVA), the Palmer Dixon Prize from the Juilliard School for best composition, BMI and ASCAP Awards, and was an artist-in-residence with the Meitar Ensemble in July 2014 (Tel Aviv). Topel has produced works for many of America's premiere music and art institutions, including the Drawing Center NY, the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Juilliard Symphony, Oregon Symphony, and the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, TILT Brass, FLUX Quartet, and the Callithumpian Consort. Notable national/international collaborations include HUB New Music (Boston), FIGURA Ensemble (Copenhagen) the Contemporarte Ensemble (Venice) and the Meitar Ensemble and the Israeli Conservatory (Tel-Aviv). Topel received degrees from Cornell and The Juilliard School before joining the Tenure-Track Faculty at Dartmouth College, where he is currently an Assistant Professor of Music.

Links:
More about Spencer Topel and his projects: https://www.spencertopel.com/
More about Seth Parker Woods and Iced Bodies: http://www.artsclubchicago.org/exhibition/iced-bodies-ice-music-for-chicago/

More about Hui-hui Cheng and her music:https://huihuicheng.com/
more about the Royaumont Festival: https://www.royaumont.com/fr/presentation-festival-2017/presentation

Live Culture-- Episode 29: A Movable Feast

Sat, 29 Jul 2017 11:00:00 GMT

This months guests are:
Jeff Bergman, Director at Pace Prints, NY, and Artist Tom Burr.

The show will begin with a conversation with Gallerist Jeff Bergman, to discuss the recent spate of mid-size art gallery closures in New York and what the future is for brick and mortar galleries in the city that traditionally has been the hub for the visual arts in the United States. What does this mean for artists, collectors and those galleries which remain?

A lot is up in the air now, and we discuss the possibilities in these challenging times.
Two good recent articles on the situation are here and here.

Additionally, we will discuss Jeff's impending visit to Connecticut: he is one of the invited curators to visit this year's City-Wide-Open-Studios Festival in New Haven this October, where he will be perusing the local talent en situ.

My second guest will be Artist Tom Burr to discuss is current installation at the empty Pirelli Building in New Haven. Tom Burr/New Haven is part of Bortolami Gallery’s initiative Artist / City, which pairs an artist with a single space for one year. The gallery describes the initiative as:

"a new, experimental alternative for artists to show their work in American cities outside the standard five-week gallery show. Pairing an artist with a space in a different city for a year, we hope to set forth a progressive exhibition structure, expand our programming, and grow geographically without opening full-scale operations. The aim is to create a structure in which our artists can investigate their work without restriction."

The iconic Pirelli Building, designed by Marcel Breuer in 1968–70, sits unused, adjacent to Interstate 95 and serves as a dramatic gateway to the city of New Haven, Connecticut. Over the course of 2017, artist Tom Burr—a native of New Haven—has worked on the ground floor of the building, creating a series of site-specific artworks for the location. This endeavor represents a continuation of Burr’s reflections on site, subjectivities, and the eroded distinction between private and public spheres.

We discuss his choice of the site,of coming back home to make art relating to one's past, the use of an unoccupied space to create art, and how this will translate into what he does in the gallery spaces he also shows in. Additionally, in 2017, he has present solo exhibitions at Maureen Paley in London; the Westfälischer Kunstverein in Münster; and Galerie Neu in Berlin.

More about the project and visiting the site can be found here: www.bortolamigallery.com/artistcity/

Live Culture with Martha Willette Lewis -- Episode 26

Sat, 29 Apr 2017 10:59:30 GMT

The nature of art : This month we have two sets of guest who bring together the visual arts and music.

We begin with Home Winds, a book of photographs that comes with it's own song!

This new publication from Planthouse Gallery celebrates the trees on an old New Jersey Farm, and speaks of time, the importance of stewardship and the longing for home. I will be in discussion with acclaimed photographer Benjamin Swett, singer/songwriter Heather Woods Broderick about this project.

Over the course of a year, Swett captured the essence of Home Winds Farm through a series of portraits of the maples, beeches, lindens and black cherry trees that have populated the land for decades. The farm has been preserved under the New Jersey Farmland Preservation Program, ensuring the land would be protected forever for agricultural use. Broderick’s tribute song is a soulful ballad inspired by memories from her own upbringing on forested land in the Northeast. Proceeds from the release of the song Home Winds will beneï¬ÂÂÂÂt institutions devoted to ï¬ÂÂÂÂghting climate change. Home Winds, the book and record, come out on April 28, to coincide with the exhibition at Planthouse Gallery, April 28 – June 20, in New York City.

Benjamin Swett is a New York-based writer and photographer with an interest in combining photographs and text. His books include New York City of Trees (2013), The Hudson Valley: A Cultural Guide (2009), Route 22 (2007), and Great Trees of New York City: A Guide (2000). He has worked as a newspaper reporter and was a writer and photographer for the New York City Parks Department for thirteen years before taking up photography full-time in 2001. His book New York City of Trees won the 2013 New York City Book Award for Photography and his photographs are included in public collections such as the Museum of the City of New York as well as in corporate and private collections.

Heather Woods Broderick is a singer/ songwriter born in the state of Maine to a musical family, She currently lives in Oregon. A professional touring musician, Heather's work often invokes ideas of home and place. She sings, plays piano, cello, guitar and flute and has worked accompanying other artists as well as launching her solo career. She has two albums out: Glider and From the Ground.

During the second half we speak with Fritz Horstman a visual artist who also has an audio component to his work-- writing, playing and singing as a part of the duo Spacelover, with Meredith Andrews. Much of Fritz’s recent work has centered around water and fluid systems such as rivers. He has described his work as addressing “the ever-moving seam between nature and culture”. He currently has work up at ODETTA gallery in Brooklyn as a part of the show River Woman, and was selected to participate in the current deCordova Biennial at the deCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, where he has projects both in the gallery space and outdoors. He has also traveled to do work at residencies in Japan and in the Arctic Circle, and more locally as resident artist at the Yale Peabody Museum.

More about this months guests can be found at:

http://www.benjaminswett.com/
http://www.heatherwoodsbroderick.com/
http://planthouse.net/home-winds/

http://www.fritzhorstman.com/
https://spacelover.bandcamp.com/

Live Culture with Martha Willette Lewis --Episode 23, january 2017

Sat, 28 Jan 2017 11:00:00 GMT

Public Art/Art Public

Let's pretend it's summer!

This month on Live Culture we start off 2017 with a rebroadcast of Episode 4 from June 2015, which seems at once very relevant to right now and very far in the past indeed. This slice-of-warm-weather show features a conversation with Selby Nimrod, curator and project manager of Art Sites New Haven, a web-based initiative which offers interactive maps of public art in the greater New Haven area, and Laura Weir Clarke, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Site Projects, an organization which commissions international artists to do public art projects around the city of New Haven. Art Sites New Haven is a spin-off from Site Projects and offers access and information about the broad range of free, public outdoor works which surround us.

Come warm up with us next to your radio and dream of sunny excursions to sites historic and contemporary around town- or skip the mid-winter doldrums, bundle up and tour them all now!

To view the Art sites website and app visit: http://artsitesnewhaven.com/
To learn more about Site Projects: http://www.siteprojects.org/index.htm

with music excerpts by:

No Valentine – more here: https://novalentine.bandcamp.com

(thanks to No Valentine for their permission to use this song in its entirety)

The Natural Spiritual Orchestra ( Bill Lee and Branford Marsalis)
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
Naomi Shelton & The Gospel Queens
Nina Simone
John Legend & The Roots

Live Culture: Episode 21 This Land Is Your Land

Sat, 26 Nov 2016 11:00:00 GMT

Live Culture 21: This land was made for you and me

This month offers an audio visit with Mark D. Mitchell, the Holcombe T. Green Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture at the Yale University Art Gallery of his exhibit Yosemite: Exploring the Incomparable Valley. Commemorating the 150th anniversary of Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History and the 100th anniversary of the creation of America’s National Park Service, Yosemite: Exploring the Incomparable Valley considers one of the country’s most celebrated natural landmarks through the fields of both art and science.

Beginning in 1855, artists, scientists, and scenic tourists alike traveled to the Yosemite Valley in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains to experience its majestic landscape in person. President Abraham Lincoln extended the first protection to the region in 1864, preserving the valley, with its sheer granite cliffs and soaring waterfalls, as well as the neighboring Mariposa Grove of ancient sequoias. Taking as its starting point Albert Bierstadt’s large-scale Yosemite Valley, Glacier Point Trail (ca. 1873), a cornerstone of the collection of the Yale University Art Gallery, the exhibition shows how Americans found inspiration in the western landscape and also sought to understand its marvels—through paintings, prints, and photographs as well as the botanical and geological specimens that early scientists brought back from their expeditions. The exhibition was made possible by the Art Gallery Exhibition and Publication Fund and the Friends of American Arts at Yale Exhibition Fund.

Yosemite: Exploring the Incomparable Valley runs October 7, 2016–December 31, 2016

Episode 21 features musical clips by Ryder McNair from the 2015 film Yosemite, as well as songs from the bands The National Parks and Yosemite. Join us on the 26th to give thanks for one of America's greatest collective assets, our National Parks System.

Find our more by visiting:
http://artgallery.yale.edu/…/yosemite-exploring-incomparabl…
https://www.nps.gov/yose/index.htm
https://www.nps.gov/featurecont…/yose/anniversary/index.html

Live Culture with Martha Willette Lewis Episode 20

Sat, 29 Oct 2016 11:00:00 GMT

Episode 20: Greetings from the Labyrinth!

This month we are presenting a live broadcast from the Erector Square weekend of City-Wide-Open-Studios, an annual event that has hundreds of artists opening their studio doors to the public. Guests include open studios artists: Leila Daw, John Arabolos, Kathryn Frund, Lani Asucion, and Janet Lage, Artspace New Haven Director Helen Kauder and Erector Square Managment's Kathi Telman.

This special event has kindly been made possible through the generosity and help of: Kenneth Boroson Architects, The Erector Square Management Company, LLC. and the wonderful volunteers and staff at WPKN.

more about Erector Square open studios weekend here:

https://artspacenewhaven.org/cwos-home/oct-29-30-erector-square-weekend/

Live Culture with Martha Willette Lewis- Episode 19- With a Paddle

Sat, 24 Sep 2016 11:00:00 GMT

This Month I am in conversation with Artist and Canoeist Scott Schuldt. As we make our way along the Scantic River in CT we discuss his practice, which involves specimens and artifacts found on his river trips, and the special treasure hunt with them that he has created for this year's Game-On themed City-Wide-Open-Studios which happens throughout October In New Haven.

Each day several lucky players could win their artifact, beautifully contained in one of Scott's unique specimen boxes to show off and protect their treasure.Open Studios and Scott's game are free and open to the public.Additionally, for the past several years Scott has been working as Facilities Coordinator for City-Wide-Open-Studios' Alternative Space, acting as engineer for the many installations that take place in The Goffe Street Armory.

In addition to his specimen boxes. Scott's oeuvre also includes hand-carved and painted paddles, intricate bead-work, and an ongoing blog recording his over 700 canoe trips documented in words and pictures. Our voyage was included in his blog: The View From The Canoe and can be read here
More about Scott's visual art here
More about 2016's Game-On themed City-Wide-Open-Studios here

Peppered throughout the interview are bits of river-themed music- of which there was so much to choose from, plus references to our two mutually favorite river movies: Apocalypse Now and The African Queen. Don't miss this final summer adventure in audio....

Live Culture with Martha Willette Lewis --Episode 18

Sat, 27 Aug 2016 10:55:00 GMT

Glitches solved: This month Martha is in conversation with artist Abigail Reynolds about her forthcoming film project The Mothers Bones. This episode was recorded live from the boot of Abigail's car on the coastal cliffs of Cornwall and features selections from the original musical score for her film composed by St Keverne Brass Band leader Gareth Churcher, and played by the band in the Dean Quarry. Don't miss this special end-of-summer conversation about art, place, time, mythology, industry,and collaboration...

find out more about the film here http://www.mothersbones.com/
find out more about the music http://www.mothersbones.com/composition

and the St Keverne Brass Band here http://www.stkeverneband.com/

Abigail Reynolds lives in St Just, Cornwall, and has a studio at Porthmeor in St Ives. She studied English Literature at Oxford University before pursuing Fine Art. Her interest in books & libraries prompts her collages and sculpture which are often composed of found photographs spliced to create fresh narratives.
Recently she has worked with Rambert as their inaugural artist-in-residence, and The Guardian Picture Library.
She has work in the Government Art Collection, Yale University Art Gallery, New York Public Library and many private collections.

Live Culture- Episode 13

Sat, 26 Mar 2016 11:00:23 GMT

This month’s guests are artist Mohamad Hafez who has an exhibit at Real Art Ways, Hartford, and Robyn Shapiro, deputy director of the Lowline, a project taking place in Manhattan to create the world’s first underground park.

We begin in conversation with Mohamad Hafez, whose exhibit Desperate Cargo opened at Real Art Ways in Hartford on March 17th. Syrians worldwide continue to struggle to comprehend the recent aftermath of the Arab spring and its impact on their home country. What initially began as a Syrian uprising against injustice, tyranny, and marginalization of the country’s populace is now resulting in the largest humanitarian crisis of the 21st Century.

An artist and architect, Hafez was born in Damascus, raised in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and educated in the United States. Hafez’s art reflects the political turmoil in the Middle East through the compilation of found objects, paint and scrap metal. Using his architectural skills, Hafez creates political microcosms of life in this fraught environment. Desperate Cargo is a multimedia installation that incorporates a life raft, miniature elements, and photography, focussing on the war and the current refugee crisis facing us all now.

Desperate Cargo is on view until April 24th at Real Art Ways Hartford,to find out more:
http://www.realartways.org/event/mohamad-hafez/2016-03-12/

visit Mohamad's website here: http://www.mohamadhafez.com/

The charity organization Aid All Syrians here: http://www.aidallsyrians.org/

During the second half of the show, Martha will be in discussion with Robyn Shapiro, deputy director of The Lowline - the world’s first underground park, slated to open in 2020, in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. We will discuss the technology, artistry, and challenges that are involved in such a massive undertaking and why this could be a model for other such projects globally. Robyn oversees many of The Lowline’s core activities, from community engagement to strategic projects, including The Young Designers Program, which focuses on solar power projects with students.

The Lowline proposes innovative solar technology to illuminate the historic Williamsburg Bridge Trolley Terminal, just below Delancey Street. The site was opened in 1908 but has been unused since 1948 when trolley service was discontinued. Despite six decades of neglect, the space still retains remnant cobblestones, crisscrossing rail tracks and vaulted ceilings. It is also directly adjacent to the existing JMZ subway track at the Essex Street subway stop– so park visitors and subway riders would interact daily. This hidden historic site is located in one of the least green areas of New York City— presenting a unique opportunity to reclaim unused space for public good.

Designed by James Ramsey of Raad Studio, the proposed solar technology involves the creation of a “remote skylight.” In this approach, sunlight passes through a glass shield above the parabolic collector, and is reflected and gathered at one focal point, and directed underground. Sunlight is transmitted onto a reflective surface on the distributor dish underground, transmitting that sunlight into the space. This technology would transmit the necessary wavelengths of light to support photosynthesis, enabling plants and trees to grow. During periods of sunlight, electricity would not be necessary to light the space.

Currently The Lowline Lab is open -- a free community gathering space that displays cutting-edge solar technology and serves as a laboratory for lighting and horticulture experiments. The Lab also features cultural and community events. By 2020, The Lowline aims to have completed negotiations with the MTA and the City to build and operate the underground park.

Visitors may visit The Lowline Lab during the weekends, until 2017: http://www.thelowline.org/get-involved/lowline-lab/