DR. ROBERT FARRIS THOMPSON ON AFRO-ATLANTIC ART

Robert Farris Thompson is America’s most prominent scholar of African art and its influence on American and Caribbean art and music. In the preface to Thompson’s forthcoming book, Aesthetic of the Cool: Afro-Atlantic Art and Music, publisher Gloria Kury calls him a living legend, and based on what I’ve read, I’d say that description is right on target.

Dr. Robert Farris Thompson

He has published eight books on topics ranging from the art history of the Yoruba people of southwestern Nigeria (Black Gods and Kings, 1971) to the cultural history of the tango (Tango: The Art History of Love, 2005). The Master of Timothy Dwight College at Yale, Thompson also authored an introduction to the diaries of Keith Haring and studies the art of Jose Bedia and Guillermo Kuitca. He has been anthologized fifteen times and was given the 2007 “Outstanding Contribution to Dance Research” award by the Congress of Research in Dance.

Long story short, this guy is brilliant.

Which is why we are thrilled to announce that Thompson will be visiting the MF this February for a tour of Queloides and a discussion! Dr. Thompson will present The Edge of the Road is Listening: The Art and Origin of an Afro-Cuban God. He will also be speaking about his almost-at-the-printers book, Aesthetic of the Cool, which collects the best of the essays on Afro-Atlantic art and music that he wrote from 1963 to 2006.

The evening is sure to be incredible; Gloria Kury recalls waiting outside one of Thompson’s classes at Yale and being bombarded by the sounds of music punctuated by thunderous applause. Not to mention my recent Internet search that yielded images of Thompson dancing the tango during several different lectures!

Talk: Dr. Robert Farris Thompson
Thursday, February 3, 2011
6:00PM – Tour of Queloides
7:00PM – Discussion
Mattress Factory, 500 Sampsonia Way, Pittsburgh, PA 15212
The cost is $10, and as always, MF Members and Pitt and CMU students are free!

STRANGE DEMOCRACY: An Evening with Spoken Word Brujo Guillermo Gómez Peña

Born in 1955 and raised in Mexico City, Guillermo Gómez-Peña came to the United States in 1978 and established himself as a performance artist, writer, activist, and educator. Much of his work—which includes performance art and photography, audio, video, installations, poetry, journalism, critical writings, and cultural theory—explores the culture and politics of the U.S.-Mexico border. In a larger sense, Gómez-Peña’s art and writings address the confrontations and misunderstandings that occur whenever two or more cultures, languages, or races meet.

Gómez-Peña’s performance and installation work has been presented at over seven-hundred venues across the world, and, in 2009, the Mattress Factory was honored to host Strange Democracy: An Evening with Guillermo Gómez-Peña. In this solo performance, Gómez-Peña tackled the end of the Bush era and the formidable challenges facing Obama. Using his body, language, and wit as his primary tools, Gómez-Peña reflected on identity, race, sexuality, pop culture, politics, and the impact of new technologies in the post-9-11 era.

For the past twenty years Gómez-Peña’s groundbreaking works (which critics have termed “Chicano cyber-punk performances” and “ethno-techno art”) have contributed to debates on cultural diversity, identity, and U.S.-Mexico relations. So we are excited to announce that Gómez-Peña will return to Pittsburgh this December, first for a lecture at CMU, then for a performance and audience discussion here at the MF on Thursday, 12/2 at 7:00PM entitled Strange Democracy: An Evening with Spoken Word Brujo Guillermo Gómez-Peña!

Strange Democracy: An Evening with Spoken Word Brujo Guillermo Gómez-Peña
Thursday, December 2, 2010
7:00PM
Mattress Factory, 500 Sampsonia Way, Pittsburgh, PA 15212
The cost is $10. As always, MF Members and Pitt and CMU students are free!

Hope to see you there!

PARADISE GRAY, FREESTYLE, HANDSDOWN + BZE JOIN SOANDRY

We are thrilled to announce additional performers and a very special host who will join Soandry on stage this Saturday at the New Hazlett Theater. Soandry will be joined by special guests and Pittsburgh and international favorites FREESTYLE, HANDSDOWN (ShaRon Don and Deejay Huggy), and BZE! We are honored to have PARADISE GRAY host this special event!

Freestyle a.k.a. FRZY

As an international recording artist, Freestyle has collaborated with other artists from Japan, Morocco, Bulgaria, and Germany and has reached great success. He has been featured on DJ Khaled's "Drive Time Show" twice, has reached the top ten charts in Germany, and has already performed for crowds as large as 30,000 people. He has been featured on two of the largest Jay-Z fansites as the "Next Jay-Z" and all hail his upcoming project "Reincarnation" as one of the most remarkable projects ever released in hip-hop.

Handsdown (ChaRon Don and Deejay Huggy)

Handsdown (ChaRon Don and Deejay Huggy) is a Pittsburgh native duo hip-hop group who have performing, recording and distributing music internationally and are working on a new release which is due to drop next month.

BZE (a.k.a. the Cuban Cruise Missile)

BZE, also known as the Cuban Cruise Missile, grew up in Northern California and was born to Cuban immigrants. The majority of BZE's cuts are dark, funky beats with production assistance by Omar-Abdul.

Paradise Gray (left)

Paradise Gray, who will host this performance, has a long track record in hip-hop, beginning with his membership in the socially conscious group the X-Clan. On the business side, he was a photographer for hip-hop magazines and manager of entertainment for The Latin Quarters, the legendary New York club that helped launch such acts as Public Enemy and A Tribe Called Quest.

Paradise Gray and X-Clan's "Xodus"

Order tickets in advance here.
Tickets will also be available at the door:
$12 general admission
Mattress Factory members (+1) free at the door
Pitt & CMU students with I.D. are $9 at the door
Performance begins at 8pm

Soandry’s debut performance in the U.S. on October 23, 2010!

We are very excited to announce that Cuban hip-hop artist Soandry, formerly of the duo “Hermanos de Causa”, will be performing for the first time in the United States at the New Hazlett Theater on Saturday, October 23, 2010. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to learn the stories of the struggles and the triumphs of a Cuban rapper.

Soandry “Luchando con rimas” (“Struggling with rhymes”) by Oscar B. Castillo

Known for being a passionate free-thinker who shares the realities of life in Cuba, Soandry, is a leader of the hip-hop scene in Havana. He shares a distinct socially conscious rap ethic that is uncommon in Cuba. His unabashed criticism of the Cuban government is audacious.

Soandry’s “Negro Cubano”

Soandry was recently featured in the documentary about Cuban hip-hop entitled “East of Havana”. The film, which focuses on Soandry and two other underground Cuban hip-hop artists, has been deemed “A vital look at Cuba's tenaciously grassroots hip-hop scene” and that “For the youth in the film, music doesn’t just have a purpose, it is a purpose, and the artists find in hip-hop a 'mental freedom.'” The film will be screened on October 21, 2010, at the Mattress Factory with an introduction by the director. The event is free.

“East of Havana” trailer featuring Soandry

Architecture in Havana

Claudia Giannini is an arts writer and has been Development Associate for the Mattress Factory since 1995. She prepares written material for grant proposals & exhibition publications, and oversees publication production. She holds a M.Ed. in Museum Education, and M.F.A. in Visual Art and is a practicing artist. This was her first trip to Cuba.

Cuba has a long history and its story can be read in its architecture. Columbus landed in Cuba on October 28, 1492 and settlement began in the 1500s. The Spanish built forts in strategic places on the coast out of blocks cut from coral reefs. It’s fun to pick out the shell forms in the walls. These fortifications, built for strength not looks, are in remarkably good condition.

Because there has been little development, Cuba’s buildings are like an architecture textbook in 3-D. Domestic architecture modeled on Spanish palaces built around a central courtyard began in the 1600s. Many buildings—like our hotel Palacio O’Farrill—combine elaborate Spanish Baroque, Roman-inspired Neoclassical, and Art-Nouveau/Art Deco.



In the last seven years, a lot of restoration of the colonial-era buildings has taken place in Habana Vieja (old Havana), which is a UN-designated World Heritage site. One is struck by the lyrical beauty of the wonderful restorations, side by side with the haunting crumbling masterpieces, that are home to many people carrying on their everyday lives.

The “official” post-revolutionary architecture is a combination of Soviet bloc non-descript concrete and really interesting modern design. Cuba’s art schools were lavished with architectural care, but deteriorated during the Special Period in the ‘90s. We saw an example of this when we visited Institute Superior de Arte (ISA), an art academy that has been rescued from the tropical climate and jungle encroachment.

Wheels Down Havana

We're here. Our flight arrived on time at the Havana airport to beautiful weather. Low 80s and blue, sunny skies. We scooted through customs after a moderate amount of questioning and jumped in a taxi to make our way to the hotel.

The landscape immediately surrounding the airport is rural and open. But we soon found the population growing more dense and the buildings growing taller. The next thing we know, we're in the heart of Havana passing monuments to the revolution and the Capitol. A few minutes later, we arrived at our hotel, located in the Habana Viejas (Old Havana). This is a very interesting neighborhood -- a unique mix of circa 1500s and modern architecture, residential and commercial, wealth and poverty...


(Keep reading on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's community blog page. You know you want to.)

POSTED BY JEFFREY Read All Posts by Jeffrey

Gas Gloves, Queen Street and Dim Sum

The drive to Toronto was great. As we got on 279 North toward Erie, all three of us basically said in unison, "Wow. What a day for a road trip." The sun was shining brilliantly and the road was almost ours alone.

Conversation centered around to-do items on the Cuba check-list (museums and art, the Hemingway House, a trip to the beach to name a few), a discussion of the popular attraction to outlet mall shopping, and observances of nature as we passed through the western Pennsylvania and New York countryside...


(Keep reading on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's community blog page. You know you want to.)

POSTED BY JEFFREY Read All Posts by Jeffrey

Viajes Artisticos. Or, I Wish I Was Going to Cuba

I’m not going to lie. I’m a little jealous. Next week, three lucky staff members are joining co-directors Barbara Luderowski and Michael Olijnyk for a week-long trip to Cuba. The occasion is the opening of Queloides/Keloids: Race and Racism in Cuban Contemporary Art at the Wifredo Lam Center for Contemporary Art in Havana. After the Havana run of the exhibition ends on May 31, several artists will travel to Pittsburgh to work in-residence and create new work for a Mattress Factory-produced Queloides/Keloids exhibition.

Traveling to Cuba is no easy task. As people are fond of saying in their best New England accent, “you can’t get there from here.” Due to the most enduring trade embargo in modern history, U.S. residents are prohibited from traveling to our island neighbor despite the 90 miles that separates Key West from the northern tip of Cuba. The Mattress Factory had to secure a special license from the U.S. Department of the Treasury to enable the group to travel.

The third floor (home of Media/PR) has been a flurry of activity. Jeff, a member of the traveling delegation, will be blogging about the trip for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, so a quick visit with Sharon Eberson, paper’s online features editor, took place to iron out a few logistic details. Press releases are being written. A few extra meetings scheduled. Redundant systems are being established in anticipation of spotty internet access in Cuba. This morning I brought a bag of dark chocolate to the office to calm nerves.

One of my tasks earlier this week was to “get a quote from Michael.” Although I see Michael frequently, we have never had the occasion to talk about anything more serious than the weather. Now I was putting him on the spot. I was a little apprehensive. And the look on Michael’s face was one of discomfort. But this is what came pouring out of his mouth:

“Even though governments make it difficult for people to travel, you can’t stop ideas and the arts from crossing borders. Art is an international language that has to – and can – cross borders, start dialogues, and hopefully make people realize that we’re all similar.”

Wow. While this trip is an opportunity for staff members to begin preparations for the October show by meeting with artists and visiting their studios, it is also part of a long history of cultural diplomacy in which prominent arts institutions have engaged for years.

In 1979 the Boston Symphony Orchestra performed in China at the end of the Cultural Revolution. In 1986, the National Gallery of Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art hosted a rare exchange of 41 impressionist paintings from the Soviet Union. Thirty-four paintings – including masterpieces by Matisse, Picasso, and Renoir – had never been shown in the United States.

In 2008, the New York Philharmonic traveled to North Korea for the first ever performance by an American orchestra in that country. Zarin Mehta, the Philharmonic’s president and executive director described “the power of music to unite people.”

In 2004 the Mattress Factory presented its first exhibition of Cuban artists but was forced to coordinate the entire installation electronically over the internet. (Ask Owen about this some time.) The artists were not given permission to travel for their residencies.

The guest curator for this show, Alejandro de la Fuente, Research Professor of History and Latin American Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, is trying again with Queloides/Keloids. If times do change, expect to welcome some of Cuba’s most renowned contemporary artists to Pittsburgh in October.

Lesley Williamson is a guest blogger. While completing a Master of Arts Management degree at Carnegie Mellon University, she is interning in the Mattress Factory's marketing department and will be posting here regularly through May. Lesley and her husband David Coester, a classical guitarist, make their home in Dunkirk, NY where they occasionally share custody of two small brown geriatric border terrier dogs. (It's a long story.)