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

Gee's Bend Quilters at the Mattress Factory

Gee’s Bend is a small community located in a pocket of land surrounded on three sides by the Alabama River. The community, now called Boykin, is home to a remarkable group of quilters. In the 1960s, Gee’s Bend became an important part of the Freedom Quilting Bee (a branch of the Civil Rights movement), which aimed to increase community development by the sales of their unique and beautiful quilts.

The artists of the Gee’s Bend quilting community have shown their quilts at many museums, from the Whitney Museum to the Smithsonian. For the first time in their lives, many of the quilters have a real income and have been able to inject new life into a vanishing community.

Please join the remarkable women of Gee’s Bend Quilting at the Mattress Factory on Tuesday, October 12th, 2010, from 6-8pm. There will be a quilt-making demonstration and discussion with the ladies of Gee’s Bend. View handmade quilts in the Mattress Factory lobby, see their history, and listen as they convey their stories through words, song, and craft.

East End Factory 500 Tour!

This past weekend, Factory 500 members and their guests got an exclusive East End tour, going to three very cool and different locations. Thanks to Tom Stepleton, we have some great images from the evening!

The first stop was the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, where members were able to learn about an exhibition of Maxo Vanka's work called Paintings and Works on Paper. William Lafe gave the guests a tour and information during the hour spent at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. The Factory 500 tour previously visited Maxo Vanka's Millvale Murals, and since these new images in this exhibition have not been previously shown, it was an excellent chance to revisit his work. The exhibition will be on view through November 7th, 2010.

(Members of the Factory 500 listen to a talk about Maxo Vanka's Paintings and Works on Paper)

The second stop was Tee Rex Syndicate / The Cotton Factory in Friendship. They specialize in screen printing tee shirts and other goodies. We received a wonderful tour of the facilities, including a display of finished products and a look at the shop, where the magic happens. Christian Shaknaitis led a demonstration of the screen printing process for the group, and the guests were even given a customized tote bag from the evening!

(Christian Shaknaitis shows the crowd how they screen print onto tees, tote bags, and other materials.)

The final stop on the tour was the Mansions on Fifth. This was a great chance to see a beautiful old building that is in the process of being restored. Bob Sendall, of All In Good Taste Productions, provided the guests with delicious treats, and the owners gave a history of the building and described the restoration process. Many thanks to both Bob Sendall, as well as Richard Pearson and Jennifer Pendleton for making us feel right at home.

(The crowd gathers in the Mansions on Fifth, currently undergoing extensive renovations.)

Many thanks to those who made the evening so wonderful! And as always, thank you to our Factory 500 members and their guests for coming to spent a fabulous evening with us. If you want to see more of the photos from the evening taken by Tom, you can check out our Flickr set.

Hope to see you all for the next Factory 500 tour!

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

9/24/10 Factory 500 Tour: East End

One of my favorite things about working at the Mattress Factory is getting to see other artists’ work spaces and shops from behind the scenes. It’s a chance to get up close and personal with the artistic community in Pittsburgh. The Factory 500 member-only events really cater to the desire to see how other artists in the area live, work and create.

This month, the Factory 500 Members are doing an East End tour that involves three stops. The night begins at 7 pm at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, and focuses on Maxo Vanka’s exhibition Paintings and Works on Paper. The group will spend about 45 minutes to an hour at each location, time-permitting. During the time, there will be a tour of the exhibition and talk about his work. Factory 500 members got a taste of his work earlier this year with a tour of Milvale's St. Nicholas Church covered in his own murals.


The second stop will be at The Cotton Factory on Penn Avenue. The Cotton Factory is a t-shirt and screen-printing business that ships orders nationally. They have t-shirt designs that range from Pittsburgh-themed to sarcastic and humorous to abstract. The group will spend time touring the shop and learning a bit about the processes at The Cotton Factory.



The third and last stop for the night will be at the Mansions on Fifth. Currently undergoing a full restoration, the old building located on Fifth Avenue in Shadyside is getting a new life. The group will join Chef Bob Sendall, of All In Good Taste Productions, for delicious treats in the kitchen at the Mansions. As far as I’m concerned, it sounds like a great way to end the evening.


These tours are always a lot of fun to plan and execute because of the wide variety of things to see and do. Our Factory 500 members really enjoy going to these behind the scenes tours, and I enjoy it, too. It doesn’t seem fair to just look at our own installation art here at the Mattress Factory; it’s necessary to step out into the Pittsburgh community and take a look at the other amazing things that are being created, whether visual arts, tee shirts, or delicious food.

If you’re interested in coming along on this unique tour become a member at the Factory 500 level! If you have any questions, feel free to contact me via email at abby[at]mattress[dot]org or call the museum at 412.231.3169 (and, yes, we can break down membership dues into monthly payments).

Factory 500 Member Event Recap: 7/15/10

Q: What do Airstreams, sound art, handmade bags, and live experimental music have in common?
A: A Factory 500 Membership tour, of course.

Three or four times each year, the Mattress Factory staff plans a unique evening of places you just don’t get to see every day for our Factory 500 members. In the past we have toured a wig-maker’s studio, a brewery, a metalsmith’s studio, and a mayor’s home constructed with two shipping containers.

On July 15th, Factory 500 Members toured the West End and North Side neighborhoods. The evening began at Wendy Downs’ and Jeremy Boyle’s studios in the West End of Pittsburgh. The first floor of their building is home to their quietly brilliant Moop shop where they design and hand make every bag from start to finish---and demonstrated their amazing craftsmanship before our very eyes. Wendy and Jeremy explained what brought them to West End in Pittsburgh after living in Western Massachusetts. Upstairs in Jeremy’s studio, he showed the crowd how he has created sound pieces with pneumatically controlled drums.

A 1979 Airstream motor coach awaited the Factory 500 members in the Mattress Factory’s parking lot. Mitchell Schwartz and Elaine Stone entertained dozens of guests in their Airstream with martinis, sangria and snacks. Curator-in-residence, Mark Garry, screened John Cage’s “Water Walk” film al fresco.

To wrap up the evening, the artists of “A Generous Act: A collaboration with music” did a sneak peek performance for the group in their recording studio located on the 4th floor of the Mattress Factory. Performing beautifully composed and performed pieces that had been created during their 16-day residency, the artists amazed the Factory 500 members with the huge amount of innovative work and camaraderie that can be accomplished in a short two-week span.

Thanks to everyone for a fantastic art-filled summer evening!

Feel like you're missing out? If you’re interested in becoming a member at the Factory 500 level (or any level), feel free to contact us via email at info[at]mattress[dot]org or calling the museum at 412.231.3169 (and, yes, we can break down membership dues into monthly payments).

Psst! We are in the midst of planning for our next Factory 500 event for the end of September. (Hint: It will be a very tasty and delectable evening.)

Internships at the MF

Part of my role as Director of Education here at the Mattress Factory involves coordinating internships. This is great because I have the unique opportunity to meet and get to know many young students as they assemble a professional pathway or imagine their post-graduation role within the world. For some, an internship can give insight into what it is they are passionate about and how to translate what they love into what they do. For others, an internship can be a stepping-stone or a bullet point on their resume. An internship can show an individual as much about what it is they do NOT want to do, as it can about what they do want to do. No matter the outcome, an internship can be a life-altering experience that forces a change of major, change of perception, or perhaps just a change of scenery.

Anymore, I find that college students want bigger, longer, and more intensive internships—they want to stay for two (or three) semesters instead of one, want to spend 20 (or 40) hours at the MF, instead of 12. This new trend is so mutually beneficial. The individual gets the inside scoop and is folded into the full-time staff as an integral member. The organization gets a whole lot more work done!

Ok, it’s more than that: student interns come loaded with freshly honed, cutting edge skills. For those of us who have been sitting behind desks for a few years, it’s an opportunity to learn from the student and see contemporary points of view. We can ask questions like, “How would you organize this information?” “What tools would you use to convey this message?” “How would you prioritize this to-do list?” “Can you help me decide if we’ve been successful?”

At the Mattress Factory, we are lucky to have interns from all over the world -- from local universities, and from universities far and wide. We have enjoyed working with interns with a range of ages and interests. Some have master’s degrees, some don’t yet have high school diplomas. An individual’s unique perspective and experiences are what draws us to them (and probably vice versa).

Having an intern means developing projects, asking and answering a million questions, giving advice, and in the end it means saying goodbye to somebody who you probably grew to depend on. In many cases, it can even mean saying goodbye to a friend. But, in the BEST cases, it means watching somebody take off into a wild world of choices and opportunities, hopefully made a little easier by having had a fruitful experience working at the Mattress Factory.

POSTED BY LIZ Read All Posts by Liz