Thursday with LHPAI: Winter classes are a win-win
I have to confess, I've been waiting for winter classes for a while: options for both of my kids at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute!
See the class in the upper left corner, My Music, My Story & My Dance? It's a movement/story time/song class for three to five-year-olds like TwoBoo. (Hopefully they'd be able to keep up with him. You know he's, um, "high-energy.") Most classes like this I see elsewhere are for older kids. Very cool.
For The Boy, I have several options: single-subject classes (like breakdancing on Thursdays) or the Winter Youth Performing Arts Academy. It's a Saturday class series of movement, dance, vocals, acting and dance, starting January 26.
The Boy would be most interested in the vocals, especially the part where kids learn how to do character voices. But wait, there's more -- for teens...
...and for grown-ups!
Classes include an open-studio string instrument class, writing, African dance and drumming, theater/voice, knitting and popping & locking (dance). I should sign up The Husband for that last one, just to hear his reaction. "Oh sure -- you can watch my joints start popping out of their sockets and my muscles start locking up."
You can register for classes in either of two ways:
If I sign up for any of the dance classes, you'll know -- by the sound of my own joints popping. Seriously, you can hear them like a mile away.
FTC disclosure: I'm partnering with the LHPAI on a series I call "Thursdays with LHPAI," generally published on Thursdays. I am being paid an honorarium for my work. However, all opinions and views expressed in this series are my own.
You can register for classes in either of two ways:
- Visit the SPARC class registration page OR
- Sign up in person at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute
If I sign up for any of the dance classes, you'll know -- by the sound of my own joints popping. Seriously, you can hear them like a mile away.
FTC disclosure: I'm partnering with the LHPAI on a series I call "Thursdays with LHPAI," generally published on Thursdays. I am being paid an honorarium for my work. However, all opinions and views expressed in this series are my own.
New artwork: sensitive "Skin"
I don't know why I kept avoiding writing about this artwork. Too personal? How's that possible for a woman painting a collage portrait of a man?
I guess the subject matter is weighing on my mind.
Want to see the full piece? First person to RSVP yes to my solo show will receive a sneak peek image of the full piece before everyone else! Just in case you've never RSVP'd on Facebook before, here's what you do:
Slowpokes will have to wait until May to see "Skin" [wicked cackle].
I paired the above medical text with a painted-over image from my favorite Library of Congress collection...
... and assembled other elements, including the art paper I think of as "pinto pony hide."
But the layout didn't really say "hide" or "skin" to me until I added another bit of text: "... the color of skin resides in the superficial layers, hence beauty is skin deep."
Pony hide... skin. Skin... hey, don't I have some crocodile hide paper?
So then I gave my guy a suit -- a tattered one, to expose the croc skin -- and added claw marks on the background for good measure.
From that point, it finally felt like I'd convinced the work to give up some of its secrets. I think it's enough to call this collage "Skin."
- Go to the event on Facebook here
- Click the "Join" button
- Message me to tell me your email address, so I know where to send the image
Slowpokes will have to wait until May to see "Skin" [wicked cackle].
Thursday with LHPAI: More of the PAI
I used to think the obvious place for a public performing arts institution would be, you know...
... within a city's arts administration. Apparently it wasn't that obvious in the late 1960s, though.
Forty years ago, the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center was created as part of an urban renewal initiative in Seattle's Central District (a mostly black neighborhood at the time). It was considered a performing arts and community center -- emphasis on the second use.
So the LHPAC joined other community centers under the Parks and Recreation Department umbrella.
Gradually, the arts aspect of the institute's mission expanded: more emphasis on professional-level performances and training. With that came a need to renovate the building itself -- a major seismic and electrical renewal that closed it to the public for two years. The doors reopened in April 2012.
In the fall, the city moved the newly-renamed Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center (LHPAI) to a new niche: the Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs.
The wonderful -- and often free -- programming focus on African Americans and the diaspora remains the same. But it's kind of cool to know more about its evolution. Settle in for a walk through the institute's history, courtesy of the Seattle Channel.
FTC disclosure: I'm partnering with the LHPAI on a series I call "Thursdays with LHPAI," generally published on Thursdays. I am being paid an honorarium for my work. However, all opinions and views expressed in this series are my own.
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| Original photo credit: Joe Mabel |
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| "Before They Die" film discussion. Credit: Purple Reels Productions |
The wonderful -- and often free -- programming focus on African Americans and the diaspora remains the same. But it's kind of cool to know more about its evolution. Settle in for a walk through the institute's history, courtesy of the Seattle Channel.
FTC disclosure: I'm partnering with the LHPAI on a series I call "Thursdays with LHPAI," generally published on Thursdays. I am being paid an honorarium for my work. However, all opinions and views expressed in this series are my own.