Join us for an intimate evening of music and poetry in the 92YTribeca Gallery presented by Sylvie Degiez and Bonny Finberg.
Featuring performances by Darius James, Diane Spodarek, Bonny Finberg, Gerail Achee, Angela Babin, Sylvie Degiez, Luc Fuchs and Perry Robinson.
ARTIST BIOS
POETRY:
Darius James (aka Dr. Snakeskin, born 1954) is the author of That's Blaxploitation: Roots of the Baadasssss 'Tude (Rated X by an All'Whyte Jury), an unorthodox, semi-autobiographical history of the blaxploitation film genre, and Negrophobia: An Urban Parable, a satiric novel written in screenplay form. His work is influenced by Louisiana voodoo. Darius James lives in Hamden, Conn.
Diane Spodarek (aka Dangerous Diane) is one of curators of the exhibition "New Video and Performance Art in Detroit" which caused a considerable stir and is still remembered as a turning point in the community's view of contemporary art. With her husband, Randy Delbeke, she created the magazine "Detroit Artists Monthly" which was a vital organ for giving exposure to local artists as well as airing the views of well established New York artists and art critics through her regular hard hitting interviews. Always restless for new means of projecting her vision, she has been performing in theater productions for the past couple of years. Her recent performance, "The Drunk Monologues", first presented at The St. Marks Theater, combines aspects of traditional theater, artist's performance, and rock and roll to produce an edgy, semi autobiographical narrative.
Diane and Jay Yager collaborated in the production of the video No Pain No Gain which was awarded first prize in a statewide exhibition four days after it was completed. Diane performed in the award winning Indie Feature Red Cockroaches.
Bonny Finberg is writer of fiction and poetry, as well as a photographer, published in numerous literary journals and anthologies. Her work has been translated into French, Hungarian and Japanese. She is the author of Kali's Day an unpublished novel (excerpt published in the Brooklyn Rail) and How the Discovery of Sugar Produced the Romantic Era, a short story collection published by Sisyphus Press. She's also included in the series Best American Erotica ed. by Susie Bright and Outlaw Bible of American Poetry (Thundersmouth Press). She's been an active participant in the downtown literary community for 25 years and is included in the NYU Fales Library archive of Downtown Writers.
MUSIC:
Gerail Achee (aka Gerry Drum) was born in the village of St. James, near Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. Introduced to traditional Afro-Caribbean music at an early age, Achee started his artistic career as a limbo-dancer and later began to play djembe. In 1969 Gerald Achee founded the free improvisation percussion band Village Drums of Freedom (VDOF), now consisting of more than a hundred drummers all over the world, and an annual leading ensemble of the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival. In 2003 Gerald Achee and VDOF released the album Historic Travel: Cultural Rhythms. In 2009 he recorded an album Three Neighbours with Perry Robinson and Joel Chassan. And in the same year - Night Train For Lovers And Thieves with the Gypsy Groovz Orchestra, which was nominated to the Best World Music Album of 2009 by the BBC.
Angela Babin grew up in NYC surrounded by musician as the daughter of a pianist and classical composer. She was guitarist of the Ordinaires, and the Free Gotham Roots Orchestra to name but a few of her musical collaborations. A composer as well as a musician, Angela has been invited to perform in the 2012 4th Annual Composers Play Composers Marathon.
Sylvie Degiez is a composer, performer, teacher and organizer of musical art events. Her ensemble performances have been presented at venues in NYC (The Kitchen, Merce Cunningham Studio, 92YTribeca, Dance Theater Workshop, Bam Cafe and various clubs) and in Europe on occasion. Her work takes from philosophy and esoteric study in relation to music theory. One of the founding members of Cosmic Legends alongside Wayne Lopes, she has collaborated for many years with Angela Babin and Perry Robinson.
Luc Fuchs is a swiss clarinetist, recording artist from classical to jazz, including contemporary classical. He is an experimenter, a theoretician. a improviser with exceptional range. He teaches at the Popular Conservatory of Music in Geneva.
Perry Robinson grew up in New York City and attended the Lenox School of Jazz in Massachusetts in the summer of 1959. His first record, Funk Dumpling (with Kenny Barron, Henry Grimes, and Paul Motian) was recorded in 1962. He also appeared with Grimes on The Call in 1965. Since the beginning of his musical career, he has collaborated with a veritable who’s who of the jazz and improvisation music world including Dave Brubeck, Jeanne Lee Gunter Hampel, Burton Greene, William Parker, Walter Perkins, Theo Jörgensmann, Bernd Konrad and Muruga Booker. Perry’s work has been featured on recording on the Chiaroscuro, WestWind, CIMP and Timescraper labels.