Sights & Sounds is your weekly guide to the Bay Area arts scene. The Tenderloin Museum's executive director Katie Conry told KALW’s Jen Chien about three fantastic arts events happening around the Bay this week.
- Skywatchers' Open Mic— Tenderloin National Forest on Feb. 23 at 5:30 p.m.
- A reading by Morgan Parker — The Ruby on Feb. 23 at 7 p.m.
- Scott Walker: 30 Century Man — Roxie Theater on Feb. 25 at 6:30 p.m.
Skywatchers is a project of Ann Bluethenthal Productions that invites residents of San Francisco’s Tenderloin District into partnership with artists to create installations about the neighborhood. Skywatchers will host an open mic that will kick off the Blessed Unrest, an arts and social justice festival at CounterPULSE on Saturday, February 24. There will be food, drumming, dancing, and anyone is welcome to perform at the open mic.
"If you go, you'll feel included, it will be incredibly moving. I really can't recommend them enough. I think they're an incredible example of what art can mean to people and to a community."
Renowned poet and author Morgan Parker is The Ruby's inaugural Writer-in-Residence. The program seeks to support great writers, and to bring writers from outside the Bay Area to The Ruby to read. The Ruby is an arts-focused work and gathering space for creative Bay Area women of all definitions. Morgan Parker is the author of There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncéand Other People’s Comfort Keeps Me Up At Night. Her poetry and essays have been published and anthologized in numerous publications, including The Paris Review, The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop, Best American Poetry 2016, The New York Times, and The Nation. Parker is the recipient of a 2017 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, winner of a 2016 Pushcart Prize, and a Cave Canem graduate fellow.
"It's really beautiful stuff, very lyrical and political and it's just the perfect fit for The Ruby, which is a new women-run artist collective. it's 100 percent member-supported."
The Roxie Theater is celebrating the 10th anniversary of Oscilloscope Films, the New York-based independent film distributor that helped change the face of art-house movie releasing.
A current wave of artist-driven, youth-oriented independent cinema owes a great deal to this industry-leading company, founded by the late Adam Yauch, and still going strong as it enters its second decade.
The Roxie's pick from the Oscilloscope catalog is https://youtu.be/oY8C5M9kCSU" target="_blank">Scott Walker: 30 Century Man. This 2006 gem shows a rare glimpse into the creative world of the most enigmatic figure in rock history. Tracing the undeniable impact Scott Walker has had on popular music through casual interviews with some of his biggest, highest profile fans, the film explores his fascinating trajectory.
From jobbing bass player on LA’s Sunset Strip, to his domination of the British pop scene that began in the swinging summer of 1965, to his transformation into a composer of true genius, here is an uncompromising and serious musician working at the peak of his powers.
At age 63, over the course of 2005, he went into the studio again, working on what could be his greatest artistic statement yet, and filmmakers were invited to experience this process with him.
"He's a very mysterious, enigmatic character... and just the journey from teen heartthrob to avant-garde musician is fascinating to watch."
The Tenderloin Museum is mountinga recreation of the Compton’s Cafeteria Riotat New Village Cafe as an interactive theater piece from 2/22-3/17.