Author

Liam Wamba

The LatestTheater

Theater Review: Death of a Salesmen

by Liam Wamba
written by Liam Wamba

Death of a Salesman has received a reinvention at the Hudson theater. Directed by Miranda Cromwell, the cast features an all black Lowman family. Wendell Price performs Willy Lowman to his depths, as an enthralling, pitiful, and honorable man. Sharon D. Clarke plays his wife and gave the show its most polished performance. She delivers her lines and sings her numbers with extreme clarity and timing. The unforgettable Andre De Shields plays Willy Lowmans mythical and wealthy older brother. Clad in all white with fake diamonds kickboxing the back of the room, there couldn’t be a more perfect charlatan. 

Arthur Miller was accused of being a communist in his day. The play unfolds the emotional reality of capitalism, in the home, the bar, the workplace or the heart. Desire, insecurity, despair, and detachment, proceed cyclically and fatally. Neither the cycle nor the symptoms have changed since Arthur Miller day. Something about greed is as common as the cold and as infectious in the air.

The magic of Miranda’s production is how refreshing of an effect she achieved with so few changes. The success of the play hinged on how well it confronted race while hardly changing any original lines. Willy tells his son not to pick up a pen if it falls from his employer’s desk during his interview. It takes no expounding for a visceral recognition of a power struggle dating to 1619. When Willy turns to his white mistress and says there’s laws against this in Massachusetts, he doesn’t need to specify he’s not not talking about adultery. We watch Willy beg a white man for his job, inflaming our double consciousness. I felt thoroughly provoked. 

A system that acts on our feelings will leave relatable imprints across all people who have had to bear the brunt its violence. Regardless of race, capitalism makes most of us feel the same. But a people who spent their first four hundred years chained to each other while building this system have a unique vulnerability. A unique vulnerability to belittlement, a unique vulnerability for disregard, and a unique level of despair. Without ever mentioning race Cromwell makes a micro study of this despair. 

 

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Uncategorized

On the Scene: Life of a Neuron

by Liam Wamba
written by Liam Wamba

Life of a Neuron is an exhibition by ARTECHOUSE in partnership with the Society for Neuroscience (SfN). ARTECHOUSE is a showroom for projects that bring together various elements of art, science and technology. The space is built for “experiential art” and their mission includes, “inspiring genre pushing artists to create with technology.” ARTECHOUSE looks to be evolving in numerous directions, veering between a gallery, a museum, and an adult playground. Couples and their infused drinks were strewn throughout the main exhibit. 

The exhibition lives up to their mission to create experiential art. After a short introduction in a separate room, visitors are released in groups into the exhibit, onto a loft at the far end of a long bar, overlooking the Life of a Neuron. Projected onto the floor and all three walls below the loft is a video playing the birth and death of a neuron in the neocortex. I wouldn’t call the silent video informative but it was very beautiful. The blurb for the video was upstairs by the bar. Most of the couples were to be found down stairs on the floor against the pillars, romantically gazing at the neuron. 

Off to the side of the bar and the main room were smaller interactive exhibits. All of them reacted to different movements and represented different functions of the brain. The blurbs gave me a relative idea of what function was being represented but the exhibit still felt more playground than science fair. The installations are all by various artists (Synthestruct, Yamashita Fuse, Gil Castro, and Server Demetrius) and presumably informed by scientists. Life of a Neuron runs from May 14th to November 13th in their NYC location, one of three along with D.C and Miami Beach.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
ArtUncategorized

Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces

by Liam Wamba
written by Liam Wamba

Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces, is open from October 9th to February 18th at the MoMA. JAM was a gallery and an art space open from 1974-1986. The exhibit is curated by Linda Goode Bryant herself, in concert with MoMA curator Thomas Jean Lax. The exhibit opens with the early bursts of JAM at 50 West 57th St. Lint in a plexiglass box by Wendy Ward Ehlers hangs alongside a collage of cut and pasted colored punched paper by Howardena Pindell. 

With two children and no money, Linda Goode Bryant founded JAM in 1974. Her will haunts the exhibit. Eviction notices are plastered against the wall in a small hallway leading to the second part of the exhibition. Against it are earphones where you can hear Linda’s words. “..never had any money” were the first words I heard when I put it to my ear. Acting before financing is the only way for BIPOC artists. 

The hallway takes you to JAM’s second location at Franklin st in Tribeca. On the right is a piece made by Heap-of-Birds (Hock E Aye Vi Edgar). Cheyenne and English words for community, liberty, and other concepts are painted alongside each other. The extent of Linda’s mission is apparent through her inclusivity. During this period the space focused on workshops, acting, and other participatory forms, while the wider art world was focused on collectible objects at the end of the 80’s. 

JAM feels more like a base camp than a showroom. A headquarters for Ms. Bryants invasion of the NYC art scene. Her collection of process based art chronicles her path to further inclusivity. A necessary process passed forward to a new generation of black artists. After fifty years her war path has brought JAM to MoMA, in the heart of midtown.  

 

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Art

On the Scene: Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure

by Liam Wamba
written by Liam Wamba

Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure, feels more like the tomb of a dead pharaoh than a gallery exhibition. The design is quasi-chronological, taking the viewer through Basquiat’s early life and sketches, to his Great Jones Studio and larger canvases. The exhibit is showing on the ground floor of the Starrett-Lehigh building and has been extended until 1/1/23. His two sisters are responsible for the exhibition. Their family and their relationship with Basquiat takes center stage. 

I knew very little about Basquiat before King Pleasure. On display is his work, his toys, party photos, a report card, and even a recreation of his childhood living room. T.V’s play loops of his sister’s stories about their younger brother’s antics. The exhibition indicates a human far less eccentric than the legend; the references to the housing crisis, the boxing motifs, the bicycle he had to ride because cabs wouldn’t pick up the young black legend. Eventually, but instantly, the life of a black New Yorker started to speak to me through his work.

I wouldn’t waste too much time on blurbs while viewing King Pleasure. The beauty of the work and the intimacy of the exhibit made the writing about his art very frustrating. Background information and family stories are a welcome addition, but written descriptions of motifs were a real dopamine dump. When you look at Basquiat’s work and see monsters, apartments, police, and philosophers, a short blurb saying that a black artist was concerned with black issues doesn’t add anything. It felt like an explainer for someone who didn’t care about black issues. 

The balance between a history exhibit and an art show is a fine line. Overexplaining is always a danger. The art and the artifacts speak volumes. A far reaching wordless commentary on society always smells like magic. I hope that more artists and their work can be entombed in as much context as King Pleasure does for King Basquiat.

 

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Fashion & BeautyThe Latest

On the Scene: Shantell Martin x Museum of Arts and Design Party

by Liam Wamba
written by Liam Wamba

Shantell Martin launched her collaboration with Hoek at the Museum of Arts and Design. The display was followed by a discussion with the artist about the collaboration process. Founded by Conor Coglhan and Brian Chu, Hoek is a made-to-order furniture and design brand produced out of A05 studios in Red Hook. All Hoek products are made with locally sourced sustainable material, like discarded plastics, and sustainably sourced plywood from Canada. 

Conor Coghlan explained that he was initially a fan of Shantell’s work before reaching out through instagram to ask her to collaborate. Shantell is a veteran collaborator, who has worked with museums, brands, and galleries. She uses line work, which she fluently adapts to different canvases. A05’s CNC machine, a massive pen, has featured in several other of their large scale collaborations. Shantell used this machine to bring her line work to size. 

Shanell spoke about the desire to create a world for her artwork. The collection at the Museum of Art and Design felt like a manifestation of that desire. Furniture adds interactive depth to any installation. When the furniture is the installation, it almost feels like play. This will surely not be Shantell’s last collaboration. Hoek has also expressed that they look to collaborate with more artists. Check out the collection at Hoek’s website and follow Shantell and Hoek on IG..

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
EntertainmentFilmThe Latest

On The Scene: ‘Invisible Demons’ Special Screening

by Liam Wamba
written by Liam Wamba

Participant documentary Invisible Demons by filmmaker Rahul Jain is a visually stunning attempt to raise awareness about an emergency in Delhi. Pollution and climate change has made the heat unbearable, turned the air poisonous, and killed all life in the river. The film is a visceral introduction to this new reality. Interviews are interspersed with granular visuals. A cow’s nose, a melting ice block, and foam on the river are emblematic examples of Invisible Demons visual style. There is something almost tactile to it. The film captures particles of pollution darting through the air, or “poisoned arrows” as Jain calls it. 

Coughing is an upsettingly prominent noise throughout the film. From children living on the streets, to an elderly woman who can’t fully exhale without falling into a coughing fit; the human cost of pollution is audible. Except in conversation with the workforce of Delhi, who are quick to say they don’t complain about what they can’t change. A boatman says it must be the gods. 

Invisible Demons is a familiar story of the poor being trampled on. Most westerners will experience several instances of certainty that this could never happen in their own capital city. The people of Delhi are well aware that the rich are heavily insulated from this public health crisis. From within air conditioned offices, politicians refuse to speak about pollution. A rickshaw driver says air conditioning is only for those who always have it. Acclimating to cool temperatures causes sickness upon return to the streets of Delhi. 

Every aspect of the film speaks just as much to class as it does to the environment. All the interviews grapple with some form of powerlessness. Invisible Demons invites urban westerners to locate themselves on the ladder of privilege. The film is an expansion of awareness, impressed through granular examples, and an influential way to spend an hour and ten minutes. Go check out Invisible Demons while it’s in theaters.

The film releases September 23rd in NYC (theatrically) and will be on MUBI starting October 4th.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
EntertainmentFilmThe Latest

On the Scene: Habla Loud Premiere

by Liam Wamba
written by Liam Wamba

Habla Loud is one of the premiere films of the New York Latin American Film Festival, running from September 12th through September 18th. Habla is an HBO series, now on its sixteenth installment with Habla Loud. The hour-long film premiered at the Regal Union Square. The after party was hosted by The Dean NYC, a restaurant in midtown specializing in events. Habla Loud is a celebration of Latino culture and its wide ranging impact. After the screening Bianca Marroquin, Nicolas Entel, Yulin Cruz, Olga Merediz, and filmmaker Alberto Ferrera spoke on a panel. All of the guests shared a different aspect of the Latino-American experience. The panel focused on how different industries have changed their standards of inclusivity towards latinos. 

The film is made up of interviews with fourteen guests: Curly Velasquez, Olga Merediz, Nicolas Entel; activist and co-founder of the Young Lords Party, Miguel “Mickey” Melendez; actors Wilson Cruz, Isabella Gomez, Bianca Marroquin, and Leonardo Nam; Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natalie Diaz; musicians Leila Cobo, Carla Morrison, and René Perez-Joglar; U.S. Congressman Ritchie Torres and former Mayor of San Juan and Puerto Rico, Yulín Cruz, who gave Habla Loud its name. An ode to her grandmother’s advice on how to deal with bullies.

Most of the creatives and entertainers spoke to Latino stereotypes in the mainstream and how they’ve changed. The stories drew from experiences across different industries. The politicians spoke to how their lived experiences as Latinos pushed them into politics. Yulin spoke about her experience in Puerto Rico during the hurricane and her struggle to get aid under the Trump Administration. 

The first interview of Habla Loud was with Nicolas Entel. He spoke about the experience of losing his national identity upon arrival to the states and becoming Latino. He stated that he believed that Latino culture was “mainstream” American culture. The New York Latin American Film Festival is a demonstration of this ongoing phenomenon. 

 

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Fashion & BeautyThe Latest

On the scene: Paris Laundry NYFW Event

by Liam Wamba
written by Liam Wamba

We got to visit Paris Laundry at their private pop-up show for NYFW. The pop-up ran from September 9th through September 11th. It took place inside 375 Showroom, an appointment-only boutique in the Lower East Side. Visitors got the chance to view the collection and purchase some of the pieces at a discount. ASAP illz, who featured in the promo for the pop-up, was at the store trying on various pieces while we were checking it out. 

The partnership with Ilz is emblematic of Paris Laundry’s world. Guy Samuels told us the name is a reference to the spin cycle of high fashion reselling New Yorkers their own style at a higher price. Foreign brands dominate the luxury clothing scene in NYC. Paris Laundry looks to fill what Guy sees as a gap in the market for upscale New York clothing. 

Production primarily takes place in NYC with luxe textiles sourced from around the world. Guy’s mother worked in the garment district. While speaking briefly about his design process, he explained that the materials are a major part of his impetus to design. 

Head to Paris laundry’s website to purchase some of the pieces we browsed at the store. To keep up with the brand, follow them on Insta.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
EntertainmentFilmThe Latest

On the Scene: ‘The Territory’ Special Screening

by Liam Wamba
written by Liam Wamba

The Territory brings an indigenous voice to the digital age, to document an ancient and dire conflict. Released by National Geographic and directed by Alex Pritz, the film was shot in concert with an Uru-eu-wau-wau film team. The Uru-eu-wau-wau have been using the technology to document the illegal logging, mining, and theft of their land. They were first contacted in 1981 and disease decimated their population. The situation in the Amazon mirrors the American west a few generations ago. The Uru-eu-wau-wau number 183 and their film crews patrol a territory triple the size of Delaware.

On the banks of the river, the film group forms a circle before they go on patrol. They all wear matching shirts with the word Vigilancia written in yellow. 18 year old Bitate says they are experiencing the same struggle their ancestors did, but now they have different tools. Along with bows and arrows, they prepare cell phones, cameras, and drones. The film is worth watching if only to see a group of teenage natives in screen printed T-shirts and war paint arrest an intruder at arrow point, tell him he needs a face mask, spray his hands with hand-sanitizer, and vlog it. 

Producer Gabriel Uchida told the panel that he was drawn to the film while trying to make a project about war. The Territory documents a war that indigenous teenagers have been forced into. With the help of the digital age, they’re fighting with control over their narratives. When Bitate spoke on the panel, the translator used the word strengthen when Bitate described how filmmaking would help his tribe. 

The visuals are a welcome reminder of what National Geographic does best. The shapes and colors of the rainforest are as captivating as ever. The documentary also relies on interviews with those who are slowly destroying the Amazon. Intrepid farmers, surrounded by burnt trees, calmly stake their claim to the land in quasi religious terms. It might seem odd that the documentary got access to the same group they’re exposing. Alex Pritz explained that it was easy to speak with the farmers if you were American. Their belt buckles and cowboy hats communicate a clear admiration for the American colonial project.

Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, has been touted as a Latin American Trump. At the beginning of the film Bitate watches a campaign speech where he tells an enthused audience, “There won’t be one more inch of indigenous reservation.” The Uru-eu-wau-wau territory is located in Rondonia, where he received almost 80% of the vote. Many Brazilian activists have been murdered during his presidency. The film documents a threat against the daughter of Nedinha, an activist and another protagonist. Nedinhia is a fierce defender of the Amazon. Along with Bitate, Alex, and indigenous activist Txai, she spoke on the panel after the film. She explained that Uru-eu-wau-wau territory was not just another random swath of jungle. Their territory hosts over 80% of the world’s biodiversity. Protecting the Amazon is a matter of protecting our planet.

 

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
EntertainmentFilmThe Latest

HBO Releases True Crime Documentary ‘Mind Over Murder’

by Liam Wamba
written by Liam Wamba

HBO Max is supporting local theater in its recent genre bending docuseries, Mind Over Murder. Of all the arts, theater has a unique relationship with public memory. Mind Over Murder is a six-part series about a gruesome murder and a play put on by local actors about the trial. Director Nanfu Wang’s past documentaries have also interwoven the public, private, and memory. One Child Nation focuses on China’s one child policy, while looking at Nanfu’s own experience as a mother. Hooligan Sparrow is about sexual assault through the lens of Nanfu’s childhood experiences with sex workers. Mind Over Murder covers the creation and performance of a play along with the trial and exoneration of the Beatrice Six. An exoneration due to DNA evidence and improper police conduct. The victim’s family formed a close relationship with the original investigator. Along with many residents of Beatrice, they maintained the guilt of the Six. 

The docuseries is loosely structured into three parts. The first two episodes start with Burt Searcey, the original investigator of the Six. Currently a flower shop owner, he’s still a paragon of Beatrice. Episodes three and four focus on the Beatrice Six; their lives, their conviction, and their exoneration. The last two episodes are about mistakes made in the original investigation, plus show night for the play, Gage County, Nebraska. 

Theater has a long history of avoiding censorship with artistic license to rehash social issues. Rehashing the murder of Helen Wilson and the trial of the Beatrice Six was widely rejected by the inhabitants of Beatrice. One facebook user said that the actors of the Community Players Theatre were just as bad as the Six who murdered Helen Wilson. One said the same thing that happened to Helen should happen to them. Helen Wilson’s family sat front row during the play. After the exoneration the Beatrice Six were awarded 28.1$ million from Gage County. Money that the county did not have. Most of the audience paid higher taxes because of six characters on stage.

It’s clear from everyone they had a bad reputation before the murder. The seedy character of the Six was the initial reason they were under investigation. Three Beatrice residents in a barber shop question why they were awarded so much more money in the civil suit than they would have made outside of prison. Public opinion about the trial played out through its own hometown characters.

Cecilia Rubino directed Gage County, Nebraska. We spoke about the play as an act of performative therapy. The performance attempted to be as realistic as possible, taking dialogue straight from the interrogation tapes. Simultaneously, Cecilia says that at the heart of the therapy is an escape from objective truth. The product is a performance of a marginalized perspective, heard from a human voice.

Cecilia emphasized that Gage County, Nebraska was an exercise, not an attempt to change the narrative. Elsewhere director Nanfu Wang spoke about being wary of the power she has as a documentary filmmaker to rewrite communal history. Helen Wilson’s grandson, Stan Wilson, was one of the family members who attended the play. In the last episode, he spoke about having to feel the Six’s innocence before believing it. During Gage County, Nebraska he felt it. I was struck by what theater was revealing about how deeply the non-rational shapes history. 

Mind Over Murder explores the scale of performative therapy on an entire county. Cecilia and I spoke about how difficult it is to find funding for theater. HBO’s support of Gage County, Nebraska is a major endorsement of the artform. It’ll be interesting to watch new genres emerge, with further collaborations between streaming platforms and theater.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Newer Posts
Older Posts