It is okay for classical to be an utter stiff in every way as it is about the anxious new world euro mutt hegemons craving approval from the mother land. Jazz, you are on your own with pop parasites on one side slurping your rightful claim to honest genius and overstuffed culture mummies on the other propped up by wealthy blue hairs.
One example might be life expectancy. For an under compensated and over stressed participant in the African American core there are a dismaying number of very deep people, now gone, who never lived long enough to collect one social security check. The series of memorial concerts Vision Fest has held across 16 years is like a grim who's who.
The Mayor, for some crazy reason, declared New York City to be a 'Luxury Brand.' There is a twisted trickle down where all the money confiscated by Wall Street lands in piddling increments in the pockets of most people who actually work, whether opening limo doors or waiting tables where a gold leaf hamburger may be obtained for a few grand.
It's the karma of an old co mutual swindle and ensuing piracy. The Dutch thought the Natives were chumps for deeding an island for trinkets and the Natives thought the Dutch were chumps for thinking anyone could 'own' land. Then the Brits just stole it until it turned into America.
Amid this thicket of rapacious swindles large and small, the Vision Festival clings to its sense of place with a deep doggedness that speaks volumes about the depth and breadth of its heart. It is as much a part of the story as the music. The music is the most compelling outcome of the experience that occasions it.
Annie Day, a panelist on the June 6th discussion graciously offers a few thoughts on what it means to her.
“I'm thrilled to be participating in this year's Vision Festival, speaking on a panel titled, “Imagining a Culture of Resistance and Radical Vision: Artists and Social Action." (Monday, June 6, 5pm) As a writer for Revolution newspaper, I'm part of a movement to make a revolution in this country and you can't make a revolution without a revolutionary culture. Bob Avakian (the chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party), whose work I'll be bringing into the discussion, spoke to this recently in calling for a culture of revolt against a revolting culture, “We need a culture of radical opposition to the essence of everything that is wrong with this society and system, and the many different manifestations of that; we need an active searching for a radically better world, within which revolution and communism is a powerful and continually growing pole of attraction."
From that perspective, an exciting part of the Vision Festival is breaking down boundaries between different spheres of art, appreciating experimentation in terms of artistic form and breaking open this kind of essential dialogue. I look forward to being part of it and to learning from the Festival as a whole and the other participants in this panel who include Marc Ribot, Brandon Ross, David Henderson and Patricia Parker."
June 5th at 4PM: Opening the Festival.Obama, Class Struggle, The Media & The Arts.
Panelists: Amiri Baraka. The last Poet Laureate of New Jersey, Ed Bullins.Playwright; former Minister of Culture of the Black Panther Party,Woodie KingDirector, Producer; Founder of New Federal Theatre,Marvin XPrime Minister of Poetry, First Poet's Church of the Latter Day Egyptian Revisionists,William Parker,Composer, Bassist, Author Louis Reyes Rivera, moderator, Poet; Former host of Perspective on WBAI
June 6th at 5PM. Imagining a Culture of Resistance & Radical Vision: Artists & Social Action
A panel of artists and activists from different perspectives explore the role of art and culture in changing the world today, challenging people to think critically and envisioning another way the world could be. Panelists: Marc Ribot, musician, activist. Brandon Ross, musician; David Henderson poet, UmbraArts, Annie Day- writer Revolution News, Patricia Parker, AFA organizer, dancer Michael Heller, moderator (Doctoral Candidate in Ethnomusicology, Harvard University)
June 9 at 5PM. Innovative Music in Education.
Musicians take on the struggle to include innovative music as part of arts curriculum, and discuss the why and how to accomplish this critical task. Panelists: Gerald Cleaver, drummer, educator, Daniel Levin, cellist, educator, Tom Zlabinger, bassist, educator, Nicole Federici, violinist, educator, Juan Pablo Carletti, drummer, educator. Michael Heller, moderator
Abrons Art Center is at 466 Grand Street (at Pitt Street) New York, NY 10002.
