John Edwin Mason: Documentary, Motorsports, Photo History

Making Peace with Look3, the Festival of the Photograph

For most of its brief life, Look3, the Festival of the Photograph, has been a spectacular success and a miserable failure.  It's annually brought together some of the world's finest photographers for three days of peace, love, and photography.  Or, to put it another way, for three days of exhibitions, workshops, talks, and parties.  The cast of characters has included the likes of James Nachtwey, Sally Mann, Mary Ellen Mark, Bill Allard, Larry Fink, David Alan Harvey, Martin Parr, Sylvia Plachy, Gilles Peress, Maggie Steber, Alex Webb, and others whose names I can't remember at the moment.  How can anyone who loves photography complain about success like that?

 

[Click on either screen shot to see a larger version.]

We could complain -- it was vitally important to complain -- because Look3 was also a failure.  Until last year, no photographers of color -- no photographers of Asian, Latin American, and African descent -- had been featured at the festival.  None had been been "Insight Artists," "Masters," or workshop leaders.  This was a problem on a number of different levels.  Thinking narrowly about photography itself, Look3 was excluding many of most interesting photographers working today.  It was also wrong in the sense that taxpayer and corporate money was being used to support a racially exclusive event.

I took all of this personally.  After all, Look3's events take place in my hometown (Charlottesville, Virginia), no more than a 5 minute walk from my front door.

So I did something about it.  Being a child of the '60s, I organized -- bringing together members of the Charlottesville photo community, city councilors, and members of the University of Virginia faculty (where I teach) to press Look3's organizers to include leading photographers of color.  Being a citizen of the twenty-first century, I also blogged about it (for instance, here and here).

 

 

There were tensions along the way, but all of this activity culminated, last spring, in what turned out to be a friendly meeting with Nick Nichols, Look3's founder and guiding light, and Andrew Owen, its managing director.  They told us that they were bringing the African-American photographer LaToya Ruby Frazier to the festival in 2011 and promised that there was more to come.  (By the way, everyone that I talked to last year -- and that has to be dozens of people -- thought that Frazier's master talk was fabulous.  Her exhibition was also a resounding success.)

Nick and Andrew were right.  Much more is here.  The lineup for this year's festival has just been announced, and it includes two important African-American photographers -- Stanley Greene, a highly acclaimed, prize-winning photojournalist, and Hank Willis Thomas, a young and immensely creative multimedia artist and conceptual photographer who has been making big waves in the art world.

These are superb selections, no doubt about it.   Greene will be one of three "Insight Artists" (the true stars of the event), while Thomas will be one of about six photographers who will give a "Master's Talk."  ("Master" is awfully ironic, given the ways in which his work deals with race and American history).  Thomas' photos will also be displayed outdoors on the Downtown Mall.

Thomas is one of my favorite younger artists.  I recently saw Question Bridge, a multimedia work that he created with Chris Johnson, Bayete Ross Smith, and Kamal Sinclair, at the Brooklyn Museum.  It was one of the most moving and challenging experiences that I've had in a long time.  The video below will give you a since of what Thomas and his collaborators are up to.

 

Question Bridge: Black Males - Project Trailer from Question Bridge on Vimeo.

 

Does this mean that I'm perfectly happy with Look3?  Who, me?  Perfectly happy?  No.  I'd still like to see much greater representation Asian, Asian-American, Latin American, Latino/a, and African photographers, who are all few and far between at the festival.  These folks are doing some amazing work.  But is does mean that Look3 is something that I'm proud to say happens in my hometown.

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Tickets to Look3 are already on sale.  Get them while you can, here.

All Night Jazz Jam at Fellini's for the George Melvin Educational Fund

Last Saturday, the Charlottesville Jazz Society and Fellini's #9 (a great restaurant and my neighborhood pub) hosted an all night jazz jam session to benefit the George Melvin Educational Fund.  George, who passed away last year, was a truly beloved figure on Charlottesville's musical scene -- a wonderful teacher and mentor, and one of the great masters of the Hammond B3 organ.  The money raised will help students pay for lessons and instrument repairs, and it will allow the Jazz Society to provide resource packages to local schools.

 

 

John D'earth (trumpet) and Pete Spaar (bass).  23 July 2011.  [All photos copyright John Edwin Mason, 2011.]

I didn't last much past midnight (the jam really did stretch into the wee, small hours of the morning), but I managed to hear some terrific music.

 

 

Devonne Harris.  23 July 2011.

But it wasn't just about the music.  I also ran into a lot of friends at the jam.  It seemed that everyone in Charlottesville who cares about jazz (and who cared about George) turned out to support the fund raiser -- musicians, fans, producers, radio hosts, writers, and at least one photographer.

 

 

Pete Spaar.  23 July 2011.

 

 

Donations were gladly accepted.  23 July 2011.

 

 

Michael Elswick (sax) and Graham Daby (drums).  23 July 2011.

 

 

Tommy Bibb (flugelhorn) and other members of Jazz Collective #9.  23 July 2011.

 

 

Bob Hallahan (left) and Gary Funston (right).  23 July 2011.

WTJU, a local radio station that airs a lot of jazz, was broadcasting from Fellini's during the jam.  Here Gary Funston interviews pianist Bob Hallahan, who performed during the jam.

 

 

Regggie Marshall.  23 July 2011.

Reggie is a booking agent with an impressive list of clients, including Cindy Blackman-Santana and Patricia Barber, both of whom I saw last March at the Cape Town International Jazz Festival.

 

 

Fans.  23 July 2011.

 

 

Jeff Decker (sax) and a band member.  23 July 2011.  [Update:  That's Jim Ryan on bass.  Many thanks to Gary Funston for the ID.]

Jeff opened his set with a brilliant, moving performance of "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime."  It was an unusual choice, but appropriate, on all sorts of levels.

(By the way, you probably noticed that I wasn't able to identify all the musicians by name.  If you can help, please shoot me an email or leave a comment.)

4th of July Naturalization Ceremony at Monticello

...the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.

--Martin Luther King, Jr.

When my alarm clock went off at 6:00 this morning, I wasn't sure what I was going to do.  The idea of turning it off, turning over, and going back to sleep was very appealing.  After all, it's a holiday.

Instead, I dragged myself out of bed and, as I'd planned, headed off the the 49th Independence Day Celebration and Naturalization Ceremony, at Monticello.  I'm glad I did.  It's an annual antidote to cynicism.

 

 

Jim.  Monticello, 4 July 2011.  [All photos copyright John Edwin Mason, 2011.  Click on any of the images to see much larger versions.]

I've haven't always felt that way.

I've attended the ceremony 10 or 12 times in the past (this was the first time I carried a camera, instead of a French horn), and, every time, the event and its setting raise a series of complicated issues that I can't help but take personally.

 

 

The Old Guard and the Fifes and Drums of Colonial Williamsburg prepare to perform.  Monticello, 4 July 2011. 

First, the nation has been at war more often than not, during the years that I've been coming to the ceremony -- wars that, I think, will solve little and for which we have paid dearly, in blood and money.

 

 

Betsy, a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.  Monticello, 4 July 2011.

Second, I can't help be remember that Monticello is the home of Thomas Jefferson -- the third president of the United States, the author of the Declaration on Independence, the founder of the university at which I teach, and the owner of slaves.

 

 

Family members and friends of new citizens pose for pictures.  Monticello, 4 July 2011.

It's a troubling irony that the man who wrote these magnificent words (in the Declaration's first draft) -- We hold these Truths to be self-evident: that all Men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness -- owed his fortune and position in life to men and women whose liberty he denied.

 

 

A member of the local media interviews a new citizen.  Monticello, 4 July 2011.

Jefferson himself was profoundly aware of the irony, of the deep contradiction between his words and his deeds.  This wasn't just Jefferson's problem, of course, it was the nation's.  Convinced that blacks were intellectually inferior to whites and sure that blacks and whites could not live together as free people, he was never able to resolve it.

 

 

Steve Layman conducts the Charlottesville (Virginia) Municipal Band.  Monticello, 4 July 2011.

No, it took new generations to find answers -- men and women like Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, John Brown, Abraham Lincoln, Rosa Parks, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Martin Luther King.

All of them, like so many people, in so many places, drew inspiration from Jefferson's words and fought to make them real.  To a surprising extent, they succeeded.

 

 

Clara, Nancy, and other members of the Municipal Band's French horn section, my musical home for many years.  Monticello, 4 July 2011.

So America has changed.  Jefferson's generation wouldn't have welcomed many of the men, women, and children who became citizens, today.  (The Naturalization Act of 1790 restricted citizenship to whites.)  They came from Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Bolivia, Bosnia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burma, Canada, China, Colombia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominica, El Salvador, Estonia, Ethiopia, Germany, Ghana, Honduras, India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Malawi, Mexico, Moldova, Morocco, Nepal, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, South Korea, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, Uzbekistan, and Venezuela.

 

 

Jan and Tiffany.  Monticello, 4 July 2011.

At the end of the ceremony, the new citizens were invited to say a few words about what the ceremony and their new homeland meant to them.  One woman spoke movingly about the issues I've just raised -- acknowleging America's problems and pointing to the promises contained in Jefferson's words.

America, she reminded us, is a work-in-progress.

 

 

No 4th of July is complete without "The Stars and Stripes Forever."  And no performance of Sousa's great march is complete without the piccolo soloists.  Monticello, 4 July 2011.

I actually didn't mean to be so solemn.  Jefferson, without question the most interesting and most infurating of all presidents, will do that to me.

Instead, I meant to have been talking about how much fun I had at the ceremony.

 

 

The crowd.  Monticello, 4 July 2011.

Charlottesville's a small town.  (Monticello is only a couple of miles beyond the city limits.)  I'm sure to run into people I know any time I leave the house.  At a large event like the Naturalization Ceremony, I ran into a bunch.

 

 

A new American's family.  Monticello, 4 July 2011.

As nice as it is to see friends, it's even better to be reminded that a nation that can produce a Harriet Tubman, a Martin Luther King, and, yes, a Thomas Jefferson has got something going for it -- something good enough to persuade over 70 immigrants from all over the world that they want to be a part of it.

 

  

The crowd applauds the new citizens, after they've taken the oath.  Monticello, 4 July 2011.

As aware as I am of America's historical conumdrums and contemporary crises, it's hard to be a pessimist on a day like today.

 

 

The Old Guard and the Fifes and Drums of Colonial Williamsburg.  Monticello, 4 July 2011.

I want to believe that a country that has produced a Lincoln and a Hamer once -- a great president and a fearless grassroots activist -- can to it again.

 

 

Members of the Fifes and Drums of Colonial Williamsburg.  Monticello, 4 July 2011.

Looking at the people who came to Jefferson's Monticello to take part in and to witness the ceremony -- the home and grounds that he shared with his slaves -- I'm convinced that it will.

 

 

Bill Emory.  Monticello, 4 July 2011.

Tomorrow is another day, a day in which I'm likely to turn on the news and hear some right-wing crank (probably a senator, congressman, or former governor) say something that make me want to tear out my hair.

Today, however, I'll be honestly thankful for the complicated and challenging legacy that Thomas Jefferson left us.

 

 

Dissent.  Another Jeffersonian legacy.  Monticello, 4 July 2011.  [Click on the image to see a larger version.  You'll be able to read all those bumper stickers.]

Tonight! John D'earth's "Ephemera": World Premiere with the Youth Orchestas of Central Virginia

Tonight, in Charlottesville, the Youth Orchestras of Central Virginia will perform the premiere of composer John D'earth's Ephemera, a hauntingly beautiful suite for orchestra and voice.  The piece revolves around three poems by D'earth's late brother, Paul Smyth.  The poems, he says, "deal with exuberant living, loving, and surviving in a world of inevitable change and loss."  They describe "the beauty inherent in life’s inevitable fragility, and celebrat[e] the impulse to live and thrive.....”  (You can find ticket information, here.)

 

 

Veronica Swift O'Brien rehearsing John D'earth's Ephemera, 16 June 2011.  (All photos copyright John Edwin Mason, 2011.)

When the Youth Orchestras asked me to document a couple of the rehearsals, there was no doubt that I'd say "Yes."  D'earth, who directs the University of Virginia's Jazz Ensemble, has been on a creative roll, lately.  Last February, the Jazz Ensemble and the Free Bridge Quintet premiered his piece "Green Chemistry," an event that attracted national attention.  (I wrote about it here and here.)

 

 

Conductor Charles West leads a rehearsal of Ephemera, 16 June 2011.

Ephemera will surprise people who are expecting something loud, fast, and "jazzy."  This is contemplative music, quiet and moving.  Although the underlying rhythms and harmonies certainly draw on the musical vocabulary of jazz -- especially Miles Davis in his more reflective moods -- the sound of the piece also owes a lot to classical and folk music.  I'm guessing that many people in the audience, tonight, will hear echoes of Aaron Copland.

 

 

Veronica Swift O'Brien and the orchestra in rehearsal, 16 June 2011.

Ephemera isn't easy; it would challenge any adult orchestra.  The Youth Orchestras of Central Virginia are lucky to have Charles West, on the podium, and Veronica Swift O'Brien, as the vocal soloist.  West, a virtuoso clarinetist as well as a gifted conductor, is a professor of music at Virginia Commonwealth University.  Despite her youth (she'll be a high school senior, next year), Veronica is already an experienced jazz singer, having performed at Blues Alley, in Washington, D.C., and at Dizzy's Club Coca Cola, at Lincoln Center in New York.  She's even released a couple of CDs..

 

 

John D'earth and Charles West consult the score to Ephemera, 16 June 2011.

The interplay between the words of Smyth's poems and D'earth's music is sublime.  The effect is wonderfully tender.

 

 

John D'earth offers some comments to the orchestra, while rehearsing Ephemera, 16 June 2011.

It was easy to tell that the members of the orchestra was paying attention to what D'earth had to say.  He pushed them, encouraged them, challenged them, and praised them.  And they responded.

 

 

Violinists Frank Wu and Guillaume Bailey, rehearsing Ephemera, 16 June 2011.

Veronica's role is central to the piece -- after all, she sings the poems -- but she isn't the only soloist.  Frank Wu and Guillaume Bailey play violin solos that owe more to folk or even bluegrass than to jazz.  On the other hand, solos by Emily Kuhn, trumpet, Paige Rammelkamp, sax, Samantha Marshall, flute, and Andrew LaParade, trombone, are right in the jazz pocket.

For more information about tonight's concert, please visit the Paramount Theater's website, here.

 

 
 

PS  You can hear D'earth talk about Ephemera and hear a bit of the music, here.

 

CLAW, the Movie: Now on Kickstarter

CLAW?  What heck is that?  Well, the initials stand for Collective of Lady Arm Wrestlers, but that really isn't the answer.

What you need to know about CLAW is that it's part sport, mostly theater, and entirely hip.  The idea of getting a bunch of wacky women together to arm wrestle for charity came together in Charlottesville, Virginia, several years ago.  In the last couple of years, it's been spreading across the country, and the new shtick that Lady Wrestlers have been coming up with elsewhere is spectacular. 

 

 

My friend, Billy Hunt, and Brian Wimer, his comrade in arms, are documenting the CLAW phenomenon in their film Claw -- Collective of Lady Arm Wrestlers.  Right now, they're raising money on Kickstarter to finish it, and they need your help.  With a week left to go, they're still looking for a few more pledges to reach their goal of $5,000.00.  At that point, funding will be secure.

I'm backing the project, and I hope you will, too.

Update, 12 June 2011:  I'm delighted to say that Billy and Brian have met their fund-raising goal, and Kickstarter will release the money that's been pledged to the project!

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You can see more of Billy's CLAW photography, here.  Even better, you can watch the trailer for A CLAW to Remember:The 2008 Charlottesville Lady Arm Wrestlers Retrospective, the prize-winning book that he did about CLAW a few years ago, here.

By the way, if you're coming to Charlottesville for Look3, the Festival of the Photograph, you'll be able to check out some of Billy's CLAW photos at Cafe Cubano, right on the downtown pedestrian mall (which is where most of Look3's activities happen).

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PS  If you're seeing a big blank white space in the middle of this post, you're probably using IE.  Try switching to another browser.  For some reason, IE doesn't like Kickstarter videos.  Or you can just click on the link, that will take you to the Kickstater website.