K.A.R.A.T.E. is a volunteer-based organisation committed to helping artists defend themselves in court for art-related crimes conceived in public space.
Kids Are Rallying Against The Empire (K.A.R.A.T.E.) is a grass roots effort we hope to eventually turn into a non-profit organization. Sadly, when dealing with the legal system most artists don’t know, understand, or are intimidated into forgoing their rights. Artists are often poorly represented in court and do not have financial access to proper counsel. K.A.R.A.T.E. is committed to helping artists defend themselves in court for art-related crimes conceived in public space.
Even at its infancy K.A.R.A.T.E. has managed to get Henry Matyjewicz, a Poster Boy participant, out of prison on appeal only two weeks after being sentenced to 11months by a superior court in New York. Mr. Matyjewicz is now being represented by world class civil rights lawyer, Ron Kuby. Because of K.A.R.A.T.E. Mr. Matyjewicz now stands a fighting chance in court.
You’re officially invited to The War of Art book release party.
Email us HERE if you’d like to know more about the fund.
Signed copies of the book along with special edition prints are available HERE. A portion of the sales will go to the K.A.R.A.T.E. fund.
Held each August Bank Holiday since 1966, the Notting Hill Carnival is the largest festival celebration of its kind in Europe. Every year the streets of West London come alive, with the sounds and smells of Europe’s biggest street festival. Twenty miles of vibrant colourful costumes surround over 40 static sound systems, hundreds of Caribbean food stalls, over 40,000 volunteers and over 1 million Notting Hill carnival revellers.
Starting its life as a local festival set up by the West Indian community of the Notting Hill area, it has now become a full-blooded Caribbean carnival, attracting millions of visitors from all over the globe. With many astonishing floats and the sounds of the traditional steel drum bands, scores of massive sound systems plus not forgetting the hundreds of stalls that line the streets of Notting Hill. The Notting Hill Carnival is arguably London’s most exciting annual event.
The Notting Hill Carnival usually gets under way on the Saturday with the steel band competition. Sunday is Kids’ Day, when the costume prizes are awarded. On Bank Holiday Monday, the main parade takes place. It generally begins on Great Western Road, then winds its way along Chepstow Road, on to Westbourne Grove, and then Ladbroke Grove. In the evening, the floats leave the streets in procession, and people carry continue partying at the many Notting Hill Carnival after parties.
The Notting Hill Carnival dates for 2010 are August 29th and 30th.
If you’re going, have a safe and fun filled time. Remember to wear sensible footwear and always rehydrate
Also check out the WEBSITE for info on the best route to the Carnival.
Since 1994, the Eric Firestone Gallery has mounted comprehensive exhibitions of fine art and design dating from the late nineteenth century to the present. Recent notable shows include: Enrique Montenegro: American Modernist (2008), Michael Cajero (2009) and Warhol: Dylan to Duchamp (2010). The main Tucson gallery, set within a historic Josias Joesler designed adobe, offers visitors a unique sense of the 1930s-era southwest, while providing an intimate environment for the display of art. The east coast space, located in the heart of the village of East Hampton, NY, reflects the energy and vibrant culture of nearby New York City. Both locations offer consultations on collections, estates, restoration, and framing, as well as art appraisals.
Their most recent show, Down By Law – New York’s Underground Art Explosion 1970’s-1980’s is causing quite a stir.
With some of the most incredibly exciting leading names from the movement, both living and passed, Down By Law has marked quite incredibly the movement that is Graffiti. Artists include:
Charlie Ahern, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Blade, Henry Chalfont, Joe Conzo, Martha Cooper, Daze, Dr. Revolt, Futura, Ghost, Michael Halsband, Keith Haring, Eric Haze, Keo, Eric Kroll, Lady Pink, Greg Lamarche, Chris Pape, Rammellzee, Carlos “Mare 139″ Rodriguez, Anita Rosenburg, Sharp, Jamel Shabazz, T-Kid 170, Dondi White and Zephyr.
We are proud to note Blade and Mare 139 have been headline artists in our Hip Hop Festival, Rising Styles.
The show is on: AUG 14 – sep 26 2010.
At: 4 Newtown Lane, East Hampton, New York, 11937.
The show is curated by: Eric Firestone and Miss Rosen.
Jam Jah Sound ft Pablo Rider (Friendly Fire)
South Brums number one Reggae Collective, fronted by the fastest mouth in the West Midlands. www.jamjahsound.com
Hosted by KOSYNE (Louis Den/ Eat Good)
Beatmaker/ Emcee / Producer-Engineer / Host / Vinyl Head run the Louis Den beat making website/nights. http://www.louisden.com/
Bangla Stories is based on a three year research project exploring the history and experience of migration from the Bengal delta region in the period after Indian Independence in 1947.
It is estimated that since this time over 20 million people, Muslims and Hindus, have left their homes and moved across national borders to live in a new country, with a small number moving long distance to Europe and the Middle East. Many moved because of war or communal conflict, or because of natural disasters, through marriage or for work – all were in search of a better life for themselves and their families.
We were interested in exploring when, how and why people moved and their experiences of migration and settlement in new places. We collected over 180 life history interviews with first generation migrants living in India, Bangladesh and the United Kingdom. The project focused on Bengali Muslims, who were the largest group to settle in the UK. These Bangla stories paint a very intimate portrait of what it means to migrate, to start a new life and create a new home.
Our stories of migration came out of a three- year London School of Economics/University of Cambridge project. They’re told by people who left Bengal after Independence in 1947 when the state was divided into West Bengal and East Pakistan (later Bangladesh). These are stories of people who left behind home and family, people who crossed new borders and travelled overseas, people who made new lives.
Bangla Stories have chosen eight main interviewees to help you understand the history – and life histories – of migration. They will help explain how and why very ordinary people moved from country to country. They tell some extraordinary stories – real life stories that paint a vivid picture of the changing experiences of migration among Bengali Muslim communities in India, Bangladesh and the United Kingdom.
For full info on the project and how you can interact with it please visit the dedicated website HERE.
Free taster day for Hip Hop Foundation on 24 August 2010 @ Brighton Youth Centre.
If you’re 14-20 and want to be involved in this year’s Hip Hop Foundation, we’ve got a taster day for you to come and check out and get a head start.
Who’s this for? Rappers, producers, actors, street artists, singers – or anyone who thinks they’ve got some flavour to give.
The taster day’s this Tuesday 24 August at Brighton Youth Centre 12-4pm.
Then there will be regular workshops from September to December when you’ll be working with Dizraeli and other exciting artists to produce a hip hop production that will be performed in early 2011 at the esteemed Brighton Dome’s Pavillion Theatre.
If you didnt already know, one of our flagship projects is Rising Styles. This is the UK’s longest running Hip Hop festival that is for everyone whether you know anything, or nothing about Hip Hop.
Last year’s festy has been encapsulated by overcreative.com through this short film. Check it out, talk about it, share it and we hope it inspires you to come to one of our events* later this year in Brighton.
New York-based design consultancy The Way We See The World has developed a new version of disposable cups called Jelloware. These edible cups are made of agar agar, a gelatin derived from algae and used as an ingredient in desserts, which are cast in different flavors like rosemary-beet and lemon-basil to complement the beverage inside. Once used, the Jelloware can be simply tossed onto the grass where agar agar would nurture the plants to grow, making these cups an ideal substitute for disposable plastic and paper cups. Via:[PSFK]
Oscar-winning actor and director writes to George Osborne in protest at planned closure of UK Film Council.
A new combatant in the fight against the proposed closure of the UK Film Council raised his head above the parapet this weekend. Oscar-winning actor and director Clint Eastwood was so concerned by the move, announced by the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, a fortnight ago as part of a raft of cost-cutting measures, that he wrote a letter of protest to the chancellor, George Osborne.
The man who was Dirty Harry wrote: “I cannot stress how important the UK Film Council is to me … The prospect of losing such a valuable resource is of great concern as we contemplate future projects.”
Eastwood praised the efforts of the council during the London-based shoot of his most recent film, The Hereafter, and cautioned that after its abolition, such a production would be less likely to choose the UK as a location and that money being pumped into the economy might dry up.
“Locales with active, knowledgable film commissions are far more appealing to us as producers … I respectfully request careful consideration of these concerns in deciding the fate of the UK Film Council.”
Eastwood’s statement comes in the wake of a wave of condemnation from industry workers, including actors Liam Neeson, James McAvoy and Emily Blunt. An online petition to save the council has also accumulated thousands of signatures.
Chico Outlaws’s 18-year-old ‘Knuckleball Princess’ is hailed as a pioneer for equality in sport, despite struggling on the field.
An obscure baseball stadium in northern California is becoming a real-life field of dreams for Eri Yoshida. In just three months, the 18-year-old has pitched herself into sporting history and the affections of some of the most fickle baseball fans in the world.
Earlier this year Yoshida became only the third woman in history – and the first from Japan – to play in the US male professional baseball leagues. Despite struggling to adapt to the rigours of the game at that level, Yoshida is being hailed as a pioneer for equality in sport while earning the respect of hard-nosed pundits for her performances on the mound for the Chico Outlaws in the minor Golden Baseball League.
Yoshida was already the first woman to play professional baseball in Japan when, as a 16-year-old schoolgirl, she was chosen to play for Kobe Cruise 9 in the minor Kansai Independent League. Her face, partly hidden by her ever-present baseball cap, was splashed on the pages of Japan’s sports tabloids, while the Asahi Shimbun, a serious broadsheet, ran an analysis of her pitching style.
In her first few weeks in the US, Yoshida was again a familiar face in the domestic sports press and the subject of a TV documentary. Despite playing poorly in her debut in late May, Japanese reporters focused on her spirit rather than what Yoshida described on her blog as “extremely regrettable” pitching.
Yoshida is known in both countries as the Knuckleball Princess in honour of her trademark pitch, a fiendish delivery in which the ball suddenly changes trajectory. The first woman to pitch in men’s professional baseball since Ila Borders left the sport in the late 1990s, she has brought international attention to her new home in rural California, where she lives with a host family.
Last week, she was honoured with a public proclamation by the mayor of Chico, Ann Schwab. “She has brought a positive image to Chico; of dreams that are possible, goals that can be achieved and that Chico is a family-friendly community,” Schwab said. “She has put Chico on the map all over the world.”
Yoshida has already found her way into the sport’s Hall of Fame, where her Outlaws jersey appears alongside memorabilia from Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio and other baseball legends.
She is proving a marketing dream for the previously unheralded Outlaws. Young female sports fans, thrilled to see a woman take the field in a male league, are snapping up T-shirt versions of her No 3 jersey, while her presence has boosted attendances at the club’s 4,200-capacity Nettleton Stadium.
Back home, one travel agency is courting her loyal fans with a three-night, two-game package tour to Chico later this month. The cost: 270,000 yen (£2,000).
Three months and 22 innings into her American adventure, the Yokohama-born pitcher is still winless, although according to her coaches and teammates, it is not for want of trying.
“Eri has performed quite well under the circumstances. She is 18 years old and halfway around the world from her home,” said the Chico manager, Garry Templeton. “Eighteen-year-old males don’t play at this level. Like any 18-year-old in any business, you’re still a kid and still learning. But this means a lot for girls in general.
“There are probably ladies who think they might be able to compete at a high level, but maybe don’t have the confidence. This will give them the confidence. This will open doors.”
The Outlaws catcher Robby Alcombrack described her performances and attitude as incredible. “She’s getting better, she just needs to throw harder and realise when she floats [the ball], it’s not effective.”
Throwing harder is easier said than done for the 5ft 1in teenager, who weighs about nine stone. Most observers believe what she needs to do is simply pitch more knuckleballs, which, if thrown correctly, fool batters by fluttering around in mid-air after they leaves her hand.
So far Yoshida isn’t fooling many. Only four of the 121 batters she has faced have struck out. “She’s not doing great right now, but what she needs to do is practise more and more,” her interpreter told reporters recently.
If there is continued frustration on the field, there has been nothing but success away from it. When she pitched in Calgary last month, becoming the first woman to pitch professionally in three countries, she was described as a feminist icon.
Baseball in America has long been a defiantly macho world and the Golden Baseball League, which features players who have starred at the highest level of the game, is no different. But aside from the use of an interpreter – she is still working on her English – and a separate locker room, Yoshida receives no special treatment.
Alcombrack said: “She’s just as much a part of this team as anybody else. If something’s wrong with her or somebody’s hassling her, we’ll be protective that’s for sure.”
Yoshida has said she hopes to inspire more women in the US and Japan to test their skills in male leagues. “I’m excited to see how many join me,” she told the club’s matchday programme.
The Japanese media, meanwhile, have begun the buildup to another exciting prospect for baseball fans and historians: a Japanese woman competing against a male compatriot – the pitcher Mac Suzuki, newly of the Calgary Vipers – in the US professional leagues for the first time.
LYRIX ORGANIX Old Queens Head
44 Essex Road, Islington, N1 8LN
Doors open 8pm,
Entry £5 (all profits donated to Medecins Sans Frontieres)
“The breadth and depth of the spoken breath” LYRIX ORGANIX is a ground-breaking music show that takes Hip Hop back to its lyrical, musical and conscious roots. Hand-picking the very finest MC’s, performance poets, singers, beatboxers, comedians and acoustic musicians from across the globe. August 10th is a special MSF fundraiser for the ‘Starved for Attention’ campaign, with all profits donated to emergency medical aid for Chad’s malnutrition crisis. Please support this very important cause, and be duly rewarded with the very finest acoustic Hip Hop, Spoken Word and Soul from…
“Fantastically diverse, vibrant and intelligent” ***** (Fringe Guru)
“Blown away” (Spoonfed)
KAYA (BBC Introducing, Graffik)
AYAH MARAR (Calvin Harris/Jack Penate)
J LEEN & FLOETIC LARA (Beardyman’s Freestyle Project, NLT)
NATIVE SUN (Sublime Wizardy) // DJ ANON providing a soundtrack of classic & lyrical Hip Hop, Soul and Funk
The Culture, Media and Sport Committee has launched a new inquiry and call for evidence into The Funding of the Arts and Heritage. The Committee is inviting written submissions and requesting views on the following issues:
What impact recent, and future, spending cuts from central and local Government will have on the arts and heritage at a national and local level;
What arts organisations can do to work more closely together in order to reduce duplication of effort and to make economies of scale;
What level of public subsidy for the arts and heritage is necessary and sustainable;
Whether the current system, and structure, of funding distribution is the right one;
What impact recent changes to the distribution of National Lottery funds will have on arts and heritage organisations;
Whether the policy guidelines for National Lottery funding need to be reviewed;
The impact of recent changes to DCMS arm’s-length bodies – in particular the abolition of the UK Film Council and the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council;
Whether businesses and philanthropists can play a long-term role in funding arts at a national and local level;
Whether there need to be more Government incentives to encourage private donations.
The Committee will also examine other areas of interest that are raised during the course of its inquiry. A copy of the submission should be sent by e-mail to cmsev@parliament.ukand have ‘Funding of the Arts and Heritage’ in the subject line. Submissions should be received by Thursday 2nd September 2010. Each submission should:
state clearly who the submission is from, i.e. whether from yourself in a personal capacity or sent on behalf of an organisation
be about 3,000 words in length / run to no more than six sides of A4 paper;
as far as possible comprise a single document attachment to the email;
begin with a short summary in bullet point form;
have numbered paragraphs;
be in Word or Rich Text format (not PDF) with as little use of colour or logos as possible.
Please supply a postal address so a copy of the Committee’s report can be sent to you upon publication. It would be helpful, for Data Protection purposes, if individuals submitting written evidence would send their contact details separately in a covering email in a block of text laid out vertically. You should also be aware that there may be circumstances in which the House of Commons will be required to communicate information to third parties on request, in order to comply with its obligations under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
MOSELEY FOLK FESTIVAL – MOSELEY PARK, BIRMINGHAM – 3rd, 4th & 5th SEPTEMBER 2010.
Now celebrating its fifth birthday, Moseley Folk Festival continues to bring three days of music, fun and frolics to Birmingham’s Moseley Park.
Topping last year’s bill, the 2010 Festival will be another eclectic mix of traditional, contemporary and downright experimental folk and acoustic music.
Friday 3rd September will be a varied and folk influenced day with, not one, but two headliners. Still causing a stir with the latest offering ‘Bang Goes the Knighthood’, Neil Hannon is definitely not to be missed as The Divine Comedy will be the following Mercury prize nominated Turin Brakes on the main stage. Also on Friday is Guillemots front man Fyfe Dangerfield, the voice behind the hit cover of Billy Joel’s ‘She’s Always A Woman’, and new folk rockers Erland & the Carnival. The Lunar Stage has been curated by local record label Static Caravan and will feature Starless & Bible Black, Hannah Peel, and Vadionmessico along with a headline performance by Devendra Banhart favourite Beth Jeans Houghton.
Psychedelic folk hero Donovan, the man behind tracks like ‘Mellow Yellow’ and ‘Sunshine Superman’, will be master of ceremonies on Saturday 4th September. Also on the main stage will be special guests from America The Low Anthem, nu-folk poster boy Johnny Flynn and guitar legend Spider John Koerner (even John Lennon was a big fan of his playing). Rising stars Goodnight Lenin will headline the Lunar Stage and there will also be performances from banjo player Dan Walsh, Jo Hamilton, Malpas and Megan Henwood.
The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain will be closing the whole weekend on Sunday night with their all-singing, all-strumming eight-piece show. One of Ireland’s biggest musical exports Lúnasa will also be on the main stage along with return performances from the beautiful and Mercury nominated Unthanks and Birmingham’s Balkan heroes The Destroyers. Raucous folk dance troupe Cut A Shine will be last on the Lunar Stage, following the likes of The Urban Folk Quartet, Little Sister and Broom Bezzums.
Elsewhere in the festival emerging talent will be showcased on the Bohemian Jukebox Stage, the music and dance workshop programme will enable people to learn from the performers themselves and hula hooping classes will get the crowds spinning. Children will be kept entertained by a band of story-telling pirates, traditional fairground rides, face painting and lots more besides.
Tickets are now on sale. Head to the website for more information HERE.
You can get all the latest festival news via TWITTER and FACEBBOK.
