David is leaving the country for an English teaching position in South Korea and would like to take this last opportunity for awhile to show his visual art within the United States. I encourage you to stop in to peruse the work of this young gentleman with a Beat-infused sensibility 😉
From David Cicerone:
This exhibition is being put on by the local art collective Heart of Chaos and will feature about twenty or so of my works. If you would like to come out and view or possibly buy some works, please do.
The exhibit will run from May 4 to May 30th. The opening reception will be on the second Friday of the month, May 8th, from 6-8 PM.
Here is the address: Gardner Community Center 520 W Virginia Street, San Jose, California 95125
Cost: FREE
Musicians of all types sought to play a free community benefit concert…public San Francisco location, great chance for exposure.
Event hosted by San Francisco community groups, including Food not Bombs/Curry without Worry, which seek to promote sustainable solutions to hunger. Taking place alongside San Francisco State’s Human Rights Summit to support the goals of that event…and sponsored by organizer Krystal Blue (find her on Facebook or via the email above.)
The purpose of the Never Ending Peace And Love (NEPAL) community event is to gather those passing by, students, workers, city employees, and all people to bring out a sense of community to the UN Plaza.
I would like to have the event in conjunction with San Francisco State University’s 6th Annual Human Rights Summit, in order to raise awareness of justices, injustices, and most of all, the humanity we all share.
Human Rights include the right to food, education, health, and well being. It is my goal to include all aspects of true Human Rights within the day’s festivities.
On this day: music, street theatre, open mic- poetry slam, interactive art, the craft fair, Curry Without Worry, Food Not bombs will be the basis to invite our willingness to human rights and Never Ending Peace And Love.
Global Affairs International Newsmagazine (a Spanish journal of international relations for academics and other interested people) seeks well-written, well-documented and researched articles on any topics having to do with world current affairs. I’ve reposted their call to submissions and the topics in which they are most interested this month in this post…please feel free to email with any questions and to check out www.globalaffairs.es (English translation available onsite.) They’re great people, very professional and friendly.
Dear members,
For next Issue of Global Affairs (Issue 15) we are particularly interested in the following topics:
– Moldavia: closer to the EU, far from Communism?
– North Korea and nuclear weapons
– Cuba and the USA: improving relations?
– Thailand protests and the government action
– Hamas and situation in Gaza
– Iran and its political future
– Afghanistan and the control of the area
– Elections in South Africa
– Pakistan, the border and nuclear weapons
– Elections in Lebanon
– USA-Iran relations
Please if you are interested in writing an article regarding the topics send an email to eva.diez@globalaffairs.es
If you are interested in proposing another topic please let me know to eva.diez@globalaffairs.es
Announcement from my alma mater, UC Davis, which hosts an annual art/music/cultural/social justice/environmental festival called the Whole Earth Festival every Mother’s Day weekend. They’re looking for recyclable donations for their children’s activity center, Kidspace…announcement below.
Party people! What up!
This year Kids Space will be creating an ongoing paper mache project throughout the festival, radical! But in order for it to actually happen I need all of you to be kind enough to donate some trash/recycle bin items for the cause. Thanks for making WEF the iriest event around!
Please start saving your:
cereal boxes
toilet paper rolls
egg cartons
strawberry baskets
any other throw away/recycle things with a good surface for placing wet pieces of newspaper on
also, if you have an abundance of kid friendly paint or paint brushes that you would be willing to donate to Kids Space I will be majorly stoked!
Catch y’all, thanks again,
Dan
*If you are near Davis, CA you may feel free to bring items by the Kidspace tent on the Quad (UC Davis campus lawn area, central campus near the Memorial Union.) Ask anyone on campus – One Shields Avenue – and they can direct you to Kidspace or leave them in the main Whole Earth Festival tent.
Next announcement…juried art show, call for submissions!
Canvas Ghost Productions in San Jose, CA seeks artists to produce two dimensional visual pieces related to the theme of “Allusions/Illusions.” As far as I know there is no residency requirement or entrance fee for this show…the deadline for submission of email images/the submission form is September 1, 2009 and the art drop-off date is October 3rd.
The show will be held October 10th at 992 South 8th Street, San Jose, CA. The South Bay has a thriving art scene, although quirky at times…and I’d love to see it get more publicity!
Reposted from a San Francisco Bay Area Craigslist post:
If people are interested I will call in the morning for more information about the group to which the donations are going and what they do. I personally know people from Burma and they have lived through the situation described in the Wikipedia blurb with political repression, poverty, violence, and fear.
Also, the situation with the Dineh tribe being forced off their land for a mining project which has yet to financially benefit the impoverished tribe members which Dee Allen describes in one of his essays is real also. I used to volunteer with UC Davis’ Whole Earth cultural/environmental festival and they brought in elders from the Dineh tribe as well as people who had worked with them…just received an email from the festival people concerning the Dineh tonight. Encourage readers to read up on the situation in the Southwestern U.S. and to consider providing at least moral support for a fair solution with respect for all involved.
Hello all,
We’re looking for clothes, canned or packaged food for Burmese refugees that are living here in the bay area. The people living in Burma have been under military control for the last 40 years or so, and many of the citizens have been victims of false imprisonment, torture, and murder by the military junta. The rest of the world witnessed how bad conditions are there after the 2007 Cyclone, when the government left 1000’s of dead bodies to rot in and around living area’s, causing disease and infection to spread throughout the villages. There are a few lucky enough to have escaped to the U.S, but these people are finding it very tough to survive here due to the language barrier. It’s very hard for them to communicate enough to find jobs or other services they need.
If interested in donating I can pick up or you’re welcome to drop off any donations. Unfortunately I can only make pickups around San Francisco. The drive ends May 1st. Any donations are appreciated.
You can call or email for donations.
Friends, family, and fellow-travelers, welcome to the May issue of Synchronized Chaos! Happy Mother’s Day, Feliz Cinco de Mayo, and congratulations to all the students on the semester system graduating this month.
As a gentle reminder, a whole bunch of us contributors, Creative Facilitators, and outside writers, scholars, business people and industry experts have been brainstorming ideas, values, and business/publicity models for this magazine to help us succeed as a publication and provide a service to the community as a whole while furthering the goals of each contributor. Everyone’s welcome to share thoughts and give their input into these conversations…please go ahead and leave a comment to this post or in the ‘About’ section if you would like.
What we’ve come up with so far is that Synchronized Chaos is a joint publicity and social marketing effort that runs on honor and mutual respect. People submit work and get published, and then come back to see how their work related to the other artists’ pieces and the monthly theme. They then get to see everyone else’s work and get to know the other artists and writers.
After awhile the exposure and networking helps contributors land jobs/gigs/agents/publishers etc. We here love to let professionals and everyone know about Synchronized Chaos and all of our contributors, and take plenty of opportunities to talk up everyone’s efforts.
Once someone we have featured comes across a new career opportunity as a result of our group networking, we definitely encourage them to drop the names of a few other artists featured in Synchronized Chaos to spread the word and network on behalf of each other. And, if you come across something not directly relevant to your own work but which might be great for someone else, please do take the time to email the other contributors directly or just email the magazine at cedeptula@sbcglobal.net and we can pass on the word for you. For example, if you write free verse poetry but happen to know a gallery owner taking prints for a landscape or abstract exhibition, please pass the word on to our visual artists! This will maximize the flow of opportunities and help make participating in this magazine effort worthwhile for the artists and writers who take the time to send digital images, get interviewed, create pieces, etc.
Now for our monthly theme – Finding Your Place in the Universe. This month brought in a wide variety of submissions in many different formats. For the first time we have a graphic artist, a poet, musicians, short story writers, and a filmmaker all in the same issue. One thread common to many of the work was the desire to be heard and acknowledged, and the right to live as one chooses without unnecessary interference. There was also a sense that the world is a large place, with room enough for everyone if we are mindful of each other.
A home, physical or metaphorical in terms of membership in a group, can serve as the proverbial first random stroke across the canvas which gets the painter started. One begins to build a life in response to one’s surroundings, making the most of whatever opportunities present themselves, working within the constraints of whatever it takes to survive in that or another environment. We see this process among the community of people influenced by Berkeley ‘street survivor’ Yume in Claire Burch’s film, where he and others take part in a subculture which aims to be supportive of all living beings even while facing challenges to personal dignity in their own lives.
Not every subculture fosters respect for all life; some groups of outsiders build identity or attempt to defend themselves against injustice or discrimination by turning against others. A group may become exploitive while being exploited itself, which performance poet and essayist Dee Allen comments on in his selections. He writes of minorities victimized by a fear-driven, media-driven culture within the general society…yet also critiques trends within minority subcultures which lead to replicating the same kind of fearful over-generalization and isolation. One can and sometimes must stand up and speak out to demand one’s rightful place in the world – but with awareness of the larger context of one’s actions and of other groups of people seeking acceptance.
As we have seen, finding or maintaining one’s place can involve many levels of struggle. Maryann Lerch and Ned Mock’s short story “Chance Meeting” highlights the power of one or a few quick choices to throw someone out of a carefully constructed home/place/lifestyle. This proves true for people across the socioeconomic spectrum, and it can take another lengthy process to rebuild what was lost, if that is even possible. We have some freedom – but also the blessing and curse of responsibility for our actions, in a very real as well as existential sense. Also, our homes/places/identities can be fragile and uncertain…the potential downside to having the ability to change one’s situation.
Where, and how, can we find a sense of belonging and community without creating a structure which isolates people into competing subgroups or traps them in situations they wish to change? Claire Burch’s film presents a relatively open, yet cohesive group of acquaintances…and the bandmembers of Alma Desnuda touch on this question when they explore the spontaneous community formed among a diverse crowd at a rock show. People can respect each other while working or having fun together in the moment, without the pressure to change each other or do everything the same way. Perhaps spontaneous communities can be a starting point for longer-lasting associations? Also, the development of any band involves finding its own sound, something unique while acknowledging its influences. Alma Desnuda has found its own place in the musical world with a nod to the music of the sixties and seventies and the San Francisco culture.
Finally, some of our works celebrate and highlight the concepts of home/place and belonging through non-literal artistic expression. Nigerian writer and engineer Emmanuel Nwodo acknowledges that God has created all living beings, and thus welcomes and has a place for each one. Finding one’s place, and allowing others to take their places, can begin with acknowledging through philosophy or faith that we can all belong here. Since there is a place for everyone – it could theoretically be possible for you to find your own place. California graphic designer and writer Kristie also celebrates finding a home through art centered on nesting as a metaphor…creating a home by creating a space to help others find their places in the world.
Very impressed by the diversity of submissions and by the ideas explored – thank you to everyone who has followed the Synchronized Chaos journey!
HE MADE ALL WE SEE
SUN, TIDE AND THE SEA
DAWN, SKY AND THE BEE
ALL WE FEEL AND SEE
CONCEIVED HE CALLED THY NAME
BORE MOTHER THROUGH HER PAIN
ENSURE THOU ART SAFE AND SANE
IN DUE TIME MAKE SHINE AND RAIN
HE IS GOD, YOUNG, OLD AND SAME
WE SIN, SMILE AND MOURN
HE – FATHER’S ONLY SON
BUT FOR US NEEDN’T COME
LIKE MAN ON EARTH SOJOURN
REJECTED, CROWNED WITH THORNS
SUFFERED, CRIED, DIED AND WON
FATHER’S LOVE FOR US THE SONS.
WE ALL ARE SINNERS
IN REMORSE LETS COME TO GOD
HE FORGETS ALL AND RENEWS OUR WORLD
YOU’RE WELCOME INTO THE WORLD OF WINNERS.
Emmanuel Nwodo is a Nigerian poet who writes in his native language and in English. He can be reached at st.manuel8@gmail.com
Artist’s Statement:
My name is Emmanuel Ikenna Nwodo. Born at Agbani in Nkanu West L.G.A of Enugu State, Nigeria; May 27th 1987 into the family of Mr. and Mrs. Bethland Nwani. I am the fifth son of five. My father died when I was six months old. Before he passed on, he was a butcher, though with formal education. He was diagnosed with poisoning and … well the dead are dead. I had my primary education partly in my village (COMMUNITY CENTRAL SCHOOL EZIOKWE AMURRI) Then rounded up at OGBE-ORIE PRIMARY SCHOOL ASABA, THE CAPITAL CITY OF DELTA STATE, NIGERIA. Which was also where I began my secondary education ST. AUGUSTINE COMMERCIAL SCHOOL ASABA and then I rounded-up at KINGS AND QUEENS COLLEGE UBIAJAH, EDO STATE, NIGERIA in the year 2005.
