CUBAN PRINT ARTIST GETS A U.S. SOLO RETROSPECTIVE

When Cuban artist Belkis Ayón died in 1999, she was only 32 years old, but she left behind a body of work that belied her age, comprising huge and striking prints that had already received international critical acclaim.

Belkis at the Havana Galerie, Zurich,
1999. (Photo by Werner Gadliger)

Now, for the first time, a museum in the United States is hosting a solo retrospective of her work, with a view to making the public more aware of this singular artist who reflected Afro-Cuban traditions, the history of contemporary printmaking and the challenges that her country faced in the 1990s.

Titled Nkame: A Retrospective of Cuban Printmaker Belkis Ayón, the exhibition opens Oct. 2 and runs until Feb. 12, 2017, at the Fowler Museum at UCLA in California.  It presents 44 prints that the organizers say “encompass a wide range of the artist’s graphic production from 1984 until her untimely passing [she committed suicide] in 1999".

According to the Fowler, Ayón “mined the founding narrative of the Afro-Cuban fraternal society called Abakuá to create an independent and powerful visual iconography”. Abakuá is an all-male Afro-Cuban brotherhood brought by enslaved Africans to the western port cities of Cuba in the early 1800s.

“A brief synopsis of the founding myth of Abakuá begins with Sikán, a princess who inadvertently trapped a fish in a container she used to draw water from the river,” according to the Fowler.

“The unexpected loud bellowing of the fish was the mystical ‘voice’ of Abakuá, and Sikán was the first to hear it. Because women were not permitted this sacred knowledge, the local diviner swore Sikán to secrecy. Sikán, however, revealed her secret to her fiancé, and because of her indiscretion she was condemned to die.”

Belkis Ayon, La consagracion II (The Consecration II),
1991, collograph. Collection of the Belkis Ayon Estate.

However, in Ayón’s work, Sikán remains alive, and her story and representation figure prominently in the prints. At one point, the artist wrote: “I see myself as Sikán, in a certain way an observer, an intermediary and a revealer… Sikán is a transgressor, and as such I see her, and I see myself.”

The title word Nkame means “greeting” and “praise” in the language of Abakuá, and reflects a posthumous tribute and career overview, says Dr. Katia Ayón, the artist’s sister who helps to manage the Belkis Ayón Estate, a co-organizer of the exhibition with the Fowler Museum.

Katia and her daughter Yadira travelled from Cuba to Los Angeles to be at the opening and will participate in talks about Belkis’ life and work, Katia said in an interview.

Born in Havana in 1967, Belkis Ayón attended the San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts and then the Higher Institute of Art / Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA). She held her first solo exhibition in Havana in 1988, at age 21, before graduating from the Institute in 1991.

Two years after her graduation, she became a professor of engraving at the San Alejandro Academy and also at ISA, and that same year, 1993, she participated in the 16th Venice Biennale and won the international prize at the International Graphics Biennale in Maastricht, the Netherlands.

 Installation view at the Fowler Museum. All  works:
Belkis Ayon.  Collection of the Belkis Ayon Estate.
(Photo by Jose A. Figueroa)

The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, invited her to participate in the Kwangju Biennial in South Korea in 1997, and some of her works were subsequently acquired by MOCA and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. During the last year of her life, she had four residencies in the U.S. and solo exhibitions at various galleries and institutions. She committed suicide in 1999 at the age of 32.

Over her career, Ayón became an expert in the technique of collography, a printing process in which a “variety of materials of various textures and absorbencies are collaged onto a cardboard matrix and then run through the press”.

The Fowler says that Ayón employed a “deliberately austere palette of subtle tones of black, white, and gray”, which add “drama and mystery to her narratives”.  She produced many of the works at large scale by joining multiple printed sheets.

Cristina Vives, the guest curator of the exhibition, told SWAN that her aim is not only to show the artist’s relationship with Abakuá, but also to highlight how Ayón utilized these traditional themes to articulate certain concerns.

(L-R) Cristina Vives, Dr. Katia Ayon and Yadira Ayon
with (left) Nlloro (Weeping), 1991, collograph, and (right)
Resurreccion (Resurrection), 1998, collograph. All works:
Belkis Ayon. Collection of the Belkis Ayon Estate.
Installation view at Fowler Museum UCLA, 2016.
(Photo by Jose A. Figueroa)

“She used the traditions and history behind Abakuá to express something else,” Vives said in a telephone interview. “The 1990s were a tough time for people in Cuba, after the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, and it was also a difficult time to express opinions as artists. So artists found ways to talk about what was happening in our daily lives.

“My main goal is to attract the public’s attention to her intentions rather than to her use of the traditions and history of Abakuá,” Vives added. “It’s also to bring back Belkis’ work to the audience because time has passed and the perspective is now different.”

Vives said that Ayón produced around 200 different images, from the time she began printmaking as a high-school student. In 2009, a decade after her death, Havana hosted a retrospective comprising 83 prints. The show at the Fowler is a version of this exhibition, but reduced in size.

“The overall presentation is almost the same, with beautiful installations because Belkis worked on such a huge scale,” Vives said.

Marla Berns, the Shirley and Ralph Shapiro Director of the Fowler Museum, said that Ayón’s contributions in her particular area of print-making are noteworthy.

Belkis Ayon, Sin Titulo (Sikan con chivo)
[Untitled (Sikan with Goat)] 1993, collograph.
Collection of the Belkis Ayon Estate.

“For a black Cuban woman, both her ascendency in the contemporary printmaking world and her investigation of a powerful all-male brotherhood were notable and bold,” said Berns.

She noted that Nkame follows a lineage of Fowler exhibitions that have explored artistic representations and evocations of African-inspired religions in the Diaspora, such as Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou (1995) and Transcultural Pilgrim: Three Decades of Work by José Bedia (2011).

“This is an important moment to spotlight the aesthetically stunning and poetically resonant prints of Belkis Ayón, especially with today’s heightened attention on Cuba and Cuban culture, and the historic reopening of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba,” Berns added.

The Fowler Museum is an institution devoted to exploring the arts and cultures of Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and the Americas. More information at: http://www.fowler.ucla.edu/

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MANCHESTER LIT FEST TACKLES IMMIGRATION, DIVERSITY

While many literature festivals have become predictable in their line-up of bestselling authors, some innovative events have added a social-issues factor to their sessions, raising awareness about everything from climate change to the need for more diversity in publishing.

Nigerian-born, London-based writer Ben Okri
will be one of the speakers at the MLF

The Manchester Literature Festival (MLF), taking place Oct. 7 – 23 in northern England and celebrating its 11^th edition, is one such event. This regional gathering of authors and book-lovers has increased its focus on global concerns since 2006, and its programme this year includes topics such as immigration, mental health and the urban experience.

“The Manchester Literature Festival is a place where authors, poets and broadcasters come together to share stories,” say the organizers. “Some of these stories enthral us with breathtaking plot twists and great leaps of imagination. Others are real-life stories that challenge and inspire us. Events like Refugee Tales, The Good Immigrant and Powerlines reflect the turbulence of the world we’re living in and remind us why we need to come together to fight discrimination and xenophobia.”

The participants for 2016 comprise regional, national and international authors, including Scotland’s Jackie Kay, Nigeria’s Ben Okri, Pakistan’s Kamila Shamsie, Canada’s Margaret Atwood and American writer Lionel Shriver. The latter recently caused controversy at a festival in Australia when she used her keynote speech to mock the movement against cultural appropriation, so her Manchester contribution will be particularly interesting for some observers.

The MLF's co-directors Cathy Bolton
and Sarah-Jane Roberts

The MLF is equally hosting writers from Sweden, Holland, Spain, Sudan, Bangladesh and North and South Korea, and it will “celebrate stories from the South Asian Diaspora in a special series of events curated in partnership with the Karachi Literature Festival”, the organizers state.

The MLF’s co-directors Cathy Bolton & Sarah-Jane Roberts discussed the festival’s direction with SWAN’s editor Alecia McKenzie in an e-mail interview.

SWAN:  How has the Manchester Literature Festival changed since its beginning in 2006?

Cathy Bolton: The festival has quadrupled in size over the past ten years both in terms of the number of events programmed and the audience we attract. The festival started out as quite a niche series of events largely showcasing regional authors but we now attract an impressive range of leading international authors and thinkers.

SWAN:  Some literature festivals in various countries have been putting emphasis on social engagement, rights and activism. Do you see this as a growing trend, and, if so, why?

CB:  It has certainly become an area of focus for MLF – we have found that there is a growing interest in activism and issues such as immigration, perhaps as a result of increasing disillusionment with mainstream politics and reactionary government policies. I think a great percentage of the population felt let down by the Brexit vote earlier this year and are understandably worried about what the future holds  - many are looking for an alternative form of leadership.

SWAN:  How did you decide on the programming this year?

CB: As always, we make a wish list of writers we would like to invite to Manchester (particularly focusing on those with interesting new books out).  We are always looking for high-calibre writers but also try and programme a balanced programme of established and emerging writers with particular programme strands showcasing literature in translation and events for children and families. We try to make the programme as diverse as possible so there is something on offer to suit the tastes of readers from all backgrounds and ages. We also work in partnership with a wide range of cultural partners including university writing schools and cultural embassies who feed in programming ideas. Over the past year we have been developing a partnership with Karachi Literature Festival which has resulted in a co-curated programme of events showcasing writers from the South Asian diaspora.

The MLF includes "An Evening with Jackie Kay",
with the writer who is Scotland's national poet.

SWAN:  One of the festival’s stated aims is to promote Manchester as a true hub for international cultural exchange.  Why is this important for the festival, and the city?

CB:  We are keen to open up our audiences’ reading horizons and programme events that reflect the lives and concerns of the city’s very diverse population. Manchester’s industry and culture has been very influenced by immigration – we want to celebrate the city’s unique history and diversity and hopefully attract increasing numbers of international visitors to the festival.

SWAN:  The festival also has a youth focus. How do literature events like this encourage reading among children, young people?

CB:  Literary performances by the likes of Michael Rosen and theatre adaptations of children’s books such as Hey Presto! really help bring books alive and make them more accessible for even reluctant readers. I think people of all ages get more out of reading if they’ve heard poetry read in the poet’s own voice or heard an author talking about the themes of their latest novel and what inspired their stories/characters.

SWAN:  The events include a presentation by Vivienne Westwood, a designer known for her activism and someone who is a part of the ethical fashion movement. How did her involvement come about?

CB:  We have been trying to persuade Vivienne Westwood to come and talk at the festival for a couple of years and luckily our persistence paid off this year. Her talk this October is very timely as her fashion designs are featured in the current Fashion and Freedom exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery.

The MLF hosts the Black and Asian Writers Conference

SWAN:  In addition to South Asian writers, the festival is putting focus on Black British writers. Can you describe the themes of the Black and Asian Writers Conference taking place Oct. 8?

CB:  Themes for this year include Afrofuturism, flash fiction, immersive poetry and new directions in theatre. You can read a full description of the various panels at: www.cultureword.org.uk/bawc16/

SWAN:  Is the international component of the festival expected to expand, with more authors from abroad?

CB: We hope to continue to attract an exciting range of authors from abroad but this will be balanced with appearances from UK authors.

Canadian writer Margaret Atwood.

SWAN:  What is your greatest hope for the festival this year?

CB:  That thousands of people have a wonderful mind-expanding experience and discover some new favourite authors!

SWAN: How do you see it evolving in the future?

CB:  We would like to develop collaborations with more international festivals and develop a bigger and more ambitious programme of new commissions for the festival that could then be toured nationally and internationally.

For more information:  http://www.manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk/

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SHOW HIGHLIGHTS AFRICAN-AMERICAN ART MOVEMENT

Visual Voice is a must-see exhibition at the Riverside Art Museum (RAM) in California.

Covering Southern California Black artists’ ascent to the mainstream, the show is co-­curated by acclaimed Jamaican-born artist Bernard Stanley Hoyes and American visual artist and entrepreneur Charles Bibbs, with the assistance of Lisa Henry.

Visual Voice’s starting point is the Black art scene in LA of the 1980s and 1990s, and the show comprises two segments: “Influential Masters” and “Independent Trendsetters”.

According to the curators, the exhibition aims to shed light on the continuity from Masters to Trendsetters as they “set a national trend towards self-validation and reshaped how artists worked, exhibited, traded, and collaborated”.

Woman in the Field by Samella Lewis,
one of the 19 artists featured.

“Working as an independent visual artist, I saw this exhibition as an opportunity to tell the stories of other artists who achieved their individual goals to become successful, regardless of the odds against them, and to give voice to the silent majority of artists who achieved when others said they didn’t have the qualifications or standards of education to qualify as being a ‘successful’ visual artist,” said Hoyes.

He added that the artists involved didn’t “wait around” for the world to catch up with them – instead they began manufacturing, publishing, and distributing works of art using modern media and business practices.

This full-scale museum presentation brings together 19 artists who played an integral role in what will be recognized as the first fully African-American Art Movement coming out of Southern California during the last three decades of the 20th century.

The artists include Ernie Barnes, Varnette P. Honeywood, Bernard Stanley Hoyes, Charles Bibbs, Nathaniel Bustion, Synthia Saint James, Kathleen Atkins Wilson, Kenneth Gatewood, Charles Dickson, Joseph Beckles, Charles White, Samella Lewis, William Pajaud, Richard Mayhew, Artis Lane, Jacob Lawrence, Noah Purifoy, Barbara Wesson, and John Outterbridge.

The exhibition runs until Oct. 5, 2016, with various workshops and debates taking place during its course at the RAM – an instititution that says it strives to "integrate art into the lives of people in a way that engages, inspires, and builds community".

For more information: www.RiversideArtMuseum.org.

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RAISING AWARENESS ABOUT MIGRATION, THROUGH ART

Ahmad is a Syrian refugee who passed through the infamous Calais “migrant” camp in France and is now rebuilding his life in Britain. His portrait, painted by a young British artist named Hannah Rose Thomas, is just one of the compelling pieces of artwork in an exhibition now underway in London.

Titled Call me by my name: stories from Calais and beyond, the exhibition comes as countries prepare to observe World Refugee Day on June 20 and Refugee Week from June 20 to 26.

It features the inhabitants of the infamous Calais camp, which the show’s organisers say has become “a potent symbol of Europe’s migration crisis”.

In encampments around this port town in nornthern France, some 4,000 to 5,000 migrants have been living in squalid conditions as they try to reach Britain, although the French authorities this year set up shelters made from shipping containers to house about 1,500 people.

Regarding the “Portrait of Ahmad”, the artist Thomas has this message with the artwork: “I first visited the Calais ‘Jungle’ in December 2015, to volunteer as a translator. The inhumane treatment of the people stranded there shocked me profoundly, and I painted many portraits of the Calais refugees to share their stories. In my painting of Ahmad I wanted to portray his remarkable resilience and courage …”

Hannah Rose Thomas, Ahmad and the portrait.

Ahmad was one of the scheduled speakers at the exhibition’s celebratory launch on June 9. He previously said of the painting, “I think if I got a hundred thousand people listening to my story – and if the portrait succeeds in changing one person's attitude – then that’s a great achievement. And that’s it.”

The exhibition, which runs until June 22, is presented as a multi-media experience, aimed at exploring the “complexity and human stories behind the current migration crisis,” with a particular focus on Calais, according to the organisers.

“Public opinion on this ever-evolving shanty-town and its inhabitants is polarised: to some a threatening swarm seeking entry to our already overstretched island-nation, to others a shameful symbol of our failed foreign policy,” they state.

“Amid such debate, it is easy to lose sight of the thousands of individuals who have found themselves in limbo in Calais, each with their own story and reasons for wanting to reach Britain.”

Sophie Henderson

The exhibition is taking place in a “momentous month”, when there is both the EU referendum in Britain as well as Refugee Week. It follows the first-ever World Humanitarian Summit, which was held in May in Istanbul, and comes after the controversial agreement between the EU and Turkey on how to stem the flow of people fleeing war and poverty.

“Migration is probably one of the most talked-about issues of the day, but it’s often just seen as an issue or a problem,” says Sophie Henderson, director of an organisation called the Migration Museum Project, which has presented the exhibition and is working to have a permanent migration museum for the UK.

“Yet if you look back, there’s a great story of migration both to and from Britain, and it goes back hundreds of years. So a way of contextualizing and considering the current issue of migration, in an intelligent, calm, well-informed way, is just to take a step back and look at the big picture. And to consider that actually even the Angles and Saxons were immigrants. And so were the Vikings. And the Normans, and the Huguenots [French protestants who fled persecution in their homeland].”

(Photo by brandingbygarden)

Henderson, a former lawyer who now works with a group of part-time staff and volunteers on the Migration Museum Project, pointed out that Britain was itself a country of net emigration until 1982, with some 20 million citizens going to live abroad between 1650 and 1950.

Call me by my name features works by established and emerging artists, refugees, camp residents and volunteers. The installations include art by a group called ALPHA using materials from the camp.

There is also art and photography by camp residents, and an installation of lifejackets embedded with the stories of their wearers. The organizers say it will serve as a forum for discussions – involving poets, authors, academics and the public – while side events will comprise films and performances as well.

According to the curator Sue McAlpine, “Visitors will journey physically and emotionally through the space, seeing refugees and migrants emerging from a nameless bunch to named individuals, neither victims nor angels but each with their own story to tell.”

She hopes that “visitors will come away with a heightened sense of empathy for the individuals behind the headlines, an enhanced understanding of the history and evolution of the Calais camp and broader migration developments, and questioning their response and responsibilities towards current refugee and migration developments.”

In other events, artists will also be involved in Refugee Week in Britain, where cultural programmes are one means of celebrating the contribution of refugees and fostering greater understanding between communities.

Refugee Week started in 1998 as a “direct reaction to hostility in the media and society in general towards refugees and asylum seekers” and it is now one of the “leading national initiatives working to counter this negative climate, defending the importance of sanctuary and the benefits it can bring to both refugees and host communities,” say the British coordinators.

In France, Refugee Week events are being planned by a group called SINGA, formed in 2012 to “mobilise French society around projects developed by refugees – be they cultural, social, artistic, civic or entrepreneurial”.

They and other groups have lined up a series of concerts, exhibitions and debates to highlight both the contributions of refugees as well as the problems faced by the nearly 60 million people that the United Nations says are forcibly displaced in the world.

In Calais and elsewhere, however, long-term answers remain elusive.

(For another version of this article, see:  http://www.indepthnews.net/index.php/the-world/458-working-to-raise-awareness-about-migration-through-art)

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PARIS LOOKS AT LIFE AND WORK OF A FIERCE WRITER

He wrote fiery novels and essays that decried injustice and racism, and now nearly 30 years after his death, Paris is hosting a conference dedicated to the “expatriate” African-American writer James Baldwin.

The conference poster.

The May 26-28 event, titled “A Language to Dwell In”: James Baldwin, Paris, and International Visions, has attracted some 230 scholars and artists, who will examine Baldwin’s legacy and global impact.

“The most important thing for us is that this is about James Baldwin – about his life, his work and his impact on readers around the world,” says Alice Mikal Craven, a professor at the American University of Paris (AUP) and co-organizer of the conference with her colleague William Dow.

“Baldwin is an academic subject matter, but at the same time he had and continues to have a great impact on people’s lives,” Craven added in an interview at a Parisian café, close to where the writer spent some of his time during his many years in France.

The author of novels including Go Tell it on the Mountain, Giovanni’s Room and Another Country, Baldwin was a prolific writer and activist who also produced searing essays, plays and poetry about racism and the effects of inequality.

Born in 1924 in New York, he had a tough childhood as the stepson of a harsh Harlem preacher, and he experienced racial discrimination first-hand growing up in the city.

He became a preacher himself in his teens, but then was disillusioned with religion and finally found his calling as a writer. After a difficult adolescence, during which he realized he was gay, he left the United States and moved to France in the late 1940s.

There

A 2004 postage stamp, honouring Baldwin.

 he produced internationally acclaimed literature, made friends with other expatriate or exiled writers and artists, and remained actively engaged in African Americans’ struggle for equality.

He also spent time in other cities such as Istanbul, but he returned “home” to America several times to take part in civil-rights marches. Through speeches, lectures and press interviews, he was uncompromising in his condemnation of the racial situation of the time and the hypocrisy of certain leaders.

“Paris had a big impact on his writing and on his life,” says Craven. “Paradoxically, it made him want to reject the United States but also go back and help. He was less constrained in Paris than in the United States.”

Craven – a white professor who grew up in the southern state of North Carolina – said she was 12 or 13 years old when she first read Baldwin’s books and felt supported in her own discomfort at what she saw around her.

Professor Alice Mikal Craven (photo:  M / SWAN)

“The books spoke to me because I was from the South and unhappy with things as they were, and upset at hearing from adults around me that what I was witnessing was the way things should be,” she said in the interview.

According to its stated aims, the conference “hopes to be an international point of intersection for all those interested in Baldwin’s writing, from literary and cultural critics, to political activists, poets, musicians, publishers and historians”.

The numerous presentations, from a roster of renowned experts, will take place at AUP and at other venues in the city. They include debates about Baldwin and his relationship with “Art, race and Black Power”; an examination of his short stories; a look at how his work is taught today; and how his writing ties into the “Black Lives Matter” movement – which has been sparked by cases of police killings of African Americans in the United States.

Baldwin’s writing on homosexuality, and later gay rights, will also be the subject of discussion in a panel titled “Sexuality, Homophobic Masculinity and Sexual Paradoxes,” while his links with the church will feature in “Baldwin, Religion and Black Liberation Theologies”.

Artists form a key component of the conference, which equally explores the “responsibility of the artist in contemporary society”. Here, artist-scholars and performers such as Abby Dobson, Kendra Ross, jessica Care moore and Imani Uzuri will put forward their views about their own activism through the arts.

Actress Gladys Arnaud.

Up for debate, too, is the issue of who has the right to tell whose story – a question that Baldwin perhaps transcended, with stories that reach across racial, national and gender lines.

The France-based “Collectif James Baldwin” (founded by French-Caribbean theatre director Samuel Légitimus) will stage a performance, for instance, at the iconic American Church in Paris, the site where some civil-rights marches wound up in France during the 1960s.

Gladys Arnaud, a Martinique-born actress and member of the Collectif, will read a monologue from Baldwin’s 1954 play “The Amen Corner”, and she says that the author’s work has particular significance for her both as an actor and as an individual.

“For me, James Baldwin represents tolerance,” she said in an interview. “He was a great humanist, and he helped me to realize that you shouldn’t accept things as they are but to try to understand how you can effect change, without letting yourself be overcome by anger and bitterness.”

She added that through acting in plays that Baldwin wrote, her comprehension of character complexity has also deepened, because no one is ever “fully a saint or a demon – you can be both right and wrong as a character”.

Baldwin’s legacy, she said, is the idea that we should all “accept one another, in spite of our differences”. - A.M.

See INPS news agency for another version of this article: http://www.international-press-syndicate.org/index.php/arts-culture

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FRANCE HOSTS LONG LATIN AMERICA, CARIBBEAN 'WEEK'

For the third year in a row, France is hosting a Latin America and Caribbean Week, with the aim of highlighting historical and diplomatic links and showcasing the culture of the regions.

The Semaine de l’Amerique latine et des Caraïbes runs from May 24 to June 5 – a “false week” that comprises 13 days, according to a spokesman for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“But when you like something, you don’t count the days,” he added.

Some 300 events will take place across France, including film screenings, concerts, exhibitions, literary presentations, and workshops. Universities are playing an active role with lectures on Latin American literature and cinema for instance, while UNESCO will host a round-table discussion about the influence of Nicaraguan poet Rubén Dario, who lived for some years in Paris.

“We want to draw attention to a relationship that runs very deep,” said the Ministry spokesman, who spoke on “background” and so can’t be named.

“Most people don’t know about the deep and historic links between France and this part of the world. And we want to emphasize that this is not a region that’s inaccessible or dangerous as some people might think.”

He said that another message of the week is that France would like to “welcome more students from Latin America and the Caribbean”.

A Bolivian cultural presentation during the 2015 Week.

However, some critics say that Europe is not making it easy for students from the Caribbean to apply for visas and that this is an area where the French government needs to take concrete action.

In addition, the Week could include more English-speaking Caribbean countries, according to observers, as the emphasis seems to be mostly on Latin America and the French-speaking islands.

The spokesman conceded that anglophone countries are “less present than others”, but said that this was a result of some states being represented by “non-resident” ambassadors. “It doesn’t help,” he said, adding that he hoped people would “spread the message” so there can be greater inclusion in the future.

The number of events this year – a 50 percent increase from 2015 – shows how popular the Week has become, despite its drawbacks. “There’s a spirit of spontaneity and mobilization, with many volunteers taking part,” the spokesman told reporters. “It has exceeded our expectations.”

The Semaine was created by a French Senate resolution in 2011 and is coordinated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development. French President François Hollande would like to see the project reach the largest possible audience, according to the Ministry spokesman.

About 45 towns will be participating over the 13 days, with involvement from the private sector, public bodies and community groups. For more information on the programme, see: http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/dossiers-pays/ameriques/evenements/article/semaine-de-l-amerique-latine-et-des-caraibes-24-05-05-06-16

MEXICAN FILM DISSECTS NIGHTMARE OF HEALTH CARE

By Dimitri Keramitas

A Monster with a Thousand Heads (Un Monstruo de Mil Cabezas), the Mexican film directed by Rodrigo Pla, falls in the melodramatic “mad as hell” sub-genre, which many viewers might not consider particularly original. But the movie - which has been nominated for several awards - contains relevant, intriguing elements that will touch a chord, especially among those who’ve found themselves up against medical-insurance bureaucracy.

The film's English-language poster. 

Here, social iniquity provokes the protagonist’s rage, in the tradition of Paddy Chayevsky’s films Network and The Hospital. Pla’s work is a social drama, exposing in this case the inhumanity of the health-care system in Mexico, and it’s the sort of subject that makes for powerful, brick-in-the-face filmmaking. But Monster is much more mesmerizing than that.

Partly this is because of the performance of Jana Raluy as Sonia Bonet, the wife of a seriously ill man whose treatments have been stopped by his insurance company. She sets out to find out who has authority over the matter and to force them to reverse the decision.

Sonia gets more and more desperate, but she is astonishingly persistent in the face of the impediments thrown before her. She also maintains a balance with her more human side, especially as she is accompanied throughout her search by her son Dario, a teenaged Sancho Panza constantly calling into question the Quixotic actions of his mother. Raluy’s face, attractive yet stolid, expresses the obdurate spirit of Sonia’s character.

Impressive as Sonia is, she’s ultimately no match for the Kafkaesque labyrinth she finds herself in. When she goes to the hospital to meet with her husband’s doctor he refuses to see her. She chases him down and makes him tell her the name of the insurance company official who cut off the medication. She’s somehow gotten hold of a large pistol to force the issue, but one person leads to another – everyone is responsible but no one is responsible. As in the myth of the Hydra, when you cut off one head of a corrupt system, another takes its place.

A still from A Monster with a Thousand Heads.

The director is skilful in evoking the Kafkaesque atmosphere. The film is filled with little dissonant moments (a sudden blurring of the action, jarring cuts, slightly askew angles) that add up to an off-kilter universe. When violence occurs it happens fast, erupting out of nowhere. From time to time we hear the proceeds of the heroine’s future trial (which provides some of the film’s suspense). This represents not only a teasing flash-forward but also another Kafka reference, though only as a haunting voice-over.

Although the film presumably is set in Mexico, it really takes place in an unidentifiable gray urban-scape (reminiscent of the nightmare city of John Boorman’s surreal thriller Point Blank). Everything looks washed out and drably lit. What’s also unsettling is that while we see various denizens of the creepy settings, we never see or hear the husband who is the raison d’être for the long trek of Sonia and her son. This is normal enough, as he’s supposed to be unwell, but there’s something premonitory about it as well.

Director Rodrigo Pla

It would have been interesting to see what sort of man the husband was, what sort of marriage he and Sonia had - what motivates her. Instead, what emotional texture there is in the film comes from the relationship between mother and son. Dario (serviceably played by Aguirre Boeda) seems like a typical adolescent caught up in his parents’ ordeal. Yet when things get out of hand at one moment, it is he who goes over the edge.

Still, Sonia is the real centre of this fable-like movie. She embodies a sort of female principle up against a male-dominated bureaucracy, peopled by various feckless men. It’s perhaps symbolic that she wields a large pistol to do battle with them, and not a coincidence that even the males in her family pale before her determination. Ironically, when Sonia finally confronts the shareholder at the top of the capitalist food-chain, it turns out to be a woman.

Pla’s oneiric approach shouldn’t detract from the very realistic context of his film. Health care continues to be a critical issue in many, if not most, countries. In the United States, despite President Barack Obama’s health-care reform, nightmarish experiences with the system still occur (in a country that spends more on health per capita than any other). 

Even countries with socialized medicine or national health insurance are making decisions with grave implications in the face of budgetary constraints. A Monster With a Thousand Heads shows that the distinction between calculating and killing is just a question of perspective.

Production: Buenaventura. Distribution: Memento Films (France) / Canibal Networks (Mexico) / Music Box Films (US).

Dimitri Keramitas is a legal expert and prize-winning writer based in Paris, France.

WHITE HOUSE HOSTING CONCERT FOR INT'L JAZZ DAY

The fifth annual International Jazz Day will be celebrated around the world on April 30, with U.S. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama hosting the main event – an All-Star Global Concert – at the White House on April 29, a day ahead of time.

The official 2016 Jazz Day poster.

According to the United Nations’ cultural agency UNESCO, which first designated the day in 2012, the concert will be broadcast as a one-hour prime-time television special on April 30 evening, and streamed on the websites of the UN, UNESCO, U.S. State Department and the White House.

The concert will feature a range of artists from around the world, paying tribute to what the organisers call the “truly American art form of jazz”.

Participating performers include acclaimed musicians Herbie Hancock, Aretha Franklin, Chick Corea, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Sting, Terri Lyne Carrington, Al Jarreau, Marcus Miller, Hugh Masekela and a host of other stars. Pianist, arranger and composer John Beasley will serve as the evening’s musical director.

“We’ll probably be reaching more people this year than ever,” Beasley said in an interview.  He told SWAN that the concert will see some interesting artistic link-ups that will bring musicians together “across musical genres and geography”. For instance, R&B legend Franklin will be performing with Hancock, and English singer and bassist Sting with vocalist Jarreau and other artists.

In response to a question about the main issue of directing such a concert, Beasley said the key challenge was “dreaming up scenarios” for people to play collectively.

“I try to be creative and think of people that haven’t normally played together – something that takes them out of their comfort zone – and also adding the international element, to put people from all over the world together,” he said. “That’s the beauty of jazz; it’s a conversation. We can talk without words and find commonality.”

John Beasley (photo by Eric Wolfinger)

Last year’s concert at UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris – one of 80 events in the French capital – saw Scottish singer Annie Lennox, more known for rock music, belting out jazz standards from a recent album, accompanied by Hancock on piano. It also placed the talented young bassist Ben Williams alongside veteran saxophonist Wayne Shorter, for one of the high points of a concert that had audience members dancing at the end.

According to Beasley, the event can “exemplify global kinship without borders, regardless of race, ethnicity, socio-economic background, or political affiliations.”

Since the first Jazz Day, the international audience has grown to 2 billion people participating in many varieties of jazz-themed events, Beasley told IDN.

Presented by UNESCO in partnership with the US-based Thelonious Monk Institute, International Jazz Day was conceived by Hancock and launched at UNESCO headquarters in Paris as well as at venues in New Orleans and New York in 2012. The aim was to highlight the power of jazz as a force for freedom and creativity, and to use the music to promote intercultural dialogue and respect.

Tom Carter, president of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, told IDN that the 2016 edition was shaping up to be most successful one so far. “Our country is the birthplace of jazz, from its origins in New Orleans … and we’re proud that it has been embraced in all corners of the globe,” he said.

Herbie Hancock

The first International Jazz Day comprised events in 80 countries and has now grown to 195 countries – “all the UN and UNESCO member states”, Carter added.

As part of the celebration, the Thelonious Monk Institute launched “Math, Science & Music” on April 26, an education platform with free curricula, games, apps and other online elements “that use music as a tool to teach maths and science to students”.

The platform will address the growing need for students to gain skills and knowledge in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects and learn to think creatively, the Institute said

In a statement, Hancock – who also serves as a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador – said: “We are thrilled that President Obama and Michelle Obama are hosting the International Jazz Day All-Star Global Concert at the White House, and are truly grateful for their commitment to jazz and its role in building bridges and uniting people around the world.” 

The Day will also see musicians and educators participating in a series of free jazz performances, master classes, improvisational workshops, and other events, he said. Additional key activities will include community outreach initiatives at schools, embassies, arts centres, hospitals, and other venues. These will be taking place all over the world, but with a focus on Washington, D.C. Meanwhile in Paris, where the Day started, singers including Denise King will be giving concerts and participating in various arts activities.

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