All posts by Brendan Smith

Meet the Artists from the Nature Revisited Exhibition

Nature Revisited Art Exhibition

On view until Jan. 2, 2020

Takoma Park Community Center

7500 Maple Avenue

If you haven’t seen the Nature Revisited exhibition at the Takoma Park Community Center, you only have a few weeks left! The exhibition will be on view until Jan. 2, and you can see the art and hear the artists talk about their work in this Youtube video.  Three photographers and a mixed-media artist offer surprising views of landscapes from across the world, casting nature through a different light. The artists include Rachel Ann Cross, Michael Duncan, Stewart Sarkozy-Banoczy, and Peter Stern.

In her Sacred Treks series, Cross has painted elements from her epic hikes, including more than 500 miles along the centuries-old Camino de Santiago in France and Spain. A retired optical scientist, Michael Duncan has developed astrophotography with long-exposure night photos that bring constellations and galaxies to life in the Southwest.

Sarkozy-Banoczy documents communities and habitats across the world that are severely affected by climate change, including dwindling fishing villages in Newfoundland. As an ultralight plane pilot, Stern takes takes low-altitude landscape photos that resemble abstract paintings, including images of environmental devastation in Pennsylvania mine country.

Image: Fading by Stewart Sarkozy-Banoczy

Calling All Artists and Filmmakers!

The City of Takoma Park’s Takoma Park Arts cultural series is seeking submissions from artists and artist groups for group exhibitions in the galleries at the Takoma Park Community Center in 2020-21. Applicants don’t have to be Takoma Park residents and there is no fee to apply. Please use the online application form before the Jan. 20 deadline. You also can find more info about our art exhibition series here.

We also are seeking submissions from filmmakers for future film screenings in the Takoma Park Community Center auditorium. Applicants don’t have to be Takoma Park residents and there is no fee to apply. Filmmakers are paid a $100 honorarium after the screening. Please use the online application form before the Jan. 20 deadline.

African Music Stories and Concert with Georges Collinet and Samba Mapangala on Nov. 22

An Evening with Georges Collinet and Samba Mapangala 

Nov. 22 at 8 pm

Takoma Park Community Center

7500 Maple Avenue

Free event with $10 suggested donation

Legendary radio broadcaster Georges Collinet, aka Maxi Voom Voom from VOA and Afropop Worldwide, will share rare unseen footage and stories from his 50 years covering African music and culture. Then Congolese master vocalist Samba Mapangala will join DC Highlife Stars for musical interludes and an acoustic set to end the evening.

Eme and Michael from Takoma Radio’s Jolly Papa Show will host the event and lead the band through their unique blend of classic highlife and rumba along with some newer dance hits. The concert, which is sponsored by the City’s Takoma Park Arts series, is free and no tickets are required. There is a $10 suggested donation to support the performers. Don’t miss this one-night-only event!

Third Thursday Poetry Reading on Nov. 21


Third Thursday Poetry Reading

Nov. 21 at 7:30 pm

Takoma Park Community Center

7500 Maple Avenue

Please join us for our next installment in the popular Third Thursday Poetry reading series. Four local poets will read their work on a variety of themes with a reception following the reading. The poets include Judith Bowles, Jona Colson, Kristin Ferragut, and NaBeela Washington. This free event is sponsored by the City’s Takoma Park Arts cultural series.

Bowles earned her MFA at American University where she taught creative writing. Colson’s first poetry collection, Said Through Glass, won the 2018 Jean Feldman Poetry Prize from the Washington Writers’ Publishing House. Ferragut’s poetry has been published in several journals, and she is a regular contributor at open mic poetry nights. Washington is pursuing a master’s degree in creative writing and poetry at Southern New Hampshire University.

Nature Revisited Opening Reception on Nov. 14

NATURE REVISITED OPENING RECEPTION

Nov. 14 at 7 pm

Takoma Park Community Center

7500 Maple Avenue

In the Nature Revisited exhibition, three photographers and a mixed-media artist offer fresh and surprising interpretations of landscapes from across the world, casting nature through a different light.

Please join us for a free opening reception at 7 pm on Nov. 14 at the Takoma Park Community Center where you can see their work and meet the artists, including Rachel Ann Cross, Michael Duncan, Stewart Sarkozy-Banoczy, and Peter Stern.

In her Sacred Treks series, Cross has painted elements from her epic hikes, including more than 500 miles along the centuries-old Camino de Santiago in France and Spain. A retired optical scientist, Michael Duncan has developed astrophotography with long-exposure night photos that bring constellations and galaxies to life.

Sarkozy-Banoczy documents communities and habitats across the world that are severely affected by climate change, including dwindling fishing villages in Newfoundland. As a small plane pilot, Stern takes low-altitude landscape photos that resemble abstract paintings, including images of environmental devastation in Pennsylvania mine country.

Image: Fading by Stewart Sarkozy-Banoczy

“To Sing Against the Night” Poetry Reading this Thursday


Four prominent local poets will read their work about the physical and emotional trauma of serious illness at To Sing Against the Night, a free poetry reading at 7:30 pm on Thursday, Oct. 17. Their poems invoke the rigors of treatment, the fear of death, and the comfort offered by family and caregivers who face their own battles with grief, guilt, and acceptance. How does one survive intense suffering with respect and dignity? How can that journey be transformed through the healing power of art?

The featured poets include Nancy Naomi Carlson, Ellen Aronofsky Cole, Judith Harris, and E. Ethelbert Miller. The reading will be held at the Takoma Park Community Center auditorium at 7500 Maple Avenue.  The event is part of the Third Thursday Poetry reading series sponsored by the City of Takoma Park’s Takoma Park Arts cultural series. We hope to see you there!

When you gotta go, you gotta read some poetry!

 

 

The City’s Takoma Park Arts cultural series has revived the Bathroom Poetry Project with poems by local poets featured in bathrooms at the Takoma Park Community Center at 7500 Maple Avenue. Silver Spring poet Regina Coll founded the project in 2008 with poems spreading across the country in restrooms, loos, privies, latrines, and water closets. Bathroom poetry appeared in Takoma Park, Washington, D.C., Raleigh, Chicago, Austin, and Portland. Why let good poems go to waste so we’ve brought them back for a second visit or number 2 (sorry, couldn’t resist). The next time you’re at the Community Center, get some reading done when it’s time to relieve yourself.

Film Screening and Poetry Reading Will Celebrate Immigrants

The City of Takoma Park has been a “sanctuary city” since 1985 and actively supports and welcomes immigrants and refugees.  The City’s Takoma Park Arts cultural series will celebrate the lives and legacy of immigrants in a free film screening and poetry reading at the Takoma Park Community Center at 7500 Maple Avenue.

Vintage Movie Night: Immigrants and Refugees 

Thursday, Sept. 12 at 7:30 pm 

Local filmmaker Richard Hall will lead a cinematic journey through a century of films about immigrants and refugees, from early 20th century silent films encouraging immigrants to assimilate to World War II films about refugees and more recent classroom films. See how America’s ideas about immigrants and refugees have changed — or not changed — over the past century. This screening is presented in partnership with Docs in Progress.

Poems of Migration and the American Immigrant Experience

Thursday, Sept. 19 at 7:30 pm 

Three poets who are immigrants from different ethnic backgrounds will share their poetry about the joys and pitfalls of migrating to the United States, including a sense of exile or welcome and struggles against discrimination. The featured local poets include Indran Amirthanayagam, Zeina Azzam, and Vladimir Monge.

Amirthanayagam is an award-winning poet who was born in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) who moved to London when he was a child and then to Honolulu half a world away before resettling in the D.C. area. As the daughter of Palestinian refugees, Azzam spent her childhood in Lebanon before moving to the United States when she was 10 years old. Monge was born in El Salvador and attended the University of El Salvador and the National University of Costa Rica before relocating to the United States.

This reading is part of the Takoma Park Arts Third Thursday Poetry reading series which features free poetry readings on the third Thursday of most months. You can sign up for our weekly e-newsletter to receive info about all of our upcoming events.

Photo credit: Thomas Hawk  

Artists Needed to Paint Little Library Boxes

We are seeking an artist or artist team to paint five Little Library boxes that will be placed in locations around Takoma Park. Artists need to submit two designs that are lively and colorful, and payment for the project is $1,200. Applicants don’t need to be Takoma Park residents, and there is no fee to apply. The deadline is Sept. 29, and the application form is available at https://seam.ly/XJQZa6Rb.