Happy blogging!

Celebrating her 60th year this month, Ensler talks about what activism at 60 looks like, her immense gratitude for her extra years, the possibility of using sickness as a time of transformation, why she no longer seeks out stories of rape and trauma from others, and the absolute importance of self-care.

SE: You have a very important birthday this month. What does activism look like at 60 for you?

EE: I actually feel more energized than I’ve ever felt. I have profound gratitude for being alive and feel that I’ve been given this extra time to try to end violence against women and the earth and end economic injustice and all the other things.

How has your activism evolved over the years?

I’ve been an activist since I was a teenager and now it’s just who I am, it turns out.

Do you feel like it’s gotten easier to stand up?

In some ways and and in others, no. Sometimes it feels like it’s Ground Hog’s Day. We just keep circling back on these big issues and when we move forward, we get pushed back. But sometimes I feel like we make huge leaps forward.

And then sometimes I feel like I’m really ready for the next generation to move forward and I’m very happy to see so many young women and men standing up and resisting. The life of an activist is an amazing life and I’ve very lucky that I’ve been able to put my words on the line and make theater that created some kind of resistance. I’m happy to be in the struggle with millions of others around the world.

This is a ridiculously broad question but what do you think is still the biggest threat to women? Or issue that you keep circling back on, as you said?

Well, a funny thing is patriarchy is still the biggest threat. We haven’t deconstructed patriarchy yet and I think violence is the methodology that patriarchy uses. The kind of lethal combination of escalated corporate greed and capitalism along with patriarchy seems deadly to women on every level whether it’s economic injustice, bodies being commodified, women being sent into dangerous factories that are about to collapse or being shot because they want to learn. I think these two forces together are devastating to women.

In the book, you write about how you viewed your body as a burden. That you didn’t feel tied to it really until you got cancer. Can you explain the evolution of how you felt then to how you feel about your body now?

I love my body. I am profoundly thankful for my body. It let me live. It learned how to function while losing a lot of parts. It’s incredibly healthy now and energized even though it has no reason to be after all that it has been through.  During the chemo treatments, I feel like I burned away a lot that needed to go. A lot of that projected badness and a lot of the things perpetrators projected onto me. A lot of that contamination I was holding onto it is gone.

Much of the book talks about your cancer treatment, what did you read for inspiration when you were going through chemo? Was there a book like this for you or was that also some of the inspiration for writing the book?

Audre Lorde’s The Cancer Journals, Susan Sontag’s Illness as Metaphor. I read The History of Cancer but I needed something more specific. I needed to know what was going on in the body while going through chemo. I wanted to share that.

You’re on this 19-city book tour, what has the reaction after the readings been like so far?

The reactions have been so emotional and so deep and so gorgeous. And I’m so moved at other people’s desire to be in their bodies. Women hunger to get back into their bodies. Many women feel like they’ve already left their bodies.

Much of your work whether it has focused on your own sexual abuse or violence against women on a large scale seems very heavy, very emotionally taxing. How do you practice self-care?

I think things are changing. I listen to my body more. I’m in my body now. When I need to rest, I rest. I do yoga. When I have too much stuff going on, I stop.

And what about listening to other women’s stories of abuse?

I don’t listen to stories anymore. I did for 15 years and I’m totally convinced! I’m in! But I do think there was a time when I needed to listen to those stories and I think those stories informed my work and compelled me to become an activist.

As a reader, there is something very powerful that happens when you connect the cancer that was in your own body to the cancer that is in caged chickens, the runoff from dangerous companies, environmental pollution to other women’s wombs. Can you tell us what that initial connection in your brain felt like?

When you get cancer, you just kind of get it, the whole carelessness of all we’ve done with desecration and fracturing of the environment. And I just thought of all the ways cancer gets in to us, right? Whether it’s what’s injected into chickens, whether it’s radiation in the air and I thought about all of the people who’ve had cancer.

You mention with that connection, there comes great responsibility, can you explain?

I think we have to look at how we are causing divisions and splitting and fractions in our everyday lives because that’s what cancer is, is psychotically subdividing cells, right? So how are we dividing ourselves and subdividing ourselves. I think that is really the ‘big’ question. I think what I’m looking for now is how we connect and how we become whole and how we move forward with positive energy. And that’s not to say one’s not addressing the big political issues but I think I’m much more interested in the connections than the divisions.

Eve Ensler will share stories from her latest In the Body of the World at a discussion and book signing at Coral Gables Congregational Church, Saturday, June 1 from 6 to 8 p.m.  Visit www.mycgcc.org for more info.

C&I Studios

You already know this: while earning your college degree was informative and pleasant enough, plenty of us head in a different direction. Or maybe the experience wasn’t so awesome or helpful, but we’re sticking, steadfast and stubborn, to what we set out for in the first place. Joshua Miller, the executive director and founder of Fort Lauderdale-based C&I Studios—an idea and production agency—represents a combination of both phenomena. “In 2006, C&I was nothing. Just an idea. I wanted to make films and that’s it. I wanted to just be creative and make stuff I wanted to make,” Miller says. “I went to film school, but I didn’t learn anything there. It’s a waste of money. Sorry. Film school is such a scam.”

Located on downtown Fort Lauderdale’s N.W. First Avenue, C&I has gone from just an idea to a self-described “idea agency” that works with clients in the production, design, audio, photographic, video, and film industries. Why are they an idea agency—not just an ad agency or production studio?

“An ‘idea agency’ is a new description,” Miller explains. “Most ad agencies come up with concepts, and then outsource everything and deal with production companies to fulfill their concepts. We are a full idea agency, meaning that we come up with ideas for our clients and don’t outsource anything.” This, of course, simplifies the process for clients, and guarantees a good degree of quality. “Our staff is a team of creatives that have awesome ideas,” says Miller. “Clients have to tell their vision to just one company. The telephone game isn’t played. Because we are a one-stop shop, the message never loses its quality: C&I offers all media services. We even handle the actual campaigns, too.” This deems C&I a specialty company, offering a staff of experts and a streamlined approach.

If you haven’t heard of them via their business, perhaps you’re familiar with a different endeavor: their web series, The Distance. The show explores the particularly dark qualities of long-distance relationships, using them as a scope to discuss other issues. “Yeah, The Distance is about long-distance relationships, but that’s not really what it’s about,” Miller says. “The show is about social, political, and religious issues; the relationships are a way to talk about stuff that matters. I just think people rarely talk about things that matter.” Through its heart-aching characters, The Distance touches upon abortion, religion, socioeconomic status, and politics. The show was accepted for screening at the Hollyweb Festival in Hollywood, California, where it was one of only two Florida websites featured.

How did C&I go from the aforementioned “nothing” to the creator of a successful web series? “I credit everything I’ve learned to this guy named Mike Charbonneau,” Miller explains. “He mentored me and took me under his wing when I was 13 years old. He’s insanely talented.” Miller was already interested in film at a young age and got his start through Mike, but later “found out that making your own projects doesn’t pay the bills.” He eventually started doing corporate video work, but Miller just couldn’t sit behind the desk. “I always knew this kind of work was something I could really do. I was married, and I had a 3-week-old kid, so quitting my salary job wasn’t smart. But I did it. And the reason I could is because my wife is insanely supportive. She was always telling me, ‘you can do it; I know we’ll make it.’ I never could have done it without her support.”

Joshua Miller

Sometime after that realization, C&I Studios became more than an idea agency. Aside from their impressive clientele list, the studio now caters to the community and, furthermore, supports charitable organizations, part of a goal to reach “Humanity 2.0.” Miller describes Humanity 2.0 as “when you’re driving on 95 and you’re in traffic because of an accident, you’re furious. You’re so upset that you’re late—not because someone could possibly be dead in that accident. We need an upgrade. I remember if it was raining and someone had their hood up, my dad would stop and see if everything was okay. People aren’t like that anymore. Nowadays, it’s all about, ‘Well, that’s not my problem.’ If we actually cared about each other, I would love to see what America would look like.”

C&I donates to Camp Sonshine, a summer day camp in Maryland—many of the staff are alumni. “That place had a big impact on our lives; it’s really important that we give back to them.” And Justin Mein, a director at C&I, has, with his wife, visited orphanages in Guatemala for the past decade. “That’s why we give to Watchmen on the Wall, and to Flutemaker Ministries in Nicaragua,” says Miller. Flutemaker Ministries was founded by Erik Sampson, the father of Josiah Sampson, C&I’s creative consultant and The Distance’s star and narrator. “Our staff said, ‘We’ll take less money, and give it to them.’ So when Maxim hires us to film or shoot something, they are actually helping put shoes on kids’ feet, dig wells in Africa, and build a home for orphans. It’s really awesome.”

C&I reach out on a local level, too. When Miller realized he had the option to move the company out of Fort Lauderdale, he made what felt like, at the time, a risky decision to stay. “Man, in 2011, we were gonna move,” he explains. “I moved to Fort Lauderdale in 2008 and never really felt connected here. I’m from D.C., a city filled with art and culture, and I always thought Fort Lauderdale was lacking. So I was like, man, maybe we should move the studio to Austin, Boston, Chicago, or New York. But then I thought, Fort Lauderdale sucks because everyone keeps leaving. And if it does suck, then it’s our fault. It’s not that the town sucks—people just don’t know where to go.”

C&I would give them a place to go. They hired Corey Bost as their event manager, and now, says Miller, “we do a lot of events for the community to give them a place that’s filled with art and culture. We do ‘Live at C&I’ concert events, free BBQ Friday events. No agenda, just hanging out with people.” Artists who perform at Live at C&I receive free media as a thank you. “We do monthly art walk events in FAT Village, movie nights, anything that we think will be awesome and help the community. Relationships are huge to us; that’s how we started our company and we will always be like that.” One movie night was a screening of Up, projected onto the studio’s ceiling—patrons snuggled on blankets below.

An event venue, promoter, production agency, and charitable organization all in one? It seems overwhelming. Miller disagrees: “We do a lot, but we don’t do enough. We are not satisfied what we are doing so far. We need to reach out more.” As C&I Studios continues to grow, they’ll likely maintain a strong connection to their roots. “We hope to continue to work with the coolest brands, but at the same time, we want to work with people who can’t afford massive productions,” says Miller. “We always want to remember where we came from. Money is a necessary evil, but we believe that when used the right way, it can ignite a community, rally awareness for social and humanitarian issues, and bring about change in a city that isn’t ‘creative.’ This town is creative, and if you still don’t believe it, come on down and see for yourself.”

View the first episode of The Distance here. Check out C&I Studios’ full Vimeo page here. Head to C&I Studios this Saturday, May 18, at 8 p.m., for a free movie night. C&I is located at 541 NW First Ave., Fort Lauderdale.

Our dear Rep. Allen West.

Note from the editor: In the tradition of “Congressman’s Corner,” Salty Eggs has invited former Rep. Allen West to field questions from his South Florida constituents. Having not received a response to our query, we must do our best to answer questions on his behalf, based on what we know of his temperament and politics.

Dear Allen West,

I read today that Salty Eggs, the website where your column appears, just won a Green Eyeshade Award as the region’s third best blog. Are you pleased by this development? Because it seems to me that there would be friction between you and the others on the masthead, who clearly show a liberal bias.

D Pelgrino
Delray Beach

Dear Mr. Pelgrino,

Satire is an art form that contains no small measure of nuance, so I hope you’re not too embarrassed to be the only one who’s not in on the joke: The fact is, this is a conservative website, reflecting my moral and political soul. Dear Allen is certainly a serious endeavor, but the site’s operators apparently decided that they would offset it with a hodgepodge of political and cultural satire. So you have columns like Danation, in which writer Dan Sweeney presents a caricature of popular liberal attitudes. Most recently, he delivered a hilariously misinformed critique of President Bush’s decision to invade Iraq 10 years ago, harping about “weapons of mass destruction” that were never found. It’s funny because we all know by now that we achieved our primary objective in that war, which was to smack around Muslims. If that was too subtle for you, Mr. Pelgrino, then surely you were wise to the joke in an April 19 article about a “specialty design firm” called “helium creative.” This alleged firm insists on being spelled in lower case letters, which was your first clue you were dealing with satire. But it goes a little over the top, I’d say, when it suggests that people should consider giving money to an art campaign that focuses on balloons. I mean, come on. Money for art that does not involve antique weapons? Is that not the most libtarded idea you’ve ever heard?

Other essays make reference to a civil rights movement called “feminism.” That may sound made-up,  but feminism actually existed briefly in the 1970s — its promoters made the ludicrous argument that women did not enjoy being dominated by men. Of course, these agitators were rounded up and deported by the Reagan Administration; the conceit with those articles, as far as I can tell, is to pretend that feminism had not only survived the 1980s but that it was thriving and relevant in the modern age. (I swear, I almost typed that last part with a straight face.) As for the music coverage, every band you read about in Salty Eggs is a parody of a band that may have been popular before modern country music and American Idol became the only legitimate venues for musical expression. Please tell me you didn’t really believe that someone would call himself Iggy Pop and let himself be photographed wearing a dress and carrying a purse?

Now, the site’s operators have never explicitly told me that the other articles here are satirical; that would defeat the purpose. So I’m willing to play along, especially since I’m given carte blanche with this particular column. And let’s face it, despite the profound comic talents of the other Salty Eggs contributors, Dear Allen is the conservative spinal cord of this website and probably the single reason it was nominated for an award in the first place. Still, being a humble soldier (ret.), I must accept this award on behalf of the entire Salty Eggs staff, mindful that you don’t have to be a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army who was kicked out for abusing an Iraqi prisoner to be a great American. To answer your question, Mr. Pelgrino, there is no tension between this decorated veteran and the others on the Salty Eggs masthead. We are as one, proud and strong, partners in the enterprise of electing Newt Gingrich president in 2016.

Loyal and steadfast! Lt. Col. (ret.) Allen B West

Portrait of a genius

Venezuela has been in the media lately: following the death of Hugo Chávez, his chosen successor, Nicolas Maduro, beat challenger Henrique Capriles in the current election for presidency. It was a miniscule margin of a win—about 50.7%–and as of this write-up, a contested verdict.

But if you’re the average United Statesian, you are less aware of Venezuela’s artistic and cultural contributions. This means you’ve passed over one of the greatest, most prolific ambassadors to several universes of music: the late Aldemaro Romero, composer, pianist, conductor, and veritable legend.

Born in Valencia, Venezuela, in 1928, Romero created arrangements for everything from orchestras to Caribbean-style songs, collaborated with the likes of Tito Puente and Dean Martin, and—perhaps his most influential mark on the world of all—invented Onda Nueva, the Venezuelan New Wave, a combination of Bossa Nova and joropo, a Venezuelan hybrid of waltz, folk, and African dance. When you hear Onda Nueva, you’ll think of Os Mutantes traversing the Cordillera de Mérida in bathing suits, Charlie Byrd strumming a guitar and trailing behind them—appropriate, considering Romero collaborated with Mr. Byrd. Romero’s other contributions were rather austere: founder of the Caracas Philharmonic Orchestra, Romero was the conductor, and served as guest conductor to a variety of other orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Last year, the University of Miami acquired his archive of music scores, allowing their own students to partake in his legacy.

Charlie Byrd and Aldemaro Romero – El Catire, from Onda Nueva / The New Wave, 1974.

Tonight, at the Littman Theater in North Miami Beach, a set of musicians entranced by the work of Romero will dedicate a tribute to him, entitled Aldemaro Romero de Polo a Polo, performing a variety of songs from his repertoire under the orchestral conduction of Venezuelan musician Carlos Puchi. Supported by the Venezuelan-American Chamber of Commerce and the Alas Solidarias (Solidarity Wings) Foundation, the concert’s proceeds will go toward the latter—a component of SBA Airlines that provides support to both non-profit organizations and low-income families with ill children who need to travel to any of the airline’s destinations for medical treatment.

Organized by Luz Marina, the event’s artistic producer, and Ruby Romero, Aldemaro’s daughter and a producer herself, the performance will feature a host of musicians brilliant in their own right, including Ivan Velasquez, Americo Baptista, Junior Romero, Javier Mendoza, and Jose Gregorio Hernandez. Some have collected Latin Grammy awards (Ilan Chester, Maria Teresa Chacin, Maria Rivas), some have worked with Romero himself; others are simply genius. Most of them are Venezuelan, which has as much to do with SBA Airlines and the relationships it has helped foster as it does with Romero. Says Marina, “most musicians and artists who are part of this event are Venezuelans, and they have enjoyed the support of SBA Airlines and the Chamber of Commerce on many occasions, mainly supported by the president of SBA, Ms. Leslie Simons. Now it’s time for them to support SBA’s foundation, Alas Solidarias. It’s fair and necessary.”

Aldemaro Romero with Louis Armstrong

Honoring the SBA via a laudation of Romero is perfect, explains his daughter, Ruby. “Being so close to my father in all the presentations he did, I know how to select the repertoire in the way my father would have conceived it,” she says. He is a foundational component of Venezuela’s arts, indispensible as mortar—honoring him is honoring Venezuela, Marina suggests: “Aldemaro is one of the most important composers, musicians, arrangers, and musical directors of Venezuela. His contribution to the country and legacy is unquestioned and invaluable. To honor a personality like this is to take care of our own culture and our history.”

Aldemaro Romero – Tema De La Onda, from La Onda Maxima, 1971

Ruby adds: “Aldemaro was going to be 85 this past March, and there are thousands of followers that feel the need to hear his music again.” Romero seems inextricably connected to Venezuela’s collective memory, which is why this tribute will provide a glimpse into something evocatively personal, even tender, for the musicians involved. Says María Alecia Izturriaga, one of the event’s promoters and organizers, “For us, as Venezuelans, he is part of both our pop and classic cultures. Everyone can relate to his music and people from various generations have different memories about his music. In my case, his Onda Nueva was part of my father’s playlist, hence part of my childhood memories. My mother, who is also a musician from the same town, not only had the chance to meet him, but also to work with him. It really surprised me to find his music in different parts of the world, played by a wide range of musicians. When I listen to it, decades later, I understand it is classic. I feel proud being part of this tribute.”

Aldemaro Romero de Polo a Polo is at the Julius Littman Theater, 17011 NE 19th Ave., North Miami Beach, tonight, Thursday, May 9. Show begins at 7 p.m. You can purchase your tickets–still available!–at littmantheater.com. Tickets are $35.

The Senate is, at this point, utterly incapable of doing its job. The gun-control fiasco, in which legislation supported by 90 percent of the population failed to pass, taught us of the total ineffectualness of the institution. Ninety freaking percent. There is practically not a single issue of any importance that can get those numbers. Hell, 44 percent of Republicans believe that “in the next few years, an armed revolution might be necessary to protect our liberties” according to one recent poll, and yet 90 percent of us — including Republicans — still agree that gun owners should pass a background check. The gun control legislation actually had enough votes to pass — that is, a majority, but these days, the Senate needs 60 votes to pass anything more controversial than a post-office naming. The tactic of demanding 60 votes for any piece of legislation senators don’t necessarily agree with leaped in usage when the Republicans were in the minority during the end of Poppy Bush’s administration. Once Republicans took over the Senate in the Republican wave of 1994, the new Democratic minority kept up the tactic at about the same pace. But once Republicans were returned to the minority at the tail end of the Bush years, use of the filibuster skyrocketed. It’s perhaps best displayed in this handy graph.

This is not, then a multiparty problem. The Republican Party has used the filibuster in ways it was never intended, and has now ground the working of government to a halt. There have been numerous stories about Republican senators taking a hit for voting against gun control, none so much as Jeff Flake of Arizona and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire. Indeed, one relative of a victim of the Sandy Hook massacre posed this question to Sen. Ayotte at a town hall meeting she held after the vote: “You had mentioned the burden to owners of gun stores that these expanded background checks would cause. I’m just wondering why the burden of my mother being gunned down in the hall of her elementary school isn’t as important as that?”

Ouch.

But, hell, Sen. Ayotte’s about the sanest politician to come out of the Granite State. State legislator Stella Tremblay thinks the Boston Marathon bombing was caused by the government, because that legless guy in the wheelchair wasn’t screaming enough. And New Hampshire state legislator Edmond Gionet says that his constituents are worried that we’re dangerously close to a revolution (that his constituents will no doubt have to lead, like the Wolverines or something). Of course, that shouldn’t be too surprising, given the poll I cited earlier. But the main takeaway from these things is this: We Are Too Far Gone As A Nation To Be Ruled By The Dumb.

Jeffrey Lebowski (below) and Rep. Billy Long — separated at birth?

The borderline insane are not just limited to state legislatures, where they are found en masse. Even in the hallowed halls of the U.S. Congress, we find people like Missouri Rep. Billy Long, who looks almost exactly like the wheelchair-bound, older Lebowski from The Big Lebowski and — given his recent statements — shares many of the same sentiments. Long has actually argued that his constituents want more sequestration cuts, not less. (Notice the pattern here — as with state Rep. Gionet, above, these nutballs claim they’re just representing their constituents, without citing anything like poll numbers or letters from said constituents. It’s the same thing as Fox News anchors saying “Some say…” before filling in their own opinions.)

Jeffrey Lebowski

Even in the sainted halls of the U.S. Senate, where watered-down, more-than-reasonable gun control legislation goes to die, you’ve got people like Oklahoman Sen. James Inhofe arguing that the Dept. of Homeland Security is buying up all the ammo, so responsible, God-fearing, tax-paying, not-at-all-ready-to-murder-the-government-in-a-bloody-revolution citizens can’t get any. Seriously. Even the NRA says this is hogwash, but a sitting U.S. senator does not.

And what about the old Tea Party, the first sign that the right-wing had really gone round the bend into crazy town? Forget them. They’re too busy trying to draft Sarah Palin (Remember Sarah Palin?) to run for Senate in Alaska. Because, hey, the Senate could really use Sarah Palin to throw a monkey wrench in there, what with having all these too-lefty, moderate voices like James Inhofe.

Hell, even a deeply conservative senator, Pat Toomey, admitted that the gun-control legislation got torpedoed not because all of these Republican senators are actually for unrestricted access to guns, but because they refuse to allow Obama anything that even has the smell of a victory.

Meanwhile, a 5-year-old in Kentucky just shot and killed his 2-year-old sister with the gun that his parents legally bought for him, a gun that is specifically marketed for children as “My First Rifle.”

Ooooo! Pretty colors!

Sensible gun control? Fuck that. Rifles for 5-year-olds. Now you’re talking.

Stop it, America. Stop electing people who think background checks are the first step toward death camps. This country cannot afford your stupidity any longer. The only saving grace is that the nutcases are a small minority — but as long as they can filibuster everything they see that makes them think the government is going to put them into FEMA camps (read: Every piece of legislation, ever.), even a couple of crazies are enough to destroy our government.

Suzi Quatro is MEOW Con’s keynote speaker. (Image CC by 2.0, by Jeanie Mackiner on Flickr)

The late, great feminist music magazine ROCKRGRL stopped its print edition in 2010 — but out of its ashes came something even farther-reaching. Thinking beyond celebrating women’s power in music through interviews and articles, ROCKRGRL founder Carla De Santis Black came up with MEOW. (Yes, we love the acronym.)

That stands for Musicians For Equal Opportunities For Women. Besides publishing an online zine, the organization offers support, coaching, education, consulting, and advocacy for women in music, whether they make it a career or just a passionate hobby.

MEOW’s most ambitious project to date, though, is the upcoming inaugural MEOW Con, from October 24 through 26 in Austin, Texas. Billed as a “gathering of the tribes,” the series of panels and showcases is meant to discuss both industry issues that only women deal with — touring when you’re a mom! — and the diversity of genres in which women participate. That means, no, don’t expect a bunch of cliched singer-songwriter fare — so far, there’s everything from punk rock to hip-hop represented, and the keynote speaker is glam-rock badass Suzi Quatro!

MEOW Con is now taking applications for hopeful showcase performers and panel speakers, as well as registration for general conference badges, so please visit meowcon.com for more details.

By the way, ROCKRGRL lives again, at least in one form. This book of memorable quotes  from the magazine’s history is finally available for purchase.

Evoca1 by Jill Weisberg

Sometimes Hollywood seems like Miami’s tempered, more mellow sibling: more affordable, slightly better groomed, a little less youthful—but almost as bustling and, as of late, just as artistically inspired. Thanks to Mayor Peter Bober’s Downtown Hollywood Live Music Initiative, the city has seen some beautiful cultural growth, and the Downtown Hollywood Mural Project is one of its brightest parts.

Launched in August 2012 by the Hollywood Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) in conjunction with curator Jill Weisberg, the Downtown Hollywood Mural Project (DHMP for short) has helped develop a more vibrant, creative, and well-adorned neighborhood. So far, the DHMP has displayed works by a host of awesomeness, including David “Lebo” LeBatard—their premiere mural—and Jessy Nite, Luis Pinto (the founder of Strange Ways zine), Eddie Mendieta, and Ruben Ubiera among them.

Though its most clear function—giving local artists a massive platform upon which to display their work—is obviously useful for the artistic community, the DHMP, in turn, has done what good public art should do: support surrounding businesses, inspire locals, and beautify the environment by making it singular, unique. Says Weisberg, “I believe these murals help bring an iconic factor to the buildings, and on a larger scale, color the Hollywood cityscape as a charming yet vibrant community.”

After working with an organization in Wynwood that, Weisberg explains, “was one of the major catalysts responsible for making the area into one of the top spots for contemporary art murals in the world,” she sought to bring that same kind of project and a similar energy to her hometown of Hollywood. “I’ve always appreciated the unique character of the area,” she says. A curator, project manager, graphic designer, and visual artist in her own right, Weisberg had the right combination of experience, authority, and personal creativity to kick the project into gear herself. But it was the CRA that helped make the DHMP a reality, including it under a larger umbrella of programs that would ultimately stir Hollywood into a more animated and aesthetically pleasing city.

“When I heard that the CRA was interested in working with artists to revamp Hollywood’s exteriors,” says Weisberg, “my background and vested interest in the city—both as a professional in the arts and as a resident—felt like the right fit…I was drawn to this project knowing that carefully curated, exterior contemporary art murals can totally transform a neighborhood and make it into a visual-arts destination.”

She was right. Instead of just a visual transformation, the area is experiencing the kind of communal engagement that connects project managers with business owners, business owners to residents, and residents to each other. “Business owners are super happy to have a mural on their property and most often are involved in the process from the beginning, so that we’re all working together on transforming—and marketing—the neighborhood,” says Weisberg. And though the Downtown Hollywood Art Walk, which takes place on the third Saturday of every month, features “a muralist painting live and interacting with the public during those nights,” most murals are not complete in just one night. So, “on any given day, you might walk by and see an artist putting the finishing touches on his or her wall.” This, hopefully, fosters a more long-term connection between the artist and the city.

Evoca1 by Jill Weisberg

As for the art itself, Weisberg says her goal is to “showcase the widest variety of locally-based, contemporary art muralists possible—every artist that works on the project must differ stylistically from the others.” In choosing her muralists, Weisberg is looking for “interesting concepts, aesthetics, and a vision that shows how the artwork is site-specific or particular to that canvas or wall. Since DHMP has avoided limiting ideas by creating a common theme for the entire neighborhood, the outcome has been artist-driven murals, portraying a message important to the individual artist.”

The current artist on view, street and studio artist Evoca1—whose in-progress piece is nearly complete—has a universally important message, driven through his Sketches For Mankind project. Founded in 2010, Sketches For Mankind, according to its website, was created to bring “awareness to emerging important local and world issues through art, while raising funds to aid those in need in communities local and abroad.” The program feeds at least one hundred homeless downtown Miami residents on the third Saturday of every month.

Evoca1’s dedication to bettering the community is similar to Weisberg’s own, rendering him a perfect muralist for the project. Says Evoca1, “Although Sketches For Mankind is a small humanitarian effort, our main goal is to raise awareness of poverty in our community while aiding the less fortunate. While painting, I tend to use past experiences or an emotional struggle faced by someone I’ve come in contact with through my humanitarian work as inspiration.” Before founding Sketches For Mankind, Evoca1’s work “was much more commercial art and design, lacking excitement and significance,” he explains. “After seeing how the pieces were impacting those in my community, I decided to merge my humanitarian efforts into my work.”

It’s inspiring to see that, aside from giving the oft-faceless and nameless a presence through his visual art, Evoca1 helps them in more concrete ways, as well. “In working on the causes that I believe in through my art, I’ve been using my work to fund and promote the event,” he says. “I believe that as street artists, we posses an immense power to visually speak to the masses at the immediate time they come in contact with the work. This is one of the aspects of making public art that really caught my attention and is also the reason why I prefer street murals to a blank canvas…I believe that we really have the chance to make a difference in the way people feel, which is what I aim to do.”

Evoca1’s piece for the DHMP examines a more banal trouble than is typical for him. Entitled “Posers and Dream Crushers,” “this piece is a way for me to vent my frustrations about the way we interact with one another,” he explains. “It portrays the struggles faced when people pose as being friendly.” Hence: posers.

The unveiling of this piece was an exciting endeavor for Evoca1, and surely for Weisberg as well. A vibe of social consciousness seems to permeate the DHMP, whether it’s through the message of the work or the act of artist exposure itself. And Weisberg has another goal in mind, one we’re particularly looking forward to: “I would like to…bring as many talented women muralists on board as possible,” she says. “We currently have a mural by the lovely Jessy Nite, and both Michelle Weinberg and Tati Suarez have sketches in the works. I have done murals myself and know how limited the opportunities for can be, especially as a woman.”

Be sure to check out Evoca1’s piece, along with 2alas’ take on the Mona Lisa right next door, whenever you’re in the area—and keep your eyes peeled for more pieces all year long.

“Posers and Dream Crushers” is displayed at 2020 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood. “Untitled (Mona Lisa)” is displayed at 1900 Hollywood Boulevard. For more information, visit facebook.com/DowntownHollywoodMuralProject

In The Frank Oz-and-Jim Henson-directed film, The Dark Crystal, Jen the Gelfling embarks on a journey to reunite a shard with a broken crystal, ultimately restoring balance to his universe. This is a children’s movie whose main characters are puppets, but the concept is mighty complex: it is not a simple tale of good versus evil; it is not goodness that Jen—who is joined by a female Gelfling, Kira—is attempting to spread in his land. It is the unity of good and evil, the understanding that too much of either ‘dark’ or ‘light’ can be damaging.

Spoiler alert: at the story’s end, the reptilian, nasty, evil Skeskis, and the kind, harmonious Mystics—the land’s two dominant races—transcend their own beingness and become neutral, floating creatures of light. Though the two races’ opposing qualities might’ve naturally opposed each other, now real peace can exist. There is no judgment, just being.

What I’m trying to say here is that Kubiat Nnamdie is a lot like Jen the Gelfling.

Untitled (Blue GG Allin)

The Nigerian-born, Miami-based artist—he is a photographer, collagist, sculptor, performer, dream-weaver—uses his work to convey what feels like an unbiased, clear, but undeniably beautiful truth about the universe and all of its realms. Particularly in his photography, Nnamdie crafts his subjects with the eye of someone that might know plenty about their emotions and their quirks, but he allows them to exist in a dimension unto themselves, transcending their personhood to become these multifaceted but ultimately unified and peaceful concepts.

In Nnamdie’s world—a colorful one of smoke bombs, powdered glass, sea salt, and yes, shard-like crystals—he does not judge. He simply temporarily creates balance. When asked why, exactly, he creates art, Nnamdie says, “I am able to communicate a universal truth this way.”

Tonight is the opening of the Sixth All-Media Juried Biennial at the Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, and Nnamdie’s portrait Untitled (Blue GG Allin) will be featured amongst works by Farley Aguilar, Sinisa Kukec, Johnny Laderer, Luis Pinto, Vanessa Monokian, and approximately sixty-six others, more than twice as many featured artists than the last show. Juried by Miami Rail editor/wizardly wordsmith Hunter Braithwaite and artist/publisher/purveyor of genius Gean Moreno, this Biennial is especially representative of South Florida’s ripe and multifarious brilliance.

Nnamdie’s image in the show was already displayed in Mexico City at Preteen Gallery, and he is excited to see it “for the first time in the U.S.” It is difficult to tell if the boy in Untitled (Blue GG Allin) knows he’s being photographed. He could be at a social event, could be alone. He is pondering something to which viewers are not privy, but it is unclear whether that ‘something’ is in front of him or within him. Most prominently, the image is blue, as if underwater or in space or infused with magic. Nnamdie does not judge the boy and in this moment, this one-sixtieth of a second, the boy is not a drunk douchebag or a boring buzzkill; he is an entity that emits light the color of the ocean.

Like perhaps all children, Nnamdie started making art when he was very young. “My earliest memories of creating was with a toy,” he says. “I was five, I think. After that, I made self-portraits with markers, like most children.” Although photography eventually became his first love—“[it was] my first teacher”—Nnamdie, as he explains, has “a vision that isn’t bound to just that craft. I realized my need to not limit the ways I communicate and build an artistic world; it’s a whole aesthetic world. It’s a vision. I was always making paintings and giving them to friends. Photography serves as a platform for me to build upon. I like that each medium best communicates directly something the other couldn’t.”

The language with which Nnamdie communicates should remain unbound to any particular medium—the messages are too universal, too pure, to exist within any particular confines. True, all art functions within the constraints of the artist’s brain; in The Dark Crystal, Jen’s restoration of balance to the kingdom was done in his own Gelfling fashion, which came with its own trials and bias. But through the funnel of this one small being (and Kira), something highly fantastical and necessary for all life occurred. Nnamdie says his work explores “spiritual and psychological events in this contemporary society, but not specifically my life or issues. In the work, there are personal moments, but they are universal moments one faces, from death to celebratory events. I’m portraying my experience to start a dialogue about our experience.”

Just Saying It Can Make It Happen

In fact, Nnamdie’s work might come from a world even more similar to Jim Henson’s than you think. It is a spiritual, ritualistic world, and to get both meta and metaphysical, not only is Nnamdie on a mission to express these universal truths, he’s fully aware of where these ideas come from: certainly not from this realm. While “music is just as huge” an influence on his work, “spirituality [was] first—in life, then it entered my process,” he says. “The work I make does resonate on this third dimension [editor’s note: we live in the third realm] and higher. I’d say I make work from a fourth dimension and bring it into this realm. You’ve once said that you feel my work is showing and opening a portal into another realm. There is a spiritual warfare, a spiritual wrestling, that is universal, and it comes through in some of the works.”

If it seems as if Nnamdie fancies himself a master of this kind of thing, an expert wanderer between the realms unlike any other, don’t kid yourself. Any genuine spiritualist who doesn’t suffer from self-absorbed Enlightenment Syndrome understands that he is one part of the whole. Nnamdie is keen to be part of the greater cycles of nature and spirit, affirming that his work is “about your issues, ours.” Though he’s proud of his ability to “take elements of the life of an energy source and funnel that into the work,” the energy source is often his subject, his tools, his materials, all of which have their own agency and life. “I feel more like a healer or spiritual worker expressing it all in art,” he explains. “A co-creator.” If life is but a dream, Nnamdie, as he creates momentary harmonies, is dreaming lucidly.

Black Victory

SpaceGhostPurrp Ego Death

Opening reception for the Sixth All-Media Juried Biennial. Friday, April 26, 6 p.m. – 10 p.m., at the Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, 1650 Harrison Street, Hollywood. Show runs from April 27 – May 26. Call 954-921-3274 or visit artandculturecenter.org

Heavy Sole: Could one balloon really lift those Jeffrey Campbells?

If you’ve been paying attention, you’ve seen that downtown Fort Lauderdale has become fertile ground for a crop of specialty design businesses like helium creative (that’s lowercase). Located on First Avenue and founded by Chris Heller, the self-described “boutique [and] full-service design agency” is just as imaginative as the feelings a balloon might inspire. They’re no spring chickens, either: As of 2013, their work in advertising, graphic design, marketing, web development, and media placement spans nine years and, among its team members, a large chunk of the globe. Last month, helium creative was awarded two Gold and three Silver nods at the Addy Awards (after having won the Davey Awards a year before).

To celebrate their 10th anniversary next year, they’re asking people to contribute to their helium creative 365 campaign, a year-long project with a focus on balloons. Participants are encouraged to photograph a helium-branded balloon on an assigned day, wherever and however they like. After being shared through social media (tag your contributions #heliumcreative365 after uploading them), the photographs will be compiled into a book. In this way, participants get to share their work on media platforms, connect to other balloon photographs, and ultimately foster a large creative network.

The best feature of a design studio is often its versatility, but helium creative offers more. From its inception, the company reached out to other partners and businesses, and streamlined them into one team. helium creative designer Ryan Sirois explains that the company has “additional arms in media buying, social media, online marketing, photography, production, SEO, and development, so we can offer our clients a full rounded service to cover all of their needs and ensure a successful product. We believe in a synergistic approach to the creative process.”

From left: Matt Hall, Ryan Sirois, Chris Heller, Sofia Gonzalez

They’re budget-sensitive, too. The helium founders remember their humble beginnings: emerging essentially from scratch. The company was founded in order to satisfy what creative designer Matthew Hall refers to as “a necessity for a higher creative standard in the advertising world.” Chris Heller, who founded the company and later recruited Hall and Sirois, worked for a larger agency during the day, and started helium from bare bones in his house. Now, despite its growth, helium strives to maintain the same small-business approach. “We may be small, but in today’s world, it’s relative,” Sirois says. “Being a small studio allows us to maintain a personalized relationship with our clients. We are able to work collectively in-house, which helps the creative process. While larger firms are generally still meeting and brainstorming, we’ve already met, strategized, and are delivering award-winning, goal-driven results.”

The most attractive component of helium creative’s pull, however, might be its dedication to functioning as actual working artists: “Helium was initially created to strip down the barriers between a large agency and the client,” Hall says. “Having worked for a few larger studios previously, there was a noticeable disconnect between the creative and the client … We each have a background in fine art, so that is a staple in our work and the basis for most of what we do.”

It’s that sort of creativity and artistic approach they’re hoping to extend to others through the #heliumcreative365 challenge. Initially, it began as an internal project but has “taken on a life of its own.” The premise is simple: take their helium balloon—which has become a staple of their brand—and push them to do something creative with it every day for a year, then photograph the results. “We believe that creativity works best within parameters, so we wanted to push ourselves using one common object” Sirois says.

Eventually, though, they realized that the overall goal was one they wanted to share with the community. “As artists, it is our job first and foremost to inspire others to be creative,” says Sirois. Fort Lauderdale Instagrammers were the original participants, but “the possibilities are limitless—and we have gotten some amazing submissions. The most exciting part about the whole project is that we have in turn been inspired by everyone who has joined. We hoped to inspire them, but … they inspired us! They took these photographs in directions we never would have thought of!” says Hall.

To participate, head to the studio during office hours, pick up a balloon, and sign up for a date—if you’re not local, the balloon can be mailed. You’ll receive a card with that date to help you remember. The project will reach its completion on January 1, 2014, when the images will be collected for the upcoming book. The images will also be featured in the FAT Village Art Walks throughout the year and in the helium creative Studio as a rotating exhibit.

Stop by the helium creative Studio at 500 NW First Ave., Fort Lauderdale, to pick up your balloon, or email Ryan directly to set up a time, at ryan@heliumcreative.com. Be sure to follow the project on Instagram and submit your balloon image there: @heliumcreative365. For more information, call 954-333-8900 or visit facebook.com/heliumcreative.