Indelible: The Photographs of Lalla Essaydi

Lalla Essaydi - Converging Territories #10, 2005
Chromogenic print, 48 x 60 in.
Courtesy of Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York

The Frist Center for the Visual Arts opened in the Gordon Contemporary Artist Project Gallery and exhibition of 17 photographs by Moroccan artist, Lalla Essaydi. The images will be on view through January 29, 2009. The multi-layer complex images are created in what she calls workshops. Essaydi gathers with as many as 20 women and girls in her family's country home where they sit for lengthy sessions during which the artist covers their skin and often their clothing and the walls around them , with an elegant Arabic calligraphic scripts.

The act of combining the female craft of henna body painting and the traditional male art of Arabic calligraphy is a subversive act. By doing so , she ignores long-standing gender associations of both art forms and the hierarchical distinctions between them. Be sure to pick up a copy of overview of this work by Trinita Kennedy, associate curator during your visit.

January 8, 2009 6 :30pm LECTURE: "Unspoken Words: Contemporary women Artists from the Middle East and North Africa"

FREE in the Frist Auditorium

Dr, Maryam Ekhtiar, senior research associate in the department of Islamic art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, will explore art produced by women from the region with a particular focus on Lalla Essaydi. All the artist use calligraphy as their chief mode of expression as the grapple with issues of gender, socio-political orientation and cultural identity.

Lalla Essaydi - Les Femmes du Maroc #36, 2007
Chromogenic print, 48 x 60 in. Courtesy of Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York

As I prepare for what I consider to be a new phase in my own artful life I have been drawn back to Lalla's photographs now on a third visit to the Gordon Contemporary Gallery at The Frist. The thoughtfulness of her work is intense. 2009 in my studio will brings a new chapter of symbols, history and advocacy. I hope you can find the time to visit this show and find a way to create your own subversive act of hope and art in the new year.

Rick Warren took my joy and I want it back

don't want you anymorecause you took my joyi don't want you anymoreyou took my joyyou took my joyi want it backyou took my joyi want it backi'm gonna go to west memphis and look for my joygo to west memphis and look for my joymaybe in west memphis I'll find my joymaybe in west memphis i'll find my joyi'm gonna go to slidell and look for my joygo to slidell and look for my joymaybe in slidell I'll find my joymaybe in slidell I'll find my joy(first long instrumental break)you got no right to take my joyi want it backyou got no right to take my joyi want it backyou took my joyi want it backyou took my joyi want it backi'm gonna go to west memphis and look for my joygo to west memphis and look for my joymaybe in west memphis i'll find my joymaybe in west memphis i'll find my joyi'm gonna go to slidell and look for my joygo to slidell and look for my joymaybe in slidell i'll find my joymaybe in slidell i'll find my joy(second instrumental break)i don't want you anymorecause you took my joyi don't want you anymoreyou took my joyyou took my joyi want it backyou took my joyi want it backyou took my joyi want it backyou took myi want it back(third & last instrumental break -- slows down)i'm gonna go to west memphisi'm gonna go to slidell

GET THE SONG

photo:Harrison /Getty
Artist: Williams LucindaSong: JoyAlbum: Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
reprinted as commentary - if you don't have the record you are quite possibly in jeopardy of loosing all cool points accumulated to date.

Artwork at Green Room's Black Box Carol

Please come by the Black Box Theater behind the Troutt off Belmont Blvd during Naked Stages production of Mark Cabus' solo performance of the perennial A Christmas Carol.

I will have several paintings and watercolor prints on display in the lobby for these four performances. If you see a work you like you can pick it up on Sunday the 21st in time to take home for a Christmas present!
December 18-21, 2008 ONLY
Thurs -Sunday
Evening by Nancy VanReece
20 x 20 multimedia on canvas
(c) 2008 Contemporary Expression, a div of Carpe Diem Copyright Management. All Rights Reserved.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Reflections from MILK

7.7.08 watercolor by Nancy VanReece (c) 2008 Contemporary Expression, a div. of Carpe Diem Copyright Management

I have been profoundly moved by a story. It's not someone else's story. It's my own. Reflecting on life has been literally blinding for me lately.

"Am I doing the greatest amount of good?"- This question was raised recently and it rang loudly. Am I, in this new dawn of hope and hard work, where I need to be? Am I using the talent, creative skill and knowledge I have accumulated for what matters most to my family? My objective is to find a new beginning that embraces the truth that the Grand Canyon was not built with a giant tsunami but rather a river, rushing on as rivers do.

Why is any single story story relevant? What can one person do? What is it that must be done? What is it than can be done today? There are so many of us in Nashville, TN that have worked so very hard to make this a city that we want to live in, a place where we can be proud of our unique and diverse backgrounds, cultures and core values. Like any city, we citizens want great schools, clean streets, green spaces, good jobs and fantastic art to motivate us further.

I really believe that we are at the dawn of individuals rising up to understand that their story is part of that rushing river. We need everyone to do what they can do each and everyday to move the water. It's not just another gay story, or a civil rights struggle or a cry for simple dignity, it's a human story. It's our story, our struggle, our cry.

To Do List:

1. Learn more about your local government at this link . Make it your New Year's Resolution to get to know more of your county or city officials in 2009. Prepare the way for progress in your community.

2. Join one of the TEP our county committees. They are throughout the State. If you would like to get involved with the committee closest to you or start one in your county, contact info@tnep.org .

You can not live on HOPE alone, but you can not live without it. And you, and you and you, have got to give them HOPE" - Harvey Milk

Directions to The Reception on Friday!

This Friday 3pm -5pm. -- See you There!

A Letter from TEP Foundation President Randy Cox

Friends, With the Holidays here and the economy "officially" in recession, receiving an email soliciting you for a contribution is probably the last thing you want, especially from a friend. But I want to reach out to each of you about something that is very important to me. As you know the results of the November election completely changed the makeup of the Tennessee legislature. This Legislature is more socially conservative and our LGBT rights are in danger. TEP expects that adoption, foster parenting and other LGBT rights could be challenged in 2009.

So what does it take to protect our ourselves and assure equality? For one it takes an organization to speak for our community, a professional lobbying effort and a statewide grassroots organizing effort. Many of you have supported TEP in the past and for that I am grateful. Your help has allowed TEP to fight successfully against two attepmts at an adoption ban and has provided TEP with growth in every part of the State.

It has allowed us to grow the TEP Foundation who is working throughout the state with police departments and district attorneys on an anti-violence, hate crimes initiatives, anti-bullying and safe schools projects.

And all this costs about $100 per day.

So I'm asking you to make a contribution so TEP can continue to do this necessary work in 2009. Please consider “paying for a day” by going to http://tnep.org/html/donate_now.html

I hope you will "pay for a day", or help by contributing any amount you can. Also, if you are not receiving weekly emails from TEP then first, I'm going to shame you, :-) then ask you to sign up to be on the email list at http://tnep.org/html/contact_us.php

I want to thank you in advance for your help and wish each of you a wonderful Holiday Season.

Randy

The Tennessee Equality Project is a 501c4 organization incorporated in Tennessee. Gifts to TEP are not deductible for purposes of federal income tax.