Labiba Boyd's blog

Davis Jazz Festival: October 21 & 22, 2011

Enjoy the 5th Annal Davis Jazz Festival in Downtown Davis on October 21 and 22!

The Festival is organized by theJohn Natsoulas Art Center. On Friday night, October 21, Dr. Andy Jones of UC Davis will announce the winners of the Jack Kerouac Poetry Contest and at 7 pm we will hear the World renowned poet, Neeli Cherkovski read from his latest poetry. The evening will include a dance performance by the Linda Bair Dance Company and live music by the Toni Passerelli Jazz Trio.

On Saturday, October 22,the Jazz Festival will start at noon; six performance painters will accompany the participating jazz bands, creating a unique, inspiring and indelible art experience. All the festival's events are free! The festival is hosted by the Cultural Action Committee. We hope you enjoy this year’s Davis Jazz Festival!

This week's show on ART+ features this great Jazz & Beat Festival!

Duke Ellington

This week's show on ART+ is about Duke Ellington.

The show's recordings are from the archives of the Library of Congress.

We'll listen to short interviews by the Duke and his granddaughter, Mercedes Ellington. We'll also listen

to live recordings by Duke Ellington's Orchestra.

To listen to the show,
Please Click Here!

This year, the US participated for the first time in Cairo's International Sufi Music Festival with Voices of Inspiration, a gospel group from Harlem.

This year's festival brought together 12 countries, including Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Algeria, Turkey, Norway and Spain to share their sufi and religious music. The festival was held at the Dome of Al Ghouri, a beautiful building that was built in 1505 in old Cairo near Al Azhar and Hussein Mosques.

ART+ interviewed different music groups and the festival's director Dr. Intessar, who spoke about the Festival's message of peace, friendship and compassion. ART+ also interviewed Share the Mic, which helped bring Voices of Inspiration to perform at the Festival. We will also tell you how American artists can participate in art and cultural events in Cairo. The show will be broadcast on September 7.

To listen to this show, Please Click Here

Saint Catherine's Monastery in Sinai, Egypt
was built in the year 550 by the Byzantian Empror Justinian to protect the ancient well of Moses and The Burning Bush.

For the past 17 centuries, the Monastery's monks have taken great care of its ancient manuscripts, art and icons. The Library of St. Catherine's is famous because it has one third of the world's ancient manuscripts that were written more than 1000 years ago. It's museum is equally famous, because only 2000 icons in the world have survived from the Byzantine times; half of them are at St. Catherine's Museum.

We were very privileged to interview two monks from the monastery: Father Justin talked to us about how he digitizes the library's ancient manuscripts and why Sinai is a place of Peace. Father Gregory talked to us about the monastery's ancient art, icons and mosaic art. Father Gregory shared with us his views on how art can save the world and his vision to establish a School for Mosaic Art in Sinai.

ART+ interviewed The Davis Shakespeare Ensemble about their upcoming performance of Twelfth Night at UC Davis Arboretum Gazebo. Performances will be from Thursday - Sunday, January 13 - 16 and January 20 - 23 at 8 pm.

Matinee performances are on Sunday, January 16 at 2 pm and Sunday, January 23 at 2 pm. The Davis Shakespeare Ensemble worked very hard to cover the Gazebo and make it warm and welcoming to the audiences.

This performance of Twelfth Night is staged to music by composer Richard Chowenhill who majored in music at UC Davis.

click here for a short video about Twelfth Night

Davis Shakespeare Ensemble's first performance was Romeo and Juliet which they staged last summer at the Arboretum. The performance had great reviews.

click here for a short video about Romeo and Juliet

Singer, Song writer Tish Hinojosa was interviewed on ART+ about her folk music which crosses many borders; Tish talked about her new country music album 'Our Little Planet' and about her classic, award winning, bi-lingual album (& book) for children 'Every Child'. Tish has been a successful singer and song writer over the past 25 years; this is quite an accomplishment considering that she is the youngest of 13 children and that her parents were very hard working immigrants. Tish grew up listening to music on her parents' radio; she is a very big fan of radio and of community radio.

Tish Hinojosa's radio show will be broadcast on December 22 at noon and re-broadcast on December 29th.

For more information about Tisch Hinojosa, please

click here to go to her website

Best Wishes for
A Happy Holiday Season &
A Very Happy New Year.

ART+

Katherine Keefer, public artist was interviewed on ARTplus about her work in ceramics, her public art and her spirit of adventure.

Katherine has a wonderful spirit of adventure and she talked to ARTplus on how to travel the world on a shoestring. Katherine's public art is installed in many states including Florida, Colorado and California.
Tune in to find out how Katherine got to travel and teach in India, Germany and Africa. Katherine also talked about the incredible opportunities that are now available for public artists around the country. she talked about the money for art program which mandates that public buildings and construction install public art.. Go Artists.. Go!.

Here is Katherine's show

CLICK here

Have a Wonderful Holiday Season Full of Many Happy Opportunities,
Labiba Boyd, ARTplus