Sound and Vision Saturday

Plenty of delights for all of your senses this Saturday. After you pick up your free t-shirt for helping with the Highland neighborhood clean-up, fill the rest of the day with art.

Steven Soffer's Sound and Vision Show opens with a reception at 1 pm at Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum, 3201 Centenary Blvd.

Also there's all day long Lead Belly Blues Festival at Festival Plaza in downtown Shreveport. Wrap up your night with Katfish and Kocktails at 6 pm at artspace.

Ain't We All Mammals Swimming in the Grocery Lot Wishing for a Cantaloupe That Tastes Vine Ripened But Settling for a 6-Pack of Grape Kool-Aid Bursts

In honor of Earth Day 2009, Wednesday, April 22: Sci-Port will release butterflies at 11 am.
Leia Lewis at Sankofa Gardens has been the queen of Earth Day for the last four years. This KTBS video proves it. The fourth annual Sankofa Earth Day Festival is Saturday.

Birthing New Music

The folks in Shreveport's Blanc et Noir Marching Society know a good thing when they hear it. They are terrific supporters of The Red and Black Brass Band from Grambling.

This week's show (February 25, 2009) on American Routes features young musicians in brass bands who are taking Louisiana's roots music into the 21st century.

Mardi Gras may be over for now but there's always next year. By joining Blanc et Noir Marching Society in Shreveport you can help this new/old form of marching band music continue to grow. Imagine that. Shreveport is a part of the vibrant Louisiana music scene and not just the Other Side.


Thank you Talbot Hopkins for the cool video of The Red and Black Brass Band in the 2009 Krewe of Highland parade.

Porch Art

Porches + art + Highland = funky!

minicine?

Creatives who understand the power of the Internet comprehend the next level of social marketing for their work.

The organizers of Monday's upcoming event at minicine? in downtown have a sweet grasp on this power. Locally they've got coverage on their own website and on Trudeau's. The event is and has been touring all over the US and Canada. To follow the progress check out its blog Channeling an invocation of spectral bodies and queer spirits.

We Googled some of the artists involved and discovered this Vanesssa Renwick and Elliot Montague and Aay Preston-Myint.

24 Hour Church of Elvis

Is there space downtown or in Highland for something like this? Stephanie G. Pierce created the 24 Hour Church of Elvis in downtown Portland. You can now find it on the Internet.

This fun Elvis info brought to you by RRBJ, where 2009 is the year of The King.

Remember the Reason for the Season

War on Christmas? Please. KTBS and CW 21 KPXJ we don't care what you say as long as you are polite about it. For the record, we say Feliz Navidad around here.

P.S. The reason for the season? Shopping. This is America where spending will save the world. Reverend Billy does not agree with that statement.

Big Eye Ball Says Vote

Election day is Tuesday. Not sure where to vote? You can find your polling place here.

For a behind the curtain look at the election process in Shreveport, The Caddo Parish Registrar of Voters, Ernie Roberson has a blog on The Shreveport Times website.

Centenary College's Bruce Allen to Perform Live

If the idea of locally grown produce isn't enough to make you load up the station wagon and head down to the Shreveport Fall Farmers' Market Saturday morning how about some performance art (sorta...work with us we're getting our creative on...)? Who needs Martha Stewart when you've got Bruce Allen to show you how to slice and dice your jack-o-lantern? Allen chairs the art department at Centenary College.

You can make your entire Saturday about fair trade and sustainability if you shop the fall market and then swing by the The Greater Gift Market in Highland.

Katfish 4 Kids

Mufasa by Josephine Carmody. Spotted near the fountain at Columbia Cafe in Highland. Part of the Volunteers for Youth Justice Katfish 4 Kids project.

Scribble This

Big culture comes to town this weekend with the annual arrival of The Red River Revel. How scary is it to be an artist-vendor selling your work while folks walk by shouting out critiques?

Why not just offer the lookers a marker and let them just scrabble all over your work? That's what Bette Kauffman's done with her Waterline interactive photo exhibit in artspace. It hangs until October 18.


P.S. We confess. We're the ones who tagged "700 Billion Dollar Bailout Socialism Works in America For the Rich Not For the Middle Class or the Poor or New Orleans Save U.S.!!"

Support Your Local Artists

Two of the best people Hurricane Katrina blew up from the Gulf Coast are Su Stella and Curt Harville. The artists now have a live work space in Highland where they do blacksmithing, cold and hot glass work, metal work, painting, and more.

This fall they will be vending, teaching and demonstrating their different disciplines at venues as varied as the Barnwell Memorial Garden and Art Center, LSUS Pioner Heritage Center Pioneer Day and the Highland Jazz and Blues Fest at Columbia Park.

You can purchase their jewelry in the artspace giftshop in downtown (by the way, artspace will be hopping Friday night with the opening of the Clyde Connell retrospective).

For more information on art events with Su and Curt
228-263-2333 Su 318-525-2164 Curt
OurFireflyRanch@hotmail.com
Visit their online store at etsy.

Totems

Maybe the best thing Hurricane Gustav delivered to SB Land were those few days of cooler temperatures. And that always makes outdoor exercise easier. When was the last time you strolled through Highland Park? At 1700 Gilbert Street, it's one of the hidden jewels of Shreveport. And a great place to get an aerobic work out since the two mile foot path is all hills.

Highland Park has been home since 1996 to three Highland Totems by Shreveport artist Leonard Service. The three other totems that are a part of the Highland Totems project can be found in Columbia Park.

Church

While Pope Benedict XVI didn't make it to Shreveport we've still got Alan Dyson and his new Church stickers. Dyson is host of the Fairfield Studios House Concert Series and a musician.

He's also father of talented Shreveport singer Alana Dyson (it's a talented pod of people as Trudeau explains in this 2005 blog post of his. If RRBJ ever secures a pot of money for documentaries can't think of better place to begin recording than with them...). He's married to Shreveport artist Debbie Buchanan Engle.

Shreveport architect and multi talented artist Dyson may not be the pontiff or any other type of official spiritual leader but his message is thoughtful. If we view the whole world as Church won't we take better care of it, ourselves and our neighbors? Who was it who said "Love thy neighbor..." Shoot him an email at salandyson@comcast.net on how to get one of these nifty stickers.

Park it Market

Reuse and recycle could be the way to celebrate Earth Day this weekend. Noel Memorial United Methodist Church is having a rummage sale at 9 AM Saturday morning in the parking lot next to the sanctuary. Creswell Elementary, 2901 Creswell, is having a sale in the morning also.

Trudeau's got the scoop on Leia Lewis and what's happening at Sankofa Gardens in honor of Mother's (Earth) Day.

Music or Entertainment

Blame the financial woes of the Shreveport Symphony on American Idol and Amateur Night at the Apollo? It's right there in paragraph two of statement issued by the SSO. Or maybe it's the fault of Blue Man Group or Burning Man. Or maybe it's that an evening at the symphony is perceived as long, boring and expensive. Hey, even if you don't like hockey and someone drags to you a Mudbugs game there's always the chance of catching a t-shirt fired from a cannon. Trudeau's doing a good job of covering the unfolding events surrounding the symphony.

RRBJ loves live music. Even though we are guilty of not financially supporting any local group (it's a struggle to keep the lights on, gas in the van, food on the table and a kid in college). A big evening of entertainment for us is a DVD delivered by Netflix and store brand microwave popcorn. However during our formative years we were actively involved with the Oklahoma Arts Institute.

Frances Drew

Highland artist Frances Drew will be remembered at artspace tomorrow afternoon. She passed away in November.

Tributes to this amazing lady are popping up all over the Internet. Trudeau's blog, and local artist Tama Nathan's blog are just a few places to find out about her. And there's a nice picture of Frances in front a a piece of her artwork at this Fibromyalgia support site.

To view a slide show of Quilt Kiosk #2 click here. Frances was just one of the artists who collaborated on this piece of public art in downtown Shreveport.

A Good Argument for Bringing Back the Red Light District

...back in the day it was a place for folks to run free and have fun. Get their entertainment on. If it worked in 1908 why not 2008? After all, thems were the good old days everybody keeps talking about.

The irony is that the Big D's Bar-b-que mentioned in the film is located near the ol' redlight district.

You'll find the eatery in beautiful downtown Shreveport at the corner of Common and Caddo. Go eat there. Not McDonald's, Taco Bell, Burger King, Olive Garden, Subway or Wendys. Go now and support a local establishment that is committed to letting your teens have a place to hang out. And if you see a Shreveport Police Officer lurking buy them a Coke and ask them to chill and let the kids be. It's all a part of growing the creative class in SB Land.

Community + Centenary College

Students in Centenary College's Art 295: Introduction to Community-Based Arts probably experienced one of the most hands on classes of their academic careers. Instructor Leia Lewis and her class actively engaged the community of Highland from the start of the creation of the The Highland Spirit House Project.

Early in the semester KSCL interviewed Lewis and Dr. Mat Schwarzman about community based arts projects.

The local project drew much of its inspiration from New Orleans artist John Scott. Scott was awarded a MacArthur Genius Award in 1992. He spent his life transforming metal and wood into visual stories about black culture in New Orleans. One of his grandest works is the huge public sculpture Spirit House. It was funded through the Percent for Art Program. For more examples of Scott's work click here.

A celebration of all the hard work done by students and community members was held Sunday at Meadows Museum. It will be interesting to watch the progress of this community and college collaboration.

Picture of the Day

Alix B. took this picture while traveling through Shreveport. It even ended up on her blog. She's on a 9,000 mile trip, via scooter, for Peace. Learn more at Peacescooter.com.

Thank you to fluidattitude for letting us use the photo Love Will Save Us.

In a funny little twist the art becomes art. The photo is a picture of a piece of public art by Shreveport artist Noma Fowler-Sandlin who many folks know as jam queen and owner of Pan's Pantry.

Noma sends this word out: The Shreveport Farmers' Market is closing until October 13, so be sure and come do your shopping and see me, of course, on Saturday, 25 August, from 7 to 11:30. It's at Festival Plaza in downtown Shreveport, where Commerce intersects Crockett. I'll miss it. Boo hoo. But since I'm getting ready for the Red River Revel, I'll need that day to cook jam. Love and thanks to all my customers, patrons and pals, Noma.

Buying and eating Pan's Pantry jams is just good karma and a way to Keep Shreveport Wild.