Bayeté Ross Smith in Conversation with Tahir Hemphill (Moderated by Ben Herson)

Wed, December 7, 2011 | 7pm – 9pm
NYFA, 20 Jay Street, 7th Floor, DUMBO, Brooklyn

The socio-political concept of the "town square" has been reinvigorated by the recent protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square and by our country’s own Occupy Wall Street movement. The Laundromat Project's new artist talk series Dispatches from the Square features artists who use their creative practice to make pop-up and permanent “town squares” that stimulate public dialogue and action on a range of issues. The series also highlights artists who collaboratively make artwork with non-artists as a strategy for creating more livable societies.

Join Create Change Public Artist in Residence alum Bayeté Ross Smith and multi-media artist Tahir Hemphill for a conversation about how they have used hip-hop as a platform to create new work that engages, mobilizes, and documents local and global communities. Moderated by Ben Herson, Founder and Director of Nomadic Wax.

Image: Bayeté Ross Smith, Got the Power: Minnesota, 2011
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Bayeté Ross Smith is a New York-based artist, photographer, and educator. As a participant in The Laundromat Project’s Create Change Public Artist Residency program in 2010, Ross Smith launched his project Got the Power, which collects samples of ambient sound, music, and oral histories in order to create portraits of American communities. He is represented by beta pictoris gallery/Maus Contemporary.

New York-based artist Tahir Hemphill founded the Hip-Hop Word Count™, a searchable ethnographic database built from the lyrics of over 40,000 Hip-Hop songs from 1979 to present day. Hemphill uses the database to create visualizations and infographics that help analyze and interpret musical trends and cultural data. His work is currently included in the Talk to Me exhibition at MoMA.

Ben Herson is the founder and director of Nomadic Wax – a global hip-hop record label and production company dedicated to recording, documenting and presenting hip-hop and underground music from around the world.

Hector Canonge
Neighborhood: Inwood, New York

During his residency Hector transformed his Inwood laundromat into The Inwood Laundromat Language Institute (TILLI) where he taught his Spanish speaking neighbors English.

Image: Students listen while Hector teaches at The Inwood Laundromat Language Institute.

LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs

Neighborhood: Harlem, New York

In her project My Very Own Porch on Ipanema Corner, LaTasha explored the social ecosystem of her bustling block corner, which is marked by the Ipanema Laundromat, through printed ephemera and video.


Image: portrait of LaTasha Diggs

Jabari Owens-Bailey
Neighborhood: Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn

Jabari continued his ongoing exploration of the African-American migration experience in his project Dispersing Planes II.


Image: Jabari transforms African textiles into paper planes in Dispersing Planes I.

Karina Aguilera Skvirsky
Neighborhood: Jersey City, New Jersey

By using the historical legacy of her local laundromat's building as a point of depature, Karina explored the metamorphosis of her Jersey City neighborhood in her project Ask Me: Tell Me.

Image: Karina records her neighbor's story at Lucky Laundromat in Jersey City.

Micki Wantanabe Spiller
Neighborhood: Woodside, Queens

In response to public linrary budget cuts, Micki's project A Woodside Walk: Bubbles and Books Micki engaged her neighbors in a series of literacy-based activities that took place in and around her local laundromat.

Image: A mother reads to her son in Micki's project A Wodside Walk.

Berlin Reed is the butcher, chef and writer behind the The Ethical Butcher and heads up Digital Meat & Media for the Butcher's Guild. His practice has been driven by personal relationships with small local farmers, a deep love of food, respect for the animals we eat and the environment on which we depend. As a ex-vegetarian of 14 years, he has made staying true to these tenets his goal as he travels the country meeting farmers, preparing community dinners and sharing his experiences through his blog and upcoming film & book projects. READ MORE

Making an Apartment Planter with Household Materials
Yemi Amu and Aki Hirata-Baker, Adopt-a-Farmbox

Why throw away your perfectly 'good', non-degradable garbage? Use items like plastic water bottles, detergent bottles and old newspaper to create planters to take home! Bring your clean empty bottles and we'll provide the rest.

How to Solarize A Toy
Jocelyn Cohen, PhD, Sustainable Flatbush Energy Solutions Project Manager

In this basic intro to solar-electric projects we will use a small multi-meter to test the current and voltage of mini-solar panels to figure out the power requirements of a small toy or electronic device. Join us as we wire panels together to make a toy run on solar.

DIY: Tips on how to make your Home Sustainable
Jay-E Emmingham and Rasu Jilani, Pratt Center for Community Development

How can communities play their part in becoming more conscious of sustainable living? Join us to learn more about sustainable energy, weatherization techniques for your home or apartment and how to make your own cleaning products. We will also provide information about free home energy audits for homeowners and other ways to stay involved. Special guest David Magid from You Save Green will also provide information about free home energy audits for homeowners and other ways to stay involved.

Double Digging to Grow More in Less Space
Jason Gaspar, Artist and Farmer

Jason Gaspar will share the process of double digging, some information on soil remediation and the benefits of companion planting. Stick around for his guacamole making workshop at the end of the day, which will take place right before the Seeding the City potluck.

Learn the Benefits of Permaculture
Claudia Joseph, Environmental Educator, Consultant, and Artist

Claudia will highlight some permaculture techniques for gardening in difficult spaces. Permaculture is a design practice that emphasizes the relationship between people and elements in a landscape and turns waste into benefit.
Her beautiful photographs will show you how.

Learn how to Purify Water with Microbial Mud Balls
Miki Katagiri, Dee Dee Maucher and Shig Matsukawa, Artists

Join Miki as she makes mudballs made of bokashi and dirt. By fermenting a concoction of molasses, effective microorganisms and water and later mixing with dirt, these mudballs break down lignin, fibers, cellulose, and chitin and suppresses pathogens in water. Simply put - these mudballs can break down the bad stuff in water and make it potable!

Learn How to Build a Mobile Garden
Tattfoo Tan, Artist

This workshop will show you easy strategies for making a mobile garden. No experience needed, just come with a creative mind and bring any
found objects with wheels. These include, office chairs, luggage, strollers, skateboards, etc. Plants and tools will be provided. At the end of the workshop, you’ll also be certified as a Mobile Gardener.

The Laundromat Project and NYFA Immigrant Artist Project are jointly organizing a day of workshops and demonstrations focused on environmental awareness, urban farming and beautification. The skillshare is an opportunity for everyday citizens, artists, farmers, and food activists to teach and learn from each other. Join us for a potluck of strategies to improve the quality of life for communities of color living on low incomes.

12 - 4pm - Attend 8 free workshops that teach you how to cultivate and beautify your spaces using a variety of environmentally responsible strategies.

4 - 5pm - Join us for a potluck picnic in Weeksville's Garden

Workshops Include:

• Learn the Benefits of Permaculture with Environmental Educator Claudia Joseph
• Solarize a Toy with Sustainable Flatbush’s Energy Solutions Project Manager Jocelyn Cohen, PhD
• Double Digging To Grow More In Less Space with artist and farmer Jason Gaspar
• Learn How To Build a Mobile Garden with artist Tattfoo Tan
• Get Dirty to Get Clean: Purifying Water with Microbial Mud Balls with artist Miki Katagiri
• DIY: Tips on How to Make Your Home Sustainable with Pratt Center for Community Development’s Jay-E Emmingham & Rasu Jilani
• Portable Solar Panel Demo on Sustainable Energy with You Save Green’s David Magid
• Making an Apartment Planter with Household Materials with Adopt-A-Farmbox’s Aki Harata-Baker and Yemi Amu

Weeksville will also have their Farmer's Marker from 9am to 2pm.

This program is made possible in part by NYFA Immigrant Artist Project, Brooklyn Arts Council, and Weeksville Heritage Center.

Photo from Roots Fest 2011. Courtesy of Roots Fest 2011.

(Above: Portrait of West Baltimore resident Waymon LeFall)

In the first portion of the project, artists recorded 15 individual sound pieces to shed light on the concept of home, the effects of displacement and relocation, changes that have occurred in the West Baltimore neighborhood, and a community’s vision for the future. A site specific portrait taken by Bayeté accompanies each individual's oral history.

At the beginning of June through late July, these images will be installed as a set of three large scale, 4’ x 3’ vinyl banners at five historic parks and buildings in the West Baltimore area. Using an open source, call-in technology, each image will include a telephone number that passersby can call from their cell phones to be automatically connected to the individuals pre-recorded oral history.

The second component to the project, Got the Power, involves the use of the content acquired from the interview process, as well as existing source material such as historic speeches and music. A sound producer from the Baltimore area work to edit a 20-minute soundscape, which will be emitted from a fabricated boom box tower measuring 10’ tall and 4’ wide, creating an artistic exploration through the cultural landscape of a West Baltimore Community.

See pictures of the boombox tower from pastGot the Power events and hear the first mixtape that got this project started.