FREE CONCERT — FRIDAY July 23rd  7:30pm @ Charter Oak Cultural Center
GET YOUR IMPROV ON!

Hartford Sound Alliance performs along with the Jacob Zimmerman Quartet and The Sophisiticates.

…Improv, electronics, jazz, composition etc etc

We hope to see you all there!

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Jacob Zimmerman Quartet is:

Jacob Zimmerman – sax (Berkeley, CA), Randy Pingrey – trombone (Boston, MA), Jesse Ward – guitar (Houston, TX) and Joe Moffett – trumpet (Brooklyn, NY)

http://www.jacobrexzimmerman.com/2010EastCoastTour.html

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The Sophisticates (Hartford) are:

Tom Crean – guitar, Crystal Pascucci – cello and Ryan Ford – bass

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/The-Sophisticates/127514600601737?v=wall&ref=ts

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Hartford Sound Alliance is:

Lief Ellis – electronics, Steven Haynes – trumpet, Todd Merrell – keyboards, etc., Matt Sargent – electronics/guitar, Bill Solomon – percussion

http://www.hartfordsoundalliance.com/

Hartford, CT–  The much anticipated art exhibit of the year will be held this year at the Charter Oak Cultural Center in downtown Hartford.  The 32nd annual show of artwork from Connecticut’s Prisons features 140 artists from 14 correctional facilities, and is open throughout the month of May at Charter Oak.

This exhibit opens with a reception on Thursday, May 6th, 5 – 7PM.  This event is free, open to the public and will include hors d’oeuvres and beverages.  The exhibit runs through Friday, May 28th. Regular gallery hours are: Monday – Friday, 10am – 5pm / Saturdays, 10am – 2pm/ Fridays 14 & 21 until 7pm.  Closed Thursday, May 13th.

Community Partners in Action PRISON ARTS PROGRAM ANNUAL SHOW 2010 is a tradition within the prison system, and inmates work all year towards this amazing show.  The Prison Arts Program was initiated in 1978 by Community Partners in Action, a Hartford non-profit.  The driving force behind this exhibition is CPA Prison Arts Program Manager Jeff Greene.  “The greatest reward of what I do is that I’m lucky to see great art and see people change and evolve in so many incredible ways. I get to deliver this work to the community. It’s really exciting.” says Greene.

Charter Oak Cultural Center, located at 21 Charter Oak Avenue in Hartford, is housed in Connecticut’s oldest synagogue building, is a non-profit, multi-cultural arts center committed to preserving the Jewish Heritage of our building, giving access to the arts to all people and doing the work of social justice. Charter Oak has long been an arts showcase for the region’s ethnically and culturally diverse communities. We offer performances, exhibits, classes, two free after school programs for inner city youth, lectures and cultural programming that nourish the mind, soul, body and spirit of young and old alike. Our mission is to provide access to the arts for all.

For more information about Charter Oak’s programs and events, visit www.charteroakcenter.org

“Razor Wire Nest” by Alessandro Perez:

Join local Hartford organizers on Saturday, January 23rd at Charter Oak Cultural Center, 21 Charter Oak Ave in Hartford at 2pm for a public discussion about Reproductive Freedom. What is the difference between reproductive rights and reproductive freedom? How do we struggle towards reproductive freedom? How does this involve you?

Come share you stories, your experiences, meet local folks working towards reproductive freedom, or just come and listen. Everyone welcome except for Nazis and the like. This event is free. Full report to follow the event. Sponsored by the Workers Solidarity Alliance of CT

All are invited to the Queers Without Borders monthly meeting this coming Sunday, January 10, 5 pm at MCC/Hartford, 155 Wyllys Street, Hartford, CT (in basement of Parish House, look for MCC signs in back of Parish House).  Please feel free to come join us at our January monthly meeting to share food and discussion in a welcoming and queer environment.

Topics for discussion this month are:

* QWB Queer Valentine event in coalition with the Wrench in the Works
* Continued discussion and planning around our queer homeless work
* Reproductive Freedom “conference” and subsequent work
* Queer Revolutionary Voices update
* QWB’s engagement with the Hartford Mayday planning
* Planning/discussion around a monthly QWB movie night
* Tabling at the 4th annual NYC Anarchist Book fair
* US Social Forum in Detroit on June 22-26
* Add your topics to our agenda

For information call (860) 680-7876 or drop us an email at queerswi@queerswithoutborders.com

Sunday, November 8

10:30AM-Breakfast and a Movie: Barstool Cowboy (90 min.) w/ short: Mama &
Nardo (8 min.) at Red Rock Tavern
1:00PM-Hallelujah the Hills (82 min.) w/ short: Hallelujah the Villa (28
min.) at La Paloma Sabanera Coffeehouse
4:00PM- Carnivalesque Films’ New Work In Progress (running time TBA) Q&A
with directors David Redmon & Ashley Sabin at La Paloma Sabanera
Coffeehouse
7:30PM-Still Bill (77 min.) w/ short: You Wanted To Make A Film? (25 min.)
at The Studio @ Billings Forge

FILM DESCRIPTIONS:
Woodpecker
Director: Alex Karpovsky
[75 min. | USA | 2009]
Fanatical birdwatchers have descended upon a small town in the Arkansas
bayou in hopes of finding the celebrated Ivory Billed Woodpecker. Declared
extinct in the 1940’s, the bird has apparently been spotted by numerous
experts. Enter amateur birder and poet Johnny Neander, who has convinced
his taciturn sidekick that he will be the one to find the elusive
woodpecker. The ensuing chaos divides the small town between believers and
non-believers, rabid environmentalists and opportunistic entrepreneurs.
Much like the bird itself, Woodpecker explores the intersection of fact
and fiction, manipulating our notions of documentary and narrative
techniques within a tragic comedy about hope, perception, and some very
very strange birds.

Blue Sky
Director Luke Sieczek
[20 min. | USA | 2009]
Who am I? Friend… enemy… both? Our friendship has always been a
problem. We never know what to do with it: what is possible and what is
impossible between us.
Blue Sky is a coming-of-age story about four characters dreaming of love
and friendship. A world of daydream and fantasy merges with a reality that
reverberates with uncertain expectations. Thoughts and emotions turn into
snow, wind, sunlight and rain.

Call Me If You Need Me
Director James Lee
[104 min. | Malaysia | 2009 | Mandarin, Cantonese, & Malay with English
subtitles]
James Lee’s newest indie film is a classic brotherhood gangster yarn
fronted by a lead turn by local music wunderkind Pete Teo. Ah Soon and Or
Kia are two cousins who grew up together in a small village. As an adult,
aggressive Ah Soon now lives in the city and works as a debt collector. He
invites Or Kia, the simpler and more righteous of the two, to join his
expanding business. It would be Ping, Ah Soon’s new girlfriend who would
act as the bridge between the two me, as the age-old themes of loyalty and
honor are explored.

Chasing Cats and Cars
Director Liew Seng Tat
[12 min. | Malaysia | 2009 | Mandarin, Cantonese, & Malay with English
subtitles]
What can a leg do without the man who should be fixed to it? About how you
can forget a leg and the leg decides to go its own way. Exercise in its
own form of absurdism. Jokes are good if you tell them well. Strange jokes
have to be told even better. The maker likes really strange jokes and
that’s why he practices telling them well. Man takes his injured friend to
the hospital. There it becomes apparent that a leg is missing.

Mary May’s Suicide Letter
Director: John Fink
[8 min. | USA | 2009]
The film tells the story of Mary, a women haunted by a personal tragedy
that tears her marriage to a success…

LoliGirls: The Story Behind the Frills and Bows
Directors: Kate Slomkowsky & Linsey Taylor
[18 min. | USA | 2009]
This short documentary follows 3 American girls who are enamored with the
Lolita fashion and lifestyle.

ShowGirls: Provincetown, MA
Director:  C. Fitz
[72 min. | USA | 2009]
ShowGirls: Provincetown, MA is a feature documentary about a small town
talent show with a strong dose of vaudeville where an eclectic mix of
locals, drag queens and the occasional tourist passing through vie for the
$500.00 prize and their chance at fame on stage. Known as a local
institution, this popular show takes place Monday evenings over the summer
as acts of varying artistry, skill, range, and grit vie for the coveted
title of “ShowGirl.”

Mama and Nardo
Director: Alec Tuckman
[8 min. | USA | 2009]
Mama and Nardo is an animated cartoon in the vein of South Park, Family
Guy, and The Simpsons. Mama takes Nardo and friends to a summer camp. Upon
arrival, they discover there’s a serial killer, named Jason Fourknees, on
the loose. Nardo and Mama soon fall victim to this psychopath and must
learn to work together or die.

Barstool Cowboy
Director: Mark Thimijan
[90 min. | USA | 2008]
An unemployed Cowboy who can’t find love vows to stay on a barstool for
three months hoping to find some answers at the bottom of a beer bottle.
Shortly thereafter, he meets a young female art student and quickly
forgets his misery. The pair begin to transform each other’s worlds while
spending time drinking, dancing, and examining the mysteries of life. Will
the Cowboy finally find love or should he have just stayed on his
barstool?

Hallelujah the Villa
Director: David Avallone
[28 min. | USA | 2006]
David Avallone revisits Adolfas Mekas’ 1963 film: Hallelujah the Hills.

Hallelujah the Hills
Director: Adolfas Mekas
[82 min. | USA | 1963]
A very bizarre low budget comedy about two men who take to the woods to
purge their obsessive attraction to a woman named Vera who dumped them
both for a shmuck. This quirky little film is on the verge of being
hilarious. However, it never quite gets all the laughs it shoots for. As a
result, it is only mildly amusing, but worth a viewing if you’re in the
mood for something light and off the beaten path.

Carnivalesque Films’ New Work-In-Progress
Directors: David Redmon & Ashley Sabin
[TBA | USA | 2009]
David Redmon and Ashley Sabin returns to the Hartford International Film
Festival with their new documentary which follows Russian and US modeling
scouts as they scour Siberian landscapes in search of teen girls to become
models in Tokyo.

You Wanted To Make A Film? (At ratzit laasot seret?)
Director: Gali Weintraub
[25 min. | Israel | 2008 | Hebrew with English subtitles]
A complex relationship between Gali, born disabled and the couple, Zehava,
a polio victim and Oren, a folk dancer, son of disabled parents who decide
to put on a dance performance together.

Still Bill
Director: Damani Baker
[77 min. | USA | 2009]
Still Bill follows the story of Bill Withers, best known for his classics,
“Ain’t No Sunshine,” “Lean on Me,” “Lovely Day” and “Just the Two of Us.”
But Wither’s musical life is just one part of a complex man who was raised
in the coal-mining towns of West Virginia, sailed for nine years with the
Navy, rose to the top of the charts and then left it behind to raise a
family.

Saturday, November 7

5:30PM-Cocktail Party at Firebox Restaurant
7:30PM-Woodpecker (75 min.) w/ short: Blue Sky (20 min.) at The Studio @
Billings Forge
9:00PM-Call Me If You Need Me (104 min.) w/ short: Chasing Cats & Cars (12
min.) at The Studio @ Billings Forge
11:30PM-ShowGirls (72 min.) w/ shorts: Mary May’s Suicide Letter (8 min.)
and LoliGirls: The Story Behind the Frills and Bows (18 min.) at Art
Cinema

A woman’s right to choose is under attack. Right wing opponents of health care reform are trying to turn a woman’s most basic medical right into a weapon against improved access to care for all.  The administration continues to try to appeal to them by supporting so-called “conscience clauses” that will make abortion less accessible than ever! The murder of Dr. George Tiller may result in even fewer doctors braving  the threats to provide abortion services.  It is time to fight back!  We need to make OUR voices heard.

November 8th
at 2pm

Trinity College Vernon Center
114 Vernon St
Hartford, CT 06106

Speakers:

Gretchen Raffa: Community Organizer for Planned Parenthood
Jillian Gilchrest: Executive Director of NARAL Pro-Choice CT
Susan Campbell: Journalist for the Hartford Courant and author of the book “Dating Jesus”
Joan Chrisler: CT-NOW Board of Directors and Professor at Connecticut College.
Clair Kaplan: Nurse Practitioner and Assistant Professor at Yale.
Abbey Willis: CT Workers Solidarity Alliance
Alissa De Rosa: Socialist Action
Regina Dyton: Community activist

Endorsed by:

Planned Parenthood of Southern New England
NARAL Pro-Choice CT
CT National Organization of Women
Workers Solidarity Alliance-CT
Queers Without Borders
Socialist Action-CT
Women and Gender Resource Action Center, Trinity College
National Council of Jewish Women, Connecticut
FADGE Fest Committee
Young Women’s Leadership Program—a program of the PCSW
Connecticut Coalition for Choice
UCONN Women’s Center

Sunday Salon: Traditional Society, Traditional Values? Sex and Family Before Modern Times

SUNDAY, October 25th, 2 to 4pm

$3 Members/Students/Seniors, $5 Non-Members

In today’s “culture wars,” conservatives paint themselves as defenders of “traditional values,” threatened by liberals and modernity. Many claim that “traditional” society and family are destroyed by liberal “ideology” promoting sex and freedom. But what “traditional society” are they referring to? Magda Teter will discuss Western ideas of sex and family before the dawn of modern times. NB: Explicit images and texts from 16th century archival materials will be presented. Drawings by Shawn Hill will be on exhibition.
Green Street Arts Center . 51 Green Street . Middletown, CT 06457
www.greenstreetartscenter.org . gsac@wesleyan.edu . 860-685-7871

Comic Book Artists Guild SATURDAY, October 24th, FREE 1 to 3pm The Comic Book Artists Guild brings aspiring and professional writers and artists together to improve their skills and offer them opportunities to have their work published. Members receive feedback on their work, participate in exercises to enhance their skills, and discuss the process of comic book creation. Workshops teach the writing, artistic, production, and business skills that are needed for producing comic books, including storyboarding your ideas, copyright protection, and how to get the most out of convention attendance. Meetings are open to the public. Green Street Arts Center . 51 Green Street . Middletown, CT 06457 www.greenstreetartscenter.org . gsac@wesleyan.edu . 860-685-7871

Wed. September 9 / 6:00-9:00 pm
Open Studios
A new group of artists have just moved in for the next
artists-in-residence session at The Workshops @ Billings
Forge.
Come meet and welcome the artists: Miguel Carter Fisher,
Kimberly Gill, Robert Charles Hudson, and Greg Russell.
Free.