GLOBAL RHYTHMS
boundary breakers

A TRIBUTE TO WOMEN AROUND THE WORLD 

Saturday October 19th 
Performed in the Oxford Community Arts Center Ballroom

 3:30 pm
TICKETS

The entire Ball Room will be decorated with flowers, much like a garden, thanks to the Des Fleurs Garden Club.  The phrase "the dance of life" symbolizes the path to paradise where fatigue accompanies a smile, a result of practice being precise, clean, eloquent and truthful.  Each of the celebrated women named below will come from across the globe to gather at Miami University over Homecoming Weekend.  Their delicate strength will be featured as they direct their alert minds to the virtuosic performance of the sitar, seven harps, rare percussion instruments, traditional string instruments, and more -  a rare combination of magical grace.  

This unfathomable combination of artists includes:

• Lynnelle Ediger, Artistic Director of the American Youth Harp Ensemble - this is a ten-member harp ensemble who have traveled across the globe and performed at prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The White House and prestigious venues in Europe

• Shelby Bowling and Sheila Houlahan - trained in Opera at Peabody Conservatory and Manhattan School of Music will perform with the Global Rhythms Orchestra;

• A special appearance of Kung Dong, first prize winner of the Yehudi Menuhin Competition in a special tribute to Maestro Ravi Shankar (3.30 PM show only)

• Vocal Spectrum, an award-winning vocal quartet from St. Louis, Missouri (3.30 PM show only)

• Marion Peraza de Webb (former member of the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra and a product of El Sistema, Venezuela) combines with 22 string players from the Allegro and Vivace Ensembles;

• Anupama Bhagwat, female sitar virtuoso from India along with the Global Rhythms Orchestra

and other special guests 

The Matinee shows also bring in the power of ethnic fashion with artist Anshuma Damani from India, allowing for every artist to be adorned with bright colors, artist Prashant Miranda painting the events "live in action" and some food tasting.

For more information and tickets, please call (513) 529 3200 extension 4.  
Purchase tickets from the Miami University Box Office:  TICKETS

October Second Friday Welcomes JERICHO OLD TIME BAND and Two Great New Exhibits - FISH MARKET and A JOURNEY OF SKETCHES!

Fairy Garden Featured at May Plant Sale

           

In honor of beloved past garden club member, Jeanne Bondhus (1920-2009), the Des Fleurs Garden Club is installing a Fairy Garden at the Oxford Community Arts Center (OCAC).  Jeanne Bondhus was a mixed media artist, an avid gardener, and a Life Member of the Des Fleurs Garden Club who just happened to be enthralled with fairies and the gardens they inhabit.  Jeanne's playfully artistic nature was evidenced by her own beautiful garden on Chestnut Street in Oxford, and by the fairy houses and dolls she created and gifted to anyone who shared her interest. 

            Lee DeVore of Creative Works (leecreativeworks.com) has designed a fairy garden of miniature plants and fairy things that would make Jeanne proud.  Fairy ponds, an elf house, a secret log where fairies can store their treasures and white coral bells that only fairies can hear ring will be featured. The little garden will be a magical place within the Children's Garden at OCAC for all the children of Oxford to explore and will be featured in one of the Gardeneering Camp units held on Saturday mornings this summer.

            The Fairy Garden will be completed just in time for the Des Fleurs’ annual Plant Sale and Auction.  The sale, held on May 2 from 8 to 10 am in the North Parlor at OCAC will also include a live auction beginning at 10:30 am in the ballroom followed by a free luncheon.  Reservations for the luncheon are required and can be made by calling  Marilyn Johnson at 523-2971 by April 25.    The auction will feature container gardens, garden décor, unique and unusual plants, and fairy container gardens. 

            For additional  information about the plant sale and auction contact Debra Steger at 255-7857 or visit www.desfleurs.org. For additional information about OCAC's Gardneneering Camps contact the OCAC office at 524-8506, email andy@oxarts.org, or visit www.oxarts.org.  The Oxford Community Arts Center is located at 10 South College Avenue in Oxford, Ohio.  

STARKID AT THE ARTS CENTER

STARKID PRODUCTIONS -  SPEAKS ENCOURAGING WORDS TO ASPIRING WRITERS 

 THE OXFORD WRITING FESTIVAL KICK-OFF AT THE OXFORD COMMUNITY ARTS CENTER

On Wednesday, March 20^th, 2013 the Oxford Community Arts Center hosted the kick-off celebration for the second annual Oxford Writing Festival (OWF). Special guests included Miami University’s President David Hodge who gave opening remarks and a reminder that writing is all about aesthetics, communication and thinking. Following Hodge was a performance by SketchedOut -  Miami University’s improvisational comedy troupe - who performed 45 minutes of impromptu wordplay to enliven the crowd about the joys of writing. The performance included audience participation both on and off the stage. There may have been mention of an Orange Burrito.

 The main speakers for the OWF Kick-off, following Sketched Out’s performance, were Brian Holden, Nick Lang, and Joe Walker of STARKID Productions. STARKID is based in Chicago, Illinois and known well for their parody musicals Holy Musical B@man! [batman], Starship, and specifically their musical trilogy, based loosely on the Harry Potter novels, A VERY POTTER MUSICAL (AVPM), A VERY POTTER SEQUEL (AVPS) and the most recently released A VERY POTTER SENIOR YEAR (AVPSY). AVPSY was performed as a theatrical staged reading at the LeakyCon convention in Chicago, August 2012, and not as a fully produced musical productions.

~ Everything We Know We Learned by Watching TV: 

The Informal Education of Three "Untrained" Writers ~

Pictured: Joe Walker, Brian Holden, Nick Lang

Holden, Lang, and Walker’s talk with the Oxford community was titled, “Everything We Know We Learned by Watching TV: The Informal Education of Three "Untrained" Writers.” The three STARKID members spoke about their journey as writers and performers, and how they went from average college students at the University of Michigan to the people behind an explosive internet sensation. (Their most recent parody production A VERY POTTER SENIOR YEAR has almost 150,000,000 views on their YouTube channel).  

STARKID Productions is located in Chicago, Illinois. Currently, they are performing their first run at a stage production not meant for film or YouTube. They've created an improvisational comedy show, Airport for Birds and Other Great Ideas, as their first sketch comedy show at the Up Comedy Club located within Chicago’s The Second City.

The New York Times has called The Second City "A Comedy Empire." 

STARKID Productions is also currently working on two new projects. One of these new endeavors is a graphic novel, Quicksand Jack, written by Nick Lang and his brother Matt Lang (who was not at the Oxford Writing Festival), with illustrations by Jen Lang and Teia Smith. The other project is their next musical production Twisted – a parody based loosely on Disney’s Aladdin, with a heavy focus on the royal vizier. Lang stated at the Oxford Writing Festival, “We’re working really hard, because Aladdin is a really great film. We don’t want it to just be a crappier version of Aladdin.”

“STARKID is not in the business of just spitting out rehashed productions of the works of others -  merely adding catchy songs, and tossing it up on YouTube. Nope, STARKID Productions creates new and gut-bustingly hilarious stories. Sometimes these stories are based loosely on popular fictional characters, other times they are completely original and created to fit into the world and better define the story the writers are trying to tell. Basically the top three layers of any STARKID work are usually comedy, followed by a layer of plot, original music, costumes, lighting and stagecraft, finished off with a big fat bottom layer of subtext that pushes a deeper story into the hearts, of not only the cast, but the viewers as well. STARKID, in its essence, reaches beyond the stars of the stage and into the lives of the audience; encouraging and inspiring. As Nick is quoted as saying, 'Don’t wait for other people to tell you whether you can do something. You can do something whenever you want.' This is the truth that is evident in all of their works. Get up, do something, BE CREATIVE!” - Andrew Lynn, Program Coordinator, OCAC

Nick Lang, one of the main writers of all STARKID Productions gave encouragement to those inquiring about how to become better writers. In explaining how someone can take inspiration from film, stage, and books, “without making it dumb” Lang said, “It’s really about analytical thinking…if you are processing what you are seeing analytically you’ll have a better source for your writing.” 

Brian Holden brought up the point, while speaking of their process of creating the science fiction script for Starship, “We weren’t happy with the character Tootsie-Noodles who comes from Farm Planet, a planet of all farms without any technology. When [Tootsie-Noodles] comes across this robot he doesn't realize she isn't human and falls in love with her.”

 Lang added, “…which is funny, since her programming as a robot is the desire to kill all humans...”

 Holden, “… in reading through the script we thought it was horrible until we starting thinking analytically about who Tootsie-Noodles really was as a character and how he would react to a situation. We would all start talking in [Tootsie-Noodles’] voice all of the time”

 Joe Walker jumped in to illustrate the point with, “This toaaaa-sterrr is coooolld," in his version of Tootsie-Noodles' voice.

 Holden also made the comment, “[Sometimes] we just take random movie quotes and replace words with ‘fart’ … and it’s funny.”

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The second annual Oxford Writing Festival is a collaborative effort of various community entities organized by the Miami University student organization STUDENTS FOR THE PROMOTION OF WRITING whose sole purpose is the creation of the festival each year. OCAC would like to thank co-presidents, MU senior, Integrated English/Language Arts Education major, Megan Dincher and MU senior, English Literature and Creative Writing major, Alexandra Rogers and the rest of SPW for organizing the Oxford Writing Festival.

The Oxford Writing Festival aims to promote and encourage writing among people in the greater Oxford community, including the Miami student population. This festival spanned four days with presentation and readings that included both guest writers, Miami students and Oxford community members.  Other guest writers included Charles R. Scott , a blogger at National Geographic and Kathy Wilson, writer of Cincinnati, CityBeat.com column “(Not) Your Negro Tour Guide.”   After the initial kick-off celebration at the Oxford Community Arts Center, writers spoke at various location in Oxford, including the Lane Public Library, Kofenya Coffee, and Miami University’s Shriver Center. Additional writers made presentations through Skype while most were physically in Oxford for the festival.

A song-sketch written the night before the Oxford Writing Festival, by an Oxford resident, was performed impromptu by members of Stage Left (Miami University's Musical Theater Organization), Baristas from Kofenya Coffee, OWF Team Members, Community Members, and Nick, Joe, and Brian of STARKID as an introduction to the guests.

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For next year's Oxford Writing Festival keep an eye on www.oxfordwritingfestival.weebly.com/

&

Remember to follow @OxComArtsCenter on Twitter for updates on all the free programming at the 

OXFORD COMMUNITY ARTS CENTER

Submit Your Art! Three Upcoming Exhibits Want You!

OXFORD COMMUNITY ARTS CENTER IS SEEKING SUBMISSIONS FOR THREE EXHIBITS

       
                                    

The Oxford Community Arts Center(OCAC)  is calling all regional and local artists for three different exhibits. Artworks that exhibit diverse concepts, mediums, and creativity will take precedence in the jury process. Acceptance will be based on the quality and creativity of the works, first time exhibitors are encouraged. The work submitted for the exhibits will be juried by the OCAC Exhibition Committee.

 The first show is “Architectural Archetypes"  and will be exhibited from May 10^th through June 6^th, 2013. The artwork submitted for this exhibit should reflect on standards or styles of architecture and local and regional depictions are encouraged. All 2D media will be considered, and packets should be submitted with an arrival date no later than April 1, 2013.

The second exhibit, “Just Drawin’ Story Time”, will run from August 9^th through September 5^th 2013. The artworks being sought after are illustrations and graphic art depicting a story line including, but not limited to, cartooning, comics, and graphic novels. All 2D media will be considered and submissions should arrive no later than July 1, 2013.

The third show will be exhibited from September 13^th to October 3^rd,2013 and is titled, “The Back Side of Art”. All forms of media is being considered. The artworks presented should be of places that are not usually seen or generally dismissed in the process of creating art. The entries could literally be the reverse side of art pieces or can take a more abstract approach. Submissions should arrive to OCAC no later than August 1, 2013.

Exhibit entry applications can be picked up at the OCAC office or downloaded from OCAC’s website, . All packets should be mailed to Chrissy Collopy, Oxford Community Arts Center, P O Box 172, Oxford OH, 45056 or hand delivered to the OCAC offices. Questions regarding the application or artwork submittals should be addressed to gallery@oxarts.org.

Oxford Community Arts Center is located at 10 S. College Avenue in Oxford, Ohio. For additional information contact the offices at 513-524-8506, email info@oxarts.org, or visit their website at www.oxarts.org. Office hours are Monday – Friday 10am-6pm and Saturdays from 10am-2pm.

Fourth Annual Oxford Kinetics Festival 

Sunday, April 7th, 2013, 12:00 – 4:00pm Miami University’s Millett Hall.

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This intense celebration of creativity-in-motion includes activities for tinkerers of all ages. Festival-goers have the opportunity to enjoy air-powered rocket building, numerous children’s activities, Rube Goldberg extravaganzas, a kinetic art exhibit, an Iron Pour, glassblowing demonstrations, music, performance, food and more.  

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Kinetic Building Workshops will be held March 2^nd, 9^th, 23^rd, and 30^th from 9:00am-4:00pm in the Miami sculpture area in Hiestand Hall, located at 607 Maple Ave., Oxford, OH. These workshops are offered to help participants develop their entries for the Oxford Kinetics Festival Scramble.   The workshops are free and open to anyone wanting to participate.  Workshop facilitator, Rod Northcutt, describes the workshops as, “Four days of help and tools created to unleash your inner tinkerer.”  Participants are asked to bring ideas, sketches, bikes, wagons or carts that they want to alter, and safety glasses if they have them.

The Scramble is a “non-race” of unusual human-powered contraptions, wearable sculpture and monster bikes on an obstacle course filled with a myriad of challenges and odd tasks to be performed. The Scramble lasts from 1:00 – 1:45 and participants must fill out an entry form and receive their race credentials by 12:30.

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The Festival began as a quick sculpture race, organized by Kate Currie and Jim McWilliams that took place on High Street in 2010 as part of Oxford, Ohio Bicentennial Celebration.  The race transitioned into a festival which is now organized by MAKETANK; area artists, Kate Currie, Rod Northcutt, Jacob Tonski, and Christina Miller, whose goal is to facilitate creative, unorthodox, events that are active, engaging, and involved the participation of all members of the local social fabric. 

The Oxford Kinetics Festival is funded in part by grants through the auspices of the Oxford Community Arts Center and made possible by the generosity of thousands of individuals who give to the ArtsWave Community Campaign and to the Oxford Community Foundation. 

For more information visit www.oxfordkineticsfestival.org.