February durham3, Saturday the 19th

After a raucous beginning in January, durham3 returns on February 19th with a star-studded event at Durham’s Know Bookstore. Come celebrate February and Black History month, with performance artist Mz. Julee, spoken word artist Carol Lautier, a film by Jason Middleton, musician extraordinaire Brother Yusef Salim and poet, novelist, story-teller, and activist Jaki Shelton Greene. Doors will open at 6 and a vegetarian-friendly soul food buffet will be available for $6.95. The show begins at 7:30pm. There’s no cover and there is a first-come, first served open-mike at the end. The Know Bookstore is located at 2520 Fayetteville Street near downtown Durham. For information, contact Tanya Olson or Amy Nolan at olson@vgcc.edu , amycnolan@hotmail.com , or visit the durham3 blog for further information at http://durham3.blogspot.com. For driving directions see the Know Bookstore’s website at http://www.theknowbookstore.com or call 919-682-7223.

Mz Julee- Mz Julee has been in Raleigh around 3 years pursuing her performance art/spoken word as well as her visual artwork. She is the moderator/organizer for STAMMER!, an event of spoken word. poetry/performance art/film/ music/ playwrights & more, held at Artspace bi-monthly and other venues in between. Check out her website at www.geocities.com/pbqtest for more info.

Carol Lautier- Through her work as a spoken word performer, Carol Lautier composes and presents poetry that celebrates women. Her poems present women’s hurdles with unflinching honesty, and then celebrate women’s triumphs over them. A performance poet since 1999, Carol performs at various poetry venues in the southeast as well as national conferences and fundraising events for organizations that serve women in crisis. As a result of her work with abuse survivors and those in recovery, Carol is the recipient of the 2004 Women's Advocacy Award (sponsored by the Carolina Women's Center.) Carol believes that affirmation and wholeness result from sharing the stories of our lives. Her poetry bears witness to the healing power of the spoken word.

Jason Middleton- Jason Middleton is a Durham resident who has shown films at FreewaterProductions Year End Screening, Glitter Film Nite, Flicker and numerous venues.

Brother Yusef Salim- Durham legend Brother Yusef Salem leads a group of rotating musician at the Know Book stores Jazz night held every Friday. A pianist and composer, he played with Leo Parker in the 1960's and recorded for the Blue Note label.

Jaki Shelton Greene- Jaki Shelton-Greene is a dynamic poet/performer who has published several books: Dead on Arrival, Masks, Dead on Arrival and New Poems, and Conjure Blues. She has also published Blue Opal, a play. Her poems have appeared in Crucible, The African-American Review, Ms and Essence magazines, and Obsidian. A recipient of the North Carolina Award for Literature, she is currently compiling a collection of short stories and a poetry manuscript, as well as her first novel. She is an advocate for the voiceless and the arts.

durham3 is a series of multi-media events that bring together a variety of artists. The series is interested in using the physical and psychological thirdspace qualities of Durham to foster collaboration between artistic communities in Durham and the Triangle. Ultimately, this series would also like to aid Durham in defining its own artistic identity. Towards that end, each event will feature poets, performers, spoken words artists, visual artists, musicians, and dancers from across the Triangle. Each event will also highlight an original, collaborative work from 2 or more artists in the Triangle and merchandise from the series, the work of local artists, and a broadsheet featuring the work of that night’s artists will be available at each event.

Durham Herald-Sun Article

The recently eviscerated Herald-Sun gave durham3 a nice write-up. Hurrah Herald-Sun!! Boo company that bought it and fired a bunch of folks!! See it here

http://heraldsun.com/features/54-567591.html

or read it below.


Durham searches for its artistic niche

BY CYNTHIA GREENLEE-DONNELL : The Herald-Sun
mailto:Herald-Suncgreenlee@heraldsun.com
Jan 20, 2005 : 12:38 pm ET

DURHAM -- If Chapel Hill has been known for its indie-rock scene and Raleigh for its visual-arts galleries, the question remains: What is Durham known for as a creative community?
Durham residents Amy Nolan and Tanya Olson asked themselves this question one day while hanging out at The Cave in Chapel Hill.
"We thought Durham could be a really important place. But it didn't have a well-defined scene, though it had all these wonderful artists," said Olson, a poet and English teacher at an area community college.
With photographer Nolan, Olson is setting out to help Durham nail down its artistic identity. They have organized Durham3, a new showcase of artists and performers from Durham and the other two points of the Triangle, Raleigh and Chapel Hill-Carrboro.
Durham3 takes place at 7:30 p.m. tonight, with a multimedia menu.
Nolan, a former Meredith College student who coordinated the Stammer spoken-word and poetry series in Raleigh, said, Durham3 "is incorporating installation art, music, poetry, film and in the future, we hope, dance. ? We're trying to bring Durham together as a third space where people can come together."
Part of Durham3's debut will be a new film from Jason Klarl and Bill Weaver. Their documentary, "Michael Carpio: Radical Philosopher," is about a New Yorker who plays in a band and generates his own theories about just about everything.
This Durham3 -- two other installments are planned for February and March -- also presents Durham songwriter and 'zine editor Ruth Eckles; Carrboro poet laureate Patrick Herron; and spoken-word artist Dasan Ahanu.
Ahanu, a Raleigh native who moved to Durham in August, said that there aren't enough events like Durham3 in the city and the greater Triangle, especially when it comes to spoken-word artists or poets.
"There aren't enough venues for smaller arts events. There should be more art galleries and coffeehouses where you could have small theatrical productions and one-man shows. We lost a couple of [poetry] venues: the Cipher, and Yancey's shut down, we had the old Tobacco Warehouse, and Cosmic Cantina used to have events in the Lounge."
Nolan said that each event will have "a collaborative part where two different people from two different disciplines will come together to make art. I'm going to be doing an installation and visual art, as well as doing a film or PowerPoint presentation that will be behind Scott [Carey of Raleigh], as he plays this great, ambient music."
There also will be an open-microphone portion of the evening; performers will be able to sign up on site.
Durham3 aims to get artists to cross the physical boundaries that delineate the Triangle, and to cross creative ones that keep them confined to one genre. But it's also about artists getting to know one another and exploring some of those off-the-beaten-track Durham art spaces.
This first showcase will take place in a public loft space that's attached to a private home on Rigsbee Street. The location excites Olson, who said, "As part of [the owners'] living space, they made this performance area. I think that says a lot about Durham. How fascinating to think about taking your own private space and putting it forth for the community to use."
February's Durham3 will take place at The Know Bookstore, and the March event will be at Ooh-La-Latté coffeehouse.

durham3- The Manifesto!!

durham3 is a group that intends to use Durham’s physical and philosophical third space positioning to support arts and artists in the Triangle and help build a Durham renown for its creative culture. Raleigh is know for its spoken word and music communities; Chapel Hill and Carrboro offer an outstanding music scene, several traditional poetry groups, and a bourgeoning film society. Durham though, despite the presence of many talented artists of all kinds, has yet to define its own cultural identity. Previously, groups have attempted to impose a cultural definition on Durham from the outside, attempting to build Durham in the image of another city. durham3 believes the Durham cultural community needs to find an organic definition for itself, one that rises from the inside, not one that is imposed from the outside. In an attempt to help build that definition, durham3 begins by focusing on the “third” characteristics of Durham’s physical location (in-between Raleigh and Chapel Hill/Carrboro) and psychic space (no one, already set and prominent art scene). Durham third space qualities mean it can serve as a meeting ground outside dichotomies where existing factions can meet, share influences, and eventually, build something new, something third, something unique to Durham.

-Durham has an already existing art and cultural scene. It also has a population that includes numerous talented artists. The city’s cultural identity does not need to be invented wholesale, nor should it be imposed through already existing templates formed elsewhere. Instead, Durham has the ability to define itself, internally and organically, thanks to work previously done by other artists and groups. durham3 sees itself as a continuation of this work and not its origin or culmination.

- durham3 intends to enable this self-definition and make it unique to Durham by focusing on Durham’s outsider, “third” qualities- the city’s physical location in the Triangle and its hybrid population. Durham is not simply a professional or factory town, an academic or working class town, a gay or straight town, a conservative or progressive town, a black or white town. It is a place that encompasses both sides of these dichotomies and therefore, becomes something beyond those pairings, creating and occupying a new, third space.

- An integral part of Durham building its own, unique cultural definition is the continued and responsible growth of Durham’s downtown and surrounding neighborhoods. durham3 hopes to contribute to that growth by hosting events in a different small business and/or neighborhood each time. In order to build an accurate cultural definition that truly reflects a community, it is necessary to know all of Durham and bring residents of different areas into dialogue. Similarly, durham3 intends to support Durham’s small businesses as a means of encouraging the people of Durham to build their own definition, not accept the pre-made definitions inherent in large corporations and chain stores.

- Under a regime driven by a need for conformity and uniformity, durham3 defines supporting durham3 artists and attending durham3 events as an act of resistance. Encouraging and participating in Durham finding its own cultural identity and definition outside of already acceptable boundaries and classifications is a political, revolutionary act.