BCA

Community producer James Gero records the concert of Dayna Kurtz as part of the Burlington City Arts Summer Concert series.

From the BCA concert description:

Dayna Kurtz

Over the past decade, the New Jersey-born vocalist/writer/musician/producer (now dividing her time between New Orleans and the mountains of Vermont) has been bestowed with many awards and praises, including being named the Female Songwriter of the Year by the National Academy of Songwriters. Dayna was recently nominated as 2017 New Orleans Songwriter of the Year in the Offbeat Magazine poll. Norah Jones and Bonnie Raitt have raved about her in interviews, and she's performed on such high-profile radio shows as World Cafe, Mountain Stage, NPR's Morning Edition, and Tell Me More. She's toured and opened for the likes of Elvis Costello, Richard Thompson, Mavis Staples, Rufus Wainwright, B.B. King, Dr. John, Richie Havens, Madeleine Peyroux, Chris Whitley, and the Blind Boys of Alabama. Festivals that have asked Dayna to perform are the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the French Quarter Festival, Celebrate Brooklyn, Lincoln Center Out of Doors and Roots on the Rails.

Concert of John Lackard and the Left Eye Jump Band. from John Lackard's biography: "A sound and style that could easily have come from Memphis or Chicago is perhaps what makes John Lackard and his Green Mountain origin so unique. Not just another trip on the Blues Bandwagon” that is so ever popular today. This is the real thing. His apparent connection and understanding began when his father brought the Boogie Woogie piano and records into the household, and started a career that has lasted over a third of a century. John’s first real musical instrument at the age of five was a Hohner harmonica. Being only eight when he went to work selling greeting cards for points toward a plastic electric guitar. It was followed by a Silvertone “Stella” 12 string acoustic guitar when he was nine. During this time, John moved next door to Buddy Truax, jazz guitarist of “Buddy Truax And The Playboys”. This early influence was enhanced by Buddy’s sons who played bass and drums, providing a rhythm section to jam with in addition to Buddy’s informal “lessons”. By age fifteen he was ready for his first professional stage appearance. Touring New York and New England for a few years led to a stint with Sam the Sham, sit-ins with James Cotton, Jimmy Rogers and Bob Margolin, working with Cotton’s drummer as Ken Johnson and Co., in addition to opening shows for Jimmy and James as well as countless others. After which Jimmy declared “That boy kicks the hell out of the Blues!” James simply stated “The Blues is in Vermont”. Currently in process of recording a CD, one of the tracks titled “I Wanna Go Back” can be heard on the compilation album “Best of The Green Mountain Blues Vol. 1”. The future promises a continued extensive touring schedule that previously prompted a radio D.J. to proclaim the John Lackard Blues Band “The Hardest Working Blues Band in New England”."

James Gero's tour of the Unique Multiples exhibit at the Burlington City Arts center with Heather Farrell, gallery coordinator.

Community producer James Gero visits the Skin Ego exhibit at the Burlington City Arts Firehouse Gallery.

From the BCA exhibit description:

Skin Ego

Rebecca Weisman uses many mediums/media in site-specific installations and films, often self-producing shows in unlikely venues and locations: the Oregon desert, vacant urban buildings, a Vermont mountaintop, her home. She has shown work nationally and internationally, most recently Tap Lessons, Garner Arts Center NY; An Order, a site-specific group installation at the defunct Saint Joseph’s Orphanage in Burlington VT; Glitch, a multi-media video installation at University of Cincinnati; Misbookings, an intervention performed at the Deleuze, Guattari, and the Arts conference at King’s College, Ontario; Excavations, a site-specific sound and architectural projection at the Design Center, Goddard College; and Ethan Allen Nights, a film and sculptural installation at McCarthy Art Center.

She has published articles in Namarupa magazine, C Magazine, and the International Journal of Zizek Studies and in 2014 presented a paper on “Dark Ecology and the Abject” at the International Zizek Studies conference, Cincinnati. She holds a BA in Studio Art from Reed College and an MFA in Interdisciplinary Art from Goddard College. Weisman has taught courses in video art, installation, and conceptual art and art history at Saint Michael’s College, Burlington College, University of Vermont, and the Global Center for Advanced Studies.

Robopoems

Tina Escaja (b. 1965, Zamora, Spain) (aka Alma Perez) is a Spanish-American digital artist, poet, activist, and feminist scholar based in Burlington, VT. Escaja received a B.A. in Spanish Philology at Universitat de Barcelona in Spain, as well as a Ph.D. in Latin American and Spanish Literature from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. In 2003, Escaja won the Hispano-American Poetry Award “Dulce María Loynaz,” and received a special mention in the Literary International Competition “Jirones de Azul” in 2006.

Using the pseudonym Alm@ Pérez, Escaja’s poetry and digital works have been exhibited internationally including the Museum Wolf Vostell Malpartida de Cáceres and Matadero Madrid—both in Spain—as well as locally at venues including the Flynndog Gallery in Burlington, VT. In 2015, she served as Maker-in-Residence at the Generator, Burlington, VT, where she designed many of the robots included in her Robopoem series. Currently, she is Professor of Spanish and Director of the Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies Program at the University of Vermont.