Epic Vision
2015-04-29 - 2015-05-02 | TN
EXHIBITION SCHEDULE
Thursday, April 30 – Saturday, May 2 // 10am – 6pm
Saturday, May 2: Closing Reception // 6 – 8pm

“When I tell people I create, they think I’m a musician.”- Michael Williams
Crosstown Arts is pleased to present an exhibition of over 50 paintings by Crosstown residents Michael Williams and his mother, Mattie Williams. Although working in clearly distinct styles, their process involves a delicate exchange: Mattie inspired Michael to paint, and Michael names Mattie’s paintings. Both artists are self-taught and have been painting most of their lives. Michael is visually impaired, so he uses tools like powerful magnifying glasses and bright lights to enhance his limited field of vision, seeking to capture realistic perspectives in his landscapes. Mattie uses acrylic paint to create abstract works with bold colors and repeated patterns, often floral or geometric forms. Together, their works demonstrate how the act of creating can strengthen the ties that bind people to one another — through family, through paint.
Michael was born with an eye disorder known as Stargardt’s Disease and recently founded a non-profit organization, International Association for Sight Impaired Artists. The organization’s mission is to educate, empower and support individuals who are blind or visually impaired to be involved in the visual, performing and literary arts. Michael hopes to inspire others with sight impairments not to limit themselves creatively.
He has won many awards in several art competitions, including Memphis Technical High School “Outstanding Art Student” Award in the 1980s, St. Joseph Hospital Pen and Ink Art Competition, Southland Mall Scholastic Art Competition, Mid South Fair Pen and Ink Art Competition, and the American Printing House for the Blind International Art Competition in 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2014.

Think Tank Series: Collective Consciousness
2015-04-30 13:30 - 15:00 (America/Chicago) | story booth, 438 N. Cleveland St., Memphis, TN, 38104, United States
The Collective invites you to join them for a discussion about how different ways of creating or being exposed to art can uplift a community, create support from within, and provide solutions.

Eye on Abstraction: All-Ages Workshop
2015-05-01 10:30 - 12:30 | Crosstown Arts Galleries, 1350 Concourse Ave., Suite 280, Memphis, TN, 38104, United States
An after-school workshop all about abstraction. Explore our current abstract painting exhibition, Between the Eyes (in the gallery at 422 N. Cleveland). Then meet in story booth for hands-on art activities for all ages, led by artists Laurel Sucsy (Between the Eyes curator), Mary Jo Karimnia, and Brittney Bullock.
This is a free, drop-in program: come when you wish, no registration necessary!
Children must be accompanied by adults.
Snacks and drinks will be served.
(Image: Rubens Ghenov)

Shoot & Splice: Film and the Law
2015-05-05 13:30 - 16:00 | TN
Memphis filmmakers are known for a guerrilla, DIY-style of filmmaking. While the mantra may be better to beg forgiveness than ask permission, sometimes it pays to get good advice on the front end. Join entertainment attorneys Malcolm Futhey, Anita Modak-Truran and Bruce Newman as they argue the case that filmmakers should be aware of the law and seek good counsel.

Shoot & Splice is presented by Indie Memphis and Crosstown Arts with the support of ArtsMemphis and FirstTennessee Foundation | ArtsFirst.

Johnathan Payne: Meet Me Where I'm At
2015-05-07 - 2015-05-09 | TN
Exhibition Schedule
Friday, May 8: Reception, 6 – 8 pm | Live performance at 6:21 pm
Saturday, May 9: Artist talk at 2 pm
Artist Statement
Intense preoccupations with self-concept, desire, and tribalism are the points of departure for my recent installation and performance work. I tackle these complex personal landscapes in the studio similar to my approach outside of that space: through endurance, perspective, minor successes, immediate pleasures, Pho Binh lunch buffets, constant longing, and inevitable failure. This is all a journey. Utilizing pre-existing cultural objects, movement, body fluid, space, and meditative processes, I continue to simultaneously grapple with and reprieve my poly-consciousness. Ultimately, this show serves as a temporal sanctuary where these performative self-journeys and self-reconciliations shall unfold.
Artist Bio
Johnathan Payne is an emerging artist whose creative practice encompasses drawing, painting, collage, performance, and installation art. He has exhibited in various solo and group exhibitions, including Voice of the Turtle at Tops Gallery most recently, New Drawings at Beige in 2014, and Pyramid Scheme! at Gallery 363 in 2013. He earned his BA in Art from Rhodes College in 2012, and received the Sally Becker Grinspan Award for Artistic Achievement. Last November, Johnathan was awarded an ArtsAccelerator grant from ArtsMemphis. He currently lives and maintains a studio practice in Memphis, TN.

Open Crit
2015-05-12 13:00 - 15:00 | TN
430 N. Cleveland
Second Tuesday of Each Month
Artist Setup: 5 – 6 pm / Critique & Discussion: 6 – 8 pm
May Artists: Jim Anderson, Elisabeth Eickhoff, Dan Ross & Meghan Vaziri
Facilitator: Laurel Sucsy
Crosstown Arts’ Open Crit series, organized in partnership with ArtsMemphis, is a monthly critique event where visual artists are invited to bring new and/or in-progress studio work for critical feedback and group discussion particular to each artist’s practice. The series will take place at Crosstown Arts exhibition space at 430 N. Cleveland.
A dedicated facilitator with experience in a group critique setting will guide discussion for each critique event, which will include up to 4 artists’ work, with 15-25 minutes devoted to the work of each.
All visual artists and anyone interested in joining the discussion are welcome to participate regardless of their level of expertise, prior professional art experience or background/education in fine art. Participation is free and open to the public. Input during the critiques from everyone in attendance is welcomed and encouraged.
No formal preparation is necessary for participating artists, who will have an opportunity to introduce and contextualize their work on view at the beginning of each critique. Participating artists are only asked to be open to (and interested in) considering reactions to their work by the group, which will always be done in a supportive, constructive and casual environment, but could at the same time be challenging.

To participate, artists can send the following info via email to Brittney Bullock (brittney@ crosstownarts.org) with the subject line “Open Crit.” Submissions will be accepted and scheduled based on availability. There is no submission fee.

Name
Phone number
Email address
General description of the work to be discussed (i.e. “abstract paintings” or “video art”) & sizes of works and/or media types

Artists are asked to bring no more than 8 individual pieces (in any medium). Maximum run time for time-based work(s) is 10 minutes.
Participating artists are encouraged to invite friends, peers and colleagues to the open crits, both to see their work in progress and to give constructive feedback.
Organized by Crosstown Arts in partnership with ArtsMemphis ArtsAccelerator.

Don Lifted
2015-05-15 16:00 - 18:30 | TN
Don Lifted returns to Crosstown Arts with another exciting live performance. Music show organized by the artist.
Click here to listen to his latest tracks.

Book Release: The Sky Is the Limit
2015-05-22 14:00 - 16:00 | TN
Join Fallen Walls founder, Daniel Aaron Harris, for the release of a new children’s book he wrote & illustrated. The Sky is the Limit tells the story of a young girl who finds out that despite her disability, she can be anything.
To see more of Harris’ works, visit Bobby Blue Books.

Impossible Language
2015-05-23 14:00 - 16:00 | TN
Impossible Language celebrates spring by bringing you fresh, unique voices in contemporary poetry. This installment features readings from Ruth Baumann, PJ Williams, Ashley Chambers & Heidi Staples.
Become better acquainted with this ongoing poetry reading series by following here: Twitter @impossiblelang, Facebook or Tumblr.

Omotai, Seraph/The Light, Xebrula
2015-05-24 14:00 - 17:00 | TN
Houston, TX-based Omotai is coming through Memphis, and music show organizer Blair Davis says, “They bring the shred so come out and get a face lift from all the heavy jams.”

The Sidewayz Presents: Trü Grit
2015-05-27 16:00 - 18:00 | TN
Listening party hosted by hip-hop duo, The Sidewayz, celebrating the debut release of new EP, Trü Grit.
Click here to download “Sinbad”, the first single from the EP.

The Collective Presents: The Mimosa Mixer
2015-05-29 15:00 - 19:00 | TN
A fundraising event to share the Collective’s mission and to showcase the visual & artistic talents of its members.
Ticket Information:
Advance: $10
At the door: $12

DJ Yo Presents: Ran Across Stars Showcase
2015-05-30 14:00 - 17:00 | TN
Performances by DJ Yo, Britt Griffin, Da Judge, Yoji, Mel Barchie, Christian Deshun, Rose Da Don & Sam Cooper, organized by Najee Strickland of Heartless Clothing and Co.

Road Trip: 30 Americans at Arkansas Arts Center
2015-05-30 - 2015-05-31 | Arkansas Arts Center, 501 E 9th St, Little Rock, 72202
30 Americans presents a sweeping survey of artwork by many of the most influential African American artists of the last four decades. Organized by the Rubell Family Collection, Miami, the exhibition features work by such early and influential artists as Barkley L. Hendricks, Robert Colescott and Jean-Michel Basquiat, and those of younger and emerging artists, like Kehinde Wiley, Wangechi Mutu, and Shinique Smith.

8 am: Meet at parking lot on Cooper next to Hattiloo Theater, please park in Overton Square parking garage
8:30 am: Bus departs for Little Rock
11 am-12 pm: Guided tour of 30 Americans
12-1 pm: Explore gallery at your leisure, eat lunch at the Arts Center cafe, or pack a picnic
1:30 pm: Depart Little Rock
4:30 pm/5pm: Arrive in Memphis

Trip fee: $25 (includes transportation and guided tour of exhibition) Admission to the Museum is FREE!

The Flyy Market
2015-05-31 07:00 - 11:00 | Cleveland Street Flea Market, 438 N. Cleveland, Memphis, 38104, United States
What better way to kick off the summer season than with a flyy event including local vendors, music, food trucks, and a thrifted fashion show hosted by local fashionistas?

Engineering the Ridiculous: Rube Goldberg Project
2015-06-01 03:00 - 2015-06-30 12:00 | story booth, 438 N. Cleveland St., Memphis, TN, 38104, United States
During the summer of 2015, story booth and artist Yvonne Bobo hosted and facilitated a workshop to create a Rube Goldberg Machine: a contraption, invention, device or apparatus that is a machine deliberately over-engineered to perform a very simple task in a very complicated fashion, including a chain reaction. This workshop was a hands-on opportunity for young people to use science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics to create an interactive sculpture on display at an opening exhibition for the entire community to celebrate. At the opening exhibition, all participants were officially recognized and certified for their accomplishments in “Engineering the Ridiculous.

Centro Cultural Collaboration
2015-06-01 05:00 - 2015-06-30 13:00 | Crosstown Arts Galleries, 1350 Concourse Ave., Suite 280, Memphis, TN, 38104, United States
Supported by the First Tennessee Foundation/ArtsFirst and ArtsMemphis
Crosstown Arts is pleased to partner with Centro Cultural Latino de Memphis for a series of exhibitions and events to showcase the work of Latino artists living and working in Memphis and to celebrate elements and traditions of Latino culture as an integral part of the creative community of Memphis. This partnership is made possible by a generous grant from the First Tennessee Foundation, ArtsFirst and ArtsMemphis. The partnership builds on the substantial work that Centro Cultural Latino de Memphis has accomplished and furthers Crosstown Arts’ ongoing mission to help combine audiences, further expand inclusivity and provide opportunities to all of Memphis’ creative community.
Two large-scale partnership events were Stories on My Back on view at Crosstown Arts during the month of June 2015, and the Tamale Fest at Caritas Village, held on June 28, 2015. Created by bi-cultural Memphis artist Richard Lou, Stories On My Back is a multi-media installation that incorporates audio, video, digital photographs, thousands of tamale leaves. This work has never been installed or seen in its entirety in Memphis. Later that month, Crosstown Arts was an integral partner with Centro Cultural and Caritas Village for the Tamale Fest, the first annual fundraising event for Centro Cultural. This event featured tamale-cooking teams and contests, tamale tastings, food trucks, live entertainment, an artist market and family activities.
In addition to an 18-month schedule of exhibitions and events, detailed below, several longer-term artistic projects will be launched through the partnership: the Crosstown-Centro Billboard Program will feature artwork displayed on a billboard on North Cleveland; and the Tamale Stories video project will capture and share the diverse Memphis’ community’s cross-cultural stories and memories of the beloved “tamal” or “tamale.”

Calendar of Events
SPRING 2015
Centro Cultural Spring Showcase
Saturday, April 25, 5-7 pm, Crosstown Arts, 430 N. Cleveland
Showcase of visual and performing arts organized by Centro Cultural
Tamale Cooking Demo
Saturday, May 16, 2 pm, at Latino Memphis, 6041 Mt. Moriah Rd
This one-hour cooking demo will be facilitated by a local tamale-making expert (or “tamalero/a” in Spanish). The tamalero/a will share his/her own family recipe and will walk the attendees through a step-by-step process for making tamales at home.
$10 admission/donation to benefit Centro Cultural.
SUMMER 2015
Richard Lou: Stories on my Back
Multumedia installation on view June 5-July 4, 2015, Crosstown Arts Gallery, 422 N. Cleveland
Opening Night: Friday, June 5, 6-9 pm
Food trucks, live music and more
Exhibition Programs: Saturday, June 6, 2-4 pm
Lecture by Visiting Scholar Guisela LaTorre, 430 N. Cleveland, 2 pm
Gallery Talk with Richard Lou & Guisela LaTorre, 422 N. Cleveland, 3 pm
Tamale Cooking Demo
Sunday, June 7, 3 pm, Crosstown Arts, 430 N. Cleveland
This one-hour cooking demo will be facilitated by a local tamale-making expert (or “tamalero/a” in Spanish). The tamalero/a will share his/her own family recipe and will walk the attendees through a step-by-step process for making tamales at home.
$10 admission/donation to benefit Centro Cultural.
PechaKucha Night Volume 12
Thursday, June 25, 6:30 pm, Phuong Long, 306 N. Cleveland
An evening of fun, fast-paced presentations themed around food, made by community members. Presenters for this installment: Miles Tamboli, Wes Riddle, Ben McLean, Noah Campbell, Margarita Sandino, Onie Johns, Rachel Neely Williams & Edna Banks-Hawkins
Free admission.
Tamale Fest
Saturday, June 27, 2-6 pm, Caritas Village, 2509 Harvard Avenue in Binghampton
Organized by Centro Cultural, Caritas Village and Crosstown Arts
Tamale Fest 2015 is the first annual fundraising event for Centro Cultural. The festival will have main stage live entertainment, a tamale team cooking contest, a tamale tasting tent, a kids’ activity corner, art vendors, food trucks and a photo booth. Centro Cultural was founded in 2011 and has been operating as a 100% volunteer-run organization. Accomplishments to date include over 60 cultural workshops taught, 13 showcases celebrated, 6 art exhibits produced, collaboration with Dixon Gallery and Gardens produced the first contemporary Latino Art exhibition in Memphis, current development of a book based on immigrant stories in Binghamton and over 5000 hours of volunteer time given. The purpose of the Tamale Fest is to share and celebrate Latino culture, bring people together for a positive cultural experience and to raise money to allow Centro Cultural to expand their programs and administration.
FALL 2015
Centro Cultural Visual Arts Showcase
Friday, November 6-28, 2015, Crosstown Arts Gallery, 422 N. Cleveland
FALL 2016
Exhibition of Latino/a Artist Portraits
November 2016, Crosstown Arts Gallery, 422 N. Cleveland
ONGOING / UPCOMING

Crosstown-Centro Billboard Program at 431 N. Cleveland
Centro Cultural’s Latino/a Artist Registry
Tamale Stories video project

Shoot & Splice: Gear Up with LensRentals.com
2015-06-02 13:30 - 16:00 | TN
Erik Morrison and a team from LensRentals.com are hosting a show-and-tell about the latest and greatest cameras and gear. Erik and his team have helped thousands of cinematographers and commercial shooters choose the right equipment for each unique production, and you are invited to pick their brains!
Free & open to the public.

Shoot & Splice is presented by Indie Memphis and Crosstown Arts with the support of ArtsMemphis and FirstTennessee Foundation | ArtsFirst.

Composed
2015-06-02 - 2015-06-04 | TN
Opening Reception: Wednesday, June 3 at 7 pm
On view: Thursday, June 4 from 10 am – 6 pm
Composed is an exhibition of sculpture, pottery and 2-D works from Memphis College of Art juniors and seniors.

Community Mural Talk with Guisela Latorre
2015-06-04 14:00 - 15:30 | Caritas Village, 2509 Harvard Ave., Memphis, 38112
Presented by UrbanArt Commission and Crosstown Arts in partnership with Caritas Village, Hope Gallery & Centro Cultural:
Join us for a presentation on muralism in international contexts with visiting scholar Guisela Latorre from the University of Ohio Department of Art/Department of Gender Studies. Her talk will explore her research around Chicana/o murals in California and muralism and graffiti in post-dictatorship Chile.
Guisela Latorre specializes in modern and contemporary U.S. Latina/o and Latin American art with a special emphasis on gender and women artists. Her first book titled Walls of Empowerment: Chicana/o Indigenist Murals from California (U. of Texas Press 2008), explored the recurrence of indigenist motifs in Chicana/o community murals from the 1970s to the turn of the millennium. Her other publications include “Border Consciousness and Artivist Aesthetics: Richard Lou’s Performance and Multimedia Artwork” in the American Studies Journal (2012), “New Approaches to Chicana/o Art: The Visual and the Political as Cognitive Process” in Image & Narrative (2010), and “Icons of Love and Devotion: Alma López’s Art” in Feminist Studies (Spring/Summer 2008). Latorre’s recent research activities include the co-editorship of the feminist journal Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies and work on a second book project of the graffiti and mural movement in Chile during the post-dictatorship era. She teaches classes on Latina/Chicana feminism, visual culture and Latina/o art.

Richard Lou: Stories On My Back
2015-06-04 - 2015-07-03 | Crosstown Arts Galleries, 1350 Concourse Ave., Suite 280, Memphis, TN, 38104, United States
Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 10 am – 6 pm
Crosstown Arts is pleased to present Stories On My Back, a large-scale multi-media installation incorporating audio, video, digital photographs, and tamale leaves created by Memphis artist Richard Lou. The installation, never before seen in its entirety in Memphis, is an immersive experience alluding to a ceremonial site where people come to share their stories and personal histories. The piece is informed by stories exchanged through the artist’s family: stories told by the artist’s mother and father, the stories he shared with his children, and the stories retold by his children as their own.

Stories On My Back from Crosstown Arts on Vimeo.
The thousands of tamale leaves in the installation speak to the artist’s bi-cultural heritage as a Chinese/Mexican, or what artist/activist Guillermo Gomez-Peña would a “Chicanese,” a Chicano/Chinese. The stories mix personal history within the larger context of the external historical forces that brought the artist’s families together, or threatened to pull them apart. They are stories of loss, dreams, isolation, ignorance, race, disparities of power, assimilation, spirit, and subjugated knowledge and wisdom.
Included in the installation is Lou’s father’s chair, where Lou Yet Ming would sit and watch John Wayne westerns and movies about World War II. Lou’s father served in the U.S. Marine Corp during World War II and was honorably discharged as a Technical Sergeant. Lou Yet Ming’s recliner was re-designed and brought back to life by Louisiana artist Chere Labbe Doiron, reupholstered with images of the artist’s children and his mother. It has traveled with the exhibition for the last two years and now has become an integral component of the larger installation.
Richard Lou was born in San Diego, CA and raised in San Diego and Tijuana, BCN, MX. He has over 20 years of teaching experience in higher education, over 15 years of arts administration experience, has curated over 30 exhibitions, and continues to produce and exhibit art while teaching and chairing the Department of Art at the University of Memphis.
Crosstown Arts thanks the First Tennessee Foundation | ArtsFirst and ArtMemphis for support of this exhibition and its related programs, which are part of an ongoing artistic and community partnership between Crosstown Arts and Centro Cultural. More details about the18-month schedule of collaborative exhibitions and events, and several long-term cultural projects, can be found at crosstownarts.org/centro-cultural-collaboration.

Stories On My Back Events
Opening Festivities: Friday, June 5

9am: WKNO Checking on the Arts interview with Richard Lou
6 pm: Blessing by Danza Azteca Quetzalcoatl
6:15 pm: Performance from singer/songwriter Savannah Long
7 pm: Cuban and Latin folk music by Los Cantadores
6 – 9 pm: Hot Mess Burritos food truck, empanadas from Havana’s Pilon, paletas by Michoachana, elote (grilled corn) and a wide variety of cold beverages!

Exhibition Programs: Saturday, June 6, 2-4 pm

2 pm: Lecture by Visiting Scholar Guisela Latorre, 430 N. Cleveland
3 pm: Gallery Talk with Richard Lou & Guisela Latorre, 422 N. Cleveland

Press for Stories On My Back
Art Review: Richard Lou explores mixed heritage in ‘Stories on My Back’ at Crosstown Arts
Fredric Koeppel / Commercial Appeal / June, 2015

Artist Biography
Richard Alexander Lou was born in San Diego, CA and raised in San Diego and Tijuana, BCN, MX. Richard grew up in a biracial family, spiritually and intellectually guided by an anti-colonialist Chinese father and a culturally affirming Mexicana mother. Educated at Southwestern College, Chula Vista, CA receiving an A.A. in Fine Art in 1981; California State University at Fullerton, CA receiving a B.A. in Fine Art in 1983; Clemson University, Clemson, SC receiving an M.F.A. in Fine Art in 1986.
Lou has exhibited at the DePaul Art Museum, Chicago, IL; Wing Luke Museum, Seattle, WA; Landmark Gallery, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX; Museo Carrillo Gil, Mexico City DF, Mexico; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; Mexic-Arte Museum, Austin, TX; Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, CA; Cornerhouse Art Gallery, Manchester, England; the 3rd International Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul Contemporary Art Museum, Istanbul, Turkey; Dong-A University, Busan, South Korea; Miami Museum, Miami, FL; Museum of Photographic Arts, Balboa Park, San Diego, CA; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; Mexican Fine Arts Museum, Chicago, IL; Otis School of Art and Design, Otis Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; MIT List Visual Arts Center, Boston, MA; Aperto 90` Section, La Biennale Di Venezia, Venice, Italy; Grey Art Gallery, New York University, NY, NY; Dia Foundation, NY, NY; Artist Space, NY, NY. Richard Lou’s artwork has been published and/or cited in various newspapers, magazines, catalogs, electronic media, and over 30 books. Lou has over 20 years of teaching experience in higher education, over 15 years of arts administration experience, has curated over 30 exhibitions, and continues to produce and exhibit art while teaching and chairing the Department of Art at the University of Memphis.
Artist Statement
“There has never been a free people, a free country, a real democracy on the face of this Earth. In a city of some 300,000 slaves and 90,000 so called free men, Plato sat down and praised freedom in exquisitely elegant phrases.” Lerone Bennett Jr.
As a Chicano artist the recurrent themes are the subjugation of my community by the dominant culture and white privelege. These works manifest themselves in the creation of counter-images and counter-definitions made in a self-determinant manner. As a contemporary image-maker I am interested in collecting dissonant ideas and narratives allowing them to bump into each other, to coax new meanings and possibilities that dismantle the hierarchy of images. The work serves as an ideological, social, political, and cultural matrix from which I understand my place in this world and to make a simple marking of the cultural shifts of my community. The artwork examines how communities use images and language to dehumanize the “Other” in order to ignore the “Other’s” basic human rights. It challenges unquestioned claims to territory and legal status.
“Art is one of the most sacred ways to communicate.” Consuelo Jimenez Underwood
The work that I create as a Chicano artist emanates and is in response to the love I have for my family. The work embraces the contradictions, the conflicts and triumphs, the quiet and raucous moments of a routine day, the flowering, the decaying, the markings and ceremonies that compose a lifetime all within a society that subjugates. At the core, all work I do is for them. And in that hopeful light, I am willing to take the chance that the power of the work will ultimately save my children who will become the inhabitants of a New Nepantla as they negotiate a home in this destabilized world.
-Richard Lou
—

Lecture on June 6, 2 pm at 430 N. Cleveland
Stories on My Back by Richard Lou: Installation Art, Transnationalism and the Chinese-Chicano Experience
Performance, installation and new media artist Richard Lou’s work has compelled spectators to think critically about bordered identities, power inequities, post-colonial realities, race relations, and other socially relevant issues. His provocative and dynamic performances, installations and multimedia pieces have also encouraged audiences to problematize clear distinctions between art and activism and between creative endeavors and social justice work.
Primarily known as a Chicano artist, Lou’s work for the past ten years, however, has paid great attention to his Chinese heritage and to the transnational subjectivities that animate social identities. Having grown up in the San Diego/Tijuana border region with a Mexican mother and a Chinese father, Lou’s experiences have been defined by the transnationalism of the border region itself but also by the biculturalism of his upbringing.
In this presentation, Guisela Latorre will focus on one of the artist’s installation Stories on my Back on display at the Crosstown Arts Gallery. Without losing sight of the politically engaged and collective nature of his art, this work is among the most introspective and deeply personal of the artist’s career. Utilizing the images and voices of the artist’s children and deploying story-telling devices throughout the installation, Lou articulates a transnational identity that is, on the one hand, quite intimate and unique to his Chinese-Chicano experience and, on the other, broadly symptomatic of an increasingly globalized world.
Thus, Stories on my Back embodies what cultural studies scholars Kit Dobson and Áine McGlynn identify as “the desire to advocate for artistic agency at a time when globalizing forces are increasingly calling for economic rationalizations for creative practices.” Latorre will therefore argue in this presentation that Stories on my Back eloquently speaks of the critical connections between the Chicana/o and Chinese experiences in the U.S., connections that represent viable forms of transnational resistance to the homogenizing and subordinating forces of globalization.
Guisela Latorre, Associate Professor, Ohio State University Department of Art
Guisela Latorre specializes in modern and contemporary U.S. Latina/o and Latin American art with a special emphasis on gender and women artists. Her first book titled Walls of Empowerment: Chicana/o Indigenist Murals from California (U. of Texas Press 2008), explored the recurrence of indigenist motifs in Chicana/o community murals from the 1970s to the turn of the millennium. Her other publications include “Border Consciousness and Artivist Aesthetics: Richard Lou’s Performance and Multimedia Artwork” in the American Studies Journal (2012), “New Approaches to Chicana/o Art: The Visual and the Political as Cognitive Process” in Image & Narrative (2010), and “Icons of Love and Devotion: Alma López’s Art” in Feminist Studies (Spring/Summer 2008). Latorre’s recent research activities include the co-editorship of the feminist journal Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies and work on a second book project of the graffiti and mural movement in Chile during the post-dictatorship era. She teaches classes on Latina/Chicana feminism, visual culture and Latina/o art.

—
Crosstown Arts is a contemporary arts organization dedicated to further cultivating the creative community in Memphis. Managing five types of spaces that integrate varying components of exhibition, performance, production, education and retail, Crosstown Arts supports multidisciplinary and collaborative projects that interconnect people and organizations. We welcome anyone in the community to join any of our events or projects, regardless of prior experience or expertise with creative interests.
crosstownarts.org
Centro Cultural Latino de Memphis strives to meet the needs of the community by celebrating and promoting awareness of our cultural richness and diversity interpreted through the literary, performing, and visual arts. Our primary goal is to preserve our respective rich Latino cultural heritage and to stimulate intergenerational dialogues among the disciplines, languages, and traditional and contemporary expressions.
centrocultural.us

the pinch journal summer workshop series: poetry
2015-06-06 05:00 - 13:00 | story booth, 438 N. Cleveland St., Memphis, TN, 38104, United States
story booth is proud to host its first incarnation of adult literary programming, three one-day workshops offered by University of Memphis MFA candidates and editors of The Pinch Literary Journal.
From The Pinch:
If you are a fan of the Pinch, you know that we pride ourselves on selecting and publishing diverse poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction. We are also a hardworking staff of graduate students in the English Department at the University of Memphis. We take and teach classes in creative writing at the university and we work hard for the Pinch. We write, we publish, we are the people we want to see in literary journals. We’d like to share some of that experience with the creative community in Memphis. We’ve got a plan. It’s a good one. Won’t you join us?
Cost to Attend:
One Workshop: $25
Two Workshops: $40
Three Workshops: $65

Tamale Cooking Demo
2015-06-07 10:00 - 11:00 | TN
This one-hour cooking demo will be facilitated by a local tamale-making expert (or tamalero/a in Spanish). The tamalero/a will share his/her own family recipe and will walk the attendees through a step-by-step process for making tamales at home.
All proceeds benefit Centro Cultural‘s mission and programming.

story booth theatre production workshop
2015-06-07 - 2015-06-12 | story booth, 438 N. Cleveland St., Memphis, TN, 38104, United States
ages 10 – 14
this workshop gives participants the chance to write, act, and perform an original play before an audience—all in one week. if you’re interested in writing for stage, page, or screen, or are interested in acting or set design, this workshop is for you. taught by professional playwright and actress Jazmin Miller

Open Crit
2015-06-09 13:00 - 15:00 | TN
430 N. Cleveland
Second Tuesday of Each Month
Artist Setup: 5 – 6 pm / Critique & Discussion: 6 – 8 pm
Crosstown Arts’ Open Crit series, organized in partnership with ArtsMemphis, is a monthly critique event where visual artists are invited to bring new and/or in-progress studio work for critical feedback and group discussion particular to each artist’s practice. The series will take place at Crosstown Arts exhibition space at 430 N. Cleveland.
A dedicated facilitator with experience in a group critique setting will guide discussion for each critique event, which will include up to 4 artists’ work, with 15-25 minutes devoted to the work of each.
All visual artists and anyone interested in joining the discussion are welcome to participate regardless of their level of expertise, prior professional art experience or background/education in fine art. Participation is free and open to the public. Input during the critiques from everyone in attendance is welcomed and encouraged.
No formal preparation is necessary for participating artists, who will have an opportunity to introduce and contextualize their work on view at the beginning of each critique. Participating artists are only asked to be open to (and interested in) considering reactions to their work by the group, which will always be done in a supportive, constructive and casual environment, but could at the same time be challenging.

To participate, artists can send the following info via email to Brittney Bullock (brittney@ crosstownarts.org) with the subject line “Open Crit.” Submissions will be accepted and scheduled based on availability. There is no submission fee.

Name
Phone number
Email address
General description of the work to be discussed (i.e. “abstract paintings” or “video art”) & sizes of works and/or media types

Artists are asked to bring no more than 8 individual pieces (in any medium). Maximum run time for time-based work(s) is 10 minutes.
Participating artists are encouraged to invite friends, peers and colleagues to the open crits, both to see their work in progress and to give constructive feedback.
Organized by Crosstown Arts in partnership with ArtsMemphis ArtsAccelerator.

story booth film premiere party
2015-06-10 13:00 - 15:00 | TN
join us for the premiere of original short films by the young participants involved in story booth’s spring workshops. free and open to the public; food and drinks will be served.

the pinch journal summer workshop series: fiction
2015-06-13 05:00 - 13:00 | story booth, 438 N. Cleveland St., Memphis, TN, 38104, United States

Summer Horror Fest
2015-06-15 03:00 - 12:00 | TN
Summer Horror Fest features musical performances by by A Great Leap Forward, Losing Mercury, Strange Armada, Red Tape Riot, Tax Free Gang + another band TBA

30 Americans: The Discussion
2015-06-15 14:00 - 15:00 | TN
A follow-up to the 30 Americans Art Trip with Young Arts Patrons and Crosstown Arts, this discussion explores the contemporary works found in 30 Americans and their challenging study of social justice, identity, and artistic liberation.

MicroCinema Club: The Rural Route Program
2015-06-16 14:00 - 16:00 | TN
The Rural Route Film Festival was created to highlight works that deal with unique people and places outside of the bustle of the city and features a diverse selection of the best short films on the contemporary scene, including two Oscar short-listed films (Jensen’s “White Earth” & Réka Bucsi’s “Symphony no.42″).
MicroCinema Club is presented by Indie Memphis and Crosstown Arts with support from ArtsMemphis and FirstTennessee Foundation | ArtsFirst.
