So I organized Arts for Art and the Vision Festival. It did come out of our conversations and the need to bring attention to this wonderful music that was being so overlooked. All of the great music that had been happening with the Improvisers Collective just wasn't getting noticed, so we had to do something that would get the audience's attention. I was thinking about the Sound Unity Festival, which also had gotten almost no press, but I figured having done the Improvisers Collective for two years would help the festival. It laid the groundwork for the Vision Festival, which is what I ended up calling it. I believe that everyone has a vision, and they have more than one, especially artists. Visions are our inspiration, our highest moments, and the Vision Festival brings together all of these wonderful, bright visions that leave people inspired. I also feel that putting yourself on the line as an artist is similar to putting yourself on the line as a human being, standing up for what you believe. So I always try to create opportunities where people can make the link between great art and some sense of social responsibility.

The Vision Festival is an artist-run festival - that was really important.  There has always been a group of artists who have been involved in various aspects of the Vision Festival, especially in helping choose the artists.
 
I wanted the Vision Festival to become a place where you bring together all that's wonderful, to get to hear artists and great groups, artists of all ages, poets and dancers, so that you can get a sense of the scope of what is possible. In a sense it would be a kind of ideal zone. And there you are together with your whole community. To make the festival happen takes a tremendous amount of people to run it each day, and all of them are important. You bring all of these unique elements together and you get to hang out with each other, in a place where everyone is given respect. We are all together and we are having a wonderful time. The festival creates the opportunity. The heart of the Vision Festival music is New York-specific with New York's particular intense and spiritual connections. But even though this New York music is the core of the Vision festival, we don't believe that it's the only thing. It's about coming together. That's why we bring people from all over the United States and Europe. It's about bringing people together and making sure no one is left out.

These free Sunday afternoon concerts are designed to give audience members an inside look into how performers approach improvisation.  The final 15 minutes of each performance encourage audience participation, building off of themes introduced by the artists.  Children are welcome and will be provided with simple drawing materials.

Multi-instrumentalist Mixashawn will lead a trio with Pheeroan akLaff and William Parker.

Multi-instrumentalist Mixashawn Rozie has established a system of "Hemispheric Principles" to inform and guide his artform, known as "Wave Art": an approach to music making encompassing the sonic, aquatic, percussive and harmonic.  Mixashawn's practice begins from the point of an Indigenous artist, and is informed by ancient cultural principles, maritime arts, and historical written and oral data.  For this performance he is joined by drummer Pheeroan akLaff and bassist William Parker.

Check out Mixashawn's Afro-Algonquin trio from the 2018 Vision Festival.

Mixashawn - tenor, soprano sax, voice, mandolin / Pheeroan akLaff - drums / William Parker - bass

Building on their 2018 collaboration, Arts for Art returns to Weeksville Heritage Center to bring the contemporary sound of free jazz which, like Weeksville Heritage Center, was first birthed in black communities during the Civil Rights era. AFA and Weeksville have partnered together to ensure that New York’s jazz history is not only respected, but extended into the future and in the service of the neighborhood and communities who helped birth it. ​

We’ve been proud to have celebrated poet, critical theorist, and author Fred Moten contribute greatly to AFA as both a performer and board member for the past few years, reading his groundbreaking poetry, presenting  academic keynotes, and collaborating with William Parker on several occasions. At Weeksville, hear Moten shed light on the black radical tradition through his unaccompanied poetry.

Check out the above video of Fred Moten reading at the 2017 Vision Festival.

Fred Moten - poetry

Multi-instrumentalist Daniel Carter was the first musician with whom bassist William Parker performed when he committed himself to music in 1970.  Through their decades long artistic relationship they still manage to surprise and excite with new approaches to music making. This quartet finds Parker and Carter joined by a relative newcomer, electronic percussionist Val Jeanty, and their stalwart longtime collaborator, dancer and poet Patricia Nicholson.  Before the quartet performance, Parker will perform a short solo set.   

Check out William Parker's What It Is ensemble from our 2018 Evolving series in the video above.

William Parker - bass / Daniel Carter - reeds / Val Jeanty - percussion / Patricia Nicholson - dance, text

Building on their 2018 collaboration, Arts for Art returns to Weeksville Heritage Center to bring the contemporary sound of free jazz which, like Weeksville Heritage Center, was first birthed in black communities during the Civil Rights era. AFA and Weeksville have partnered together to ensure that New York’s jazz history is not only respected, but extended into the future and in the service of the neighborhood and communities who helped birth it. ​

David Mills' art lies at the intersection of poetry and theater.  For three years, he resided in Langston Hughes' landmark home, authoring a one-man dramatic interpretation of Hughes' poetry and short stories.  We are excited to welcome Mills to open our series at Weeksville to share another energetic, insightful, and often hilarious reading.  

Check out the above video of David Mills reading at AFA's 2016 Evolving series.

David Mills - poetry

Drummer Gerald Cleaver will lead a trio with his frequent collaborators, bassist Brandon Lopez and guitarist Brandon Seabrook.  Cleaver and Lopez have proven to be a particularly versatile tandem, delivering many standout sets over the past few years of AFA programs. At the last two Vision Festivals they have performed together in a quartet with pianist David Virelles and saxophonist Chris Potter, and in an interdisciplinary ensemble with poets Fred Moten and Edwin Torres.  Throw guitarist Brandon Seabrook into the mix, who shares deep history with both players - including in Cleaver's popular Black Host band - and this ensemble's potential for wildly inventive improvisation is unmatched. 

Check out the quartet performance with Cleaver, Lopez, Virelles, and Potter in the video above.

Gerald Cleaver - drums / Brandon Lopez - bass / Brandon Seabrook - guitar

Celebrating Patricia Nicholson
A 70th Birthday Night of Performances
​
Tuesday November 19, 6-11pm

The Clemente
107 Suffolk St, NYC 10002

Arts For Art is proud to announce a celebration and benefit honoring dancer-choreographer Patricia Nicholson, the founder and guiding light of Arts For Art (AFA) and The Vision Festival, on the occasion of her 70th birthday. The evening will include performances and artwork from some of the hundreds of artists she has supported over the years, as well as catered food and fine wine. As we enter Arts For Art’s 25th year of programming, now is the time to shine a spotlight on a dedicated artist and programmer who has helped shaped the cultural landscape of her community, the city of New York, and the world.

The community to which Patricia Nicholson has devoted her life is rallying together in celebration. After an hour of food, wine, and conviviality, the event will feature musical performances by her long-time partner in art and life William Parker, as well as Cooper-Moore, Dave Burrell, Oliver Lake, John Zorn, Fay Victor, Matthew Shipp, Ingrid Laubrock, Darius Jones, Rob Brown, James Brandon Lewis, William Hooker, Ava Mendoza, Lisa Sokolov, Val Jeanty, Daniel Carter, Ellen Christi and many more.  Dancers performing include K.J. Holmes, Yoshiko Chuma, Jason Jordan, Douglas Dunn, Miriam Parker.  Poets reading include Bob Holman, Patricia Spears Jones, and Tracie Morris.  Visual artists displaying their work include William Mazza, Jo Wood Brown, Jeff Schlanger, and Katy Martin.  
​
At the heart of the evening will be honoree Patricia Nicholson, performing with her projects Revolution/Resurrection, What It Is, and BLUE, plus a grand finale featuring a multi-disciplinary performance by over 20 members of the AFA community.

This celebration will raise funds to support Arts for Art’s programs, artist fees, and staff growth; the evening also kicks off the annual Artists and Friends fundraising campaign. The goal is to raise the funds to keep AFA going and make it stronger. For Patricia Nicholson, the uncompromised creative arts are essential to creating a world worth living in.
 
Patricia Nicholson’s dance is steeped in the free jazz aesthetic and an attention to spiritual and social responsibility. Beginning with the belief that dance is the visual manifestation of sound and energy, Nicholson has developed a singular practice, drawing from both traditional and unconventional techniques to create an eclectic yet intuitive approach to movement and composition.

Nicholson's dance and poetry are featured through her active projects: What It Is, co-led with William Parker and featuring James Brandon Lewis, Melanie Dyer, Devin Waldman, and Gerald Cleaver; Revolution/Resurrection, with TA Thompson, Jason Hwang, and William Mazza; BLUE with William Mazza, and Val Jeanty; and Hope Cries for Justice, duos and trios with William Parker and Hamid Drake.

Patricia Nicholson has been writing and publicly sharing her poetry since childhood. Though she gives occasional readings, Nicholson's poems are most often tied to performance, whether serving as a written score for dancers or accompanying, rather than guiding, creative movement.

There is choreography to Nicholson's approach to programming as well. She curates evenings with a deliberate arc, while also emphasizing a dynamic flow and messaging. Her goal is to design nights that create a complete experience and engage audiences in active, and creative, witnessing.

Nicholson's widest-reaching influence has perhaps been in her capacity as an artistic and community organizer. In 1981, Ms. Nicholson choreographed and organized A Thousand Cranes Peace Opera, with 1,000 children performing in Dag Hammarskjold Plaza for the opening of the Special Sessions on Disarmament; in the mid and late-1980s, she responded to a lack of visibility for free jazz by helping to organize the Sound Unity Festivals. In 1994, Nicholson brought together fifty artists to form The Improvisors Collective, whose highlights over the next two years included weekly events at Context Studios, 28 Ave A. Following that success, Nicholson founded Arts For Art and the Vision Festival in 1996 to promote and advocate for free jazz, raising awareness through this notable and uncommonly visible platform. Since, AFA has grown to be a movement annually supporting hundreds of artists working with the free jazz aesthetic.
​
After decades of creative production, programming, and organization, Nicholson’s focus is on developing strategies for the future: how to better the world in which we live; how to inspire, grow, and build a diverse community of uncompromising artists and audiences; and, most immediately, how to build a sustainable structure for AFA that will outlive her service and serve as a fitting legacy, one steeped in the ideals of artistic excellence and community responsibility she holds most dear. In her own words, “This is my 70th birthday; there is both a community to sustain, and the creative expression of my own art, yet to be shared. I am humbled by the collective creativity waiting to be expressed.”
 
About Arts for Art
 
Founded in 1996, Arts For Art (AFA) is a New York City based tax-exempt organization dedicated to the promotion and advancement of FreeJazz - an American indigenous art form in which improvisation is principle. FreeJazz embodies music, dance, poetry, and visual arts. It is recognized for its variety of highly developed and personalized improvisational languages. AFA works not only to preserve the legacy of FreeJazz, but also to ensure a vital future through its re-imagination by new generations of artists. Spearheaded by the internationally renowned Vision Festival, AFA's programming brings together multiple generations of vibrant, diverse and highly skilled artists. To further our goals of diversity and accessibility, we foster education initiatives and produce events that build community amongst artists and audiences.
 
Facebook: facebook.com/artsforart
Twitter: twitter.com/artsforart
Instagram: instagram.com/artsforart
 
Press Contact
 
For more information please contact Sean Madigan at sean@artsforart.org

Papoleto Melendez | Joe McPhee & Jay Rosen | Laubrock, Dunston, Mela
October 13, 2019 4:00pm
El Taller Latino Americano

The final day of our annual partnership with El Taller in East Harlem features poet Papoleto Melendez, multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee and drummer Jay Rosen, and saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, leading a new trio with bassist Nick Dunston and drummer Francisco Mela.

Click the button to buy tickets, and read below for more from these artists.​

Nuyorican poet and El Barrio mainstay Papoleto Melendez returns to read his poetry at El Taller, in the PS 109 building where he also serves as poet-in-residence.  Papoleto's poetry has become tradition during our partnerships at El Taller, and we are glad to have him back. If you haven't seen him yet, don't miss out!

Papoleto Melendez - poetry

Vision Festival Lifetime Achievement honoree and free jazz legend Joe McPhee will perform in duo with longtime collaborator, drummer Jay Rosen. McPhee and Rosen first connected through the ensemble Trio X, also featuring bassist Dominic Duval, which debuted at the 1998 Vision Festival.  Although McPhee is no stranger to the duo, this is a rare opportunity to see him one-on-one with his longtime battery mate Rosen. 

Check out McPhee and Rosen in the above video in a tribute performance to Duval at AFA's Evolving series.

Joe McPhee - saxophones / Jay Rosen - drums