June 26th, 2013 – 6:30 PM, New Haven, Connecticut Humanities Council Event (stay tuned for details or join the mailing list to get monthly newsletters)
Monday, July 15, 7 PM, New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) Manhattan
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As immigration policy is hotly debated around the country, “Crossing the BLVD” presents the very human stories of why immigrants and refugees have migrated to the US and their experiences once here. It is based on the critically-acclaimed book by Warren Lehrer, internationally known pioneer in visual literature and design authorship and Judith Sloan, award-winning actor, writer and human rights activist. In this electrifying collage, Judith portrays immigrants and others the couple interviewed on their three-year journey through the richly diverse borough of Queens; two additional actors, including Chesney Snow join her in performing some of the monologues. Illuminated by projections of Warren Lehrer’s stunning photographs and an original soundtrack including Judith’s audio mixes and music by Scott Johnson and Gogol Bordello, the production is a project of EarSay, a non-profit organization dedicated to portraying voices often ignored by the mass media. A conversation follows the performance on national debates and laws that shape attitudes toward diversity, and immigration policy.
“Crossing the BLVD is a whirlwind tour and love poem of what has often been called the most racially and ethnically diverse county in America. In the tradition of the playwright Anna Deavere Smith, Ms. Sloan performs “Crossing the BLVD” adopting the personae (and respectfully mimicking the accents) of the varied immigrants whose stories are in the book… The New York Times, City Room Blog, Sewell Chan
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Transforming Trauma Into Art is an EarSay initiative, created and directed by Judith Sloan, born out of our partnership with the International High School at LaGuardia Community College where many teenagers have emigrated to the U.S. from war-zones and conflict-zones. The premise of this workshop is based on healing through artistic expression using a combination of music, movement, theatre and storytelling. This process helps release the stories and stressors that prevent people—who have been traumatized by war, economic or natural disasters—from moving forward. This program brings an understanding of confronting obstacles through artistic expression to communities that are poor, displaced, or don’t have access to artistic training, serving approximately 450 students. The project grows out of our commitment to creating artistic works that evolve out of individual experience and community. In this case, the community is immigrant and refugee teenagers attending school in New York City. At a time of war, global tension, and polarization, our program encourages a depth of scholarship and storytelling that shapes the experience of the participants, giving them tools to make connections between cultures, shed light on the complexity and humanity of each individual, and deepen what it means or could mean to be part of a global community.
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New Video: Mother of the World
CLICK HERE OR ON IMAGE TO VISIT SCREENING ROOM PAGE
Read about it in the Huffington Post
Read about it in the Salon.com
Read about it in Imprint
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Special Ed: Voices from a Hidden Classroom (NY Quarterly)
A powerful and moving new book of poems by Dennis Bernstein.
Designed and edited by Warren Lehrer
Already the winner of The Literary Achievement Award from Artist Embassy International, Special Ed: Voices from a Hidden Classroom takes place in the special ed classroom, where the kids who don’t fit in anywhere else spend their day. For these kids—real kids Dennis J. Bernstein taught in the New York City public schools before he became an internationally known investigative journalist—pistols, switchblades, police cars and hunger are more instructive than textbooks. Special Ed is about daily life under the siege of poverty, racism, and class warfare. We come to know these kids intimately: Gloria, whose mother was disappeared in Guatemala and whose friendship with Marilyn rescues her from trauma-induced silence; Paulie, who “finds tears in the mirror’s eyes” but thinks of himself as tough and defi es the gang-guys who threaten to drop him from the roof of the projects; Regina, who sells nickel bags before class and gets high alone in the gym before giving a heart-wrenching performance of a poem by Langston Hughes. Dennis Bernstein loves these kids fiercely, and we come to love them too as the collection unfolds.
“Dennis Bernstein is a hero to me because of his dedicated, unflinching reporting of real news on Flashpoints, at KPFA in Berkeley, California. But his fearless pursuit of the truth about what is happening in our rapidly transforming world did not prepare me for the beauty, depth, not-one- word-mislaid perception of this amazing book. Each word, each line, each thought has a weight, a texture, a surprise all its own. With its moving preface, in which Dennis shares his own struggles as a young child with special needs, Special Ed: Voices from a Hidden Classroom is that unusual gift literature can be: We are connected to humanity in ways we might never have even considered or imagined before. Above all it is art turned to us through the eyes of love.
Alice Walker Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, author of The Color Purple
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Over 800 people of all ages and backgrounds attended the world premier on April 29th, 2012
Music composed by Frank London
Libretto by Judith Sloan
Visuals by Warren Lehrer with Brandon Campbell
Premiered by the Queens Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Constantine Kitsopoulos, Queens Symphony Orchestra music director
Performed by full orchestra and a 190-voice chorus comprised of the Queens College Choral Society and Queens College Choir, James John, Music Director
Featured Tabla Soloist Deep Singh
Spoken word performed by Judith Sloan in English with additional translations in Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Arabic by Dailyn Despradel, Krussia, Haojie Huang, and Catherine Hanna.
Watch Video Excerpt on Vimeo CLICK ON IMAGE or CLICK HERE
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After seven years of loving toil, Warren Lehrer is just now putting the final touches on A LIFE IN BOOKS: The Rise and Fall of Bleu Mobley, an illuminated novel that contains 101 books within it, all written and designed by Lehrer’s protagonist, who finds himself in prison looking back on his life and career. Mobley’s autobiography/apologia is paired with a review of all his books. Each book is represented by its first edition cover design and catalog copy, and more than a third of his books are excerpted. The resulting retrospective contrasts the published writings (which read like short stories) with the author’s confessional memoir, forming a most unusual portrait of a well-intentioned, obsessively inventive (but ethically challenged) visionary.
Warren was just awarded a NYSCA (New York State Council on the Arts) grant in ‘Electronic Media and Film’ to complete and program the enhanced ebook edition of A Life In Books, which will include animations, video and audio performances, annotations, break out galleries, and other interactive components. He also received a LAB residency—at the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center in LIC—to workshop and produce the multimedia performance presentation of A Life in Books, which will culminate in a performance in Fall 2013 to coincide with the publication of the book. Stay tuned for more information on the book, Warren’s reading and performance tour, and the traveling exhibition.
Read about the book and project in The Atlantic