The kickoff for the Uptown Arts Stroll, an annual celebration of the arts in northern Manhattan, begun nine years ago by local artists and now run by the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance (NoMAA), was held this year at the venerable and elegant Hispanic Society of America. At the corner of 155th and Broadway in Washington Heights, the Hispanic Society of America is well worth a visit on any occasion, containing as it does the largest collection of Spanish art outside Spain. It also fronts on Audubon Terrace, a landmarked grand plaza, perfect for holding a fiesta for the two neighborhoods.
The kickoff was not just a fiesta—it was a charming, funny not-just-local event marked by the kind of whoops and cheers more common at a rock concert than a demure arts showing.
Major domo was Mike Fitelson, holder of every major title at the bilingual award-winning Washington Heights-Inwood paper Manhattan Times and the person who has helped to put the Stroll on the cultural map of northern Manhattan and beyond. He was accompanied by his young daughter, who insisted on climbing up into his arms and chatting inaudibly to the crowd as he talked.
Mike called the Society “blessed” for hosting the event and said that this was a momentous occasion. He had met at least ten local Heights/Inwood people who were there at the Hispanic Arts Society for the very first time in their lives. He encouraged the whole crowd not only to cheer on their heroes but also to check out the two art exhibits on display, the DIA Arts Foundation’s Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Chronotypes & Dioramas, as well as the Hispanic Arts Society’s own Joaquin Sorolla’s extraordinary Visions of Spain, 14 oil paintings just returned from their year-long travels through Spain (see below for a description of the two exhibitions).
Eager to see the Sorollas, which were every bit as amazing—full of light!—as billed, I missed the opening tango performance by guitarist Horacio Blanc and bandoneon player Raul Jaurena. But I did break through the museum crowd fast enough to find my footing on the steps down to the plaza to catch the next performance—“Unicornius,” a solo dance choreographed by Edgar Cortes and inspired by the Unicorn Tapestries at the Cloisters a few blocks away. A slender male dancer clad in a single linen sheath, his “horn” marked in a single white line on his face, writhed, revolved, whirled like a Sufi. Weirdly beautiful. The smiling dancer swept off to enthusiastic applause.
The kickoff included several awards, the first going to Patricia Eakins (left), fiction writer and curator of the Sunday Best Reading series. In presenting the award, Debralee Santos, Program Director, Casa Duarte, called the Uptown Arts Stroll “our [local] Woodstock— phenomenal!” She introduced the entire Northern Manhttan Arts Alliance (NOMAA) Board to whoops, claps, cheers and whistles, adding that NoMAA has inspired, funded, and hosted the arts world of northern Manhattan, providing a unique venue for talent. Santos called Eakins “our madwoman! of many talents,” including guerilla writing and publishing, who presents soirees in Hudson Heights for readings “in which the space between people and community vanishes.” Eakins’s husband accepted the honor in her name, visibly moved.
Ted Minos, creator and prime mover for Shakespeare in Inwood Hill Park received an award presented by Jennifer Hoppa, Administrator, Northern Manhattan Parks. With the theme, “A Season of Guns and Proses!” this summer’s offerings will include Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors and the Tombstone Saga. Hoppa called Minos a “powerhouse of talent, writer/director/producer/actor,” whose Moose Hall Theatre Company lights up the park for 29 performances every summer.
Minos said that this was a very sweet honor for him but more importantly for 25 years of community theater, and added, “Let’s hear it for the Northern Manhattan Parks Administration who make it all possible! Yes!”
Ana Ofelia Rodriguez, writer, founder, and director of the Rio Galleries, received her award from Luis Miranda, founding board member of NOMAA. “Ofelia Rodriguez is another incredible powerhouse in the NoMAA art world,” said Miranda. “She has opened two galleries in the area and is working with [Congressman] Charles Rangel to create a Children’s Museum in the heart of Washington Heights/Inwood.”
Rodriguez thanked Miranda but shared the praise with the many other people who have opened local galleries. “What a night!” she exclaimed. “Remember when we all wanted to picket the Hispanic Arts Society? But I said, hold off! And I’m glad I did. They are our generous hosts tonight.”
More tumultuous applause.
“Let the band strike up!” Fitelson said, bringing on Hector Martignon and the Foreign Affairs Quartet. “And if you’re planning to boogie late into the night, they’ll be here.”
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Two exhibitions currently at the Hispanic Society of America
DIA exhibit Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster: chronotopes & dioramas
Through June 27, 2010
The subject was books. The exterior of the installation was a flat white wall with random, rambling texts of largely sci-fi books, important or revolutionary, e.g. Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles. One must meander the length of the exhibit, neck twisted sideways, to see all the text which wanders horizontally and vertically up the walls. It’s dreamlike. The interior of the installation was even more dreamlike, featuring dioramas (think Museum of Natural History ) featuring books in the jungle strangled by vegetation; in the desert surrounded by scrub; deep under water, where a flying book resembled a tortoise, flippers flapping., through the dense seawater.
Returned in-house travelling exhibit. 1919. Joaquin Sorolla. Courtesy of the Hispanic Society of America
The Hispanic Society of America’s masterpiece, Visions of Spain, a 14-piece representation of Spain painted by Joaquin Sorolla, out for a year travelling through Spain, was reinstalled on May 7, 2010.
Sorolla is considered a “painter of light.” And the light blazes joyously off the walls with images composed from life sketches. Sorolla‘s huge scenes, inspired by his childhood in Valencia, depict everyday life—bullfighting, fishing, and the eerie Holy Week Penitents, in black clad garments with cone shaped and pointy-nosed hoods, bearing clappers as if they were lepers. The exhibit occupies an entire extensive gallery and needs at least two visits to take it all in.
