elaine ritchel — Archive — Strangers Collective

LONG ECHO
Center for Contemporary Arts
1050 Old Pecos Trail
October 28-January 15

ECHO CHAMBER
EVENT SERIES
Panel Discussion: 1/4/17, 6:30 pm
Round Table: 1/11/17, 6:30 pm

Strangers Collective presents a special event series that is designed to send ripples through Santa Fe’s creative landscape. The emerging arts group will convene leaders of a new vanguard to discuss the future of the City Different’s contemporary scene. Echo Chamber is a two-night program that coincides with Strangers Collective’s Long Echo exhibition in CCA’s Cinematheque Lobby Gallery. The public is invited to engage in a social media dialogue, a panel discussion on January 4, and a round table conversation on January 11. Five innovators from the local visual arts, writing and performing arts communities will guide the conversation, challenging the audience to imagine the power and possibility of a tightly interlinked creative community.

“Long Echo comes at a time when many of us are delving into past experiences,” says Strangers co-director Alex Gill. “These conceptual and aesthetic elements are ringing out again in clearer and stronger ways.” This urge to examine the past—and spin its lessons into something new—presented an opportunity to discuss the larger evolution of the local arts community. “We want to examine the path of these daring new projects so far, and build links between them as we move forward,” says Strangers co-director and cofounder Jordan Eddy. “How can we create a ripple effect that extends far beyond the closing date of a single exhibition?”

Echo Chamber will feature three conversations in different formats. First, each participating panelist will pick a topic regarding Santa Fe’s emerging arts community. Strangers Collective will reveal the topics one-by-one on the Echo Chamber Facebook event, sparking a series of online discussions. On January 4, the panel will convene to discuss each topic in front of an audience. On January 11, they will invite the public to add their voices to the conversation in a round table discussion. Strangers Collective will announce each panelist and their chosen topic on the CCA website and Facebook event in the coming weeks.

Click here to learn more about Long Echo, and click the button below to RSVP for Echo Chamber on Facebook and join the conversation.

PANELISTS

Eliza Lutz

Eliza Lutz is the founder of Matron Records, an independent, Santa Fe-based label and creative agency dedicated to helping artists tell their stories. A self-taught musician, graphic designer, silk screener, and promoter, Lutz’s passion for DIY in both art and business inspired her to build an independent record label that empowers musicians and artists to be more autonomous. Her personal projects include As In We, GRYGRDNS, and Future Scars.

Alicia Guzman

Originally from Truchas, a village at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Alicia Inez Guzmán holds a PhD in Visual and Cultural Studies from the University of Rochester, New York. A freelance writer and contributing faculty member at Santa Fe University of Art and Design, her work focuses on mestizo and indigenous land based art and histories of land use. Alicia’s forthcoming website Tierra is a 2017 recipient of a Creative Capital Arts Writers Grant.

Liz Brindley

Liz Brindley is an artist who moved to Santa Fe in August. Primarily a printmaker and illustrator, Liz makes artwork about food to focus on our connection to the earth and each other. She believes art has the power to strengthen local communities by providing spaces for public interaction and honest dialogue.

Currently, Liz balances her time as an Educator at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum and a Farmer’s Assistant at the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market. She hopes to one day combine her love for food, nature, and art into an Art and Ecology Community Center.

Elaine Ritchel

Elaine Ritchel is an independent museum educator and arts writer. She holds an MA in Art History from the University of Texas at Austin and has worked as a gallery teacher and language services specialist with arts institutions in the US and abroad, including the Blanton Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb, and the Croatian Association of Artists. After a three-year stint in Croatia, she is now based in Santa Fe, where she launched Santa Fe Art Tours in 2015.

Niomi Fawn

Niomi Fawn is an award-winning Queer Feminist Renegade Independent Curator and artist. She pushes the boundaries of the art world’s hierarchical structures by curating exhibitions in alternative spaces and by using spaces alternatively, sometimes moving outside of the gallery walls and into the actual streets. In 2014, she founded CURATE, a (Curatorial Venture) and has curated over 20 public and private art shows. She has been the sole curator since Fall 2014 at Santa Fe’s Iconik Coffee Roasters, bringing radical art into public space. She won the City of Santa Fe City IGNITE Grant 2016, curating a permanent art installation on the Santa Fe Plaza. Her work as an artist includes four years as an active member of Santa Fe’s famous art collective, Meow Wolf, and has exhibited in over 25 shows.

Mary Dezember: Still Howling Launch Party
A Pop-Up Event Presented by Strangers Collective
54 1/2 East San Francisco St. | Saturday, December 17, 7:00 pm
Reading begins at 7:15 pm

Allen Ginsberg begins his 1956 poem Howl with the iconic line: “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness . . .” Sixty years later, Mary Dezember presents an urgent addendum to Ginsberg’s message. Strangers Collective is pleased to host the Santa Fe launch of Dezember’s book of poetry, Still Howling. At the holiday pop-up event on Saturday, December 17, the Albuquerque poet will read from her new collection—and carry the revolutionary howl into the 21st century.

“I see the best souls of my sex thrive despite the madness…” begins Dezember’s poem Still Howling. In Howl, Ginsberg questions the forces that destroy curious, brilliant minds in a culture that fails to recognize a pervasive holiness. Dezember’s work identifies this invisible influence as a socio-political hegemony that continues to sexualize, suppress and dominate women. Still Howling and Endnote to Still Howling, which mirror the titles of Ginsberg’s poem and its famous footnote, applaud the beat poet’s gift to liberated creatives: “the right to howl.”

Wielding language that is both piercing and uplifting, Dezember explores the importance of creative expression, and of finding a voice in hurtful or oppressive situations. Still Howling is a rallying cry to question hegemony, and to embrace the realization that life persists through the alchemy of forgiveness. The book features cover art by the poet’s nephew, Steve Dezember II, who used his wheelchair to create stunning abstract imagery. Among the poems in the collection are tributes to courageous, life-embracing innovators such as Steve and his wife Hope, Rosalind Franklin and Georgia O’Keeffe.

“Still Howling is the drumbeat we’ve been waiting for in unsettling political times,” says Strangers Collective cofounder Jordan Eddy. “Mary’s work will inspire you to forge onwards in the long march towards positive social change.” Dezember will read selections from Still Howling at the pop-up launch party hosted by the emerging arts collective. Signed copies of the book will be available for $9.

Still Howling and Endnote to Still Howling are the First Place Winner of the Best Poem Contest 2016, sponsored by Beatlick Press. They were originally published by the journal Cacti Fur. Dezember believes in freedom of expression, inclusivity, pluralism, and creating awareness that catalyzes healing. She earned her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at Indiana University and is Professor of English at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, where she teaches creative writing, art history and literature. Her first book of poetry, Earth-Marked Like You, was published by Sunstone Press. Read more about this event in Pasatiempo.