Transforming into Film: A conversation with filmmakers Jane Charles and Shawn Telford

May 29, 6pm:

Producer Jane Charles adapted the book SOLD by Patricia McCormick into the film of the same name, and Shawn Telford turned his short film The Last Virgin in to the feature film BFE. Come hear a presentation from both filmmakers about how they created new work from something else, as we continue our current topic, "Transformation." Both films are featured at this year's Seattle International Film Festival- for dates and times of the SIFF screenings, please go here:

Watch the trailers below:

About the Presenters:

Jane Charles has more than 20 years of experience in the film industry, and has recently produced the films Switchmas, Fat Kid Rules the World, Grassroots and SOLD, with Oscar-winning director Jeffrey Brown and executive producer Emma Thompson, which wrapped shooting April 2013 in India & Nepal.

As a member of the Directors Guild of Canada, Jane worked in production on the original Cannel Films shows 21 Jump Street, Booker, Wise Guy, Neon Rider (with the late Winston Reckert) and the feature films Bird On A Wire (Goldie Hawn, Mel Gibson), Run (Patrick Dempsey, Kelly Preston) and Pure Luck (Danny Glover and Martin Short), as well as several TV movies.

Jane’s first feature films as producer, Cyberteens In Love and Once In a Blue Moon, were distributed internationally, and premiered at the Montreal and Toronto International Film Festivals.  She has also produced countless television commercials, television shows and music videos for Sting, Harry Connick Jr and Our Lady Peace.  Beginning in 1996, as Executive Producer, Jane successfully ran Apple Box Productions (1996 – 2002) and Run Spot Run Films (2002 – 2007) before relocating to Seattle, WA where she makes cause-based films that entertain and enlighten and is co-founder of the non-profit Stolen Youth.

Shawn Telford is an Actor/Writer/Director whose debut feature film BFE won a Special Jury Prize at the Sarasota Film Festival for Best Ensemble and was also awarded a Special Mention at US in Progress, Paris, part of the Champs-Élysées Film Festival. His short films have played in a number of festivals, most notably the Seattle International Film Festival, 1 Reel, San Francisco Independent Film Festival and the Jecheon Int'l Music & Film Festival in Korea, among others. 

He received his MFA in acting from the University of Washington’s prestigious PATP (Professional Actor Training Program), where his favorite roles included Rosencrantz in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and Haroun in Haroun and the Sea of Stories. Other stage credits include Lewis Black's One Slight Hitch, Steven Dietz’s Yankee Tavern, Martin McDonagh’s Pillowman and Vincent Van Gogh in Vincent in Brixton (all at ACT), Nicky Giblin in The Seafarer (Seattle Rep), Grapes of Wrath (Intiman), as well as Red Badge of Courage and Jason and the Golden Fleece (Seattle Childrens Theater).  

Shawn has also acted in numerous short, feature and student films as well as the TV series Grimm, Leverage, and The Fugitive. Film credits include Nothing Against Life, Dishonesty, un Film de James, The Delivery, 8 Minutes To Love and Professional Courtesy. Yet, despite all of this real acting, he is most often recognized as 'the train guy' from the Washington Lottery commercials and the ‘bearded BECU guy,’ from an ad campaign that appeared on buses, billboards, ATMs and in-flight magazines all over the Northwest.

In addition to acting, casting, teaching and filmmaking, Shawn is also a professional writer. Since 1998, he has written music criticism as well as arts & entertainment pieces for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Rocket, the Tablet, Seattle Sound Magazine, the Louisville Eccentric Observer and eyeheartmusic.com. He is currently working on a memoir “I Gave My Ears to Rock ‘N’ Roll” which chronicles his experiences, observations and philosophies related to music, music appreciation and music criticism while slowly going deaf.

This event is in conjunction with the Seattle International Film Festival!

Selfie Surveillance: A Conversation and Workshop About Privacy

June 25, 6pm: Selfie Expert and writer of Hyperallergic's selfie column Alicia Eler presents her writing and research and offers a hands-on workshop about our current topic, Privacy, and its relationship to the selfie. Join the conversation and make something of yourself(!)

It is hard to walk down the street or enter a retail outlet, let alone leave one's home, without feeling that you are being watched. Yet in an age of constant surveillance, why would we willingly post selfies to the internet? Or is it that we live in a post-privacy age thanks to the NSA, the selfie lives we live online, and the data that we leave behind? Eler's presentation addresses these questions of selfie surveillance and data collection today. This event is in conjunction with the making of Siren, the women-powered dating app developed by artist Susie J Lee.

About the Presenter:

Alicia Eler is a writer, critic, and curator based in Los Angeles. She is the Selfie Columnist for art blogazine Hyperallergic, where she is also a regular contributor. Her writing projects consider the relationship between American pop and consumer culture, adolescence, and sexualities. Her journalism and art criticism have been published in Art21, Artforum.com, Art Papers, RAW Vision Magazine UK, BusinessInsider, ReadWriteWeb, and Salon.com, and her stories have featured on the Rachel Maddow Show, New York Times, Reuters, and the New York Post. She tweets at @aliciaeler. More at www.aliciaeler.com.

Special thanks to our friends at Rare Medium for the Polaroid camera supplies!

Top image by Dylan Neuwirth 

BE A HERO! A Workshop for Kids and Adults

Saturday, May 24 from 11am - 2pm

What is a hero?  Who are your heroes?  How can you be a hero?

Join us for a hands-on drawing activity & audio interviews for kids and adults about who our heroes are! This event is part of the Pine & 14th Family Day celebrating the new book Momstrology by our neighbor Tali Edut. Other events taking place are as follows:

• Rare Medium: book signing and Polaroid portraits
• Bootyland: face-painting, trunk show, temporary tattoos
• Aria & Moxie: braid bar, bang trims, chair massages
• Fire Dept: kids can climb on the trucks and take a tour of the station!

Stop by anytime between 11am - 2pm and join in the fun!

Scotch Wichmann Performance and Book Signing

May 20, 7pm

Join Los Angeles-based performance artist Scotch Wichmann in an entertaining evening celebrating his new book TWO PERFORMANCE ARTISTS KIDNAP THEIR BOSS AND DO THINGS WITH HIM. Scotch will present a brief history of performance art, read excerpts from the book, and perform a short performance piece that promises to be memorable. Pick up your copy of the book down the street at Elliott Bay Book Company!

And read Scotch's response to our question, "Who Was Your First Hero?"

About Scotch:

Scotch Wichmann is a writer, performance artist, comedian, actor, and filmmaker whose madcap riffs about his trailerpark childhood, neurotic delusions, and Hollywood obsessions spurred the San Francisco Chronicle to describe his work as like "eating and snorting [drugs]...then freebasing...then reaching for the turkey baster." A two-time finalist in Northern California's largest comedy competition, he's a regular feature and host at comedy clubs across the country, keeping audiences rolling before national headliners like Bill Burr, Barry Sobel, Laurie Kilmartin, Eddie Brill, and many more.

Scotch began as a performance artist in the early 1990s. A protégé of seminal L.A. performance artist John M. White, he launched himself into the underground L.A. performance art scene with his debut pieces, SNORTING MOUSE FUR and HAVING A BALL: ONE TESTICLE'S PUPPET SHOW. His live work continues to be featured at galleries, art venues, and fringe festivals around the world. He’s also a member of Wet The Hippo, a performance troupe nominated for Best Comedy and Best Stunt at the 2013 Hollywood Fringe Festival.

In 2007, Scotch launched Meth Coffee, an underground coffee company in San Francisco as both a branding experiment and an ongoing performance. Calling himself "The Drinker," he acted as the company's cracked-out spokesman, attracting a swarm of press from CNN, NBC, FOX, NPR, Maxim, The Washington Post, and The New York Times while selling super-caffeinated coffee beans in white druggy bags. The product was eventually banned in several regions, including the state of Illinois by its Attorney General, who found the whole concept objectionable.

In a strange turn, actor-director Shia LaBeouf was caught plagiarizing Scotch's performance art manifesto in January, 2014, as well as writings by performance artist Marina Abramovic. Scotch responded on February 13, 2014 with a 6-hour protest and performance entitled #IAMPLAGIARIZED for a crowd of hundreds outside the Los Angeles gallery where LaBeouf was staging his #IAMSORRY "mock apology" stunt.

Scotch works increasingly in TV and film. He folded himself into a killer's suitcase for the late-night TV short HACKSAW (2005), played an overgrown baby in OUTER SUNSET (2007), and made his directorial debut with SECRET TO A BETTER LIFE (2011), a short that was featured at the 2011 Nihilist Film Festival and the 2012 Freethought Film Festival.

His writing has appeared in magazines, anthologies, and online. His debut
novel, Two Performance Artists Kidnap Their Boss And Do Things With Him—a screwball dark comedy about two performance artists struggling to make it—will be published by Freakshow Books April 10th, 2014. The book was a 2013 Amazon Breakthrough Novel First Round Finalist, and Kirkus Reviews called it a “raucous debut satire” with a “fertile, scabrous comic imagination.” To learn more, visit www.2p4m.com 

EgoCircus: A Collaboration Workshop with Anne Carson & Robert Currie

Presented by Seattle Arts & Lectures

Wednesday, May 14, 6:00pm – 9:00pm

Max: 20 participants

Price: $100 / SOLD OUT

Please note that tickets are still available for Carson's presentation at Town Hall on May 13th- tickets available via this link

A special opportunity for an intimate workshop experience with a poet who, according to Daphne Merkin in the New York Times Book Review, “In the small world of people who keep up with contemporary poetry,...has been cutting a large swath, inciting both envy and admiration.” Join Ann Carson and her partner Robert Currie and only 19 other people for their 3 hour workshop, EgoCircus.

EgoCircus is a writing workshop in which there is no writing. Participants will work in collaboration, joining with others in various configurations to imagine and invent small new works in performance and perhaps, if we are lucky, all will discover dormant talents that will make us better writers. 

Anne Carson is a professor of Classics, a poet, essayist and translator. “In the small world of people who keep up with contemporary poetry,” wrote Daphne Merkin in the New York Times Book Review, “Anne Carson, a Canadian professor of classics, has been cutting a large swath, inciting both envy and admiration.” Carson has gained both critical accolades and a wide readership over the course of her “unclassifiable” publishing career.

A MacArthur Genius Award-winner, Carson's most recent work is Red doc> (2013), a direct sequel to her first poetic novel Autobiography of Red (1998).

In addition to her many highly-regarded translations of classical writers, Carson has published poems, essays, libretti, prose criticism and verse novels that often cross genres. Known for her supreme erudition, her poetry can also be heartbreaking; she regularly writes on love, desire, sexual longing and despair.

GiveBIG on May 6!

SAVE THE DATE: MAY 6 is GiveBIG!

Have you ever asked yourself how The Project Room can produce free public online and on-site programs of such high quality? Have you attended an event, read an essay online, or listened to a podcast and wondered how to show your support?

Now is your chance to be part of the answer.

On May 6 from midnight to midnight, you can make a one-time online donation as part of the 24-hour fundraising marathon known as GiveBIG!

Breaking News: If you donate $100 or more, you will receive an awesome party favor in the form of a custom TPR ring made by artist Seth Friedman (see below for image).

The Project Room is supported through individual donations from people who listen to our podcasts, read our online essays, or attend live events (special thanks to those who do all three!).

This is the one time of year when we ask you to click on this link and make a quick donation so we can bring new and exciting programs to you from all kinds of inspiring creative people.

Bookmark this link, mark your calendar, and help us thrive!

Some things to look forward to at TPR in 2014:

Podcast Interviews with innovative creative people, such as Authors Joe & David Henry, Musician Paul Rucker, Author Jesmyn Ward, Japanese Noh Actor Munenori Takeda, Author Rebecca Walker, Visual Artist Juan Pablo Macias, and more!

New Writing by an ongoing roster of thoughtful writers about creativity and culture, including our ongoing column of creative discoveries and musings by TPR Contributing Writer Corey Blaustein.

Live Events Featuring: Performance Artist Scotch Wideman, selfie blogger Alicia Eler, A conversation about the intersection of women, relationships, and the internet; a social activism workshop with visual artist Richard Kamler; a film conversation in conjunction with SIFF; a workshop about heroes for kids and their grownups; a "Failure Variety Show" with some very funny people; and much more to be announced!  

WIN A GOLDEN TICKET

Throughout GiveBIG day, donors will be chosen at random to win golden tickets, providing an additional $1,000 in the winner's name to the nonprofit that received their original donation. The winner will also receive a $100 Starbucks or Taco Time gift card! And, we'll also be giving away airline tickets to nonprofits throughout the day, courtesy of Alaska Airlines!

Please mark you calendar for May 6 and GiveBIG!

Throughout our communities, there are heroes: working to improve lives, to strengthen families, to better our world. GiveBIG 2014 honors the heroes in our community.

Seth Friedman's ring design for our $100+ level donors: made from recycled car tire parts and cast in fluorescent resin in one of the colors noted above!

Thanks to the GiveBIG Sponsors who make this possible! 

New Podcast Series Launches in April!

Dear TPR Readers and Audience Members:

We are pleased to share a new podcast series this Spring, featuring interviews with fascinating creative people in all fields. In keeping with how TPR does things, the conversations will be focused on the current theme and topics, providing unique points of view on how creativity works for different types of makers.

TPR's Jess Van Nostrand interviewing Paul Rucker in February 2014

Series 1 features the following guests:

Rebecca Walker, Author and Memoirist 

Joe & David Henry, Brothers and Co-Authors of FURIOUS COOL: RICHARD PRYOR AND THE WORLD THAT MADE HIM

Paul Rucker, Musician and Visual Artist

Jesmyn Ward, Author 

Stay tuned for the release of these podcasts- available on iTunes soon!

Introducing Siren

NEXT SIREN EVENT: Selife Surveillance, June 25th, 6pm

Throughout 2014, The Project Room is following the making of Siren, a new iPhone dating app made for-- and by-- women, and led by video artist Susie J Lee. Below, Susie introduces us to why she decided to use her art skills to tackle the online dating world. 

Merging arts and entrepreneurship, I am launching Siren, an app that empowers single women in their interactions with men by giving control and privacy online. Siren is a discerning female artist’s challenge to existing sites and a cultural response to the winner-takes-all, male-dominated start up culture.

Siren Founder Susie J Lee and Designer Katrina

When I announced I was going to make a woman-initiated social app, initial confusion gave way to sly smiles. “Of course you are…”My work explores transformation and human connection through technology, and Siren is an intuitive and clear extension of my

practice. I thrive in an “I don’t know” space with collaborators. I want to know what happens when rules change for women. I was curious about start up culture; that vantage point revealed both a devastating gender disparity and recognition that good art can also be good business.

A recent user-interface work session at TPR

Siren is a cultural tool designed to make an impact in the world. It expands the definition of art by reframing the scale and intent of social engagement and repositioning the artist within the machinations of hyper-capitalism. In city-by-city releases, partnerships with arts organizations and technology hubs will activate conversations through interactive exhibitions, online writing, gatherings and education. In Seattle, places such as The Project Room, Women in Tech, and UW are part of Siren.

Sarah Novotny, an advisor for Siren recently told me, “Please document your process. So few women do.” Siren has an all-female coding team, and I am the CEO and founder. It is an artist’s reflective encapsulations coupled with a woman’s voice on sexuality and leadership.

Siren gives people the chance to discover the individual beyond a profile photo. It’s about unexpected moments that make us smile. Instead of a tedious, image-crafted résumé, Siren’s profiles are layers of responses to fun daily questions and micro-videos. Women always control their visibility and men get better signals for a better experience overall. We encourage charming the pants off someone. 

Stay tuned for event announcements in conjunction with this new endeavor!

The Makers of Siren:

Recognized for its intelligence, emotion, and sensuality, the new media work of Siren CEO Susie J. Lee explores transformation and connections through technology. Lee's work has been exhibited in the United States and abroad, in such venues as the Denver Art Museum, Blanton Museum, Galleria Tiziana Di Caro in Salerno, Italy; and Gallery Hyundai in Seoul. A winner of The Stranger Genius Award, Lee has received support from 4Culture and the Seattle Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture, and her work is in notable public and private collections. Lee's Still Lives, an unfolding of time at the end of life in a series of video portraits, traveled to the Portland Art Museum, Tacoma Art Museum and was featured in The Huffington Post. Of Breath and Rain at the Frye Art Museum was named "Best Multimedia Exhibition" in 2012. Her solo exhibition at the North Dakota Museum of Art Split Open revealed the quiet and fierce lives impacted by the oil boom in North Dakota, and her recent piece with collaborator Byron Au Yong, 11 Pianists was commissioned by the Mitchell Center for the Arts for its Countercurrent festival. 

Katrina Hess, Design Director of Siren, has had over seventeen years of experience as a graphic designer, web developer, and owns the urban raingear outfit, Made in Sodo. She spent over ten years branding and marketing for corporate and retail companies before branching out on her own. Her designs are distinctive and functional, with intelligent modifications at every turn, and comprehensive branding. She selects her collaborative partners with an eye on opportunity, invention, and outcome. 

The Siren network of contributors and helpers, as of May, 2014

Difficult Fruit: February 28th, 6pm with Lauren K. Alleyne and friends

Friday February 28, 6pm: Difficult Fruit
Poet Lauren K. Alleyne presentation and book release for her new poetry collection, Difficult Fruit. Moderated by Catherine Chung and featuring guest writers David Mura, Anastacia Tolbert, Dawn Lonsinger, and Patricia Smith. In conjunction with the Annual AWP Conference.

Transformation is the heart of Lauren K. Alleyne’s debut collection of poetry, Difficult Fruit. In these poems, bodies transform to smoke; passion becomes love, then memory; a girl flowers into womanhood; and innocence becomes knowledge. This launch event celebrates another transformative event--the publication of this collection of poems. The program, hosted by Catherine Chung, will feature readings by Lauren K. Alleyne, and the mentors and friends, who in one way or another nurtured the seeds that became Difficult Fruit.

About the Presenters:

Lauren K. Alleyne is a native of Trinidad and Tobago. She received her Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing from Cornell University and is currently the Poet-in-Residence and an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Dubuque. She has been published in several journals and anthologies, including Crab Orchard Review, The Cimarron Review, Black Arts Quarterly, The Caribbean Writer, The Belleview Literary Review, Growing Up Girl and Gathering Ground. Difficult Fruit( Peepal Tree Press) is her first collection.

Dawn Lonsinger is the author of Whelm (2012 Idaho Poetry Prize winner), the linoleum crop (Jeanne Duval), and The Nested Object (Dancing Girl Press). Her work has appeared in American Poetry Review, Colorado Review, Black Warrior Review, Guernica, Best New Poets 2010, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from Cornell University and a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Utah and is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Muhlenberg College.

David Mura’s newest poetry book is The Last Incantations. His other poetry books are Angels for the Burning, The Colors of Desire (Carl Sandburg Literary Award), After We Lost Our Way (a National Poetry Contest winner). His memoirs are Turning Japanese, which won an award from the Oakland PEN and was in the New York Times Notable Books of Year, and Where the Body Meets Memory. His novel is Famous Suicides of the Japanese Empire.

Patricia Smith is the author of six books of poetry, including Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah, winner of the 2013 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets and Blood Dazzler, a finalist for the National Book Award. Her work has appeared in Poetry, The Paris Review, TriQuarterly, and in Best American Poetry, Best American Essays and Best American Mystery Stories. Patricia is a professor at CUNY and an instructor in the MFA program at Sierra Nevada College.

Anastacia Tolbert is a writer, Cave Canem Fellow, Hedgebrook Alumna, VONA Alum and Artist Trust EDGE Program Graduate. She is the recipient of the 2004 San Diego Journalism Press Club Award for the article "War Torn." She is writer, co-director, and co-producer of GOTBREAST? (2007), a documentary about the views of women regarding breast and body image. Her poetry, fiction and nonfiction have been published widely.

Confession and Transformation: March 1, 6pm with Writers Gina Frangello, Pam Houston and Melinda Moustakis

Saturday March 1, 6pm: Gina Frangello, Pam Houston and Melinda Moustakis
A reading and discussion around our current topics "Transformation" and "Privacy," featuring the work of three writers whose work overlaps in interesting ways.  In conjunction with the Annual AWP Conference.

About the Presenters:

Pam Houston’s most recent book is Contents May Have Shifted, published in 2012. She is also the author of two collections of linked short stories, Cowboys Are My Weakness and Waltzing the Cat, the novel, Sight Hound, and a collection of essays, A Little More About Me, all published by W.W. Norton.  Her stories have been selected for volumes of Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Awards, The 2013 Pushcart Prize, and Best American Short Stories of the Century. She is Professor of English at UC Davis, directs the literary nonprofit Writing By Writers and teaches in The Pacific University low residency MFA program and at writer’s conferences around the country and the world.

Gina Frangello is the author of three books of fiction: A Life in Men, just out from Algonquin Books, Slut Lullabies, and My Sister’s Continent.  She is Sunday editor for The Rumpus and fiction editor for The Nervous Breakdown.  The longtime editor of Other Voices magazine and Other Voices Books, she now runs Other Voices Queretaro (www.othervoicesqueretaro.com), an international writing program. Gina teaches at UC Riverside’s low residency MFA program in Creative Writing and can be found online at www.ginafrangello.com. 

Melinda Moustakis is the author Bear Down Bear North: Alaska Stories, which won the Flannery O' Connor Award and the Maurice Prize and was a 5 Under 35 selection by the National Book Foundation. The book was also a finalist for the Washington State Book Award and shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. She received a a Hodder Fellowship at The Lewis Center of the Arts at Princeton University and a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship in Fiction. Her story "They Find the Drowned" won a 2013 PEN/ O. Henry Prize.

Welcome to our New Website

I hope you enjoy exploring content and finding information easily on our new website! We are still editing content from 2011-2012, so if you can't find something specific, send me an email through the contact link. And special thanks to Volunteer Matt for his tireless work designing and-- more difficult-- training me on this new platform.

Happy Reading!

Jess Van Nostrand, TPR Founder 

Introducing: Transformation

Transformation is one of TPR’s topics of focus during the 2014 Big Question, “How Are We Remembered?” As with all of the programs at TPR, this topic will be looked at through the lens of creativity. Questions will be asked such as, “How does a new idea go from its seed into a finished work?” “What’s it like to make something that’s pretty good into something that’s outstanding?” and “Why might someone successful in a particular creative area change directions and make something entirely different?” Throughout the Transformation topic, we will explore and learn from a diverse group of presenters and online contributors whose work speaks to sudden change, different directions, and the mystery of how an artistic thing comes to be.

See the Online Calendar for Upcoming Events!

About the image: A detail of Origami Butterfly instructions by Darren Abbey. My five year-old daughter received a “Geogami” kit for Christmas, which, if anyone has tried anything in the origami family before before, is NOT for young children. It is also not for impatient adults. She asked me to make one of the forms for her (not sure if that’s the right term for these tiny pieces of finger torture), and I ended up cursing out the lovely squares of paper and the ridiculous instructions they are meant to correspond with. I felt like I was in a reverse Ikea vortex, in which something which should not be hard is made heard by the instructions- except, with Ikea furniture everything is drawn and I want them to TYPE the words for me, and here, everything is in words that make no sense when you are dealing with making your hands do something special that I will never be able to do. After having my little fit in front of my mother who was the giver of this cruel gift she replied, “I thought it would be relaxing.” This made me feel greatly misunderstood, for if anyone knows me (especially if they have raised me) they should know how making origami plays into all my worst qualities, like sitting quietly and exercising patience. However, parenthood trumps everything, so I continue to try geogami in the hopes of making myself a better person for my daughter. In the meantime, she has happily used most of the remaining paper to draw pictures of princesses.

For Today I Am a Boy: Author Kim Fu in conversation with Rebecca Brown

February 6th, 6-7pm
FREE
For Today I Am A Boy: A conversation with authors Kim Fu and Rebecca Brown about Fu’s new novel, which follows the life of a family whose only son longs to be just like his sisters. Join these two Seattle authors in a discussion about the role privacy plays in the way they work and the stories they create. 

About the Presenters

Kim Fu holds a master of fine arts degree from the University of British Columbia. She is the author of the novel FOR TODAY I AM A BOY, coming in January 2014 (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, HarperCollins Canada, Random House Australia). Her work has appeared in Maisonneuve, The Rumpus, Ms. Magazine, The Tyee, Prairie Fire, The Stranger, Grain, Room, and Best Canadian Essays, among others. She is the news columns editor for This, a magazine of progressive Canadian politics now in its 47th year, and writes the advice column ASK FU! for the YourBoxClub.com blog. She lives in Seattle with her husband and their many computers.

Rebecca Brown is the author of seven novels, including The End of Youth, The Terrible Girls, and What Keeps Me Here, and her short stories are widely anthologized. Her novel The Gifts of the Body won a Lambda Literary Award and has been translated into several languages. Brown divides her time between Seattle and Vermont, where she is a faculty member in the Master of Fine Arts program at Goddard College.

Introducing: Privacy

Throughout 2014, The Project Room continues to ask the big question “How Are We Remembered?” Within this question, we will focus on several topics, one of which is Privacy.

From a contemporary perspective, privacy is an ever-changing part of our lives: it is both a thing we hold dear, and a thing we often give up in exchange for visibility, connections, even celebrity. From a historical perspective, sharing our personal business may not be as modern as we thought. (Tom Standage’s 2013 book WRITING ON THE WALL is a fascinating account of how it was handled in Roman times).

How has privacy changed in our lifetime? What value does it have for today’s youth culture? How will legacies be preserved for those who worked electronically? And, how important is privacy as part of the human experience? These are only some of the many questions expected to be raised during this program series.

In keeping with TPR’s practices, programs will be both long-term studies of how a new artistic project is being made and evening events featuring a diverse group of voices who work in different creative fields. Online writing and on-site events will present many different points of view on what privacy means and why it matters to us.

UPCOMING “PRIVACY” PROGRAMS:

February 6th, 6-7pm
For Today I Am A Boy: A conversation with authors Kim Fu and Rebecca Brown about Fu’s new novel, which follows the life of a family whose only son longs to be just like his sisters. Read more here.

Saturday March 1, 6-7pm: Gina Frangello, Pam Houston and Melinda Moustakis
A reading and discussion around legacy and privacy, featuring the work of three writers whose work overlaps in interesting ways. In conjunction with the Annual AWP Conference.

March (date to be announced)
The Making of Siren: An Artist Tackles the Flawed World of Online Dating. Be among the first to see how this innovative Dating App gives users — especially women– the power to make a personal connection.

Join the mailing list for the most recent event listings, and follow along with our events calendar as new programs are added throughout the year!

Image: Detail of the cover of FOR TODAY I AM A BOY by Kim Fu. Courtesy of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Philip H. Red Eagle shares stories of Seattle and Canoe Building

 UP NEXT:

Philip H Red Eagle: December 18, 6pm

As part of the 2013-2014 theme, How Are We Remembered? The Project Room presents a unique series of conversations specific to Seattle, featuring guest presenters who have deep roots in the city. Taking The Project Room’s position as a platform for understanding creativity, questions that address Seattle’s legacy and its creativity will be addressed such as, What should we be proud of as Seattleites? What stories do we want to remember and pass down to the next generation? And, How is today’s Seattle making its mark?  Taking a personal approach to our city’s history, this special group of guest presenters will share their stories, memories, and hopes for the city’s future.

Each event in the series will feature a guest speaker from a creative field who shares his or her point of view on this subject in a conversation with the audience. This will provide an unusually-intimate setting for these high-profile public figures- so arrive early and be ready to participate!

All programs are free and open to the public

Above image: Moon River, Vietnam 1971. ”The call sign for the base there was ‘Moon River’.  The Base was Nha Be Logistical Support Base. Nha Be was about 30 miles up river from the coast just above the Mekong River.  I had just acquired the camera from the Cholon Exchange in Saigon, now Ho Chi Mihn City.  I had already been In-Country for almost a year at that time.  I shot primarily in black and white film up to 1990, with some shots in Kodachrome.” -Philip H Red Eagle

Guest Presenters

Peter Steinbrueck, Architect and 2013 Seattle mayoral candidate
July 12, 7-8pm
Listen to audio here

Patrinell Wright, Founder of the Total Experience Gospel Choir
August 9, 6pm
Listen to audio here

Megan Jasper, Executive Vice President of Sub Pop Records
September 6, 6pm 
Listen to audio here

Paul Marioni, Glass Artist
October 2, 6pm – Featuring a special screening of Paul’s 1972 experimental film, HOLE. This is a rare opportunity to see this short film, hosted by the Northwest Film Forum.  Join us at 6pm for the discussion and at 7:15pm for the screening down the street! Special thanks to our program sponsor Chihuly Garden and Glass 
Listen to audio here

John Gilbreath, Earshot Jazz Executive Director
November 7, 6pm
And join us afterwords for a live Earshot Jazz Festival performance featuring Kneebody at Poncho Concert Hall at 8pm! (The presentation at TPR is free; tickets for the 8pm show are available online here)

Philip H. Red Eagle, Writer, Poet, Cultural worker
December 18, 6pm

And more presenters to be announced!

About the Presenters

Grow­ing up in Seat­tle, Peter Stein­brueck never knew who might show up at the fam­ily table on a given night or what issues were going to be debated. Archi­tects, actors, writ­ers, and peo­ple of all polit­i­cal per­sua­sions – who­ever was there, the con­ver­sa­tion was always lively.

The late 1960s and 1970s were stir­ring times of polit­i­cal and social upheaval – the epic civil rights move­ment, world envi­ron­men­tal awak­en­ing – mass cul­tural change, and chang­ing cities.

Peter’s father, Vic­tor Stein­brueck, an archi­tec­ture pro­fes­sor, artist, author and activist, was prob­a­bly best known as the sav­ior of the Pike Place Mar­ket. He ral­lied city­wide sup­port for res­cu­ing the blocks of build­ings between First and West­ern avenues at a time when tra­di­tional local farm­ers mar­kets were van­ish­ing, and the con­cept of his­toric preser­va­tion was hardly known in Seattle.

Peter was born and raised in Seat­tle. He grew up in the Denny Blaine neigh­bor­hood in the Cen­tral Dis­trict, attended Har­ri­son Ele­men­tary School in Madi­son Val­ley, and grad­u­ated from Lake­side High School.

Pastor Patrinell “Pat” Wright was born in Carthage, Texas to a Baptist preacher dad and a school teacher mom. She is one of seven siblings. Being introduced to music early, she sang her first solo at the age of 3. By the time of her 14th birthday, she had taught herself to play the piano and was directing two choirs in her father’s church.

Patrinell attended Turner High School in Carthage where she graduated as valedictorian of her class. She went on to attend college at Prairie View A & M in Hempstead, Texas. In 1964, Pat moved to Seattle and, in 1973, founded Total Experience Gospel Choir. The choir has performed in 38 states, on 5 continents and 22 countries. The choir consists of persons ages 7– 72 and has to its credits numerous awards and 7 recordings.

Over her long musical history, Pat has received numerous awards and citations, and she has performed on the same billing with the following: Ray Charles, Quincy Jones, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Take Six, The Winans, Charlie Daniel, Chuck Mangione, Steely Dan, Sweet Honey In The Rock, Dionne Warwick, Melba Moore, Olympia Dukakis, Pete Seeger, Michael Bolton, The Judds. Foreigner and NUMEROUS gospel artists. She and Total Experience Gospel Choir are featured artists on Dave Matthews’ CD entitled “Same Devil” on the song “Save Me”. Her latest credit is on the soundtrack of the movie “Because of Winn-Dixie” on the song “Glory, Glory”.

Megan Jasper currently works as Sub Pop’s Executive Vice President. She started at the label in 1989 as an intern, was hired as the label’s receptionist, got fired, then re-hired and promoted. She has done more than 20 years of volunteer work and board work for The Service Board, The Vera Project and she is now serving on the Music Commission for the city of Seattle.

Paul Marioni, one of the founding members of the American Studio Glass movement, creates sculptures and vessels that incorporate humor, images of taboo sexuality, genre figures, tribal masks, photographs, and visual puns.

Paul moved to California in the mid 1960s, where he was attracted to the beat poets of San Francisco and to the burgeoning counterculture of that city.  There, he became part of the influential group of artists working in stained glass in the Bay Area during the early 1970s.

Paul has completed more than 85 public commissions, including cast glass walls, ceilings, and skylights. Known as an innovator in the glass world, Marioni pushes his techniques to their limits, regularly redefining what is possible to achieve with the material.

Marioni graduated in 1967 from the University of Cincinnati, and is a Fellow of the American Crafts Council. He has received three fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts. He has taught at the Penland School of Crafts and at the Pilchuck Glass School.

Paul Marioni has a son, Dante, who is also a glassblower, and in 1998, the two of them presented a feature exhibition of their glass at the Fresno Art Museum in California. Paul Marioni’s program is sponsored by Chihuly Garden and Glass, which aims to celebrate our region’s creative energy and inspire visitors to engage with our region’s cultural community.

A rabid jazz fan since childhood, John Gilbreath has been immersed in the local and national jazz and performing arts scene as executive director of Earshot Jazz, Seattle’s non-profit jazz-support organization. He oversees Earshot’s monthly publication and educational programs, and has produced more than 1,000 far-reaching concerts, including the Seattle’s annual Earshot Jazz Festival each fall. He actively works with various Northwest arts organizations and national jazz consortia, hosts the weekly Caravan show on KBCS, and, in his rare spare moments, is a student of stone sculpture. John is the host of KEXP’s Jazz Theater, Sunday nights into Monday mornings, from 1am-3am.

Philip Harold Red Eagle is of Dakota and Puget Sound Salish heritage. His father, Philip Sr., is of Sisseton-Wahpeton-Mdewakanton-Yankton descent; and his mother, Marian (formerly Mary Ann) is of Steilacoom-S’Klallam descent. He holds two degrees from the University of Washington, Seattle, a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Metal Design from the School of Art (1983) and a Bachelor of Arts in Editorial Journalism from the School of Communications (1987).

Philip writes poetry, fiction, essays and reviews. His works have been included in Art Access,Encyclopedia of North American Indians, Humanities Today, Nobody’s Orphan Child (Anthology),Northwest Ethnic News, The Raven Chronicles, Red Ink, Seattle Arts Commission Newsletter – Diverse Views, Guest Editor Series-1990.

His current work is a book of fiction titled: Red Earth – A Vietnam Warrior’s Journey. Red Earthhas received high praise and is now going into a 2nd Edition. Red Earth is actually two novellas focused around the return home of Native American Vietnam veterans and their struggles with their loss and inability to cope with with their past. It is Philip’s experiences in Vietnam in 1970-72 that he draws his images for these stories.

Philip is also a visual artist and a photojournalist. His photos have appeared in American Indian Art Magazine, Air Cal Magazine, Northwest Ethnic News, The Raven Chronicles, The Seattle Post Intelligencer, The Seattle Times and The Tacoma News Tribune, as well as several gallery exhibits across the country.

Philip is the originator and co-founder of The Raven Chronicles – Multicultural Journal of Art, Literature & The Spoken Word (1990).

Philip has also been part of the Canoe Nations Program which is bringing back the Traditional Carved Canoe to the Northwest. He is primarily concerned with using the canoe as a mechanism in which to bring about cultural change among the tribes and to bring the notion of traditional ideas to bring about healing and pride among Native youth.

This series is part of The Project Room’s current theme, “How Are We Remembered?” Special thanks to artist Seth Friedman for his part in creating this program. Seth’s site-specific MONUMASS was installed at Seattle’s Victor Steinbreuck Park from July 20 – August 10, 2013. Read more here. 

About the top image: 
This is an image showing the Denny Regrade that took place in Seattle between the years of 1908-1911 (and again in 1929). Many homeowners held fast to their properties in protest of the massive leveling of the land, and some even sued the city (unsuccessfully) to avoid their destruction. What were playfully called “spite mounds” emerged from the deep underground digging around these houses (see the ladders in the foreground for a sense of scale!). How did the future of this city change because of this physical altering of the landscape? What does this kind of change do to a city’s identity? And how many who live there today know of its history? More about this story can be found here
Photo by Asahel Curtis (1874-1941), 1910. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Paul Marioni Films Now Online

Due to popular demand, the two short films we screened in October, 2013 of glass artist Paul Marioni’s HOLE (1972) and RIP (1974) are now online!

View them here:

Recapitulation by Paul Rucker

Musician and visual artist Paul Rucker began making work in 2009 that responded to the history of slavery and its relationship to current American issues about race and equality. This initial effort developed into a large and ongoing body of work, Recapitulation, that The Project Room will be following throughout 2013 and 2014.

First Public Program: 
Friday October 11, 6-7pm
Join Paul in a public conversation as he tackles the idea of “empathy” and asks for participation from the audience to help inform this work-in-progress.

Listen to an interview with Paul about this project: Podcast Episode 5

Trained as a classical musician, Paul Rucker combines his unique compositions for cello with video, print, and sculpture to form new ways of thinking about America’s history. Throughout The Project Room’s 2013-2014 theme, “How Are We Remembered?” Paul will blog about his process and host public conversations and workshops at TPR. Stay tuned for exact dates in Fall, 2013. Until then, follow his writing online as he shares the process behind this ambitious and powerful body of work.

Watch here

About the Project

Recapitulation is a music and visual installation demonstrating the parallels between slavery and the contemporary prison industrial complex through animation, digital stills, sculpture, original music compositions, interactive sound and video. Although “slave” and “convict” are different in name, these labels share similar limitations and expectations. Both have faced exploitation for labor, a loss of rights and disenfranchisement. Currently over 2.3 million people are incarcerated in the U.S.; 40 percent are African Americans, although they comprise only 12 percent of the country’s total population. In Recapitulation, Paul Rucker will respond to the vast numbers affected by both institutions and the disparity in the racial makeup of the prison population.

Recapitulation is presented through different “chapters.” The first, titled Assassin Series, was presented at Gallery 4Culture in Seattle, Washington in Summer, 2013.

About the Artist:

Paul Rucker is a visual artist, composer, and musician who combines media, often integrating live performance, sound, original compositions, and visual art. His work is the product of a rich interactive process, through which he investigates community impacts, human rights issues, historical research, and basic human emotions surrounding a subject.

Rucker has received numerous grants, awards, and residencies for visual art and music. In 2012, he received an award for Visual Art from the Creative Capital Foundation, a 10-week residency at Headlands Center for the Arts in California, the Conductive Garboil Grant, a Grant for Artists Projects from Artist Trust, and an Artist Project Grant and Gallery Show from 4Culture. Seattle-area organizations that he has received project funding from in the past include: Seattle Mayor’s Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, Washington State Arts Commission, King County Site Specific, 4Culture, Artist Trust, and Photo Center NW. He has also received funding from the South Carolina Arts Commission.

As a musician and director, Rucker plays in various situations, from solo cellist to leading his LARGE Ensemble of 22 musicians. He was awarded Best Emerging Artist as well as Outside Jazz Ensemble of the Year by Earshot Jazz, and Jazz Artist of the Year by the Seattle Music Awards. Rucker regularly plays as a solo cellist, including past performances at the Jacksonville Jazz Festival and The Stone in New York City. He was invited by legendary filmmaker David Lynch to perform for the opening of Lynch’s film, Inland Empire.

As a public artist, Rucker has created work for the Museum of Flight in Seattle, 4Culture, and the City of Tacoma, WA. Past residencies include Blue Mountain Center, Ucross Foundation, Art OMI, Banff Centre, Pilchuck Glass School, and the Rockefeller Foundation Study Center in Bellagio, Italy. In 2011, Rucker was commissioned to create the fine arts poster for Bumbershoot Arts and Music Festival in Seattle. Paul is currently the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation Artist in Residence and Research Fellow at Maryland Institute College of Art.

This work is funded in part by Creative Capital.

Top image: September 15, 1963 Birmingham, Alabama from the Soundless Series by Paul Rucker, 2013

Above image:  Proliferations (video still) by Paul Rucker, 2009. “Art can tell stories. For years I would talk about injustice by reciting numbers and statistics. When you say, “We have over 2.3 million people in prison,” it’s a large number to comprehend. Doing research at a prison issues-themed residency at the Blue Mountain Center in New York, I found some maps that I felt could help tell the story. This project shows the proliferation of the US prison system if seen from a celestial point of view. Using different colors to indicate different eras, the viewer can clearly see the astonishing growth of this system over time.”

Timeline: Green Dots: 1778-1900 Yellow Dots: 1901-1940 Orange Dots: 1941-1980 Red Dots: 1981-2005