Chicago Calling at Elastic (10/4/09)

Saturday, October 3, 2009 (6 p.m.-midnight)

This Fourth Annual Chicago Chicago Calling Arts Festival event included poetry readings and musical performances, and Vibrational Sound Narratives, a collection of artworks by Alpha Bruton. It happened at Elastic Sound & Vision Gallery in Chicago.

A gallery opening for Ms. Bruton’s Vibrational Sound Narratives show featured a performance with David Boykin (reeds, percussion) and Una MacGlone (upright bass).

Performances and projects included --

Amie Sell -- "TEXTAPORT Teleporting a Mystery Object Through Words"

Eric Elshtain (Chicago) and Gregory Fraser (Georgia) -- poetry collaboration

Wayne Allen Jones (Chicago) and Duane Vorhees (Bangkok) -- poetry collaboration

poetry collaboration with Jamie Kazay (Chicago) and Sally Evans (Edinburgh)

Bauhaus9090 performance

Satya Alliance (Satya Gummuluri (voice), Douglas Brush (percussion), Dan Godston (trumpet), and Alex Wing (upright bass)). This performance includes poetry by Divik Ramesh (New Delhi), Elizebeth Varghese (Bombay/NYC), and Aaron Salles Torres (Brazil/Chicago).

Trio with Gino Robair (percussion / Oakland), Andrew Royal (violins / Chicago), and Aaron Zarzutzki (electronics / Chicago)

Vibrational Sound Narratives by artist Alpha Bruton
Alpha Bruton has created 200 12"x 18" acrylic on paper paintings, of compositions, from a four year exploration of various Chicagoan jazz musicians, improvisational jazz, creative music, electric music, and alternative sound, where she created abstract sketches in a response to their sound stream, and what she was feeling, or seeing during these performances.
Vibrational sound narratives are a very comprehensive system of patterns, or vibrations that teach our bodies at all levels how to have a new experience. They activate a practice similar to Vibra Keys association with sound, shape, and image in the context of emotional response, and unlock visual-spatial intelligence in the artists among us, who think in pictures and images.
These compositions were started as sketches that Bruton created, of musicians who have performed at venues and events in Chicago, including Elastic Sound & Vision Gallery, Brown Rice, The Umbrella Music Festival at the Chicago Cultural Center, Fred Anderson’s Velvet Lounge, Ancestral Lofts, Heaven Gallery after set, AACM tribute to Fletcher Henderson at Millennium Park, Earnest Dawkins’ Sunday afternoon jam sessions, Nicole Mitchell's tribute to Alice Coltrane, Ways & Means Trio, Chicago Calling Arts Festival, The Mingus Awareness Project, among others.

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The Fourth Annual Chicago Calling Arts Festival (CCAF4) takes place October 1-11, 2009, featuring Chicago-based artists collaborating in performances and projects with artists living in other locations -- both here in the U.S. and abroad. These collaborations will be prepared or improvised, and some performances will involve live feeds between Chicago and elsewhere. CCAF4 venues include: Little Black Pearl Art & Design Center, Claudia Cassidy Theater at the Chicago Cultural Center, The Velvet Lounge, Elastic Sound & Vision Gallery, Epiphany Church, Columbia College Concert Hall, WNUR, Mercury Café, WLUW, Myopic Bookstore, Café Ballou, Quaker House, Hotti Biscotti, Brown Rice, and other venues. http://www.chicagocalling.org

CCAF4 is being organized by the Borderbend Arts Collective, a not for profit organization. Borderbend’s mission is to promote the arts, to create opportunities for artists to explore new directions in and between art forms, and to engage the community.

Chicago Calling is part of Chicago Artists Month, the fourteenth annual celebration of Chicago’s vibrant visual art community. In October, more than 200 exhibitions of emerging and established artists, openings, demonstrations, tours, open studios and neighborhood art walks take place at galleries, cultural centers and arts buildings throughout the city. For more information, call 312.744.6630 or visit www.chicagoartistsmonth.org. Chicago Artists Month is coordinated by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and is sponsored by the Chicago Office of Tourism with additional support from 3Arts.