The book of the exhibition, put together by Damian Brown:
96 pages of images and text documenting the artists featured in the Strong Brum project that was commissioned by Birmingham City Council and exhibited between September and December 2009 at The Drum, thanks to Mukhtar Dar.
The book itself is bookstore-quality with a hardcover, professionally printed and featuring a durable matte finish and library binding.
Available online at : blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1139729
To parrot the official blurb:
Screen WM’s Festival of Film gives you the chance to enjoy free screenings of sensational films that have been inspired by, produced or filmed in the West Midlands
It runs from 16-29 November at venues around the region. Here’s the main list of films, and here’s what’s playing when and where in Birmingham:
- Tormented – 16 Nov, AMC Broadway Plaza
- Almost Adult – 20 Nov, The Drum
- Faintheart – 21 Nov, AMC Broadway Plaza
- The Children – 23 Nov, Electric Cinema
- Road to Guantanemo – 25 Nov, Electric Cinema
- Confetti – 28 Nov, AMC Broadway Plaza
- Nativity – 29 Nov, AMC Broadway Plaza
The other films showing around the region are Special People, Clubbed, The Mandrake Root, 1 Day and Straightheads.
Snap up tickets here.
Birmingham’s People comes from the folks at Birmingham Photospace and is a continuation of the portrait project they carried out over the Artsfest weekend in September.
The website has been featuring the portraits taken, including the latest of ‘Radway’ (below) who, unless I’m mistaken, is none other than Violet Attack from the Birmingham Blitz Derby Dames.
The project will be exhibited at The Drum from 7 December 2009 to 29 January 2010. You can also sign up to attend the (free) private view and artists talk on 9 December.
In the Birmingham Post yesterday Punch Records‘ Ammo Talwar spoke his mind on what he sees as Birmingham’s neglect of this year’s Black History Month, especially in comparison to the enthusiasm shown over the Staffordshire Hoard:
When do we start pleasing the really big crowds – the ones who aren’t there, the ones who want to see something different? Do we have to get a metal detector down to Handsworth to unearth Apache Indian’s first gold tooth, or lock on to Steel Pulse’s forgotten cymbal set?
It’s Black History Month and there should be real effort and real funding to promote the treasures left to us by Birmingham’s black achievers.
Can’t argue with that.
The Black History Month website has a full run-down of everything happening over October (click the link and scroll down the page). It’s a little tricky to pick things out, although I’ve heard good things of East is East which is on at The Rep and Eric Roberson will be at The Drum on 10 Oct.
In the Birmingham Post piece Ammo mentions a showing of the controversial documentary, Deen Tight:
Filmed on location with Muslim rappers, DJs, slam poets, breakdancers and a graffiti artist in concerts, recording studios, at homes and in the streets. Our story focuses on the perceived conflict between traditional religious ideals and modernity, as well as both the positives and negatives of Western Pop culture on todays’ Muslim youth
That’s at The Drum on 13 October.
One for the younger people:
At long last The Drum is launching “Young Gifted Brum“, a free and continuous program of performing and digital arts for Children and Young People.
The launch will take place on Thursday, 6th November at 5.30pm – 7.30pm at The Drum, Aston and all Young People aged 8-18yrs are welcome to come along if they are interested in Singing, Dance, Music, Digital Art, Acting and Spoken Word to find out what will be on offer in the coming months. They do not have to have any experience and it is not just open to people who want to perform. There will be an opportunity to showcase your talents at two annual events, whether your talents lie in producing, writing, directing, delivering events or performing in them.
There will also be a free “Taster Session†that will take place at The Drum on Saturday, 8th November between 12pm and 4pm.
For more information please contact Dee on (0121) 333 2431
Taken from the Arts Council’s free mailing list, which is free and worth making use of. I imagine it goes to quite a lot of people nationwide and it’d be great to have plenty of Birmingham (and other West Mids) stuff on it.
In a nutshell, a version of Mother India (seminal 1957 Bollywood flick) has been re-visualised and re-scored and will be officially launched at The Drum (who co-commissioned it) on 2 August at 7.30pm.
This looks pretty much essential and I’m gutted that I’m not going to be around to see it. Instead, I’m going to torture myself by going through a few links.
This version of Mother India (or MI21 as they would have us call it) has been re-cut and remixed by Josh Ford, with the score re-interpreted by (ex-world champion) DJ Tigerstyle accompanied by Matt Constantine (cello) and David Shaw (drums). The Renderghost (great name) has been involved too. The music sounds fantastic and you get get a sneak peak on the Kala Phool MySpace.
The organisers assure us that, although it’ll appeal to a contemporary audience, it’ll stay true to the source material. After the screening there’ll be a panel discussion to round things off.
This project has been co-commissioned by The Drum and is launching in Birmingham (although it has been shown at Drop Beats Not Bombs) before touring nationally and, perhaps, internationally.
For more info, see the MI21 eflyer on Scribd (you can zoom in if the text is too small).
As I was leaving the Electric yesterday having seen the excellent Planet B-Boy I was handed a brochure for this year’s BASS Festival, happening across the East Midlands over June.
BASS stands for British Art and Street Sounds and the festival is a Punch Records production in partnership with 2Funky Arts, Hella Music and Baby J Studios. This year the festival revolves around the theme of ‘The Elements of Hip Hop’, usually broken down into MCing, DJing, graffiti, breakdancing and beat-boxing.
Go to BASS Festival for the full line-up, but here’s a few of the events in Birmingham:
- Hedz Interative Aerosol Mural, 31 May to 1 June – creating a 50ft bespoke aerosol mural in the city centre
- Urban Disturbance v MyBass ft Mary Anne Hobbs, 31 May at The Rainbow – drum n bass and dubstep heaviness
- Faith 47 – The Restless Debt of Third World Beauty, 3 to 10 June at Womb Gallery – this looks very good
- BASS West Mids Launch – 3 June
- The New Mastersounds, 14 June at The Yardbird – a band at the forefront of the retro-funk sound
- My Love for Hip Hop, 19 June at The Drum – powerful spoken word with 3 poets, 3 hip hop artists and a turntablist
Actually, this is daft, there’s loads of good stuff so please go and have a look at the listings and maybe flag up anything you think looks really interesting in the comments.
Don’t forget that Jessica is currently doing a work placement at Punch and blogging about her experiences.
Punch’s director, Ammo Talwar, was at Buckingham Palace the other week to pick up his MBE for “outstanding achievement and service right across the industry”. He’s emailed to say that his dad was annoyed at not having tea with the Queen! Ammo’s sent over a pic of his dad with some beefeaters though – nice shoes.
