ZariaZakiya

12:28 AM, Jul. 31, 2013
By B.J. Hammerstein Detroit Free Press Staff Writer
Sidewalk Festival of Performing Arts
3-9 p.m. Sat. August 3.
Artist Village Detroit
17340 Lahser (one block north of Grand River Ave.)
www.sidewalkdetroit.com

Like most summertime festivals, there will be food, drinks and entertainment at this weekend’s inaugural Sidewalk Festival of Performing Arts in northwest Detroit. But organizers say the street performances offered around Artist Village Detroit will be more cutting-edge and experimental than usual.

“We want to harness the power of performance art,” says event curator and founder Ryan Myers-Johnson. “It’s about bringing modern artists together in a nontraditional space. And we hope to create this dialogue about performance art by getting great community support.”

Myers-Johnson, 32, an independent choreographer, dancer and filmmaker whose work has been featured at the African World Festival and Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History and who also was a resident educator at the Virgil H. Carr Cultural Arts Center, says the idea for an outdoor festival showcasing avant-garde performers was hatched last year while she participated in the Detroit Creative Corridor Center’s creative ventures program.

Beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday, more than 30 dance companies, theater troupes, live musicians and visual artists will perform, provoke and entertain at the intersection of Lahser and Grand River.

“It’s called Sidewalk because we’re literally taking performance art away from those safe places and putting it out there for everyone right on the street level,” Myers-Johnson says. “One way to do that, to connect the performers with the community, is to take away the mystery that surrounds a lot of the performing arts scene.”

With a strong support system from sponsors like the Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan, the Creative Corridor Center and the Brightmoor Alliance, Myers-Johnson has attracted a wide variety of performance artists who are excited about taking a trip on the creative wild side.

Saturday’s event is packed with art workshops, live mural-making, pop-up Shakespeare readings by the Magenta Giraffe Theater Company, spoken-word performances, a heavy dose of experimental jazz and plenty of contemporary dance. Among the performers are the female-male belly-dancing duo of Dawn Xiana Moon and Lee Na-Moo; Zaria Zakiya, an internationally renowned electric violinist, and prolific hip-hop groups Passalacqua and Cold Men Young.

Myers-Johnson says there’s no admission charge, but a donation of $10 is suggested.

“We wanted to start Sidewalk big,” she says. “We want to bring this to a lot of people all over.”
- Detroit Free Press by B.J. Hammerstein Staff Writer

12:28 AM, Jul. 31, 2013
By B.J. Hammerstein Detroit Free Press Staff Writer
Sidewalk Festival of Performing Arts
3-9 p.m. Sat. August 3.
Artist Village Detroit
17340 Lahser (one block north of Grand River Ave.)
www.sidewalkdetroit.com

Like most summertime festivals, there will be food, drinks and entertainment at this weekend’s inaugural Sidewalk Festival of Performing Arts in northwest Detroit. But organizers say the street performances offered around Artist Village Detroit will be more cutting-edge and experimental than usual.

“We want to harness the power of performance art,” says event curator and founder Ryan Myers-Johnson. “It’s about bringing modern artists together in a nontraditional space. And we hope to create this dialogue about performance art by getting great community support.”

Myers-Johnson, 32, an independent choreographer, dancer and filmmaker whose work has been featured at the African World Festival and Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History and who also was a resident educator at the Virgil H. Carr Cultural Arts Center, says the idea for an outdoor festival showcasing avant-garde performers was hatched last year while she participated in the Detroit Creative Corridor Center’s creative ventures program.

Beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday, more than 30 dance companies, theater troupes, live musicians and visual artists will perform, provoke and entertain at the intersection of Lahser and Grand River.

“It’s called Sidewalk because we’re literally taking performance art away from those safe places and putting it out there for everyone right on the street level,” Myers-Johnson says. “One way to do that, to connect the performers with the community, is to take away the mystery that surrounds a lot of the performing arts scene.”

With a strong support system from sponsors like the Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan, the Creative Corridor Center and the Brightmoor Alliance, Myers-Johnson has attracted a wide variety of performance artists who are excited about taking a trip on the creative wild side.

Saturday’s event is packed with art workshops, live mural-making, pop-up Shakespeare readings by the Magenta Giraffe Theater Company, spoken-word performances, a heavy dose of experimental jazz and plenty of contemporary dance. Among the performers are the female-male belly-dancing duo of Dawn Xiana Moon and Lee Na-Moo; Zaria Zakiya, an internationally renowned electric violinist, and prolific hip-hop groups Passalacqua and Cold Men Young.

Myers-Johnson says there’s no admission charge, but a donation of $10 is suggested.

“We wanted to start Sidewalk big,” she says. “We want to bring this to a lot of people all over.”
- Detroit Free Press by B.J. Hammerstein Staff Writer