February 2 -- Cultural Content |
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Dear Friends,
It’s a new month in a new(ish) year, and, fittingly, we have lots of NEWS -- in fact, we have so much news that we can’t fit it all into this issue of Cultural Content, or even the next one -- so stay tuned for weekly updates this month!
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This weekend PPL is thrilled to open Black History Month events with the 28th Annual Langston Hughes Community Poetry Reading (LHCPR) on Sunday, February 5 from 1 - 3 pm! While the reading is always a cause for celebration, LHCPR Co-Director April Brown explains why this Sunday’s event is extra-special: “The Langston Hughes Community Poetry Reading Committee is excited that for the first time since 2020 we are able to hold the Reading in its traditional setting, and in the month of February, in celebration of Langston Hughes’s birthday, and in partnership with PPL. We love the venue of the Donald J. Farish Auditorium! When we held the event there last year in April it was exciting and new, and we’re so happy to be back, continuing a relationship that we feel will last a very long time. We believe that this event should be in a community setting like PPL, and we are hoping that another 28 years from now it will still be a community event that brings the various audience members and readers together to celebrate the genius of Langston Hughes.”
We hope you will join us for this beloved annual celebration! To keep everyone safe, we will be asking for proof of either vaccination or a negative COVID test within the past 48 hours; if you don’t have proof of either, we will have tests available, as well as volunteers to help you with the process. We will also be requiring masking at all times, and we ask that no food be consumed in the building. Please note that the library is open only from 12:45 to 3 pm on Sunday, and only for this event; no library services will be available.
Although planning the LHCPR has taken up most of April’s and her Co-Director Kai Cameron’s time and attention so far this year, they are both thinking ahead, and each shared a cultural event that they’re looking forward to and that PPL community members might enjoy as well:
Kai Cameron: “I’m looking forward to the Motif RI Inaugural Spoken Awards, 2023, which is a new kind of awards show/community gathering that recognizes practitioners of art forms such as spoken word, storytelling, and stand-up comedy. The event takes place Friday, February 3 at 6:30 pm, details are here.”
April Brown: “I hope to see everyone at “Tell Your Truth,” an open mic with Alisha Pina, on February 15 at 7:30 pm, details here.”
Thank you, Kai and April!
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The LHCPR is extra-special to PPL because it is a community-led, public-serving, intergenerational, participatory event that puts the resources of PPL in service of an initiative that was created, nurtured, and sustained by community members. We are enormously grateful to the Papitto Opportunity Connection for generously supporting the LHCPR at PPL, through its sponsorship of PPL’s community curation efforts to support BIPOC creators who are developing and leading arts, cultural, and educational programming reflecting their unique experiences throughout greater Providence and Rhode Island.
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More Black History Month Happenings
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Introducing Our New Community Partnerships Facilitator: Sophia Ellis
We’re also delighted this week to introduce Sophia Ellis, PPL’s inaugural Community Partnerships Facilitator and the newest member of the Programs & Exhibitions staff. Sophia’s work at PPL will focus on developing and deepening relationships with individuals and entities throughout the city and state, and cultivating opportunities for more community-led, collaborative initiatives and projects at PPL. We asked her to share a bit about her background, her interests and experiences, and how she sees her new role -- and she also offers a recommendation for an upcoming cultural event!
Here’s Sophia in her own words:
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“I grew up in Orlando, Florida, but now call the Ocean State my home (though as I’ve gotten older, home is less about location…conversations for another time). I recently graduated from the Public Humanities Master’s program at Brown University and have been enmeshed in creative spaces over the past decade. Coming from a visual arts background as a mud thrower, I have morphed my creative practice to one that centers communal worldbuilding and creation as acts of community care. In a previous life, I co-founded late-night community storytelling events and co-facilitated a multitude of participant-oriented exhibitions that tied together spoken word, impromptu voguing, printmaking with whatever material was around you, and glitter (a small snippet of the various methods and mediums). As a Trini-American, I believe in fete as refusal of settler logics, and am inspired by those in Providence and greater Rhode Island who are cultivating magic in such ways. With my position as Community Partnerships Facilitator, I want to honor and nurture the communities of artists, activists, scholars, dancers, creators, and makers here in Rhode Island that have long been working on liberatory practices. Please reach out if you have ideas on ways to build or just want to make fun things together.
For the past few weeks, Sophia has been busy diving into the work of several artists whose creations will be featured in PPL exhibitions and programs in the coming weeks and months, including both filmmaker Ryan Cardoso and also Eli Nixon, whose community-created cardboard and paper mache flora and fauna have been appearing along the atrium stairway ever since last spring -- gradually and sparingly at first, and now very quickly and in profusion! In upcoming issues of Cultural Content, Sophia will share gleanings from her conversations with Ryan and Eli, providing background and more information on their projects, as well as insights into the ideas and processes that motivate them.
We wish you the very best in this almost new year, and hope to see you soon!
In gratitude,
Christina Bevilacqua
Programs & Exhibitions Director
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