culture – Culture out the Box

Then and Now: Homes of the past, present, and future. Part II

July 20, 2016July 20, 2016 cultureouttheboxLeave a comment

Then and Now

I currently live in the city I grew up in. I left after completing highschool to go to college and would return intermittently for seasonal breaks. Returning to DC and living here for a year since graduating college has given me a new appreciation for the city.

Now I am able to appreciate a lot more of what the city has to offer, and despite its small size and intimate feeling it is constantly changing and bustling. There’s a certain unrelenting energy a constant sensation I feel as I catch the train in the morning with the other commuters that mimics a bee hive, it is more often than not annoying to find myself within a swarm of people all trying to simply get where there going…but I would never change it. I love being able to walk the city, to be able to get anywhere I need to be, I love the go-go beats, the cherry blossoms, the mumbo sauce, I love the scorching summers and the bitter cold winters and I love the absolute power of Washington D.C. In all honesty, no matter how far I stray, for no matter how long, I feel I’ll always make it back.

When I was younger I experienced Washington DC through what my parents presented, and since I was born almost a decade after crack hit the streets they were very cautious. I remember historic U street, museum visits, playing tag outside till the street lights came on, ice cream trucks, hot sausages and sour pickles. I remember strolls in rock creek park and tennis tournaments at legg mason (now the citi open). But I think my favorite part of Washington DC when I was younger was the closeness that I felt to other people, literally there was always someone around, and growing up in a town house brought people even closer…I grew accustomed to hearing my neighbors move around in there own homes. It was comforting. I loved DC then, summer thunderstorms, traffic, and swampy temperatures and I love it now. I will love it always.

xoxo,

Phatz

Then & Now: Homes of the past, present, and future. Part I

July 20, 2016July 20, 2016 cultureouttheboxLeave a comment

Then and Now

Just got back from Vegas seeing family. After have left there 20 years ago, I forget how dam hot it gets! What I love about Vegas growing up and what I love about it now:

Then:

Basically everyone knew everyone. There was a real sense of community.

Late Skate

Stop N Shop. Eventually called Stop N Get Shot

Jack in the Box

Summer nights

Circus Circus

You dressed up for concerts on the Strip and big boxing matches

Metro Pizza

That’s Entertainment

Now:

International feel

Still off the hook

Sense of uniqueness

Cost of living

Open all night

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas

The dry heat

Shopping

My wedding- yayyyy!

It’s been a trip watching all the changes happening in Vegas. Some good some bad. But let me tell you growing up in Vegas was off the hook and Definitely like no other! No regrets!!!

West coast 4 Life!

xoxo,

Coco

In Honor of Black Music Month Part II:

June 29, 2016June 29, 2016 cultureouttheboxLeave a comment

In Celebration of Black Music Month & Life

Who was it that said music is the soundtrack of our lives? Each of us can relate to hearing a song that puts in a state of mind, time and place. Let’s celebrate these senses of life through Black film and their incredible soundtracks and film scores in no particular order:). As I’m writing the rain is falling and Miles is sounding really good.

Claudine- Curtis Mayfield

Under the Cherry Moon- Prince

Superfly- Curtis Mayfield

Elevator to the Gallows- Miles Davis

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=E-XVlrauLxc

Waiting to Exhale

The Bodyguard- Go Whitney!!!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rFcnGLFGbL8

Dead Presidents

Love Jones

Black Caesar

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U6hWZxm62-M

New Jack City

Thanks for reading! make sure to follow us on twitter and on instagram @CultureOTB for more maddening things each week!

xoxo,

Coco & Phatz

In Honor of Black Music Month Part I:

June 22, 2016 cultureouttheboxLeave a comment

“There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.”

-Mark Twain

Personally I believe this. There are no new ideas, just manifestations and transmutations of the same nuances: artistic movements, fashion, music, and even historic events seem to demonstrate this. However, I posit, that though there may be no new ideas, there is certainly a source for them. It is my firm belief that anything interesting, cool, or trendy finds its roots in black culture. In a world where whiteness is equated to normalness, blackness (or browness of any sort) is considered as exotic and used to season or spice up the blandness of white culture. In my opinion bell hooks puts it best:

“The commodiﬁcation of Otherness has been so successful because it is offered as a new delight, more intense, more satisfying than normal ways of doing and feeling. Within commodity culture, ethnicity becomes spice, seasoning that can liven up the dull dish that is mainstream white culture.”

It is the nature of consumption that bothers me the most in this situation. The greed and insatiable hunger to demean while at the same time appropriate, that is confusing and infuriating about white mainstream media. It disgusts me to see some becky walking down the street in a dashiki tshirt dress raving “it’s so tribal, I love it.” I hate seeing Katy Perry with gelled baby hair or in a tone deaf music video using Egyptian culture as her back drop. I never want to hear white people singing “I love my negro nose,” In unison with Beyonce or any person of color ever again. However, in all my anger there’s understanding (still anger but some understanding); my culture and history are coveted because it is beautiful. Most of what I have learned has come from my parents. Some of my fondest memories are of the music my parents would listen to, the conversations we had, and the food they cooked, so in honor of black music month I have curated a playlist commemorating not only my culture but the parts that my parents taught/gave to me through music:

The Supremes – STOP IN THE NAME OF LOVE

Prince – MUSICOLOGY

James Brown – SAY IT LOUD, I’M BLACK AND I’M PROUD

India Arie – BROWN SKIN

Michael Jackson – HUMAN NATURE

Ella Fitzgerald & Duke Ellington – IT DON’T MEAN A THING

Stevie Wonder – I JUST CALLED TO SAY I LOVE YOU

Thanks for reading! make sure to follow us on twitter and on instagram @CultureOTB for more maddening things each week!

xoxo,

Coco & Phatz

Being Nosey: Q+A with Nicole D. Shivers

June 8, 2016June 8, 2016 cultureouttheboxLeave a comment

Roll Call:

What’s your name? Nicole Shivers

Where are you from? Born in the Bay Area, raised in Vegas!

What do you do? So many things J but currently I’m a Museum Educator and Project Manager

Being Nosey:

Where does your interest in the arts come from? Which artist (whether visual, vocal, or performance) do you believe to be the most captivating or inspiring?

Wow great questions. I would have to give props to my parents who exposed us at an early age to Arts and Culture. My sister and I went to concerts, plays, and performing arts at an early age. My first recollection of an actual international performance was Ipi Tombi the South African musical at the Silver Bird Casino in Las Vegas in 1980.

Performance is both visual and vocal so its all inspiring to me.

What music have you been listening to recently?

I’ve been listening to a lot of Prince (yes I had Darling Nikki on my license plate when I was in high school). And I keep playing the remix to All the Way Up. Remy Ma yezzzzz!!

Do you think historical and cultural events influence the arts? Or do you think that art is the impetus behind historical and cultural movements.

You asked this question that obviously is a dissertation. But lets make it plain, Art and Culture are modes of movement. They’re not stagnant. So with movement comes change. Now we can go even further with change for whom? But will leave this for the pontificators. I consider myself a conduit for application, a doer. I can’t stand theory alone what’s the point.

Tell us a funny story from highschool.

Yes I attended Chaparral High School. I tried out for cheerleading in 9^th grade. Didn’t practice. The routine was to the song Look out Weekend by Debbie Deb. I just got out their and adlibbed. Hilarious!! No I didn’t make it but the cheerleading coach said I should join the drama club. The shade of it all…hee hee!

What is your motto?

You know I had to look up the definition to make sure. Allah is with the Believer!

Tell us about the premier of your documentary Arts of the Monsoon. What was it like travelling to Oman and Zanzibar after your research? Was it as you had expected it would be?

We are excited to be presenting the public premiere on June 11. It appears we’ll have a full house. I can’t wait to lead a Q&A and to receive feedback. It’s necessary to hear from others when you have been so close to something. First, the film is part of a larger project I produced called Connecting the Gems of the Indian Ocean: From Oman to East Africa. The project focuses on the cultural connections between Oman and East Africa’s Swahili Coast.

Both places are remarkably beautiful. We shot the documentary in 19 days. It was hard work. We met incredible people and got to hear and witness wonderful stories. You know I didn’t know what to expect. I do remember saying before we left that I was going to go with the flow and be open to whatever came our way. There were some testy times but for the most part it was all good.

What was the hardest part about filming Arts of the Monsoon? What was the most rewarding part?

The hardest part was waiting to film with the proper light and just the daily grind. The most rewarding is that we achieved a beautiful noteworthy film that documents a connection between people and places that is not readily known. And I loved filming on a down ship at dawn in Zanzibar. Truly lovely!

You’re already an award winning producer, would you like to produce another film? What would it be about?

OMG I would love to do another film. But rather a documentary I would like to do a short narrative looking at growing up in Las Vegas in the 1980s.

What kind of performance art do you believe would best capture your life experiences? Would your life be portrayed as a Film Noire? Spanish Romance? Opera? Ballet? Or maybe something else entirely? Also who is the lead actor?

Hmm…it would be all of the above….they encompass dance, color, sound, pictures, love, suspense, words and fashion. I don’t know the person who could play me. She may still be waiting to be born. She may be in South Central LA, Biloxi, Morocco, Puerto Rico, around the corner, who knows….maybe I’ll meet her in a vision.

*Thanks for reading and make sure to stay tuned to Culture Out The Box, for more maddening things. Also follow us on twitter @CultureOTB and on instagram @CultureOTB.*

*Nicole can be reached for further questions and inquiries at shiversn@si.edu, and make sure to catch the screening of the documentary Arts of the Monsoon, this saturday June 11th, 2016 at the National Musuem of African Art @ 2pm.*

http://africa.si.edu/50years/oman/

It’s WhackA$! Wednesday!!

May 25, 2016May 25, 2016 cultureouttheboxLeave a comment

What is WhackA$! Wednesday? It’s when the highlight of your day has been watching local news, checkout our list below:

It’s….when all we have to choose from is Trump, Clinton and a Burn,

It’s…when hump day makes no sense,

It’s…when folks think that Aguilera-Grande duet was “all that,”

It’s…when your house plant is dead but you keep looking at it like “is it really dead?”

It’s…when people don’t realize that “All Lives Matter” will never be true until #BlackLivesMatter,

It’s…people still using the term “reverse racism,” as if it’s a real thing,

Its…Madonna’s Prince Tribute,

It’s…Donald Trumps spray tan,

It’s…Crocs with socks,

It’s…Presidential Tax plans,

It’s…racial profiling *side-eye* SouthWest Airlines,

It’s…rainy-dreary springtime weather.

*Leave us a comment, tell us what you think is WhackA$! This Wednesday! And make sure to stay tuned to CultureOTB for your weekly dose of madness! Also make sure to follow us on instagram @CultureOTB and Twitter @CultureOTB to get our updates daily!*

Xoxo,

Coco & Phatz

Throwback Thurday Throwback Playlist

May 19, 2016May 19, 2016 cultureouttheboxLeave a comment

Hello Everyone, check out this list of 12 of our favorite throwbacks to get you through the day! Comment below, let us know what some of your favorite throwbacks are. Enjoy the playlist and Happy Thursday!!!

xoxo,

Coco & Phatz

Ravel – Bolero

Thin Lizzy – Still In Love With You (Live)

EPMD – You Gots To Chill

McGuire Sisters – Sincerely

Aretha Franklin – All The Kings Horses

Stevie B – Diamond Girl

Janet Jackson – All For You

TLC – Unpretty

The Four Seasons – Oh What A Night

Blu Cantrell – Hit’Em Up Style

Aaliyah – Rock The Boat

Irene Cara – Flashdance, What A Feeling

*Thanks for listening, stay tuned for more maddening things!*

Whether you like lemon crush or lemonade…Prince & Bey

May 12, 2016May 16, 2016 cultureouttheboxLeave a comment

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/khT8cIQryv0

Being Nosey: Q+A with Alanna Reeves

May 4, 2016May 4, 2016 cultureouttheboxLeave a comment

Roll Call:

What’s your name?

Alanna Reeves

Where are you from?

I was born in Washington, D.C. and split my time between there and Kensington, Maryland.

What do you do?

Currently, I’m working at an art store, a museum, and with an art consultant in addition to trying to maintain my own studio practice. I recently finished my undergraduate education at the Rhode Island School of Design and after moving back I wanted to immerse myself in D.C. arts. Having all these different jobs really helps me keep on top of things that are happening.

Being Nosey:

What medium do you do your work best in? Is there a medium that you aspire to work in?

In the past couple years I’ve been experimenting with printmaking practices, photography and embroidery. I’ve been using the three fairly equally and combining them where I can. What ties them all together is my use of fabric which I use to print on, embellish with thread, and can transform into a sculptural object. Fabric simply allows for a lot experimentation and as someone that prefers object versus image making I feel that even when I’m printing an image, it immediately becomes something that can be interacted with.

I’m hoping to learn silkscreen processes soon. I’m interested in creating more large scale works and I’ve always been interested in pattern making. Silkscreen would help in achieving both.

Tell us about your heritage, is there any part of it that inspires the art that you do?

My heritage, my family and our collective origins are the basis for my work. My father’s parents were born in Jamaica and Costa Rica and are of African descent while my mother’s parents were born in the U.S. and are of Scots-Irish and Norwegian descent. Growing up, none of the cultures were really represented to me in any significant way but I was always aware of them, wanted to know more about them and incorporate familial traditions into our day to day lives. As I’ve gotten older I’ve collected more information, both through academic research and oral history, and all combine into themes and ideas that I represent in my work.

At present I’m concerned with those who regard themselves as ones of a displaced identity and how they idealize their homelands for better or for worse. I’m also in the process of conducting a project in which I ask my father to create an image of his choosing which I then carve into linoleum, print onto fabric, and embroider over. It’s a collaboration that I feel acts as evidence for ways in which his own worldview has influenced mine. It’s interesting to see ways in which he creates images that are either to satisfy himself or are meant to be entertaining for me and vice versa.

If you could be anywhere else on the planet where would you be and why?

If I could be anywhere else, I would like to be in Jamaica. I’ve been to the country before but have not been able to explore it much beyond its beaches. For me, Jamaica is that idealized homeland. I am trying to spend this year creating work that operates in reaction to how I view the country as an outsider and I’m hoping to return so that I can then spend time learning more about my family and to see how experiencing the place for myself has its influences on the work that I make.

What are your top three most played songs at the moment?

Top three songs most played are Babylon by SZA, untitled 02 | 06.23.2014 by Kendrick Lamar, and Hold Up by Beyonce.

Do you have a favorite artistic movement? Favorite work of literature? How do they influence the work that you do?

I don’t have a favorite art movement in particular, but literature has a significant influence on my work. Right now, an important read for me is Emily Raboteau’s Searching for Zion. Within this work the author travels to several different countries, all connected with the African Diaspora, and all proclaimed realms of Zion for the immigrants who have found themselves there. Yet each place has its disappointments and failings that Raboteau never expects to address.

I’m also very tied to work by Marlon James as well as Gabriel Garcia Marquez. James does a wonderful job at both revealing tragic realities in Jamaica yet at the same time is able to break down the stigmas and stereotypes of the country’s inhabitants. Garcia Marquez, in his own subtle way, in the midst of magic and tragic love stories, enlightens readers to the cultural misunderstandings that occur between the European, African, and indigenous characters that reside within South America.

Which animal do find yourself the most similar to? Why?

Perhaps a morning dove. They’re calm, tend towards companionship, but can be flighty.

What is your mantra (motto)?

Whatever struggles you’re facing, think of all that you’ve overcome, and remember you can persevere.

*Make sure to follow Alanna on instagram at alanna_reeves_art and check out her website: alanna-reeves.com, also make sure to stay tuned to Culture Out The Box for your daily dose of arts, culture and maddening things*

xoxo,

Coco & Phatz

*Embroidery by Alanna Reeves*

Performance Out the Box

April 27, 2016April 27, 2016 cultureouttheboxLeave a comment

In memory of our beloved prince

Our Top Ten- Bringing it to U!

We wanted to connect with our #COTB brothers and sisters from around the diaspora. Although we have not seen all artists live and direct, their work is undeniable if only through video. In no particular order we love them all for their vision, implemtation and committment.

Check them out on youtube, vimeo, twitter, instagram and more!

Enjoy and take it out the box!!