Tag: Society & Politics

Participating in A Global Art Community

On By davidemmanuelnoelIn Society & Politics, Visual Art & MusicLeave a comment

The challenges of the last few years are combined with the necessary focus on my practice and wider professional commitments. Despite the pandemic and its challenges, I have endured, moved forward, bridged significant relationships, and created opportunities with hope for a positive and prosperous future. Whilst have been shamefully neglectful of my personal blog site, I have documented many of my activities via my company websites; Occhi & Entertainment, Occhi Contemporary, and Occhi Magazine. You’ll find several projects I have curated and interviews with several amazing artists who have inspired me beyond measure!

In recent months, I have been privileged to once again participate in the 2022 Caribbean Fine Art Fair, and co-host a number of webinars and talks with prominent artists and academics from the African and Caribbean diaspora. Art fans from across the world were able to join CaFA 2022 at the Norman Centre, Broad Street in Bridgetown, Barbados, but also through caribbean.global .

One of the artists I was honoured to meet was Cheryl D. Miller. Cheryl D Miller is a designer, author, and theologian who is best known for her diversity, equity, and inclusion advocacy for black graphic designers in the industry and marketplace. Miller holds a Master of Science degree in visual communications from Pratt Institute and received her BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art, with Foundation Studies completed at the Rhode Island School of Design. She also holds a Master of Divinity degree from the Union Theological Seminary in New York City. An accomplished, award-winning designer and businesswoman, Miller established one of the first black women-owned design firms in New York City in 1984.

The event included a segment on NFTs by Zoe Osborne of Mahogany Culture, one of the early adopters of NFTs in Barbados and the Caribbean. She dedicated a portion of her panel discussion to exploring and clarifying facts about the new digital option for artists. For further information on the artist and the online exhibition of works, visit the caribbean.global website.

Together for Our Planet Exhibition

Further to the Occhi Arts and Entertainment/Phoenix call for artists to participate in the collaboration, we have produced a short publication featuring artists across the globe. I have also interviewed several artists and discussed their careers and exhibition entries. Further information is available on the Occhi Arts &Entertainment websites.  For further information visit the following link

 

Call For Artists: COP26 & Climate Change Initiative

On By davidemmanuelnoelIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

This project is a collaboration between Occhi Arts and Entertainment and Phoenix FTA Limited, a UK-based sustainability strategy consultancy. Inspired by the UK Creative Earth Competition, Occhi Arts and Entertainment and Phoenix FTA Limited are inviting young artists from around the world to creatively engage with key topics of concern at the COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow. This initiative provides a wider audience of young artists with a renewed opportunity to visually express their views to world leaders and community stakeholders by producing 2D artwork (drawing, painting, printmaking, collage, and photography) that supports at least one of the following themes:

1. Protect What You Love

​Climate Change is giving rise to more frequent wildfires, longer periods of drought in some regions, and an increase in the number, duration, and intensity of tropical storms. Glaciers are shrinking, plant and animal ranges are shifting or go extinct. Humans could save thousands of species from extinction if they act. ‘Protect What You Love’ encourages participants to express their concerns, highlighting what their hold dearly and want to protect from the effects of climate change.

2. A future beyond neoliberal capitalism?

With our societies forced into a truly deranged economic paradigm, one that landed us amid a terrifying climate emergency, it’s hard to imagine that the future of our human species lies beyond the patent immorality of neoliberal capitalism. A completely new system that puts equity and justice at its core is required. Young artists are invited to creatively express their interpretation of a “post-ecopathic” economic system via the mediums of drawing, painting, printmaking, collage, and photography.

The Objective

The objective is to foster and establish an inclusive young artists’ community that feels empowered to engage with global climate change politics by using their creativity, expressing their democratic voice, and participating in this vitally important discourse. We believe the project will help build a noteworthy platform to establish intergenerational collaboration with key stakeholders by raising awareness of COP26 and serve a cross-sectional analysis that will allow deeper insights into how Generations Z and Alpha perceive the severity of climate change. It fosters political engagement, participation in the democratic process, and voices intergenerational concerns.

Submission Process

Participants will be required to submit one image (max file size: 500KB/300 dpi), a short bio (max 150 words), and a written summary of the artwork via email to submissions@occhimagazine.com

Please title your email subject ‘COP26 Art Submission’.

Each featured work remains the copyright of the participating artist who consents to work being exhibited as part of this initiative.

Early submissions (artwork submitted before 28th October 2021) will be featured on the Occhi Contemporary Art website, from 31st October 2021, to coincide with the launch of COP26.

The call for submissions will be open for the duration of COP26, which ends on Friday 12th November. A final selection of works will be featured online and in a publication, to be produced after and in response to COP26 key outcomes. The featured artists and artworks will be announced approximately two weeks after the official deadline to ensure that our guest curators and editorial team give their full attention to each applicant’s work. Further updates and additional information will be posted on occhicontemporary.art and occhimagazine.com.

‘Colonial Currents: Black Women, Water, Trauma, and Baptism’ At The 15th National Black Writers Conference

On By davidemmanuelnoelIn Literature & Word, Society & PoliticsLeave a comment

The Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York (CBL) presents the 15th National Black Writers Conference (NBWC2020). The conference, which started on Wednesday, runs until Saturday, November 14, 2020. The event, in association with Akila Worksongs, was rescheduled from its annually-held Spring dates due to COVID-19 and will be held virtually. This year’s theme, Activism, Identity, and Race: Playwrights and Screenwriters at the Crossroads, is a new focus for the Conference that boldly affirms and celebrates how the diaspora’s playwrights and screenwriters expand society’s understanding of Black life and the human experience. Forming part of an exciting program of events, anthropologist and interdisciplinary artist Alexis Alleyne-Caputo (Afro Diaries™) will present her short film titled  ‘Colonial Currents: Black Women, Water, Trauma, and Baptism’. 

Further to her previous projects exploring issues affecting black and brown communities, Alexis Alleyne Caputo’s project draws on current pertinent and intersecting issues, underscoring racial injustice, police brutality, climate change, COVID-19, and the global momentum supporting the Black Lives Matter movement.  The short film will be followed by a Q&A, which I have been invited to participate in.

Much reflection is given on how artists, activists, and educators can respond to the conference’s overall theme of activism, identity, and race whilst widening discussion, exploring solutions and disseminating findings beyond the conference’s virtual registrants. The artist who contributed to the project were Andria Thomas, Anasthasia Grand-Pierre, Cheryl Harrell, Desiree Parkman, Kashia Kancey, Maryann A. Payne-Benjamin, M.M.N. Caputo, Na’Talya Elizabeth Duhart, Shawna Watson, Shawnnette Longley (Rimidi), and Yolande Clark-Jackson.

Speaking on the eve of the conference Alexis Alleyne Caputo explains, ”This is a response to the conference theme of  Activism, Identity, and Race: Playwrights and Screenwriters at the Crossroads. The African American experience must be recorded and viewed from a wider lens, understanding similar or shared experiences of black people across the world. Milestones in history, our response, and the narrative of the African diaspora’s story matters. This is best served via the collaboration of literary and visual minds to celebrate our being and shape our future’’.

Other conference highlights include roundtable conversations, panel discussions, a town hall, film screenings, author readings, writing and playwrighting talk shops, a local vendor marketplace, and much more. The four-day virtual gathering brings together students, writers, artists, activists, scholars, literary professionals, theater and film giants, and other literature enthusiasts from near and far. The aim is to explore the challenges, rewards, and impact of working within the Black film and theater industries. Discussions will examine the ways that race, identity, politics, and popular culture shape the production of plays, films, and television shows.

For further information on Alexis Alleyne Caputo please visit https://alexiscaputo.com/

Click here for the program for the day.  For further information and bookings for the 15th National Black Writers Conference (NBWC2020) please visit https://centerforblackliterature.com

The featured image, courtesy of Alexis Alleyne Caputo  features Anasthasia Grand-Pierre (left) and  Maryann A. Benjamin (right)

Mental Health Awareness Week- Art, Climate Change and Well Being

On By davidemmanuelnoelIn Society & Politics, Visual Art & Music2 Comments
Climates of Motion, David Emmanuel Noel
Climates of Motion 2

Hoping you’re all well and enjoying life. It’s been a busy few weeks, head down working on a few projects and paintings. I’ve included two recent works which form part of my Fusion Series. The works will to be exhibited shortly.

The Fusion Series is an experimentation of colour, using a variety of acrylic paints and ink, encouraging you to  think about the relationships between tones and textures in paintings, how they provoke emotions and support mental well being.

A variety of health professionals accept that our healthcare environment has a significant impact on a patient’s perception of their medical care and, in some cases, their actual recovery. Health professionals continue to explore the psychology of colour and how chosen hues on walls, floors and furniture can have a positive, or indeed negative, effect on a person’s health and wellbeing.

Continuing the original theme, the attached works have been influenced by a growing body of evidence that climate change induced mental health issues are increasing. It is particularly worrying to know this is a growing issue with teenagers.

I will endeavour to share evidence and updates in future posts.

Stay well!

Climates of Motion, David Emmanuel Noel
Climates of Motion 1

 

Children of the Snow Land – Education is a Sacrifice!

On By davidemmanuelnoelIn Society & Politics, Visual Art & MusicLeave a comment
children-of-the-snow-land, david emmanuel noel, film interviews
Children of the Snow Land

‘Children of the Snow Land’ is an extraordinarily moving, inspirational and absorbing documentary, filmed from the ‘roof of the world’ where families struggle and sacrifice everything to help their children.

From the age of 4 years old, children are sent to school in the city, hoping education means a better life. Unfortunately, this comes with the likelihood they will not see their parents and families again for 12 years. Children of the Snow Land documents the life experiences of children born in the High Himalayas of Nepal and follows the journey of three students as they embark on a perilous trek back to their respective villages.

One of the directors is Zara Balfour. Zara is an award-winning director, producer and writer with 18 years experience in all forms of documentary, film and content, specialising in films about the world we live in and people and cultures worldwide. She has filmed in over 20 countries, often documenting community projects in developing countries.

She began her career as an actress before moving behind the camera as producer and director. Zara set up Picture on the Wall Productions and has won awards at film festivals including Berlin Film Festival (winner of the Prix UIP for Best European Short Film), London Film Festival, European Film Awards, Telluride, Warp Records v Creative Review Awards and Cannes Lions. I was fortunate to catch  up with her ahead of the film’s general release and ask a few questions.

What support did you get from the Nepalese Government or national agencies?

We didn’t ask for support in the beginning but the school organised a fundraising gala screening in Kathmandu after we completed the film. The Mayor of Kathmandu and the Vice President of Nepal attended. Now we have their support and we hope we can facilitate further fundraising events.

Was the filming of the documentary much of a logistical challenge?

The villages are off the grid. It was only ever two film crew plus a guide, porters and the children. Half the time it was me and co-director Marcus Stephenson or I was accompanied by our cameraman/photographer Mark Hakansson.

We used solar charger kits and backpacks, enabling us to film in difficult and remote areas. We did have porters and donkeys to aid our travel but  the journey was treacherous. At times the donkeys would panic in the face of treacherous river crossings. All the rivers start in Nepal and head down towards southern Asia.  Some of the dangerous moments aren’t on film and  I am scared for the children going back home this year because they won’t be accompanied. It isn’t an easy journey and it’s tougher than it’s shown on film.

What about a sequel and is there anything you would do differently?

I would like to revisit the children in future to see how their lives have changed. Perhaps film them in a similar style to Michael Apted’s ‘Seven Up’ series, which followed the lives of fourteen British children since 1964. On a technical level, a bigger crew and more resources would have been nice.

So what are the next steps?

The documentary will be streaming on demand and on general release from 14thMarch 2019 at Curzon Cinemas in the UK, Ireland and Malta.

The aims of Children of the Snow Land are:

David Emmanuel Noel, Children of Snowland,
Zara Balfour with co-director Marcus Stephenson (Photo by Ina Ballik)

To show a global audience what some young people have to do for an education – and allow the Children of the Snow Land to inspire people around the world with their tenacity, grace, courage and wisdom.

To increase awareness and help improve the lives of Himalayan children attending school far from home by helping them to stay connected with their families, and to ensure they make full use of the education for which they have made such a sacrifice.  The film has already inspired donations of over $30,000 to directly help the children.

To encourage development of the Himalayan villages so that eventually children won’t have to be separated from their families to achieve an education.

For further information please visit the Children of the Snow Land website http://childrenofthesnowland.com/our-aims