LIVINGSTON MANOR — Catskill Art Space is pleased to announce a multimedia evening of contemporary performance in celebration of Black History Month at Catskill Art Space, 48 Main Street, Livingston Manor, NY, kicking off President’s Day Weekend on Saturday, February 17th. The evening will begin with African/American Composers, Then and Now, a lecture and performance presented by Thurman Barker, from 4 – 5pm, followed by screening of DJ Spooky’s multimedia film remix, Rebirth of a Nation, from 5:30 – 6:45pm. Both events take place in CAS’s second floor River Gallery.  Barker and Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky will be in attendance for audience questions and talk-back. The two performance events offer opportunities to reflect on the important artistic contributions of Black artists, while examining historic and present-day narratives around race and power in America.

Thurman Barker’s presentation and performance, entitled African/American Composers, Then and Now, invites audiences to examine the impact of Black Jazz composers on compositional music today. The narrative intertwines historical context with Barker’s own orchestral compositions, drawing on his experience writing for chamber orchestra and work with orchestras in Chicago and New York. The presentation includes live performance from the dynamic percussionist himself of selections from Barker’s trio’s latest release, IMPACT!

Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky’s Rebirth of Nation reinterprets DW Griffith’s infamously racist silent film, Birth of a Nation, to create a commentary on exploitation and political corruption in America’s history and present-day society. Miller writes, “We live in an age where media across all platforms has come to reflect the toxic sensibility of an era dominated by a hyper-partisan political discourse. ‘The Birth of a Nation’ is generally considered one of the most controversial films of all time, and could be considered a precursor to the media landscape of our time.” Miller’s remix project encapsulates a new approach to thinking about applying the concept of “remix” to cinema—where “the director is the DJ.” With an original soundtrack scored by DJ Spooky and performed by the Kronos Quartet, this multimedia film event provokes audiences to question the power structures propagating media of yesterday and today.