Express Newark: Rock Steady

On this final episode of Rock Steady, our host, Fran Bartkowski, talks with Express Newark Director, Salamishah Tillet, just awarded a Pulitzer Prize for criticism in The New York Times.  Salamishah discusses her very deep roots and love for Newark and how the city is intrinsic to her identity.  She tells of how reading Amiri Baraka in college was just one of many threads that kept her connected to the city of Newark, and recounts how the first time she entered the Hahne's Building and Express Newark it was "love at hello."

Adrienne Wheeler is a multi-media artist, curator and arts educator who has exhibited widely.  Her familial roots in Newark are multi-generational.  Fran and Adrienne discuss the impact of the pandemic, given that she was in Senegal when lockdowns came. They also explore how her involvement in The Glassbook Project developed into an oral history project with her mother, which then led to the work on The White Dress Narratives.

Aka Pink Dragon Lady, Linda Street is an artist, designer, and entrepreneur based in Newark.

She is also executor of the archive of the works of recently passed legendary Newark artist, Jerry Gant.  She curated his recent retrospective exhibit at the Paul Robeson Gallery, "Bulletproof Ambition."

Fran and Linda have an energetic conversation about her work with Jerry Gant, as well as Linda’s projects including the reigniting of her fashion brand, Pink Funk, during the pandemic, and the creation of a Black Lives Matter mural at Manufacturer's Village in East Orange, and the documentary film about that project.

Our host, Dr. Fran Bartkowski,  met Gwen when she was Director of the City of Newark Arts and Culture initiatives.

In the 1990’s, Gwen was named President Clinton’s cultural liaison in Africa.  She currently serves as Music Director for the Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank.

Fran and Gwen discuss two of her ‘pandemic projects,' among many other topics, including, virtual programming for children in Newark that harness the participants' creative energies through life skills.  Finally, Gwen talks about her creation of a gospel choir.

On episode one of season 4 of Rock Steady, our host, Dr. Fran Bartkowski, talks with Shine Portrait Studio Artist-In-Residence Scheherazade Tillet.

Scheherazade Tillet is a photographer, youth organizer, and an art therapist. Her art and activism have been featured in the New York Times, Teen Vogue, The Chicago Tribune, on MSNBC and NPR; and she currently has an exhibition at PROJECT FOR EMPTY SPACE in Newark, called "Black Girl Play."

We learn about the Black Girlhood Altar project that has taken root in many cities, and was borne out of working through her sister’s sexual assault in photographs.  Fran and Scheherazade also discuss the many outcomes of this creative connection between herself and her sister, and their familial roots in Newark. Salamishah Tillet, her sister, is the current Director of Express Newark and she will be our guest on the final episode of  Rock Steady in the coming weeks.

Professor of Graphic Design and founding member of Express Newark, Chantal Fischzang is the guest on this episode of Season 3.  An award winning designer, originally from Bolivia, Chantal talks about the Newark Street Murals project for which she chose the font called "Martin" named for Martin Luther King Jr.  She also describes the call for proposals for the project called "Will You Be My Monument?" which took place after the City of Newark removed the Christopher Columbus statue in Washington Park, and where a new monument is due to appear.

Fran’s guest on this second episode of Rock Steady Season 3 is Jennifer Bernstein.

Jennifer is Associate Professor in the Department of Arts, Culture, and Media who teaches Graphic Design.

Jennifer was among the visionaries of Express Newark, and Co-Directs Visual Means and the Design Consortium projects, both partners at Express Newark.  Her interest in data visualization led to a collaboration with Rutgers Law School Professor David Trout.  In working on displacement of diverse kinds in the city of Newark, her work tries to address how design and data can integrate the represention of pain and suffering.

Director of the Form Design Studio and a Professor in the Arts, Culture, and Media department at Rutgers-Newark, Keary sits down with Fran in this first episode of Rock Steady, Season 3.

Keary discusses how the Form Design Studio, at the beginning of the pandemic, pivoted from creating 3D art for faculty, students, and community to a studio that created Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for the medical community in New Jersey.

In his personal art practice Keary has been working on a piece called "The Mirror Test and The Book of Life."

Fran’s guest on this episode of Rock Steady is John Schreiber, Director of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) in Newark.

John and Fran discuss how an anchor institution such as NJPAC, that lost 90% of its revenue due to Covid, and laid off a large portion of its workforce, managed with great success to curate, develop, and produce quality virtual programming.

One of only 6 African American museum directors in the country, Linda Harrison became Director of Newark Museum of Art in 2019.

Before her move to Newark, Linda was the Director of the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco.

Linda chats with Fran about what the pandemic has taught us, including how to make art live online,,, and how it heals, as well as how it can connect families.