Express Newark: Rock Steady

Professor of Sociology and Executive Vice Chancellor of Rutgers-Newark Sherri-Ann Butterfield is Fran’s first guest of Rock Steady Season 3. Sherri-Ann talks about how her life experiences shaped her commitment to the arts.  She emphasizes how the arts are a gateway for students in higher education that may often be overlooked.

Fran and Sherri-Ann also talk about how collaboration between Newark’s non-profit, business community and the university are strengthening the Newark Arts ecosystem.

Fran’s guest on this final episode of Season Two, is artist, gallerist and Inaugural Express Newark Co-Director, Victor Davson.

Victor reflects on the work toward opening Express Newark, his early life in Guyana, his artistic career, and how he and his wife, Cicely Cottingham, collaborate artistically.

Victor also discusses two current projects: a documentary on his life and work, and "The Misogyny Papers,"  a painting series based on a cache of photographs and writings he found under the floorboards of a cottage on his property.

Professor Anne Schaper Englot is Fran’s guest on Episode 9 of Season 2.  Anne was the Inaugural Co-Director of Express Newark, a role she says she could not have imagined before she came from Syracuse University to Rutgers University-Newark when Nancy Cantor became Chancellor.

Fran talks with Anne about the concept of a "third space," which is the foundation for Express Newark's co-creating between the university and the community, as well as her scholarly work on the Public Universal Friend, and Utopian Communities of the 19th century.

On this episode of Rock Steady, our host Dr. Fran Bartkowski sits down with the Dean of Rutgers-Newark School of Arts & Sciences, Dr. Jacqueline Mattis who had prior connections to Newark and New Jersey before she became our leader at the School of Arts and Sciences Newark in mid-pandemic.

We hear her view of the arts as means of storytelling, and her hopes for Express Newark that it become a catalyst for merging STEM fields and the Arts.

On this episode of Rock Steady, Fran talks with maverick Professor, Tim Raphael.

Tim is a theater professor in the Arts, Culture, and Media Department at Rutgers-Newark, and serves as the Director of The Center for Migration and the Global City.   Tim founded Newest Americans, a multimedia collaboratory focused on the immigrant experience that has garnered wide recognition.

Fran and Tim discuss Newark’s place in our universe; Stories from the Pandemic, a project born out of the past year's upheaval; and the role that the arts have in 21st century life.

On Episode 6 of Season 2, Fran has an engaging conversation with public artist, Layqa Nuna Yawar.

A recipient of many awards, Layqa is a graduate of Mason Gross School of the Arts, and a Newark resident.   His murals can be found in communities around the world.

Fran and Layqa discuss his work as an artist, his history as an immigrant, and what it means to him to have both his birth name, and his chosen created name.  Most striking is how he sees his mural work as a bridge between the spiritual and the corporeal.

On this episode of Rock Steady, Fran engages with artist and curator, Jo-El Lopez.  A native of Paterson, he discusses how his painting practice is influenced by Christian motifs such as stained glass.  His desire to become an artist and the vitality of the Newark arts community led him to give up a business career, and to work and live in Newark as an artist.

On this episode of Rock Steady, Fran chats with Wayne Winborne, executive Director of Rutgers-Newark Institute for Jazz Studies - one of the largest and most comprehensive libraries and archives of jazz-related materials in the world.

Fran and Wayne also reminisce about Rutgers Newark historian, Dr. Clement Price.  Clement's Place, a jazz club, at 15 Washington Street (now Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hall), is named for him and his lifelong love of jazz.

On Season 2, Episode 3 of Rock Steady, Fran engages in a lively conversation with Rebecca Jampol.  To say Rebecca wears many hats is an understatement.

She is a Teaching Designer in Rutgers Newark - Arts, Culture Media department, a Newark Arts Activist/Advocate through her work as Co-Director of The Project For Empty Space, Project Manager/Curator of Four Corners Public Arts Project, and Mom of a two year old.

Rebecca discusses how the pandemic has brought the already collaborative nature of the Newark Arts community even closer together to pool resources; the public murals on Treat Place and Beaver Street, and how through the Andy Warhol Foundation, her organization is providing serious financial support to Newark artists.

Rutgers Professor of Graphic Design, Ned Drew engages with Rock Steady Host, Dr. Fran Bartkowski in a lively discussion.

As a founding member of Express Newark, Ned talks about how the idea of Express Newark was birthed, to the June 2020 Newark Street Mural project, to how to teach LetterPress remotely, to keeping creatively afloat while anchored in the Pandemic Harbor.