Rothko Chapel

The Menil Collection and surrounding nonprofit organizations presented their annual Menilfest community arts festival, a free afternoon of exhibitions, performances, and readings that extends across the Menil neighborhood.

In collaboration with Menilfest, the Rothko Chapel activated the Chapel and the plaza between the hours of 11am-6pm with a music performance, interactive labyrinth dance, on-site tours, and refreshments by SweetCup Gelato.

3-4:30pm

Anecdote of the Spirit

Music created by Misha Penton, soprano, and Thomas Helton, double bass

Misha Penton, soprano and experimental vocal composer, and Thomas Helton, composer and double bassist, created music through spontaneous and improvised compositional techniques, yielding quiet, spacious, beautiful and intense sounds, in keeping with the sacred environment of the Chapel.

The audience was invited to wander in and out of the Chapel for a quiet, introspective, and contemplative experience. “Anecdote of the Spirit” is a direct quote from Mark Rothko, and in full reads: “Art to me is an anecdote of the spirit, and the only means of making concrete the purpose of its varied quickness and stillness.” Rothko’s quote speaks to the inarticulable in art and music: the essential and transformational experience of the work not communicable with descriptive words.

About the performers

Misha Penton is a contemporary opera singer, experimental vocal composer, and writer. Her work explores the intersection of new music performance; new opera theater; soundscape composition; and classical and extended vocal techniques. She is the founder, artistic director of Divergence Vocal Theater, a Houston-based opera, new music and multi-performing arts ensemble. Misha's performance work has appeared at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Dallas Museum of Art, Menil Collection, University of Houston Center for Creative Work, and DiverseWorks Arts Space Houston; organizations and ensembles she has sung with include Houston Grand Opera, Mercury, and Foundation for Modern Music. Misha's recordings include Selkie (2013, composer Elliot Cole), ravens & radishes (2014, composer George Heathco), and The Captured Goddess (2015, composer Dominick DiOrio). www.mishapenton.com

Thomas Helton is a composer and bassist who writes and performs music in both solo and ensemble settings. As a composer Mr. Helton was awarded a Houston Arts Alliance Individual Artist Fellowship Grant in 2007. He was awarded an artist residency for the commission and premiere of Pride from DiverseWorks ArtSpace in Houston in October 2004 in collaboration with video artist Maria del CarmenMontoya. Other new music commissions include 5 works for the Michele Brangwen Dance Ensemble. His work, Black Rain (2005) was chosen to be performed as part of FotoFest’s 2006 Biennial dedicated to the themes of The Earth and Artists Responding to Violence. As a bassist, Thomas Helton performs with his own ensemble, The Core Trio, as well as with many celebrated jazz and free improv artists. www.thomashelton.org

Concert

Chamber ensemble Loop38

Described as a “masterpiece” and “monumental work” by the New York Times and The Guardian, respectively, Austrian composer Georg Friedrich Haas’ hour-long work for twenty-four musicians, in vain (2000), creates an unforgettable listening experience. Just as “the natural light that illuminates the murals...accurately show the nuances and subtleties of [Rothko’s] color palette” in Rothko Chapel, the absence of light is used in Haas’ in vain to create an experience of “waves of opulently strange, beautiful sounds”. With most of the music performed in complete darkness as the performers play from memory, the sounds are liberated, and “the focus lies on what is trapped under listening habits”.

While many works of Haas have been performed to great acclaim in New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, and London, he has yet to be discovered in Houston. With an emphasis on achieving artistic excellence and a passion to create unique aural experiences for the community, Loop38 is excited to include the Texas premiere of this demanding work in their first season.

Co-founded by conductor Jerry Hou and pianist Yvonne Chen at the Shepherd School of Music in 2016, chamber ensemble Loop38 is comprised entirely of Houston transplants, bringing their unique musical experiences from all over the world to share with the Houston community. Its members hold degrees from The Juilliard School, Peabody Institute, Cleveland Institute of Music, Eastman School of Music, Yale University, University of Michigan, University for the Arts in Bremen, Germany, and Oberlin Conservatory. Members of the group have worked with composers such as Steve Reich, Pierre Boulez, Gyorgy Kurtag, Helmut Lachenmann, Bernard Rands, Unsuk Chin, and Mark-Anthony Turnage. www.loop38.org

Myokei Caine-Barrett, Shonin, Buddhist Meditation

Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Current Bishop of the Nichiren Order of North America, Myokei Caine-Barrett is also Resident Priest and Guiding Teacher of the Nichiren Buddhist Sangha of Texas and Myoken-ji Temple. She is the first Western woman in the world, and first person of African-Japanese descent, to be ordained in the Nichiren Shu tradition as well as the first female Bishop in NONA. She is engaged in spreading the Dharma behind bars at TDCJ, as well as supporting the healing of emotional issues of military service with Vets Journey Home.

The series is co-sponsored by Ligmincha Texas Institute, The Jung Center of Houston, MD Anderson Cancer Center, and the Rothko Chapel.

Adam Tendler shared an ambitious program of works that provoke, challenge, thrill, and ultimately move the listener. The program included works by Nico Muhly, Earle Brown, Marina Poleukhina, Charlie Sdraulig, Morton Feldman, and Philip Glass.

About Adam Tendler:

Adam Tendler has been called "an exuberantly expressive pianist" who "vividly displayed his enthusiasm for every phrase" by The Los Angeles Times, a “quietly charismatic...intrepid...outstanding...maverick pianist” by The New Yorker, a "modern-music evangelist" by Time Out New York, and a pianist who "has managed to get behind and underneath the notes, living inside the music and making poetic sense of it all," by The Baltimore Sun, which continued, "if they gave medals for musical bravery, dexterity and perseverance, Adam Tendler would earn them all." London critic Frances Wilson described Tendler's memorized performance of Morton Feldman's Palais de Mari as "a concentrated listening experience...meditative, intense and beautifully poised." And New York Times critic Anthony Tommasini wrote that Tendler played an outdoor performance of John Cage's music "captivatingly," and that "the wondrously subdued sounds silenced many, who listened closely even as street bustle and chirping birds blended in."

Tendler lives in New York City and serves on the faculty of Third Street Music School Settlement, the country’s first community music school.

Father Serge Veselinovich, Serbian Orthodox Tradition

Wednesday April 5, 2017

Father Serge Veselinovich was born on October 5th, 1968, in Frankfurt, (West) Germany. He moved to Australia in 1969 with his parents Elijah and Bojka née Matovich whereupon he graduated Fairfield High School in 1986 in the western suburbs of Sydney. He moved to Chicago in 1987, where he entered into seminary at Saint Sava, and after four years of study, was ordained into the holy priesthood. He served briefly in Australia for a total of two years and then moved back to the States.

He is currently the parish priest of Saints Constantine and Helen Orthodox Church in Galveston, Texas. Although records show that the Orthodox peoples of the Balkans, Middle East, and Russia had started congregating in the 1860s, Saints Constantine and Helen is the oldest Orthodox church in the state of Texas, dating back from 1895 when it was officially consecrated. Father Serge has served this small but ever faithful community for the past twenty-two years.

The series is co-sponsored by Ligmincha Texas Institute, The Jung Center of Houston, MD Anderson Cancer Center, and the Rothko Chapel.

“Dismantling the System: What Juvenile Decarceration can Teach us About Undoing Mass Incarceration”

Keynote address by Vincent Schiraldi, Senior Research Fellow, Criminal Justice Policy and Management at Harvard University

Using the Juvenile Justice System as a starting point, Schiraldi will uncover why the number of young people locked up has declined by more than 50% since the beginning of this millennium while adult incarceration has only flattened out. Through this exploration, Schiraldi will share some of the key elements and actions needed to decrease mass incarceration in America, and the significant role that citizens are playing to dismantle the system.

Vincent Schiraldi is a Senior Research Fellow directing the Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management at Harvard University’s Kennedy School. Schiraldi has served as founder of Justice Policy Institute, director of juvenile corrections in Washington, D.C., and Commissioner of the NYC Department of Probation. Most recently, Schiraldi served as Senior Advisor to the NYC Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice. For Schiraldi, making communities safer and reducing crime means improving fairness in the system and developing opportunities in poor communities. He pioneered efforts at community-based alternatives to incarceration with the YouthLink initiative in D.C., and in NYC with the NeON network and the Close to Home program.

An Act of Justice: Undoing the Legacy of Mass Incarceration Symposium

"Decriminalization and Decarceration: Getting There from Here”

Keynote Address by Margaret Burnham, Northeastern University School of Law Professor

Welcome and Overview by Daivd Leslie, Executive Director, Rothko Chapel.

Poetry performed by Audrey M., Writers in the Schools.

Burnham explores the legacy of mass incarceration in the United States: how we became the most incarcerated nation in the world and what it would take as a society to undo this complex system. Burnham discusses the realities that race, class and economics play while also lifting up some of the visionary reform efforts that are underway.

Margaret Burnham is a Professor of Law and African-American Studies at Northeastern University School of Law. Focusing on the history of mid-20th century racial violence in the US, she studies and pursues legal and political initiatives to remedy past racial injustices, with special attention to criminal justice institutions. She is the founder and director of Northeastern’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project, which has compiled the most comprehensive archive on mid-20th century racially motivated murder cases in the US. In 1993, Nelson Mandela appointed Burnham to an international human rights tribunal investigating violations in South Africa. In 2016, Burnham received the prestigious Carnegie Fellowship, awarded to “the nation’s preeminent scholars and thinkers.”

Join us for a Twilight Meditation honoring International Women's Day, with a focus on the unique challenges that displaced refugee women face throughout the world. Women who are refugees and immigrants will share their personal stories and testimonies. The evening will close with a community conversation about the importance of individual and collective efforts to advocate for and support just and equitable policies in support of refugees and immigrants.

Musical performance by Mohammad Sheikh Horo, Saz player

International Women's Day (IWD) is a global celebration of the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.

About the Presenters

Wafa Abdin is Vice President for Immigration and Refugee Services at Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. She oversees the Cabrini Center for Immigrant Legal Assistance, the largest non-profit provider of immigration legal services for low-income and indigent non-citizens as well as the Refugee Resettlement Program. Ms. Abdin has more than sixteen years’ experience in representing vulnerable immigrants and refugees including detained adults and children, asylum seekers, victims of human trafficking and other crimes.

The Rev. Hannah E. Atkins became Trinity's fifteenth rector in September of 2007. To prepare herself as a third generation Episcopal priest, the Reverend Atkins earned a bachelor of arts degree in history at Douglass College, Rutgers University and a masters degree in divinity at the General Theological Seminary in New York in May 1996, with additional studies in theology at Universidad Centroamericana Jose Simeon Canas in El Salvador. The Reverend Atkins previously served as Senior Assistant Rector at St. John's Church, Lafayette Square, Washington, D.C. Before joining St. John's Church, she served as Director of Theological and Christian Education in the Diocese of the Episcopal/Anglican Church of El Salvador, Associate Priest at St. John the Evangelist San Salvador, Priest-in-Charge at Holy Trinity Church Santa Teresa in San Martin, and as Interim Priest-in-Charge at St. Andrew's Church in Amatepec, Soyapango.

Asinja Bedeel was born and raised in the small Northern Iraqi village of Behzani. Badeel had been living with her husband and two children in Baghdad when they received word in 2003 that her husband was in danger because he was working for an American company. Since Badeel and her family arrived in Houston in 2008, she has accomplished not only academic accolades at Houston Community College and University of Houston, but has also been pro-active on issues facing the refugee population and refugee women in particular. Badeel currently works as a medical-case worker in Refugee Services at Interfaith Ministries and she is engaged with YAZADA – A Global Yizidi Organization. You can read more about her story by visiting www.imgh.org/our-blog/our-blog/refugee-spotlight-asinja-badeel

Chloe Krane worked as a reporter in the Middle East for many years and moved to Houston from England for her husband’s job. Jim Krane, Ph.D., is the Wallace S. Wilson Fellow for Energy Studies at Rice University’s Baker Institute. Chloe is passionate about refugees and is the lead volunteer for the Interfaith Ministries Women’s Initiative Project, a group of Arabic-speaking refugee women that meet on a weekly basis for networking and support. Chloe is an active and well-informed voice in the community - advocating for refugees and engaging the local community in supporting refugees in Houston. She has two young children, and prior to being a mom she was a TV Producer for about 10 years. Based mainly in the Middle East, she worked on hard news, documentaries, investigative programs and commercials.

Imam Mohammad Khan, Muslim Meditation

Wednesday, March 3, 2017

Join us for an Muslim meditation with a focus on "Oneness." The meditation will include a recitation and discussion of verses, and instructions for prayer.

Mohammad Ahmad Khan was born and raised in Houston, Texas. In 2007, he memorized the Qur’an. He then went on mastering the recitation and articulation of the Qur'an under the tutelage of the distinguished Reciter Muhammad Siddique. After learning the fundamentals and the art of Qur’anic recitation, He accepted the position of primary Imam at a local mosque and began teaching the principles that he appropriated from his teachers.

After working closely with the community for many years, in 2012, Mohammad enrolled at Zaytuna College to further his studies in the Islamic Sciences. Zaytuna College has given him a holistic understanding of both the the Islamic and Western traditions. He seeks to be a dynamic community leader and a professor of Islamic Studies who engages with both the Muslim community and the greater community here in the West by presenting the Islamic sciences in a manner that gives access to the laity, Muslims, traditional students of Islam and Western academics alike.

He is currently the Director of Religious affairs at ISGH Mercy Islamic Center in Baytown. The central focus of his mission is the enfranchisement of the disenfranchised, particularly women and young professionals.

The series is co-sponsored by Ligmincha Texas Institute, The Jung Center of Houston, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, and the Rothko Chapel.

Imam Mohammad Khan, Islamic Meditation

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Join us for a Islamic meditation with a focus on "Oneness." The meditation will include a recitation and discussion of verses, and instructions for prayer.

Mohammad Ahmad Khan was born and raised in Houston, Texas. In 2007, he memorized the Qur’an. He then went on mastering the recitation and articulation of the Qur'an under the tutelage of the distinguished Reciter Muhammad Siddique. After learning the fundamentals and the art of Qur’anic recitation, He accepted the position of primary Imam at a local mosque and began teaching the principles that he appropriated from his teachers.

After working closely with the community for many years, in 2012, Mohammad enrolled at Zaytuna College to further his studies in the Islamic Sciences. Zaytuna College has given him a holistic understanding of both the the Islamic and Western traditions. He seeks to be a dynamic community leader and a professor of Islamic Studies who engages with both the Muslim community and the greater community here in the West by presenting the Islamic sciences in a manner that gives access to the laity, Muslims, traditional students of Islam and Western academics alike.

He is currently the Director of Religious affairs at ISGH Mercy Islamic Center in Baytown. The central focus of his mission is the enfranchisement of the disenfranchised, particularly women and young professionals.

The series is co-sponsored by Ligmincha Texas Institute, The Jung Center of Houston, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, and the Rothko Chapel.