Born to a simple Pennsylvania Quaker farming family, John Bartram is now remembered as the father of American botany. Together with his son William Bartram, an exceptional artist and botanist, he explored the East Coast wilderness in the 18th century and gathered specimens that made him the envy of collectors worldwide. One admirer, George III, named him the king's botanist for North America. William also earned royal titles: During his four-year journey through the South, he was dubbed Puc Puggy (The Flower Hunter) by a Seminole chieftain. His work, including unparalleled accounts of the American landscape, was read by writers like Wordsworth and Coleridge. Carol Woodin, exhibitions director of the American Society of Botanical Artists, is presenting The Legacy of the Bartrams, a lecture exploring their impact on botany, horticulture, and art, in conjunction with "Following in the Bartrams' Footsteps." This is the only West Coast appearance of "Following," an exquisite exhibit of 44 original artworks based on the Bartrams' discoveries.
The Legacy begins at 10 a.m. and the exhibit runs through Feb. 15. More
For a city flooded with artists that doubles as a mecca for the queer community, San Francisco seems to sometimes have trouble letting go of the formalities of a professional art and performance world. Limited gallery time and space mean carefully selected artists are expected to put out polished work, leaving little room for taking major risks. Kolmel WithLove founded The News, a monthly evening of queer performance, providing a space at SOMArts that spotlights performance pieces, experiments, and works-in-progress. As curator, she has few requirements other than the 10-minute time limit, choosing pieces she herself might find potentially brilliant or even terrible, giving everyone room for experimentation and growth. Among this month’s featured performers is Yvonne “Fly” Onakeme Etaghene, a Nigerian poet and self-described “dyke of a different caliber” who discusses queer Africa. Joining her will be actor Anthony Julius Williams, known to explore issues of human justice and mass incarceration, a couple of acrobats, dancers, videos artists, and WithLove herself, hosting with multimedia artist/badass Kevin Seaman. WithLove discourages renditions and new arrangements of established works to fit her show, so everything is new.More
December is almost over - the New Year is coming up and everyone is busy drying off from the rain or holiday shopping. Let's take a look at what's happened this month.
At this point, MGM’s 1939 The Wizard of Oz is so inextricably tangled up with L. Frank Baum's novels that any new adaptation of his work inevitably references the visual motifs, characterizations, and music of Victor Fleming's film.
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Despite its distributor's best efforts, Christian Petzold's Barbara was not nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2013 Oscars -- and even if it had made the cut, it probably wouldn't have bested Haneke's Amour.
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At the height of McCarthyism in 1954, the independent film Salt of the Earth was suppressed due to its sympathetic dramatization of a strike by Mexican-American zinc miners.
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One thing Craig Scott Rosebraugh's documentary Greedy Lying Bastards cannot be accused of is hiding its point of view; it's right there in the title.
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Born to a simple Pennsylvania Quaker farming family, John Bartram is now remembered as the father of American botany. Together with his son William Bartram, an exceptional artist and botanist, he explored the East Coast wilderness in the 18th century and gathered specimens that made him the envy of collectors worldwide. One admirer, George III, named him the king's botanist for North America. William also earned royal titles: During his four-year journey through the South, he was dubbed Puc Puggy (The Flower Hunter) by a Seminole chieftain. His work, including unparalleled accounts of the American landscape, was read by writers like Wordsworth and Coleridge. Carol Woodin, exhibitions director of the American Society of Botanical Artists, is presenting The Legacy of the Bartrams, a lecture exploring their impact on botany, horticulture, and art, in conjunction with "Following in the Bartrams' Footsteps." This is the only West Coast appearance of "Following," an exquisite exhibit of 44 original artworks based on the Bartrams' discoveries.
The Legacy begins at 10 a.m. and the exhibit runs through Feb. 15. More
For a city flooded with artists that doubles as a mecca for the queer community, San Francisco seems to sometimes have trouble letting go of the formalities of a professional art and performance world. Limited gallery time and space mean carefully selected artists are expected to put out polished work, leaving little room for taking major risks. Kolmel WithLove founded The News, a monthly evening of queer performance, providing a space at SOMArts that spotlights performance pieces, experiments, and works-in-progress. As curator, she has few requirements other than the 10-minute time limit, choosing pieces she herself might find potentially brilliant or even terrible, giving everyone room for experimentation and growth. Among this month’s featured performers is Yvonne “Fly” Onakeme Etaghene, a Nigerian poet and self-described “dyke of a different caliber” who discusses queer Africa. Joining her will be actor Anthony Julius Williams, known to explore issues of human justice and mass incarceration, a couple of acrobats, dancers, videos artists, and WithLove herself, hosting with multimedia artist/badass Kevin Seaman. WithLove discourages renditions and new arrangements of established works to fit her show, so everything is new.More
Joyce Carol Oates has nearly written more novels than five people can count on both hands, as well as works in other genres. She's been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize three times and is a winner of the National Book Award, the Prix Femina, a couple of O. Henry Awards, and the first Stone Award for Lifetime Literary Achievement. In 2010, she was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama. Yet, "Despite 40 novels published, she clearly yearns to say more," says Rose Tremain, writing for the U.K. Guardian. Told in multiracial voices, The Sacrifice examines the effects of sexual violence and racism on a community wholly absorbed in the spectacle that unfolds around it. For those who have never seen Oates read, this free event at City Lights is a sure thing.More
Once upon a time, before the recent rise of Xi'an cuisine, before Mission Chinese, before fiery Szechuan food trickled out of the nation's Chinatowns, there was Hunan food, and Henry's Hunan to serve it to the gourmands of San Francisco.