​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Phoenix Arts + Culture PRESENTS, ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​a Temporary & Performing Arts Series at Burton Barr Central Library​

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Coming Soon:​

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Eternal Home:
A responsive collaboration between art, dance, and audience​

​​Sunday, April 14, 2024
2:00-3:00 p.m.

Artist Patricia Sannit and choreographer and dancer Nicole L. Olson have mutually created a dance and visual art event that expresses the power of community, its resilience strengthened by migration, shared histories, and cooperation. Eternal Home features Olson in an energetic, elegiac, participatory dance performed amid a sculptural installation created by Sannit. As Olson performs, the art responds, and the audience will be invited to interact within the art/dance setting.

About the Artists:
Award-winning dancer and choreographer Nicole L. Olson explores the human condition through movement. The artistic director of the dance company NicoleOlson|MovementChaos, she's presented work in alternative spaces across the Valley of the Sun for years, performing solo, with her dancers, and with other local artists and creators. She has also shown work nationally at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and other venues throughout the country.

Patricia Sannit is a sculptor and multimedia artist. Her life and work are influenced by her research into the continual movement and migration of people, ideas, and culture. Patricia works mainly with clay and found materials, but with a growing interest in ephemeral works, she has expanded her practice to include video, performance, mixed-media works, and landscape intervention, creating interactive and large-scale artworks that have been exhibited across the globe, including Iceland.

Learn more about Nicole L. Olson: 
@nicoleolsondance

Learn more about Patricia Sannit:
@patriciasannitstudio​  
www.patriciasannit.com​​

​The Story of Our Journey: Film Screening

Sunday, January 14, 2024
2:00-3:00 p.m.

The Story of Our Journey is a collaboration by clarinetist Csaba Jevtic-Somlai, composer Dylan Findley, and Their Story is Our Story (TSOS), an international refugee advocacy organization.  The musical score and accompanying film merge clarinet, fixed media electronics, and interviews with refugees detailing their extraordinary journeys from homes lost to new homes in foreign lands. Rather than offer commentary or solutions to the crisis, the music allows the refugees to speak directly and personally to each listener.

About the Artists: 

Dr. Dylan Findley is a music composer and educator who writes music as a sacred act of expressing truths through emotion, intellect and embodied physicality. As such, he enjoys the interplay between symbolism, the perception of musical space and time, and exploring interesting sounds. His works have been performed in Colombia, Brazil, Italy, and across the United States. 

Dr. Csaba Jevtic-Somlai is an avid performer and educator who has performed professionally in Europe, Asia, and North America since 2001. His initial idea of materializing current issues surrounding the refugee crisis into an art composition has yielded much fruit through collaboration with TSOS. Through his artwork, he hopes to amplify the voices of underrepresented groups of people and advocate for positive change and greater understanding.

Learn more about the Story of Our Journey:  

www.tsosrefugees.org/projects/the-story-of-our-journey

Parade of Barbershop Quartets: Musical Performance

Sunday, November 12, 2023
2:00-3:00 p.m.

Join us for a delightful afternoon musical show featuring nearly a dozen quartets. Songs will include numbers from the Roaring Twenties to the Big Band Era and beyond.  

You will hear hits made popular by artists from Al Jolson to Frank Sinatra and from Rickey Nelson to Louie Armstrong.  Songs will be performed in the rich Barbershop Harmony style.  The program also includes the International Seniors Champion, High Priority.

About Barbershop Harmony:

Barbershop harmony is generally considered to be one of the few uniquely American-born musical styles, alongside jazz, with which it shares origins. The simplest definition of barbershop centers around relatively simple melodies sung in four-part harmony without instruments (a cappella).

Learn more about the Barbershop Harmony Society:  www.barbershop.org​

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Afternoon Concert: Camille Sledge​

​​Sunday, February 11, 2024
2:00-3:30 p.m.​​​​

Join singer and songwriter Camille Sledge as she shares some of her favorite songs for this afternoon concert at the library. "Sledge is a full tour de force on the stage, whipping her body and voice with every inclination in her spirit to the tribal rhythms brought out by the band." -Java Magazine​​

About the Artist:
Camille Sledge is a singer, songwriter, lyricists/MC, and runway model. Camille grew up surrounded by music with her mother, Debbie Sledge of the iconic group Sister Sledge with whom Camille occasionally performs. In addition to solo performances and being the lead singer of the renowned group, the Phoenix Afrobeat Orchestra, Camille is a founding partner of the School of HipHop PHX (SOHH). SOHH is a nonprofit mentoring and music program which uses hip-hop influence to reach underrepresented intercity youth. 

Learn more about Camille Sledge: 
@camillesledge
www.camillesledge.com

Convo Station: Community Engagement Performance with Erin V. Sotak

Saturday, November 4, 2023
11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

This presentation is located outside the Main Entrance to the Burton Barr Central Library​

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Passageways

Sunday, December 10, 2023
1:00-4:00 p.m.

Passageways is an interview-based story project that explores what it means to grow up. We all experience moments that make us grow. There are moments that bring a sense of joy or expansion, then there are moments that bring a sense of pain or responsibility, and sometimes, they happen without us even noticing. This project is meant to capture the stories of such moments, display them, and create a sense of acceptance with the complex, dynamic, and ever-changing experience of what it means to grow up.  Visit the library to see some of the stories that have been turned into art, do some artmaking, and share your own story.

About the Artists:
Phil Stoesz is a facilitator, educator, and creator who works at the intersection of service and imagination. He is a multidisciplinary artist who has training in theatre direction, science communication, and facilitating community-led projects. He is a certified facilitator of the Critical Response Process.​

Thameenah “Ty" Muhammad is an Afro-Caribbean artist and activist. Ty is a producing artistic collaborator with Rising Youth Theatre and a co-founder of RE:Frame Youth Arts Center. They are a multidisciplinary artist whose main mediums include acting, dancing, poetry/spoken word, and visual art.

Learn more about Passageways:
www.whistlingmoon.org

​Afternoon Concert: Tatiana Crespo

Sunday, October 22, 2023
2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.

Join singer and songwriter Tatiana Crespo as she shares some of her favorite songs in both English and Spanish to celebrate and honor those who have passed. She will also perform some of her original compositions inspired by Halloween, Dia De Los Muertos, love, and loss with her accordion and guitar. It will be an afternoon full of storytelling, laughs, witchy cackles, and heartfelt moments for English and Spanish speakers alike.