After 2 weeks of inspired events all across the borough of Queens, the young community driven Queens Art Express festival pulls into its final weekend. Hits from this Saturday, June 13th: the Jackson Heights Historic Garden tour, A capella and Carribean music at Langston Hughes Library, International Family Day–a sub-festival directly under the train at 103rd St in Corona, Q& A with artists and curator at the Y Gallery, performances at Topaz in Woodside. It is a solid Saturday. We could go on-and-on. But we have to get to Sunday at some point.

Meet up with the kids of Safari 7 who are doing a run from Grand Central to Main Street on Sunday afternoon. Safari 7 provides downloadable podcasts describing the environment under the tracks. At 3pm, the Noguchi Museum in L.I.C hosts singer-songwriter, Taylor Brow, for a afternoon in the dazzling Noguchi “stone” garden, while across the street a only-in-New York “State Fair” is featured at Socrates Sculpture Park. And then the parties begin, Dean Project is hosting pre-Creek post-concert drinks and appetizers at 7 followed by debut of 2009 Live at the Gantries summer performing series at the East River oasis, Gantry State Park. The “final” Art Express Closing party featuring VJ Pixalot caps off the entire festival in Creek style (9-12pm). A lot to digest. All of the event information is on the Calendar page; here is a breakdown of how this last Art Express weekend looks under the 7.

Saturday, June 13th, 2009

10:45-2:00pm(82nd Street-Roosevelt) Historic Jackson Heights Garden Tour

The Jackson Heights Beautification Group in celebrating Jackson Heights, the first planned garden and cooperative apartment community in America- and a City, State, and Federal Historic District.

The “Historic” Weekend begins at begins at the Community United Methodist Church at 81-10 35th Avenue with an exhibition of vintage photographs and memorabilia of Jackson Heights followed by a tour in the early afternoon. Slide lectures at 10:45am and 12:15pm at the Community Church, 81-10 35th Avenue. Rain or Shine . Garden Tour from 12 noon to 4:00pm (Raindate: June 14th).

2-5pm(103rd Street) Langston Hughes Library, 2-5pm

“Men of Distinction,” A capella group -gospel, soul and doo-wop,”Quake USA” a Caribbean folk choir
Saturday June 13, 2009 2pm to 5pm. See post below.

1-6pm(52nd Street or 63rd st) Truth… is Topaz Arts

An open rehearsal with John Jasperse Company, Contemporary Artistic Process/ Explored & Revealed
1:00pm

Schema CorpoReal a solo exhibition by new-media artist Hector Canonge
Opening Reception: Sat, June 13, 3-6pm

1:30-6pm (103rd Street) INTERNATIONAL FAMILY DAY: Corona Plaza: a sub-festival of Queens Art Express directly under the train at 103.

Join the Queens Museum of Art and Corona Action Network for an afternoon of music and folkloric dance that showcases the diversity of the neighborhood. Featured performers include, Blue Pipa Trio, and Charlie Cajeres Salsa Ensemble. Plus grab a complimentary copy of the Healthy Taste of Corona cookbook featuring recipes from neighborhood restaurants and organizations, and then take advantage of special discounts at local ethnic eateries.

1:30 to 2:00: pm Mariachi America 2000
2:00 to 3:00: pm Balet Nueva Juvantud- Mexican Dance, Modelamos Talent Agency, Talent Performers from Bolivia, Columbia, Ecuador & more!
3:00 to 3:40 pm: Blue Pipa Trio
Chinese Vocals, Guitar & Bass
4:00 to 6:00 pm: Queens Museum performers including
Charlie Cajaras, el Abogado de la Salsa

5-8pm (82nd street/Roosevelt) Y Gallery, MILAGROS DE LA TORRE, BULLETPROOF, Opening reception, 6-8pm, Panel Discussion with artist and curator (Cecilia Jurado), 5 pm

Y Gallery is pleased to present BULLETPROOF, the first New York solo exhibition of artist Milagros de la Torre, curated by Cecilia Jurado. Throughout her career Milagros de la Torre has investigated the censored and the forgotten along with the fearful, the painful, and the fragile. She captures and probes thoroughly as would the most demanding detective while releasing the resulting product to our eyes without judgment. In De la Torre’s work, the human presence seems to disappear easily leaving the objective evidence behind as narrator.
(great Q& A with artists at the Y Gallery, performance at Topaz arts. It is a rock solid Saturday.

SUNDAY , June 14th

1pm-3pm (Grand Central and Flushing Main) Safari 7 – a tour of urban animal life along the 7 line.

Safari 7 is a self-guided tour of urban animal life along New York City’s No. 7 subway line. Safari 7 circulates an ongoing series of podcasts and maps that explore the complexity, biodiversity, conflicts, and potentials of New York City’s ecosystems. Safari 7 imagines train cars as eco-urban classrooms, and invites travelers to act as park rangers in their city. Safari 7 plans to engage the broadest range of New Yorkers, from commuters and school children to urban explorers and designers, in active research and exploration of their own environment.
To participate:

1. Download the Safari 7 podcasts at http://www.safari7.org and load them on your mp3 players.
2. Meet at the front of the No. 7 platform at Flushing Main Street at 2:00pm. We will ride the subway from Flushing to Times Square.

Join us!
www.safari7.org
info@safari7.org

Join Safari 7 at the front of Grand Central platform (Manhattan-bound train) at 1pm for voyage across queens and return trip leaves from Flushing Main platform at 2pm.

3-5pm (Vernon Blvd/ Jackson) Second Sunday – Music in the Garden series 2009–Taylor Brow, Singer/Songwriter. Performance begins at 3:00pm and is free with Museum admission.

For more information, please visit www.noguchi.org

4pm (Vernon Blvd/ Jackson) Socrates Sculpture Park, Spring exhibit entitled “State Fair”www.socratessculpturepark.org

6-7pm (Vernon Blvd/ Jackson) FREE STYLE ARTS-StringSculpture, Gantry State Park.

As part of Queens Art Express, people walking through Gantry State Park, people will suddenly find themselves building a giant assemblage sculpture attached to human pedestals. Free Style Arts Association, will be setting up a large participation-based String Sculpture in LIC in order to create an art piece that truly engages and reflects the people in the community they were created within.

7-8pm (Court House Square) Dean Project will be hosting post-concert pre-Creek drinks at the Dean Project. So, stop by the gallery for one before heading over to the party.

Open bar and appetizers from 7-9pm on Sunday June 14th – lead-up event to Live at the Gantries and the 2nd closing party at the Creek: Featuring a new exhibition on view – “Miradas Divergentes” our annual summer invited guest curator Juan-Ramón Barbancho, Spain, opening June 13th.

7-10pm (Vernon Blvd/ Jackson) Live at the Gantries: Hungry March Band, Presented by Queens Theatre in the Park

Fresh off a tour of France, NYC’s legendary street brass band marches back to Queens in style. Put on your dancing shoes and break out the fancy threads because they’ve got a party going on – a blazing parade of flesh, blood, steel, brass and wood. They are the music of the people!

The first show of Live at the Gantries will also be the final performance of the Queens Art Express festival produced by the Queens Council on the Arts. Hoong Yee Lee Krakauer, executive director of QCA said, “It is great to gather at the gantries for another hot summer of cool performances in Long Island City.

9- 12pm (Vernon Blvd/ Jackson) Art Express Closing Party: The Creek

Happy hour between 11-12p, $2.00 off drinks. Live Vinyl DJ and VJ loops Set from the festival.

VJ Pixalot: Pixalot’s live music/vj/dj performances have taken him to Canada, USA, Czech Republic, Germany, Indonesia, Brazil and Korea, playing everything from raves, small clubs and festivals to concert halls and international art festivals along side artists such as, Afrikaa Bambaata, DJ Goldie, DJ Spooky, DJ Markie and DJ Hype amongst others.

Caribbean Folk Music (Quake USA), meets American doo wop & A Cappella harmonies (Men of Distinction), at the courtyard of Langston Hughes Community Library & Cultural Center this Saturday, June 13th, 2-5pm. Assistant to the Executive Director of Langston Hughes, John Crow, took time out from his loaded schedule as a doting father, community leader and television talk-show host to chat with the Queens Art Express crew.

John Crow, what is your subway stop?
Depends on where I’m going to or coming from. From home to work, it’s the 103rd Street Corona Plaza stop, transfer to the 23 bus to Northern Boulevard, walk 2 blocks. Or weekends, sometimes it’s the last stop on Main Street. At the end of the day, the commute is the # 7 to Time Square or Grand Central and transfer to the Flatbush IRT 2 or 5 trains heading to Brooklyn.

What is the best musician or artist you saw performing on a subway platform?
I enjoy all of the performers and performances on the subway. They are all darn good-legit or without credentials. They are all remarkable. At one time I was one of them. There seems to be lots of Andian music.

You do a wide array of work at Langston Hughes Library-what is your title?
I’m a Community Outreach, Community Resource, Information and Referral Specialist; an events planner, calendar coordinator an assistant program Manager and an assistant to the Executive Director with Langston Hughes Community Library & Cultural Center of Queens Library. Anything one wants to know about anything they ask me. 311 calls me to verify some of their information…

What do you do for fun in Queens or the metropolitan area?
Take care of my young family. My son Sebastian is 4 years old and growing fast. His speech, word choice, and his overall intelligence fascinate me every day. My wife Debra gets all the credits.

This is the first year of Queens Art Express so we need all the help we can get–do you have questions for us at Queens Art Express (QAE)?
Can this QAExpress become one of those annual events?

What was your first art/performance experience like? Where was it?
First in this Country, back of the Brooklyn Museum, as part of the Caribbean Carnival Celebrations-We were a hit.

Tell me about some about the television program Caribbean Classroom or some of the other programming you are working on now?
I provide accurate information to visitors to the Langston Hughes Library and to the larger Queens Community, through Caribbean Classroom via the public access center on the 4 channels of Queens Public Television. I also teach video production to grown men and women-camera/field & studio production and video editing–lots of fun doing that. Visits to the Queens Hall of Science, Queens Museum, Flushing Meadow Park and most of the cultural institutions scattered throughout the Borough of Queens.

This month’s LIVE episode of Caribbean Classroom and the musical concert for Queens Art Express on June 13, which features Quake USA-A Caribbean Folk Choir and Men of Distinction-A 5 Man a cappella group that sings in sweet harmonies. Caribbean Folk Music meets US A cappella harmonies-exhilarating!!!

I’m also working on a presentation on “Single Mothers Raising Black Boys Alone” by Cathleen E. Williams, who is an RN and an attorney and a single mother whose son, Sean, recently graduated from Carnegie Mellon University.

What’s in the future for John Crow and Langston Hughes Library?
There is always one in the pipe line. There is an author talk that takes place towards the end of the month.

Quake USA

QUEENS LIBRARY Enrich Your Life®
Langston Hughes Community Library & Cultural Center
present
Men of Distinction & Quake USA: Caribbean Folk Music meets American A Cappella Harmony
Plus A Surprise or 2
Saturday June 13, 2:00 PM
Court Yard Performance (weather permitting)
An afternoon of sweet voices & Spicy Musical Sounds
Free admission
www.queenslibrary.org
Langston Hughes
100-01 Northern Boulevard, Corona.
718-651-1100

Funding for this and most programs at Langston Hughes is provided through grants from the New York State Council on the Arts, New York State Education Department, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, The Office of The Borough President of Queens, Queens Borough Public Library, and The Library Action Committee of Corona/East Elmhurst, Inc.. Please visit the Langston Hughes Library and take out a book. See you at the library. Queens library is an independent not-for-profit corporation and is not affiliated with any other library system

Hector Canonge

“100 Degrees” is a public Intervention Art project created by Jackson Heights-based artist Hector Canonge and Taiwanese artist Chin Chih Yang. The interactive installation and on site performance raises awareness about the environmental state of the planet and encourages audiences to participate in the creation of a temporary site-specific multimedia media sculpture. In preparation for “100 Degrees” on June 6th, Hector answered questions from Queens Art Express.

What is your subway stop?
I use the # 7 train daily. I’ve been doing a lot of work in various neighborhoods along its route. Right now is the 33rd St. / Rawson St. stop because I swim daily at La Guardia and will be doing the installation of the Public Intervention project “100 Degrees,” right under the elevated tracks.

What is the best musician or artist you saw performing on a subway platform?
One day, late at night, I was waiting for the E train on 14th Street when suddenly I heard the sounds of a saxophone. The melody was an old Spanish ballad that my grandmother used to sing. It transported me to the time when I was a kid and I relived those days when grandma, Machida, we called her, sang in the morning while doing her morning activities. As I moved in the direction of the sound, the song “Besame Mucho” engulfed my entire being. The man who was playing the old saxo was lost in his music, and I was lost in my memories. I talked to him, and found out he was from Ecuador, he played other ballads and music, I stayed for at least one hour. I bought his CD, and few months later, I did a documentary about him.

Do you regularly see other artists performing in the area (if so what type)?
Yes, in the same spot, a few years after the sax player, I met an interesting older Russian woman. She was singing in Spanish and playing a portable children’s keyboard. Amazingly enough, she was singing “Besame Mucho.” I talked to her, and she was incredibly Zen and good energy. Somehow she moved me deeply. I was supposed to interview her the day after, but did not see her again until a year later. She was riding on the # 7 Train, and playing a Cuban danzon.

What type of work do you do?
I’m a New-media artist. I work integrating emerging and old technologies to create projects in relation to geographies, identity, gender roles, image appropriation, and the politics of migration; I explore contemporary issues affecting diverse urban communities.
What do you do for fun in Queens or the metropolitan area?
Queens is my home-fun! Somehow I always manage to hang out in Jackson Heights, Flushing Park or at the Queens Museum. My favorite place to eat is “La cancha” this Argentine, hole in the wall, pizza-restaurant place where they have the best empanadas, homemade ñoquis, house wine, Quilmes beer, and they always have soccer matches on TV. The 82 Street movie theater is great with movies with Spanish subtitles, and cheaper than the multiplex. At night the clubs and bars along Roosevelt Avenue are a true adventure -not for the weak at heart. In the city, I’m a flaneur, I like walking and discovering new things in the city. My recent venture, the Mexican outpost in Spanish Harlem. My favorite Dominican restaurant is Margot in Washington Heights.

Do you have any questions for us at Queens Art Express?
I will be doing sound walks in relation to my project 18 Beats (On view as Queens Beats at the Discover Queens Visitor Center at Queens Center Mall) in September. You wanna contribute?

What was your first art/performance experience like? Where was it?
My initiation with my New-media work was when my project “Ciudad Transmobil” was featured at the Queens International 2004. Prior to that my work was in film with documentaries and short fiction films. The experience of taking over a gallery space, working closely with the curator, installers, having friends and loved ones helping me in putting up the project was definitely something that I wanted to repeat. Since then my work and projects have grown, but I still get the same rush and exhilaration. It’s probably like giving birth…

What are you working on now?
I am getting ready for 2 projects. One, “100 Degrees,” is collaboration with Taiwanese artist, Chin Chih Yang, as part of the Queens Arts Express. The second is “Germinal” a project about genetic modification of seeds, as part of my present residency at City Without Walls, cWOW, in Newark, New Jersey. I will also have a show at Aferro Gallery, “Deceptive Landscapes” in relation to my work and research as visiting artist at New Jersey City University.

What are you working on in the future?
I have an upcoming solo show, “Schema CorpoReal,” at Topaz Arts, and had just gotten the news that I was selected for the Dyson Residency program for the Summer at Pace University. There I will work on the cataloguing and future installation based on family correspondence of the past 15 years. After that, I will disappear for 2 weeks in August probably go north to Maine, I am not revealing where or with whom though…
—————–

The information about the sonic project in Queens is on my website: “18 Beats” now on view as “Queens Beats” at DQVC. www.hectorcanonge.net/18beats.