UPCOMING EVENTS / PAST EVENTS

MOCAD hosts musical, literary and artistic events throughout the year. Check back often or contact us at info@mocadetroit.org if you would like to be kept up to date on upcoming events.

All events are free and open to the public and take place at MOCAD unless otherwise indicated.

Follow MOCAD's upcoming events and announcements:

Youthville Radio is an off-site MOCAD project debuting some of Detroit’s finest young electronic musicians in an innovative sound project: a radio-based audio collage created collaboratively by Mike Huckaby.

Huckaby, his music students at Youthville, MOCAD’s New Wave Committee and MOCAD’s Department of Education and Public Engagement, Youthville Radio is a multi-transmitter radio installation broadcasting continually on on 87.9 FM, running May 26 through July 29 and located on the airwaves between Hart Plaza and Campus Martius.

Jerry Herron is Professor of English and Founding Dean of the Irvin D. Reid Honors College at Wayne State University. His publications include two books, Universities and the Myth of Cultural Decline, and AfterCulture: Detroit and the Humiliation of History. His essays and critical articles have appeared in South Atlantic Quarterly, Raritan, Social Text, Representations, Georgia Review, Antioch Review, and Harper’s. He has also written for the London Times Higher Education Supplement, Detroit News, Hour Detroit, the MetroTimes, and Playboy. He is currently finishing a book about Americans’ sense of the past: Living With Detroit: An All-Purpose History of American Forgetting.

Herron was born in Abilene, Texas; he received his BA at the University of Texas in Austin, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa. He holds MA and PhD degrees from Indiana University. Since 1982 he has been a resident of downtown Detroit, a city which has provided him with a great subject to write about and an exceptional place to live.

MOCAD is pleased to present its premiere artists in residence, The Hinterlands. This Detroit-based company creates original, multidisciplinary performance works, explores the art of performance through ecstatic training and play, and engages their community through direct collaboration and exchange.

The Hinterlands will slowly amass the setting for a new performance exploring American subculture and Vaudeville, which translates as the “voice of the city,” to be showcased at MOCAD. Through the course of their month-and-a-half-long stay, they will be on site during regular public hours, rehearsing the piece for all visitors to observe inside the spacious Woodward Gallery. The project will also include a series of off-site performance interventions at locations TBD as well as a two-week intensive summer camp with Detroit teens, which concludes in a live Vaudeville-style performance. The Hinterlands residency is supported with a matching grant from the National Performance Network Creation Fund, while the summer camp is supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Dates to remember for The Hinterlands programs while in residence:

OPEN TRAINING SESSION
Sunday, June 24, 2 to 5PM
Admission: Free

SPECIAL IN-PROGRESS PERFORMANCE
The Hinterlands make a rare in-progress presentation of Voice of The City
Saturday, July 21, 8PM
Admission: $15/person

Following a month-long collaboration with MOCAD’s Department of Education and Public Engagement, Ruth Ellis youth will exhibit the fruits of their photography workshop focusing on identity construction and portraiture from June 22 through July 29.

FREE SWAP MEET
Saturday, July 21, 1 to 3PM
Admission: Free

Upcycle! You’re invited to come get some new-to-you duds from this big ‘ol swap meet. The only thing missing is the price tags. Donate! Trade! Collect! Unwanted clean clothing items will be accepted from 12 to 2:30 PM the day of the event. Leftovers will be donated to charity.

Spend an afternoon with The Hinterlands to uncover your own family vaudeville routine. Taking inspiration from classic vaudeville of the early 20th century, The Hinterlands will teach the basics of physical comedy, presentation, and style in this drop-in workshop. Create that family band you’ve always wanted! Build that father-daughter comedy routine! Sculpt an acrobatic act that includes everyone from grandma to baby! We’ll play, laugh, and be astonished as we perform for each other. Some costumes provided, but feel free to bring your own!

Join us for another installment of hyper-local electromagnetism at this season’s Drive-In Radio Theater in the MOCAD parking lot. This evening of live performances is hosted and curated by Jon Brumit, MOCAD’s Curator of Public Engagement, and features a disparate program inspired by and diverging from the Post-Industrial Complex and Vertical Urban Factory exhibitions on view in the museum. Starting every 20 minutes, the performances are lit by your headlights, with audio transmitted to your car radio. Attendees can stay for the whole evening or catch a few acts before heading out.

The Hinterlands residency project at MOCAD includes a two-week intensive theater camp with Detroit teens, concluding in a live performance.

The Allied Media Conference advances strategies for using media arts to investigate, illuminate and develop visionary solutions to the crises faced by our communities. Through the AMC, held every summer in Detroit, the worlds of media, art, technology, education and social justice are united. In all AMC sessions, participants build on their knowledge and develop relationships that continue to grow throughout the years.

Since its founding in 1999, the AMC has inspired hundreds of new leaders, showcased dozens of innovative popular education tools, incubated cross-sector collaborations and fostered critical dialogue on a host of social justice issues. For artists and activists who return year to year, the Allied Media Conference presents a vehicle for the evolution of their theories and practices towards genuine social change.

WORKSHOP

THE HINTERLANDS HOST AN OPEN TRAINING SESSION

The Hinterlands will be leading a movement.

Open to all.
Sunday, June 24, 2 to 5PM
Admission: Free

Join The Hinterlands for an introduction to the company’s unique method of creating highly physical, visual and visceral theatrical performance works. Integrating Grotowski-based ensemble training, traditional xiqu (“Chinese opera”) physicality, circus skills, physical improvisation, and object manipulation, this three-hour training is open to anyone with an interest in unleashing their imagination through explosive play and ecstatic physical engagement. No performance experience necessary; individuals with injuries or disabilities welcome. Slots limited.

FILM
"Images" from Detroit’s Cass Corridor
Directed by Kathryn Brackett Luchs and Shaun Bangert
Saturday, June 23, 8PM
Admission: Free

During the late 1960s and through the 1970s, some artists living in Detroit explored alternative, inventive and personal approaches to making art. These artists shared their personal vision by being in geographical proximity to one another, making works that mark an era in Detroit’s history that is now regarded as being highly significant.

The film is a tense visual montage combining original silent footage with new information and bringing to light the mood and art of the time.

Artists presented in the movie include: John Egner, Steve Foust, Michael Luchs, Nancy Mitchnick, Gordon Newton, Ellen Phelan, Paul Schwarz and Robert Sestok. Original music by Mick Vranich accompanies this illuminating documentary.

American artist, Danielle de Picciotto moved to Berlin in 1987. She was cofounder of the popular electronic dance music festival, Love Parade and infamous clubs such as Tresor and EWerk. For decades she witnessed and influenced the creative upheaval in Berlin as its underground developed from postpunk to techno and on to the mixed experimental practices of today. She experienced, firsthand, that culture’s influence as it successfully brought a war-ravaged city back to life.

In this multi media performance Danielle de Picciotto will read from her Berlin memoir, The Beauty Of Transgression. The book brings together her accounts of musicians, DJs and club owners as well as other artists and their milieus, with unique firsthand descriptions of milestone places and events. During the reading Danielle projects original Super 8 film clips of Berlin. Alexander Hacke, founding member of Berlin cult band Einstürzende Neubauten, will be composing and performing live electronic soundscapes. This presentation will be followed by a Q&A about Berlin, Einstürzende Neubauten and the Love Parade.

FAMILY DAY
Midtown Detroit, Inc. presents The Nationwide Museum Mascot Project Movement Workshop
Sunday, June 17, 12 to 4PM
Admission: Free

Kids and parents are invited to help develop a new movement vocabulary with our new MOCAD mascot. Join this mysterious creature for dancin’, singin’ n’ clownin’. Young children will find this Family Day particularly engaging.

NEIGHBORHOOD BBQ AND TRADING POST LAUNCH
Saturday, June 16, 12 to 5PM
Admission: Free

Don’t miss this super custom hybrid BBQ and Trading Post launch event in the back lot of MOCAD. The BBQ event features the custom-made BBQ Grill + Pipe-Bender Hybrid created by Dozer, of Dozer Cycles, currently on display within the Post-Industrial Complex exhibition. And in the spirit of the exhibition, Detroit-based and metro-area specific edibles will be cooked and served. Bring special foods to grill and share, as well as objects to give away or trade, all in celebration of the opening of MOCAD’s Trading Post, running until July 29.

MUSIC
Baby Dee with special guests Scavenger Quartet
Friday, June 15, 8PM
Admission: $8

Baby Dee’s musical career has seen her perform worldwide with musical connoisseurs such as Will Oldham (who co-produced Safe Inside the Day with Matt Sweeney), Antony Hegarty, Marc Almond, Alex Neilson, Andrew WK (who produced her Regifted Light album) and David Tibet of Current 93 (with whom Dee has recorded extensively). When not performing across the globe, Dee resides in Cleveland with her many cats, harp and her Steinway D piano. On this tour Baby Dee will be presenting solo harp performances.

Frank Pahl ’s Scavenger Quartet will open the show performing stunning compositions on guitar, euphonium, saxophone, bass, percussion and automatic instrumentation.

DEPE SPACE RESIDENCY
The Nationwide Museum Mascot Project
June 11 through 18

The Nationwide Museum Mascot Project (NWMMP) is a Los Angeles-based group of mascots and kind-hearted pranksters. Taking their cue from sports-team mascots, NWMMP promotes museums by surprising visitors, community and staff with crowd-pleasing antics, handshakes, high-fives, hugs and a host of other activities.

“In general, we feel that art museums are not always friendly places for people who are not already familiar with the culture and rhetoric. NWMMP seeks to bridge this gap, and in the process, pull down the institution’s pants a little,” says NWMMP co-founder Brian Dick. “Although we are often invited to mascot an institution, for the summer tour, we (NWMMP) just might take the liberty of inviting ourselves,” says co-founder Sperry-Garcia...

MUSIC
Omar Souleyman with DJ R E L A X E R & special guest
Friday, June 8, 8PM
Admission: $8

Syrian pop sensation, Omar Souleyman returns after a triumphant performance at MOCAD during the Summer of 2011. With countless albums released as part of a Middle Eastern tape underground, Souleyman blends a myriad of influences, sounds and spirits with traditional Syrian folk songs to create a hybrid of street music and club bangers accompanied by Souleyman’s distinct voice and style. A rising international star, he has shared stages and songwriting credits with Björk and numerous other superstars of the Coachella, Pitchfork and Sonar Festival circuits.

A vital force of creativity just cresting his 50s, Souleyman has spent the past several years knocking the progressive musical voices of the day on their collective ears by by entrenching himself firmly in a particular musical tradition while producing the most hyper-progressive sounds heard today.

FILM AND ARTIST TALK
I Have Always Been A Dreamer
Directed by Sabine Gruffat
78 minutes
Saturday, June 2, 7PM
Admission: $5 (free for members)

I Have Always Been A Dreamer is a documentary travelogue and film portrait of two cities in contrasting states of development: Dubai and Detroit. Within the context of a boom and bust economy, the film questions the collective ideologies that shape the physical landscape and impact local communities.

Though these cities represent two different economic eras (Fordist and Post-Fordist), both cities vividly illustrate the effects of economic monocultures and the arbitrary consequences of geopolitical advantage. The film serves as a visual documentation of these two cities as indexes of political, cultural and economic change while tracing the ways each city’s development is tied to technologies of communication, production, labor, and consumption.

The film was shot in Detroit, MI and Dubai, UAE, exploring their landscape through various modes of transport, and includes interviews with local historians, scholars, and artists. The film was produced between 2007 and 2011.

http://www.sabinegruffat.com/

CURATORS TALK AND PANEL DISCUSSION
Nina Rappaport on Vertical Urban Factory
Jon Brumit and Katie McGowan on
Post-Industrial Complex
Moderated by Michael Tower
Saturday, June 2, 1PM
Admission: Free

*Tours of Vertical Urban Factory offered at 12 and 2 PM by curator Nina Rappaport.

Nina Rappaport is a New York-based architectural historian, curator and critic. She is a professor of urban design theory at Syracuse University School of Architecture/New York City Program and the Publications Director at Yale School of Architecture, where she edits the bi-annual magazine Constructs and a series of architecture books. Author of the book, Support and Resist: Structural Engineers and Design Innovation (The Monacelli Press, 2007), she has curated exhibitions on Swiss infrastructure and industrial photography. Rappaport has contributed to numerous international architecture magazines. She is chair of Docomomo-New York/Tri-State.

Michael Tower is an architect and founding partner of Tractor Architecture. Focusing on New York regional architectural projects, Tractor makes its home in the former industrial enclave of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. With the neighborhood as a backdrop, Tractor applies high craft experience, material exploration and close collaboration with fabricators and artisans to all of their projects.

The firm’s work has been featured in such publications as The New York Times, Design Bureau, and *Wallpaper. Prior to establishing Tractor, Mr. Tower worked with Dan Hoffman and the Cranbrook Architecture Office and later served as a project architect on several residential, commercial and institutional projects at firms such as Hariri & Hariri and Deamer + Phillips. Mr. Tower was recently on the faculty of the Pratt Institute School of Architecture and Parsons The New School for Design.

MOCAD’s Jon Brumit and Katie Grace McGowan will discuss Post-Industrial Complex, followed by a panel discussion with all three curators.

FOOD FAIR
The Dunch Club and MOCAD present DIY Food Fair
Friday, June 1, 6 to 8PM
Admission: $12

The DIY Food Fair is a Science Fair-style symposium of young, food entrepreneurs presenting their wares in an educational Round Robin of food and color.

Join us for this fine, food event and enjoy the fruits of local food entrepreneurs' labors as we bring Beau Bien Fine Foods, Stuffed, Dr. Sushi, The Batata Shop, The Dunch Club and more out to MOCAD. Come taste some independently minded goodness.

PERFORMANCE POTLUCK
Storytelling Potluck
Thursday, May 24, 6 to 8PM
Admission: Free

Participants in the storytelling potluck register to bring a food item that has a personal story behind it. It may be a story about your grandmother and her travels. It may be a tale about the very first recipe you learned to cook and where you were in your life when you mastered it. Each participant will add an item to the menu and randomly chosen participants will present their story while their contribution is enjoyed. Seating is limited and registration before May 19 is required. Registered participants will be informed of the number of participants by May 20.

ART OPENING AND GRADUATION CEREMONY
Focus: HOPE Community Arts Department and MOCAD present Focus: HOPE Excel Photography Exhibition 2012
Wednesday, May 23, 6 to 9PM
Admission: Free

Over the course of the past two years, high school students from the community surrounding Focus: HOPE began a journey into self-expression and awareness through the art of photography.

This weekly after-school program offered a progressive curriculum coupled with hands-on classroom instruction, educational field trips to cultural institutions, and exciting photographic shoots to diverse locations throughout the metropolitan area. Participants learned the foundations of black & white and color photography. Professional photographers served as mentors to guide students through this educational experience. During their commitment, students began to unleash their creativity while simultaneously cultivating knowledge, self-awareness, and leadership skills.

Please join us for this remarkable photography exhibition documenting the journey of these dedicated and insightful young men and women. The exhibition will be on display at the Museum from May 23 through 27 in the Woodward Gallery.

OPENING NIGHT
Friday, May 11
Post-Industrial Complex / Vertical Urban Factory
with music by Omar S, Melvin Davis & United Sounds and Passalacqua
Exhibition Opening: 7 to 9PM, Free
Performances: 9PM, $6 | Free for members

Fresh, young and eccentric Hip Hop duo, Passalacqua will open up a night of eclectic Detroit music with a distinctly Detroit-bred brand of funky, eclectic sound. Legendary 1960s rhythm and blues vocalist Melvin Davis will continue on the night with some true-to-life Northern Soul. Omar S will close the night with some of the finest, most futuristic techno sounds the City has to offer.

MOCAD will also feature The Regurgitator by Ryan C. Doyle in the back parking lot.

Post-Industrial Complex is an exhibition and source book that celebrates the ingenuity and adaptivity of the Detroit community. This multidisciplinary exhibition, comprised of locally made objects and recorded interviews with makers, proposes a conversation about the meaning and value of personal labor in Detroit.

Vertical Urban Factory features the innovative design of factory buildings that are both urban — located in cities or shaping cities — and vertical — multistoried and dense. Included are significant examples from around the world, spanning the Modern era to the present. By examining the significance of these spaces, this project points to the impact of global economies on local industries and aims to stimulate ideas for the sustainable reintegration of the factory into the urban fabric.

Vertical Urban Factory is an independent project and exhibition curated by architectural historian and critic Nina Rappaport.

MUSICAL ARTIST TALK
Friday, April 27 from 6PM-8PM
Wayne White & The Shaking Ray Levis
Admission: $5

The Shaking Ray Levis, comprised of Dennis Palmer and Bob Stagner, will play a composed soundtrack to accompany a musical spoken-word artist-talk performance by Wayne White. Don’t expect this one to be anything like any other artist’s lecture, as White will perform on the banjo while presenting his work and life adventures from puppeteering for Pee-wee’s Playhouse to making award-winning music videos. Additionally, The Shaking Ray Levis will also create a live improvised soundtrack accompanying the video Abstractiony Jones, created by filmmaker Ernie Paik using Dennis Palmer's artwork as source material.

The Shaking Ray Levis—an ongoing collaboration comprised of musicians with a common interest in improvisation—use storytelling, synthesizers, samplers and percussion to achieve their distinctive sound. And you might remember Wayne White’s work from his puppeteering and set designing (alongside Gary Panter) for Pee-wee’s Playhouse, his award-winning music video work for Peter Gabriel or the Smashing Pumpkins, or his crisp and surreal text paintings overlaid on thrift store paintings. A feature-length documentary about White, Beauty Is Embarrassing, will debut at the 2012 SXSW festival.

For more information on Wayne White visit his wesbite http://waynewhiteart.com

For more information on The Shaking Ray Levis visit their website http://shakingray.com/

For more information visit http://beautyisembarrassing.com/

BOOK RELEASE PERFORMANCE EVENT
Saturday, April 21, 8PM-10PM
Kasher in the Rye by Moshe Kasher
Admission: Free

Join us for a night of comedy and readings from comedian and author Moshe Kasher. Featured on Comedy Central, Fox, E!, NBC, VH1, MTV, Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, and the John Oliver Stand Up Comedy Show, Kasher is widely considered one of the preeminent new voices in comedy.

This event will feature readings from his new memoir Kasher In The Rye: The True Tale of a White Boy From Oakland Who Became a Drug Addict, Criminal, Mental Patient and Then Turned Sixteen, a powerful and hilarious reflection on his harrowing childhood in Oakland, CA.

For more information visit http://www.moshekasher.com/

MUSIC
Saturday, April 21, 2PM
Little Bang Theory
performing in Joshua White and Gary Panter's Light Show
Admission: Free

Frank Pahl’s Little Bang Theory create their own whimsical compositions and perform covers of soundtrack music on a panoply of toy instruments. Their arrangements come across like a hybrid form of chamber music, stunning in their beauty and childish complexity. Frank Pahl is a Kresge Fellow, modern composer and creator of automatic instruments. Pahl's bands Only a Mother, The Scavenger Quartet, as well as his solo compositions have garnered critical acclaim both regionally and abroad. This fun and innovative ensemble will be creating a soundtrack for Joshua White and Gary Panter’s Light Show for one very special afternoon only.

www.frankpahl.com

POP-UP RESTAURANT
Thursday, April 19, 6PM-8PM
Chartreuse
Admission: $58/person

Chartreuse is a gourmet raw vegan pop-up supper club. Fully equipped with extraordinary imagination and the element of surprise, Chartreuse creates a memorable culinary and social moment that exists briefly and disappears immediately, as if it were a dream. Featuring DROUGHT JUICE and live music. Limited seating, reservations required: chartreusedetroit.com

FILM AND ARTIST TALK
Sunday, April 15, 5PM
Primordial Ties Canada 2011; 89 minutes; Super16mm colour Dir. Otto Buj
Admission: Free

The screening will be followed by an extended artist's talk.

The Sunday screening and artist's talk are presented with the support of Nora Moroun.

Windsor-based writer and director, Otto Buj will be on hand to present this very special screening, the US premiere of his stunning new film, Primordial Ties.

Primordial Ties is the coming-of-age story of Marjorie, a beautiful 19-year-old girl possessed by only an abstracted sense of who she is or where she came from. Now alone and living with distant relatives, she imagines that she was born motherless, created through extraordinary means by her mysterious and long-dead father as the daughter that he never had.

As time goes on, she becomes further lost to the ordinary world around her, a banal one of gossipy girlfriends, routine jobs and awkward sexual awakenings. But a separate, nocturnal reality soon takes hold, sending forth a young, handsome and unearthly figure in a black leather jacket to reclaim her — drawing her back to her perceived origins, to where her father and fate await her.

For more info on Primordial Ties visit http://www.systematicpictures.com/

FAMILY DAY
Sunday, April 15, 1PM*-4PM
Movement Festival Detroit presents
Detroit Digital Justice Coalition-Discotech!
Admission: Free

The Detroit Digital Justice Coalition hosts our April Family Day with a special presentation of Discotech (Discovering Technology), an interactive, mobile, multimedia workshop. The DDJC’s Discotechs are designed to demystify, engage and inform the community around the abundant possibilities of technology, Internet use and communication as a fundamental human right!! Come learn, play and get digital.

FILM
Saturday, April 14, 9PM
Primordial Ties Canada 2011; 89 minutes; Super16mm colour Dir. Otto Buj
Admission: Free

The filmmaker and cast will be in attendance.

The Saturday premiere is presented with the support of Ethan and Gretchen Davidson.

Windsor-based writer and director, Otto Buj will be on hand to present this very special screening, the US premiere of his stunning new film, Primordial Ties.

Primordial Ties is the coming-of-age story of Marjorie, a beautiful 19-year-old girl possessed by only an abstracted sense of who she is or where she came from. Now alone and living with distant relatives, she imagines that she was born motherless, created through extraordinary means by her mysterious and long-dead father as the daughter that he never had.

As time goes on, she becomes further lost to the ordinary world around her, a banal one of gossipy girlfriends, routine jobs and awkward sexual awakenings. But a separate, nocturnal reality soon takes hold, sending forth a young, handsome and unearthly figure in a black leather jacket to reclaim her — drawing her back to her perceived origins, to where her father and fate await her.

For more info on Primordial Ties visit http://www.systematicpictures.com/

POETRY SLAM
Friday, April 13, 5PM-8PM
Guidance Center Youth Poetry Slam
Admission: Free

Young poets: raise your voices for change! Youth from across the city and metro area are invited to compete in this open-themed slam. Kids-TALK Children's Advocacy Center is teaming up with MOCAD to recognize Child Abuse Prevention Month and Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Participants, ages 17 and under, are required to attend a preliminary meeting to obtain rules for participating.  

For more info or to register a slam poet, please call Lacea Zavala at 734-785-7705 x7291 or email Lzavala@guidance-center.org.

MUSIC
Saturday, April 7, 8PM
Van Dyke Parks with special guests Devin, Gary & Ross and Laura Finlay
Admission: $10

Songwriter and performer, Van Dyke Parks is the celebrated mind behind some of Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys' most notable releases, Smile and Pet Sounds. Parks has produced, arranged, or played on albums by artists as diverse as Tim Buckley, U2, Randy Newman, Harry Nilsson, The Byrds, Cher, Rufus Wainwright, Sam Phillips, Ringo Starr, Frank Black, The Manhattan Transfer, Keith Moon, Carly Simon, T-Bone Burnett, Bonnie Raitt, Gordon Lightfoot, Fiona Apple, Ry Cooder, Joanna Newsom, The Everly Brothers, Saint Etienne, Scissor Sisters, Laurie Anderson, and Susanna Hoffs/Matthew Sweet's covers collection. On this rare Detroit appearance Van Dyke Parks will perform on piano with minimal accompaniment.

Devin, Gary & Ross is a band consisting of Devin Flynn and Gary Panter accompanied by Ross Goldstein. They do covers of old psyche songs and some originals. It's wild and weird and it will happen in Joshua White and Gary Panter's Light Show.

Laura Finlay will be stepping out of her role as chanteuse for The Detroit Pleasure Society to present a sultry lounge act comprised of horns, piano, guitars and her beautiful songs.

For more information on van Dyke Parks visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Dyke_Parks

MUSIC
Friday, April 6, 8PM
A. Spencer Barefield
Admission: $6 (free for members)

Multi-talented Detroit-based guitarist and composer A. Spencer Barefield has recorded and performed internationally as a leader, soloist, and accompanist with legendary progressive jazz voices like Lester Bowie, Roscoe Mitchell, Oliver Lake, Andrew Cyrille, Richard Davis, Wadada Leo Smith and countless others. On this very special evening Barefield will present a performance along with Joshua White and Gary Panter’s Light Show.

For more information on A. Spencer Barefield visit his website
http://www.spencerbarefield.com/

MUSIC
Saturday, March 31, 2PM
Duane the Teenage Weirdo
performing in Joshua White and Gary Panter's Light Show
Admission: Free

Duane the Teenage Weirdo takes the world of electronic pop music, Pokemon, glam rock and art house provocation and makes gritty, catchy punk music using simple technology and catchy tunes. This sensational young star on the rise will be performing in Joshua White and Gary Panter’s Light Show for one very memorable afternoon.

MOCAD and Cranbrook Academy of Art Present:
Kenneth Goldsmith, aka Kenny G.

LECTURE
Friday, March 30, 6PM at Cranbrook Academy of Art
If We Had To Ask for Permission, We Wouldn't Exist: A Brief History of UbuWeb
*in the Cranbrook Art Museum's deSalle Auditorium*
Admission: Free

PERFORMANCE
Saturday, March 31, 7:30PM at MOCAD
American Deaths and Disasters: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy
Admission: Free

Kenneth Goldsmith's writing has been called "some of the most exhaustive and beautiful collage work yet produced in poetry" by Publishers Weekly. Goldsmith is the author of ten books of poetry, founding editor of the online archive UbuWeb, and the editor of I'll Be Your Mirror: The Selected Andy Warhol Interviews, which was the basis for the opera Trans-Warhol, that premiered in Geneva in March of 2007. He teaches writing at The University of Pennsylvania, where he is a senior editor of PennSound, an online poetry archive. In 2011, he co-edited, Against Expression: An Anthology of Conceptual Writing and published a book of essays, Uncreative Writing: Managing Language in the Digital Age.

FILM
Wednesday, March 28, 9PM
Ann Arbor Film Festival: Competition 2
at the Michigan Theater
SPECIAL DISCOUNT

MOCAD is participating in the 50th Ann Arbor Film Festival as a community partner for Films in Competition 2, taking place Wednesday, March 28 at 9:15pm at the Michigan Theater. If you enter this code - AAFF50MOCAD - when buying online tickets, you will get $3 off the advance ticket price ($10 standard)! This screening is likely to sell out in the theater's smaller screening room, so advanced tickets and arriving early are recommended.

SYNOPSIS OF PROGRAM: New films and videos by independent artists Mary Helena Clark, Siegfried A. Fruhauf, Marc Pelletier, Scott Stark, Jonathan Schwartz, James Sansing and Chris Kennedy, with newly restored films by Phil Solomon and Pat O’Neill.

The Ann Arbor Film Festival is the longest-running independent and experimental film festival in North America. The 50th AAFF takes place March 27th - April 1st, 2012 and presents over 200 films, videos and live media performances from more than 20 countries with dozens of U.S., N. American and world premieres.

For more info: http://aafilmfest.org/50

THEATER
Wednesday, March 28, 7PM-9PM, every 20 minutes
Drive-In Radio Theater
in the MOCAD parking lot
Admission: $5 per car

Don’t miss an electromagnetic evening of eclectic live performances broadcast to your car radio. This inaugural Drive-In Radio Theater is hosted and curated by The Hinterlands Ensemble, with performances starting every 20 minutes. Lit by your headlights and with audio transmitted to your car radio, this drive-in variety show will take place in the back of a box truck and in some cases in the backseats of audience members' cars. Attendees can stay for the whole evening or catch a few acts before heading out.

For more information on The Hinterland Ensemble visit
http://thehinterlandsensemble.org/

MUSIC
Saturday, March 24, 2PM
New Music Detroit
performing in Joshua White and Gary Panter's Light Show
Admission: $6 (free for members)

New Music Detroit’s founding members all hold permanent positions or close affiliations with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and have orchestral experience with the Boston, Milwaukee, and New World Symphonies in the United States as well as the UBS Verbier and Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestras in Europe. Appearances include the Carnegie Hall Prospectives, the University Musical Society, and the Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings 'Nightnotes' Series. Members have received formal training from distinguished institutions such as the Juilliard School of Music, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the University of Michigan. The versatility of New Music Detroit is best understood by noticing the distinguished composers and musicians with whom its founding members have collaborated. This innovative ensemble will be presenting a special afternoon program of progressive, contemporary chamber music to go along with Joshua White and Gary Panter's Light Show for one day only at MOCAD.

MUSIC
Friday, March 23, 8PM
Kimya Dawson with special guests Your Heart Breaks, Fred Thomas, and Ivan Grass
Admission: $8

Kimya Dawson is a Grammy-winning indie folk singer best known for her influential work on the Juno soundtrack and as half of the The Moldy Peaches. “Kimya Dawson is not preaching to the choir, rather gladly admits standing in the middle, arms around each member, singing her upcoming self-released album, Thunder Thighs due out October 25th via Burnside Distribution. As Kimya’s seventh album, the assumed lo-fi sound has taken a delightful turn with the addition of pianos, backing choirs, string arrangements and several beats produced by rapper Aesop Rock. Although the personal touch of Kimya’s delicate strumming and the crackling of her soft voice still sit forefront, the backbone is a more mature solid arrangement that supports her powerful poetry.

The mother of one, who’s work with The Moldy Peaches and the Grammy Award winning, platinum selling soundtrack for the film Juno, did not record alone. With her latest release, Kimya has recruited several artists to join the aforementioned choir, appearances by Aesop Rock, John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats, Nikolai Fraiture of the Strokes, Daniel Bryan, Forever Young Senior Citizen Rock and Roll Choir, Olympia Free Choir, and her own five year old daughter Panda create an eccentric journey through Kimya’s revealing and honest songs. The first of 16 tracks to be uncovered is “All I Could Do,” a live performance for Kimya’s chickens in her backyard shot by Aesop Rock. The first track of the album acts as a musical snapshot of Kimya’s life, and is the perfect introduction to her latest release.”

Kimya Dawson will be supported by Washington-based, heartfelt indie rock act Your Heart Breaks. In their own words “Your Heart Breaks is queercore and hot makeout parties. The place where unicorn and pegasus combine into one. Corndogs [2 for 99 cents]. Pinata parties. Dancing up front at all-ages shows. Sharing the mic. Monkeys, the squirrels of south america. Squirrels, the monkeys of north america. A severe case of ocean waves.”

Local singer-songwriter Fred Thomas (Saturday Looks Good To Me, City Center, and Swimsuit) will present a solo set. “As a member of three influential Michigan bands, the punk-fueled Lovesick, the quiet and reflective Flashpapr, and the graceful pop/rock of Saturday Looks Good to Me, Fred Thomas made a name for himself in the independent rock community of Ann Arbor and Detroit in the late '90s and early 2000s. Thomas also served a brief stint as bass player for His Name Is Alive. By 2002, Thomas had assembled numerous songs that didn't fit into his busy band schedule. His solo career began with the release of Everything Is Pretty Much Totally Fucked Up on Juan Garcia's Little Hands Records in the winter of 2002. That year also saw a brief East Coast solo tour, as well as the release of Tour EP and No One Will Ever Make Me Feel This Way Again on Ypsilanti Records. Turn It Down arrived in 2004, followed by Sink Like a Symphony in 2006.” – AllMusic/Stephen Cramer

Local singer-songwriter Ivan Grass will begin the evening out right with a song and a spell.

For more info on Kimya Dawson visit her website
http://kimyadawson.com/

For more info on Your Heart Breaks visit their website
http://www.yourheartbreaks.com/

For more info on Fred Thomas visit his website
http://www.myspace.com/fredthomassongs

FAMILY DAY
Sunday, March 18, 12PM-4PM
The Crofoot presents
Puppeterium Playhouse Party with Caleb Gentry!
Admission: Free

Hey kids! You don’t need a PS3 to have fun, JUST THE BOX IT CAME IN! Children of all ages are summoned for matinee mania with our mad scientist-in-residence, Caleb Gentry. Join us for a perfect play date replete with puppet production and totally tubular tales!

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
DEPE Space Residency
March 11-18
Caleb Gentry

Cardboard cosmonaut Caleb Gentry is March’s DEPE Space Resident. Gentry’s otherworldly installations incorporate optical illusion, geometry, and painterly detail, all the while contributing to a funhouse environment. A California native, Gentry holds a BFA in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute and an MFA from The University of Iowa. He is currently splitting his time between Pluto and Philadelphia.

For more info on Caleb Gentry visit http://calebgentry.wordpress.com/

MUSIC
Saturday, March 17, 2PM
Isles of ESP
performing in Joshua White and Gary Panter's Light Show
Admission: Free

Detroit-based indie band Isles of ESP present a free performance in Joshua White and Gary Panter's Light Show on the afternoon of Saturday, March 17th at 2PM. Isles of ESP are one of the most exciting new acts on the Detroit scene. Featuring past and present members of Tyvek, Hi-Speed Dubbing, and Siddhartha/Velvet Audio, this fantastic group has raised the bar for Detroit rock and roll by combining the energy of indie rock with the complexity of jazz. They will be the first of a series of performances staged by MOCAD on Saturday afternoons in March and April designed to activate the light show and to engage the local community with an eclectic series of musical acts.

POP-UP RESTAURANT
Friday, March 16, 6PM-8PM
Komodo Kitchen
Admission: $30/person

Komodo Kitchen is a pop-up supper club that features food and drink from the islands of Indonesia. This very special event will provide an Indonesian-inspired cultural and gastronomic experience. In addition to exquisite cuisine, Komodo Kitchen strives to provide guests with the complete Indo-atmosphere by including the music, aromas and artwork from their beloved archipelago. Limited seating, reservations required: www.komodokitchen.com

CHILDREN’S MUSEUM TOUR
Saturday, March 3, 12PM
Admission: Free

Children 12 and under are invited to attend a free tour of MOCAD’s current exhibition.

ARTIST TALK
Friday, March 2, 7PM
MOCAD and Green Brain Comics present
Gary Panter
Admission: Free

Prolific comic artist and punk art prankster, Gary Panter, has influenced multiple generations of artists. He has created iconic designs for albums by The Screamers, The Residents, and Red Hot Chili Peppers; been involved with seminal LA punk zine/label Slash; created the Jimbo comic, which frequently appeared in Art Spiegelman's RAW magazine; and, most popularly, designed groundbreaking sets for Pee-wee Herman's children's show Pee-wee's Playhouse in the 1980s.

For more info on Gary Panter visit his website http://www.garypanter.com/site/

WORKSHOP
Friday, March 2, 4PM-7PM
MOCAD and Green Brain Comics present
Comic Jam III
Admission: Free

The "Comic Jam," usually held at Green Brain Comics in Dearborn, comes to MOCAD for its third year! Participants are encouraged to partake in the creation of spontaneous, improvised comics and freeform drawings with other artists and illustrators. Stations with the materials for various collaborative drawing opportunities will be set up. While paper and other materials are provided, participants are encouraged to bring their drawing tool of choice. The public is invited to come at the end of the party to witness the results of the evening's jam session, which closes with a presentation by special guest artist Gary Panter.

BOOK LAUNCH CELEBRATION
Thursday, March 1, 5:30PM-7:30PM
Booker T and Them by Bill Harris.
Admission: Free

MOCAD and Wayne State University Press are teaming up to celebrate Bill Harris's new WSUP release Booker T and Them: A Blues. A follow-up to his Birth of a Notion; Or, the Half Ain’t Never Been Told (2009), this book extends Harris’s critical and experimental examination of American history by presenting evidence for a greater understanding of these men and the cultural forces that shaped them.

TECHNOLOGY + COLLABORATION + COMMUNITY + CHANGE

WORKSHOP and DISCUSSION
Saturday, February 25, 5PM-9:30 PM
Initiate
Admission: Free

Initiate will explore creative uses of primarily open source technology and open source approaches to creating art and social change. Join us for short presentations and open dialogue featuring local, national and international artists, technologists and community organizers. Featuring members of openFrameworks.

Technology can be used to transform communities, empower people and create innovative works of art. This week long event series will explore how open source technology can be used to do that work within Detroit. This program features members of openFrameworks which is hosting their annual worldwide developers conference in Detroit. openFrameworks is an open source C++ toolkit designed to assist the creative process by providing a simple and intuitive framework for experimentation. 

Featuring openFrameworks in partnership with Emergence Media, rootoftwo, Artserve Michigan, Allied Media Projects, Work Department, MOCAD (Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit) and the Detroit Digital Justice Coalition.  

For more info email info@emergencemedia.org

FARMER’S TALK
Saturday, February 25, 1PM
Winter Gardening, Rotational Grazing
Admission: Free

Homer Walden and Dru Peters from Sunnyside Farm in Dover, PA share their experiments and experiences with winter gardening, rotational grazing and growing a small tractor-less farm business. Sunnyside Farm is a pasture based, intensive-grazed family farm offering eggs, chicken, turkey, pork, beef and CSA subscriptions. Using only people and animal power on their property, their cows mow the grass, their chickens and turkeys follow behind and their pigs till the garden plots. They grow heritage breeds and make every effort to get GMO-free feed for their birds.

For more information visit http://www.sunny-side-farm.com/

FAMILY DAY
Sunday, February 19, 12PM - 4PM
Foran's Grand Trunk Pub and O'Connor Realty & Development present
I Love You and ha ha ha ha ha! with Chido Johnson
Admission: Free

Laugh, Detroit! A community extravaganza comprised of three unabashedly silly activities. “Laughter Ambassador” Sue Ansari, RN, will lead drop-in laughter yoga workshops.  She is among the first students of laughter guru and founder of laughter yoga, Dr. Kataria from India, and is enlisted to assist him in workshops. The laughter will be performatively encapsulated into a giant head, which will then be placed with another head in Johnson’s ongoing exhibit. Last but not least, we will be making our own smiley face “Laugh Detroit” t-shirts. Young and old alike are invited to not take themselves too seriously.

For more information in Chido Johnson and his artwork visit his website http://chidox.com

READING AND ARTISTS TALK
Tuesday, February 14, 6PM
Let’s talk about love, baby. with Chido Johnson
Admission: Free

This hand-made Valentine’s Day love-in think-tank event is a special night of performance and artist talks on the topic of love and romance. Inspired by artist Chido Johnson’s “love library” project featuring artist-made romance novels, love books will be read, performed and discussed. This will be a romantic affair where touching the art is encouraged and expected.

For more information visit
http://letstalkaboutlovebaby.com/

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
Department of Education and Public Engagement presents:
DEPE Space Residency
February 12-19
Chido Johnson

Chido Johnson, the head of Sculpture at the College for Creative Studies and 2009 Kresge Fellow, will present his “love library” project—a collection of artist-designed romance novels—during the month of February as an exhibit and also as the subject of a special Valentine’s Day program with artist talks and group discussion on the topic of love. Throughout his residency Johnson will lead museum visitors through laughing yoga, smiling exercises and related objects, offering as an invitation to explore both the ephemerality and physicality of laughter.

POP-UP RESTAURANT
Sunday, February 12, 1PM-3PM
Detroit Brunch
Admission: $30/person

Join Detroit Brunch, a vegan pop-up restaurant, for a five-course meal designed around locally sourced, organic foods. Communal seating sets the platform for this interactive brunch. Looking ahead, don't miss out on Detroit Brunch's seasonal line of Valentine's Day treats, offered only at MOCAD on February 12! Limited seating, reservations required: DetroitBrunch.com

ARTIST TALK
Saturday, February 11, 1PM
Joshua White
Admission: Free

Artist Joshua White will speak about the history of his traveling light show. The Joshua Light Show members were resident artists at Fillmore East and performed live behind many major musical artists of the 1960s: Frank Zappa, Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, The Doors, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, and Jimi Hendrix. Currently, Joshua White works with fellow artist Gary Panter recreating the legendary light show at numerous venues including The Anthology Film Archives; in the exhibition, Visual Music: Synesthesia in Art and Music Since 1900, organized by the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington D.C.; at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Tate, Liverpool; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and with the artist Bec Stupac at The Kitchen, New York.

For more information on Joshua White and the Joshua Light Show visit http://joshualightshow.com/about_joshua.html

OPENING NIGHT
Friday, February 10
Opening: 6PM-8PM, Free
Performances: 8PM, $8 | Free for members
Adult. with special guests White Car and Monster Island

Electronic "Dance Punk" group Adult. will perform live in Detroit for the first time in two-and-a-half years and MOCAD is proud to be the space in which they land. Adult. was conceived of in 1998 with Nicola Kuperus upon the demise of partner Adam Lee Miller's pioneering dance duo Le Car. Together the two created a stunning clash of electro, punk, and techno music that would become the de facto sound of the coming generation. They launched the progressive indie label Ersatz Audio to release their own work alongside the work of other forward-looking acts of the time, such as Magas, Tamion 12 Inch, Goldchains, Electronicat, and more. Over the past few years the Detroit-based duo has taken a long hiatus from live performance to concentrate on making art and on creating their own cinematic universe with their film Decampment. On the cusp of a new year Adult. is once again ready to emerge having produced bold new material to perform in celebration of MOCAD's newest exhibition.

Joining them on this very special night will be LA-based electro-dance band White Car. White Car are a duo born and bred Chicago, specializing in industrial / no-wave pop. Sinister, whispered vocals and disorienting beats, underpinned by strong structures, are blended in order to create minimal and disjointed pop music simultaneously referencing Nitzer Ebb, Depeche Mode, Detroit Techno, Italo-Disco, dark alleys and uncomfortable encounters.

Beginning the night at 7PM, performing in Joshua White and Gary Panter's Light Show, will be Detroit's own Monster Island. An every- evolving psyche-folk collective headed by former Destroy All Monsters founder Cary Loren, Monster Island began in 1995 performing their first concert at Detroit's Krishna Temple. The group is not a band in the conventional sense. Instead the collective is a variant on the idea of the living theater -- a changing social/political landscape of folk, religious & street rituals derived from themes and topics that enhance psychedelic experience, resistance and subversive behavior. The group is deeply influenced by Voudou, Island myths, Antonin Artaud, psychics, puppetry, paleocybernetics, comic books, tribal chanting and a mixture folk and popular art forms.

For more information on Adult. visit their website
http://www.adultperiod.com/

For more information on White Car visit their website
http://www.white-car.net/

For more information on Monster Island visit their Myspace page http://www.myspace.com/monsterisland13