Pandora's Box Is Open

Visionary musicians are no less visionary because they have to learn the canon. Nigel Kennedy is an inspiration of what classical music should be if we don't want to confine it to a museum. He's full of twists and turns like the unique stories in the masterful One Thousand and One Nights. I love the Arabic undertones in this unprecedented interpretation of the museum piece.

In the world of divas (and divos) most are princes and princesses, but few are genuinely Kings and Queens. Aretha Franklin was THE QUEEN. She did all there's to do in music with her voice, which remained unchanged during her six-decade recording career.   Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin had the key that the rest of Pop and Classical divos and divas alike wanted to find to open the door to eternity. Little did they know that the key was custom made without replica by her Creator. R-E-S-P-E-C-T  

In the world of divas (and divos) most are princes and princesses, but few are genuinely Kings and Queens. Aretha Franklin was THE QUEEN. She did all there's to do in music with her voice, which remained unchanged during her six-decade recording career.   Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin had the key that the rest of Pop and Classical divos and divas alike wanted to find to open the door to eternity. Little did they know that the key was custom made without replica by her Creator. R-E-S-P-E-C-T  

I come across many people who want to change the world yet they haven’t figured out how to change themselves for the better; writers who think that you write for a formulaic reader when in reality if you cannot write from the core about what makes you come alive daily your writing will always be voiceless and cosmetic. In a moment when I find it exhausting to look at the outside world for inspiration, I’m looking inward and writing up a storm as I listen to Oprah.  

Poet, author, and visual artist Orlando Ferrand discusses with host Rhina Valentin his new book of poems "Star Witness" and the launching of "The Bronx Memoir Project Volume 2," an anthology of personal narratives he contributed to as a memoirist and creative writing coach. Both books are available on Amazon. "Star Witness" can also be purchased at Barnes & Noble brick and mortar and online bookstores.

This is a clip from the public program of "Like a Domino Tale." This is a nonprofit project that explores personal narratives of older adults and their daily interactions within the program activities at Morris Senior Center in the South Bronx, NY. 2017 SU-CASA artist, Orlando Ferrand, recorded senior participants in his series of workshops at this model facility during a period of six months while they shared their life experiences and the strength it took to become the extraordinary individuals they are today.

It’s very challenging to write about the arts in the 21 st century, particularly about music and dance as creative disciplines, as praxis. I must admit, however, that Adorno’s dissection of the social dimension of art through aesthetics as a discipline (1) continues to inform and contextualize my notion of art and culture, especially music, in ways that no other critical theoretician could ever do. After all, he was not only the luminary who conceived critical theory but also the greatest philosopher of music who ever lived. As a multidisciplinary artist myself, I’m grateful for the opportunities I had to showcase my work in the performing arts during the last two decades of the 20 th century when cultural and philosophical ideas framed by the avant-garde were resurrected and regarded if not as an aesthetics of permanence (2) at least as a referential vocabulary resisting the annihilation of all isms by postmodernists (3). After the year 2000, however, the skepticism, agnostici...