NYC

Got used laptops and smart phones? Donate them to MIRA!

Posted on by dumsumla

This spring, I’m teaching a course in digital storytelling for MIRA, a great organization, and they need help. Hope Traficanti is the president and co-founder, and she says everything about the drive below. What I’ll add is this is a great group of people offering digital tools and storytelling structure to young adults seeking work and earning their high school degree equivalency. I’m proud to be working with MIRA, and your support will offer a foundation for a fledgling organization with big ideas. If you have any used electronics, please consider donating.

Thank you,
James

Turn those last-generation electronics into tax deductions 

MIRA, a 501(c)3 charitable organization I helped to found, is about to launch a training programme in digital storytelling for young men and women who did not complete formal education.

MIRA’s mission is to provide vulnerable youth with a global platform for sharing their stories with the world, and to create a more diverse global media that promotes open information exchange.

This spring’s course will enable participants in the Henry Street Settlement’s Youth Employment Programme to explore new ways of engaging their communities, potential employers and wider audiences, using storytelling as a vehicle for digital media education. 

Many in the community have already lent their very generous support to MIRA at its fall fundraiser – their support has made this initiative possible. However, we are still lacking basic tools with which to train our participants.

We are seeking donations of used:

  • iPhone 4 and 5s
  • Samsung SmartPhones
  • Macbooks
  • PC laptops
  • Digital cameras that have the ability to record video

Even heavily used equipment is appreciated as long as it is in good working condition. As a 501(c)3 organization, donations to MIRA are tax deductible, and MIRA will gratefully issue you a tax-deduction acknowledgement letter.

Get a tax deduction and reduce clutter while helping young people – a win-win!

To make donations, contact me at h.traficanti [at] mira-ngo.org, and specify the type of equipment along with its general condition. To learn more about MIRA, visit www.mira-ngo.org. Thank you!

Hope Traficanti, President and co-founder

Tuesday Cosplay

Posted on by dumsumla

Matching Hello Kitties
(One Pink, One Baby Blue)
Walk 6th Ave,
Heads Half Off,
Revealing Middle-aged,
Latina,
Identical Twin Sisters.

Mahjong Men

Posted on by dumsumla

Erhus & saxophones
Serenade
Mahjong Men
Clustered in Columbus Park
(Former Five Points).
Flip & slap.
Points & shouts.
Monday afternoon.

Posted on by dumsumla

Tassels trail from Toddler’s
Thomas the Train t-shirt.
Trilby tops noggin.
Berks on bare feet
Carry boy cross
Bennett Park Mini-mount.

reach out and touch someone

Posted on by dumsumla

This feature first appeared on Culturadar, an arts listings website for New York City. You can read the original post here.

A woman appears on a computer screen and smokes a cigarette in a tiny London flat. She coyly asks if you’ve ever followed a stranger to a hotel room. In Australia, a bouncy blonde wearing what looks like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costume pops up on a laptop, insisting she met you hundreds of years ago. Together, you have a plan to save the world. A third woman – a Romanian – shares a sad tale about her boyfriend, photographs and donuts.

This isn’t a private adult video chat you discover after accidentally clicking a link in a spam email. This is theater.  Long Distance Affair, produced by PopUp Theatrics, takes the audience on a journey around the world. And you don’t even have to get on an airplane.

Creators and directors Tamilla Woodard and Ana Margineanu create intimate theatrical experiences for one person. Digital theater for one. Some of the performances are interactive, requiring audience members to engage with the character. Others are passive, offering a more traditional theater monologue. Each piece is more unpredictable than the previous.

With Long Distance Affair, Ms. Margineanu and Ms. Woodard partnered a director, a playwright and an actor to create eight minute bits of theater performed live from the actor’s own home. The audience views these performances via Skype from New York City’s The Gershwin Hotel. Here’s the catch (as if there wasn’t enough of one already): None of the creators live in the same country as their collaborators. In two weeks, they write, rehearse and perform the short plays. All over Skype.

PopUpBanner“In Romania, the director is considered a god,” explained Ms. Margineanu. “In America, the playwright is god. In Russia, the actor is god. You can imagine what happens when three gods try to work together.”

Not only is it an experiment in form and process. It’s a test of endurance. Actors must perform the same eight minute piece up to 30 times in one evening – sometimes at 3:00am, if they live seven hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time.

PopUp Theatricals is devoted to unpacking the creator’s relationship with the audience. With their other major production, Hotel Project, PopUp again assembled international creative teams. In another exclusive performance, a lone audience member becomes a fly on the wall while a scene plays out around her or him.

Long Distance Affair runs through February 28, and tickets are limited due to the intimate nature of the event. Because of the staggered schedules and time differences of actor locations, audiences can attend multiple nights and might see different plays. Don’t think this is an entirely digital experience. There are analog elements that allow audience members to connect with the characters, too. Who knows? You might even receive a present from a new friend in another part of the world.

_____________________

LONG DISTANCE AFFAIR
THE GERSHWIN HOTEL
7 east 27th street, NYC (next to the Museum of Sex)
Tickets ONLY $25
Available at ovationtix. com or by calling 866-811-4111