March 5, 2007
Artist Terry Berlier and Composer Gregory Moore
Terry Berlier will screen two of her videos that find place against the backdrop of nonplace.
"Remain Human"-This experimental documentary about a trailer park
features the stories of living in substandard housing on the wrong side
of the tracks.
"Bay Bridge Toll Plaza Intervention"-CCA's Nonplace Class transforms
the Toll Plaza into a Place by handing out chocolate chip cookies
during morning rush hour.
Terry is an interdisciplinary artist who teaches at CCA, Sonoma State & Sierra College. These works are often interactive and relate
to her concept of the 'human tuning fork' and entropy. She has taught
at CCA, UCSC, UCD, Sonoma State University and Sierra College. She
received a MFA from UCD in 2003.
Gregory Moore performs New Music from Maybeck Studio in Berkeley:
Sweet synthetic meditations, refracted sonic colors of field recordings, and voice collage.
Seven Intrigues for Dian (7 minutes): Music drawn from the patterns of tables and chairs by New York furniture designer Dian Needham.
Codornices: The discovery of melodies in Codornices Creek, inspired by Ramon Sender.
I.D. id: A prismatic study of the strange beauty secretly hidden in
institutional identification numbers.
Melchert Circles: A recording of artist Jim Melchert at work in his studio is the basis
for this three-part song cycle.
Moore studied linguistics with George Lakoff, then did his
graduate work in electronic music at CalArts. He lives and works at
the Maybeck Studio in Berkeley. His compositions have long been
performed by various musicians around the U.S. and Europe, and in
recent years he's begun to write music to perform himself.
March 19, 2007
Leonard Pitt, a writer/performer from the East Bay, will show slides of Paris before and after the reconstruction in the late 19th Century.
An Evening with Leonard Pitt-"Paris Transforming _- The beauty and the horror of urban reconstruction"
During the 1850s and '60s, Paris underwent the greatest urban reconstruction program the world had ever seen. Much of the city's history was lost as Medieval and Renaissance quarters crumbled. The man appointed to carry out this task was Baron Georges Haussmann. What motives lay behind this massive urban redesign? How did Parisians react as they saw their old city swept away? With over 200 images, you will walk through pre-Haussmann Paris to witness this transformation and then continue into the 20th century to see how succeeding generations have stamped their vision onto one of the world's great cities.
Leonard Pitt's unique perspective offers a view of Paris in all its beauty and drama that is not available anywhere else.
The French press came out with numerous glowing reviews when his book appeared in 2002 (now available in English as "Walks Through Lost Paris: A Journey Into The Heart of Historic Paris"):
"This American friend knows Paris like the back of his hand and illustrates clearly what the serious stroller would have a hard time deciphering on his own - the history that runs beneath today's buildings."
_ Le Nouvel Observateur
"Leonard is completely legitimate, he's impregnated with Paris. He sees things that we don't see." - Le Figaro -
Leonard Pitt was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1941. He narrowly escaped high school and never went to college. He attended art school in Los Angeles and at age twenty got a well paid job in an advertising agency with a brilliant career before him. He soon realized this was a creative dead end, so he quit and sailed to Europe. In Paris, he thought to take a few mime classes with Etienne Decroux. In a week's time he was hooked. He spent four years with Decroux and seven years total in Paris.
He returned to the U.S. in 1970 and opened a school of physical theater, attracting students from around the world. Leonard's one-man shows have received critical acclaim. He has performed and taught at theatres and festivals throughout the United States and Europe.
In 1973 he attended a concert of Balinese dance and music. Turning to his friend before the curtain went up, he whispered, "If this is boring, let's leave in the middle." He was stunned by the beauty he had seen and six months later he traveled to Bali to study mask theatre. While there he performed with the Balinese in their village and temple festivals.
In 1986 he co-founded Life On The Water, a contemporary theatre in San Francisco presenting new work. In 1991, Leonard created Eco-Rap, an environmental education program combining ecology and rap music as a way to educate inner city youth about urgent social issues.
"Walks Through Lost Paris: A Journey into the Heart of Historic Paris" chronicles Paris's great periods of urban reconstruction through four enlightening walking tours. Detailed maps lead the traveler on an itinerary from the perspectives of the photographers and artists who captured Paris with their lenses and pens decades ago. In full color, hundreds of photos, diagrams, and engravings further bring to life the massive transformation that resulted in the Paris we know today.
When he discovered that the city he lived in for many years was actually a city rebuilt during the mid-1800s, Leonard Pitt plunged headfirst into Paris's history and began photographing what he learned had changed. Eventually, he led tours and gave lectures on the demolition and reconstruction that changed Paris forever. With a special focus on the work of Georges-Eugène Haussmann, the history of each site is detailed, along with the motives behind the urban redesign and the reactions of Parisians who witnessed it. Comparing today's Paris with images of a Paris that no longer exists, the traveler can experience firsthand the dramatic evolution and discover the impact of succeeding generations.
"Pitt knows old Paris beautifully. He does more than simply line up old photos of the city like an arrangement of fruit on a stand. He explains, he pinpoints, he dismantles and compares." -Alexandre Gady, from the Preface
In another book, "A Small Moment of Great Illumination: Searching for Valentine Greatrakes, The Master Healer," Leonard Pitt plays detective in uncovering a seventeenth-century Irish healer
When Leonard Pitt first caught a glimpse of Valentine Greatrakes, it was in a footnote in an article about the history of medicine: "seventeenth-century healer." Little did Pitt imagine that this accidental find would provide fodder for such a long adventure. For the next eight years, Pitt traveled back and forth from the United States to England and Ireland to piece together the life of this enigmatic figure.
Followed by thousands wherever he went, Greatrakes was known for curing everything from cancer to leprosy and leukemia by the laying-on of hands. His healing powers caused one of the great controversies of the age, bringing him under the scrutiny of scientists, theologians, physicians, and philosophers-many pronounced Greatrakes's powers as miraculous; others denounced him a quack. Robert Boyle, a pioneer of modern science, observed Greatrakes extensively, eventually signing affidavits that verified the cures he witnessed, while King Charles II asked the healer to London to be examined by his Royal physicians. Viewed as a threat by Church and State, Greatrakes wrote a book in 1666 to defend himself against those who vilified him. When Pitt saw an original copy of the healer's book, he had to have one for himself. After searching world wide, he found one and, of all places, in his own backyard. Leonard Pitt is the author of Walks Through Lost Paris: A Journey into the Heart of Historic Paris. He was the director of a school of physical theater for eighteen years and has performed and taught throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. He lives in Berkeley, CA.
