Blog - The Project Room

Sunday, October 26 at 12pm

at The Beacon/Massive Monkees Studio*

664 S King St, Seattle, WA 98104

FREE - no registration required

Join us for a special presentation and conversation with choreographer Amy O'Neal and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Director of Performing Arts Marc Bamuthi Joseph. Using O'Neal's forthcoming debut of the same name, "Opposing Forces" addresses assumptions and rethinking of B-Boy culture, contemporary dance, gender roles, and other questions of opposition found in this new work.Part of The Project Room's investigation of the topic of"Transformation", this program draws on Joseph's dual expertise as hip hop generation curator and playwright and celebrates the world premiere of O'Neal's new work.

*Note the location- this program is not at The Project Room!

Opposing Forces debuts at On the Boards October 23, 24, 25, 26.Tickets and more info here!

About the Presenters:

Marc Bamuthi Joseph is one of America's most vital voices in performance, arts education, and artistic curation. After appearing on Broadway as a young actor, Joseph developed several poetry-based works for the stage includingWord Becomes Flesh,Scourge, and thebreak/sthat have toured across the US, Europe, and Africa. Joseph'sWord Becomes Fleshwas re-mounted in December 2010 as part of the National Endowment for the Arts' American Masterpieces series, and will tour throughout the US and Canada. An acclaimed educator and essayist, Joseph has lectured at more than 200 colleges and universities, appeared as a commentator on NPR, and carried adjunct professorships at Stanford University, Lehigh University, Mills College, and the University of Wisconsin. He is the co-founder of Life is Living, a national series of one-day festivals designed to activate under-resourced parks and affirm peaceful urban life through hip-hop arts and focused environmental action. Joseph is also the artistic director of the seven-part HBO documentary "Russell Simmons presents Brave New Voices" and an inaugural recipient of the United States Artists Rockefeller Fellowship. He is the 2011 Alpert Award winner in Theater and in April 2012, he was one of 21 artists to be named to the inaugural class of Doris Duke Artists. He currently serves as Director of Performing Arts at Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco.

Amy O’Neal is a diverse dancer, performer, choreographer, and dance educator based in Seattle WA.For the last 15 years, she has taught and performed throughout the US, Japan and Mexico and choreographed for stage, commercials, rock shows, galleries, dance films and music videos. Her work is an amalgam of her diverse movement and life experiences presenting social commentary with dark humor and heavy beats.She is the recipient of numerous grants including awards from Creative Capital, the National Performance Network, the National Dance Project, Mid Atlantic Arts and the James W. Ray Project Venture Award. Amy has been an artist-in-residence at Bates Dance Festival, Headlands Center for the Arts, the US/Japan Choreographer’s Exchange, and Velocity Dance Center. She is a two-time Artist Trust Fellow, a DanceWEB Scholar, two-time Stranger Genius Awards nominee. She has worked extensively with musician/comedian Reggie Watts since 2002 both on stage and screen. She choreographed his Comedy Central produced “Fuck, Shit, Stack” video and toured nationally in his show Disinformation. She has created commissioned pieces for Degenerate Art Ensemble and Spectrum Dance Theater and collaborated with Savion Glover and Daniel Bernard Roumain through Seattle Theater Group. She has performed in the work of Pat Graney, Scott/Powell Performance, and Mark Haim. From 2000 to 2010, she was co-director of locust (music/dance/video) with musician/composer Zeke Keeble, creating six evening-length works and several shorter works. She teaches Contemporary Dance and Hip-Hop/Urban Styles at Velocity Dance Center and House at The Beacon: Massive Monkees studio in Seattle. She also teaches dance composition and improvisation for Seattle Theater Group’s Dance This program and the Seattle Youth Dance Collective. She holds a BFA from Cornish College of the Arts, and her dance writing has been published in Dance Magazine, City Arts Magazine, and ArtDish Forum.

Thursday, October 23

7-7:45PM & 8-8:45pm

We are delighted to welcome back the annual Lit Crawl Seattle event to The Project Room! This year, two of the evening's program will take place at TPR in conjunction with our current "Transformation" topic. For the complete listing of all Lit Crawl activities, go here.

7PM:Hedgebrook Presents:Past LivesfeaturingEmily White, Lisa Halpern, Kate Willette, and Janet Yoder, with Sonora Jha

8PM: Superheroes vs. Fairy TalesfeaturingAngela Jane Fountas, Jeannine Hall Gailey, Michael Schmeltzer, and Maya Sonenberg, with Evan J. Peterson

More info:

7PM: Hedgebrook Presents:Past Lives:Hedgebrook alumnae Emily White, Lisa Halpern, Kate Willette, and Janet Yoder read work on ghosts, gods, grief, and native tongues. Hosted by Sonora Jha (Foreign).

About Hedgebrook:

Hedgebrook is a global community of women writers and people who seek extraordinary books, poetry, plays, films and music by women. A literary nonprofit, our mission is to support visionary women writers whose stories and ideas shape our culture now and for generations to come. We offer writing residencies, master classes and salons at our 25-year-old retreat on Whidbey Island, and public programs that connect writers with readers and audiences around the world. Learn more athttps://www.hedgebrook.org/

About the Readers:

Emily Whiteis a writer of both fiction and nonfiction. She has publishedtwo books of nonfiction with Scribner:Fast Girls, Teenage Tribes and theMyth of the SlutandYou Will Make Money In Your Sleep, a biography of a conman who was also a close friend. Her short stories have appeared in TheIowa Review,The Greensboro Review,The Sonora ReviewandBlack Clock. Herarticles - about topics like teenagers, con artists, military recruiters andgaming addicts - have appeared inThe New York Times Magazine, The StrangerandSeattle Metropolitanamong others. She has been a Stegner Fellow atStanford, as well as Editor in Chief ofThe Stranger. Recently she wasinvited to speak at the Harvard - Berlin dialogues about the persistence ofthe Slut archetype in American high schools. She teaches in the lowresidency MFA program at Queens College in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Award-winning writer/director/producerLisa Halpernrecently worked with Marta Kauffman (co-creator FRIENDS) to develop Lisa’s screenplay adaptation of the best-selling novel ‘Broken For You’. Lisa is a two time Hedgebrook alumni, and is a member of the Seattle Repertory Theatre’s Writers Group. Her first play ‘Flying Through Blue’ was a 2011 PlayPenn Finalist and was selected for staged readings at the Great Plains Theater Conference (Playlab) 2013, Uprooted Theater’s Playwrights Festival in Milwaukee 2013 and the Northwest Playwright’s Alliance 2014. Intiman Theatre commissioned Lisa to write ‘Metanoia: A Change of Mind’ which recently had a staged reading at the Seattle Repertory Theater. For more info go to:www.thirdeyeproductions.org

Kate Willetteis a 2003 Hedgebrook alumna. She has published short literary fiction (“Evidence,”Best of Writers at Work 1994), memoir (Some Things Are Unbreakable) and narrative non-fiction (Working 2 Walk 2012). She holds a variety of degrees and certificates from the University of Washington and the Seattle School of Psychology and Theology.

From her home in Bellevue, Kate is currently working on two projects: one is a novel about an unusual church run by a young atheist pastor, and the other is a manual for lay people interested in the science of spinal cord injury and its cure. She’s married to artist/musician/geek/pun-lover Bruce Hanson, with whom she’s raised a pair of insanely wonderful daughters.

Janet Yoderlives with her husband on their Seattle houseboat, the floating na

Japanese Noh master Munenori Takeda and composer Garrett Fisher of the Fisher Ensemble join Jess at the Project room to talk about their collaboration and our current topic of "transformation" and how it relates to the rich tradition of opera and Japanese Noh Theatre.

September 23, 7-8:30pm at The Project Room

with Special Guests: Writers Kelley Eskridge & Nicola Griffith;Haruko Nishimura & Joshua Kohl (Degenerate Art Ensemble); Gretta Harley & Sarah Rudinoff (We Are Golden)

What does it take for a two-person partnership to succeed?

In response to this question, TPR presents a collaboration workshop by author Joshua Wolf Shenk. Joshua will present the ideas in his new book POWERS OF TWO and engage participants in thinking about and identifying the beneficial partnerships in their lives using the research he conducted for the book. This is aimed at the general public, with an emphasis on those who work in pairs and would like to learn more about Joshua's research and its impact on creativity and success.

Read Joshua's recent article about creative pairs in The Atlantic

Pre-order the book from Elliott Bay Book Company and pick it up on your way to the event!

Join Joshua with TPR's Jess Van Nostrand for a conversation at Town Hall Seattle the night prior to the workshop for additional insight into this revealing look at creative collaboration.

About the Presenter:

Joshua Wolf Shenk is the author of Lincoln’s Melancholy, a New York Times Notable Book. Acontributor to the Atlantic, Harper’s, The New Yorker, and other publications, he directs the Arts in Mindseries on creativity and serves on the general council of The Moth.

September 22, 7:30 - 8:45pmatTOWN HALL: tickets $5

And join in a creative pairs workshop with Joshua on September 23rd at The Project Room!

For every John Lennon and Mark Zuckerberg, there’s a Paul McCartney and a Sheryl Sandberg. According to Joshua Wolf Shenk, creativity and innovation work best in pairs.Powers of Twoanalyzes historical dynamic duos — from politicians and musicians, to artists and business partners. His “eye-opening, illuminating” account highlights the ways these partnerships are created and how these dyads mutually propel one another to greatness. He’ll outline the stages of a successful partnership — meeting, confluence, archetypes, distance, the infinite game, and interruption — explaining why creativity hinges on collaboration. He’ll appear in conversation with Jess Van Nostrand, the Founder of The Project Room.

Presented by:Town Hall, The Project Room, and Elliott Bay Book Company, as part of the Arts & Culture series. Sponsored byCity Arts.
Tickets:$5.
Town Hall member benefits:Priority seating, discounted onsite book sales.
Doors open:6:30 p.m.
Learn more:Quotes from famous creative pairs

About the Presenter:

Joshua Wolf Shenkis an essayist, author, and curator based in Los Angeles. His most recent book,Powers of Two: Seeking the Essence of Innovation in Creative Pairs(Eamon Dolan Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). His magazine pieces include cover stories inHarper’s, Time,andThe Atlantic,where his essay "What Makes Us Happy?" was the most read article in the history of that magazine’s website. His work has also appeared inSlate,The New Yorker,The New York Times,and the national bestsellerUnholy Ghost: Writers on Depression,edited by Nell Casey. His first book,Lincoln’s Melancholy,was named one of the best books of 2005 byThe New York Times,The Washington Post,andThe Atlanta-Journal Constitution,and won awards from The Abraham Lincoln Institute, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, and the National Mental Health Association.

When he’s not reporting and writing, Josh spends his time leading and supporting creative communities. He is a curator, storyteller and advisor toThe Moth; vice-chair emeritus of the board of directors, he currently serves on the general council. He is also a past director of the Rose O'Neill Literary House at Washington College, where he curated programs and festivals and directed a small literary press. Shenk consults to the Erikson Institute for Education and Research at theAusten Riggs Center, where he develops creative programs, includingArts in Mind, a conversation series on the intersections of the creative arts and psychology co-hosted by the New School in New York City.

Josh has taught creative writing at The New School, New York University, Washington College, the Bread Loaf Writer's Conference, and in private groups. His other publications includeIn Lincoln's Hand, co-edited by Harold Holzer, an anthology of original original manuscripts with original essays by luminaries including John Updike, Toni Morrison, and Tony Kushner.

Other honors include residencies atYaddo,MacDowell, theBlue Mountain Center, and theNorman Mailer Center; a Rosalynn Carter fellowship in mental health journalism at theCarter Center; a Japan Society Media Fellowship; and the Frank Whiting scholarship at theBread Loaf Writer’s Conference. Josh was a 2005-06 fellow in non-fiction literature at the New York Foundation for the Arts.

He lives in Silverlake and is the father to a four-year-old boy who, like Josh, has webbed toes.

Tuesday, September 30, 6:30-8:30PM

at 10 degrees:1312 E. Union St. (Capitol Hill)*

Live Twitter Feed: @projectroomSEA / #ArtTechSpeedDating

In a revival of The Project Room's 2012 Art & Technology Experiment,we are expanding the size and format of the event for Speed Dating, version 2.0! This time, the public is invited to join the experiment (registration required!) Featuring top-notch makers in art and technology, this event introduces creative people who may not meet each other otherwise for an entertaining evening of "first dates" that allows for 250 conversations to take place in one hour!

A speed date from the 2012 event, withComputer Scientist Elisabeth Robson and Composer Byron Au Yong, under the dutifully-tweeting chaperone and Seattle Magazine Arts Editor Brangien Davis

Both art and technology are unavoidable aspects of life, so how can they be resources for each other?The goal ofSpeed Dating 2.0is to explore the creative territory that is shared by art and technology and to begin conversation that could foster creative problem-solving between these fields.

Format: Each "date" is six minutes long and includes one artist, one technologist, and one facilitator ("chaperone") who is a highly-respected leader in their field. There is also time for general mingling and socializing before and after.

Players: Artists from a variety of disciplines including the performing, literary and visual arts; Technologists including programmers, developers, tech "evangelists" and more; Facilitators who produce ideas, such as artistic directors, CEO's, curators, editors, and attorneys.

Results: The chaperones will propose a topic for each date and will share their notes for live Twitter at #ArtTechSpeedDating. A final written response of our collective findings will be published on TPR's literary journal, Off Paper.

How to Prepare: Is there an issue or question about your work you'd like to ask your Art/Tech counterpart? Email it to [email protected] in advance of the event so it can be worked into the topic questions during the dates! We would love to know what you are wrestling with that could be helpfully addressed by someone outside of your field. Other than that, just bring your curiosity and your conversation skills!

How to Register: If you are not one of our invited participants and want to join the fun, please write [email protected] with your stated identity as "Artist", "Technologist" or "Producer" (who act as the facilitators) with a note about what kind of work you do. It's first-come, first-served, so write us soon!Update: We are currently at max capacity and unable to add any more participants; however if you would like to be added to the wait-list, let us know: [email protected]

This program is inspired by Siren, the dating app created by artist Susie Lee and her technology team of Katrina Hess, Karen Caplan, Zuri Biringer, and Joren Winge.Responding to problems users often articulated in other online dating apps, Siren is a platform inspired by what works in real life and what women would choose their dating experience to be like.Siren represents Lee's creative skills as a visual and conceptual artist whose work examines contemporary issues, from aging to environmental fracking- more about her work can be found here

*We are making use of a larger space around the corner to accommodate this more ambitious format! It's three blocks from TPR next to Oola Distillery.Special thanks to our program partner, 10 degrees!

Musican and visual artist Paul Rucker and Jess sit down to talk about his on-going project on slavery and its relationship to current American issues about race and equality

At Bumbershoot!

Sunday, August 31, 1:45-2:45pm

Charlotte Martin Theatre, Seattle Center (at the Seattle Children's Theatre)

FEATURING: Carrie Akre,Kelleen Conway Blanchard,Bryan Cook,Brett Hamil, and Eric Olsonw/ Timothy Firth; hosted by Emmett Montgomery!

Entry to the show requires a Bumbershoot festival ticket, which can be purchased here

The Project Room presents an hour-long variety show featuring a critical part of the creative process: failure. Mixing humor with artistic disaster, The Failure Variety Show will feature rapid-fire presentations by a talented lineup of special guests, followed by the live on-stage reveal of the Failure Variety Show Rube Goldberg Machine, created during the show by artist Eric Olson and destined not to succeed.

Why are you making a Rube Goldberg Machine during a live show about failure?you may ask yourself. Well, we thought it was the ultimate test of something that's really difficult and is certainly not meant to be made in one hour in front of an audience in a theater. Thus, it has a high potential for disaster, and we think you will enjoy watching us face failure live on stage.

Why are you collecting stories of failure, and what am I supposed to do about it?you may also ask yourself. In order avoid failing alone, we would like to hear your personal anecdotes of failure for sharing during the Failure Variety Show (yes, you can be anonymous). Send your failure story to [email protected]

About the Presenters:

In the early ’90s, Carrie Akrewas the lead singer of Hammerbox, a potent alternative rock outfit with guitar hooks as sharp as Nirvana’s but without the record label push the group deserved. In August 1993, Hammerbox performed at Endfest in Washington State to an audience of more than 14,000 fans, sharing the stage with well-known college-radio favorites like X, Social Distortion, and They Might Be Giants. The group was dropped, marking the beginning of Akre’s difficulties with major labels, one that would motivate her to start her own label, Good-Ink Records. Akre formed the band Goodness in 1994 whose self-titled first album was first released on Y Records and then later re-released onLava, an imprint of Atlantic Records. Their second LP, Anthem, for Atlantic in 1998 was shelved after failing to produce a “single”. The label dropped the band soon there after. Goodness disbanded in 2000. In 1999, Akre joined the Rockfords with guitarist Mike McCready of Pearl Jam, Rick Friel (vocals), and ex-Goodness members Danny Newcomb (bass) and Chris Friel (drums). Akre released her solo debut, Home, in 2000 (on GoodInk Records), Invitation in 2002 (on self owned My Way Records) and Last the Evening in 2007 (on Loveless Records).

Kelleen Conway Blanchardis a Seattle playwright. Her work has beenseen/produced at Annex Theatre, Macha Monkey, Balagan Theatre, Weird and Awesome, Live Girls!,12 Minutes Max, 14/48, Spin the Bottle and as part of FringeACT. Her plays have been nominated for the Gregory awards and the Gypsy Rose Lee awards.Outside of Seattle, her plays have been part of Eight Tens at Eight in Santa Cruz, the 2ndAnnual Festival of New Short Plays in Belfast, Maine and Perishable Theatre’s Women’sPlaywriting Festival. She is inspired by ordinary creepiness and terrible secrets. She also enjoys those internet videos of raccoons. Her new play, The Blood Countess will be produced at Annex theater in the Fall. Come see it! There will be blood.http://thisisprettycreepy.blogspot.com/

Comic/writer Bryan Cook, recently named one of LA Weekly’s 10 Comics to Watch for 2014, is the host and creator of the live show (and podcast on the Nerdist network) Competitive Erotic Fan Fiction (one of Rolling Stone’s Top 10 Comedy Podcasts) presented every month at The Virgil in LA, as well as all over the US. He writes for Funny or Die, was featured in the comedy special Dancing Around the Shit Fire with Kyle Kinane, and has performed at JFL Chicago, Outside Lands (SF), High Plains Comedy Fest (Denver), SF Sketchfest, Bridgetown Comedy Fest (Portland), Riot LA, and Bumbershoot (Seattle). Cook has also contributed to McSweeney’s, written for Ridiculousness on MTV, Fashion Police, and various Joan Rivers projects.

Author Jesmyn Ward stops by the Project Room to have a conversation about her memoir "Men We Reaped"

September 11, 6-7pm: Aroundtable discussion withAngela B. Ginoriofrom the University of Washington Women’s Studies Department, andAlina Hua, Mozilla’s Manager of data governance and privacy policy. Join the conversation as we explore the tricky business of privacy and female relationships with two experts in very different fields. This event is in conjunction with our ongoing "Privacy" topic and the launch of the Siren dating app created by visual artist Susie J. Lee.

About the Presenters:

Angela B. Ginoriois associate professor in the Department of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies, and adjunct associate professor in the Departments of Psychology and American Ethnic Studies--all at the University of Washington in Seattle. She received her B.A. and M.A. in Psychology from the University of Puerto Rico and her Ph.D. in Psychology from Fordham University in New York City. She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association's Divisions 35 and 45. She teaches courses on "Women and Violence," "Women and/in Science," "Issues for Ethnic Minorities and Women in Science and Engineering," and "Gendered Technologies." Her scholarship focuses on factors affecting access to and experiences in science and engineering of under-represented groups (students and faculty of color, women, students from rural backgrounds, first-generation students), with particular attention to impact of socially defined identities / intersectionality. Ginorio developed and from 1992-2004 directed the Rural Girls in Science Program [depts.washington.edu] of the University of Washington.

Alina Hua is a Senior Data Privacy Manager at Mozilla. In her role, she advises and guides the organization through the development, evolution and implementation of its privacy principles and data policies. She also leads privacy-innovation initiatives and collaborations that explore the creation, education and awareness of new privacy features or enhancements for mobile and desktop. Prior to Mozilla, Alina was with Yahoo!’s Privacy & Data Governance group, and spent several years as a senior consultant at Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers providing advisory services to technology, financial and healthcare clients. She holds a Master of Science in Public Policy & Management (MSPPM) from Carnegie Mellon University and is a Certified Privacy Professional (CIPP/US).

Recognized for the intelligence, emotion, and sensuality of her new media work, Susie J. Lee explores transformation and connections through technology. Lee's work has been exhibited in the United States and abroad, in such venues as the Denver Art Museum, Blanton Museum, Galleria Tiziana Di Caro in Salerno, Italy, and Gallery Hyundai in Seoul. A winner of the Stranger Genius Award, Lee has received support from 4Culture and the Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture, and her work is in notable public and private collections. Lee's Still Lives was an unfolding of time at the end of life in a series of video portraits and traveled to the Portland Art Museum, Tacoma Art Museum and featured in Huffington Post. Of Breath and Rain at the Frye Art Museum was named "Best Multimedia Exhibition" in 2012. Her solo exhibition at the North Dakota Museum of Art,Split Open, revealed the quiet and fierce lives impacted by the oil boom in North Dakota, and her recent piece with collaborator Byron Au Yong, 11 Pianists was commissioned by the Mitchell Center for the Arts for its Countercurrent festival. She is currently the CEO and founder of Siren, an app that empowers women in their interactions with men.

Read more about TPR & Siren here: