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Have you got your tickets yet for Pecha Kucha Dallas Vol. 10? If you’re still on the fence, here are a couple reasons to consider joining Art&Seek at the event on Sept. 19 at the new City Performance Hall.

• We’ve added more great speakers, who will all present in PK’s rapid style: 20 slides, 20 seconds per slide:

Ann Williams, founder and artistic director of Dallas Black Dance Theater.
Matt Bondurant, whose novel The Wettest County in the World, has been adapted into the movie Lawless
Bernardo Diaz, artist and SMU instructor whose working with the West Dallas Community Center and SMU’s Meadows School on collaborative, community-based projects.
Michael Robinson, puppeteer (Most recently, Avenue Q at Theatre 3) and owner of the Dallas Costume Shoppe.
Cynthia Mulcahy, artist and curator, most recently of Seventeen Hundred Seeds, a public farming-as-art project.
Katherine Clapner, chocolatier at Dude, Sweet Chocolate.

They join an already stellar lineup of previously announced presenters, including: Bruce Wood, choreographer; Bart Weiss, director of Dallas VideoFest, Erica Felicella, artist; Zad Roumaya, Change Chamber Development; Jonathan Norton, playwright, and Dave Herman, Jr., artist and co-founder of Preservation Link.

• We’ve added special musical guests: Mariachi Los Unicos de Greiner, from Greiner Middle School Exploratory Academy, will perform in the lobby before the show starts. (Get there early!)

• One lucky attendee will win a pair of tickets to TEDxSMU in a random drawing held on site.

Ya’all come. As always, jump for the press release, which includes more about Pecha Kucha!

Pecha Kucha Dallas and KERA’s Art&Seek present PKN vol. 10

at the City Performance Hall Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Announcing Additional Presenters!

DALLAS, Texas (September 6, 2012) – Pecha Kucha Night, an international phenomenon in over 340 cities world-wide presents PKN Dallas vol. 10 on Wednesday, September 19, 2012 at 7pm at City Performance Hall in the Dallas Arts District.  Doors at 6:30pm.

Additional presenters announced today include Ann Williams, founder  and artistic director of Dallas Black Dance Theater, puppeteer Michael Robinson, artist Bernardo Diaz, chocolatier Katherine Clapner and author Matt Bondurant, whose novel The Wettest County in the World, has been adapted into the movie Lawless.

The event is $8.00 per person and advance tickets are available: http://pkndallas10.eventbrite.com/ Tickets are $10 at the door.  The new City Performance Hall is located at 2520 Flora Street in Downtown Dallas.  More information: www.PKNDallas.org and www.ArtandSeek.net.  One lucky attendee will win a pair of TEDxSMU tickets in a random drawing during the event.

Pecha Kucha Night was devised in Tokyo in February 2003 as an event for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public. It has turned into a massive celebration, with events happening in hundreds of cities around the world, inspiring creatives worldwide. Drawing its name from the Japanese term for the sound of “chit chat”, it rests on a presentation format that is based on a simple idea: 20 images x 20 seconds per image. It’s a format that makes presentations concise, and keeps things moving at a rapid pace.

Confirmed presenters for PKN vol. 10 include:  Bart Weiss, Founder of Dallas VideoFest; Bruce Wood, choreographer; Erica Felicella, artist; Zad Roumaya, Change Chamber Development; Jonathan Norton, playwright; Dave Herman Jr., Founder of Preservation Link; Michael Robinson, puppeteer; Cynthia Mulcahy, artist & curator; Matt Bondurant, writer; Bernardo Diaz, artist; Ann Williams, Founder Black Dance Theater; Katherine Clapner, Dude Sweet Chocolate.  A special performance by Mariachi Los Unicos de Greiner Middle School Exploratory Academy will take place in the lobby starting at 6:30pm when the doors open.

“It’s been a blast to work with Pecha Kucha to get a few of the many great artists we’ve been following at Art&Seek  together on stage at this new venue,” said Anne Bothwell, director of Art&Seek.  “Art&Seek exists to share new ideas about the arts, and PK is a perfect way to do that.”

ABOUT THE CONFIRMED SPEAKERS

Bart Weiss, Dallas VideoFest founder

Bart Weiss is an award-winning independent film and video producer, director, editor and educator, who has lived in Dallas since 1981. He is mostly known as the director and founder of the Dallas VideoFest. He produces the TV show “Frame of Mind” on KERA TV in Dallas, and is the artistic Director of 3 Stars Cinema. He is currently an Associate Professor at UT Arlington. He is a former President of the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers (AIVF), former (and founding) board member Dallas Artists Research and Exhibition (DARE),   He has been a video columnist for The Dallas Morning News, Dallas Times Herald, and United Features Syndicate. Bart received an MFA in Film Directing from Columbia University in 1978.

Bruce Wood, choreographer

A nationally acclaimed choreographer of more than 75 works, Bruce Wood is artistic director and choreographer of the Dallas-based Bruce Wood Dance Project (BWDP). In its second season, BWDP is dedicated to cultivating original work and advancing professional dance in Texas. Growing up in Fort Worth, Wood received a full scholarship at age 16 to the School of American Ballet under the tutelage of George Balanchine. His performance credits include New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet and Lar Lubovitch Dance Company. As a guest artist, he has performed internationally with DV8 Physical Dance in London and Contemporary Dance Canada. Back in his hometown of Fort Worth, Wood founded the Bruce Wood Dance Company (BWDC), directing it from 1997 to 2007. BWDC presented annual seasons at Bass Hall and went on three national tours. Wood has become known for his works inspired by cowboy culture. One of his most successful and requested works from this repertoire is Lovett!, set to the music of Lyle Lovett. Wood has been commissioned by Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Texas Ballet Theater and River Center Performing Arts in Columbus, Georgia. In 2010, he was honored by the Dance Council of North Texas with the Mary Bywaters Award for his lifetime contribution to dance.

Link to web site: http://www.brucewoodance.com/bruce

Zad Roumaya, Change Chamber Development, buzzworks.us

Zad Roumaya  is a serial entrepreneur, creating, funding, and operating  ventures over the last 15 years, within the Commercial Software Sector, the Retail Sector (Golf Specialty ), the Architectural Design and Build sector, which also included Change Chamber Studios, a Fine Art and Sculptural Studio.  Since 1999, Roumaya has focused on Real Estate investment with inner city rehab and new construction development, spanning office, creative live-work spaces, multifamily developments of condominium and Class A apartments.  In 2010, Roumaya also formalized a consulting relationship with Artspace –  the nationally recognized leader of Affordable Housing and Mixed use venue, specifically for Artists and Art related uses (see Artspace.org).

Erica Felicella, Artist

Erica Felicella is a self-taught photographer, performance, new media and installation artist living in Oak Cliff – Dallas, Texas.  She is actively involved in her local art community not only as an organizer and curator of art exhibitions and a mentor to new and emerging artists, but also as a creative in constant search for new and exciting ways to share her own unique perspective with the rest of the world.

Jonathan Norton, playwright

Jonathan is a Dallas-based playwright. Jonathan’s plays include Mississippi Goddamn, My Tidy List of Terrors, Everybody’s Got A Little Light, The Last Supper, 84, Down Argentine Way, Wonderful World, and Our Lady of South Oak Cliff: The Virgin Shenequa. His plays have been produced or developed at Playpenn, Texas Black and Latino Playwrights Conference, South Dallas Cultural Center, TeCo Theatrical Productions, and Soul Rep Theater Company. He has also been a Finalist for the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. He is a recipient of the Diaspora Performing Arts Commission, and is one of three inaugural recipients of the TACA/Donna Wilhelm Family New Works Fund. His newest piece, homeschooled, is funded by the TACA grant and will make its world premeire at African American Repertory Theater in 2013. Jonathan is a proud graduate of Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, Marymount Manhattan College and SMU.

David Herman, Jr., Founder Preservation Link

A son of the Gullah Geechee people, David has roots deeply embedded in the soils of South Carolina. Currently, David serves as Co-founder/Creative Director of Preservation LINK, Inc., an education agency that works to educate youth through media arts and technology. David extends artistic and cultural exploration through his traveling photography and educational exhibits. David earned a Masters of Arts degree in Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas during the fall of 2008 and works to advance the field of visual literacy, preservation, and education.

Michael Robinson, Puppeteer

Michael Robinson – (Puppeteer, Actor, Owner for the Dallas Costume Shoppe, and Professor for DCCCD) joined the Dallas Puppet Theater as the Artistic Director in 1986.  His puppetry work has been seen across the Metroplex and around the country.  Michael’s film credits include an infomercial with Buffalo Bob, the Man in the Moon movie with Jim Carey, a Texaco parrot advertisement, and also a commercial in Bermuda for Sudsil soap.  He was honored to represent the U.S. at an international puppetry festival in Prague with the Bob Kramer Marionettes.  Michael is currently working on the held over hit puppet musical Avenue Q at Theater Three, where he built the puppets and performs as Trekkie Monster.

Cynthia Mulcahy, Artist & Curator

Cynthia Mulcahy is a Dallas-based independent curator, private art dealer and organic farmer who has curated several recent public art projects including Seventeen Hundred Seeds, a three-month farming as art project collaboration with artist Robert Hamilton in a vacant Dallas city block; Square Dance: A Community Project (2011), co-curated with Leila Grothe, which proposed art as social practice in the form of an outdoor seasonal dance at the Trinity River Audubon Center; as well as XXI: Conflicts in a New Century (2011), an exhibition of war photography, co-curated with Charles Dee Mitchell, that examined conflicts and wars in the first decade of the 21st century for the City of Dallas’ newest exhibition space, the Oak Cliff Cultural Center. Square Dance was supported in part by an Idea Fund grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts which supports new, risk-taking forms that help to define new practices in contemporary art. Cynthia also runs Mulcahy Farms, a Texas organic farm, with her artist husband Robert Hamilton.

Matt Bondurant, writer

Matt Bondurant’s new novel The Night Swimmer (Scribner) was published in January, 2012.  His second novel The Wettest County in the World (Scribner 2008) was a New York Times Editor’s Pick, a San Francisco Chronicle Best 50 Books of the Year, and has been made into a feature film called LAWLESS by Director John Hillcoat (The Road) starring Shia Labeouf, Tom Hardy, Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska, Gary Oldman, and Guy Pearce.  His first novel The Third Translation (Hyperion 2005) was an international bestseller, translated into 14 languages worldwide.  His novels have been featured in featured in Esquire, Entertainment Weekly, Salon, and Men’s Journal, among others.

Bernardo Diaz, artist

Bernardo Diaz is a transplant from the Mexico/U.S. border in Southwest Texas and has called Dallas home for the past three years. A recent graduate of the Meadows School MFA Program, Diaz has invested the past year as an artist-in-residence with the Bataan and McMillan Center of West Dallas in addition to leading a course in Art as Social Practice as an instructor at SMU. Diaz has worked closely with WDCC and the Meadows School to work on highly collaborative projects that seek to address social issues that are specific to participants at both centers and the surrounding community. His students at Meadows carry out a practicum that allow them to explore the role of the artist within the social fabric of a given site through a direct engagement with WDCC and other non-profits in West Dallas.

Ann Williams, Founder Black Dance Theater

Ann Williams is the founder and artistic director of Dallas Black Dance Theatre, and a founding member of the Dance Council and The International Association of Blacks in Dance. Ms. Williams has been instructing dance for 38 years. She has grown Dallas Black Dance Theatre, now 36 years old, from a community based organization to a full professional dance company. The company presents three performance series a year in North Texas at venues such as the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre and tours nationally and internationally. Ms. Williams trained as a dancer with Barbara Hollis, Edith James, Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman. She received additional training from Alvin Ailey and Arthur Mitchell. She graduated from Prairie View A&M University and earned a Masters in Dance and an honorary doctorate in philosophy of dance from Texas Woman’s University, among other academic honors. She has received numerous awards for her professional accomplishment and for her service to the community. She’s a member of the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame and she has been honored at The Kennedy Center in Washington DC as part of the Masters of African-American Choreography series.

Katherine Clapner, Founder Dude Sweet Chocolate

Since beginning her culinary career as Pastry Chef at Sam’s Café in Dallas; following a graduation from the CIA in NYC; Clapner has extended her training internationally and gained many years of valuable experience at notable establishments worldwide. She has worked under the tutelage of recognized names such as Chef Charlie Trotter and Chef Kevin Graham, and has trained and held Pastry Chef positions at Charlie Trotter’s (Chicago), The Windsor Court Hotel (New Orleans), Hotel Cipriani (Venice, Italy), The Savoy Hotel (London, England), and in Austin, Texas, at Mansion at Judges Hill and Ranch 616. Her final collaboration, as Executive Pastry Chef for Stephan Pyles, resulted in her current incarnation as the brain-trust behind Dude, Sweet Chocolate. The opening of the flagship store in Bishops Arts District in Dallas has propelled the brand to local cult status, which has hit the national radar screen as of late.  The Cooking Channel recently filmed at the store, capturing the joie de vivre of Katherine and Dude, Sweet on the Food Networks sister station, and NBC national has found Dude, Sweet to be of interest for several spots, creating a national buzz that the ecommerce site striving to keep up. Local accolades continue, with four years running as D Magazine Best Of, and a recent addition of a production kitchen and possible 2^nd Dallas location, as well as Austin location in the works.

Mariachi Los Unicos de Greiner, Greiner Middle School Exploratory Academy

Three years ago this mariachi was the only middle school mariachi in the Dallas Independent School District this is why I named them “Los Unicos”, meaning “The Only” and “Unique”.  In just THREE and half years they are already an award-winning mariachi, having won the “Best in Class” award in three competitions.  The first one at the annual Sandy Lake Competition in Carrollton, and the other two at the annual Mariachi Extravaganza Competition in Fort Worth where they competed against, Fort Worth, Grand Prairie, and San Antonio schools! They have performed in many local events and at Six Flags, the State  Fair of Texas, The House Of  Blues, and in San Antonio, Texas at the Texas Music Educators Association Convention! Los Unicosis composed of eleven to fourteen year olds in grades sixth through eighth under the direction of  Mrs. Maria Vargas-Garcia.

About Art&Seek

Art&Seek brings North Texans news about arts, music and culture. Reports from team’s arts journalists, Jerome Weeks and Stephen Becker, appear regularly on KERA FM 91.7.  In addition, more than 3,000 arts groups are represented on Art&Seek’s calendar. Check that out, and more, at ArtandSeek.net.

For more information, please contact Sarah Jane Semrad, [email protected]