I just found a lost episode of our on going series “STORY” please enjoy & feel free to share.

Red Clay: High and Low from Shawn Peters on Vimeo.

“A new performance art project that we have been working on with RED CLAY called High and Low, the name is based on the Kurosawa film with the same title. We take High art to common places and see what reactions we get.” – Shawn Peters

TALKBACK THEATER! July – 10th. 8.pm, 106 W. North Ave Baltimore, Maryland

Come join us for a movie night featuring offbeat 2007 indie flick Great World of Sound: directed by Craig Zobel. As always: FREE movie, light snack, loose and comfortable mood.

“Great World of Sound” follows Martin (Pat Healy), as he applies for a job at a company training prospective “music producers”. During training he pairs up with another new employee, Clarence (Kene Holliday), a middle aged man trying to change his career path. As record producers, the two travel to towns where the company has placed newspaper ads to find undiscovered musicians. They are seeking talent for the record label- signing new artists and giving them a chance to let their music be heard… for a small fee. It’s going great at first, but soon Martin and Clarence begin to question whether the company is as virtuous as it promises to be in its promise to give people their dream.This film evokes the image of the traveling salesman- a talent salesman- to address the increasing trend of people looking for a shortcut to fame. The film also examines the people who promise such an easy path- commenting that a “scam artist” rarely believes they are one, and that often the scam artist is being scammed himself.

This event is brought to you by exittheapple in conjunction with Westnorth Studio and is sponsored by Station North Arts Inc.

How come no one called me for this article? lol –pb

The Black Box: Baltimore’s African-American indie filmmakers search for an audience | Baltimore City Paper.

WARNING: This video contains “bad” words, brief nudity & graphic violence towards the end…However if you can get past that I feel this is an interesting commentary considering recent political events. I would love to hear your thoughts on this.-pierre bennu

‘Born Free’ song by M.I.A
Directed by Romain Gavras
Director of photography André Chemetoff

M.I.A, Born Free from ROMAIN-GAVRAS on Vimeo.

What I’m about to do here might seem simple to you but for me is extremely hard. I have a habit of burying or throwing away things that are old or that I feel are not polished & perfect. The danger in that is you might loose perspective on what you have accomplished. You also run the risk of burning out & feeling you constantly need to start from zero. Despite the numerous awards I won for this as a teen I have not screened this in several years and as I write this my stomach is hurting at the thought of you seeing it but I need to do this for me. Thank you for the opportunity to be courageous. Pierre Bennu.

Negative Images (1992) from pierre bennu on Vimeo.

Kenyan filmmaker Wanuri Kahiu takes the Afrofuturism genre one step further with her short SciFi film “Pumzi.” The dystopic flick is set in an enclosed, underground future society, “35 years after water wars have torn the world apart,” and chronicles the efforts of one young woman to bring life back to the surface of the planet.

Unique opportunity to see this groundbreaking, award-winning film this sunday in Brooklyn, NY — at a free screening hosted by mtkalla keaton sunday evening, april 18th. details below.

“Pumzi” Brooklyn Screening @ Le Grand Dakar (Grand ave and Clifton Pl)

Sunday April 18th @ 8pm.
Please RVSP via text (917 771 2747)

Click below to see the trailer. Wow.
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To Have & To Hold – Taster Tape from Jony Lyle on Vimeo.

I’ve been doing some soul searching, I’m finding some good stuff. I’m being pushed reluctantly into the foreground, a place that i purposefully abandoned several years ago. However situations keep occurring where my hermit tendencies don’t serve me. I am also being informed that my style of perfectionism doesn’t serve me. My art is like a cockroach in that for every one piece of mine that you see there are about 30 that you don’t see. Growing up I used to throw away sketch books, rhyme books and journals because they were not “perfect.” It wasn’t till i got married that i really started to save my work & even then many things never saw the light of day. I learned that just because something comes easy to me doesn’t mean it lacks value. So here i am unwilling to put things out there that are not “perfect” but in desperate need to share and make room for all the new stuff. The first challenge I put to myself is to be “out there” more. I’ve decided to do so by starting a Video Blog (which i believe is called a V-log). It is tentatively titled “2 minutes with your imaginary friend Pierre!” I begin shooting later this week…see you soon..well…you’ll see me soon but you…you get it…so yeah.

Duke professor Mark Anthony Neal and Grammy winning producer 9th Wonder (pictured left) are using SunMoonChild – amazing song by imani uzuri, amazing video by Pierre Bennu – as part of the midterm exam for their course, ’sampling soul.’ The course is about black cultural production and the tradition of borrowing/remixing/sampling and how it all relates to today’s legal issues of intellectual property rights and copyright law. Since YouTube just removed SunMoonChild after three years this issue cuts particularly close for us.

He’s made the midterm public on his blog to encourage a wider dialogue and wider exposure to the ideas. Stop by and give it a read, comment if you can! )

–jb.

As a DJ, an artist, a sometime teacher, and the son of an academic, I will never get tired of marveling at the intersection of HipHop and academia. It’s an honor to have my work thought of as contributing to this discussion.

–pb