Three Nights of Lights Nighttime Public Art Gallery December 3, 2022, 5-9:00pm

5:00-9:00pm Illumination + self-guided tours, plus local business specials 

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“Still Here” mural at 32 Custom House St.

5:30pm Tomaquag Museum culture activation with performance and storytelling by Thawn Harris. 

7:00pm, 7:45pm, 8:30pm
Music activation by Manny Escobar 

***

“Misty Blue” mural at 118 Orange Street 

6:00pm Center for Southeast Asians culture activation
6:00 Monk Chanting
6:30 Bracelet Ceremony

7:00pm, 7:45pm, 8:30pmMusic activation by House Red

***

“Salt Water” at 122 Mathewson

6:15 pm Rhode Island Black Storytellers culture activation with storytelling by Rachel Briggs and Len Cabral

7:00pm, 7:45pm, 8:30pm
Music activation by Daedelus with live visual performance by Andrew Hlynsky

***

“Stationary Creature Envelope Windows”
35 Weybosset (lot side)

6:30-8:30pm Digital Projection Experience by Julio Berroa and Friends (Corinne Gregoire, Mark Medeiros, and Eduardo Veras Martinez) 

5:00-9:00pm Illumination + self guided tours plus local business specials

***

“Still Here” mural at 32 Custom House St.

5:30-6:30pm Tomaquag Museum culture activation with performance and storytelling by Lynsea Montanari.

7:00pm, 7:45pm, 8:30pm
Music activation by Bittersweet 

***

“Misty Blue” mural at 118 Orange Street 

6:00-7:00pm Center for Southeast Asians culture activation
Traditional Laotian Dance Performance

7:00pm, 7:45pm, 8:30pm
Music activation by Host

***

“Salt Water” at 122 Mathewson

6:15-7:00pm Rhode Island Black Storytellers culture activation with storytelling by Ramona Bass Kolobe, Sylvia Ann Soares and Valerie Tutson

7:00pm, 7:45pm, 8:30pm
Music and light activation by Daedelus with live visual performance by Andrew Hlynsky

***

“Stationary Creature Envelope Windows” at 35 Weybosset (lot side)

6:30-8:30pm Digital Projection Experience by Julio Berroa and Friends (Corinne Gregoire, Mark Medeiros, and Eduardo Veras Martinez)  

5:00-9:00pm Illumination + self-guided tours are still on!

Saturday, December 3rd. LIVE PERFORMANCES CANCELED due to weather and high wind concerns. 

Due to weather concerns, particularly high winds, The Avenue Concept live performances are canceled tonight.

Illumination is ON for our murals + sculptures throughout downtown, and our self-guided tour app is up and running. We encourage visitors to access the tour and explore our illuminated murals and sculptures between 5-9pm.

Thanks for making our first two nights of #threenightsoflightspvd a beautiful and inspiring celebration of light and community. We hope you’ll bundle up, see the lights, and support our business partners for dining and shopping tonight. And please visit our cultural and musical partners to learn about their upcoming activities.

Columbus Theatre columbustheatre.com/
Tomaquag Museum tomaquagmuseum.org/
Rhode Island Black Storytellers (RIBS) ribsfest.org/
Center for Southeast Asians cseari.org/
Berroaworld (Julio Berroa) https://berroaworld.art/

***

“Still Here” mural at 32 Custom House St.

5:30-6:30pm Tomaquag Museum culture activation with performance and storytelling by Thawn Harris. (canceled)

7:00pm, 7:45pm, 8:30pm
Music activation by Kamyron Williams + Damont Combs (canceled)

***

“Misty Blue” mural at 118 Orange Street 

6:00-7:00pm Center for Southeast Asians culture activation (canceled)
Historical/Cultural Evolution of Thai dance introduction + performance

7:00pm, 7:45pm, 8:30pm
Music activation by The Huntress and Holder of Hands (solo) (canceled)

***

“Salt Water” at 122 Mathewson

6:15-7:00pm Rhode Island Black Storytellers culture activation with storytelling by V. Raffini and Rochel Garner Coleman (canceled)

7:00pm, 7:45pm, 8:30pm
Music activation by Daedelus with live visual performance by Andrew Hlynsky (canceled)

***

“Stationary Creature Envelope Windows”
35 Weybosset (lot side)

6:30-8:30pm Digital Projection Experience with Julio Berroa and Friends (Corinne Gregoire, Mark Medeiros, and Eduardo Veras Martinez)

(canceled)

Thawn Harris (performing Thursday and Saturday) lives together with his wife and their seven children adjacent to their tribal lands where they pass on the values and cultural lifeways of their people. Thawn has shared his culture with the greater community for the past twenty five years while working for his tribe as an Environmental Police Officer and completing his Physical Education and Health degree at the University of Rhode Island. Following in the traditions of his ancestors, Thawn plays the Cedar flute and hand-drum, is a social dancer and singer, as well as a former World Champion of the Eastern War Dance. 

Thawn’s storytelling and cultural performance credits include; the US Department of Defense, Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, Brown University, New England Foundation for the Arts, Rhythm & Roots Music Festival, Rhode Island Public Libraries, Volvo Ocean Race, Providence Children’s and Tomaquag Indian Memorial Museums, in addition to many New England schools, post-secondary institutions, organizations, and corporations. Additionally, Thawn has had the opportunity to travel as a cultural ambassador to Tanzania, Africa with URI’s Coastal Resources Exchange Program. Thawn is currently a Physical Education Advisor at the Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center located in Rhode Island.

Tomaquag Museum

Our mission at Tomaquag Museum is to educate the public and promote thoughtful dialogue regarding Indigenous history, culture, arts, and Mother Earth and connect to Native issues of today. Tomaquag Museum envisions its future as an Indigenous Cultural Education destination that engages visitors in thoughtful dialogue that promotes understanding and strives to create experiences that transform people’s lives by broadening their perspectives, attitudes, and knowledge of Indigenous Cultures and the interrelationship with the wider world.

Center for Southeast Asians Activation Schedule

THURSDAY 6:00 PM

Monk chanting + explanation

• Esoteric Theravada: The Story of the Forgotten Meditation Tradition of Southeast Asia
• Chanting: Wat Thormikaram of Rhode Island, Inc
• Bracelet Gathering

FRIDAY 6:00 PM

• Traditional Laotian Dance Performance (Lao Youth Center)

SATURDAY 6:00 PM

• The Historical/Cultural Evolution of Thai dance
• Thai dance Performance (NMR Buddhist Meditation Center Thai Sunday School)
• Performing Thai Instruments

About the Center for Southeast Asians

The mission of the Center for Southeast Asians (CSEA) is to promote the prosperity, heritage and leadership of Southeast Asians in Rhode Island.

Southeast Asians are active participants in the social, civic, and political life of Rhode Island. Our generations work together to preserve the traditions and culture of Southeast Asians, plan for the future, achieve economic prosperity and ultimately enrich our communities. The Center for Southeast Asians is a welcoming, vibrant and trusted resource for the advancement of the Southeast Asian community. We foster the knowledge and skills necessary to be the leaders of today and tomorrow. We promote cultural diversity, understanding, and preservation.

THURSDAY:  Rachel Briggs and Len Cabral

Len Cabral is an internationally acclaimed storyteller who has been enchanting audiences with his storytelling performances at schools, libraries, museums and festivals since 1976.  A great grandson of a Cape Verdean whaler whose grandparents immigrated to America from the islands off the coast of West Africa,  Len’s strong Cape Verdean ancestry comes alive in his exuberant retelling of African, Cape Verdean, and Caribbean folktales as well as original stories and tales from around the world.

FRIDAY: Ramona Bass Kolobe, Sylvia Ann Soares and Valerie Tutson

Ramona Bass Kolobe – “The Watermelon Lady”, is a “story wheeler.” Miss Ramona brings her traditions of storytelling from her Jamaican and Native American ancestry together with her formal education to create works that open up the treasury of healing and understanding. Watermelon is a fruit of peace, friendship and sharing good times – all around the world!

Sylvia Ann Soares – Ms. Soares has worked for many different theater companies in New York, L.A. and Rhode Island including the New York Public Theater, the Negro Ensemble Company, L.A. Shakespeare Festival, Trinity Repertory Company and the Westerly Shakespeare Theatre. She was active in theater in New York and L.A. during the late sixties and seventies and considers herself a part of the Black Theater Movement. She returned to Providence in 1981 and worked as a live-in nurse for several years before deciding to go back to college. She gained her associates degree from C.C.R.I. in 1993 and then enrolled in Brown University’s Resumed Undergraduate Education program. She graduated from Brown in 1995 with a BA with honors in Theater Studies. Ms. Soares is an actress, poet, playwright and activist. Throughout her life, Ms. Soares has been involved in activism and what she calls “entertaining education.” She worked for the Amos House in Providence, RI, helped build a school in Nicaragua through the Providence-Niquinohomo Sister City Project, and has written several poems and plays about slavery in Rhode Island.

-Excerpt written by Gabrielle Fuentes

Valerie Tutson – Valerie Tutson has been telling stories in schools, churches, libraries, festivals and conferences since 1991. She draws her stories from around the world with an emphasis on African traditions. Her repertoire includes stories and songs she learned in her travels to South Africa, her experiences in West Africa, stories from African American history. In addition, she is gaining quite a reputation for her exciting retelling of age-old Bible stories.

She graduated from Brown University with a Master’s Degree in Theatre Arts and a degree in a self-designed Major-Storytelling as A Communications Art

SATURDAY: V. Raffini and Rochel Garner Coleman

V. Raffini, a self-made artist, actress, and teacher from the South Side of Providence has long been committed to the community, teaching Black History, and theatre, telling stories and nurturing the spiritual and creative abilities of youth.

Rochel Garner Coleman, actor, singer, storyteller, has been performing since he was 9 years old. He travels nationally and internationally sharing stories of Black historical legends such as Nat Love and Cool Papa Bell in shows developed using the research to performance method.

About Rhode Island Black Storytellers

Founded in 1998, RIBS is a small non-profit based out of Providence, Rhode Island dedicated to promoting the awareness, appreciation, and application of Black storytelling. They define Black storytelling as an oral art from African and African descended people from around the world. They share their craft through performances, workshops, cultural, educational, and historical experiences. RIBS does not just tell Black stories; they also aim to help others do the same. They do it not just because they believe it is important for Black communities to know their own history and culture, but for everyone to experience Black culture presented by Black people.

Under the alias Daedelus, Alfred Darlington has been an instigator of electronic music culture for the past 20+ years. A fore-figure of Los Angeles’ Beat Scene, they have released over 20+ LPs, countless EPs and remixes on labels such as Ninja Tune, Brainfeeder, Warp and more. As a performer ,they’re synonymous with performative controllers, from the Monome to computer-free modular, and have played 1,000+ shows on 6 continents at venues ranging from the underground Low End Theory to festival mainstages such as Coachella.

Now a founding faculty member for the Berklee College of Music in Boston of the EDI (Electronic Digital Instrument) program.

Daedelus has begun to live up to their Greek mythological namesake.

@daedelus on instagram/twitter

Andrew Hlynsky is a Providence-based educator, creative technologist and musician who develops software for responsive environments and interactive experiences. He currently teaches at RISD and at Tufts/SMFA.  Andrew has worked on projects for clients including Reebok, Biogen, Hard Rock Hotel, Bloomberg News, Adult Swim, Chanel and Verizon. As an artist, he has presented work at Burningman, Sonar Festival, Illuminus Boston, Worlds Fair Nano and Emerson’s Uncommon Project. Hlynsky has a passion for understanding how things are created. From musical compositions to neural-nets, economies to intelligence, he is always trying to discover, imagine and explain the world around him. Andrews’ process involves funneling his curiosity into intangible experiences, objects, and software.  You can see more of his work at www.andrewhlynsky.com and www.nhodeisland.com

Emmanuel “Manny” Escobar is a dynamic musician and educator, with roots firmly planted in Jazz, R&B and Afro-Latin creative traditions. Graduate of the Alice S. Pfaelzer Conservatory at Merit School of Music and Berklee College of Music, with classical studies at Chicago College of Performing Arts, under Jan Berry Baker.

Emmanuel has performed and recorded with; Esperanza Spaulding, Reggie Workman, Loren Allred, Mayra Andrade, Pentatonix, Thaddeus Hogarth, Leo Genovese, Roberta Miranda, Jermaine Paul, Cesaria Evora Orchestra, Grace Evora, Mika Mendes, Boy Ge Mendes, Tito Paris, former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

Emmanuel is an endorsing educator for Cannonball Musical Instruments, Rigotti Reeds and Syos Mouthpieces, signed performing artist with Nightshift Entertainment – New England.

Adjunct faculty at Trinity Academy for the Performing Arts and Music Director at Providence County Day School.

escobarjazz.com

ig: @manny.escobarjazz
tkt: @manny.escobarjazz

House Red is the loop-based vocal project of Providence-based musician, voice-over artist, and multi-disciplinary performer Reba Mitchell. This project relies on repetition and restraint to create a place of stillness; to suspend time by eschewing traditional musical changes, narratives, or momentum. Mitchell is also an Earphones Award-winning audiobook narrator, a member of the Ricky Rainbow Beard Show, and a board member of Riot Rhode Island. Occasionally she’ll cut your hair. 

https://www.rebamitchell.com/music.html

Instagram: @rebalovesjesus

Bittersweet is a project out of Providence, RI featuring producer Will Farrell and vocalist Muggs Fogarty. Bittersweet embodies the denial of pulse expectation, of harmonic or melodic resolution. [bittersweetpvd.bandcamp.com]

Trained on classical piano and guitar, Alex Maddalena (Host) writes wordless music inspired after revisiting a binder of classical sheet music from his childhood and finding unexpected tonal links between his recent ambient guitar experimentation and centuries-old piano compositions. Host’s 2018 album, “Time Smoking a Picture,” explored this symmetry through drone, collage, and layering that evoked grandiosity with rather crude instrumentation. The project’s latest pieces explore live audio sampling and alternative uses for the guitar’s electronic components. 

https://host.bandcamp.com

https://www.thefader.com/2018/03/02/host-time-smoking-a-picture-premiere

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yC15AWba7LU

While cellist Kamyron Williams has performed on stages across the Midwest and New England, his work with diversity-oriented arts organizations, ensembles, and initiatives has garnered significant attention, in the “American Black Journal” series on PBS and NPR Michigan Radio. After both performing and leading community outreach for the Sphinx Organization, he has dedicated his career to tackling the challenges of equity, attendance, enthusiasm that classical music still struggles to overcome. As a leader, Kamyron is cofounder of the Black and Latinx artist collective EnRoot; As host of the podcast Voices Unheard, he spotlights underrepresented composers, overlooked repertoire, and those making an impact in local communities through music.; as an educator, he serves as Resident-Musician at Community MusicWork in Providence, RI; As a performer, he can be heard with Palaver Strings, a musician-led chamber orchestra and nonprofit organization based in Portland, ME. Originally from the Sunshine State of Florida, Kamyron makes his home in Providence, Rhode Island.

Damont Combs is a poet from Southside Jamaica Queens NY and a graduate with a degree in Computer Technology Service from Johnson and Wales University. Mr. Combs otherwise known as Mr. Orange Live has released two books of poetry: My Poem… My Riddle, (Prysmatic Dreams Publishing, 2015) and Damont Combs presents A Touch of Orange. (Kingdom Enterprise LLC, 2016) Mr. Orange’ has noted the brightly colored color at numerous venues and is 2018 poet of the year, 2019 RI mentor of the year and produced multiple award-winning films in 2020. Mr. Combs believes in bridging the gap of pay inequality for poets and vendors compared to other careers. He is helping to reform laws to help pay vendors of the City of Providence more money and faster. He has successfully lobbied for vendors to get paid, from $5,000 to $15,000 before going to bid. He is working with Arts Culture and Tourism on the payment reform committee to do this. In the city of Pawtucket, RI he is on the advisory commission of the Arts helping to better the arts for residents in the city. He helped put together the Pawtucket arts-a-gram which highlights Pawtucket artists and curators.

MorganEve Swain began The Huntress and Holder of Hands as a vessel for exploring grief and growth. Originally home-recorded using multi-layer tracks of voice and strings, Swain pulled creative energy from the experience of losing her husband Dave Lamb to leukemia and the bond they shared as the duo Brown Bird. With the ambition to perform live and explore past personal grief, The Huntress and Holder of Hands expanded to a 5-musician band, employing cello, string bass, electric bass, voice and drums, with Swain primarily on five-string viola and guitar. The band builds harmony, string and bass-driven pieces influenced by Post-Metal, Blues and Americana and offers an intense musical and lyrical experience that explores love, loss, power and strength.

Known for his multi-faceted approach to the field of art and design which weaves both the analog and digital, artist Julio E. Berroa is often creating hyperreal and immersive scenes of intense experiences using vivid colors and organic shapes and textures depicting very intimate moments.

Centered around the intersection and blend between the artificial and the natural, Berroa’s world is hyperreal – delicate and intricately detailed, as well as bold and dynamic.

Berroa’s practice is informed by the thought that everything that’s unique and constantly changing is alive in different forms of expression and art-making.

Corinne Gregoire is a multimedia artist based in Providence, Rhode Island. Over the last decade, she has evolved from graphite and charcoal still-life drawings and portraits to creating 2D and 3D digital artwork. Corinne Gregoire is a first-generation college graduate and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Digital Media from Rhode Island College (RIC)  in 2021. She was a RIC Art Talent Award Recipient from 2018-2020.

She is inspired by cinematography and uses a camera (physically and digitally) as a “second set of eyes” to capture unique and interesting perspectives and compositions. She has always been interested in creating an almost realistic presence in most of her works, as well as challenging the viewers beyond the lens.

In the most recent years, Corinne Gregoire has created renderings of still-life images to imitate a cinematic presence. She has also used sound in previous pieces to trigger the mind into thinking about the surroundings beyond what the viewer’s eyes can see. She uses her platform to create works that provoke questions, thoughts, and emotions through a digitally manipulated way. Gregoire hopes to pursue a prosperous career in a film/media-related field.

Mark Medeiros is an interdisciplinary artist exploring his way through filmmaking and photography to question why new media artists work in the medium they do.

Fascinated by cinematography and well-crafted computer-generated imagery, he hopes to create work that leaves an audience in awe and an emotional attachment to being made to his work.

Mark was born in 1995 in Providence, Rhode Island. He received his BA in Studio Art with a concentration in Digital Media from Rhode Island College in 2020. He has extensive coursework in both analog and digital photography. His short film, “The Best a Man Can Get” was featured at the RIC Film Festival at Rhode Island College in February 2017. His projects, “Junk” and “Evolve” can be found in the May 2018 and 2019 publications of the RIC Arts Magazine. He is currently based in Providence, Rhode Island, and can be seen expanding on his skills in the art of contemporary cinematography.

When he is not seated at his computer desk working, he can be found working at local coffee shops on his laptop.

Eduardo Veras Martinez is a Digital Media Artist who was born in the Dominican Republic. Eduardo and his parents moved to New York City at less than a year old. He lived in Manhattan most of my life. Eduardo moved to Rhode Island in 2014 where he double majored and earned a Bachelor in Fine Arts in Digital Media Design and a B.A. in Computer Science. His works center around experimenting with technology to see how far it can be pushed and its relationship with humanity, science, and art. Creating media that invokes feelings of wonder and familiarity.