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Featuring Art Installations by Malcolm Kenter, Ginny Parsons and Alameda Education Foundation’s Art Across the Island

Music by Bay Area Music Project (Choir and Orchestra from Maya Lin Elementary), Bay Station Duo (West Coast Americana), Crying Uncle (Bluegrass Band), Evil Diane (Southern Appalachian), Gari Hegedus and Faisal Zedan (Middle Eastern) and Key Elements (Latin/Brazilian Jazz)

On Friday, November 2nd from 6-9pm, Park Street will come alive with Radical Beauty Part 6 featuring art and music from all corners of the world…and the East Bay. Rhythmix Cultural Works, the California Arts Council, the City of Alameda and the Downtown Alameda Business Association partner to present the sixth Love Our Island Art Walk. Swirling planets, a miniature Victorian building and looming charcoal figures will occupy vacant storefront windows while sounds of the Bay Area Music Project’s youth orchestra and choir fill the night air. Intentionally scheduled in tandem with Downtown Alameda’s Spirits Stroll, attendees wandering along upper Park Street to Lincoln Avenue will be enchanted by music from Appalachia to the Middle East, with Bluegrass, West Coast Americana plus Latin and Brazilian jazz.

About the Artists

Malcolm Kenter

1629 Park St

Living in the epicenter of the technology movement, Kenter believes it is important to create artwork that occupies physical space and engages people to step away from screens and electronic media. By fighting against the ideas of capitalism and technology, his work focuses the viewer on something concrete that existed in the past, celebrating a Bay Area that many of grew up in and see rapidly slipping away.

Kenter’s architectural miniature sculptures are based on oft-overlooked, obscure buildings with a gritty aesthetic. His miniature sculptures are completely handmade and depict a fantastical, yet hyper-realistic and highly detailed replica, fully equipped with lights, miniature power lines, vents, fire escapes, pavement etc. Challenging themes of gentrification and urban development, Kenter’s work features places that are passed by daily without notice, contributing more to one’s daily experience than is realized.

Ginny Parsons

1629 Park St

Ginny Parsons is an Alameda painter using charcoal briquettes found in Lincoln Park, scrawled on paper left on the porch by friends and neighbors. “Luncheon on the Grass” was inspired by Monet’s pastoral picnic glimpsed through the anxious lens of the Trump-#MeToo era. Following in the footsteps of 19th century artists, who sought the out-of-doors for leisure, renewal and expression, Parsons looks for beauty in nature and uses discarded materials as a way to help the planet.

Alameda Education Foundation’s Art Across the Island

1900 Park Street (Corner of Clement and Park St)

The Alameda Education Foundation’s “Art Across the Island” project is an ongoing, revolving showcase of student artwork at venues across Alameda. For Radical Beauty Part Six, AEF has selected third graders from Henry Haight Elementary School to present paper marbled planets based on astronomical drawings by E.L. Trouvelot (1827-1895). After studying planet and satellite names based on information from NASA, the students will name their planets. Art Across the Island began in 2016 and is a partnership between Alameda public school teachers, school art docents, Alameda Free Library, Rhythmix Cultural Works, and local businesses across the island to showcase visual and literary arts.

Musician Bios

Bay Area Music Project (BAMP) is an El Sistema inspired after school orchestra and choir program providing equitable access to high-quality, transformational music education to the children of Alameda. Lorrie Murray, Founder/Executive Director Bay Area Music Project, is a passionate advocate for arts education and serving the educational and social needs of multicultural, lower income communities. She founded Bay Area Music Project to enrich the lives of children and their families through music education.

Bay Station finds California-based songwriter/musicians Kwame Copeland and Deborah Crooks combining their talents to create a diverse form of Americana and rock music.

“Between the amazing vocals of Deborah Crooks and the equally awesome musicianship of her bandmate, Kwame Copeland … Bay Station delivers its own unique style, incorporating the best parts of Americana, Alt-Country, and just plain good storytelling.” — Bob Leggett LA Music Critic

Born and raised in rural area of California, Deborah grew up surrounded by nature, but close enough to San Francisco to be influenced by the city’s history of social, musical and political upheaval. Her lyric-driven and soul-wise music draws on folk, rock, and Americana and is often compared to Lucinda Williams and The Cowboy Junkies. Regularly performing regionally and throughout the US, her music has appeared on the PBS Series Road Trip Nation and several compilations.

Crying Uncle Bluegrass Band was founded in 2016 by Quale brothers Miles (age 14, on fiddle and vocals) and Teo (age 12, on mandolin and vocals). The brothers, who are State and National fiddle and mandolin champions, have been featured on KQED’s The California Report, performed at venues such as IBMA’s World of Bluegrass Festival and CBA’s Father’s Day Bluegrass Festival, and have toured with sibling music duo and mentors, Tashina and Tristan Clarridge. They’ve performed on stage with bluegrass bands Sideline and Special Consensus and renowned guitarist George Cole; and with their former band, Rambling Minors, they’ve opened for fiddler Michael Cleveland. Miles and Teo are also part of the band, Jubilee.

Featuring Evie Ladin, Erik Pearson and Michelle Yu, Evil Diane presents old-time tunes and songs from the Southern Appalachian Mountains. With a trance-like groove and stunning energy, Evil Diane is Evie Ladin’s mixed bag of excellent musicians who share the repertoire of traditional Appalachian pre-bluegrass music on fiddle, banjo and guitar, with harmony vocals. The first mix of white, black and brown culture of the American south, a troubled history which, as always, creates beautiful art.

Multi-instrumentalist Gari Hegedus is joined by master percussionist Faisal Zedan presenting instrumental music rooted in Turkish, Arabic and Greek traditions. Gari Hegedus began devoting his life to music 25 years ago with the study of early European, Celtic and Bretagne music. Accomplished on the oud, violin, saz, mandocello, sarod and setar, his repertoire and playing styles span outward from Turkey to Greece and the Arab lands as well as to Iran and India. Gari utilizes the various Eastern modal systems called maqam and has developed the art of improvisation (taqsim) to a soulful level for which he has become highly recognized.

Born in Lebanon and raised in Syria, Faisal Zedan grew up impassioned with the derbakki (Arabic drum). At the age of 15, after intensive study with a local drummer, Faisal became exposed to a wide repertoire of Arabic classical and contemporary music. He joined the acclaimed UCLA Near East Music Ensemble directed by Dr. Ali Jihad Racy in 1992 and is affiliated with several groups including Kan Zaman, Qadim, Stellamara and Aswat Ensemble. In addition to collaborations with local and international artists, Faisal has taught at music camps, conducted workshops around the world, and has produced instructional DVDs on Arabic percussion.

Key Elements is a Latin/Brazilian jazz ensemble comprised of some of the SF Bay Area’s most seasoned instrumentalists who perform exceptional, original music. Featuring the talents of Patricia Thumas, Robin Nzingah Smith, Sue “Suki” Kaye and Colin O’Leary, their music has a fresh, vibrant flair built upon energetic and enchanting rhythms.