The Wandering Photographer

Detroit's Best Festival: The 2011 Concert of Colors

The Indigo Girls with Alison Brown at the 2006 Concert of Colors

My favorite festival of the Summer is back with more acts and more days. The 19th Annual World Music and Diversity festival, the Concert of Colors, is set to go, starting Thursday July 14th and finishing up on Sunday night July17th. First held in 1994 as a celebration of metro Detroit, its diversity, its music and the music of its people, the Festival's goal is ". . . bringing together metro Detroit’s diverse communities and ethnic groups by presenting musical acts from around the world." (from the COC website).

This year the Concert expands to four days.

Thursday, with doors opening at 6pm, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History hosts a number of acts including African/Hip Hop, Soul, and traditional dance. Over at the Scarab Club the "Woodward Line Poetry" series will present the spoken word and music.

Friday night things move to the Detroit Institute of Arts with Latin Jazz and Blues performances. A screening of the movie "From Britain with Love: Africa United" will be presented. Doors open at 4pm.

 Jazz at the 2006 Festival

Saturday it all begins at 2pm at the Max M. Fisher Music Center. Three stages will be filled with a veriety of music and dance. Acts include; Japanese Drum, Reggae, Irish Folk, Arab Dance, Classical and much more. The evening ends with, what is for me, the highlight of the weekend. Each year Oak Park native Don Was (Was not Was) pulls together a diverse group of Detroit based musicians and puts on the Don Was Detroit All-Star Revue. The performances are truly a tour de force of Detroit culture. This year's ensemble includes Mitch Ryder, Melvin Davis, the Muggs and a whole lot of others.

 Former Funk Brother Dennis Coffey rocks the 2010 COC with Don Was playing bass in the background

 The Final day of the Festival opens at 2pm on Sunday at "The Max". The line-up on Sunday is as eclectic as Saturday's. It includes such local standouts as The Layabouts, and the Hamtramck World Music Ensemble. The highlight of the day should be the great Bettye LaVette. Born in Muskegon and raised in Detroit, Bettye has been belting out R&B hits since 1962. Ms. LaVette has lost none of her charisma, she retains her soul.

 Bettye LaVette performing at the Detroit Festival of the Arts in 2006

 This is a festival not-to-be-missed. The music is great and the ultimate goal of bringing us together, a mish-mash of cultures, city and suburbs, black and white, men and women is important and worthy. We may be different, but WE ARE ALL DETROIT.

The entire festival schedule can be found at the Concert of Colors web site.

See you at the Festival.

© Tim Marks 2011

18th Annual Detroit Concert of Colors July 16-18 2010

The exciting and fun Detroit diversity festival, The Concert of Colors, returns to for its eighteenth year. Presented by the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS), the Arab American National Museum, New Detroit, The Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) and, new this year, the Detroit institute of Arts (DIA), the concert is intended to bring all of the cultures in metro Detroit together for a weekend of music, dance and fun.

 The festivities will start at 4:00pm on Friday, July 16^th at the DIA with a performance by the Detroit Symphony (a second DSO Performance will happen at 5:30) followed by the Mexican folk group Tien-Huicani at 7:00. Events Friday evening at the DIA will also include Free admission to the exhibit Through African Eyes: The European in African Art 1500-Present and a screening of a 1931 Spanish language version of the film Dracula.

 On Saturday the music continues down the street at the Max Fisher Music Center (The Max), home to the acoustically and architecturally exquisite Orchestra Hall. Performances on Saturday include traditional Irish folk, Reggae, and African and Jazz/Funk, all leading up to the Don Was Detroit All-Star Review.

 For the third consecutive year Don Was has put together an eclectic group of Detroit based musicians to entertain the festival goers. Each artist or group performs a piece and at the end, the ensemble comes out for a rousing finale. In past years the review has included funk, soul, country hip hop classic rock and punk. This year the line-up presents fifteen acts including Jimmy Ruffin, Gary Quackenbush, Kim Weston and Marshall Crenshaw. The Review is the highlight of the weekend for me. You can see video of the 2008 and 2009 review performers at the Don’s Wasmapolitan Cavalcade of Recorded Music.  

 On Sunday the festival continues with the DSO, conducted by Tito Munoz, highlighting soloist Simon Shaheen performing Shaheen’s composition Concerto #1 for Oud and Orchestra. Known for his expertise at Arabic and Western classical music, Shaheen will be a special treat for the Detroit audiences.

 Following a day of diverse music and talent (Asian, Electronic, Steel Guitar and storytelling included), the festival ends with two shows in Orchestra Hall. At 6:15 the Southwest Detroit Latin Super Session will entertain with a varied repertoire from south of the border, followed by the incomparable R&B and Gospel sound of Mavis Staples at 8:30.

 The Concert of Colors is a chance to meet new folk, listen to great music and have a fabulous time. For more information you can check out the festival web site or Dominique's informative article at the Midwest Guest Blog.

© 2010 Tim Marks All Rights Reserved

Newport, Rhode Island: Marble House Mansion

Last week I took you on a sunset cruise of Narragansett Bay off Newport, RI, today I'd like to show you some images of one of the great mansions in Newport. During the Gilded Age, Newport became the summer home for many rich and powerful American industrial and banking magnates. One of the most beautiful and ostentatious was the Marble House.

William K. Vanderbilt and his wife Alva commissioned architect Richard Morris Hunt to design and build a summer home along the Atlantic ocean. Started in 1888 the home was completed in 1892 just three years before Alva and William divorced.

Alva married Oliver Hazzard Perry Belmont in 1896 and moved to the nearby mansion Belcourt. After Belmont's death in 1908, Alva reopened the Marble house and added a "tea house" along the cliff overlooking the Ocean. Alva had a problematic relationship with her daughter Consuelo that was at least partially patched up later in their lives.

Oriental style tea house.

Oriental tea house detail.

Alva became a deeply committed Suffragist and supported organizations such as the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)  and later the more activist National Woman's Party (NWP) founded by Alice Paul. Alva held meetings and fundraisers in both the tea house and the mansion.

The Marble house is listed as a National Historic Landmark and, along with several other mansions in Newport, is open to the public for tours. The property is owned and preserved by the Preservation Society of Newport County. All of the mansions are magnificent restorations and have interesting histories attached to them.

© 2010 Tim Marks all rights reserved

Canada Day in Quebec City

Monday I showed off some of my pictures of Quebec City back in 2004.  The day we were visiting happened to be July 1^st, Canada Day.  Canada Day (formerly Dominion Day) is the celebration of the enactment of the British North America Act in 1867.  This act combined the British Colonies of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and the Province of Canada (including what are now Quebec, Ontario, and the western provinces and territories) into a united country.  Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island were added later.

In the province of Quebec that unity is still controversial and Canada Day draws demonstrations.  There are a number of groups, political and otherwise, in Quebec that advocate a number of governance scenarios, from complete independence to sovereign association to keeping the status quo.  I’m not going to get into the issues here, I just wanted to show some of the protests I saw on Canada Day in 2004.

Nikon D1x, Tamron 24-135mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 70mm, ISO 125, 1/320 @ f/9

As we came around the corner we encountered a large group of pro-independence protesters.  The protesters were noisy but not violent and included men, women and Children of various ages.

Nikon D1x, Tamron 24-135mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 135mm, ISO 125, 1/250 @ f/9

The protesters were surrounded by police but as you can see the police were not decked out in riot gear and did not appear to be interfering with the protest in any way.

Nikon D1x, Tamron 24-135mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 135mm, ISO 125, 1/160 @ f/9

This picture shows a, seemingly, more militant protester.  He wears an armband with the initials (MLNQ) of a radical separatist group.  Again, the protest was completely non-violent. 

Nikon D1x, Tamron 24-135mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 36mm, ISO 125, 1/250 @ f/9

In an interesting juxtaposition, a Canadian Armed Forces Band came down the street.  The police slowly moved the demonstrators away for the road and as the band passed, the music blended with the cacophony of protest from the demonstrators. 

People here in the U.S. tend to forget that we are not the only nation with a long and glorious history of free speech and protest against and in favor of our governments.

Come back for a “cute” Quebec photo on “Photo Friday.”

© 2009 Tim Marks all rights reserved