Artist of the Week

The Jack Straw Artist of the Week Podcast highlights work created through the Artist Residency Programs at Jack Straw Cultural Center.

Vibhuti Kavishwar - Prabhu More Avagun Chit Na Dharo

Jack Straw resident artist Vibhuti Kavishwar‘s album Shraddhanjali is now available to listen to on YouTube. The album is a tribute to the compositions of Vibhuti’s father, Pandit Lakshman Chausalkar.
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Jeff Rice New Media Gallery Podcast

Jack Straw artist Jeff Rice talks with Carlos Nieto about his Jack Straw New Media Gallery installation Pando Suite.
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Nacha Mendez - Juanita

“Juanita” is a new song from Jack Straw resident artist Nacha Mendez‘s forthcoming full-length album, produced with support from the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.

Nacha writes, “This is my Pride month offering, the breakup song Juanita. . . .  I recorded this in Nov. 2023 at Jack Straw . . . I sat with it for 2 1/2 years. I wrote it when I started to date Juanita, but the words emerged after the break up. The song traveled to Seattle, Santa Fe and Los Angeles. It features Stephen Duros on guitar and bass, Rafael Herrera on percussion. Thank you to Camelia Jade, who engineered the first tracks at Jack Straw. Thank you to Jon Gagan of Electric Co. Studios, my collaborator of many years Stephen Duros, and lastly to my producer and friend Steve Peters.”

Lyric translation:

I sincerely offer you this song
There will be a day when you’ll see me on the street
You will say, that I look lovely and well,
I will say the same about you
Too bad our beauty couldn’t hold us up
It’s nothing you’ve said or done

I finally reached the depths of my soul to find you once again
You told me that you thought we were friends, and I thought we were more than just friends
The sign on your door said, hope doesn’t live here, keep walking
I wish you the best, it’s true, yes

Keep walking Juanita, Keep walking

That kiss you gave me, lasted forever
Damn kiss woke me up
You played with my heart, you did it to confuse me

Keep walking Juanita, Keep walking
I wish you the best, it’s true, yes.

Words and Music by Nacha Mendez
BMI 2023 All Rights Reserved
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Josephine Ensign - Skid Road

The Skid Road podcast, produced by Josephine Ensign through the Jack Straw Artist Support Program, amplifies a diversity of voices about homelessness in the Seattle area. This is the latest episode, featuring a conversation with Sparrow Etter Carlson, who works for the King County Regional Homelessness Authority in sub-regional planning for Seattle.

You can hear more Skid Road at josephineensign.com, or subscribe via Apple Podcasts.
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Wei Yang and Murphy Janssen New Media Gallery Podcast

Jack Straw artists Wei Yang and Murphy Janssen talk with Carlos Nieto about their Jack Straw New Media Gallery installation now you are there when this happened.
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Kosher Red Hots - Morenika

Jack Straw Resident Artists Sheila Fox and The Kosher Red Hots produced their album Our Songs in 2006 as part of their Artist Support Program residency. The album is a compilation of Yiddish and Ladino favorite songs from Seattle’s Jewish community, including live recordings with residents at The Kline Galland Home, Seattle’s Jewish nursing care facility, and studio recordings at Jack Straw. This studio recording features Jovino Santos Neto on piano.

Our Songs is available for listening and purchase on Bandcamp: https://kosherredhots.bandcamp.com/album/our-songs

Learn more on the Kosher Red Hots website: https://kosherredhots.com/oursongs
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Maureen Whiting - and there was concrete skin for your face

Choreographer/dancer Maureen Whiting created this soundscape at Jack Straw as part of her 2001 Artist Support Program project, a collaborative installation with video artist Robert Campbell, which appeared in the Jack Straw New Media Gallery in 2002. Other collaborators for the installation included costume designers KD Schill and Sarah Harlett, lighting designer Dave Proscia, and mechanical designer Tashi Meath. Maureen worked together with these artists to incorporate traditional performance elements (costumes, lighting, performance, visual design) into the installation and converge them in non-traditional and unexpected ways. Set to Maureen’s soundscape, dancers moved amid costumes and through video projections in the installation.

More information on the exhibit webpage: https://www.jackstraw.org/exhibit/maureen-whiting-and-robert-campbell-and-there-was-concrete-skin-for-your-face/
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Stacey Levine and Lori Goldston - The Post Office

The Post Office is a comic, surreal play, produced in 1995 through the Jack Straw Artist Support Program, about a wildly narcissistic postal clerk, a weak, sniveling customer, and matters of the human heart. Stylistically, it pays homage to playwrights such as Ionesco and Beckett.

Stacey Levine will read from her new book Mice 1961 with live accompaniment from Lori Goldston at Fantagraphics on Saturday, April 13th.

Director: Stacey Levine
Producer: Lori Goldston
Recording: Doug Haire
Music written by Lori Goldston.
Musicians: David Barnes, Beth Ann Harvey, Lori Goldston, Kyle Hanson, Matthew Sperry
Actors: Dayna Hanson and Jack Magai
Announcer: Steve Lohrentz
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Katharine Threat - anatomy of my mixed body pt. 3

Katharine Threat produced the audio version of her book anatomy of my mixed body through the Jack Straw Artist Support Program. The full book will be available for listening soon. Visit Blue Cactus Press for updates: https://bluecactuspress.com/
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Kaley Lane Eaton - Lookout

Singer-songwriter, composer, and performer Kaley Lane Eaton releases her new album Lookout, produced in part through the Jack Straw Artist Support Program, this Friday, March 15th. She celebrates the release that evening with a concert at the Chapel Performance Space: https://www.waywardmusic.org/?p=8047

Album photo by Michelle Smith-Lewis; styling by Gina Bettelli; cover design by Alex Allen.
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