Benefit Success!

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Thank you everyone for coming out and enjoying all the talented artists last Saturday. It was an amazing night. We raised over $500 which is a months operational costs. If you missed the event and still want to support JE please visit our Donate page.

The last month was a big month for us. The center ran workshops six days a week. The workshops included dance, theater, painting, fire spinning and a film club. The majority of the workshops were run by local established Haitian artists! In the US we met with our new pro-bono lawyer. With one more step to solidify this new relationship we will be on our way to establishing ourselves as a legal non-profit.

So many people have contacted the Administration to find out more about JE and how the can help. Our network just keeps growing. This is an exciting time and filled with opportunities to grow. If anyone is interested in helping by donating time and talents, please contact the Co-Director, Sue Frame, at jakmelekspresyon@gmail.com.

Jakmel Ekspresyon in Art Info!

We’ve been lucky enough to be mention in Art Info, an international art magazine and website. One of the co-organizers of our Kaleidoscope event (see below) has written an extensive piece about art and our approach to art in Haiti. Please check it out:

Over the last eight months or so, I’ve been working with a group here in Chicago on a mission to stabilize and fund an art center in Jakmel, Haiti headed up by the Frame Family Foundation and its delegate, local art activist Susan Frame. I was brought into the project by Steve Raden, an old Chicago friend of mine and activist humanitarian in the field who has traveled extensively in third world countries, often exclusively on his own dime, to help provide aid where he could, and there are real, clear egalitarian reasons for working to support such a project. As the stories I’ve heard serve to illustrate, the Jakmel center functions as a safe haven from persecution by others in Haitian society who find hate a productive response to lesbian and gay male lifestyles, or who find those physically handicapped in the wake of the earthquake easy pickings. They also work to imbue its participants with art-making knowledge and skills that give them an export upper-hand in their own localized markets and, at a minimum, a means of realizing a productive living.

Jakmel Ekspresyon Classes Taking Place 6 Days A Week

Did you know that Jakmel Ekspresyon Art Center has events 6 nights a week? We now have ballroom dancing for kids and adults, film club, painting, poi (fire dance) and Spare Change Theater! Thanks for helping us make these amazing classes a reality!

Knitting Workshops in Jacmel, Haiti

Check out Kristen Maier’s post about teaching a Knitting workshop at the new Jakmel Ekspresyon building On December 31st, 2011 and January 1st, 2012. Kristen is a Jakmel Ekspresyon member and avid knitter. The workshop taught 12 men and women the basics of knitting. One of our previous participants, Salomon, showed up and brushed up on his skills. In the second photo he is finishing up a knitted bracelet.   Knitting Workshops in Jacmel, Haiti.

It was my first time seeing the building, and it is awesome! There are two floors. The second floor has an office, two workshop rooms, and space for a computer lab that will be set up shortly. I held the workshop on the first floor to be handicapped-accessible since one of the knitters was unable to walk. Plus this courtyard section is beautiful and breezy. It’s in a shady spot, but the sky is the ceiling.

My hope is that Jakmel Ekspresyons can have a regular knit and crochet group who meets regularly and helps each other. Lots of people in Haiti know how to crochet, plus there was a crochet workshop at Jakmel Ekspresyons a few weeks before my knitting workshop. Haitians are extremely resourceful, and I am confident that they will be able to figure out patterns and fix mistakes if they meet and craft together.

 

New Building News

15 members attended the crochet workshop today at our new building. Shout out to Erin Durban of Kwochè Ayiti for your sheer awesomeness! Badio took on the role of interior decorator and decorated our new building yesterday. There are paintings hanging throughout the building now. Thank you Badio! We can’t be an art center without a ton of art all over the place!

Indiegogo Video

Want to find out more about Jakmel Ekspresyon and our IndieGogo Campaign? Watch the Jakmel Ekspresyon YouTube video and go to our campaign homepage: http://bitl.ly/jakmelgogo

New Building for 2012 Rented!

We successfully negotiated with the landlord of our preferred building. He has agreed to splitting the rent into 3 payments. We signed a lease and made our first payment today. The members helped to move the furniture in this afternoon and workshops will begin by Thursday. This is very exciting for us because of the amount of projects that are happening right now. Thank you everyone that helped us to reach this point. YEAH!!!!!!!  MES AMIS!!!!!!! Help us reach our next goal at JE by donating. Every dollar will get us closer to the next payment at the end of January. For more info go to:

Spare Change Theater Program is starting round three of workshops.

Spare Change theater was founded by JE’s Administrator, Aaron Funk. In the first two rounds the members learned improv theater, character development, theater lighting and more. In the new round the members hope to continue more of the same. Pictures to come.

NOV 23rd Homonomixxx VIVE HAITI! Verdi Club, San Francisco benefit a huge success!

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Last night’s benefit for Jakmel Ekspresyon and JE’s Ghetto Biennale project was a huge success with

over 100 people in attendance throughout the night at SF’s historic Verdi Club. Over 50 people were in attendance for the incredible 5-course Caribbean inspired meal prepared by the fabulous Tessa Maria and her crew of excellent prep cooks.

The Verdi Club was transformed by the larger than life decor of Finley, Brutus and Gayle, draping the walls with multi-colored fabric, ornaments and Finley’s beautiful tapestries. Finley set up a live photobooth where she snapped dinner attendees’ photos and printed them out with their choice of psychedelically-themed frames she digitally created. The dinner was served family-style at 4 long rows of tables where friends and strangers had the opportunity to meet and talk.

Homonomixxx crew donning their best,fabulous fashion, bustled in and out of the kitchen serving the delicious vegan and gluten-free dishes. After dinner, the crowd warmly received the debut of SF’s Glimmer, a sibling duo made up by Li and Jonas Pastora. Glimmer’s set  was followed by a short presentation about JE by Ivy Jeanne and Aaron Funk and concluded by Ivy Jeanne and Haitian American artist Militza Jean-Felix talking about their upcoming Ghetto Biennale projects in Port-au-Prince this December.

The festivities continued with bumbin’ soul and tropicales sets by Hard French DJs Brown Amy and WamBamAshleyanne and Queer Cumbia/ Party Hole DJ Jiggles.

At the end of the night, we raised roughly $1300 after our total expenses!

Huge thanks to the following for making the benefit possible:

Denny Palmer and The Verdi Club, Homonomixxx, Tessa Maria, Glimmer, DJ Jiggles, Hard French DJs Brown Amy and Wam Bam Ashleyanne, Rainbow Grocery, several Bay Area farmers at the Ferry Building farmer’s market and Alemany farmer’s market,The Free Farm, and the Bay Area community who came out to support this event.

Thanks!

Ivy Jeanne