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    A look ahead: Knight-supported events in South Florida

    Published November 11, 2014 by

    A Tech cocktail Mixer & Startup showcase at The Stage in Miami. Photo by Tech Cocktail on Flickr. There is a terrific lineup of Knight-supported events coming up in the next month in South Florida. In addition to the diverse mix of events below, don’t forget that the deadline to submit your ideas for the $5 million Knight Cities Challenge is Friday, Nov. 14, at 5 p.m. ET. We want your best ideas to make cities more successful. Also, be sure vote for the South Florida Knight Arts Challenge People's Choice Award by Nov. 17. Voting closes at 11:59 p.m. ET. Here are some of the other events ahead:
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    ‘thisishappening’ ends with explosive finale

    Published November 11, 2014 by

    "Winter Wolf and Shadow Wolf" from Really Large Numbers. Kind of like fireworks, Emerson Dorsch is finishing off its innovative programming, called “thisishappening,” with an explosion of happenings all this week. Writers, performers and visual artists from here and across the country will transform the outdoor...
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    Mario Ernesto Sanchez — and his commitment to theater — rewarded

    Published November 11, 2014 by

    Mario Ernesto Sanchez, founder and producing artistic director of Teatro Avante and the International Hispanic Theatre Festival of Miami, received the 2014 Legacy Award in Los Angeles, Sunday. The honor recognizes “outstanding individuals whose lifelong commitment to Latino Theater in the United States and Latin America will have a lasting impact on the field,” said Jose Luis Valenzuela, artistic director of the Latino Theater Company/LATC, in his letter to Sanchez informing him of the award. The presentation was part of the closing ceremonies of “Encuentro 2014,” a month-long gathering of Latin theater artists hosted by the Los Angeles Theatre Center in association with the Latina/o Theatre Commons. “Your work,” noted Valenzuela in his letter, “has had a profound influence on the development of Latino Theater both nationally and internationally.” Sanchez was honored alongside two other historic figures in Latino theater in the United States: Luis Valdez, founder and artistic director of El Teatro Campesino, a company founded in 1965, based in San Juan Bautista, Calif.; and Miriam Colon, founder and director of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater, created in 1967 and recently merged with Pregones Theater, another important Latino theater institution. For Sanchez, a seemingly unsinkable champion of theater in Miami, the award means “that we have done a lot but we have a lot more to do. That’s all it means. I’m humbled by it but at the same time I’m very proud. But I always feel we haven’t done enough. We still need to create more interest in the residents of Miami for theater; that’s what we are still lacking.” “Don’t misunderstand me, I’m happy we are getting this award and it belongs to everybody who has helped Teatro Avante and the International Hispanic Theatre Festival to survive, and that includes audiences and sponsors. But I have to be honest, I think there’s still a lot that needs to be done.”  
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    Head over to Bedlam for a sampling of new dance by a West Coast-meets-Midwest assortment of emerging choreographers

    Published November 10, 2014 by

    This Saturday, 7 p.m. at Bedlam Lowertown If you follow contemporary dance, you need to be at Bedlam Lowertown this Saturday night. The collaborative duo Fire Drill (Billy Mullaney and Emily Gastineau) are presenting “an evening of pop-up experimental choreography,” bringing together dance-makers from Portland, Ore.,...
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    Vintage Charlotte Winter Market

    Published November 10, 2014 by

    A poster for this year's Vintage Charlotte Winter Market. Vintage Charlotte is back with their Winter Market just in time for that pesky holiday shopping. Featuring locally handmade goods and unique vintage finds, this is the perfect event to fulfill that shopping list while supporting local...
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    “La Reunión” is…um… awesome

    Published November 10, 2014 by

    Suddenly, I'm jerked back to life and I'm out of my funk. It's like witnessing the first night launch of the space shuttle as a child. As it ascends like a reverse meteor headed for the blackened sky, everyone around you is crying and you don't know why, but your...
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    In the making: A Miami revolution

    Published November 10, 2014 by

    More than 3,000 participants experienced first hand the the city’s latest and greatest “maker” inventions at the second annual Miami Mini Maker Faire Saturday. Photo by Jenna Buehler. Crowds lined 26th Street in Wynwood, craning their necks to see cutting-edge technology at high-demand booths. Attendees were able to 3-D print copies of themselves at The LAB Miami, and move a robotic hand by using the static electricity generated by their own thoughts. Of the more than 90 exhibitors at the event, many of the featured workshop hosts were relatively new to Miami’s “maker” scene. Founders of Design Thinking Miami, Mariana Rego and Jessica Do, kicked off the faire with a workshop on what it means to solve problems by “thinking design,” thinking about the needs of people first and using empathy to solve problems.  Do moved to Miami from New York just recently, and says that she and Rego, a Miami native, are motivated by the momentum they experienced at Tech Weekend last month and, again, at the faire. “The maker concept is new to Miami, but Miami itself is a city where everywhere you look there is an artist, technologist and innovator,” Do said. “Design thinking isn’t out of reach here, and this is just the beginning of what we’ll see from the maker community here.”
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    Knight challenge grant supports urban transformation in San Jose, Calif.

    Published November 10, 2014 by

    Jennifer Warburg is special projects manager of SPUR, a nonprofit that promotes good urban planning and civic engagement in the Bay Area. Knight Foundation supports SPUR to transform San Jose, one of 26 Knight communities, into a vibrant urban center. Photo: SPUR San Jose bike tour by Sergio Ruiz.  San Jose is a sprawling city built largely around the automobile. Its dilemma – shared by many American cities – is how to retrofit its suburban fabric to improve the sustainability, livability and economic vitality of the city, while accommodating the enormous growth projected for the next 25 years. In the coming decades, San Jose will add more new residents and jobs than any other city in the Bay Area. If it continues to build in a low-density pattern, San Jose will confine people to their cars in worsening traffic, increase economic disparity and add unsustainably to its carbon emissions. Knight Foundation’s support for SPUR’s new office in San Jose – a $1.775 million challenge grant over five years – will help catalyze the civic conversation around our city’s urban future. The funding provides a runway as we build capacity to be the leading civic partner for the city of San Jose as it undertakes the most ambitious growth plan of any city in the country.  
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    PBS to livestream, cover Miami Book Fair International

    Published November 10, 2014 by

    Each year, Miami Dade College throws a party for book lovers in Downtown Miami. About 200,000 people join us to hear from some of the world’s greatest authors, in one of the biggest book fairs in the country, under our warm November sun. Related Links "PBS Brings Miami Book Fair International to National Audiences" - Press release (11/10/15) "Broadsides and craft brews at Miami Book Fair’s the Swamp" on by Lissette Mendez on Knight Blog   "Teatro Prometeo gears up for Play Time! An international children’s theater festival" on KnightArts blog.  This year, if you can’t join us Nov. 16-23 in South Florida, we’re making it easier for you to join the fun.  In its first major book event coverage, PBS will be livestreaming the Miami Book Fair International’s main weekend, Nov. 22 and 23, and providing a nightly recap show to stations around the country, thanks to Knight Foundation’s support. You can watch six hours a day of coverage online, or watch daily wrap-up shows with Jeffrey Brown, Chief Correspondent for Arts, Culture and Society for PBS NewsHour and three-time New York Times bestselling author Kelly Corrigan, with additional live on-the-street segments by WPBT Miami host Kalyn Chapman James. The coverage, filmed by Detroit Public Television, includes a daily live stream presentation of selected interviews, panels, and on-the-street fair segments via BookViewNow.org, PBS.org and other PBS websites, as well as mobile websites, and across PBS’s diverse portfolio of video apps on the iPhone, iPad, Xbox, Roku and Apple TV. 
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    Hattie Mae Williams: Dancing to Miami’s History

    Published November 9, 2014 by

    By Fernando González, Miami-based arts and culture writer For dancer and choreographer Hattie Mae Williams, the question is not whether all the world’s a stage but why shouldn’t it be? She has taken her self-described guerrilla approach to dance performances to supermarkets and churches, subway platforms and cemeteries. “Culture Concrete,”...