angelakariotis.com

BodyFields is my latest piece. It was commissioned by New Jersey City University for Women’s History Month. Their theme is EcoFeminism and women taking the lead in saving the planet. I wrote about saving women and the environment! It was a great challenge. EcoFeminism asserts that the same patriarchial paradigm that imposes sexism, and squashes women’s rights are also the same forces that contribute to environmental havoc and the pollution of natural resources. I hope to rock the work again.  Acknowledgements to Leah Jackson and Renata Moreira as organizers of Women’s History Month and producers of the event. (Click the link to check out the video of BodyFields on Facebook.)

a Cerebral Cypher joint by angela kaRIOTis

What makes hip hop theater is the practitioner, not just the hip hop elements in the work. The artist must operate in the hip hop aesthetic. By virtue, the work will in turn be hip hop theater. The elements of hip hop as they stand, breakdance, DJing, MCing, and graffiti art, even the lesser acknowledged beatboxing, are tropes. These elements present in a piece of work may qualify it to be hip hop theater but a work absent of these elements can still be hip hop theater; it will be measured by another model of which these tropes only scratch the surface. This model is the artist him/herself. As said earlier, if the artist operates in the hip hop aesthetic, so will the work.

Behind every element there is a far deeper philosophical and technical value. If these values are somehow present in the work, it is hip hop theater. This leaves room for urgent and creative work that moves hip hop beyond novelty and theater beyond spectacle.

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I AM SO NEW JERSEY! Read ALL about it!

It’s dandelion season in Irvington.
A tenacious green plant may emerge from a crack in the concrete in a backyard, the same concrete in which brother and sister left their footprints two decades ago.
Given a bare minimum of water and sunlight, it may triumphantly flower — only to discover society calls it a weed.
Yep, even as a teenager, Angela Kariotis knew a good metaphor when she saw one.
The nose-in-a-book girl who grew up on Union Avenue now writes searing one-woman “spoken word” plays that chronicle her gritty urban upbringing as a first generation Greek-American.
The result is not quite “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” for her work is too provocative, too funny.
Nor is it “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” for it is too raw, too poor.
Instead, a Hollywood agent might pitch it as “My Skinny Little Greek Dandelion Grows in Irvington.”
Or, as Kariotis promises her audiences, it’s “the 411 on 07111,” Irvington’s ZIP code.
Her first play, “Reminiscence of the Ghetto & other things that raized me,” is a hip-hop chronicle of her search for identity in the hometown to which she remains fiercely loyal.- Kathleen O’Brien, THE STAR-LEDGER

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“Reduce, recycle, reuse: It’s not just a motto for garbage. What about some of that mental haze that keeps repeating inside that brain of yours? What can you cut out, transform and repurpose for your own good?” This was my horoscope reading for June 29, 2007 by Mark Lerner of Astrology.com.  The state of our affairs have inaugurated these new three R’s. What Lerner describes as a motto for garbage, he remarks implicitly, should be a mantra for us. Al Gore did An Inconvenient Truth. Since then we have become inundated with debate about global warming, new energy initiatives, adaptable technology, and pollution. Even the food we eat has become scrutinized. We’ve become organic eaters. We drink Fiji. We are starting to take better care of ourselves in the midst of deterioration. But by the time you actually spot a problem is it too late? We need to take better care of the planet Earth. The first step is recognizing it as a living organism, the second step is to readjust the objectifying pronoun “it.” I wonder what will art’s role be in this? Will there be a ressurgance in pastoral poetry? Can art be instrumental in creating a methodology for conservation that goes beyond the mere awareness campaign? Can art be innovative in addressing ecology? Well? Tag. Your it! 

Below you will read about an exhibition event fusing the gallery and the boutique, consumerism and advocacy. Solutions should be grounded, accessable, and specific, like this one. A new venture, Bag the Habit, proposes the elimination of plastic bags and the use of reusable eco-friendly totes. I was one of 11 artists invited to design a Bag the Habit tote that was auctioned at the gallery opening reception. The exhibit is showing at the Lex Leonard Gallery in Jersey City. There will be a closing reception with a silent auction on July 13 with more limited-edition artist-designed totes for sale. Below is a press release with more information about the event and the idea behind it.

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“Everything begins with an idea. And the best ideas are people. Really, people are good ideas. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. not only had great ideas about civil rights, but he himself was a good idea. If he never existed in the first place, his ideas about equality written in his speech “I Have a Dream” wouldn’t have either. Bill Gates is famous for being the world’s richest man, but what we ignore is how much he deserves it, after all, he had an idea about a computer operating system, and this idea has made all our lives easier.  Sometimes people are nervous about sharing their ideas. Howard Aiken, American computer engineer and mathematician, once quipped, “Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats.” That’s a funny way to look at it, but it’s true. Ideas are common, good ideas are everywhere, what’s rare are people who will work hard to bring them out. So, good ideas and good people need each other. On this day, we are celebrating both.  There is such a thing as a “eureka” moment. When you have been thinking and thinking, trying to solve a problem or wanting to come up with something, but you’re stuck, and then all of a sudden when you are walking down the street or brushing your teeth it hits you! Eureka! The idea finally arrives. Unlike trains, ideas don’t operate on schedules. You never know when they’re going to come. But when they do, it’s our responsibility to be just as great as those ideas, to be their vessel of transportation. From painting a picture, choreographing a dance combination, writing a poem or a play, to creating a friendship or making a memory…Today we honor brain-storming and generating electrifying ideas, the kind that move at the speed of t h o u g h t. Think about it.” –Angela Kariotis, Curator and Director, 9th Annual United Way Student Education Showcase 

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I was awarded a National Performance Network residency from Legion Arts, a network presenter in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It was my second time performing at the space and in this place. Click on the links below for newspaper articles and pictures. One might think that Cedar Rapids’ population will meet me and my work with a complete lack of understanding. But that thinking is self-indulgent. Actually, it was performing in Cedar Rapids where I learned folk have plenty in common, what seperates us is our vernacular. For example, what I call “being ghetto”, in my first work, they call “being rural.” Sure there are intense differences, but there are plenty of ways to celebrate and honor culture, there are different kinds of culture, not only necesarily reserved to ethnicity.

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Take a look inside the world of Hip Hop Theatre. Story by Adam Bernard featured in BEYOND RACE magazine 2007 music issue. Interviewees include Dyalekt, Claudia Alick, Kamilah Forbes, and yours truly.

“Uptight, conformed and aged are some of the stereotypes young people have of theater. On the opposite end of the spectrum, untamed, ignorant and immature are some of the stereotypes older people have of Hip-Hop. There’s one group of people, however, who are working on destroying both sets of stereotypes at once, and those are the people who produce and create a burgeoning hybrid of the two art forms called Hip-Hop Theater..Despite the short runs and non-traditional venues, despite having a unique target audience and distinct lack of resources, it’s that connection between a performer and his or her audience that makes all those involved feel Hip-Hop Theater is the future of both Hip-Hop and theater.” Read the full story by clicking the pages below.

Announcing Ricardo Kahn’s World Theater Lab at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, a project months in the making produced by the incomparable Baraka Sele.  Playwrights from three continents gather to tackle the idea of “citizenship.” Read a cover story by Laurie Granieri featured in the Home News Tribune below to learn about our supporters, participants, content, and theme. Check the flyer for the sharing on Saturday night. This is a work-in-progress that’s about the process. Many thanks to the Lark Play Development Center in New York City for their support as headquarters. London playwrights tackle the 7/7 Bombings. South African writers wrestle with post-apartheid. New Yorkers react to Hurricane Katrina, conspiracy theories, and the THEY.

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although in an acrobatic position!

MIA is a magazine for Greek women. I learned about this long awaited and very important magazine while performing in Chicago this summer at the Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center in the middle of Greektown. Antonia Callas is a freelance writer and author of this article about me and my work published in December for this winter season. I just got it in the mail! I am humbled by her words. I wish the editors and staff continued success. In the actual mag, what follows are two articles on the subsequent pages, one about the illuminary tigress herself, Maria Callas, and her performance as the tragic Medea, and the next is an interview master class style with Olympia Dukakis. Good company, eh? I’m in the Agape/Love issue. Page 22. Con’t on 106. It’s a way to garner some support from the Greek/ Greek-American community. But is this how a nice Greek girl behaves?! Peace and props to Antonia Callas for breaking it down! “Mia” is Greek for the feminine “one.” There will be a brother version coming soon, ENAS. “Enas“, which is the male “one”. There is a great description I must quote, “I am/ strong/ passionate/ loyal/ intelligent/ charismatic/ resourceful/ I am a Greek man/. Props to those who fit this prolific profile. Xero enas! Check the article below! Stin igyas!

From Irvington, NJ to across the Atlantic! 

Live at Contact Theatre! I was worried the audiences wouldn’t understand what I was talking about. DJ O not only set it off during the pre-show and after-show parties, but he set me straight too, “These people invented the English language. They don’t know you? Naw. They know you too well.” And he sure was right. “Bloody brilliant” and “wicked great” were the compliments of the day.

DJ O spinned with 2 turntables and a mixer scoring Reminiscence of the Ghetto & Other Things That Raized Me for a 2 night engagement in Manchester, UK last weekend. Contact Theatre is a great place to be. There was some serious politiking. Speaking ghetto lingo in a pretty accent.

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