Human (NB) interviews artists living and working in New Brunswick to get their perspective on arts & culture in the city. Their insights may (or may not) surprise you.

Featured: Nicole Wines, Shane Gertner, Sean Battle, Christina Entcheva

Video by Christina Entcheva

Internship includes editorial responsibilities (writing, interviewing, research), video production, web design, web content management, graphic design, marketing, and administrative duties.

Perfect for Journalism students and those interested in new media composition, video production, design, and web publishing. Unpaid internship, for credit only (3 credits) through the Rutgers English Department. Flexible schedule. Starts September 1, 2010.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Editorial:

• Attend arts and culture events in New Brunswick, NJ
• Write and edit posts to be published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
• Conduct interviews (traditional and video)
• Write reviews (art exhibitions, music, theater, etc.)
• Write feature stories, opinion posts, guest blogger posts
• Publish upcoming event listings
• Develop and maintain local event calendar
• Cover campus, off-campus, student, and community events

Web:

• Produce and maintain websites, blogs
• Learn web design, content management, WordPress, HTML/CSS

Video:

• Produce and edit videos
• Utilize Canon Vixia HD camcorder, Adobe Final Cut Pro

Design:

• Produce web graphics, infographics, advertisements, promotional materials
• Utilize Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator

Photography:

• Photograph local events, people
• Special projects

Marketing:

• Learn how to communicate visually, build a brand/identity, promote a brand
• Develop advertising campaigns, special projects, viral marketing
• Maintain social media profiles

Administrative:

• Attend weekly meetings
• 120 hours of work for the semester, approximately 7 hours/week
• Produce a 4,000 word multimedia composition

Interns are managed by:
Christina Entcheva, Founder and Editor, Human (NB)
Daniel Dalonzo, Executive Director, New Media Academy
Richard Miller, Executive Director, Plangere Writing Center

Contact: info@christinaentcheva.com

Pollifax is an online creative arts site. One side serves as online literary magazine that features the works of fiction writers and poets (Romancer Series). The other serves as an indie music site that features video souvenirs of all the lovely musicians we’ve met wherever (Wanderer Sessions).

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/12787269[/vimeo]

Communipaw (Wanderer Session #30) – on Vimeo

Pollifax began in New Brunswick. How did you get started?

[Pollifax co-founder] Christine Tran and I were once students of poet and Rutgers professor, Susan L. Miller.

Safe to say, we loved the workshop scene of showing and showcasing literary works, both our own and our friends. By then I was helping run Objet d’Art, one of the literary magazines on campus.

Christine told me that she always wanted to start up her own literary magazine, and I told her I would help her since I gained some experience Designing, Editing, Marketing, Printing, and everything else that involved the major parts of a literary magazine. It was around that time too that,

“I was already deeply in love with the New Brunswick arts scene.”

First I was exposed to the underground “Writing” scene since that was my original field. I was introduced to so many writers and poets both from on-campus groups like Verbal Mayhem and off-campus Spoken Word events that CoLab hosts.

Eventually, I stumbled into the gigantic, underground music scene [...] I started going to shows at the Court Tavern, the Old Bay, and of course, the myriad of house venues that are scattered secretly all over town. I even helped organize some really great house shows that included music, poetry, visual art, and film!

“After numerous talks with both local musicians and touring ones, I was introduced to the problem of not having any proper venues and public art spaces for these talented, young artists that obviously love the town enough to start their work there.”

I always thought it was awesome whenever people decide to just transform their basement into a venue for the night and attract so many music-lovers from all over. But I never knew about the New Brunswick history buried beneath the stigma of a “basement show.” I never knew that the city had a long history of famous venues going out of business and public art spaces shutting down.

It was then that I took a step back and looked at the city as a whole. I was baffled at why no one was building new places for the arts to flourish in New Brunswick when there are so many talented students coming in and out of the city. Rutgers already has an art school right in the middle of the city [...] so with the growing number of creative minds running around campus, why not? Why not build public spaces to nourish talent and help these kids showcase their work?

And so, Christine and I met up for lunch one day and I decided to take her up on the offer of starting a literary magazine here in New Brunswick to help our friends and other writers in the area get their works out to the world.

“I thought about helping out musicians by filming really low-fi music videos set in the most random locations like classrooms and bus stops to not only help them get exposure but to also allude to the fact that there’s really nowhere else to play.”

I’ve always loved acoustic, live, stripped down performances. In my last semester of college, I took a Video Editing class. I kind of just put the two together. I bought a $90 pink camera and used a portable mic my dad gave me a couple of years back when I started playing guitar and just went out to find bands to film. And once we combined everything with some poetry works donated to us by some of our friends, Pollifax was born.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/11742621[/vimeo]

Louis Blues “Angel From Montgomery” (John Prine cover) (Wanderer Session #26) – on Vimeo

Who inspires you?

I talk to people about my favorite filmmaker, Vincent Moon, who really revolutionized music videography by making such beautiful, stripped down, unplanned, music videos for LA BLOGOTHEQUE. His work is my main inspiration. I really don’t have any formal knowledge of cameras and editing and film but I learn slowly by watching his continuous work.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjxef8AfVQg[/youtube]

Vincent Moon – Arcade Fire – Neon Bible live in an elevator! – YouTube

What role do you think the Internet plays in local arts & culture?

Technology is really moving faster than we’re getting older. I think the rise of social media networks and simple, portable ways to keep in touch with people contributes greatly to local creative scenes nowadays.

In New Brunswick, more and more music shows, art openings, and poetry readings happen because people can just use Facebook to advertise and guarantee themselves at least 30 people. Someone can just make an event page and Facebook can automatically invite everyone on their friend list. Other people can distribute information about shows pretty easily too since they can just invite their friends into the event page that has all the information like an electronic, never ending, flier.

Everyone’s connected now. And if one person sees a friend “attending” some interesting event, chances are, they’ll check it out too and disseminate the info to other people and so on.

There’s so much to say here! But really, everyone’s connected. It’s good for a local arts scene since it won’t be difficult to invite or keep track of interested parties in the area. It keeps their bubble together.

What does video add to the experience?

I don’t think I can say that much about Film since I’m really new to it. But from my experience, it’s amazing whenever I record a musician and while I’m going through the audio, I hear a baby laugh in the background or hear some police sirens blaring off or some passerby sharing their day with a friend. It gives the music such an earthly feel to it. You really feel like magic, like great music can happen anywhere without the need for fancy recording equipment and flashy stages.

Now, imagine with film, that you can actually see the baby laughing and he has some chocolate on his cheeks or the passerby is actually an old woman jogging a mile at 70-years-old. When you combine great things that you hear with great things that you see, well, it just makes such a beautiful picture of the world around the musician in front of you.

Suddenly, the music is not the main player but only one in a constantly moving world. That’s what I love about video and music.

Scott Hall Room 104 (Rutgers University)
43 College Avenue

From their Facebook event page:

Now in it’s tenth year of existence, one of the longest running open mics in New Brunswick returns for the 2010-2011 school year.

All poets
MCs
Singers
Musicians
or anyone
with a story to tell
and a need to be heard

come on down
and sign up to read
or to simply listen.

Look for our table
and catch us on stage
at the Fall involvement Fair.

Also, introducing
the NEW Verbal Mayhem website
as part of the moxieTODAY network,
[...]
Check it out now
with our first spotlighted artist,
Tiffany “Ms. Mariposa” Gathright!

See you Sept 7th
and remember, tell a friend
to tell a friend
to tell an artist.

Your hosts,
Sean and Christabel.

Posted by Christina Entcheva

From the Facebook event page:

The biggest and best yet!!! It is on a Saturday this time! Come celebrate SK and Cymar’s birthdays! AND the it’s also the album release party for Cymarshall Law’s new album; FREEDOM EXPRESS LINE (being released on XOXO Records/SONY)

Also featuring performances from:
Mr. Green
KON (Knowledge Over Nonsense)
Magiver Knowledge
Black Circle Symphony
and special guests!

Hosted by the Don Mamas
DJ IRS on the wheels

Featuring artwork & photography from featured Hub City Revival artists.

Posted by Christina Entcheva

Presents:

Romeo and Juliet/Romeo y Julieta

Directed by Daniel Swern
Produced by John Keller

This bilingual, English and Spanish contemporary production digs deeply into the New Brunswick community and its recent history. Can the true love of two kids from very different worlds overcome their parents’ legacy of hate?

All tickets are FREE!

Show runs for two weeks:

August 19th – 29th
Thursday – Sunday 8 pm

To reserve email jpkeller@colab-arts.org or call (732) 718-7614.

____________________
Creative Team:
Costumes & Scenery- Victoria E. S. Depew
Lighting- Christopher J. Bailey
Sound- Joseph Fekete
Fight Direction- Casey Kaleba
Production Stage Manager- John Nehlich

Posted by Christina Entcheva

Dear Friends,

Beautiful Bear (Osa Bella) will be performing this Sunday, August 8, 2010 at Clydz in New Brunswick, NJ.  Todd Stambaugh will open the show, solo acoustic at 9:30 PM.  Join us for a night of pretty sounds, dimly lit rooms, tasty drinks, and fond farewells.  This is the only scheduled show for this year, perhaps for a long time thereafter.

xx
Mark

Myspace.com/osabella for music and info.

Posted by Christina Entcheva

If you’re ever asked to shake your booty as conga drums and cowbells play in central New Jersey, ignore the voice in your head saying, “You don’t know how to dance to this.”

The Raíces Cultural Center Ensemble will tell you that it’s not so much about the moves, but the feeling of your whole body as you let nature’s music run through your veins, every move and step giving the drum a command.

This will be one of many scenarios that students—young and old, dance veteran and amateur—will face when stepping into their weekly Cultural Fusion dance classes at the Hub Teen Center for the first time.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzZ84ieUkDw[/youtube]

Raíces (meaning roots) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in New Brunswick, NJ. Under the leadership of co-executive directors Francisco G. Gómez and Nicole Wines, Raíces looks to be a home for the arts in central NJ. Their mission is the preservation, education, and research of Caribbean arts and culture.

Various programs include weekly dance classes in Bomba, Orisha, Carnival and other Afro-Caribbean dances. Raíces offers private drum classes, school assemblies (part of the Raícitas Youth Program), documentary screenings, and discussions with the Raíces Cultural Archive.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0juhz-bnkns[/youtube]

Performances by the Raíces ensemble showcase Caribbean Folkloric song and dance, poetry, and most importantly crowd participation. Everyone is invited to become more than an audience member, joining the ensemble on stage to dance united as both artist and audience, showcasing community.

For more information about programming and upcoming performances, visit their website, raicesculturalcenter.org.

The world is coming to an end in 2012. Or is it? You gonna make a buck or be taken for a ride? Pandora Scooter takes a hilarious whirlwind tour of the craziness that’s gonna rain down on us as the Mayan calendar comes to an end.

Pandora Scooter is an award-winning, critically acclaimed theatre artist who has performed her spoken word and performance art across the U.S. FEAR JUNKIE 2012 is her fourth and newest solo show.

Thursday, August 5, 6, 7
8pm

George Street Playhouse
9 Livingston Avenue
New Brunswick, NJ

For tickets go to WWW.COLAB-ARTS.ORG
$10 General Admission

Posted by Christina Entcheva

coLAB Art Gallery’s Pictorial Turf: Design Exhibition closes today!
Monday · 6:00pm – 8:00pm

This exhibition presents works created by local designers who are supporting and being supported by the arts, culture, and community of the Hub City, New Brunswick.

Exhibited Artists: Christina Entcheva, Jessica Perkins, and Allison Siu

coLAB Arts
49 Bayard St. Third Floor

Thursday, July 29

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/8313198[/vimeo]

Collaborative Arts presents: “Spectating”: Film Screening
Thursday · 7:00pm – 10:00pm

Reflecting the talent of local New Brunswick video artists, “Spectating” provides an experience of video beyond the confines of narrative or documentary traditional spectatorship. coLAB invites you to consider temporal, visual, and audio experimentation through the eyes of these emerging artists. (free event!)

Featured Artists: Basem Hassan and David Sananman

Saturday, July 31

Raices Cultural Center, A NJ Nonprofit Corporation presents: Cultural Fusion Dance! (every Saturday!)

For children: 12pm -1pm (class fee is a $5 suggested donation)
For adults: 1pm-2pm (class fee is a $10 suggested donation)

Come ready to dance and move to the LIVE DRUMS! New students ALWAYS welcome!

Folkloric dances from the Caribbean such as Orisha dance, bomba, plena, son, rumba, samba and more fused with contemporary genres such as hip-hop and salsa (Cuban music). These dances originated from a fusion of African, Spanish and Indigenous cultures in the Caribbean and their evolution throughout the diaspora.

Dance is for everyone! Let the guard down! Come out and shake the booty!

New students should arrive ten minutes early to fill out the one time registration form (there is no fee for registration). Wear loose fitting clothing and bring water. For pre-registration, further questions, or information call (908) 227-5671, (732) 236-7618, or email raices@raicesculturalcenter.org.

Hub City Teen Center Dance Studio
411 Joyce Kilmer Ave.
New Brunswick, NJ

______________

Now get out there!

Love,
Christina

Email events to info@christinaentcheva.com