10 Seasons, 8 New Fellows at Twenty Summers
Twenty Summers, the annual interdisciplinary program that has brought dozens of nationally and internationally known cultural figures to the Hawthorne Barn in Provincetown over the last decade, has announced its lineup of fellows for the 2023 season.
Some of the fellows may already be familiar to Outer Cape audiences through recent projects. Writer, filmmaker, and Zen Buddhist priest Ruth Ozeki was a featured speaker at the Provincetown Book Festival last September, and artist Alejandra Cuadra had a solo show at Cape Cod Community College in October.
The other fellows span a wide range of disciplines. Writer and speaker Antoinette Cooper focuses on the liberation of Black bodies through the arts and humanities. JU-EH is a composer and operatic vocalist from Southern China who currently practices as a sound conceptualist.
Jon Kung is a content creator and self-taught chef from Detroit.
Kate Rich’s art and long-range economic experiments explore the intersection of the art world with other commercial systems. Julian Saporiti, a Vietnamese Italian American songwriter and scholar from Nashville, focuses on Asian American history in his multimedia work.
Kit Zauhar is a Chinese American writer, director, and actress from Philadelphia whose work explores intimacy, sex, and belonging.
The 10th season of Twenty Summers begins on May 8 and will run through June 12. See 20summers.org for information.
Matt York’s Songs and Stories
Formed in 1985, the Highwaymen were an American supergroup made up of four of country music’s biggest artists: Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson. Musician and author Matt York will bring their music to life in “The Highwaymen: Songs and Stories” on Friday, April 7 at 5 p.m. at the Wellfleet Public Library (55 West Main St.).
York will perform songs made famous by the group and tell stories about the musicians’ careers. But his concert is emphatically his own interpretation of his source material. “I don’t dress in black, and I don’t wear a bandana,” says York in a video on his YouTube channel. “I’m not an impersonator.” Instead, he says he tries to perform the songs in a way that the supergroup would have approved.
York has a storyteller’s voice: strong, warm, and clear. He has twice been nominated as Best Male Artist for the New England Music Awards, and his latest album, Bruisable Heart, was named one of the Boston Globe’s best albums of 2019.
The all-ages concert is free. See wellfleetlibrary.org for information. —Dorothea Samaha
Studio Artists on the ‘Party Line’ at the Commons
A group show at the Provincetown Commons (46 Bradford St.) will showcase the work of its five current studio artists. “Party Line,” which is on view through April 16, includes works by Wylie Burrell, Caroline Carney, Mary Gallagher, Cassandra Levine, and Fran O’Neill.
The five artists cover a range of styles and techniques. Burrell’s colorful canvases incorporate repeated visual components to create “monsters” inspired by the work of Keith Haring. Carney’s paintings capture fleeting moments glimpsed during walks and bicycle rides around Provincetown. Gallagher works with hand-carved wax using traditional methods and also incorporates 3D computer modeling in her jewelry and sculpture compositions. Levine’s drawings and paintings communicate personal history using a self-generated lexicon of iconography. The graphic works in O’Neil’s “Similium” series are based on his study of homeopathy.
There will be an opening reception for the show on Friday, April 7, 5 to 7 p.m. See provincetowncommons.org for information.
Seeing Provincetown Through the Eyes of Student Filmmakers
Provincetown Community Television’s new Spring Youth Media Institute will take place from Monday, April 17 through Friday, April 21. The free program, limited to eight students, is for Outer Cape students in grades 6 to 12. Filmmaker, media educator, and PTV executive director Vanessa Vartabedian and documentary filmmaker and editor Gregorio Leon will serve as mentors for the program.
Students will have access to the PTV studio and learn about conducting on-camera interviews, camera operation, editing, script writing, and capturing B-roll. “The goal is to find three points of interest in Provincetown,” says Vartabedian. “We’ll capture some local history in three different filmmaking styles.” She anticipates the subjects will include an “off-the-cuff” handheld documentary about the Portuguese bakery; a film about the Provincetown Players and their history; and an interview film about indigenous people’s history in Provincetown. The finished documentaries will be viewable online following the program in addition to being broadcast on PTV.
Students interested in participating in the program can email Vartabedian at [email protected] or call 857-756-0735. —Eve Samaha
