Project Description

is a project of Whitfield CoLabs under the artistic direction of Tony Whitfield. Whitfield's Shotgun! collaborators are photographer /media artist Richard Stuart Perkins and rapper/ musician/composer Will Sheridan. Bring this artistic expertise and the histories and experiences as queer African American men, their collaboration will respond to the confluence of events that have brought together issues of race, gender, violence, policing and social justice together as facets of a revived and reconfigured civil rights movement at forefront of American consciousness. This project is built upon the ways in which they find responses in Junior Walker and the All-Star's 1965 R&B hit,Shotgun. Working together, this group of artist will create an installation and a series of public programs that have as their centerpiece a "music video" that references the area in North Philadelphia, where Whitfield spent much of his pre-adolescent years. That area has since been leveled and remains a site of urban poverty and abandonment spurred on by riots that took place in the summer that preceded the release of Shotgun. As a gay child, this is the area where Whitfield recognized his sexuality and came to understand it as factor that would increase his isolation and launch him into an ongoing struggle for full actualization. This project is, in essence, his discussion with a group artists with similar backgrounds about rage and self-actualization. Together, this group of artists will produce an environment borne out of their realities as queer black men, who have matured in the contexts of ongoing debates about race, gender, sexuality, civil rights and liberation movements, while benefitting from affirmative action, education, and degrees of privilege and social mobility --all in the shadow of AIDS and other circumstances that threaten their integrity and survival.

SHOTGUN! is a project of Whitfield CoLabs with fiscal sponsorship provided by Fractured Atlas. To be presented at LaMaMa Galleria, 46 Great Jones Street, Fall 2017 (specific date to be determined).

Shotgun Lyrics

"Shotgun" was written by Dewalt, Autry.

I said, "Shotgun, shoot 'em for he runs now"

Do the jerk, baby
Do the jerk, now
Hey

Put on your red dress
And then you go Downtown
I said buy yourself a shotgun now
We're gonna break it down baby now
We're gonna load it up baby now
And then you shoot him for he runs now

I said, "Shotgun, shoot 'em for he runs now"
Do the jerk, baby
Do the jerk, now
Hey

Shotgun shoot 'em for he runs now
Do the jerk, baby
Do the jerk, now
Hey!

Put on your high heels shoes
I said we're goin' down here listen to 'em play blues
We're gonna dig potatoes
We're gonna pick tomatoes

I said, "Shotgun, shoot 'em for he runs now"
Do the jerk, baby
Do the jerk, now
Hey

I said, it's twine time
I said, it's twine time
I said, it's twine time
Hey, what did I say him?

Songwriters Dewalt, Autry

Published by
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group

Project Inspiration

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Project Inspiration

Shotgun Lyrics

"Shotgun" was written by Dewalt, Autry.

I said, "Shotgun, shoot 'em for he runs now"

Do the jerk, baby
Do the jerk, now
Hey

Put on your red dress
And then you go Downtown
I said buy yourself a shotgun now
We're gonna break it down baby now
We're gonna load it up baby now
And then you shoot him for he runs now

I said, "Shotgun, shoot 'em for he runs now"
Do the jerk, baby
Do the jerk, now
Hey

Shotgun shoot 'em for he runs now
Do the jerk, baby
Do the jerk, now
Hey!

Put on your high heels shoes
I said we're goin' down here listen to 'em play blues
We're gonna dig potatoes
We're gonna pick tomatoes

I said, "Shotgun, shoot 'em for he runs now"
Do the jerk, baby
Do the jerk, now
Hey

I said, it's twine time
I said, it's twine time
I said, it's twine time
Hey, what did I say him?

Songwriters Dewalt, Autry

Published by
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group

No comments:

About Whitfield CoLabs

Whitfield CoLabs (WCL) creates contexts that present and interpret aspect of urban experience that illuminate social change, particularly in the lives of underrepresented populations. Through collaboration with artists, designers, technicians and organizations that serve WCL's subject populations, works are developed and presented in multiple media to engender greater understanding of the histories that underpin current cultural phenomena. Through the application of transmedia storytelling strategies, audiences for WCL's works range from general urban populations in public spaces to product consumers to participants in social media.

Collaborators

Tony Whitfield is an artist, designer and educator whose work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions in galleries and museums including the New York’s Museum of Art and Design, Leslie Lohman Museum of Lesbian and Gay Art, The Pop-Up Museum of Queer History and the Instituto Cultural Peruano Norteamericano in Lima, Peru and published in the US and abroad. Whitfield has also written about art, new media, film, performance and design. As the president and principal designer of Red Wing & Chambers Inc, Whitfield produced custom and limited edition furniture, products and lighting for residential and small business environments. Whitfield has also held leadership positions in New York’s arts community including Director of Printed Matter, Inc., Associate Director of Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and Senior Policy Analyst for Cultural Affairs in the Office of the Manhattan Borough President, as well as Program Director at Just Above Midtown, Inc. Whitfield’s writing about art, design, performance, film and video as a medium for cultural criticism has been included in numerous publications over the last three decades. An Associate Professor of Art and Design Studies he has served in various leadership roles including Associate Dean for Civic Engagement, Chair of the Product Design Department and Director of the Furniture Program at Parsons The New School of Design.http://tonywhitfieldprojects.blogspot.com

Richard Stuart Perkins is a New York City based photographer, filmmaker and painter. He has been at various times in his life a television reporter, a music video producer, a game show producer, a talk show producer, the editorial director of a dot.com, a screen actor, a university lecturer, and an advertising agency executive. He has been nominated a Cable Ace Award, a Clio and a national news Emmy. His art is in private collections in the United States and Europe.http://www.richardstuartperkinsphotography.com/ andhttp://richardstuartperkins.tumblr.com/post/138297052864/somewhere-out-there-at-shoreditch

Will Sheridan, is a former college basketball player who played for the Villanova Wildcats Men's Basketball program from 2003 to 2007. After graduation he played as an international basketball player in Italy. He is now a singer, musician and recording artist signed with Royal Advisor Records and an EP released entitledNgoma. He is also a businessman and manager in a company in the fashion industry.

He was recruited to Villanova University where he majored in Communications. Division I basketball team Villanova Wildcats in the 2003-2004 season and started for all 4 seasons there until graduation at the end of the 2006-2007 season. He is 6'8 and played as forward. He also penned a journal for the Philadelphia Daily News during Villanova's 2006 NCAA tournament run.

After returning from Italy, where he played briefly in the Italian Basketball League, he returned to New York where he went into music. His start was a gig entitled the Will to Win at the Spark Center, a tiny cafe attached to an Italian restaurant in New York. He was also inspired by a visit to Nairobi and the Ruiru Rehabilitation Center. His music is a mix of house, hip hop and African rhythms. He released his first EP Ngoma (meaning music in Swahili language). His first music video from the EP was "Welcome to the Jungle," that has a decidedly African rhythm with the refrain of the word "asante," which means thank you in Swahili. His follow-up single is "302", being the area code for Bear, Delaware where he grew up.

Will Sheridan released his first full length album on June 15, 2012, appropriately titled G.I.A.N.T. Will Sheridan's videos have been featured throughout the various websites, the latest support has been from notable hip hop website www.allhiphop.com. He has released a collection of videos from the LP, G.I.A.N.T. all featured on YouTube.

At the beginning of his freshman year, Will Sheridan came outprivately to his teammate and roommate at Villanova Mike Nardias being gay^.He also came out to his parents months later. His teammates at Villanova knew about his homosexuality, but kept a "wall of silence" opting for team unity. On May 16, 2011, and in an interview with Dana O'Neil on ESPN.com, he came out publicly at the age of 26, after retiring from basketball. After the publication of the article, he also appeared on ESPN's Outside the Lines.

In an interview with Outsports, he said many of his songs, most notably "You Know I Got It" and "Set Fire in the Streets" did contain lyrics about homosexuality prior to coming out publicly. Sheridan is only the second former Division I male basketball player to publicly come out of the closet as gay.https://soundcloud.com/willsheridanmusic

Joe Lumbroso

Brilliant Champions is a creative production company in Brooklyn, New York. Owned and operated by dynamic duo, Joe Lumbroso and Jillian Mackintosh, our team lives and breathes film, video, art and design. We use a variety of methods and mediums to construct engaging and compelling ideas, content, and experiences. From creative development, production, to post-production, our focus is on championing every project with beauty, innovation and heart. Our work includes commercial production, music videos, narrative, stop motion, documentary filmmaking as well as artist representation and sales through Brilliant Champions Gallery.

Some of our awesome clients include: Airbnb, Cisco Systems, Coldwater Creek, DIAGEO, Esurance, Gerber Life Insurance, GoodYear, Google Wallet, Grenade Gloves, Marcus + Millichap, Nestlé Nutrition, PandaExpress, RedBull, R/GA, Sailor Jerry, Samsung SDS, SANDOW, and The Hearst Corporation.http://brilliantchampions.com/

Project Description

Project Inspiration

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Project Inspiration

No comments:

Post a Comment