The Sisters of Swing will perform a holiday jazz show at the historic Norman Depot, 200 South Jones Avenue, as part of the Performing Arts Studio Sunday Jazz series at 7:30 pm on December 11, 2011.  An admission fee of $7 will be charged ($5 for seniors/students, free for 18 and under.)  Refreshments will be provided.

Sisters of Swing features Mary Reynolds (bass, guitar, vocals), Louise Goldberg (piano, accordion, vocals), Elyse Angelo (drums), Mary Freeh (vocals), Joanne Trombley (vocals), Christine Freeh (vocals), Rosalind Cravens (vocals), and special guest Terry “Buffalo” Ware (guitar).

According to Mary Reynolds, the members of this musical collective have “always enjoyed singing Christmas music: ancient and beautiful, modern and fun, some of it just plain silly.  But we didn't want to be another commercial in a season that’s already saturated with the noise of the marketplace.  So we found charities, through the years, that were happy to take the money we raised.  Then we just concentrated on giving our audience a fun time.”

For the past several years, the Sisters of Swing have donated to Saint George’s Guild, a food pantry and outreach that serves the poor of Oklahoma County.  The Guild is supported by the Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma and has its office downtown in St. Paul’s Cathedral.  Besides helping with food, the Guild provides assistance with utilities, transportation and documentation all year long.

Reynolds says their show features “as much good will toward men -- and women -- that we can possibly generate!  We’ll do numbers from the swing era, the rock and roll years, and ancient times.” Mary Freeh and Mary Reynolds arrange all the music.

The Performing Arts Studio Gallery and office in the Norman Depot are open from 8:00 am to 2:00 pm Monday through Friday.  Phone 405-307-9320 for additional information about PAS programs.

Sunday Jazz Concerts at the Depot are made possible in part by grants from the Norman Arts Council, the Oklahoma Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.  Additional funding comes from generous individual and business sponsors.

Poet, writer, artist and teacher Carol Koss will be the featured poet at Second Sunday Poetry in the Norman Depot, 200 S. Jones, on December 11.  The free reading  begins at 2:00 pm.  Complimentary refreshments will be served.

By birth a New Yorker, Koss has lived in Oklahoma City for over 40 years and is well known in art and poetry circles.  Through her many years of teaching English, Creative Writing, and Remedial Reading, Koss has taught students from middle school through college; and in venues that range from wealthy suburbs to the South Bronx, from churches to prisons.

Five years ago, Carol Koss retired from Bishop McGuinness High School, in Oklahoma City, having taught there for eighteen years.  On her refrigerator, she posted a quote  from Thich Nhat Hanh: "Don't just do something. Sit there!"   She continues to write, publish an occasional poem, do the 'every-now-and-then' reading, and relishes her monthly poetry groups and frequent walks in the zoo.  But, she finds that it is in the 'sit[ting] there' that the truth of Plato's words emerge: "The contemplation of beauty causes the soul to grow wings."

Carol Davis Koss is the author of three chapbooks:  Chapter and Verse (1997), Camera Obscura (2001 Oklahoma Book Award  finalist), and  Painted Full of Tongues (2002). In addition, her poetry has appeared in numerous publications.

A graduate of the City College of New York, Koss has a Masters in English from Purdue University and has done post masters work at Teachers College (Columbia University) and the University of Oklahoma.

Listing

First, soak raisins
in cinnamoned rum
while morning
and yeast rise
and you stir into coffee
watching them dissolve
three thoughts
going nowhere

but here where
last night’s rain
still sends
through windows
left open breezes
rhyming sage
dill and lavender

as you list into
the rest of the day

While at the Depot for the poetry reading, enjoy “Small Works” in the Gallery.

Second Sunday Poetry is a program of The Performing Arts Studio, located in the Norman Depot.  For more information about this and other PAS programs, phone 405-307-9320.

Seven outstanding Oklahoma artists will be featured in the Small Works Show in the Depot Gallery, 200 S. Jones, Norman, beginning Sunday, Dec. 4 with an opening reception from 2:00 to 4:00 pm.  There will also be a reception for the artists in conjunction with the 2nd Friday Circuit of Art on December 9 from 6:00 to 9:00 pm.  The show continues through December.

Featured artists include Gay Faulkenberry, Linda Tuma Robertson, Jim Cobb, Rick Fry, Don Holladay, Brad Price, and Mike Wimmer.

Gay Faulkenberry has been a force on the American art scene for more than two decades.  Known for her impressionistic approach to color and light, she is renowned for plein-air paintings of urban and rural landscapes and for studio paintings of intimate still-lifes, florals, and interiors.  Faulkenberry’s work has been featured in leading art publications and is represented in corporate, private and museum collections across the country.

Linda Tuma Robertson has a style described as a combination of realism and impressionism, recording the countryside and vanishing wilderness of this country.  Robertson’s work has been featured in leading art publications and is in corporate, public and private collections across the U. S.  Two of Robertson’s 5’ x 7’ paintings hang in the Oklahoma State Capitol.

James P. Cobb, M. D., a retired surgeon, has been at his easel for over 20 years.  Having studied with selected instructors, primarily from the Art Student’s League, NYC, and the Art Institute of Chicago, he paints all subject matter from still-life, portraits and figures to landscapes.  Dr. Cobb has exhibited in numerous galleries from Oklahoma City to Santa Fe and Taos and has had numerous one-man shows.

Rick Fry is an accomplished illustrator and painter who found his artistic niche with an eclectic collection of techniques and subject matter that provides a refreshing view of America’s untamed areas.  Fry has spent a good portion of his life painting wildlife and its habitats with a particular interest in birds. He has won numerous Best of Show and First Place awards and has a painting at the Oklahoma State Capitol.

Don Holladay’s work has appeared in solo and group shows across the state and is owned by numerous individuals, businesses and organizations.  Many of his pieces originate from the printmaking process with printing inks and oils his two primary mediums, most often on paper surfaces.  His most recent work focuses on the figurative and non-objective.  A retired attorney, Holladay is former Board Chairman of the Oklahoma Arts Institute.

Brad Price has been an award winning graphic designer, illustrator and painter for 40 years. Painting out of an intense love for the natural world with a particular fascination for the Southwest, the western landscape is his central focus.  His style is impressionistic and emphasizes directional brushstrokes, contrasts of light and shade, and bold color.  Prices’s paintings can be viewed at bradprice.net.

Mike Wimmer is internationally known as an artist and illustrator.  His work ranges from creating the new kind and gentle Mr. Clean and the colorful and proud Simba on Pride Rock for the Lion King soundtrack packaging, to the large historic murals commissioned to hang in the Oklahoma Capitol Building.  He has worked for most major publishers in the United States and some of the largest corporations in the world, but finds his greatest artistic pleasure in creating images for his many children’s books and art prints.

For additional information about PAS programs, phone 405-307-9320.  Office and gallery hours are 8:00 am to 2:00 pm Monday through Friday in the Norman Depot.  Exhibitions are made possible, in part, by a grant from the Oklahoma Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Darden Smith’s dozen critically acclaimed albums weave together rock, pop, country, folk and Americana influences with the musical roots of his home state of Texas.  Smith will appear in concert at the Norman Depot, 200 S. Jones, on Sunday, December 4, at 7:00 pm.  Tickets for the Winter Wind Concert are $15.  Refreshments will be served.

Praised by All Music Guide as “a singer-songwriter blessed with an uncommon degree of intelligence, depth and compassion,” Darden Smith enjoys broad appeal on both the American and British music scenes.  Likened to songwriters such as John Hiatt, Leonard Cohen and Elvis Costello, Smith is one of contemporary music’s most winning artistic treasures.

“When I write a song, the way it ends up is usually not the way I thought it would be when I started” says Smith.  The notion of exploration, of following unexpected paths, has been a constant in his 25 year career as a musician.  Long transcending traditional singer-songwriter boundaries, his fascinating musical legacy continues to evolve.

Having already composed a symphony, produced a radio documentary, scored dance troupe compositions, and founded an innovative program to foster creativity in students, Smith has used his most recent release, Marathon, as the backdrop for a theatre project.  The 15 track album “...started with a concept about the West, and a desire to push myself out of my comfort zone again” says Smith.  By the time the album was recorded in 2008, experiments with scripts, a band, and stage production were well under way.  Following the release of the album in the fall of 2010, Smith continues to refine Marathon into what he ultimately envisions as a touring theatre piece.

Of Smith’s career, the Texas Monthly said, “Despite the various fashionings of his sound and appearance over the years, the honesty and intelligence of Darden’s lyrics have remained constant.  The words he sings evoke eclectic worlds few contemporary songwriters are willing to imagine.” Smith’s easy-going vocal style and lyrical point of view light up a stage.

Links:
Darden Smith Web Site
Video: Darden Smith - Mortal Coil
Video: Dyin' to Be Born Again by the Harlem Parlour

For more information phone 405-307-9320.  PAS office and gallery hours are 8:00 am to 2:00 pm Monday through Friday in the Norman Depot.

Winter Wind Concerts are produced by The Performing Arts Studio and made possible in part by grants from the Norman Arts Council, the Oklahoma Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.  Local sponsors include: Tom McAuliffe, Don Cies Read Estate; Cindy Merrick, Therapy in Motion; and Nancy McClellan.  Contributors are Glen Brown; Jack’s Pool Service; Skye Diers, Gingerbread Nursery School; Hugh and Keri Young; Dale Wares, Wares Properties;;and Danna Primm.  Friends include Tom & Mary Cay Woodfin; Tom Cotrone; and The Grider Family.  Additional support comes from Cafe Plaid, The Montford Inn, and Bohemia Moveable Feast Caterers.