The Magic 25: 1995, Origins Lecture Series

ORIGINS was an annual lecture series presented by the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center. The series featured artists from diverse ethnic backgrounds, who create personal art forms through written, visual and performance mediums. The artists were invited to present their views on the creative process as well as the ethnic and cultural elements that influence their work. Conceived as both an artistic and educational forum, ORIGINS was intended to encourage and increase cultural awareness, and to bridge the gaps that often impede the pursuit of common goals among a diverse population.

The series was inaugurated in June 1995 with a lecture by Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr., chairman of the Afro-American Studies Department at Harvard University and author of Colored People, the Signifying Monkey and Loose Canons. An editor, scholar, writer and proponent of autonomous African-American studies programs, controversial in his beliefs and style, Dr. Gates has risen to the top of his field and has done much to improve the emerging discipline of African-American studies on the campus and in the bookstores.

West Indian author Jamaica Kincaid read from her recent novel, Autobiography of My Mother, in February 1996. Ms. Kincaid was born in Antigua, West Indies. Her first book, At the Bottom of the River, a collection of stories, received an award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and was nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award. Her other works include Lucy, the story of a girl’s coming of age in the West Indies; and A Small Place, a nonfiction work about Antigua.

Yurok artist Rick Bartow spoke about his work in May 1996. A painter and sculptor who lives and works in his native Newport, Oregon, Bartow has developed an international reputation for his visionary art. Marked by luminous, highly saturated colors and dreamlike imagery, his art burns with an extraordinary passion and intensity: it explores the darker side of the human experience while acknowledging the healing power of nature. Although an American Indian spirituality imbues his work, Bartow emphasizes that his vision is uniquely his own.

Innovative African-American performance artist Rhodessa Jones was featured in December 1996. A masterful storyteller and one of the most compelling theatre artists working today, Ms. Jones founded and directs the Medea Project: Theatre for Incarcerated Women, a program promoting self-awareness and self-esteem through the creation and production of personal theatre pieces. Ms. Jones has toured nationally and internationally, receiving rave reviews and numerous awards for each original piece she has launched, including a 1993 Bessie Award for Big Butt Girls, Hard Headed Women.

Poet and writer Garrett Hongo spoke about his work in April 1997. A much-honored poet and professor of creative writing at the University of Oregon, Hongo received the 1996 Oregon Book Award for his most recent book, Volcano: A Memoir of Hawai’i, an account of his return to the island of his birth and his quest for his Japanese-American identity. Twice winner of NEA Fellowships in poetry, Mr. Hongo has also received a Guggenhiem Fellowship, the Academy of American Poets’ Lamont Poetry Prize, and was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in poetry.

Athabaskan author Velma Wallis read from her latest book Bird Girl and the Man Who Followed the Sun in October 1997. She also spoke about growing up in Fort Yukon, Alaska, a remote village north of the Arctic Circle reachable only by small airplane, dog sled, snowmobile or riverboat. According to Wallis, her first book, Two Old Women broke tradition. “No one had ever told our legends in writing.” Wallis’s taut, visual prose brings vibrant new life to the ancient stories of the Athabaskans, creating works rich with her own cultural context and full of universal appeal.

Visual artist Jonathan Green lectured and exhibited his work as part of the IFCC’s 15th Anniversary in February 1998. Mr. Green discussed the importance of the Gullah heritage depicted in his painting.
Over the winter of 2000, Maestro James DePriest kicked off the Origin series in December with his captivating poetry and in February 2001, dancer and choreographer, Minh Tran shared his personal expression through lecture, video and performance to another packed and attentive crowd.

by Adrienne Day

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