K. Smith News

More than 200 artists and arts leaders from South Africa and around the world will come together for the Rolex Arts Weekend. The Arts Weekend is a series of public events that will feature the world premiere of a dance choreographed by Khoudia Touré, as well as talks, performances, and readings that will highlight the work of the 2018a?'2019 protégés of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative.

Creative Narratives Theater Company, a group of ambitious emerging artists have joined the Festival Circuit with CreateFest, a one-night-only presentation of new and interesting short plays across all genres. Max Berry, an acclaimed playwright, will serve as one of the producers.

As the 250th anniversary year of Beethoven's birth approaches, Carnegie Hall announces a wider schedule of partner events by leading cultural institutions, complementing the Hall's programming as part of its Beethoven Celebration which includes an unprecedented range of performances by renowned artists exploring the composer's works and his transformative impact on music. The Beethoven Celebration presents one of the largest explorations of the great master's music in our time and marks the largest-ever exploration of one composer by Carnegie Hall, with 86 works of music performed by more than 58 artists and ensembles in New York City and beyond from January through June 2020.

In Spring/Summer 2020, the Downtown Urban Arts Festival (DUAF) will return for its 18th annual season with Reg E. Gaines, Tony-nominated for Bring in da Noise Bring in da Funk, back as its Artistic Director. After his evaluation of scripts from a new crop of emerging playwrights from around the world, DUAF is has announced its 2020 finalists.

Smithsonian magazine, the flagship publication of the Smithsonian Institution, today announced the honorees of the eighth annual American Ingenuity Awards. This year's awards honor individuals across seven wide-ranging categories: Youth, Visual Arts, Social Progress, Technology, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Performing Arts.

Today, the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts (BOPA) announced that more than 45 live concerts and performances will join the lineup at the combined Baltimore Book Festival and Light City. This festival, which will illuminate the city from November 1st through 10th under the theme of Brilliant Baltimore, is the nation's first and only combined celebration of art, literature, music, ideas and innovation. These dynamic concerts and performances will complement the nearly 20 illuminated art installations, 115 culinary exhibitors and booksellers, and more than 200 luminaries and authors featured throughout the 10-day festival.

Rising Country superstar MASON RAMSEY shared his latest music video today for “How Could I Not,” directed by Justin Clough and filmed at the Wilson County Fair in Lebanon, TN. The Country anthem is handpicked from Ramsey's recently released TWANG - EP – his first batch of music since his debut FAMOUS - EP in 2018. Ramsey's TWANG - EP has racked up a stunning 10M+ streams to date and spawned the fan-favorite title track, “Twang,” which also received a visual treatment directed by Justin Clough and has garnered 12M+ views since its release.

San Francisco North Bay theater artists gathered Monday night at 3 Disciples Brewing in downtown Santa Rosa for the Fourth Annual Marquee Theater Journalists Association Awards. Eighteen awards were given to local theatre artists and productions whose nominations were culled from the sixty-eight Sonoma County productions attended by members from September 1, 2018 through August 31, 2019.

It's #savage season at MacTheatre, the Fine Arts Academy of McCallum High School. #Savage feels firmly planted in 2019 as that word, as every day vernacular, feels like new-fangled millennial vocabulary. But savage essentially means impossibly confident, self-actualized, and fearless disregard for societal norms. There's plenty of savagery in JEKYLL & HYDE.

Created with magic legends Penn & Teller, Mischief Theatre conjure up an evening of grand illusion in Magic Goes Wrong. In the next 'Goes Wrong' comedy to hit the West End, the original Mischief company play a hapless gang of magicians presenting a charity event.

The San Francisco North Bay's Marquee Theater Journalists Association has released the list of nominees for its 4th Annual MTJA Awards. The Association recognized the exemplary work of Sonoma County theater artists with nominations in eighteen categories that were culled from the sixty-eight productions attended by MTJA members. Recipients will be announced at the 2019 MTJA Awards - A Celebration of Sonoma County Theater which will be held October 14th at 3 Disciples Brewing in downtown Santa Rosa.

The complete lineup has been announced for this year's New Yorker Festival, which will take place October 11-13. Some familiar faces in the Broadway world will be in attendance, including Rachel Chavkin, Billy Porter, John Cameron Mitchell, and Jackie Sibblies Drury.

The Academy of American Poets is pleased to announce the winners of the 2019 American Poets Prizes, which are among the most valuable and venerable poetry prizes in the United States. This year the organization has awarded more funds to poets than any other organization, giving a total of $1,250,000 to poets at various stages of their careers.

Cincinnati Opera and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) announce that their groundbreaking joint program, Opera Fusion: New Works, will host a residency for the new opera Castor and Patience from August 26 through September 4, 2019, in Cincinnati.

The Academy of American Poets is pleased to announce that renowned graphic memoirist and comic book artist Alison Bechdel and former U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera will judge the 2020 National Poetry Month Poster Contest for Students. The winner of the contest will receive $500 and the winning artwork will be featured on the official April 2020 National Poetry Month poster, which the Academy will distribute to 100,000 libraries, schools, and bookstores nationwide during National Poetry Month. The winning student will also receive signed copies of books by this year's judges and be featured in American Poets magazine and on Poets.org, which reaches millions of readers each year.

Mischief Theatre, the Olivier award-winning company behind The Play That Goes Wrong, has today announced the full cast for Magic Goes Wrong, created with magic legends Penn & Teller. This will be the second production as part of Mischief Theatre's residency at the Vaudeville Theatre, which opens with their new comedy Groan Ups in September 2019.

Last night, celebrities, educators, and families gathered at the world-famous Carnegie Hall in NYC to recognize 800 teen artists and writers from across the country as National Medalists in the 2019 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards-the nation's longest-running and most prestigious recognition program for creative teens in grades 7-12, presented by the nonprofit Alliance for Young Artists & Writers.

Legendary choreographer, National Medal of Arts (2013) and MacArthur "Genius" Award (1994) recipient, and artistic director of New York Live Arts, Bill T. Jones comes together with equally esteemed poet, essayist, playwright, and editor Claudia Rankine and renowned writer and the 22nd Poet Laureate of the United States, Tracy K. Smith.

Evans Mirageas, The Harry T. Wilks Artistic Director of Cincinnati Opera, today announced a host of programs celebrating the company's upcoming 100th anniversary in 2020, along with repertoire and casting highlights of the 2020 Summer Festival.

In recognition of the SEDONA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL's 25th Anniversary as unique communal experience for filmmakers and moviegoers. A profile of the event and the man who has steered its course, Patrick Schweiss. Running this year from Saturday, February 23rd, 2019 through Sunday, March 3rd.