QMAil: June 2008

In this ISSUE:

EXHIBITIONS: The Real Pepsi Challenge: Breaking the Color Barrier in American Business | "This Case of Conscience": Spiritual Flushing and the Remonstrance | OPENING: A Watershed Moment: Celebrating the Homecoming of The New York City Water Supply Model | 475 KENT Lives (QMA at the Bulova Corporate Center)

EVENTS: MetLife Foundation presents First Sundays for Families: Urban Adventures: Creating Art from Nature | Poets in the Galleries II: Cate Marvin | The Real Pepsi Challenge Film Series: Advertising, Race, and Representation | Poets in the Galleries II: Rigoberto González | Corona Plaza Street Festival | Queerin' Queens Annual Pride Month Celebration | Poets in the Galleries II: Tina Chang | Poets in the Galleries II: Eleanor Lerman | Watershed Adventures: Discover Wild Foods with "Wildman" Steve Brill | Poets in the Galleries II: Thomas Sayers Ellis

QMA INFORMATION: Permanent Exhibitions | Special Announcements | Learning Programs & Workshops | Programming for New New Yorkers | Adult Programs | For Seniors | Credits | Subscribe to QMAil

June masthead: Scott Lewis, Falun Gong in Kissena Park, 2007. Archive Pigment Ink Print, 13 x 20 in. Courtesy of the artist.

CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

The Real Pepsi Challenge: Breaking the Color Barrier in American Business

On view through July 27, 2008

Years before the official Civil Rights Movement galvanized countless Americans, the Pepsi Corporation boldly took steps to integrate corporate America from as early as 1940. Based on Stephanie Capparell's groundbreaking book, THE REAL PEPSI CHALLENGE: The Inspirational Story of Breaking the Color Barrier in American Business, (Wall Street Journal Books/Free Press) this exhibit showcases the plight of some of the first African-Americans to hold professional corporate jobs in this country. Pepsi-Cola CEO Walter S. Mack headed the call of the black leadership of the day and hired an all-black sales team to sell his cola to American blacks. To pull the first sales team together-two men and a woman-for his then-fledgling business, he hired a black sales manager and invented the concept of the business internship as we know it today.

Pepsi's black sales team members were traveling salesmen in the time of Jim Crow segregation laws, which forced them to sit at the back of buses, travel in separate train cabins, eat behind screens on trains, and find hotels and restaurants that would serve them. In its effort to exploit the untapped special market (some 30 years before niche marketing became a business staple), the team hired some of the first professional black models and designed some of the first advertisements to portray blacks as middle-class citizens enjoying the American Dream. In 1992, team member, Harvey C. Russell, became the first African-American promoted to vice-president in a major corporation. Today, in the new millennium, PepsiCo's female CEO is India-born Indra Nooyi.

The exhibit includes a variety of photographs from the private collections of special-markets team members; dozens of Pepsi black-media advertisements from the era; interview transcripts taken from close to 100 hours of voice interviews with seven surviving team members; pages from black weekly newspapers, photocopied from microfilm; and an array of color and black-and-white prints depicting corporate events, meetings and team members then and now.

The exhibition is based on the book, The Real Pepsi Challenge (Wall Street Journal Books/Free Press) by Stephanie Capparell.
THE REAL PEPSI CHALLENGE is funded by PepsiCo Inc., and The Queens Borough President Helen Marshall. Additional support provided by NYC Department of Cultural Affairs and New York State Council on the Arts.

"This Case of Conscience": Spiritual Flushing and the Remonstrance

On view through June 29

In the new millennium, religion, its relation to the state and mutual respect are hot-button issues across the globe. In Flushing, Queens, this very conversation started 350 years ago with the Flushing Remonstrance. On view through June 29, "This Case of Conscience": Spiritual Flushing and the Remonstrance, explores the continued relevance of the historic document considered by many to be the precursor of the Bill of Rights within the vibrant and diverse neighborhood of Flushing. A document drafted and signed by 30 Flushing residents in 1657, the remonstrance to Governor Peter Stuyvesant denounced his persecution of the Quakers in Flushing and asserted liberty of conscience for adherents of all religions. The original document, on loan from the New York State Archive, will be showcased at the QMA where it will serve as a jumping off point for artistic examinations of contemporary spirituality.

In "This Case of Conscience": Spiritual Flushing and the Remonstrance, the QMA presents the work of nine artists and a salon style installation of photographs contributed by the public to bring the legacy of the Flushing Remonstrance to life. Five artists – Emmy Catedral, Takashi Horisaki, Sara Rahbar, José Ruiz, and Tattfoo Tan – were commissioned to create projects in partnership with or inspired by religious centers in Flushing while four photographers – Kim Badawi, Jenny Jozwiak, Stephanie Keith, and Scott Lewis – have captured the religious diversity of the Flushing community through their compelling works. A third key component of the exhibition is a salon-style installation of images depicting religious sites and celebrations in Flushing. An open call to photographers from all walks of life and religious persuasions has resulted in over 130 poignant images capturing the spiritual pulse of Queens including a Muslim street procession, a young girl resembling a Virgin Mary statuette and a man studying biblical text on his laptop.

R. Scott Hanson, Ph.D, a scholar of American religion, immigration and urban history, vividly showcases Flushing's religious legacy in 203 Places of Worship in Flushing (as of 2007), a color-coded map revealing a vast religious landscape. Hanson has also contributed an illustrated timeline that traces both religious and immigration-related events in the area spanning the mid-17th century to the present.

The Flushing Remonstrance is on loan from the New York State Archives, a program of the New York State Education Department.

"This Case of Conscience": Spiritual Flushing and the Remonstrance has been made possible with support from the Lily Auchincloss Foundation. Additional funding provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and New York State Council on the Arts. More information is available here.

Photo: Tattfoo Tan, Share-A-Prayer, 2008. Community-based intervention (Vending machine, soda cans, snacks, and adhesive stickers with prayers shared by various religious organizations in Flushing). Courtesy of the artist.

A Watershed Moment: Celebrating the Homecoming of The New York City Water Supply Model

June 22 - November 17, 2008

In 1937, New York City was in preparation for the 1939's World's Fair, the first of two in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. To celebrate the immense and intricate inner-workings of the City, various agencies were invited to produce exhibitions for the New York City Pavilion (now the Queens Museum of Art). The Board of Water Supply (today's Department of Environmental Protection) commissioned the Cartographic Survey Force of the Works Progress Administration to create a magnificent scale model of the New York City watershed, a relief map measuring almost 700 square feet and weighing 10,000 pounds. Tracing the City's water supply system from the outermost, upstream tributaries of the Delaware River to sea level at the Nassau County line, the watershed model identified the various aqueducts, water shafts and drainage basins that feed the City's water supply.

Due to space limitations within the New York City Pavilion, the model was never exhibited in its entirety. After nearly 70 years in storage, the 27 completed panels were in desperate need of conservation. Through a collaboration between The Queens Museum of Art and the Department of Environmental Protection, the plaster and wood relief map was sent to McKay Lodge Fine Arts Conservation Lab in Oberlin, Ohio for one year of treatment. In time for its 70th anniversary, the model has been restored to its original brilliance and returns to its intended home in the New York City Building where it will remain on long-term loan. In celebration, the QMA and DEP will commemorate this momentous homecoming with an exhibition featuring the model, historic documentation, and contemporary photographs of the New York City watershed.

Conservation of the New York City Watershed Model was executed by MaKay Lodge Conservation Laboratory, Inc. (Oberlin, OH).
Funding for the conservation was provided by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection through the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

On view at the QMA at the Bulova Corporate Center: 475 KENT Lives

On view through July 13, 2008

On a cold January evening, residents of 475 Kent Avenue, artist lofts and studios on the south waterfront of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, were evacuated from their home by the FDNY. A thriving arts community, 475 Kent Avenue is home to over 200 artists, curators, musicians and other creative professionals who are at the heart of the city's creative pulse.
475 KENT Lives, a group exhibition of 23 artists at the Bulova Corporate Center (a Satellite Gallery of the Queens Museum of Art) celebrates the vital contributions of these artists as they battle to return to their homes and workplaces while calling attention to the increasing vulnerability of New York's creative communities. 475 KENT Lives, organized by independent curator Kòan-Jeff Baysa, and coordinated by artist Lisa Mordhorst (both 475 Kent residents) and the Queens Museum of Art, opens April 9 at the QMA Gallery at the Bulova Coporate Center in Jackson Heights, Queens.

Participating artists:
Kanoa Baysa, Lee Boroson, Jennifer Byxbee, Melissa Clarke, Jeremy Dean, Alison Dell, Emma Dewing, Asa Elzén, GGrippo, Kirsten Hassenfeld, Hollis Jeffcoat, Vibeke Jensen, Betsy Kelleher, Simon Lee, Deborah Masters, McDavid Moore, Lisa Mordhorst, Cecilia Rodhe, Eve Sussman, Rob Swainston, Shimpei Takeda, Michael Weintrob and Markus Wetzel.

475 KENT Lives is made possible by Blumenfeld Development, Ltd.

SPECIAL EVENTS

Presents First Sundays for Families at QMA: Urban Adventures: Creating Art from Nature

Sunday, June 1, 1 - 4:30 pm

Sponsored by MetLife Foundation, First Sundays for Families at the QMA are designed to engage participants of all ages in a fun and unique array of free, family-friendly activities on the first Sunday of every month. Through a tour of the museum's Watershed Model, a giant 3D relief map which traces the City's water supply system from its source in upstate New York, families will understand the connection between the city and the surrounding natural environment. Saugerties-based Arm of the Sea Theater Company will present City That Drinks the Mountain Sky, the epic story of NYC's water supply told through puppetry, poetry, and music. Then join artist Cui Fei on a walking tour of beautiful Flushing Meadows Corona Park to collect natural objects that will be utilized to create ephemeral artworks.

Poets in the Galleries II: Cate Marvin Responds to "This Case of Conscience": Spiritual Flushing and the Remonstrance

Sunday, June 1, 5 - 7:30 pm

The Museum announces its second season of Poets in the Galleries, the interdisciplinary poetry series that utilizes the Museum's exhibition space as an invigorating site of exploration, interactive readings and discussion. Each Sunday through June 29, a different poet will conduct a lively presentation in response to the Museum's current exhibition, "This Case of Conscience": Spiritual Flushing and the Remonstrance. These gifted participants, all distinguished voices in the local, national and international literary scene, will share their poetry and responses to the works on view with Museum visitors. The ensuing dialogue will surely foster provocative intellectual exchanges and provide wide-ranging audiences with new ways of accessing both the poetry on offer and the Museum's resources. "This Case of Conscience" lends itself especially well to the series by creating an open-ended forum in which all participants can explore the links between art and poetry, as well as related themes of religious freedom, mutual respect, diversity and spirituality. Join us from 5 - 6 pm for complimentary cocktails, followed by interactive tour and readings from 6 - 7:30 pm.

Cate Marvin is the author of two poetry collections, World's Tallest Disaster, which was awarded the Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry and the Kate Tufts Discovery Prize, and Fragment of the Head of a Queen. She is a recent Whiting Writers' Award recipient and NYFA Gregory Millard Fellow. Her poems have appeared in such publications as The New England Review, Poetry, The Kenyon Review, Fence, The Paris Review, Slate, Boston Review, and Verse. She is also co-editor with Michael Dumanis of the anthology Legitimate Dangers: American Poets of the New Century. She teaches poetry writing in Lesley University's Low-Residency M.F.A. Creative Writing Program and is an associate professor in creative writing at the College of Staten Island, CUNY.

The Queens Museum of Art would like to acknowledge the following promotional partners: BookCourt, Acentos, Cave Canem, The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center, Poets & Writers, and the 92nd Street Y Unterberg Poetry Center.

The Queens Museum is pleased to announce the Special Membership Discount from Poets in the Galleries promotional co-sponsor, the 92nd Street Y Unterberg Poetry Center:
Celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the Unterberg Poetry Center with an exceptional season, including readings by Toni Morrison, Isabel Allende, John Ashbery, Jamaica Kincaid, Junot Díaz and many others. Act now to receive a discount on Poetry memberships for the 2008-2009 season and take advantage of special member benefits such as free admission and priority seating to Main Reading Series events, discounts on subscriptions, complimentary library membership and more. Offer ends June 24.
For more information, and to Become a Member Now, call 212-415-5760 or visit the 92Y website.

The Real Pepsi Challenge Film Series: Advertising, Race, and Representation

Throughout June

In the late 1940s, America became what Fortune magazine called "the one great glittering Bazaar left" in a world reeling from the aftermath of World War II. Americans were besieged by countless ads as the job of salesman became a popular and lucrative career choice. Meanwhile, prominent companies such as Pepsi-Cola began to tear down color barriers as they chased the dollar of the increasingly affluent African-American market. The exhibition, The Real Pepsi Challenge: Breaking the Color Barrier in American Business, based on author Stephanie Capparell's, The Real Pepsi Challenge (Wall Street Journal Books/Free Press), features the corporation's early efforts to hire black salesmen in an unfavorable racial climate. Supported by Pepsi-Co's CEO at the time, these business pioneers fought to integrate the workplace, and helped affirm the image of African-Americans as employees, consumers and equal citizens. This provocative series features key films from 1947 to 1961 which complement the exhibition's themes-from the growing power of advertising to the evolution of African-American imagery.

The Real Pepsi Challenge Film Series is supported by PepsiCo Inc., Borough President Helen Marshall, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, and New York State Council on the Arts.

Saturday, June 7, 3 - 5 pm

The Hucksters (Jack Conway, USA, 1947, 115 min, B&W)
Clarke Gable stars as a veteran who becomes disillusioned with his new career in the crass world of advertising. African-American salesmen of the time adopted the name, calling themselves the "Brown Hucksters." Also featuring Deborah Kerr and Ava Gardner.
Introduced by Stephanie Capparelli, Author & Curator of The Real Pepsi Challenge.

Saturday, June 14, 3 - 5 pm

Body and Soul (Robert Rossen, USA, 105 min, 1947, B&W)
Starring Canada Lee and John Garfield,this film portrays a Jewish boxer who must defeat a black opponent to win a championship and pays a high price.The House of Un-American Activities Committee held up the film as an example of "the manner in which Commies and pinks, in the field of communication and ideas, gave employment to each other." Introduced by Stephanie Capparelli, Author & Curator of The Real Pepsi Challenge.

Saturday, June 21, 3 - 5 pm

A Song Is Born (Howard Hawks, USA, 1948, 115 min, B&W)
A nerdy music academic (Danny Kaye) becomes involved with a nightclub singer (Virginia Mayo), who he hopes will teach him about contemporary jazz music. Little does he know that she's the moll of a well-known gangster. Also starring Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, and Lionel Hampton.
Introduced by Stephanie Capparelli, Author & Curator of The Real Pepsi Challenge.

Monday, June 23, 2 - 5 pm

It Should Happen to You (George Cukor USA,1954, 87 min, B&W)
Starring Judy Holliday, Peter Lawford, and Jack Lemmon in his film debut. A small-town girl creates an identity by claiming she's a celebrity.
Introduced by Mark Ethan, lecturer at Columbia University.

Saturday, June 28, 3 - 5 pm

Lost Boundaries (Alfred L. Werker, USA, 94 min, 1949, B&W)
Starring Beatrice Pearson and Mel Ferrer, based on a true story of a New England family that passed for white. The theme of confused racial identity became a literary and Hollywood fad.
Introduced by Stephanie Capparelli, Author & Curator of The Real Pepsi Challenge.

Monday, June 30, 2 - 5 pm

A Face In the Crowd (Elia Kazan, USA, 1957, 125 min, B&W)
Andy Griffith makes his film debut in this castigating look at the driving forces in the television industry. Also starring Patricia Neal.
Introduced by Mark Ethan, lecturer at Columbia University.

Poets in the Galleries II: Rigoberto González Responds to "This Case of Conscience": Spiritual Flushing and the Remonstrance

Sunday, June 8, 5 - 7:30 pm

Rigoberto González is the author of two poetry collections, So Often the Pitcher Goes to Water until It Breaks, a National Poetry Series selection, and Other Fugitives and Other Strangers. He is also the author of two bilingual children's books, Soledad Sigh-Sighs and Antonio's Card; the novel Crossing Vines, recipient of ForeWord Magazine's Editor's Choice Prize for Best Fiction; and the memoir Butterfly Boy: Memories of a Chicano Mariposa, recipient of an American Book Award. With fellowships from the NEA and Guggenheim Foundation, he is a contributing editor for Poets & Writers and sits on the Board of Directors of the National Book Critics Circle, among other organizations. He teaches in the M.F.A. creative writing programs of Queens College and Rutgers University-Newark.
Join us from 5 - 6 pm for complimentary cocktails, followed by interactive tour and readings from 6 - 7:30 pm.

Corona Plaza Street Festival (offsite event location: 103rd St. 7 Train Station)

Saturday, June 14, 12 - 6 pm

Celebration in Corona Plaza, featuring live music, dances, art-making workshops, and giveaways. Plus free health evaluations, health insurance sign-ups, and immigrant services.

Queerin' Queens Annual Pride Month Celebration

Sunday, June 15, 2 - 6 pm

2 - 3 pm Performance Showcase - Join us for eclectic live performances including: Spoken word artists Robert Ortiz, Hip Hop & Soul artist Shanté Paradigm (half of the duo BQE), fierce Queer Sri Lankan Tamil American Marian Yalini Thambynayagam --- accompanied by the carnal sounds of Varuni Tiruchelvam on cello—who conjures spirit through her unique blend of poetry, song, and dance, and Rhythm Locura, (pictured) New York's premier LGBT Latin dance group

3 - 5 pm CINEMAROSA Queens Only Queer Film Series Screenings - The independent film initiative created in 2004 by New Media Artist, Hector Canonge, holds its monthly LGBT screening programs at QMA. For pride month join Brooklyn filmmaker Lesli Klainberg for a screening and discussion of:
Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema (Lisa Ades & Lesli Klainberg, 2006, 82 min)
The superstars of gay and lesbian cinema shine in this amazing overview of LGBT film history. It's packed with smart interviews and a tremendous array of film clips from the greatest movies of the genre celebrating more than half a century of queer independent filmmaking from Kenneth Anger's pioneering Fireworks (1947) to the smash hit blockbuster Brokeback Mountain. Also starring John Waters, Wilson Cruz, Guinevere Turner, Peter Paige, B. Ruby Rich, Gus Van Sant, and Alan Cumming. *Followed by a Complimentary Cocktail Reception!*

Poets in the Galleries II: Tina Chang Responds to "This Case of Conscience": Spiritual Flushing and the Remonstrance

Sunday, June 15, 5 - 7:30 pm

Tina Chang is the author of the poetry collection Half-Lit Houses, finalist for the Asian American Literary Award for Poetry. She has received awards from the Academy of American Poets, the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation, NYFA, Poets and Writers, and the Van Lier Foundation, among others. Her poems have appeared in such publications as American Poet, Indiana Review, McSweeney's, The Missouri Review, and Ploughshares, and in such anthologies as Identity Lessons, Poetry Nation, Asian American Literature, and Asian American Poetry: The Next Generation. She is also co-editor of the new anthology Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry of the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond. She teaches at Sarah Lawrence College and Hunter College.
Join us from 5 - 6 pm for complimentary cocktails, followed by interactive tour and readings from 6 - 7:30 pm.

Poets in the Galleries II: Eleanor Lerman Responds to "This Case of Conscience": Spiritual Flushing and the Remonstrance

Sunday, June 22, 5 - 7:30 pm

Eleanor Lerman's debut poetry collection, Armed Love, was published when she was 21 and nominated for a National Book Award. She has since published three other award-winning collections of poetry-Come the Sweet By and By, The Mystery of Meteors, and Our Post-Soviet History Unfolds. She is also the author of Observers and Other Stories, a collection of short stories. She is the recipient of the Joy Bale Boone Award for Poetry, the Milton Dorfman Poetry Prize, and the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets and The Nation. In 2007 she received an NEA Fellowship in Poetry, and her work is included in the 2008 Pushcart Prize anthology.
Join us from 5 - 6 pm for complimentary cocktails, followed by interactive tour and readings from 6 - 7:30 pm.

Watershed Adventures: Discover Wild Foods with Wildman Steve Brill

Sunday, June 29, 3:30 - 5 pm

Learn to recognize, harvest ecologically, and enjoy the many common, renewable organic herbs, greens, fruits, berries, roots, and mushrooms that flourish, unnoticed, in local backyards and parks throughout the NYC watershed. In the course of an indoor presentation of the NYC Watershed model and walking tour in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, you'll discover the science, ecology, history, folklore, mythology, anecdotes, and humor connected to these fascinating renewable resources. Learn what do with these treasures once you've collected them. You'll never look at your backyard the same way again!

Naturalist-Author "Wildman" Steve Brill has been leading foraging tours in parks throughout the Greater NY area since 1982. His Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not-So-Wild) Places (William Morrow Publishers, 1994) is considered a classic on the subject, his innovative Wild Vegetarian Cookbook (Harvard Common Press, April, 2002) is changing the way people think of preparing gourmet food, and his Foraging With the "Wildman" video series is showing people how it's all done. Free!

Poets in the Galleries II: Thomas Sayers Ellis Responds to "This Case of Conscience": Spiritual Flushing and the Remonstrance

Sunday, June 29, 5 - 7:30 pm

Thomas Sayers Ellis is the author of the poetry collection The Maverick Room. He is also the author of the chapbooks The Good Junk and The Genuine Negro Hero and the chaplet Song On. He has received fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Yaddo, and the MacDowell Colony, among others, as well as a Whiting Writers' Award and John C. Zacharis First Book Award. His work has appeared in such publications as Poetry, Grand Street, Tin House, and Ploughshares, and in such anthologies as The Best American Poetry 1997 and 2001. A contributing editor for Callaloo and Poets & Writers, he teaches in Lesley University's Low-Residency M.F.A. Creative Writing Program and is an assistant professor of creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College.
Join us from 5 - 6 pm for complimentary cocktails, followed by interactive tour and readings from 6 - 7:30 pm.

Public Events at the Queens Museum of Art are supported in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Ford Foundation Partners for Livable Communities, J. M. Kaplan Fund, and Independence Community Foundation.

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