awesome
Hello Awesome, Here are some samples of projects and artwork I have previously participated, please visit my resume page for addition details about my experience.
Here is a video link to an early performance / reading event I did as a demo for this project to figure out how to tell the stories and include participate. The video was shot, edited, and put on line by another artist so some participation portions are taken out such as discussion while eating and watching a video of Houston's Jewel Brown singing on tour with Louis Armstrong. Jewel Brown is one of the people I'm working on poems of her life, here is more info on her. Also the 90+ year old man in the video is Elder Randall, sometimes he's a master tailor and other times he's a preacher. The poems I'm working on about him relate to multiple life issues such as his wife's Alzheimer's or how his spiritual beliefs reflect in his business practices. This performance was about 20% of the initial idea because I was unable to secure funding and would like your assistance in expanding the project for a late performance, writing workshops, and curriculum writing.
http://vimeo.com/33742291
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here are other previous projects and artworks
Michael K Taylor Tedx 2010 Nasa - Poetry Reading and Talk about creativity (Fall 2010) Poetry 0:55 sec - 3:15 ( 2min 20 sec, please only view between these times for poem entirety, I do not own footage and can not edit the length)
After one of TEDx organizers was introduced to my work, I was invited to a TedX talk as a speaker with less than 4 days to submit the proposal and a week til performance. I based the poem and talk on my previous piece "Rebirth of Reformation". During the first 2 min, the film portion of "Rebirth of Reformation" plays on dual screens in the background (followed by other images of work for the talk portion).
Having met some of the visitors during my art display prior to the performance, I decided to drop the memorized performance and read from a revised version that included parts of the discussion with those visitors to build a better connection with the audience. After the reading/ performance some of the visitors let me know they caught the references.
http://livestre.am/tzVK ---------------------------------------------------------------
Michael K Taylor "US-1 Dixie Fwy - A New Smyra Beach Tryptich" (2011) A Poem
This poem is a Tryptich of one road (US-1 Dixie Fwy) in New Smyra Beach. It is my portion of a collaborative project where artist Dawn Welenski interviewed people for about an hour, then I took the interviews and wrote poems about the person and their business. Quotes from the poems were then placed on the Sign Marquees of those businesses on the night I performed the pieces. The people and business owners were present to see how I had interpreted them and their environments. The poems were projected onto a large screen so that the audience could also see how I visually interpreted and expressed the environment and people through the structure of the poem on the page. First Stop included owner Brandy on the left and other people in the Cafe on the right, Second Stop reflects a woman at a fruit stand with the cars passing during conversation, and Third Stop reflects the hotel resting spots along the way. This is a portrait of this small town's people and businesses, a small scale site specific poetry and performance project worked on to help plan my currently proposed large scale project.
First Stop: Brandy and those people at the Cafe
| 1 GED 1 BA 1MBA | ||
| Married 7 Got that right! | ||
| Together 10½ | ||
| 2 Chiwawas | It’s a De Ton A Tor! | |
| 3 staff workers | I give up! | |
| Five 13 to 15 hour days | ||
| 2 days off | “ohhhh baby I love the way” | |
| I still like accounting | Oh no we’re gonna die! | |
| And all that good stuff | Marvin just pointed out a Bomb! | |
| We’re gonna Die! | ||
| Be right back | ||
| Peggy y y y! | ||
| Looks like u cut ur hair off Peggy! | ||
| What up wit that! | ||
| Hi u like it? | ||
| Family | They’re homemade | |
| Friends | Mild or Hot | |
| People | No way to tell sometimes | |
| Life is so short | ||
| We’re not guaranteed tomorrow | ||
| I’ve seen allot of loss | Sitting on 38’s. | |
| All black. | ||
| Turbo Drive. | ||
| Something to buy drugs in. | ||
| I put myself in other people’s shoes | ||
| How would I want people to treat me | ||
| “We’re Jammin . . .” | ||
| No regrets | Hey Brandy have a good one! | |
| Happened for a reason | ||
| Better person because of it | And when we assassinate the president! | |
| Everything’s gonna be fine! | ||
| Oh g g g g g g! | ||
| She’s recording again! | ||
| She’s getting ready to blow this place up! | ||
| Hope and Faith in a bigger power | ||
| I don’t push it on people | ||
| But it’s helped me | ||
| Brandy is a naturally nice person | ||
| It’s never BS | ||
| Never rehearsed | ||
| Just Brandy |
Second Stop: only 59 days 'til
5 car passes
Potatoes Peaches Pears Apples
all different kinds
I meet a lot of good people from my hometown of Rochester, NY Syracuse or Pennsylvania
It gets to be really exciting
59 another car passes
“ I want you to pick out the Watermelon because you picked out a good one for me last time”
I took good care of my parents Used to work on a horse farm Mom had a horse she passed it happens Both are gone now
59 days car passes
(Ump ump ump) This one is over ripe
Volunteer at the Senior Center Riverside The Old Library Play Bingo every once and a while
59 days til another car passes
With watermelons you have to knock on it (knk knk knk) This one doesn’t sound right bum bum bum That one sounds really good
Gonna see a lot of good people like Marsha L Curry middle school Homeroom & English teacher I was 11 and she was 28 Now she’s 61 and I’m 44 Sweet Very Nice Kind Caring She helped you in every way that she could My Guardian Angel
I think we’ll go to Cooper’s Town
59 days til vacation car passes
Third Stop: Smyrna Ri La Hotel”
moments of pure fiction positioned against fabric wallpaper
dawn on my new horizon
pillows valley my dreams seems past and future are both mountains
months of passing time lapsed clouds
i hope Makalo will visit pivot her waist on Dixie Fwy
causeway to this bay
a sleepy town with time for god odd characters write stories in sand
before they know their ending
retired in Shang-Ri-La Smyrna Nuevo my oasis
watching the moon dance on an open tide
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Michael K Taylor "Rebirth of Reformation" (Fall 2010) 4ft x 3ft x 7ft Assembled Sculpture and Video
A multimedia artwork commissioned by the Houston Museum of African American Culture as a sculpture and performance piece. The sculpture was partially installed live for 3 hours on 3 consecutive Fridays during a one month preview of their inaugural space. Each performance day the rocket would be built while having a conversation with visitors, and un-assembled at the end of each day. Both children and adults would offer their interpretations of the piece and what it made them think of with an opportunity help assemble particular portions. Those conversations would influence the following rebuild and performance until the piece was completed during the last 15min of the final day. The components were donated and found pieces from around Houston's various African American communities. The video component was filmed in both Houston's 3rd and 4th Wards. The poem related to the piece follows the narrative of a child attempting to escape surroundings using imagination. The piece became an influence for a latter poem read as part of my TEDX talk a Nasa. Artist Jesse Lott and my father Michael D Taylor consulted with me during the initial design phase prior to building.
