We’re halfway through UCF Celebrates the Arts, the annual festival of creativity at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, and I’ve already experienced unforgettable moments. Here’s a look at some highlights.
Sun-A Park and Ammon Perry Bratt gave a spirited salute to George Gershwin in the stylish surroundings of Judson’s Live, the downtown Orlando arts center’s newest venue. It’s the 100th anniversary of Gershwin’s indelible “Rhapsody In Blue,” and Park and Bratt performed a four-handed piano arrangement.
Just the opening notes brought a smile to the soul, and the shifting moods — from the definition of jaunty to downright grandiose — warmed the heart. “Rhapsody” was the finale to a concert that also showcased a bouncy Cuban Overture, with extra percussion, and a medley with a beautifully nostalgic “A Foggy Day (in London Town),” a lush “The Man I Love” and percolating “I Got Rhythm.”
That event followed the Judson’s protocol of a ticket charge, plus a mandatory food or drink purchase. But everything else I’ve experienced has been free.
On view throughout the center are hosting multiple art exhibits, which anyone can walk in and view. You can’t miss “The Steampunk Menagerie,” a sculptural installation that has taken over the center’s grand staircase like a city of curious fairy-tale high-rises. The structures, somehow industrial and whimsical at the same time, were created by teams of students from UCF’s 3D-Design Fundamentals classes.
“Art & Autism: Pathways to Expression” is a fascinating look at works by people on the autism spectrum with unique ways of expressing themselves; often their creativity fuels their strongest form of communication.
Also fascinating: “#Faces of Russian Resistance,” which tells the story of 16 Russian citizens who have opposed their government’s actions. Their faces — behind jail-like wire — are paired with the details of their circumstances. And it’s especially jarring to consider their plight, and bravery, surrounded by the beauty of the arts center, a place of free expression.
That exhibit is part of the National Endowment for the Arts’ “Big Read,” as was a weekend poetry reading and book signing by “Deaf Republic” author Ilya Kaminsky.
Because Kaminsky, born in Ukraine when it was part of the Soviet Union, lost his hearing at a young age, he described his first language as “the language of imagery.”
“Deaf Republic” tells of tragedy that befalls a town occupied by soldiers and incorporates themes of protest and change while casting a critical eye on those who remain complacent and comfortable in the face of injustice and suffering.
“It might be Eastern Europe, it might be World War II, it might be now,” Kaminsky said of his story’s setting.
In a separate e-mail conversation with the Orlando Sentinel, Kaminsky touched on a number of topics, including what it was like to grow up deaf — a feeling he illustrated poetically through his writing:
“Walking through the city, I watched the people; their ears were open all the time, they had no lids. I was interested in what sounds might be like. The whooshing. The hissing. The whistle. The sound of keys turning in the lock, or water moving through the pipes two floors above us. I could easily notice how the people around me spoke to one another with their eyes without realizing it.
“But what if the whole country was deaf like me? So that whenever a policeman’s commands were uttered, no one could hear? I liked to imagine that. Silence, that last neighborhood, untouched, as ever, by the wisdom of the government.”
Kaminsky visited that idea in “Deaf Republic,” where the townspeople become deaf to the occupying soldiers as a form of protest.
“So, the idea of Deaf Republic has more than one meaning for me, as you might imagine.” Kaminsky said.
He visits Ukraine every few months, to check on relatives and friends who have been affected by the Russian invasion. He describes his hometown of Odessa with affection:
“There was an opera house before there was potable water. Odessa loves art, and it loves to party. In the summer, huge cages of watermelons sit on every corner. You break them on the sidewalk and eat them with friends. The city has an especial affinity for literature. There are more monuments to writers than in any other city I have ever visited. When they ran out of writers, they began putting up monuments for fictional characters.”
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He also appreciates the spirit of Ukrainians.
“The most important holiday in Odessa isn’t Christmas, it is April 1, April Fool’s Day, which we call Humorina,” Kaminsky said. “Thousands of people come to the street and celebrate what they call ‘the day of kind humor.’ All of Ukraine has a sense of humor — think of the man who offered to tow a Russian tank which had run out of gas back to Russia. Humor is a part of resilience.”
He and others have started a poetry studio to give children something uplifting on which to focus in the hours they spend hiding from bombings. (Find more information and ways to help at vo.od.ua/rubrics/tema-dnya/49409.php.)
“Now they are not quite alone in those bomb shelters,” he said. “They take poems with them.”
He also provides insight on what Ukrainians think of the West and the war.
“The West is watching us,” Kaminsky said a friend wrote him from Ukraine. “This is their ‘reality TV war,’ they are curious to see whether we will go on living, or die.”
Another friend told him: “Putins come and go. If you want to help, send us some poems and essays. We are putting together a literary magazine.”
Kaminsky gets it. He knows the power of the written word — and why his “Deaf Republic” resonates at any time.
“We don’t read the poets to understand the moment. We read poets to understand ourselves,” he said. But he graciously humors a journalist by considering “Deaf Republic” in light of the war:
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“If I must put it in terms of this moment: The purpose of the state is to numb the senses. The purpose of a lyric poet is to wake them up,” he said.
As part of the Orlando festival, UCF theater students performed a staged version of “Deaf Republic” to Kaminsky’s approval.
“I feel very lucky, of course, that this is happening, and that it is happening especially in Florida, where there is a censorship of its own taking place right now.” he said. “So it feels interesting to have these texts in that space given a voice on stage.”
He doesn’t feel proprietary about the poems of “Deaf Republic” when they are adapted anew.
“These are not my poems anymore, they belong to those who give them a new life on stage,” he said. “So it has a life of its own, and that’s how it should be with books, I feel.”
So much to think about, and there’s so much more ahead at UCF Celebrates the Arts.
More music? Try the National High School Choral Festival (April 11) or the Hippocrene Saxophone Quartet, with a history of that instrument’s music (April 12). More theater? A full-scale production of “Sweeney Todd” takes over the center’s Walt Disney Theater (April 11-14). More free stuff? Talks on rebuilding Notre-Dame in Paris (April 11) and the impact of artificial intelligence on creativity (April 12), a program of award-winning animated film shorts (April 13) and the National Young Composers Challenge, which is building the future of music (April 14).
Get all the details at arts.ucf.edu/celebrates, and get celebrating.
Follow me at facebook.com/matthew.j.palm or email me at [email protected]. Find more arts news at OrlandoSentinel.com/entertainment.