How frequently do you stop and consider your First Amendment Rights as an American citizen? You know the ones that protect my ability to express my thoughts, ideas, and beliefs freely in spaces like this blog, or the ones that enable me to choose my own faith and place of worship. Throughout time and around the world, people have died fighting for far less civil and religious freedom than that guaranteed by our Constitution. These religious and civil liberties are easy to take for granted, which is why events like the Banned Book Reading this Thursday are so important.

In the spirit of full disclosure here, I started my career in nonprofit at Americans United for Separation for Church and State, so the defense of these civil liberties has long been a cause dear to my social consciousness. Ever wonder why, driving through many American towns and cities, the number of churches far outnumbers almost any other institution you might see? Our religious liberties have allowed a plurality of faiths to flourish within the United States. Read the rest of this entry »

Lisa Harper Chang and her son Liam.

In April, I gave birth to our first child, a little boy, whose first cries announcing his arrival into this world reached superhuman pitches–so piercing and consistent that by the third hour, my husband and I both questioned our decision to become parents. Those difficult yet precious days have faded into a sleep-deprived haze, but I find it serendipitous that his first months coincided with the opening of stylus, as both have given me different yet intimate experiences with the notion of call and response.

Few calls rival the primal nature of the cries of a newborn, and the urge to respond transcends, at least in my experience, reason. So, too, does the nature of the response, as I’ve found myself responding with more energy than I could ever have fathomed having on this little sleep and less regard for propriety than I feel comfortable admitting. The past few months have been my own personal experiment on how “call and response” can dictate one’s life, down to the minute details – how one responds emotionally, physically, intellectually and how this newly unfolding relationship determines how or if you call to others and what responses you expect, desire, appreciate, and eschew. Read the rest of this entry »

Moacyr Marchini of the band Samba Bom and Scott Rice, a drummer and dance accompanist, play in the Lower Gallery.  For more photos from sound waves: Brazil, visit our Flickr album.

The Pulitzer hit a record in the past week, hosting five music performances; all of which stood out in their own special ways, but I’m just going to sum up Thursday’s sound waves, so let me get on with it.

When I arrived, the show was in full swing. DJ Andrea Dunn was playing from her laptop in front of the Water Court, and our live musicians were in the Lower Gallery, where people watched them from the stairs. Guests, including Ann Hamilton and the event organizers, milled about, chatting with one another. Rather than a concert where the audience diligently watches the musicians, it felt like a relaxed house party.

“When Mo was drumming to the jumping beans, it was a really beautiful moment of conversation between the exhibition and community programming,” says Lisa Harper Chang, referring to when Moacyr wandered the galleries with a drum and played on the Mezzanine. Read the rest of this entry »

Regina Martinez is currently a practicum student at the Pulitzer and is pursuing a Masters of Social work at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

We will be hosting a table at the EarthWays Green Homes Festival in Grand Center this Saturday, September 25th. Our table will be open from 10am-4pm (the festival continues through 6:00pm). We will offer activities inspired by the Pulitzer’s current exhibition, stylus.

Engaging the hand as a symbolic link between community members, we will continue the dialogue started within the exhibition as we make and talk together. Roll up your sleeves and form a likeness of your own hand using natural glues and recycled papers as together we investigate the imagery of the wave between neighbors. In a gesture of reaching out towards the earth, finished paper hands will be filled with seeds and soil, ready to be taken home and planted.

Come visit us, get your hands dirty, and learn more about other interactive elements of the exhibition stylus!

Renowned soprano Christine Brewer describes performing in Intervals and how it’s different than much of her previous work.

Soprano Susan Narucki and violinist David Halen discuss performing Gyorgy Kurtag’s Kafka-Fragmente, after rehearsing for this week’s concerts.

The stylus Concert Series begins tonight and tomorrow night with Gyorgy Kurtag’s Kafka-Fragmente. For more information on these and other concerts at the Pulitzer, visit our concerts page.

Musicians practice in the Lower Gallery as DJ Andrea Dunn plays tracks from the Entrance Gallery.

Yes, you read that correctly. Next Thursday, the Pulitzer is incorporating another kind of cultural event into its repertoire and inviting people to listen to Brazilian music in its galleries from 6 to 9pm.

September 16th’s event will be the first night of sound waves, a series of music listening parties on the third Thursday of each month of stylus, and will feature DJ Andrea Dunn of Radio Rio on 88.1 KDHX, Moacyr Marchini of the band Samba Bom and Scott Rice, a drummer and dance accompanist. sound waves is a collaboration between KDHX Independent Media and the Pulitzer, and is curated by Nico Leone, Co-Executive Director of KDHX.

“It all plays with that idea of call and response,” Lisa Harper Chang, our director of community projects, explains how the event is an extension of stylus. “It’s the way KDHX and the Pulitzer are calling to diverse communities and traditions within greater St. Louis community to respond.”

The St. Louis area can respond by calling into the bell speakers and, most importantly, by joining the show every third Thursday. The Pulitzer and KDHX encourage visitors to bring their own instruments to play along and to move to the music (as long as visitors stay in the Main Gallery and in their “personal bubbles,” as Courtney Henson, our visitor services manager, says). Whether or not you’re prone to publicly dance, it’ll be hard to contain yourselves, considering the beats that will be flowing through speakers all over the Tadao Ando galleries. Read the rest of this entry »

Inside a rare book at the Bernard Becker Medical Library, this 1620 copper engraving shows the “Bonet-method” of sign language. Does it remind you of stylus in any way? How is gesture used in Ann Hamilton’s installation? On the third Saturday of every month, from now until January, the Pulitzer is offering Exploring Art tours in which groups will be asked to ponder concepts in stylus and how they might relate to artifacts, like this one.

In the process of composing stylus, Ann Hamilton visited the medical library, with the possibility of using items from its archives in the Pulitzer galleries. She didn’t, but much of what’s in the archives fits in with themes Ann incorporated into the exhibition. Courtney Henson, our visitor services manager, felt a visit to the library was a perfect jumping off point for relating the exhibition to the outside world, which is the main purpose of Exploring Art.  Read the rest of this entry »