Project Rowhouses Opens Round 36

At Project Rowhouses in Houston’s Third Ward, Round 36, names a new sequence of installations in which 2505 to 2517 Holman Street in Houston’s Third Ward are home to photographic shows as well as installation shows by multimedia artists, one of whom, Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle, will also be participating in this summer’s first-ever Los Angeles biennial, Made in LA 2012 (opening June 2d).

Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle, has transformed 2517 Holman Street into the Kentifrica Museum, featuring the ethnomusicology, hairstyling rituals, and cultural myths surrounding “a contested geography, identity and existence” that is Kentrifica. In collaboration with performer-composer Kevin Robinson, and artist and instrument-maker Eugene Moon, Hinkle will offer Ethnomusicology of Kentrifica, workshops for the community on instrument building and healing through music, as well as a multimedia spoken-word piece addressing the liminality of Kentrifica’s “contested geography.” (I for one think this sounds way more interesting than the much-covered Clifford Owens-Kara Walker performance at P.S. 1.)

Fotofest 2012 is still occurring through end of this month in Houston; and other Round 36 installations include Irvin Tepper, The Fragility of Hope, at 2505 Holman Street, large-scale photographs of homeless people sleeping.  The house at 2507 Holman Street, offers “The Cultural Portal: Reclaiming Our Image,” a project of  Our Image Film and Arts, a non-profit  that curates positive imagery about people of color. Events around this include DJ Flash Gordon Parks on May 12, and Our Image Film and Arts’ founders  Monie Henderson and Marc Newsome leading a “Reclaiming Our Image” town hall on June 2.

Other artists participating in Round 36 include Manuel Acevedo, 2509 Holman, Phillip Pyle II 2511 Holman, Beth Secor, 2513 Holman, and John Pluecker, 2515 Holman.

Gregory Sholette’s 2010 interview with Project Rowhouses founder Rick Lowe on art as community activism, by clicking here.