Becoming Great

So I realized that I never got a chance to share with you the work I created for an exhibition I participated in a little bit ago. Yikes! My bad... I can't believe I didn't tell you! Are we not homies?!

Anyway, the show was called "In Bringing Forth"  and it was curated by Jen Tremblay at the Hyde Park Art Center.  The exhibition was about artists taking a step back from their everyday studio practice to create new artwork that serves as visual metaphors for the routine of art-making.

Since my medium is predominately photo and video, I created a rockumentary video piece I titled "Becoming Great" showing my art practice as I prepare for an exhibition with Terrain Exhibitions and the Chicago Artist Coalition.

I'm not going to lie, I sort of felt a little silly and narcissistic creating this work, but hey if performative film and photo works that feature me is a part of my practice well then...that's the work.

If you are interested check the video out here: 




Installation View of "Becoming Great" at Hyde Park Art Center

You will have to let me know what you think of this work, to me the work did work to be a marketing piece for myself, showing a behind the scenes life of an artist.. well at least my art you know. You might think of creating an about video of your own work. I think that would be cool, and if you need help. Holler at your girl!

Until next time, thanks for reading.

Steph

Millennial Movie Night A Success

Hey yall!You might have remembered seeing my posts via social media and my blog here seeking submissions for Millennial Movie Night, a film program I curated in collaboration with the awesome people of Collected Voices and OpenTVThe point of Millennial Movie Night was to showcase films by... you guessed it Millennials! At first I had this idea to showcase the films of young filmmakers in the LGBTQ community but wasn't getting the amount of submissions I hoped for so I expanded to Millennials of all identities.

So boom, submission called, juried entries, sent out acceptance letter, planned the evening and here we are...Millennial Movie Night!

We presented films by:
Luis Mejico
Lukas Gondek
Hanna M. Owens
Layne Marie Williams
Free Spirit Media

and my dear friend and fellow artist Nathan Wright allowed me to use to video vignettes as intro transitions between my films.  Thanks Nathan!

I was very excited to screen these films, they were all well done and it I was inspired and excited to see what was next for these filmmakers. There are some really creative people in this world yall! The talent was energizing. Concluding the screen we even had a nice dialogue with some of the filmmakers and audience members! It was a great night.

The evening even received some press which was really rad and you can read about it here.

Now for some pictures:



A photo posted by 👻 Snapchat :yourgirlstephg (@stephaniegraham) on
On another note, I'm really getting into film programming, its a real treat and blessing to give other filmmakers and creatives platforms to showcase their work, because as you know.. its hard yall LOL! Anyhoo  Millennial Movie Night rocked!Until the next event...Thanks for reading!! 

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Millennial Movie Night: Call for Submissions



Happy August Guys and Gals!!
I get really excited when a new month begins on a Sunday or Monday. I pretty much geek out over it! Its like a hard reset and it gets me happy! So again I say...  Happy AUGUST!!
happy dancing excited awesome full house

ANYWAY!
Im excited to present that I am working with Comfort Film, OpenTV and Collected Voices Ethnographic Film Festival to present Millennial 
Movie Night, which will be a juried screening held August 24th at Comfort Station in Logan Square.
Submissions are currently open through August 10 and you can submit your film here: http://bit.ly/MMNSubmit.
Only two things before you submit:
1. Filmmaker must be between the ages of 16-25
2. The film can NOT exceed 20 minutes of film time 
If you are interested or know someone that you think would be perfect, please encourage them to submit.
I'm really excited about August, this screening and some hot Chicago weather, because soon enough.. it will be cold again.
Oh and BTW in case you are interested , here are some details about my super rad partners Open TV and Collected Voices: 
About Opentv:Open TV is a platform for indie arts and artists. We incubate art and artists commercial television studios and networks cannot develop consistently. We believe television is an art but must also showcase different types of art outside of the competition format we see on reality TV. We believe television must be open to diverse identities and their experiences, so we are committed to developing work from artists most often left out of commercial production: queer, trans, and cis-women and people of color. All Open TV artists keep their intellectual property and distribution agreements are non-exclusive.
About Collected Voices:Collected Voices centers around original ethnographic works that explore the intersection of race, age, class, gender, and sexuality within Chicago society. Explored through short and feature length films from Chicago based artists, these stories capture the voices of individuals and communities. Thematic screenings held during October will create a space for viewing and discussion of narratives from underrepresented ethnic and cultural groups; often excluded from major theatrical & digital release. These films are curated to not only highlight the work of Chicago based filmmakers, but expand our understanding of ethnography, and the diverse experiences of Chicago citizens.
I'm excited to see what ya'll have been making so thanks in advance for submitting, and thank you for spreading the word.




FREE Screening of The Black Kid Table Tomorrow!



Welcome to Monday! I hope you had a great weekend! 
If you are around tomorrow evening my film The Black Kid Table will be screening along with five other short films that played during The Black Harvest film festival last fall.

The program begins at 5pm at Douglass Library on 3353 W. 13th street.

The screening is free, and refreshments will be served.

More details can be found here
I hope to see you.


Stephanie

Available Position : Strategy and Story Producer

I'm looking to ramp up the production of my project "So This One Guy" and to do that I need some help.

So.... I'm hiring..

If you know someone or maybe even you would be interested in being considered for this position.  Please send a email of interest and resume to stephanie@missgraham.com

I'm posting it here first, as its always great to start within your own network before I move outside to social media.

Here are the details, and thanks for your help:
Stephanie

Strategy and Story Producer, So This One Guy
Stephanie Graham Studio

I am hiring a Event Director to assist me with producing 2 Storytelling Events within a 12 week period.
You will be a point of contact for vendors, venues and subjects. A Vibrant and welcoming personality is a must. You also must be smart, quick and really organized.  I need a great person in this role. I believe in family, community and teamwork but overall this is your department and you are the Boss.

Payment: TBD  but will be based on producing and the completion of  2 storytelling events within a 12 week deadline

1. Scout and Book Venue Locations
2. Select Day of Event
3. Arrange a “subject call” posting via social media channels, and other sources to gather prospective talent to share stories 
4. Correspond with prospective talent answering questions that they might have 
    *some of this correspondence will need me to answer directly and I am perfectly okay with that I just need you to 
     be able to be a point person for  this .
5.Schedule talent
    *Day Before Event Stephanie will send out the final email so that it is more personal, 
     it would be the producers responsibility  to send Stephanie the final time slot schedule to include in final email
6.Book Film Crew+ AV Team and correspond with them production details
7.Assist with Promotion and Marketing Strategy
8.Day of Event: Wrangle Talent, assisting with check in
9.Arrange Food and Drink
10.Manage and oversee production assistants
11. Keep the budget and make sure vendors and crew are paid
12. Be available for a weekly checkin with Stephanie to touch base on progress of even


Please send resumes to stephanie@missgraham.com


Art Forms in Flux



Art Forms in Flux
Saturday, April 16, 2016
7pm-10pm

Hairpin Arts Center
2810 N. Milwaukee
Chicago IL 60618

Claire Ashley, Jovanka Azyadet, Ilena Ferrer & Michelle Prevost, Sarah Goldberg & Alexander Mauney, Stephanie Graham, Kelly Lloyd, Ryan Thompson, Galina Shevchenko, and Hillary Wiedemann

Two Lights Theatre Company and Hairpin Arts Center are pleased to announce Art Forms in Flux. Inspired by the script for their upcoming production of State Park, by Chicago playwright Aaron Weissman, this unique program invites seventeen artists (aka Fluxists) to be in residence at Hairpin Arts Center for two weeks as they develop original work in response to the text. Art Forms in Flux is curated by Amanda Roscoe Mayo, produced by Daniel Dvorkin and Matthew Olson, and is funded by a collaborative project grant given to Two Lights Theatre Company and the Logan Square Chamber of Arts/Hairpin Arts Center from The Chicago Community Trust.
 *Individual tickets will be available at the door for $10 or by visiting twolightstheatre.com. Series tickets will be available, including admission to the full-production of State Park to be produced in the fall of 2016.

Amanda Roscoe Mayo is a Curator of Contemporary Culture working independently in Chicago. She is the founder and Co-Director of Studio 3325 an artist-in-residence program in Logan Square and art critic for SFAQ. In addition to the visual arts Mayo is a Production Director for Chicago Independent Radio Project (CHIRP) and music journalist at Consequence of Sound.







NEWGLOBALMATRIARCHY Film Screening and Brainstorming Session




Join Oya and Lakshmi for a film screening featuring women of color artists and filmmakers followed by a brainstorming session exploring#NewGlobalMatriarchy (what does it mean, what is its language, what is its visual culture, how does it become manifest?)

Featuring videos by: Stephanie Durán Castillo, Marisa Williamson, and Elizabeth Webb

Acre TV's Studio, 4th Floor of Mana Contemporary in Pilsen
Light snacks and refreshments will be served. Floor seating, so bring a pillow if you want.

Please be advised: some films contain mature content and might be triggering to certain individuals. Please email globalmatriarch@gmail.com with any questions. 

For those of you who are out of town, this event will be live streamed atwww.acretv.org and you can participate via twitter by tweeting @globalmatriarch

http://www.acretv.org/newglobalmatriarchy-stephanie-graham-and-maya-mackrandilal/

#NEWGLOBALMATRIARCHY on ACRETV.org



My collaborator Maya Mackrandilal and I are the goddesses Lakshmi and Oya and we are heading the #NewGlobalMatriarchy.  In this new work #TheNewGlobalMatriarchy will be presenting poetry, music, and critiques on on AcreTV "The Set Speaks" and 24/7 live feed on AcreTv.org this week March 7-13th

We hope you tune and can drop by some of the activities we have planned!! If not you can always tweet Lakshmi!



GRLTLK!! New Collaboration!



I'm not a radio host, but I will be this Thursday night with my new hommie and coLABorator Fatima Ally with our show GRLTLK.  Fatima and I met through CoLAB a collaborative project between communities of Latina Bloggers Connect, AltSummit and Blogalicious encouraging people to create something new, the project could be big or small it was totally up to us. 

I was super excited to be connected to Fatima! Fati, is a fashion blogger from Nebraska and a fellow brown girl! YES!! Fatima and I spent lots of time texting and emailing about what we are into but with her recent interest in radio we decided our Collaboration would be a show.

So Fati and I present to you GRLTLK on the new social network BLAB.IM.  If you haven't checked out Blab, you should its like a video chat app and its really great! I've been "blabbing" for about 3 months and I have found it to be a great collaboration tool and I have met alot of great people in social media and creative communities. 

Fatima and I are excited to hang out to talk, fashion, blogging and navigating adulthood! We have asked stylist Qween Samone to join the conversation and I am inviting you to come hang out with us too! All you need to log onto Blab is a Twitter account and you can sign up by clicking here.

Hope you can make it Thursday January 28 @ 8pm CST !  

Stephanie Graham, Studio Blog. All rights reserved. © Maira Gall.