April Events @ Tillie's

April 2007 Events at Tillie’s Open Mic

4/12 4/26

Music

Friday, April 6th 8:30 p.m. The Fort Greene Trio Janis Russell, vocals Jeff Van Nostrand, keyboards Mike Weatherly, bass Cover: $5

A soulful sonic stew of musical influences that draws on jazz, blues, pop, gospel, early Americana and even nursery rhymes. Director of the Lafayette Inspirational Ensemble at Fort Greene’s Lafayette Presbyterian Church, Janis Russell has performed with Barry Harris, Clark Terry, and Taj Mahal. Jeff Van Nostrand’s career has ranged from playing banjo with the Rochester Philharmonic for composing for “As the World Turns.” Mike Weatherly is an in-demand bassist who plays everything from big band to Cajun to gypsy jazz.

Friday, April 20th 7:30 p.m. “Who Killed the Electric Car?”

Film screening sponsored by Common Sense Projects

An acclaimed exposé that chronicles the life and mysterious death of the GM EV1, this is a whodunnit about cars, the people who love them, the companies that build them and fuel them up, the governments that regulate them, and the fight for our future. The film has screened at this year's Sundance, San Francisco International, Tribeca, Seattle, and Los Angeles Film Festivals. Interviews include actors Tom Hanks, Mel Gibson, Alexandra Paul, Peter Horton, Phyllis Diller, Collette Divine, and J. Karen Thomas, as well as automakers, political leaders from the right and left, and writers, activists, engineers, inventors, and everyday people who what happened to the electric car. Nominated for the 2007 Documentary Screenplay Award by the Writers Guild of America.

No cover.

Friday, April 27th ElastiCity festival

7 p.m. Michael Maher, trumpet, with Zach Brock on violin and tuba

8:15 p.m. Brinsk, from Boston Noah Preminger, tenor Aaron Kruziki, alto Leftherios Kordis, keys Thor Thorvaldson, drums Aryeh Kobrinsky, bass

9:30 Josh Hinton’s Holus Bolus Jeremy Udden and Josh Sinton, saxophone Peter Bitenc, bass Mike Pride, drums

Cover: $5

For more information, see myspace.com/elasticity

Art

Boxes, Collages and Drawings

Diana Leidel

April 2nd – May 12th 2007

Diana Leidel, a Fort Greene resident, is an artist who has also been a longtime creative director in magazine publishing. She has been the recipient of numerous design awards for her work with Pointe magazine, Pilates Style magazine, and Dance Magazine, and has been a contributor to Graphic Design USA. She holds a BFA from The Cooper Union and an MA from New York University, where she also taught graphic design. Exhibitions include: Small Works 2006, Brooklyn Artists' Gym; A.I.R. Gallery Postcard Show 2006; Women's Studio Center 2006; International Signage Exhibition, The Art Directors Club of Chicago, 1978; Small Works, Washington Square East Galleries, New York University, 1977, 1978; Brooklyn Artists, The Brooklyn Museum, 1978; A.I.R. Gallery, New York; and Art Without Walls Gallery, Newark, New Jersey, 1977.

Diana describes the work in this exhibition as Non-Fiction Art, where the fictional world of the artist's mind meets the news of the real world. She combines words and statements from news stories with painting, collage and found containers to make wall-piece boxes. The pencil drawings are portraits of newsmakers, from chickens to health workers.

Reception 4/6/07 from 7 – 9 p.m.