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Art Wars Throw Down comes to Philly this weekend

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It’s no secret that Philadelphia has a longstanding reputation as an artist-friendly city because of reasonable rent prices, a tight-knit creative community, and all the perks of living close enough to other major metropolitan areas without the hefty price tag (cough: New York City).
Now we’re getting a multi-week artists’ tournament, opening this weekend at an arts store and continuing later at bars and restaurants, with an ultimate cash prize of $1,000 or more.

But first, the artists will have to throw down.
 In a preliminary qualifying round Saturday at the Blick Arts Materials Store on Chestnut Street, the Philly Art Wars Throw Down will pit any interested professional, emerging, or amateur artist — granted they’ve signed up ahead of time and they’re over 18 — against one another for a friendly challenge. Artists will get a prompt and two hours to create a piece (with their own materials). The 16 competitors with the most audience votes will continue on to the formal Art Wars “battle rounds,” the first of which is Feb. 15 at University City Tap House (3925 Walnut St.).

The Lehigh Valley’s iDreamMachine marketing company is the promoter behind the arts mayhem, which comes to Philly after a successful launch in and around Easton, where the company is located. “It’s a way to get artists out of the studio and showcase their creative process as a form of entertainment,” said Ryan Walsh, a producer at iDreamMachine and a member of the Art Wars planning team.
The throw down and subsequent rounds are free to attend, but if you’re interested in casting a vote for an artist, ballots are $5. The cash from ballots in the preliminary throw down goes toward raising the top prize for the competition above $1,000. Ballot cash in the subsequent rounds goes in part to the competitors from that round and in part toward the grand-prize kitty. So, artists: It’s worth getting a crew together to vote for you.

Think of it like a sporting event meets behind-the-scenes exhibition, presenting a side of the artistic process seldom seen. Typically, “you only see the outcome of what an artist does, you don’t see the process behind it,” Walsh said.
The artists with the highest vote count at the end of the throw down move on to the first battle round, where four creators at a time will battle in another timed event. The victors move on to the next round.
The goal, ultimately, is to bring together artists and a community that might not typically admire art into a shared space to view the creative process from idea to completion.
“We know there are so many artists that are constantly doing work and looking for opportunities to get their work shown,” Walsh said. “We feel it’s one of the best way to get your artwork in front of your audience who may have little to no appreciation for what goes into creating a piece of art.”
All of the artwork from the 16 finalists’ first-round battles will be auctioned off at a wrap party, with 75 percent of the sales price going to the artist.

ART WARS

Preliminary Throw Down

  • 2 p.m. Saturday at Blick Arts Materials, 1330 Chestnut St. Free to attend and to compete (if you’ve registered), $5 to vote. Artists are required to bring their own art supplies, a 4’x4’ drop cloth, an easel or table, and a substrate to create on. Details at the Philly Art Wars Throw Down Facebook page.

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Music Icon & Grammy Winner Speech Responds To The Capitol Insurrection (Single)

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 “This song had to be made to become proactive in shaping our collective future, because the rebellion that happened on January 6, 2021, in Washington D.C. was the curtain being pulled back on race, lies, and darkness in America,” Speech explains. “It’s obvious that about half of America is living in a fictitious bubble and are responding accordingly. That’s why I wanted to share facts about the lawlessness and hypocrisy that was occurring. We may be at the start of another Civil war and a lot of bloodshed.” -SPEECH

Atlanta, GA…Like millions of other Americans, Grammy Award-winning artist Speech of the legendary Afro-centric Hip Hop group Arrested Development watched in horror as a swath of die-hard Trump loyalists stormed the U.S. Capitol building in Washington D.C. As the dedicated MC he is, Speech put the pen to paper and spit out the single “A Different World,” an anthemic call-to-action that both preserve his artistic integrity and passion for socio-political issues.

“On the night of the terrorist attack that already killed five people, I did a YouTube post, I posted various things on social media, but none of it seemed adequate, especially from a music documentation perspective,” he said of the song’s evolution. “So, I went into the studio, pulled out my Beat Thang, sampler, etc. The jazz/boom bap energy for this song was intentional, meant to be a throwback energy from the ‘90s-type approach. In my opinion, those sensibilities lend themselves to reflection, grooves, and hope, while still showing the urgency of this moment. I also purposely rhymed with a higher pitch, cuz I wanted my emotions of helplessness, rage but also engagement to come through.” -SPEECH

“A Different World” follows Expansion Pt. 1, Speech’s first solo EP in 14 years, and will appear on his upcoming full-length album Expansion. As he flirts within the song’s breakdown, “This is a time for good-hearted people of all races that love Hip Hop to show the world a path to peace and truth! Plot, Plan, Strategize, Organize and Mobilize. Please spread the vibes. We aren’t helpless, we can make a different world.”

Watch the teaser video and get “A Different World” below on preferred platforms.

https://youtu.be/dK1M9YMisUI”A Different World” on preferred platforms
https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/speech3/a-different-world

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Luke Perry, star of ‘Beverly Hills 90210’ and ‘Riverdale,’ dead at 52

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(CNN)Luke Perry, who played the beloved Dylan McKay on the hit coming-of-age series “Beverly Hills 90210,” has died.

Perry, 52, died Monday after suffering a massive stroke, his publicist Arnold Robinson told CNN.
“He was surrounded by his children Jack and Sophie, fiancé Wendy Madison Bauer, ex-wife Minnie Sharp, mother Ann Bennett, step-father Steve Bennett, brother Tom Perry, sister Amy Coder, and other close family and friends. The family appreciates the outpouring of support and prayers that have been extended to Luke from around the world, and respectfully request privacy in this time of great mourning. No further details will be released at this time,” a statement from Robinson read.
Born Coy Luther Perry III in Mansfield, Ohio, and raised in the small community of Fredericktown, Perry moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting soon after graduating from high school.
There he worked a series of odd jobs as he tried to break into the business.
The Big Apple beckoned in 1988 after he scored an appearance as Ned Bates on the soap opera “Loving,” which required him to move to New York City.
In 2013 during an appearance on the radio show “Sway in the Morning,” Perry said it took him 256 auditions before he scored his first gig.
“I just kept thinking, ‘You know, I just walked out of a room full of fools,'” Perry said of how he maintained the confidence to keep going. “Those people have no idea.”
The same year as his “Loving” appearance, Perry landed a role on another soap, this time portraying Kenny on “Another World.”
But it was his role as seemingly bad boy Dylan McKay on Fox’s “Beverly Hills 90210” in 1990 which shot Perry into the atmosphere.
The series was both wildly popular and also criticized because of its willingness to take on topics such as teens being sexually active.
“We have done some shows that dealt with pretty some touchy topics and people weren’t altogether happy with how we dealt with it,” Perry said during an appearance on “The Arsenio Hall Show” in the 1990s. “I thought we handled it pretty intelligently and we were willing to answer the questions we brought up.”
Perry’s character was so popular among fans that in 1991 an expected crowd of 2,000 at a Florida mall turned into a stampede of 10,000 when he appeared at an autograph signing.
Several people were hospitalized and the mall was forced to shut its doors after the chaos.
The actor famously left the show in Season 6, seeking to break away from the Dylan character, but returned in Season 9.
Perry also appeared on the big screen with roles in films including “Good Intentions,” “Red Wing” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” which later became a hit television series.
He made his Broadway debut in 2002 as Brad in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
But it was the small screen that showed the actor the most love, with roles on “The Incredible Hulk,” “Jeremiah,” “Oz,” “Windfall” and “John from Cincinnati.”
More recently, Perry took on the role as Archie Andrews’ father Fred in the hit CW drama “Riverdale,” based on the characters from the Archie comics.
Perry married “Teen Wolf Too” actress Rachel “Minnie” Sharp in 1993 and the couple welcomed son Jack and daughter Sophie.
They divorced a decade later.
Perry is in director Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming film “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” which set for release in July.
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Spike Lee wins Oscar Award

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Spike Lee’s first competitive Oscar win (for co-writing BlacKkKlansman) on Sunday night resulted in cheers, a standing ovation, and a jubilant leap into longtime friend and collaborator Samuel L. Jackson’s arms on stage at the Dolby Theatre. Inside the White House, though, his achievement led to the opposite reaction. On Monday morning, President Donald Trump tweeted that Lee’s speech was “a racist hit on your President.” Though Lee hadn’t mentioned Trump at all, he had wrapped up his acceptance speech with a plea for voters to “be on the right side of history” and “make the moral choice between love versus hate” at the 2020 presidential election — a statement that appears to have caused the president’s reaction.

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