DJ Performances in January 2015

I am psyched to DJ as DJ WildPoet next year in the year 2015 during the month of January. I was requested by a well-respected DJ named Riley Beats to do the skits for his every Thursday DJ shows titled Soiree. I will DJ there at 7 PM on January 8th. It is located in the Penguin Ballroom on 389 Gregory St. in Rochester, NY. The Soiree DJ events are free but encourages suggested donations plus pizzas, soft drinks/bottles of water, and glow sticks for sale (to support the cost of the space). Several people play hoops there besides just dancing. It's a fun place to hang out and really friendly atmosphere. I will play my own original composed electronic music plus some famous musicians' work, back and forth, or both together (synched tracks). I will translate some of the words in the music into ASL (American Sign Language) as well. Here is a picture of a real nice ballroom that I will perform in.

On January 19th, I will DJ for The Rochester Community Players (Shakespeare plays) at the German House on 315 Gregory St, only a block from where Soiree DJ events takes place. The president of the Rochester Community Players, Peter Scribner, requested me to do the skits for their 90th Anniversary.

Here is a photo of the film that the Rochester Community Players will show, which means I will do the DJ during the warm-up as audience comes in and then do more after the movie ends.

Here is a detailed information about the 90th Anniversary below:

90th Anniversary Celebration!

90TH ANNIVERSARY OF RCP’S FIRST PRODUCTION JANUARY 19, 2015 AT THE GERMAN HOUSE: We’re going back home: on Monday, January 19, 1925, an ambitious group of community theater enthusiasts presented the first performance of the Rochester Community Players, Wedding Bells, on the stage of the United German Societies of Rochester. We return to the scene of the crime, so to speak, with a celebration Monday, January 19, 2015 at the historic German House, 315 Gregory Street. 

FEATURED PROGRAM: We will be screening 'our movie', the 1927 silent motion picture created by the Rochester Community Players, Fly Low Jack and the Game. This 30 minute film was seen by 750,000 people in 1927-28, as Eastman Kodak Company showed it all around the country, as an example of amateurs creating their own 'photoplay'. Mike Champlain of DeBergerac Productions has carefully restored the original footage, shown recently at the High Falls Film Festival, and will show the movie at our celebration on January 19 (the title card for the film, shown above, is courtesy of DeBergerac Productions).

Cost: $20, and half price for anyone under 30. If you are an RCP veteran, we would love to talk with you! Call Peter Scribner at 585-261-6461, or email him at scribnerpeter (at) gmail (dot) com.

ASL Poetry Show at Equal Grounds

On November 8th, Dangerous Signs (ASL poetry, songs, mime, and acting performance group), Eric Epstein (ASL poet), and myself as DJ WildPoet all performed at Equal Grounds. There was a fundraising effort toward Discovering Deaf Worlds (DDW), which two DDW board members showed up to explain what DDW do and collected the donations from the audience. 

Here are photos for you to see. You can click on them in order to see them bigger.

DJ WildPoet 

DJ WildPoet

Eric Epstein

Dangerous Signs

Here is a YouTube link of my DJ-ASL performances for you to watch below (though the vid isn't in a good high quality unfortunately). Click right on it to see my performance of "Rebellion" (my work) and Bjork's "Pluto" song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOYxX0DaDho

Dangerous Signs did several great skits such as "Superstitious" by Stevie Wonder, "Man in the Mirror" by Michael Jackson, several poems by Langston Hughes, and few more. Eric Epstein did several of his original beautifully done ASL poems. I as DJ WildPoet played three original electronic music through Numark Pro 2 DJ device. When words come up during the DJ-ing, I translated them into ASL. The very last was Bjork's "Pluto" song, the only work that wasn't my own piece. I manipulated her music on my DJ and when she sang the words, I translated the lyric into ASL. Two great voicers helped the audience understand the ASL language that the performers were using. They were Cindy Gilchrist and Luane Davis Haggerty. I shall thank these two women. I shall thank John White and Randy Torgerson for giving me the opportunity to use their stage at Equal Grounds. 

Hamlet's Ghost Father and DJ at MuCCC "Zombie Shakespeare"

On October 31st and November 1st, I acted as Hamlet's ghost father, translated into ASL (American Sign Language), along a person who spoke the script. I painted my face white and smeared black around my eyes plus a real beaver fur tall hat from my great uncle (real and not joking) and a black suede suit. The work with James Landers (voicer) was great and we did very well on stage together.

I also was a DJ as DJ WildPoet there during the time when audiences came in (warm-up) and after the performances ended (closing-hour). The DJ-ing was a nervous thing for me, because I have never done this to only hearing people. The very first DJ I did was at NTID (National Technical Institute for the Deaf), where predomiantly deaf and heard of hearing were the audience and, yes, there were hearing people there as well. Yet, NTID was just a little bit of save haven for me as a new DJ performer. Now, at MuCCC, only people outside of NTID and not familiar with deaf culture or anything were there. I was indeed surprised that many appraised my DJ work. One hearing cast member in the production happily proclaimed my name "DJ WildPoet!!" and gave me a two hands high-five. Other cast members gave me their thumbs up when I stopped DJ-ing to get ready to perform as Hamlet's ghost father. So, I realize it did work well more than I expected. I video-taped myself doing the DJ-ing there and that one video got 105 people who saw it on my DJ WildPoet Facebook page.

Here are a photo of my DJ Numark Pro 2, laptop, and my great uncle's beaver hat.

Here are 2 photos of me as Hamlet's ghost father.

DJ and "Hamlet" Acting for Zombie Shakespeare! and DJ/ASL Poetry at Equal Grounds

On October 31st, I will be DJ-ing during warm-up and intermission for MuCCC (Multi-Use Community Cultural Center) on October 31st. It will be a halloween-themed show titled "Zombie Shakespeare!".

Here is the hypertext for you to click on to get the details and get the tickets:

http://muccc.org/events/?p=15347

Besides DJ-ing, I will act as Hamlet's ghost father by translating the script into ASL (American Sign Language) and a person will speak the lines in English simultaneously.


On November 8th, I as DJ WildPoet, Eric Epstein, and Dangerous Signs will perform ASL poetry, stories, and songs at Equal Grounds. This show will start at 7:30 PM and it will be a fundraising effort to support DDW (Discovering Deaf Worlds), a non-profit organization, that seeks for deaf/hard of hearing people in other countries for better education, quality of life, empowerments, and cultural preservation.

Here is a flyer and you can click on the image to see it bigger.

Dangerous Signs "Twilight Zone" and My DJ-ing as DJ WildPoet

From October 2nd to October 4th, I DJ-ed for the first time out to the public. My DJ entertainment took place in room 1510 at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) under Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). The DJ-ing was for a warm-up during audience's entrance. I played my own original composed electronic music and famous musicians' work. I just manipulated the sound effects with the loops, pitches/bass/etc and so forth. A director, Luane Davis Haggerty, mentioned to me that she was approached by 3 people who liked my DJ performances and asked for my business cards (which I did give them to her). Saw people bobbing their heads, grooving along and etc before Dangerous Signs performance began. This is a great privilege and new experience for me. I am honored to be able to finally do the DJ-ing outside of my home. Here is a photo of me as DJ WildPoet.

By 7:20 PM, I took down my DJ devices and the crews took my speakers out of the spot, then I joined Dangerous Signs. My performances with the cast members were great. We all performed songs, poems, social comments, and acting/mime in American Sign Language (ASL): Stevie Wonder's "Superstitious" song, my "Blade Gray Sky" poem with original composed electronic music, and many other great skits. This Dangerous Signs performance has been a great experience for me since I joined them about 3 years ago.

Here is a photo of the flyer below.

Nude Male Mixed-Media Painting

To see the picture bigger, click right on the image.

I have been working on this project for a while, using a found object. It is a cardboard frame that used to hold an item I bought in the store. I just added a canvas with glue to the frame. I then used watercolor paint to create a rainbow background. I then found a photo of a nude man as a reference and drew the image on the rainbow-colored canvas with a pencil. I then used a black paint with a small thin paintbrush and painted on the outlines of the male figure. I painted the whole cardboard orange in acrylic. I then added the flower pieces that came from a pride parade necklace given to me during the pride event. I just took each flower out of the necklace string and lined them up in a rainbow order  horizontally, using strong glue, right on the white duct tapes below the male figure. In between those rainbow flowers and white duct tapes, there is a shiny blue fabric, which I attached, using some glue. Afterwards I used the blue glitter to create the lines around the figure as if to make the image more of a carnival look or the window entertainment look. There is also a black velvet cloth that covers the image as a curtain, which it is left open above the whole work. When this piece is hung on the wall, the black velvet curtain covers the work and people will have to lift the curtain in order to see the nude male. This is certainly a gay pride issue and it conveys the message upon sexual liberty against puritanical views or restrictions.

DJ The Porn Kings and My One Work Plus Self-Portrait

I just uploaded a video of myself playing my Numark Pro 2 DJ device. I used The Porn Kings' sampled electronic music titled "Up To No Good" and my own titled "Come On And Then Pump It" in the DJ device. I played them back and forth as I went along. I also translated the sampled words into ASL when they came on. This is to give you an idea that I can switch the 2 music back and forth.

I also created a new DJ WildPoet self-portrait for profiles and so forth. Here it is.

Unfortunately, the video turned out dark without realizing that I should have added more lights in the room. The other problem was my mistake to forget to turn off the "Scratching" buttons. When I spun the wheels, they created the "scratching" sound effects, which I didn't anticipate to allow that to happen. I usually don't like doing the scratching effects. I did eventually turn off the "Scratching" buttons, which I then was able to just speed up the tracks into faster beats per seconds; that was what I wanted to do. So that was the only thing that you may noticed. Other than that, the other sound effects sounded great and wildly ethereal. 

I am planning to look for a DJ table or holder or shelf of some kind where I can put my Numark Pro 2 and laptop on during performances soon. Once that is taken care of, I will pursue for performance opportunities, hopefully by this Fall season.

Here is the YouTube video of the Porn Kings and my work. Just click on the hyperlink and you'll go right to it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_k-MLAXIRA&list=UU--8Y0Cb1tGGhm1Nj2ewPHQ