FloydFest was a CHS reunion of sorts, bringing together families, current students, faculty, and alumni to celebrate and enjoy music. We were thrilled to watch faculty member Jonathan Falls and alumnus Ben H. (’07) play two impressive sets with their band, Cinémathèque.
Tim Woodrum of Radio Free Roanoke interviews interesting people at interesting places around the Roanoke valley in the YouTube Show “T-Bone – Best of Roanoke Show w/HB”.
In the episode below, Roanoke artists and community organizers, Brian Counihan and Ralph Eaton, are interviewed from inside their studio location as we learn about what Art Rat Studios is and does.
Brian shares his personal take on the purpose of the Daisy Art Parade and the meaning behind how and what came together during the second event.
He also talks about his background in visual arts and his interest in inspiring local people in our community.
As a founding faculty member, Brian explains how the idea of creating a museum school shaped his vision of the educational foundation for CHS. Through art creation, students would learn critical thinking techniques and apply what they learned from the process to other traditional academic subjects.
Enjoy the interview below.
Les Epstein’s newest book, “Teddy Orloff and the Three Onions: A Cooking Spiel“, is the third in his book set published by Gnashing Teeth. The other two in the series are Lorenzo by the Ghost Light, and Sleep Cinematic: A Golem’s Quartet.
Teddy Orloff is a baker, whose home and community have been rocked by scarlet fever. His children are stricken and the home under quarantine. As a baker he cannot stay with his family yet he finds a way to slip in at night. Teddy’s wife sends him on a mission to find a perfect onion to make latkes-a certain cure for the fever. Forging into an ice storm, Teddy’s quest grows weird. It is the perfect onion, though, he must acquire, whether it exists or not.
Les Epstein is a poet, playwright, opera librettist and educator. His work has appeared in journals in the United States, Philippines, India and the U.K., including Slant, The Bacopa Review, Mojave River Review, Clinch Mountain Review, and Jelly Bucket as well as the anthologies Heat the Grease (Gnashing Teeth Publishing) and Pain & Renewal (Vita Brevis Press). His work was honored by the Writers Guild of Gainesville (FL) in 2021 and has been featured in the podcast, “Sunflower Sutras,” broadcast out of Washburn University. His chapbook, “Kip Divided,” appeared from Finishing Line Press in 20222. As a playwright, his work has been staged by such theaters as the Belfast Maskers (Maine), Greenbrier Valley Theater (WV), Stone’s Throw Dinner Theater (Missouri) and the Roy Arias Studio (New York). He contributed libretti for two operas, Barefoot (1997 premiere) and Miss Lucy (2011 premiere). Cyberwit released a collection of his short plays and libretti (Seven) in 2018. Epstein’s bi-lingual collaboration with Claudia de Franko, Llorona of the River is available through Silver Birchington Plays. He received undergraduate degrees in Theater Performance and English from Otterbein College, and MA in English from Miami (Ohio) University and continued with studies in Literature at New York University and in Theater Education at The Ohio State University. He completed his teacher training at Mary Baldwin College. In addition to work with theater, opera and ballet companies from North Carolina to New York City, he spent ten seasons as Education Director and Production Coordinator for Opera/Columbus and another seven as Executive Director for the Children’s Theater of Winston-Salem before settling in as a teacher with Community High School for which he has staged more than forty productions.
Jen Sosnowski teaches science by day and sings by night. Jen is a member of The Voices of Appalachia and they performed in a joint venture with the Roanoke College Choir to present “Life’s Liturgies”
Click here to listen to the concert performed at the Salem Presbyterian Church.
Brian Counihan is part of this new approach to BUILDING COMMUNITY in Roanoke. He is personally offering two workshops to bring neighborhoods alive to strengthen relationships by offering fun learning experiences so that people may create connections through his artist-led programming to reinforce community belonging.
The Neighborhood Scroll: A Crankie Portrait Project for All Ages
In this 90-minute workshop, artist and educator Brian Counihan will introduce a storytelling art form rooted in Appalachian tradition. Crankies, or moving panoramas, are drawings or paintings that can be manually scrolled within a boxed “stage.” Participants will develop basic scripts, create imagery, and use their crafting skills to create a portrait of an important place, person, or event in the neighborhood. Future workshops can include making complete performance-ready crankies in a preferred media, such as quilting, collage or watercolors.
Block Printing with a Steam Roller: Making a Neighborhood Image for a Steamroller Print Event
In this 90-minute workshop, artist and educator Brian Counihan will guide a collaborative woodblock design project that can be printed as a giant banner-sized image using a steamroller as a press. In this workshop we’ll collectively develop the visual content, consider how the banner can have a positive effect on the neighborhood, and think about how and where the banner-sized image can be displayed. Every neighborhood has something important to say, and banner-sized prints are loads of fun. They also draw lots of attention, especially when they’re printed with a steamroller!
Olchar E. Lindsann is the editor and main translator of the 10th issue of Rêvenance: A Zine of Hauntings From Underground Histories. This flagship journal of the Revenant Editions series is dedicated to the forgotten or untold histories of 19th Century avant-garde and other countercultures. It includes essays, translations, and many experimental forms of historical writing and research that connect those traditions to continuing radical communities today.
The main themes in this issue are Revenant Camaraderie, the Jeunes-France/Bouzingo & Frenetic Romanticists carrying daggers, the Decadent-Symbolist community, dance, & the passing of generations.
Jen Sosnowski and Meg Snow may spend their days teaching about living organisms and the earth’s natural systems, but they also shared their musical talents and brought joy to their audience singing in The Voices of Appalachia‘s concert “Hush My Baby, Don’t you Cry”.
Click here to listen to the concert. Jen’s solo starts at 22:33.
The Squitty Flange: A Florilegium of Dodgy Odes to that Rabbit Chunk Shim Frumpy Snorkel Sham Radish Dongle Stuff by Olchar E. Lindsann is a pudgy chapbook bulged with nearly 50 pages of poetry spawned from the squinty sea of nonsense verse à-la Lear, Carroll, Rabelais, Blaster Ackerman, Dr. Seuss, Stanchel, & co., with a delectable avant-garde & ‘pataphysical twist.
Brian hosted a Daisy Art Parade information table at this free event by Roanoke Public Libraries at the Melrose Branch Library.
Fête Le Démon Vert is a roaming, spooky and slightly absurd evening of dinner, drinking, dancing and a little bit of discotheque. It featured the terrifying visuals + installation by the notorious Daisy Art Parade.
Teddy Orloff is a baker, whose home and community have been rocked by scarlet fever. His children are stricken and the home under quarantine. As a baker he cannot stay with his family yet he finds a way to slip in at night. Teddy’s wife sends him on a mission to find a perfect onion to make latkes-a certain cure for the fever. Forging into an ice storm, Teddy’s quest grows weird. It is the perfect onion, though, he must acquire, whether it exists or not.