Harlem-based artist Suzanne Unrein is known for creating breathtaking, vivid environments where the animality of humans interacts with lions, monkeys, hyenas, birds, and dogs – a world of beasts colliding in imagination and in bold, gestural brush strokes. Essentially uninterested in narrative, and inspired by the Baroque and Rococo “Old Masters” pushing the edge between representation and abstraction, Suzanne forms bonds and breaks connections, deconstructing and reinventing on canvas to reveal captivating, perhaps Edenic jungles with fierce rhythms, feverish dreams, and dramatic tension. All to say, they’re spectacular to look at! A California native and current New Yorker by way of Florid
With intuition, psychic tendencies, synchronicity and signs leading the way, Gian Sardar is a dream of a novelist. Sometimes even literally, as her debut novel, “You Were Here,” centers on a young woman plagued by a recurrent, being-buried-alive nightmare. Part double mystery and part love triangle, Gian’s lyrical prose artfully weaves past and present and builds layer upon layer into a suspenseful story. Gian’s own life is rather page-turning. At age 5 she foretold an earthquake, and her psychic path has lead to predicting a death, discovering a spirit guide, and remembering past life adventures. Perhaps it’s small surprise that Gian even co-wrote a friend’s memoir, “Psychic Junkie.” As Gia
Fun, funny, and fiercely original, Ann Morrison is a joy on stage and off. Actor, singer, writer, director and most of all storyteller, Ann has been weaving myths and making magic her entire life. From her splashy Broadway debut as the original Mary Flynn in Stephen Sondheim’s storied “Merrily We Roll Along,” to “Peg” in London’s West End, “Forbidden Broadway” on both coasts, and, one of my faves, Polly Pen’s charming “Goblin Market,” Ann knows how to light up a stage and light up a room! Today she writes and performs mostly in Sarasota, Florida, where she is Artistic Director/Co-Founder of the SaraSolo Festival (with Blake Walton), dedicated to solo performances and new small-cast plays, an
Bulgarian jazz pianist, composer, and co-founder of Open Source Trio, Momchil Atanasoff finds creative inspiration sky-high during mountain climbs and, conversely, during deep dives into pitch black caves where the absence of light becomes a creative stimulus. The trio’s first two albums, “Mirage,” and “Altitude,” are a magical blend of jazz, classical and electronica, with strong improv underpinnings. Their music can range from hard-charging and provocative to mesmerizing and transcendent, and to my ear it often has strong spiritual undertones. Atanasoff practices Taoism, but it’s nature that drives him most assuredly, as also evidenced by his love of photography. The original trio formed i
