WCP: Why You Should Pay Attention to Lumen8 Anacostia

Check out the new mural in the background!

If I was a lightbulb I would be so bright I would burn the retinas! Everyone's excitement and appreciation for today's LUMEN8Anacostia event is unprecedented. People all over DC are talking about it, the community has been working hard behind the scenes (check out the new trees!) and the streets themselves are even brand spanking new (thanks DDOT!). I am also happy to say that local businesses are already benefitting from the influx of artists working in the community. I can personally attest that Mama's Kitchen pizza has become the staple of everyone's diet.

As I will be managing (translation: running around all day) the LUMEN8Anacostia event along with my amazing (and fatigued) co-workers and volunteers I may not be able to blog as often as I want but I will try. If you see me at the festival please let me know your thoughts.  Hopefully they will be positive and hopefully you will be proud of the collective effort of the many artists, performers, visionaries, and control freaks (like moi) that made LUMEN8 possible.  :)

Go HERE to read this amazing article by Jonathan Fischer, Arts Editor for the Washington City Paper.

Excerpt:

More importantly, it's a cultural mashup. On Tuesday night, I met a handful of the artists who are exhibiting in the spaces on MLK and Good Hope, and they (mostly) live east of the Anacostia, (mostly) work in representational styles, and are (mostly) black. The Pink Line-curated occupants of the Lightbox space are (mostly) cultural-class mainstays (see familiar names like Bluebrain and Busboys & Poets), the art is (mostly) conceptual, and the people making it are (mostly) white. On Tuesday, Palermo described the whole thing as a meeting of west of the river and east of the river. 

Which—not trying to be cheesy or sentimental here—is great. I imagine most people will go for one aspect of Lumen8 and end up wandering into another. I have no idea what lasting impact Lumen8 will have—or even if it should have one—but if its Temporium-on-steroids concept manages to bring relatively insular communities of artists and their audiences together, that's win-win. 

The Lightbox party begins at noon at 2235 Shannon Pl. SE. The party Behind the Big Chair begins at 4 p.m. at 2020 Shannon Place SE. Many temporia remain open through June. All events are free. lumen8anacostia.com.

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