A Celebration of Freedom Featuring the Art of Liberated Muse
Curated by Sharon J. Burton of Authentic Contemporary Art

The Potter’s House
1658 Columbia Road, NW
Washington, DC

Artist’s Reception: Saturday, November 14, 2009
4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Come for the OFFICIAL opening of the art exhibit “Celebration of Freedom” @ the Potter’s House. Liberated Muse Productions presents an art exhibit showcasing the talent of DC visual artists featured in the book Liberated Muse Volume I: How I Freed My Soul and the arts community www.LiberatedMuse.com.

Featured artists include: Prudence Bonds, Shan’ta Monroe, Sherry Burton-Ways, James Terrell, Jade Andwele, Sharon Burton, Choke, Stephan Cox, Marshetta Davis, Keisha Carroll and Khadijah Ali-Coleman.

Refreshments will be available. Additional artwork not shown in the exhibition by artists will be available for sale as well as the book.

Friday, September 11, 2009 from 7pm to 10pm

THE POTTER’S HOUSE
1658 Columbia Rd NW
Washington, DC

Liberated Muse Productions is at it again with another musical night of performances from DC’s best and readings from the new book release Liberated Muse Volume I: How I Freed My Soul which features visual artists and writers from the Liberated Muse network.

Artists Exhibiting include: Khadijah Ali-Coleman, Prudence Bonds, Sharon J. Burton, Keisha Carroll, Choke, Marshetta Davis, Shanta Monroe, Nijla Mumin, James Terrell, and Sherry B. Ways. The exhibition is on view through December 1, 2009 and is curated by Sharon J. Burton of Authentic Contemporary Art.

Featured performers include songstress Quineice Clarkson, musician Gary Young, diva singer Mahoganee, poetic vocalist Ozara Ode and the spoken word of Margaux Delotte-Bennett and Jade Andwele of the renowned Saartjie (“Sar-Key) Project. Jazzy soul vocalist Colie Williams will open the show with a half-hour set with members from her band.

The evening will be hosted by Moon of Liberated Muse and feature live art by visual artist Choke, the Liberated Muse member of this month of August. The book, How I Freed My Soul, edited by Khadijah Ali-Coleman will be available for purchase.

Donations from the event will fund youth programming facilitated by the Saartjie Project. A suggested $7 donation is requested, but all are welcome to pay as they can. Food is available for purchase at this venue.

This event is part of the Potter’s House Sounds of Hope benefit series, produced by Mary Shapiro.

To view some of the work that will be a part of the exhibition, click here. 

 Khadijah Ali-Coleman

We are continuing the series Art and Change, which focuses on how the visual art world to helping to change society, whether on the community level or internationally. Today we are talking with one of the founders of an exciting social network of artists, Khadijah Ali-Coleman of Liberated Muse Productions based in the Metro Washington, DC area.

 Khadijah Ali-Coleman is founder of So Our Youth Aspire (SOYA), LLC , and co-founder of Liberated Muse Productions, the founding group of the Capital Hip Hop Soul Fest. She is a freelance writer & photographer who has appeared in numerous print and online publications including the Washington Post, Honey Magazine, and the Washington Informer.She pens an arts column in the Washington DC-based monthly paper East of the River, showcasing talent hailing from the Washington DC area.

In addition to writing and serving as web manager of http://www.liberatedmuse.com/, Khadijah is a perfomer who has appeared on the television show “Showtime at the Apollo” and has appeared in various venues nationally and locally as a singer. As an actress, she has acted in stage presentations of “The Medea Myth”, “The Life”, and “The Vagina Monologues”. Her preference is to perform in socially conscious and boundary-stretching presentations that address complex issues of race, gender and social class. She is a member of the arts collective The Saartjie Project (http://www.thesaartjieproject.org/) which examines the politics of the Black Woman’s body.As a director and creative writer, Khadijah produced in February 2008 the play “Shades of Black: a thought in progress”.The play debuted in Baltimore, Maryland on the campus of Morgan State University. Khadijah’s creative writing has also appeared in different places, including recently in the online literary magazine Flask and Pen. She is editor the recently published anthology “How I Freed My Soul”, Volume One in a series of Liberated Muse publications. She will soon publish a poetry chapbook “Legacy of Lovely” and is working on finishing the book “Being Heard Through the Noise: A Youth Worker’s Guide to Working with Urban Youth”.

To learn more about Liberated Muse, visit their website at http://www.liberatedmuse.com

You can listen to this podcast through i-tunes ,the podcast home page here or download the mp3 here.

Sharon Burton, CEO of Authentic Contemporary Art will be curating an art show featuring visual artists who are members of the Liberated Muse social network, which is based in the Metro Washington, DC area.

The art exhibition, Celebration of Freedom will be a part of an evening of entertainment and poetry in support of the recently published Liberated Muse: Vol. 1, How I Freed My Soul, An Anthology, edited by Khadijah Ali-Coleman, co-founder of Liberated Muse. Love.

“Sickness. Travel. A one-night stand. Speaking up. Losing a job. Breaking up. Khadijah Ali-Coleman has edited an eclectic assortment of work that is sure to inspire, revive and enthrall readers on the very idea of how to free one’s soul. Containing personal essays, poetry, short stories and visual art, this compilation stretches boundaries as one contemplates the very idea of freedom while presenting, and often challenging, the concept of the soul. “

Liberated Muse Productions (LMP) is an arts-based events planning group based in the Washington DC metropolitan area. LMP was created in 2007 by writers and community activists Maceo Thomas and Khadijah “Moon” Ali-Coleman. The intent was to create events promoting artistry and awareness of issues pivotal to urban communities. LMP has become a network of dedicated artists and patrons of the arts.

For more information on the event and about Liberated Muse, visit the website at www.liberatedmuse.com