CT Culture Corner: Shepard Fairey exhibit, Somi concert lead Connecticut arts events this week

The name Shepard Fairey may not be familiar to many people, but surely the images he created would be.

Fairey, a street artist, graphic designer, and activist created the “HOPE” portrait of then Senator Barack Obama in 2008 “as a form of grassroots activism to support Obama’s first presidential campaign,” according to the Art Institute of Chicago. He based the work on an Associated Press photograph by Mannie Garcia, and then transformed it with his high-contrast stencil technique, which was inspired by the bold graphics of Soviet Socialist Realism, according to the Art Institute.

Emblazoned with the word “Hope,” the portrait was quickly adopted as an official image of Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. The late New Yorker art critic Peter Schjeldahl called the poster “the most efficacious American political illustration since ‘Uncle Sam Wants You.'”

The Lyman Allyn Art Museum opened “Shepard Fairey: Facing the Giant: Three Decades of Dissent,” earlier this month. It will run through Sept. 6. The exhibition traces the evolution of his visual language and social commentary from the late 1980s to the present, according to a news release.

“The selections span Fairey’s early imagery inspired by punk rock and skate culture to later works addressing social justice, environmental sustainability and political engagement,” according to the release. The title references the figure at the center of Fairey’s long-running Obey Giant campaign. In 1989, while still a student at the Rhode Island School of Design, Fairey ran a sticker art campaign called “Andre the Giant Has a Posse.” The campaign has evolved into a street-art phenomenon, that “attempts to stimulate curiosity and bring people to question both the sticker and their relationship with their surroundings,” Fairey wrote.

Irish feet will be dancing

The global “A Taste of Ireland – The Irish Music & Dance Sensation,” will visit Torrington’s Warner Theatre June 26. The dance performance includes “a starry roster of international dance champions who explore and expand traditional Irish dance into something completely modern, mesmerizingly electric, and ridiculously fun,” according to a news release. The production debuted in the U.S. in 2024 with an Off-Broadway engagement.

Featuring classics like “Danny Boy,” “Wild Rover,” and others, the show’s reimagined contemporary score “blossoms alongside the brash Irish charm of the live dance cast, transporting audiences through Ireland’s tumultuous history with electrifying dances, dramatic scenery, and spectacular lighting effects,” according to the release.

Trivia Question

Who wrote “Danny Boy?” Here’s a hint: He wasn’t Irish.

Festival of Arts brings jazz singer Somi

The International Festival of Arts & Ideas continues to bring a rich assortment of cultural events to Elm City. This week, it features Somi, an Illinois-born jazz vocalist, songwriter and playwright of Rwandan and Ugandan descent. Somi will perform June 25 at the University Theatre. The singer is celebrated for blending modern jazz with African musical traditions and made history as the first African woman nominated for a Grammy in a jazz category, according to Arts Emerson.

Somi was born Laura Kabasomi Kakoma in Illinois to parents who emigrated from Rwanda and Uganda, she told the Philadelphia Tribune. She discovered her musical identity traversing between Africa and America. When she was 3, the family moved to Ndola, Zambia, where her father began working for the World Health Organization, Somi told the Tribune. The family returned to the United States when her father became a professor at the University of Illinois, she said.

She later earned undergraduate degrees in anthropology and African studies from the University of Illinois. She also holds a master’s degree in Performance Arts from New York University Tisch School of the Arts, according to the Tribune.

“Although my parents wanted to give me a well-rounded education, which included the arts, I was raised in what I call a ‘typical first generation immigrant family’ where you are not encouraged to be an artist, but rather to take a more traditional path and become a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer, or an educator of some kind,” she told the outlet.

Palace announces Jazz Series

Speaking of jazz, The Palace Theater in Waterbury has announced three artists for its summer jazz series. The Rich Baratta Quintet plays the Poli Club on June 26; Tad Shull brings his tenor sax and Tad Shull Quartet to the club Aug. 14; and on Sept. 11, the Yoko Miwa Trio returns to the Poli Club with special vocalist Mikayla Shirley. Shows are at 7 and 9 p.m.

Trivia Answer

British lawyer, author and radio entertainer Frederick Edward Weatherly wrote the words to “Danny Boy” in 1910, according to WRTI. He rewrote the song in 1912 to fit the Irish tune “Londonderry Air,” which his sister-in-law Margaret had sent him. Weatherly published the revised version of the song in 1913, according to IMDb.

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This article originally published at CT Culture Corner: Shepard Fairey exhibit, Somi concert lead Connecticut arts events this week.