Nine Time Grammy Winner and international superstar, Jose Feliciano, shared words of wisdom to and conducted a sing-a-long with over 250 special needs students and their parents this past Monday at Widney High School in Los Angeles.

J.P. Widney High School is a special ed center that was founded 50 years ago and serves mentally and physically challenged students from LA’s center city.   The school’s program includes the world famous “Kids of Widney High” songwriting class which has produced 4 CDs (one with the help of Jackson Browne and another with the help of Mike Patton from Faith No More.

“I was thrilled to have the opportunity to educate and inspire young disabled musicians to pursue their dreams of a career in music. After all, music is what saved me “, said Feliciano himself.

Mr. Feliciano, who is congenitally blind, began playing guitar at the age of nine on the streets of New York after his family relocated from Lares, Puerto Rico.  He credits the guitar as saving his life and giving him a purpose that he carries to this day.

Mr. Feliciano, best known for his international hits, “Feliz Navidad” and “Light My Fire”, recently performed the national anthem for the first game of the MLB NLCS baseball game in San Francisco.  He was also recently honored with a LARAS Latin Grammy lifetime achievement award.

###

For more information on J.P. Widney High School, please visit:  www.KidsofWidneyHigh.com for more information on Jose Feliciano, please visit www.JoseFeliciano.com or Facebook/WheresJose or Twitter @wheresJose.

“Pretty Girls” appears on a British compilation CD called Sounds of the Disabled Underground Vol 3 (track 15 on CD #1)

http://stayuplate.org/projects/wild-things

scroll down to the bottom of the page

Great downtown vibe and great food (“best mac n’ cheese in the world!”). We’re playing in the patio out back. Showtime 9:30

Details here:  http://twentywonder.org/

The Doll Factory  1910 West Temple St. LA 90026

6PM to Midnight

323 Projects Presents The Patter of Tiny Brains curated by Doug Harvey  

• Exhibition runs from April 6 – May 27, 2011.
• Opening April 6 from 6-9PM. Come to the opening without going anywhere simply by calling (323) 843-4652.
• 323 Projects is an exhibition venue that exists as a phone number: (323) 843-4652 visitors call to experience contemporary art 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

323 Projects is pleased to present The Patter of Tiny Brains, an exhibition curated by Doug Harvey. For this group show sourced from dozens of contributors, Harvey presents a rotating selection of audio generated by children, up to and including adolescents.

Visitors who call into 323 Projects’ phone number will hear audio ranging from baby noises to musical performances, and a variety of surprising sound recordings performed by kids. In presenting the work of children, Harvey encourages listeners to bring serious, respectful aesthetic attention to works of performance otherwise disregarded as immature and amateur. This exhibition challenges value systems that deem children’s creative output trivial or inconsequential, and instead critically and enthusiastically seeks to reframe the discourse surrounding notions of youth, professionalism, and creative expression.

323 Projects invites you to hear The Patter of Tiny Brains by calling (323) 843-4652 or (323) TIE-IN-LA The show is open all day and all night, every day of the week. Visitors are encouraged to call back often to hear audio tracks, as works will rotate throughout the course of the exhibition. To contribute new recordings to this show please email dghrvy@gmail.com. ABOUT DOUG HARVEY Since graduating with an MFA in painting from UCLA in 1994, Doug Harvey has written extensively about the Los Angeles and International art scenes and other aspects of popular culture, primarily as the main art critic for LA WEEKLY for 13 years. His writing has also appeared in Art issues, Art in America, The New York Times, The Nation, Modern Painters, ArtReview, and numerous other publications. He has written museum and gallery catalogue essays for Jim Shaw, Jeffrey Vallance, Tim Hawkinson, Marnie Weber, Lari Pittman, Georganne Deen, Gary Panter, Margaret Keane, Thomas Kinkade, and many others. His curatorial projects have ranged from many traditional gallery exhibitions (including the short-lived Annual LA Weekly Biennials, 2008’s Aspects of Mel’s Hole: Artists Respond to a Paranormal Land Event Occurring in Radiospace and Arataland! A Mid career Survey of Artworks by Michael Arata at Beacon Arts Building in Spring of 2011) to CD compilations of sound art, programs of found and experimental films, performance events, experimental radio, artist’s comic books and zines, and an LA solo gallery exhibit determined by raffle. Last July his project (with Christian Cummings) Chain Letter 2011 included work by 1600 artists in its incarnation at Shoshana Wayne Gallery in LA, shutting down the 10 Freeway exit to Bergamot Station during installation.  He has just finished editing ‘patacritical Interrogation Techniques Anthology Vol 3 (forthcoming from AC Institute) and practices regularly with F for Ache, the improvisational power trio he formed last year with artists Marnie Weber and Dani Tull. Mr. Harvey also continues to maintain an active art career, exhibiting his visual art (painting-based multimedia) locally and internationally. AiA critic Constance Mallinson said of his October 2010 solo painting show at Jancar Gallery “Harvey’s work reeks of rot and decay.” His second solo exhibit at Jancar “Never Paint Again” opens concurrently with The Patter of Tiny Brains on April 28th. He lives and works in Los Angeles and maintains a blog atwww.dougharvey.blogspot.com and a website at www.dougharvey.la  

PARTICIPANTS AS OF APRIL 5, 2012

Alejandro Cohen’s HeArt Project class
Lone Ranger (Andy Sykora & Blake Baxter)
Background
Marlo Irani
Anonymous vocalist from Edendale Post Office
Mannlicher Carcano
Susan Chafe & Luke Chafe
Dolphin Explosion
Amy Drezner
Naomi Dunker & Zac Dunker (recorded and edited by Julie Dunker)
David Fenster & Friend
Goodness Nhlengethwa
Haron Abbas Mansour, Shiran Davidi, & Lee Korenfeld, coordinated by Maria Ana Sampaio Nunes
Kevin Braddock, John Knight, Eric Konst (recorded by David Greenberger)
Lauren Michele Kasmer
THUUNDERBOY! (recorded by Tony Conrad)
Billy and Mia Kheel
Kio Griffith
Lili Bernard and Family
James Livingston
L. Souris Hong-Porretta
Emily Mast
Dave Muller
Nic Waterman
Norabelle Greenberger  (courtesy David Greenberger)
Pitywood Trio
The Kids of Widney High
Sim Sadler with the voice of Lexi Renée Sadler
Zoe Scott (submitted by Dustin Scott)
Jason Strickler
Stephanie Taylor, with vocals by Milena Muzquiz, Jose Luis Blondet, Charles White Elementary Chorus
The Fitzbergs (original, recorded 1996, courtesy David Greenberger)
Luca Veca (courtesy Mark Dean Veca)
Lucas & Friends

ABOUT 323 PROJECTS

323 Projects is an innovative exhibition space that exists as a phone number visitors can call to access contemporary art.

To visit 323 Projects simply call (323) 843-4652 or (323) TIE-IN-LA.  You can also visit the 323 Projects website at 323projects.com. To contact the gallery send an email to contact@323projects.com 323 Projects exists to provide a dispersed, peripatetic, and constantly accessible venue for artists of all kinds who seek to explore issues important to their respective practices. The artists involved with 323 Projects provide, create, or perform works that can be appreciated in bits and pieces, and at more than one time, in both public and private spaces, by an unseen, yet omnipresent, local and international audience.

Tucker Neel is the Founder and Director of 323 Projects.

–
Doug Harvey 1334 N. Benton Way Los Angeles, CA. 90026 (213) 484-2194 (not a cell)

“DougH on the Go!” http://dougharvey.blogspot.com/
http://mannlichercarcano.blogspot.com/
Website in progress: http://dougharvey.la

Doug Harvey’s LA WEEKLY Writing Archives Online: http://www.laweekly.com/content/result/author:27873

2) Check out this great interview in a British magazine.

3) Here’s another interview, this time about the KOWH comic book

4) Check out this recent email from Robert in Ohio: “A friend and I got matching tattoos in honor of the Kids! We love what they do and absolutely love their music. We try to get as many people hooked on them as we can. Hopefully these will help to spread the word!”