Thursday April 7, 18.30-20.00

Lecture Hall 2A, Building Halle aux Farines
Université Paris Diderot-Paris 7
Paris Rive Gauche site

David Linx
Born in 1965 in Brussels, Jazz musician David Linx is a singer, songwriter, composer and multi instrumentalist. In 1986, his James Baldwin Project  is acclaimed both in Europe and the U.S. Reissued in 2000, the project features James Baldwin reading his poems along with some of the best European and American jazz musicians of the time : Pierre Van Dormael, Deborah Brown, Steve Coleman, Slide Hampton, Toots Thielemans, Jimmy Owens and Viktor Lazlo.

In 1992 Linx forms a duo with pianist and composer Diederik Wissels. They tour regularly as a duo or quartet and have recorded 7 albums so far. Public and critical acclaim has made this duo one of the most sought after vocal acts of the moment. As a solo singer and composer, he records L’instant d’après with Polydor/Universal in 2000, a widely acclaimed album of songs in French. In 2003 the David Linx/Diederik Wissels quartet issues This Time with Harmonia Mundi. The album is awarded Jazzman Magazine’s « choc des chocs » distinction, and the quartet plays several French and international jazz festivals (Vienne, Nice, Montréal, Paris La Villette).

The Linx/Wissels project also initiated several joint projects such as Heartland, with Paolo Fresu (Universal, 2001), and One Heart, Three Voices, with singers Fay Claassen and Maria Pia de Vito (e-motive records/Nocturne, 2005), which received the Grand Prix de l’Académie Charles Cros, the Prix Adami and the  Prix du Musicien Européen de l’Académie du Jazz.

David Linx’s latest project entitled Follow the Songlines, with Maria Joao, Mario Laginha, Diederik Wissels, Christophe Wallemme, Helge Norbakken and a symphony orchestra conducted by Dirk Brossé,  created in 2007 in Brussels and Porto, was also presented in Geneva, Lyon, and Paris. He is currently working on a production of Porgy and Bess with Maria Joao and the Brussels Jazz Orchestra. Also in the making is an album with Rhoda Scott featuring Julien Lourau, Lenine, Paolo Fresu, Steve Houben, Nguyên Lê, Sergio Krakowski,  with Naïve. His many other talents include singing, writing music for film-makers and choreographers, writing songs and producing albums for singers.

Friday April 8, 18.30-20.00

Lecture Hall 2A, Building Halle aux Farines
Université Paris Diderot-Paris 7
Paris Rive Gauche site
In partnership with L’Institut du Tout Monde 

Introduction by Frédéric Sylvanise (Université Paris 13-Nord)

Thierry Pécou
For Thierry Pécou, to live is to travel, and to travel is to write, as if composing were both plunging into another universe, taking emotional possession of the places, and above all, stepping back; voluntarily becoming marginalized in relation to one’s everyday cultural milieu.  

Born in 1965 in Paris, Thierry Pécou began studying the piano at the age of nine and continued his studies at the Paris Conservatoire Supérieur, where he won First Prizes in Orchestration and Composition. Regularly appointed for residencies around the world, Pécou has had a long-standing relationship with the Banff Center in Canada where he has often been in residence. He was also a member of the Casa de Velazquez in Madrid and in residence in Russia, as part of the Villa Médicis Hors Les Murs Prize, and has made his extensive travel a source of inspiration for his music. 

He wrote over 80 performed works, most often commissions by prestigious institutions interpreted by world-class soloists and orchestras (Kronos Quartet, Alexandre Tharaud, the BBC Symphony Orchestra) at concert seasons and festivals (the Radio-France Présences festival , Gaudeamus Music-Week in Amsterdam, Automn in Moscow, New Music Concerts Toronto, Foro Internacional de Musica Nueva de Mexico, Festival d’Ambronay, Tampere Choir Festival (Finland), Auditorium de Nagasaki, Théâtre de la Ville and des Champs Elysées in Paris, Octobre en Normandie. 

Thierry Pécou’s Stabat Mater received a special mention at UNESCO’s International Rostrum of Composers in 1990. He also won the Prix Nouveau Talent SACD in 1999, the Prix Georges Enesco as well as the Prix des Jeunes Compositeurs SACEM in 1993 and 2004. His work Brèves du Jaguar was recommended at the International Rostrum of Composers in 2004. He was furthermore nominated for the Victoires de la Musique 2005 in the Composer of the year category, for his piece – Outre-Mémoire (Editions Musicales Européennes).

He is currently completing the opera L’Amour Coupable, based upon Beaumarchais’ La Mère coupable, on a libretto by Eugene Green, commissioned by the Rouen Opera.

Jean-Luc Tamby
After studying the classical guitar and improvisation at the C .N.S.M. in Paris, Jean-Luc Tamby has participated in the creation and diffusion activities of the ensemble of contemporary music S. I. C. He then turned to ancient instruments which he studied  with Eric Bellocq and Vincent Dumestre, as well as with Jordi Savall and Hopkinson Smith during master classes.
He has since then participated in numerous concerts and recordings for the Poème Harmonique and the Musée de la musique in particular.
He is currently completing a PhD about the musical extensions of the works and thought of Edouard Glissant. As a musicologist, he helps spread the works of Thierry Machuel and Thierry Pécou.
Jean-Luc Tamby teaches luth playing and improvisation in the Conservatoires of Dieppe and Rouen.

Rémi Biet
Remi Biet discovered jazz music at the age of fifteen listening to a compilation  (Les géants du jazz). Fascinated by Don Byas’s sound on On the Sunny Side of the Street, he decided to try his hand at the saxophone. Six months later, he was playing with musicians from Rouen who went by the name « Les pinces à linge ».

A self-taught musician, he borrowed a double bass to accompany sax player Philippe Ecrepont, then got interested in the flute which he decided to study. He later turned to the clarinet after hearing Eddie Daniels’s album entitled Breakthrough.

A primary school teacher for a dozen years before dedicating himself entirely to jazz, he taught jazz at the Ecole d’improvisation de Jazz in the Mont Saint-Aignan and at the Ecole nationale de musique in Dieppe. He is currently in charge of the jazz class at the Conservatoire in Rouen.

Rémi Biet arranged and directed the music for Jean-Jacques Milteau’s show entitled Road Movies with the Ensemble Orchestral de Basse-Normandie (12 strings, 5 wind instruments) and guitarist Manu Galvin. He also took part in a show with the Orchestre National de France and drummer André Charlier at the Maison de Radio France in December 2004 (which was broadcast on France Musiques in January 2005). He later performed with the Métropolitain de Montreal in Montreal for the Festiblues festival in August 2005, with the Orchestre de l’Institut Supérieur de Musique of Tunis in September 2007 at the Festival International de la Médina and also with the Quartet Ebène.

Rémi Biet performed in a quartet with guitarist Lionel Benhamou, Stéphane Huchard on drums and Jean-Jacques Avenel on double bass. He was commissioned to compose “Suite barbare” for a jazz big band and a barrel organ (with Pierre Charial on organ). The “Hivernales des cuivres et des percussions” asked him to create the music illustrating Allessandro Barricco’s text entitled “Novecento Pianiste”. He also created “A cordes et à Coeur”.

After Christian Garros’s death in 1988, he started running the Rouen Big Band orchestra with pianist Philippe Carment. He also occasionnally featured in various orchestras such as Laurent Cugny’s Big Band Lumière and Jean-Michel Pilc’s Big band. The latter also hired him in his New Big One.

April 6-8, 2011
Art House and Cinema Venue La Clef
21 rue de la Clef, 75005 Paris
Métro: Censier Daubenton (line 7 / Bus 47 — from Paris Diderot : take bus 62 then change for bus 47 or métro line 7 at Tolbiac)

All films, all showings : 5,5 euros
Films shown in English with French subtitles

Programming: Anne Crémieux (Université Paris Ouest-Nanterre)

"In the Dark Room" is the first festival in France to specifically deal with queer Black issues. It showcases modern, activist images of queer Black desire that represent the cultural and social diversity of the Black queer community.
The selection includes films from the United States, Europe and Africa, dealing with transgender, transsexual, lesbian, bi and gay issues. They raise questions in direct connection with the fields of expertise of many of the conference attendees, namely African American literature (Looking for Langston, Brother to Brother, Precious), the trans paradigm, performance, and the representation of the body (Woubi chéri, Venus Boyz, Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Mask).  
All of these films are recognized as holding a central place in the history of queer cinema worldwide, offering the racial dimension that is key to any minority issue. They were all produced in the independent circuit, except for Precious, the adaptation of lesbian author Sapphire’s bestselling novel Push, on par with the rest of the selection for its filmic and narrative courage. Queer Black cinema over the past twenty years has been made of tightly budgeted, independent productions, which matches the programming tradition of art house cinema venue La Clef.

The University of Chicago Center in Paris (Library)
6, rue Thomas Mann, 75013 Paris – Métro Bibliothèque François Mitterrand

Theodore A. Harris
To sum up Theodore A. Harris’ CV borders on the impossible, so rich and versatile his route has been. Theodore A. Harris is a poet, muralist, collagist and arts instructor born in New York City. He currently lives and works in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was featured in various one man and group shows from 1984 to 2009. In addition to teaching arts in various settings, such as the African American Museum in Philadelphia in 2009, the ICA Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia, in 2008, or the Hammonds House Museum (Atlanta, GA) where he was Artist in Residence in 2007, Harris has appeared in many publications (New Letters, Paterson Literary Review, Cal Literary Arts Magazine, African American Review, Black Renaissance Noire, Quarterly Black Book Review, Callaloo, African Voices, Temple University Faculty Herald, Ethnic Studies Graduate Journal) and anthologies (In Defense of Mumia (Writers and Readers 1996); ROLE CALL: A Generational Anthology of Social and Political Black Literature / Art (Third World Press 2002)). Amongst his most significant work, we find his solo exhibit Our Flesh of Flames, displayed in 2009 in Philadelphia and New York, after he authored a book entitled OUR FLESH OF FLAMES: Collages by Theodore A. Harris / Captions by Amiri Baraka Introduction by M. K. Asante, Jr. Afterword by Gene Ray (Anvil Arts Press 2008) (http://www.ourfleshofflames.com ). He has authored two other books: I ran from it and I was still in it, by Fred Moten and Theodore A. Harris (Cups Books, 2007) and Malcom X as Ideology, by Amiri Baraka, Collage by Theodore A. Harris (LeBow, 2008). Lately, he was Ashe Cultural Arts Center’s Artist in Residence (New Orleans, LA). Theodore A. Harris’s artistic identity characterizes itself through Harris’ political commitment and belief that art is a weapon.

Exhibition list:
1. L’Angelus, 208cm x 284cm
2. SELF, 130cm x 291cm
3. Blue and Red, 80cm x 160cm
4. 167, 80cm x 160cm
5. A.TDT, 80cm x 240cm
6.MILK, 80cm x 160cm
7. Carosell, 150cm x 210cm
8. Jtec, 150cm x 204cm
9. EG 2 Infinity, 150cm x 200cm
10. Take Notice, 180cm x 200cm
11. Dusthead, 180cm x 200cm