ALL ARTS to Debut Films From Mahogany L. Browne, Marlena Myles and Kenneth Tam

ALL ARTS will premiere three short films from groundbreaking artists working across multiple disciplines as part of the 2024 Kate W. Cassidy Artist in Residence program. The new films will debut Tuesdays from April 2-16 on the ALL ARTS app website and in the New York metro area on the ALL ARTS TV channel.    

The fourth annual ALL ARTS Artist in Residence festival kicks off on Tuesday, April 2 with Driver Brother from artist Kenneth Tam, who poetically explores the struggle of taxi drivers affected by the New York City medallion pricing crisis. Realms of Resilience, from Spirit Lake Dakota artist Marlena Myles, premieres April 9 and showcases how the artist uses augmented reality to bring visibility to the culture, language and history of the Dakota people. The festival concludes with How To Build A City, which chronicles the career of poet Mahogany L. Browne and her role in shaping the poetry scene in New York and beyond.  

“It has been a privilege to work with these talented artists to realize their Artist in Residence projects and we’re delighted to share their unique visions with audiences around the country” said James King, senior artistic director of ALL ARTS.  

The ALL ARTS Artist in Residence 2024 season will introduce: 

ALL ARTS Artist in Residence: Driver Brother 

Premieres Tuesday, April 2 at 8 p.m. ET on ALL ARTS  
Access: AD, CC available.   

Artist Kenneth Tam’s experimental documentary follows a group of taxi drivers and poetically explores their financial struggle to acquire and maintain ownership of NYC taxi medallions. The film asks: how can the experience of indebtedness be articulated through the body and translated into abstract movement? Building on Tam’s practice of combining video, sculpture, installation, movement, performance and photography, this cinematic project examines the drivers’ expressions of intimacy and vulnerability and the broader psychological and physiological implications of debt.  

Known for examining themes such as the performance of masculinity, the transformative potential of ritual and expressions of intimacy within groups, Tam has a Master of Fine Arts and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from The Cooper Union. His work is in the permanent collections of the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Minneapolis Institute of Art; the Guggenheim Museum; the DALLAS Museum of Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Tam is a recipient of a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists, New York State Council on the Arts Grant, New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Interdisciplinary Work, Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant, California Community Foundation Fellowship for Visual Artists and Art Matters Foundation Grant. He is an assistant professor at Rice University and a faculty member at the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College. 

ALL ARTS Artist in Residence: Realms of Resilience 

Premieres Tuesday, April 9 at 8 p.m. on ALL ARTS  
Access: AD, CC available.  

Marlena Myles is a self-taught Native American (Spirit Lake Dakota/Mohegan/Muscogee) artist, author and publisher based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Her art brings modernity to Indigenous history, languages and oral storytelling traditions while using the land as a teacher. In this short film, Myles shares her personal journey as a Dakota artist working to bring visibility to the culture, language and rich history of the Dakota people through augmented reality in site-specific public art installations. She introduces “Dakota Spirit Walk,” a permanent augmented reality public art installation in Saint Paul. 

Myles’ work has been exhibited by the Minneapolis Institute of Art, The Museum of Russian Art, Red Cloud Heritage Center and the Minnesota Museum of American Art, among others.  In 2021, she launched the Dakota publishing company Wíyouŋkihipi (We Are Capable) Productions to amplify the voices of Dakota authors.

ALL ARTS Artist in Residence: How To Build A City 

Premieres Tuesday, April 16 at 8 p.m. on ALL ARTS  
Access: AD, CC available.  

Writer, playwright and organizer Mahogany L. Browne’s debut film presents an oral history of performance poetry in New York City and beyond. The film, directed by Jive Poetic and Caroline Rothstein, features the voices of globally renowned poets and writers, including Cornelius Eady, poet and playwright; Tongo Eisen-Martin, poet and organizer; Dr. Adam Falkner, writer and educator; Jennifer Falú, writer and social worker; Rico Frederick, creative director and poet; Sarah Kay, poet and educator; aja monet, surrealist blues poet; Nathan P., poet and former slam master at the Nuyorican Poets Café; Jive Poetic, writer, poet, educator and DJ; Lynne Procope, writer, editor and curator; Jason Reynolds, author; Jon Sands, author and educator; Nicole Sealey, author; and Ocean Vuong, writer and professor. How To Build A City chronicles the importance of notable artist gathering spaces, from the Nuyorican Poets Café to Lincoln Center, and the impact of community in building and sustaining the poetry scene.  

Browne is the executive director of JustMedia, an open-access, lens-based media archive designed to support systemic reform through the art of storytelling, and the artistic director of Urban Word, which founded the National Youth Poet Laureate Program to celebrate youth poets. Browne has received fellowships from the Kennedy Center, Cave Canem, Mellon and Rauschenberg, and is the author of several young adult novels, children’s books, anthologies, plays and poetry collections.  

This is the fourth season of the Kate W. Cassidy Artist in Residence program, which launched in 2020 with Taylor Mac, MacArthur Fellow and Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Drama, as its inaugural Artist in Residence. The program has expanded under the artistic direction of James King, and incorporates institutional partners that have included THE SHED in 2022 and HERE Arts Center in 2023.  

Past seasons of ALL ARTS Artist in Residence are available to stream on the ALL ARTS app and AllArts.org/ArtistInResidence. Offerings include: Oh Family Concert, from musician and performer Diana Oh; Whiteness, created by multidisciplinary artists Paul Pinto and Kameron Neal; A Meal Dream Portraits, from artistic duo Ximena Garnica and Shige Moriya; Daytripper, from American Ballet Theatre principal dancer James Whiteside; Matthew Whitaker: About Tomorrow an autobiographical film from jazz pianist Matthew Whitaker; The Roll Call: The Roots to Strange Fruit, a sonic opera from Obie Award winner Jonathan McCrory; There is no movement without rhythm, an exploration of bodily and spiritual liberation in the music of the African Diaspora by multimedia artist Le’Andra LeSeur; Volvo Truck and the Girls From Up the Hill, an impressionistic performance film from DonChristian Jones; and Taylor Mac’s Whitman in the Woods. a drag performance film exploring Walt Whitman’s poetry.   

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