'Feel Like Goin' On'

J. Monroe Butler II Ebenezer Church members gather in the empty lot where the Hill District church burned down to celebrate a groundbreaking for its resurrection. This image is part of the "Feel Like Goin' On" exhibit opening Friday. Click photo for larger image.

A year ago, a group of black photographers, inspired by the legacy of the late Pittsburgh Courier photojournalist Charles "Teenie" Harris, organized to record life in African-American communities around the city.

The first exhibition of their work, "Feel Like Goin' On," will open between 5:30 and 9 p.m. Friday, during the Gallery Crawl in the Cultural District, at the 937 Gallery, third floor of 937 Liberty Ave., Downtown.

The exhibition, curated by Janera Solomon, comprises approximately 40 images by eight of the group's photographers. Exhibiting are Sandra Gould Ford, Frank Hightower, Carol Moye, Ken Neely, William Feagins, Kim Roberts, Germaine Watkins and the Post-Gazette's J. Monroe Butler II.

Solomon says they represent a "core group," but the organization hopes to recruit others.

While the photographers are carrying out this project to honor Harris, group organizer and Post-Gazette staff writer Ervin Dyer says that they also have a mission to help people to "understand that when Teenie was no longer able to record slices of black joy with his camera, blacks did not fall off the face of the earth."

Friday's opening reception will be a catered affair with gospel music. Other events are:

From 1 to 2:30 p.m. Saturday, the exhibiting photographers will speak about their work and process.

From 1 to 2:30 pm. Oct. 15, a limited enrollment youth workshop, "Go Get That Photograph," will offer lessons in photography and image-building.

From 1 to 2:30 p.m. Oct. 22, a panel will discuss "Mainstream Media, Black Images," including the impact of images taken on the Gulf Coast after recent hurricanes.

All events are free, open to the public and at the gallery.

The exhibition continues through Oct. 30. Gallery hours are 7 to 9 p.m. Fridays and noon to 5 p.m. Saturdays. For information, call 412-263-1410.

-- Preview by Mary Thomas,Post-Gazette Art Critic

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Pillow Project Dance Company

The cavernous expanse of Shadyside's Hunt Armory was only half-filled with military trucks last weekend. The other half was taken up by Pillow Project Dance Company's second concert, a retro rock 'n' roll venture called "The Concept Album Tour."

Artistic director Pearlann Porter led her own army of 25 dancers in a look back at the '60s and '70s and some of the songs that made a mark during those decades.

It was a massive project for Porter, who had a hand in all of the seven "tracks" (except for Jillian Canastraro's comic book ditty, "Revenge of the Traffic Signs"). She showed a real knack for creating vibrant waves of dance and inspiring her company through it all.

The cast had an eye-popping energy worthy of the rock concert set-up and was enhanced by Bob Steineck's terrific lighting schemes. The dancers, mostly Point Park University alumnae, were obviously ready to get it on.

Saturday night's performance lagged a little on "... well?," the overly angst-driven cover of a song from John Lennon's first post-Beatles album, and on "For Logic and Proportion," set to Grace Slick's psychedelic "White Rabbit" and featuring a trio of chair-bound women on a trip of their own.

Tim Winski drove an "air guitar" number to Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," although it lacked the song's complexity. And "You're Playing My Song" to Led Zeppelin's "I'm Gonna Crawl" was a passionate duo profile of a bygone generation.

"Pieces of the Moon" from Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" had "catch me," in which Ben Wegman seemed to defy gravity with his landscape of female dancers supporting him; "find me," a tender duet for Wegman and Dionna PridGeon; and "save me," a corporate-style video that unfortunately was cut off at the top by the architectural curve of the Armory.

For a dose of real rock 'n' roll, there was the pungent military-style "There and Back Again" to Jimi Hendrix's "Machine Gun," in which Craig Kauffman played a Vietnam vet with a head full of memories, and the finale, a "hidden track" that prowled the stage floor and brought the night to a standing-ovation close.

-- Review by Jane Vranish, Post-Gazette dance critic