In Loving Memory is a ritualistic reflection of love, loss and mourning through the physical body and metaphor. Participants will be tied from their fingers to mine throughout the performance. Lit candles are burned in my mouth for duration of no less than 30 minutes. I am offering my physical self up as an alter for experiences of the human condition that words and language fail to encompass.

Meghan E. Van Alstyne is a graduate of the BFA program at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and Tufts University. She works as a visual artist in Boston and New York. Her work includes sculpture, installation and performance. Much of the work is executed through Casting and Mold Making in plastics, rubbers and traditional materials.

Her work references anatomy and its locality to sociological and psychological relationships. Love, mortality and the human condition are current threads of interest. The human body is the most intimate way communicate a message. We understand our bodies and the bodies of others. A gesture, an expression and an action can all move and shake us in a way nothing else can.  Her work has been exhibited in Boston, New York and Art Basel, Miami (2007) as well as various venus in Estonia.

Meghan E. Van Alstyne Is currently represented by  The Marketplace Gallery in Albany, NY. Please contact the gallery for any questions or enquiries about purchasing and commissioning original works.

Award-winning, New York-based vocal virtuoso Gino Sitson is from the Bamileke region of Cameroon, Central Africa. His family comes from a long line of musicians known as Ntontas ("players of horns") and his mother is a vocalist and choir director. He and his siblings were introduced to blues, jazz and African traditional music early in life.

Mr. Sitson is a pioneer of a new generation of multi-culturally influenced African musicians who are integrating into their musical styles their own exciting yet bewildering welter of "in-between" living experiences (north/south, tradition/modernity, 20th/21st century). His daring musical project combines in a most innovative way jazz, gospel, blues and traditional African polyphonies, polyrhythms and melodies. By freely combining his trademark vocal acrobatics with a breathtakingly creative command of oral and body percussions and miscellaneous effects, Mr. Sitson forged an eloquent vocabulary capable of communicating far beyond any limits of language or custom. Through his vocal wizardry, he stunningly creates an endless range of sounds and atmospheres. Sitson's seamless four- octave range travels from a soulful, resonantly masculine tenor with woodwind-like overtones to a high-soaring, nearly genderless spiritual wail, a feat that recalls Brazil's Milton Nascimento, another deep-rooted yet restlessly protean, jazz-inflected shape-changer.

Gino Sitson's four-octave vocal range plus his skills as a composer and arranger put him in high demand for recording sessions and for commercials and radio / television jingles (Danone, Dim, Peugeot, Vahine, etc). The versatile young vocalist performed in a musical and co-composed part of the music (Jeanne et le Garçon Formidable).

He has laid down tracks or shared the stage with Manu Dibango, Ron Carter, Papa Wemba, Wally Badarou, John Scofield, Geri Allen, David Gilmore, Haruko Nara, Bobby McFerrin, Frank Wess, Ray Lema, Craig Harris, James Hurt, Antoine Roney, John William, Mario Canonge, Wallace Roney, Brice Wassy, Oliver NGoma, Exile One, Steve Potts, So Why? (Featuring Youssou NDour, Papa Wemba, Wally Badarou, Jabu Khanyile & Bayete, Lourdes Van-Dunem, and Lucky Dube) and La Compagnie Creole, among others.

In 2008, Mr. Sitson was invited by Bobby McFerrin to join him on a PBS documentary ("The music instinct: Science & Song"), to take part in a special project that took place at the Carnegie Hall ("Instant Opera"). A member of Chamber Music America, he is regularly engaged for movie scores and commercials. He has appeared several times on TV and also composed music for the noted children's TV show, Dora The Explorer (Nickelodeon). Since 2006, Mr. Sitson is a Cultural Arts ambassador for the city of Miami (Florida).

Meanwhile, his international career continues apace. He has received the "Parents Choice Silver Medal Honor Award" in 2004 and was nominated for the RFI Awards 2000. His recent output includes soundtracks to Betrayal (Kevin Ngooh) and Blue Lotus (Dayo Ayodele); jingles for France Television and France 3, and an ongoing collaboration with his German-based brother, vocalist-composer-percussionist-actor Njamy Sitson (www.myspace.com/njamysitson). Mr. Sitson performed at the Carnegie Hall with his own group in 2008.

Aside from musical performances, Gino leads vocal workshops served by his amazing vocal technique, his musical knowledge and his desire to share his love for vocal explorations. Gino has developed workshops for professional as well as non-professional singers, and also for children. Gino Sitson is a member of the American Society for Ethnomusicology. Presently, he is completing a PhD in musicology-ethnomusicology at Paris-Sorbonne University.

PERFORMEANDO Saturday April 6

An evening of Latin-Latino/a-Hispanic Performance Art presentations.

CONTINUOUS ACTION [Every Saturday starting April 13th]

A series of four hour continuous performances every Saturday at Grace Exhibition Space. Featuring Sindy Butz, Rob Andrews, Marni Kotak, M. Ryan Noble, Sandrine Schaefer, and AnalogAnalogue