BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Express Newark - ECPv6.17.3.1//NONSGML v1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-WR-CALNAME:Express Newark
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://expressnewark.org
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Express Newark
REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H
X-Robots-Tag:noindex
X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/Halifax
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0300
TZNAME:ADT
DTSTART:20250309T060000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0300
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:AST
DTSTART:20251102T050000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0300
TZNAME:ADT
DTSTART:20260308T060000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0300
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:AST
DTSTART:20261101T050000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0300
TZNAME:ADT
DTSTART:20270314T060000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0300
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:AST
DTSTART:20271107T050000
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20261007T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20261105T220000
DTSTAMP:20260909T201958Z
CREATED:20260908T212215Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260909T201958Z
UID:1843-1791392400-1793916000@expressnewark.org
SUMMARY:Legacy Opening Celebration
DESCRIPTION:Express Newark is turning ten\, marking the milestone with Legacy\, its 2026–2027 annual theme exploring what it means to build\, teach\, and gather in Newark across a decade of change. Express Newark\, the hub for socially engaged arts at Rutgers University–Newark\, announces Legacy as its 2026–2027 annual theme\, marking the approach of its tenth anniversary in spring 2027. Through exhibitions\, artist residencies\, performances\, educational programs\, and community gatherings\, the anniversary season considers legacy not simply as something inherited from the past\, but as a living practice shaped through teaching\, making\, remembering\, and caring for one another across generations.  \nOn Wednesday\, October 7\, 2026\, Express Newark will launch the season with the opening of eleven exhibitions\, artist-in-residence open studios\, public conversations\, and live music. The celebration also coincides with the 25th anniversary of the Newark Arts Festival and the opening of Newark Arts’ group exhibition\, ON PURPOSE\, bringing together two organizations whose histories reflect Newark’s longstanding role as a center for artistic production and cultural leadership.  \nThe evening features Stefon Harris & Blackout in performance\, celebrating the release of Harris’s new album\, Legacy Dances. Acclaimed artist and Newark Arts Festival 2026 guest Bisa Butler will join Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and scholar Salamishah Tillet for a special public conversation.  \nThe Legacy season also welcomes Kimmah Dennis as its Educational Initiatives Artist-in-Residence. A Rutgers University–Newark alumna and now a Lecturer in the Fine Art Program\, Dennis was among the first cohort of students to experience Express Newark. Artist and Rutgers Lecturer Raúl Ayala joins SHINE Portrait Studio as Artist-in-Residence\, activating his photographic backdrop installation FERVOR through performative movement\, custom garments\, and upcoming video work. In the Power Plant Studio\, Manuel Acevedo will present work\, The Wards of Newark\, from his year-long residency with New Arts. \n\n                                     \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n Kimmah Dennis\, I will not be a loose talker\, 2020\, Oil\, charcoal\, chalk\, newspaper\, oil pastels joint compound on canvas\, 84 x 60 in. \nSeason launches October 7 with eleven exhibitions\, artist-in-residence open studios\, an album release and performances\, and a public conversation  \nExhibitions Opening October 7\nThe eleven exhibitions opening October 7 span jazz history\, migration\, protest\, portraiture\, and more—together offering a picture of how Newark’s cultural legacies are carried forward today.  \n\nLaylah Amatullah Barrayn — From the First Note: Developing Icons\nReexamines mid-century jazz through archival photography and contemporary image-making\, considering how Black genius is seen\, framed\, preserved\, and illuminated. \nLaylah Amatullah Barrayn — A Grandassa Sunday\nHonors the African Jazz-Art Society & Studios and the Grandassa Models\, whose Naturally shows helped define the 1960s “Black Is Beautiful” movement.\nChantal Fischzang — ÉXITO\nA large-scale neon work transforming the familiar language of an EXIT sign into éxito—“success” in Spanish—and a declaration of possibility. \nAyana V. Jackson — The Good News is not Delivered from Mountaintops but in Clearings\nPresents new work developed during Jackson’s residency at Form Design Studio\, where she expanded her practice through sculpture and experimental fabrication. \nShoshanna Weinberger — Between the Trees and the Thicket: A Grove of Knowledge\nAn immersive mural installation inspired by Newark’s Branch Brook Park and the dynamic rhythms of Newark’s urban fabric. \nRaúl Ayala — FERVOR\nA photographic backdrop installation drawing on seeds\, flowers\, and spices from the Ecuadorian Andes to explore belonging\, migration\, and diasporic self-determination. \nKevin Darmanie — Disco Calypso\nAn installation combining video\, painting\, pattern\, sound\, and live DJ performances to explore the continuing exchange between Caribbean and American cultural expression. \nAnthony Alvarez & Chantal Fischzang — FOCUS\nA collaboration with Rutgers students and FOCUS Hispanic Center for Community Development using portraiture and design to explore legacy\, family\, migration\, cultural identity\, and belonging. \nDesign Consortium & ACLU of New Jersey — I AM. YOU ARE. WE ARE. FREE TO SPEAK. PROTEST. DISSENT.\nFollowing a year-long collaboration\, this exhibition explores how design can help people understand\, exercise\, and protect their constitutional rights. \nNewark Arts — ON PURPOSE\nCurated by Adrienne Wheeler for the 25th anniversary of the Newark Arts Festival\, celebrating the artists\, ideas\, and cultural leadership shaping Newark today. \nInstitute of Jazz Studies & Paul Robeson Galleries — Artifactual Echoes: “Jazz” in Their Own Words\nRevisits Records at Play\, Express Newark’s inaugural exhibition\, bringing jazz artifacts from Rutgers–Newark’s Institute of Jazz Studies back into the galleries for the anniversary year. \n\n“Legacy guides Express Newark’s tenth anniversary by asking us to consider not only what has been built over the past decade\, but how that work continues through the people who teach\, create\, collaborate\, and gather here\,” said Stefon Harris and Nick Kline\, Co-Directors of Express Newark. “Grounded in our commitment to Empowering Expression Through the Arts\, this season celebrates the artists\, educators\, students\, alumni\, and community members who have shaped Express Newark while creating opportunities for the next generation.”  \nExpress Newark’s Legacy season builds on in its role as a third space bridging campus and community and the belief that the arts are essential to individual and collective wellbeing. Through art\, design\, photography\, music\, film\, and more\, the anniversary year celebrates a decade of collective achievement while looking toward what comes next.\n  \nOpening Celebration  \nWednesday\, October 7\, 2026 | 5–10 PM \nExpress Newark\n54 Halsey Street\, 2nd Floor\, Newark\, NJ 07102\nFree and open to the public. RSVP\nhttps://expressnewark.org/  \nAbout Express Newark\nExpress Newark is a hub for socially engaged practices in the Arts. Our educators\, learners\, artists\, and community members come together to create\, collaborate\, and share stories that express our collective experience. Empowering Expression Through the Arts \nAbout Rutgers University – Newark\nRutgers University–Newark is one of three regional campuses of Rutgers University\, New Jersey’s State University. It is a remarkably diverse\, urban\, public research university that is not just in Newark but of Newark—an anchor institution of our home city. We think of anchor institutions as place-based organizations that persist in their communities over generations\, even in the face of substantial capital flight\, serving as social glue\, economic engines\, or both.  \nMEDIA CONTACT\nInayah Bashir\, Sr. Program Coordinator\, Express Newark\, Rutgers University–Newark\, ib338@newark.rutgers.edu 
URL:https://expressnewark.org/event/legacy-opening-celebration/
LOCATION:Express Newark\, 54 Halsey Street\, Newark\, NJ\, 07102
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR