How To Build A Fire: January @ Open Source Gallery
STORYTELLING
Thursday, January 25th, 7-9pm
@ Open Source Gallery
306 17th St, Brooklyn, NY 11215
January at Open Source feels like hibernation. There is no show in the gallery this month, so we look inward, wrapping ourselves in our stories and ideas. The theme for January (with a glance back to Kwanzaa) is Kujichagulia: Self Determination. In the midst of turmoil, we closed out 2023 and have launched ourselves into 2024. What choices are we making to shape our lives as we desire, to live according to our values and beliefs, to realize our visions, whatever they may be?
Chuck Moss
Chuck Moss is a New York City-based film maker, producer, and editor. Chuck specializes in short film, documentary, public access, photography, and visual abstract realism. As a progressive critical thinker, he is interested in the practice of curiosity and how compassion is used to explore shared spaces of uncertainty, advocacy, and human potential. Whether through political, economic, cultural, and social narratives, Chuck enjoys providing associative imagery to assist with considering our own roles in contested arenas of change and transition.
Cynthia Dennard
Cynthia began her career in advertising as one of the first women Print Production Directors producing newspaper and magazine campaigns for such clients as New York University, Time Warner Cable and PFLAG (Parents of Lesbians and Gays).
After a decade in advertising, she decided to focus on her love of interior design. In 1999 Cynthia officially opened her studio C/D DESIGN STUDIO with a focus on modern, contemporary interiors with an eclectic edge for high-end residential properties such as rentals, co-ops/condos, brownstones, townhouses and privately owned homes from full scale renovations to decorating projects. Her clientele consists of those within the sports, banking and entertainment industries. Projects are located in New York City, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Washington D.C and Florida.
Children’s bedding line, “Bubbly Babies”, a line of handcrafted, custom designed bedding for infants, toddlers and teens using a combination of fabrics from Africa, India and Asia featured in Essence Magazine as a “Best Pick” for children’s accessories.
Participated in Elle Décor’s “Dining By Design” an annual event held in The Hamptons benefiting DIFFA (Design Industries Foundation Fighting Aids) by designing a fantasy outdoor dining scene for Starr Jones.
Contracted by Home Depot to produce an in house interior design program at their boutique store located on West 23rd Street in New York City. Created a live monthly design series in addition to writing for various design magazines, local newspapers and real estate trade magazines.
In conjunction with a Brooklyn based home furnishings shop, produced a three year, monthly interior design series highlighting specific design issues for neighborhood homeowners and commercial property owners.
Ashley Austin Morris
Ashley Austin Morris is an Actor, Comedian, and Writer. Ashley currently plays Roxanne Hertz opposite Jesse Eisenberg and Claire Danes in FX’s Fleishman Is In Trouble.
Other credits include The Other Two (HBO) THE BITE, Iliza Shlesinger Sketch Show (Netflix), Tommy (CBS), The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon) Prodigal Son (FOX). Ashley had a recurring role on A&E’s digital series, Think Tank, and has been featured as a guest star on Murphy Brown (CBS 2018) opposite Candace Bergen, The Big Bang Theory (CBS), The Good Wife (CBS), Desperate Housewives (ABC), Ugly Betty (ABC), and many more.
Ashley’s Comedy Album Slightly Off debuted at number one on the iTunes Charts and continues to perform well. She can be seen regularly at New York
Gabe Pacheco
Gabe is a Brooklyn based upbeat bilingual performer who has appeared at several national festivals. His voice is on John Fugelsang’s Tell Me Everything, on Sirius XM and the “Katie Halper Show”. He’s a member of the Story Pirates community. His album “Risky Behavior” is out on 800 Pound Gorilla Records. He host a weekly live show Funhouse Comedy in Williamsburg and a weekly politics and pop-culture podcast “Halal Cartels”
How to Build a Fire is a community storytelling series where a diverse group of individuals share real-life, personal narratives centered around a different theme each last Thursday of the month. At times funny, at times sad, their stories weave together a broad illustration of the human experience. How To Build A Fire will takes place at Open Source Gallery -a welcoming, nurturing, intimate, safe environment- where, monthly, one can see a new exhibition installed by an array of up-and-coming and established visual artists.
How To Build a Fire was founded by Terence Degnan. This year Stacie Evans and Lana Siebel will be co-curating and co-hosting.
Stacie Evans writes in long hand. With a fountain pen. Because she’s that girl: the wannabe homesteading, selectively Luddite girl who is addicted to her phone and regularly overshares online. She met James Baldwin in Paris … which will ever and always be the most glamorous and dramatic thing about her. Her writing has appeared in New South, After Ferguson, Bellingham Review, and The Rumpus.
Lana Siebel performs all over the US, including NYC, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, NJ, and Washington DC. She was selected as a featured comedian at The Connecticut Comedy Festival along with comedians such as Gilbert Gottfried, The Headliner Series in NY, The Punch Line Comedy Club in Philadelphia, as well as the Fairfield Comedy Club in Connecticut. As an actress, Lana is featured in numerous films and off Broadway plays. She studied acting at Lee Strasberg Institute and HB Studios with Austin Pendleton. Lana was also a competitive International Latin style Ballroom dancer ranked internationally and 7th in the US! She immigrated as a refugee from Kharkiv, Ukraine when she was seven years old with her family to Brooklyn, NY where she grew up and now resides.
This program is supported by the Puffin Foundation
