In ancient Greek, the word “Clepsydra” is a water clock, one of the oldest time-measuring instruments in the history of mankind. Meanwhile in Latin, the word “Lotic” refers to flowing water.
Socrates Sculpture Park will host Lotic Time with two special Clepsydra shows on Saturday, Aug. 5. (Rain date: Aug. 6.)
It’ll make sense in a bit.
Lotic Time, which is scheduled to run from 2 pm to 7 pm, is a culminating event showcasing collaborative performances by the Jazz Foundation of America and Valerie Green/Dance Entropy. The five-hour show will unfold against the backdrop of Mary Mattingly: Ebb of a Spring Tide, which is Socrates Park’s featured installation for 2023.
On display until Sept. 9, Ebb of a Spring Tide’s centerpiece is a 65-foot water clock with edible vegetation. Fabricated on site, the mammoth structure responds to the tides brought on by the lunar cycle. (The East River, which runs by Socrates Park and feeds this art piece, is not actually a river. It’s a brackish tidal estuary with daily highs and lows…and while we’re at it, it’s to the WEST of Queens.)
At 2 pm, Lotic Time will begin with remarks and a Q&A session with Mattingly and Socrates Park Curator & Director of Exhibitions Kaitlin Garcia-Maestas. Then, it’ll unfold as per the following schedule.
2 pm: Clepsydra.
2:30 pm: Jessica Pavone’s viola solo.
3:15 pm: Positive Knowledge (Oluyemi Thomas & Ijeoma Thomas).
4:15 pm: Art Baron and the Psychoacoustic Band (Peter Apfelbaum, Matt Lavelle, Ben Stapp, Newman Taylor Baker).
5 pm: Clepsydra again.
5:30 pm: J.D. Parran N’ the Spirit (Andrew Drury, Alexis Marcelo, Sharif Kales).
6:15 pm: Blue Reality Quartet (Warren Smith, Joe McPhee, Michael Marcus, Jay Rosen).
Attendance is free, and Gladys Bienvenida Restaurante will operate a food truck on site.
The Performers
Clepsydra is a site-specific dance inspired by movement, water, and time related to Ebb of a Spring Tide. Choreographed by Valerie Green, the dance will be performed by Angelica Barbosa, Sophia Diehl, Johnny Matthews III, Tsubasa Nishioka, Theo Qu, and Richard Scandola with musical accompaniment by Ronnie Burrage, a drummer, percussionist, keyboardist, composer, arranger, bandleader and music educator, and Nimrod Speaks, a bassist, composer, and educator on the electric and double bass.
Green is a lifelong choreographer and performer who created her own company, Dance Entropy, in 1998. She then established the rehearsal and performance venue Green Space in Long Island City in 2005. She hopes Clepsydra’s attendees “explore, contemplate, move, and be moved.”
Jessica Pavone plays the viola and composes. She likes to explore the tactile and sensory experience of music as a vibration-based medium.
Positive Knowledge features multi-instrumentalist Oluyemi Thomas (bass clarinet, saxophones, percussion) and Ijeoma Thomas (voice, percussion). Their compositions emerge from a long, intense, and ongoing involvement with Improvisational and Jazz traditions.
Master trombonist Art Baron and the Psychoacoustic Band carry on the Big Band legacy.
J.D. Parran plays all the saxophones (from soprano to bass), as well as multiple clarinets and flutes. He performs with Andrew Drury, Alexis Marcelo, and Sharif Kales.
Blue Reality Quartet (Warren Smith, Joe McPhee, Michael Marcus, Jay Rosen) has a potent group sound, unique in Avant-Garde Jazz.
Ebb of a Spring Tide
Central to Ebb of a Spring Tide is the way it refers to the shifting nature of rivers and water lines, and how the East River is not just a line on a map but an integral part of a larger water cycle. It seeks to highlight the impending threat of sea level rise in this neighborhood, while inspiring hope that we can prepare for a changing world through innovative design and a restorative relationship with nature.
Mattingly is currently creating an ongoing series of mobile, self-sufficient living systems that challenges notions of home and community. (Her past works include Watershed Core and Swale, a floating edible landscape on a reclaimed barge on New York City’s waterways.)
The Venue
Socrates Park, which is at 32-01 Vernon Blvd., is open every day of the year from 9 am to Sunset.
Top image: Valerie Green/Dance Entropy; bottom images: Socrates Sculpture Park