PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles Library will celebrate a new Art in the Library exhibit today with its quarterly Art Blast! event.
The opening reception for the new Art in the Library exhibit will be at 6:30 p.m. at the library, 2210 S. Peabody St.
This will be an opportune time to meet the featured artists, enjoy refreshments and view the new show which features the work of Tim Roos, Bonnie Clark and artists from Clallam Mosaic.
The Seattle-based septet, En Canto, will begin performing at 7 p.m.
Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. and attendees are urged to come early to check out the new art on display throughout the building and mingle with the featured artists.
Refreshments will be served, and limited library services will be available during this free, after-hours event.
A multi-ethnic, female-led seven-piece band, En Canto’s world pop music — a combination of forró, samba, and choro-inspired originals and reimagined covers of classic Brazilian hits — commands attention and inspires movement.
“We love this music because of its compositional brilliance, its original grooves, and its revolutionary nature … its roots in post-colonialism, in cultural battles for class and racial equality,” accordionist Jamie Maschler explained.
“Why wouldn’t it also inspire gender equality?”
Playing primarily in North American venues, En Canto currently channels its independence into challenging stereotypes while also helping audiences expand their comfort zones.
“We make people dance,” as drummer Adam Kozie puts it. “We routinely open our concerts to a room full of shy, awkward faces, and we close them to a sweat-drenched melee of bodies and smiles.
“We experience real joy when we play these songs, and people feel that, and they respond in kind, regardless of whether they understand the words or know the ‘right’ dance moves. It was the same for each us at one point when we first heard Luis Gonzaga or Gilberto Gil — we were provoked and then captured by the music, and we feel honored to be able to offer our own interpretations of it.”
The exhibit will be on display at the Port Angeles Main Library from April 27 through July 24.
For information, visit www.nols.org, call 360-417-8500, or email Discover@nols.org.
