Party Watch
Artfully-inspired cocktails and musical performance herald upcoming CounterCurrent festival
- John Guess Jr., from left, Karen Farber, Michael Ray Charles and Divya Murthy.Photo by © Dave Rossman
- Sarah Gish, from left, Jenni Rebecca Stephenson and Delicia Harvey.Photo by © Dave Rossman
- Ryan Dennis, from left, Lisa Harris and Landa Harris.Photo by © Dave Rossman
- Rex Koontz, left, and Wayne Gilbert.Photo by © Dave Rossman
- Melissa Lujan and John Trahan.Photo by © Dave Rossman
- Laura Gutierrez, left, and Susan Blair.Photo by © Dave Rossman
- Jose Solis and Annie Arnoult.Photo by © Dave Rossman
- More than 100 gather at Mongoose vs Cobra for CounterCurrent kickoff.Photo by © Dave Rossman
- Jelisa Kocurek, left, and Candies Ponce.Photo by © Dave Rossman
- Jayeesha Dutta and Nick Moser.Photo by © Dave Rossman
- Emily and Jeffrey Church, left, with Sabine Church.Photo by © Dave Rossman
- Andrew Davis and Valentine Waithera.Photo by © Dave Rossman
- A live performance by "Cry You One" artists Kathy Randels and Hannah Pepper Cunningham.Photo by © Dave Rossman
- Aimee Heimbinder, from left, Sean Gorman and Karen Farber.Photo by © Dave Rossman
- Adam Castaneda and Rebecca French.Photo by © Dave Rossman
- Allison Lott, left, and Kathryn Lott.Photo by © Dave Rossman
What:CounterCurrent kickoff party.
Where: Mongoose vs Cobra.
The 411: Arts enthusiasts gathered more than 100 strong to get an early dose of things to come when CounterCurrent takes over Houston with audio and visual installations, live performances and participatory events spread across the city. Presented by the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts at the University of Houston, the festival will include artists from around the world.
Mitchell Center executive director Karen Farber announced the line-up for the five-day festival that begins April 14 and introduced a video trailer from the 2014 CounterCurrent festival. Further whetting the crowd's appetite for the artistic adventure was a performance by two of the artists, Kathy Randels and Hannah Pepper Cunningham of “Cry You One.”
Crafty bartenders showed their spirit by creating cocktails reflecting the festival performances including the signature CC15, Bitter Sky, inspired by Luke Savisky’s HT/X; Discordant Strings, inspired by Ibrahim Quraishi’s Islamic Violins (ed. II); Dance Steps, inspired by Ten Tiny Dances; and The John Brown, inspired by Dean Moss’ performance johnbrown.
Who: Linda Shearer, Wayne Gilbert, John Trahan, Divya Murthy, Margarita Cabrera, Sean Gorman, Andrew Davis, John Guess Jr., Aimee Heimbinder, Lisa Harris, Michael Ray Charles and Luke Savisky.