Chronicle of a
graf foretold

We've been reading the tea leaves and rolling the bones, and the signs and portents tell us, something totally wicked this way comes. After an extended sabbatical in Taiwan, Montreal's master of distorted aerosol portraiture, Omen, is returning to town with a big batch of new works in tow. While based in the techniques, tactics and materials of graffiti, Omen has struck out in his own direction, focusing on expansive, intense and - dare we say it - ominous expressions of anonymous physiognomies. Hold on, we're getting another vision here - Omen's exhibit Foreign Exchange at Cluny ArtBar (257 Prince, Bonaventure metro), which runs until June 17, opens on Tuesday, June 7, 5 p.m. » Rupert Bottenberg

Keeping the beat

Spoken word artist and hip hop activist Toni Blackman got into hip hop culture in 1978 when California's controversial Proposition 13 cut funding for most forms of music and art education. "For a serious, intense kid, hip hop was an outlet," Blackman explains. "We had these poor-quality tapes with this hot new music that we would dance to."

This led to a life-long involvement, despite the commercialization of rap. "I was one of those people who was mad at hip hop," she says, "but I kept coming back to, ‘I can't just be on the sidelines.' People who abandon it are no better than those in the corporate offices killing the culture." This summer, Blackman will bring the beat to a new generation, as a creative consultant with Sesame Street!

Blackman and DJ Oja, with Big Gold Hoops and DJ So Called perform Friday, June 3, 9 p.m., at la Sala Rossa (4848 St-Laurent), $10–$12. » Vincent Tinguely

Dancing about moving

Don't be confused, Manual for Incidence isn't the title of a new-age do-it-yourself guide; but it is a performance project that revolves around the ideas of travel, nostalgia and displacement. Creator, choreographer and designer Ame Henderson has made some major moves more than a few times in her life, so it's no wonder these ideas hit home for her. "A lot of the project is about shifting places and how you change when you change places," explains the Vancouver Island native and Concordia dance grad, who has since relocated to Toronto.

Henderson collaborated with a septet of artists scattered geographically in Canada and Europe to form a group work composed of emotionally charged personal solos. The performance piece, which opened in Toronto last month, has its Montreal run June 4–5, 9 p.m. at the Darling Foundry (745 Ottawa). Info: 393-3771. » Marites Carino

What goes down comes up

Some untamed poetry and unusual art behaviour is going on at Galerie La Centrale (4296 St-Laurent). The two current events are the anonymous exhibition Metro Rider and Things That Go Down, a performative reading by Karen Elaine Spencer happening Friday, June 3 at 7:30 p.m..

An anonymous art show is quite a subversive stance when so much contemporary art involves looking at images of the artist and promoting name recognition. This exhibition stems from 600 hours of aimless metro riding by the artist and seems to reflect the age-old wisdom that one's final destination is far less memorable than the journey to reach it. Stop by the gallery and pluck a free metro ticket from the wall and experience your own trip to nowhere. Metro Rider continues until Sunday, June 5.

Spencer's Things That Go Down is also a kind of voyage. This personal and intimate poem about sorrow and longing has universal resonance. After the reading I saw a few weeks back, I could hear Beat poet Allen Ginsberg whooping and applauding from his grave. Info: 871-0268. » Christine Redfern

Is it Art?

ROOTS MANOEUVRES: A good idea, but one that rarely works, is the 2-in-1 applicator-performance product - for example, a toothbrush with toothpaste in the handle that comes out onto the bristles when you push a button. It's ultimately simpler to put the paste on with a tube. But maybe things will be different with the CombaColor Quick Hair Color Applicator. The product was invented by New York model/actress Fiorenza Bertieri, who has an elegant-sounding Italian name you'll likely never hear again. It's a four-ounce bottle you fill with the hair colour of your choice, attached to a comb. Run the comb through your hair, they say, and the colour is applied evenly, down to the roots, no mess, no leaks. And at $5.99 (U.S.), this comb might be worth some serious consideration - www.amazon.com.

ArtsHole

STRECHING, CELEBRATING: Local yoga mag ascent turns five this month, and to celebrate they're putting together an evening inspired by their latest issue, "Yoga & Culture." Expect excerpts from Velcrow Ripper's doc Scared Sacred, spoken word from Catherine Kidd and a performance by comic artist and ascent columnist Billy Mavreas with live music from Sam Shalabi, not to mention good eats from Aux Vivres. The party's at rad'a (841 Gilford) on Saturday, June 4, 8 p.m.–midnight, $5. • PATH TO HUMILITY: By humbling ourselves, we can raise our consciousness, believes William Pope.L, and a long-distance group crawl is just the recipe. As such, the New York performance artist is holding a community crawl up Mount Royal on June 5 at noon, starting at the Cartier monument and culminating in a picnic at the top, www.decarie.org for more info.

ARTISTAT: Number of dollars that Dollar Cinema (which usually charges $1) will charge for admission to their theatres in celebration of their first birthday this Sunday, June 5, see repertory film listings for shows and times: 0

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