Janis Ian: Breaking the Silence

6:00 Patio Party | 6:30 Guest Speaker | 7:00 Film

In the mid-60s, Janis Ian, a teenage singer-songwriter from New Jersey scores a hit (“Society’s Child,” 1966) about an interracial relationship. The song launches her illustrious career but also ignites controversy, and she plunges into an emotional tailspin–only to emerge from the ashes with an even bigger hit (“At Seventeen,” 1975) about body shaming. For the next six decades, Janis overcame homophobia, record industry misogyny, and a life-threatening illness to produce an indelible body of work that continues to draw large audiences around the globe.

Speaker: Peter Cunningham, Photographer for Janis Ian for the Film:

Peter has been a professional photographer for over 30 years. His teachers include Baptist fisherman Lester Tate, dancer Martha Myers, French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, Zen Master Bernie Glassman and singer-songwriter Janis Ian.  Peter has exhibited his photographs and StillFilms in New York, Krakow, London, Paris, Tokyo, Jerusalem, Kigali, Nanjing, Beijing, Berlin and Grand Manan, Canada. His clients include singers, teachers, chefs, playwrights, athletes, accountants, actors, fishermen and clowns. He teaches “Photography as Zen Practice” in the US and China, is co-author with Peter Matthiessen of “Are We There Yet? A Zen Journey through Space and Time,” and is a founding member of“The Order of DisOrder”. For more information visit: petercunninghamphotography.com.