DOCSLIB.ORG

LEYLA MCCALLA Live from New Orleans

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
LEYLA MCCALLA Live from New Orleans Friday, September 25, 7:30 PM EDT LEYLA MCCALLA Live from New Orleans Moss Arts Center HomeStage Series LEYLA MCCALLA Live from New Orleans Moderated by Shawanda Marie, Christiansburg’s New Orleans-born Creole culture-bearer Songs to be announced during the performance Biographies LEYLA MCCALLA Leyla McCalla finds inspiration from her past and present, whether it is her Haitian heritage or her adopted home of New Orleans, she—a bilingual multi- instrumentalist, cellist, and singer—has risen to produce a distinctive sound that reflects the union of her roots and experience. Born in New York City to Haitian human rights activist immigrant parents, McCalla was immersed in a meld of cultures and progressive ideas from an early age. As a teenager, she relocated to Accra, Ghana, for two years before returning to the U.S. to study cello performance and chamber music at New York University. Armed with Bach’s Cello Suites, McCalla left New York to play cello on the streets of the French Quarter in New Orleans. Singing in English, Haitian Creole, and French while playing cello, tenor banjo, and guitar, her move allowed her to connect more viscerally to Creole resilience and musical expression. She rose to fame during her two years as cellist of the Grammy award-winning African-American string band, the Carolina Chocolate Drops, alongside bandmates Rhiannon Giddens and Dom Flemons, before leaving the group in 2013 to pursue her solo career. Deeply influenced by Creole music, as well as by American jazz and folk, McCalla’s music is at once earthy, elegant, soulful, and witty—it vibrates with three centuries of history, yet also feels strikingly fresh, distinctive, and contemporary. “Her voice is disarmingly natural, and her settings are elegantly succinct...her magnificently transparent music holds tidings of family, memory, solitude and the inexorability of time: weighty thoughts handled with the lightest touch imaginable,” wrote The New York Times. McCalla’s debut album, Vari-Colored Songs: A Tribute to Langston Hughes, was named 2013’s Album of the Year by the London Sunday Times and Songlines for its haunting mixture of music and message. Her second album, A Day for the Hunter, a Day for the Prey (2016), continued to explore themes of social justice and included guests Rhiannon Giddens, Marc Ribot, and Louis Michot of Lost Bayou Ramblers. Through deeply felt originals and interpretations of traditional songs, the album explores the nuances and complexities of the immigrant-American experience. Biographies (continued) 2019 saw the release of McCalla’s third solo album, The Capitalist Blues. With this record, she processed the current political environment in her own way, by sonically blending New Orleans music and Haitian jazz, with lyrics sung in English, French, and Haitian Creole. The album “imaginatively maps her vision of the Afro-Caribbean diaspora while gently taking Anglocentricism (and capitalism) down a notch,” said NPR. “She’s partly in the moment and partly looking beyond it, and seeing truths that we’ve missed.” Following her solo release came widely-acclaimed collaborative project Songs of Our Native Daughters (Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, Leyla McCalla, and Allison Russell) via Smithsonian Folkways. The album pulled influence from slave narratives and the history of the banjo in order to confront sanitized views about America’s history of slavery, racism, and misogyny from a powerful, modern Black female perspective. McCalla’s current project, Breaking the Thermometer to Hide the Fever, commissioned by Duke Performances, delves into the legacy of Radio Haiti, Haiti’s first privately owned Creole-speaking radio station, through its archive housed at the Rubenstein Library at Duke University. The multidisciplinary performance incorporates dance, projections, and sound design set to McCalla’s original compositions and arrangements of traditional Haitian songs. Breaking the Thermometer premiered in March 2020 at Duke University. McCalla’s music reflects her eclectic and diverse life experiences, projecting a respect for eloquent simplicity that is rarely achieved. Digging into her roots to unearth history and explore musical tradition, McCalla has an entirely unique voice and perspective that is urgently relevant to our times. SHAWANDA MARIE, moderator Culinary storyteller Shawanda Marie was born into a family of creative and talented folks. Some are visual artists, others amazing cooks or educators, and then there are the musicians; all artists in their own right. After years of self-exploration, Marie learned she was happiest leaning into multiple artistic expressions, bringing their flavors together like a good pot of gumbo. She is the owner and creative mind behind New Orleans Creole Story Pot, where she infuses elements of theatre performance, storytelling, visual art, education, cultural exploration, music, and—of course—culinary art! Sharing her gifts and seeing people smile is her love language. During public speaking events Marie often tells the story of New Orleans and South Louisiana through her own family’s history. She believes the story of a people is found immersed in all the nuances of its food ways. She says, “My documented family history dates back to 1724 during the early settlement of the Louisiana Territory; six years after the founding of New Orleans. This is on my mother’s paternal side. In South Louisiana, after talking with people long enough, you’ll learn that almost everyone is related in some way, whether Black, white, or indigenous native. Our families are interwoven through time and rooted deeply in that rich Louisiana marsh. We have family of every shade, and everybody’s called ‘cousin.’” By way of New Orleans Creole Story Pot, Marie has facilitated a number of experiential dining events throughout the New River Valley. She was a featured chef on Daytime Blue Ridge for four consecutive months and has been honored to cook for the esteemed Nikki Giovanni and her family. She has served as cultural consultant for the award-winning Dream Fury Comics series, Crescent City Monsters, a supernatural comic book story set in New Orleans written by Haitian-born author Newton Lilavois. She has worked for the past 15 years to educate the public about Louisiana Creole culture, language, history, and its many contributions to the tapestry of America through speaking engagements and online media. Marie desires to explore work in voiceovers and to publish her children’s book, Bonswa Gros Dibwa, a story about growing up in New Orleans’ Ninth Ward community. She has been a resident of beautiful Southwest Virginia for the past 22 years. These mountains have become her serene home away from home, providing a sense of peace that nurtures her creative spirit. When Marie isn’t making magic in the kitchen, she enjoys life as a clinical case manager, certified yoga instructor, and sound healing practitioner. Shawanda is the most grateful mommy of two sugary- sweet rescue pitbulls, Zingy and Prince Charming, and a house full of lush tropical plants that make her smile from the inside out. Follow New Orleans Creole Story Pot on Instagram or Facebook. Engagement Events Thursday, September 24, 2020 VIRTUAL CLASS VISIT INTRODUCTION TO AFRICAN-AMERICAN STUDIES RACE, GENDER, CLASS, AND SEXUALITIES Leyla McCalla joined students and faculty virtually in two sociology classes for a joint discussion on identities and cultures explored in her music. Thursday, September 24, 2020 VIRTUAL CLASS VISIT: WOMEN AND CREATIVITY Virginia Tech students in this Women’s and Gender Studies class engaged with McCalla about the role of gender in her work. Special thanks to Andrea Baldwin, Shawanda Marie, Silas Moon Cassinelli, and Talitha Rose Go Deeper Listen to this interview and performance by Leyla McCalla on National Public Radio’s World Café. How has family—including McCalla’s role as a daughter and mother—influenced her social, political, and artistic work? In the Galleries We’re so pleased to welcome you back for another season of exciting and evocative exhibitions in the Moss Arts Center galleries! JASON MIDDLEBROOK: ANOTHER WORLD Through Sat., Nov. 21 Ruth C. Horton Gallery American visual artist Jason Middlebrook envisions, creates, and then digitally renders a new 15-by-28-foot site-specific commissioned work of art inspired by the soaring architecture of the Anne and Ellen Fife Theatre. This panoramic work invites viewers into another place—a place of inspiration, visual complexity, and delight. ART AND SOCIAL CONSCIENCE Calling attention to sociopolitical issues and the need for change CAUSE COLLECTIVE: 22 STEPS IN SEARCH OF THE TRUTH Through Sat., Nov. 21 Through Sat., Oct. 10 Grand Lobby Staircase Francis T. Eck Exhibition Corridor Rendered in text on the Moss Arts Center’s stairs is a pertinent A video installation presenting statement by Congressman concise thoughts and and civil rights leader John observations by individuals Lewis (1940-2020) paying from across the globe, this attention to and reflecting our exhibition grapples with one country’s ongoing struggle for of the deepest social, political, social justice. and philosophical issues of our times: what the truth is and what it means. For the most up to date gallery hours, please visit our website. Online Resources Join us for a special series of events featuring notable artists live from their homes and studios. Not another livestream or pre-recorded performance that’s widely available to everyone, our HomeStage series is exclusive to the Moss Arts Center and designed specifically to be presented online. For a full list of our online events and resources, please click here. Reopening Updates The health and wellness of our community is our top priority, and you can be assured that we are doing everything we can to keep you and our staff safe and healthy. Find more information about our re-opening plans here. Box Office Hours Wednesday-Friday, 10 AM-5 PM Saturday, 10 AM-4 PM For more information, please call the box office at 540-231-5300 during these hours, or email us anytime at [email protected].
Load more

Recommended publications
  • LEYLA Mccalla TRIO “An Exhilarating Thing, Hearing A
    LEYLA McCALLA TRIO “An exhilarating thing, hearing a musical virtuoso explore her voice’s unanticipated potential in all of the ways that Leyla McCalla does” – NPR Music “Rich with big thoughts” – USA Today “An invigorating blend of Haitian folk songs and American old-time music” – Downbeat Leyla McCalla is a New York-born Haitian-American living in New Orleans, who sings in French, Haitian Creole and English, and plays cello, tenor banjo and guitar. Deeply influenced by traditional Creole, Cajun and Haitian music, as well as by American jazz and folk, her music is at once earthy, elegant, soulful and witty — it vibrates with three centuries of history, yet also feels strikingly fresh, distinctive and contemporary. Leyla’s debut album, Vari-Colored Songs: A Tribute to Langston Hughes, was named 2013’s Album of the Year by the London Sunday Times and Songlines magazine, and received additional raves from a number of other publications, including the New York Times, Boston Globe and Offbeat, for its haunting mixture of music and message. Now, having toured extensively in the U.S., Europe and Israel in support of Vari-Colored Songs, Leyla is focusing on her next album. Titled A Day For The Hunter, A Day For The Prey, the album will be released in the spring of 2016 by Jazz Village/Harmonia Mundi. A Day For The Hunter, A Day For The Prey will continue to explore the themes of social justice and pan-African consciousness that marked Vari-Colored Songs, and will once again feature songs sung in English, French and Haitian Creole.
    [Show full text]
  • Cécile Mclorin Salvant, Wycliffe Cécile Mclorin Salvant Gordon, and More
    Wednesday Evening, February 24, 2016, at 8:30 m a r g Swimming in Dark Waters— o r Other Voices of the American P Experience e h T Featuring Rhiannon Giddens, Leyla McCalla & Bhi Bhiman This evening’s program is approximately 75 minutes long and will be performed without intermission. Please make certain all your electronic devices are switched off. Major support for Lincoln Center’s American Songbook is provided by Amy & Joseph Perella. Endowment support provided by Bank of America This performance is made possible in part by the Josie Robertson Fund for Lincoln Center. The Appel Room Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall American Songbook Additional support for Lincoln Center’s American Songbook is provided by The DuBose and Dorothy Heyward Memorial Fund, The Shubert Foundation, Jill and Irwin B. Cohen, The G & A Foundation, Inc., Great Performers Circle, Chairman’s Council, and Friends of Lincoln Center. Public support is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts. Artist catering provided by Zabar’s and zabars.com MetLife is the National Sponsor of Lincoln Center UPCOMING AMERICAN SONGBOOK EVENTS IN THE APPEL ROOM: Thursday Evening, February 25, at 8:30 La Santa Cecilia Friday Evening, February 26, at 8:30 Charles Busch: The Lady at the Mic A cabaret tribute to Elaine Stritch, Polly Bergen, Mary Cleere Haran, Julie Wilson & Joan Rivers Saturday Evening, February 27, at 8:30 Terri Lyne Carrington’s Mosaic Project: Love & Soul featuring Valerie Simpson & Oleta Adams IN THE STANLEY H. KAPLAN PENTHOUSE: Wednesday Evening, March 16, at 8:00 Luluc Thursday Evening, March 17, at 8:00 Anaïs Mitchell Friday Evening, March 18, at 8:00 The Cooper Clan All Together The Appel Room is located in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P.
    [Show full text]
  • Jacob Collier with Metropole Orkest Djesse, Vol. 1
    siasm and power during an uptempo version of “Exactly Like You.” Joined by organist Dan Chase, guitarist Kyle Asche and drummer Greg Artry, she’s very much in her element, featuring an impressive range while vocalizing in a con- versational style that’s sometimes way behind the beat. Allgood stretches her repertoire a bit here with the inclusion of two originals, a Michael Jackson hit (“Rock With You”) turned into soul jazz, and a tune by Stevie Wonder. But most rewarding are her renditions of jazz standards. Allgood sings her lyrics to Morgan’s “Hocus Pocus” (a song based on “Mean To Me”) that fnds her essaying the occasionally wide inter- vals efortlessly and scatting creatively for two Alyssa Allgood choruses. She interprets Telonious Monk’s “Ask Jacob Collier with Exactly Like You Me Now” with quiet emotion, sounds joyful on Metropole Orkest CELLAR MUSIC 050418 “Te More I See You,” interacts with drummer Artry on “Alone Together” and gives “Darn Tat Djesse, Vol. 1 HHH½ HAJANGA/DECCA/GEFFEN Dream” a medium-tempo treatment. An impressive bop-oriented singer based in While Allgood mostly sounds at her best on HHH½ Chicago, Alyssa Allgood won a 2014 Down Beat hotter material, her surprising version of Tough Jacob Collier describes Djesse—a mul- Student Music Award in the Undergraduate “Yardbird Suite,” here rendered as a medi- tidisc project—as a single album, but four indi- Vocal Jazz Soloist category. Two years later, she um-slow ballad, is convincing and ofers the vidual records, any sense of fragmentation at recorded her debut, Out Of Te Blue, which prospect of an interesting future.
    [Show full text]
  • Amythyst Kiah Bio
    Amythyst Kiah Bio Born in Chattanooga and based in Johnson City, Amythyst Kiah’s commanding stage presence is matched by her raw and powerful vocals—a deeply moving, hypnotic sound that stirs echoes of a distant and restless past. Accompanied interchangeably with banjo, acoustic guitar, or a full band, her eclectic influences span decades, finding inspiration in old time music, alternative rock, folk, country, and blues. Our Native Daughters, her recent collaboration with Rhiannon Giddens, Leyla McCalla, and Allison Russell (Birds of Chicago), has delivered a full-length album produced by Rhiannon Giddens and Dirk Powell, Songs of Our Native Daughters (out now on Smithsonian Folkways). NPR described the opening track, Black Myself, written by Amythyst, as “the simmering defiance of self-respect in the face of racism.” The song was nominated for a Grammy for Best American Roots Song. The supergroup hit the road in July 2019 with a series of special dates that included performances at Washington D.C.’s Smithsonian Museum of African American History & Culture as well as Newport Folk Festival. The group was nominated for Duo/Group of the Year at the 2019 Americana Honors & Awards. Black Myself won 2019 Song of the Year at the Folk Alliance International Conference. Provocative and fierce, Amythyst’s ability to cross boundaries is groundbreaking and simply unforgettable. Her stylistic range will be on full display in her next full-length album expected in 2021. Amythyst regularly tours the United Kingdom and has performed at Celtic Connections, Southern Fried Festival, Cambridge Folk Festival, the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival, and SummerTyne Americana Festival.
    [Show full text]
  • A CONVERSATION with AMYTHYST KIAH by Andrea Cuevas
    THE ARTIST SPEAKS A CONVERSATION WITH AMYTHYST KIAH By Andrea Cuevas AC: What are some things you are 5. Cooking–favorite things I’ve made so far enjoying (or learning to cope with) during are Coconut Chana Saag (made with kale quarantine? instead of spinach) and Ancho-Lentil Tacos! AMYTHYST KIAH AK: In no particular order: 6. Short hikes in the woods–due to where I Born in Chattanooga and based in Johnson 1. Gaming–Animal Crossing has been my live and the current socio-political climate, City, Amythyst Kiah’s commanding thing lately. I won’t say where. stage presence is matched by her raw 2. Reading nonfiction–Caffeine Blues and 7. Listening to music–re-listening to my and powerful vocals—a deeply moving, How Not to Die are current reads. favorite dance albums and digging into hypnotic sound that stirs echoes of a distant 3. Graphic novels–currently obsessed with new (and new to me) dance music, from and restless past. Saga. 90’s style house to Motown to industrial Accompanied interchangeably with banjo, acoustic guitar, or a full band, her eclectic 4. Training – building to up to running and nu metal, ie., Lady Gaga, the Marvelettes, Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, Allison Russell, and Leyla McCalla on the red carpet influences span decades, finding inspira- plan to start my first powerlifting program and Static-X are all in my music library. of the 2019 Americana Honors & Awards (photo by Erika Goldring) tion in old time music, alternative rock, soon. 8. Spending quality time with my partner folk, country, and blues.
    [Show full text]
  • The Capitalist Blues Is Leyla Mccalla's Way of Processing the Current Political Environment, Where Many of the Issues Are Fina
    The Capitalist Blues is Leyla McCalla’s way of processing the current political environment, where many of the issues are financial, but they’re rarely simply financial. “It feels like everyone’s in a pressure cooker in this country,” she says. The album is McCalla’s third, after Vari-Colored Songs: A Tribute to Langston Hughes (2013) and A Day for the Hunter, A Day for the Prey (2016). Those albums and her time as a member of the African- American string band The Carolina Chocolate Drops presented her vision in songs that revealed the realities that people lived, often expressed in metaphors. She explored Haitian Creole identity issues in songs with arrangements that focused on the song. She often sang and accompanied herself on cello, banjo, or guitar. The New York-born McCalla has lived in New Orleans since 2010, and A Day for the Hunter, A Day for the Prey broadened not only her examination of Creole identities but her sound as she brought in a number of musicians to add fiddle, clarinet, piano, electric guitar, and additional voices. Her growing relationship to the city’s musical community led her to consider her relationship to New Orleans on The Capitalist Blues, and for the first time, it led her to record with a band. It wasn’t by design. Producer Jimmy Horn asked her sing on a session with his acclaimed New Orleans R&B band, King James and the Special Men, at a time when she had new songs but was unsure what forms they should take.
    [Show full text]
  • Read Post-Conference Report
    POST-CONFERENCE REPORT PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH NEW BRANDING Folk Alliance International (FAI) unveiled and implemented its new branding at the 2020 conference. The new logo and visual assets present FAI as a contemporary, professional, and dynamic organization rooted in tradition. “Our genre, community, and organization are in an exciting renaissance, so we’re thrilled to reveal a logo that proudly and unequivocally presents the word folk,” said Executive Director, Aengus Finnan. “Just as the f-hole of an instrument transmits sound from the body of the instrument, the stylized ‘f’ in the new logo suggests a similar community transmission, while the signature tip and tail of the logo can be activated separately as playful ‘speech bubbles’ for highlighting key messages.” FOLK ALLIANCE INTERNATIONAL 2 For the sixth straight year, attendance figures eclipsed the previous year’s record with 3,332 attendees representing 41 countries on site. The conference was held in New Orleans, Louisiana, at the Sheraton New Orleans. With 179 Official Showcases, 2,703 Private Showcases, and 1,200 speed meetings, the conference presented a strong front for folk music artists and industry. KEYNOTES Legendary performer and civil rights activist Mavis Staples provided a mainstage keynote interview hosted by NPR’s Melissa Block. Sharing anecdotes that spanned her 70 year career in folk, blues, soul, and gospel music, Staples addressed cultural equity issues through the lens of activism in song, commenting that “Freedom Highway is even more powerful and necessary today than when it was written”. A 2008 recipient of FAI’s Lifetime Achievement Award, Staples was announced as the winner of the member- voted 2019 Album of the Year award during the International Folk Music Awards.
    [Show full text]
  • Leyla Mccalla Brass Bands Multicolores, Folk Singers
    Leyla McCalla Brass bands multicolores, folk singers faméliques, bluesmen égrillards, la tradition des musiciens de rue de la Nouvelle-Orléans, toujours aussi vivace, n'est plus à vanter, de Snooks Eaglin (dont le disque "New Orleans Street Singer" fut l'un des premiers albums de blues à être édité en France en 1956) à Grandpa Elliott qui après avoir passé 65 ans dans les rues du Vieux Carré connut une gloire planétaire pour sa participation au collage musical video de Playing for Change en chantant "Stand by Me" avec 37 autres musiciens. En 2010, l'arrivée d'une jeune violoncelliste noire qui jouait des suites de Bach créa la sensation dans une ville qui, musicalement parlant, en avait pourtant vu d'autres. C'est en effet en jouant rue Royal que Leyla McCalla fut remarquée par Tim Duffy, fondateur de la Music Maker Relief Foundation basée en Caroline du Nord qui aide les bluesmen âgés dans le besoins mais encourage aussi de jeunes talents. Il invita la jeune femme -avec l'approbation de Taj Mahal et des Carolina Chocolate Drops- à rejoindre son équipe. Les CCD qui préparaient alors leur nouvel album "Leaving Eden" embauchèrent Leyla pour enregistrer avec eux à Nashville puis pour tourner avec le groupe aux Etats-Unis et en Europe. Originaire de New York, Leyla McCalla est une multi-instrumentiste qui joue du violoncelle d’une façon très personnelle pour accompagner des titres folky mais qui est aussi à l'aise pour jouer un blues à la guitare ou une vielle chanson créole au banjo. Elle a étudié le violoncelle depuis sa tendre enfance et, avec ses parents, originaires d'Haïti, elle a passé deux ans au Ghana durant son adolescence.
    [Show full text]
  • LEYLA Mccalla
    LEYLA McCALLA Leyla McCalla A DAY FOR THE HUNTER, A DAY FOR THE PREY A DAY FOR THE HUNTER A DAY FOR THE PREY SORTIE LE 27 MAI 2016 EN CONCERT LE 5 MAI ● PARIS (75) ● CAFÉ DE LA DANSE ET LES 26-27 JUILLET ● PARIS (75) ● DUC DES LOMBARDS EN TOURNÉE DANS TOUTE LA FRANCE Entre blues du bayou et folklore haïtien, les refrain intenses d’une chanteuse engagée. Dans la lignée de son premier album Les titres qui composent A Day for the Hunter, A Day for the Prey (littéralement « Un Vari-Colored Songs, Leyla McCalla jour pour le chasseur, un jour pour la proie ») sont directement inspirés de mon poursuit l’exploration multi-culturelle de expérience personnelle de fille d’immigrants haïtiens et de ma vie en Louisiane. ses deux pays, Haïti dont elle est Mon identité haïtienne est très forte mais mon « américanéité » est tout aussi originaire et les Etats-Unis où elle vit à La indéniable. À différentes périodes de ma vie, ce chevauchement d’identités a Nouvelle-Orléans. Héritière moderne créé en moi un conflit déstabilisant. Quand j’ai quitté NewYork pour m’installer en d’Alan Lomax et marquée par l’histoire du folk américain et du jazz, elle est multi- Louisiane, j’ai trouvé quelques échos de mon héritage culturel dans les rues de La instrumentiste et écrit et chante en Nouvelle-Orléans : des noms familiers sur les pierres tombales, les parades de anglais, en français et en créole haïtien. fanfares dans les rues, les haricots rouges et le riz (entre autres !).
    [Show full text]
  • Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, Leyla Mccalla, Allison Russell)
    H-Haiti Songs of Our Native Daughters (Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, Leyla McCalla, Allison Russell) Discussion published by Marlene Daut on Thursday, February 21, 2019 Songs of Our Native Daughters Our Native Daughters (Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, Leyla McCalla, Allison Russell) Citation: Marlene Daut. Songs of Our Native Daughters (Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, Leyla McCalla, Allison Russell). H-Haiti. 02-21-2019. https://networks.h-net.org/node/116721/discussions/3751621/songs-our-native-daughters-rhiannon-giddens-amythyst-kiah-leyla Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 1 H-Haiti This is a pre-order item that will ship on or around release date of February 22nd, 2019. Songs of Our Native Daughters shines new light on African-American women’s stories of struggle, resistance, and hope. Pulling from and inspired by 17th-, 18th-, and 19th-century sources, including slave narratives and early minstrelsy, kindred banjo players Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, Leyla McCalla, and Allison Russell reinterpret and create new works from old ones. With unflinching, razor- sharp honesty, they confront sanitized views about America’s history of slavery, racism, and misogyny from a powerful, black female perspective. These songs call on the persistent spirits of the daughters, mothers, and grandmothers who have fought for justice – in large, public ways – only now being recognized, and in countless domestic ways that will most likely never be acknowledged. 52 minutes, 36-page booklet with lyrics. More information here: https://folkways.si.edu/songs-of-our-native-daughters Citation: Marlene Daut. Songs of Our Native Daughters (Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, Leyla McCalla, Allison Russell).
    [Show full text]
  • Umass Fine Arts Center Shifts Programming Online, First Live-Streamed Performance This Saturday
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 31, 2020 Contact: Melissa Breor at [email protected] or 413-545-4482 UMass Fine Arts Center shifts programming online, first live-streamed performance this Saturday With live performances cancelled and the galleries and museum closed as part of the University’s response to the coronavirus, programming staff at the UMass Fine Arts Center have been hard at work shifting programming online, with the goal of streaming performances, providing interactive virtual gallery experiences, and sharing other engaging content and conversations with the public. “For 45 years, the Fine Arts Center has operated under the singular vision to be a gathering place, connecting our campus and local community to the world through the richly diverse, transformative power of the arts,” said director Jamilla Deria. “Now more than ever, we need the arts to remind us that the world, indeed, is not only big and wondrous but that we still have access to it.” A live-streamed performance by Leyla McCalla on Saturday, April 4 at 8 p.m. via Facebook Live launches the Fine Arts Center’s digital programming efforts. McCalla was originally scheduled to perform in Bowker Auditorium with her quartet on the same day. She will now perform solo from her home in a live stream accessible at the Fine Arts Center’s Facebook page www.facebook.com/umassfineartscenter. Eugene Uman, director of the Vermont Jazz Center, will lead a post-performance dialogue on the live stream at the conclusion of her performance. McCalla is a Haitian-American artist, founding member of Our Native Daughters and alumna of the GRAMMY award-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops.
    [Show full text]
  • Allison Russell Finds a Way to Tell Her Painful Story Though Song
    70 71 OPEN UP MYAllison RussellVOICE finds a way to tell her painful story though song by Hilary Hughes n the summer of 2019, singer, themselves. Native Daughters had begun to work on songwriter, and multi-instru- Every night, Russell would sing the album. While getting acquainted mentalist Allison Russell hit the “Quasheba, Quasheba,” one of her with him and her newfound family, she road with Our Native Daughters — contributions to the group’s 2019 album, learned that a distant cousin had delved Iher supergroup of a roots quartet with Songs of Our Native Daughters. Over deep into their Grenadian lineage and Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, and mournful strings and a steady beat, traced its roots to its matriarch, Leyla McCalla — for a tour that was, quite Russell’s voice — luminous and Quasheba, who had survived the literally, a family affair. The moms in the empathetic, yet resonant with a vibrato unspeakable horrors of slavery. band brought their children along for steeped in sorrow — invoked the “She endured things that I can’t even the ride, which meant that Russell and strength of one of her relatives. Russell imagine — being ripped from home, her young daughter, Ida, shared a bunk grew up in Montreal, first in foster care culture, language, any kind of love from on the packed bus for the weeks-long and then with her mother and her her family,” she says of her muse. “She journey. During the day, the tour nannies adoptive father — a white supremacist survived the Middle Passage and took the kids on adventures in whichever who abused her, sexually and multiple sails.
    [Show full text]