CAL PERFORMANCES PRESENTS
Wednesday, February 12, 2014, 8pm Zellerbach Hall
Sweet Honey In The Rock r e t r a C
t h g i w D From left : Louise Robinson, Shirley Childress Saxton, Nitanju Bolade Casel, Carol Maillard, Aisha Kahlil
40th Anniversary…Forty & Fierce
Tonight’s program will be announced from the stage.
Cal Performances’ – season is sponsored by Wells Fargo.
PLAYBILL PROGRAM
SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK 40 TH ANNIVERSARY …FORTY & FIERCE
ORTY & FIERCE , in development for almost a year, is Sweet Honey’s first collaboration with Fnoted director and choreographer Dianne McIntyre. The show is wrapped visually and con - textually in a scrapbook motif that takes the audience on a musical and visual journey back to the group’s inception and humble beginnings in 1973. T he ladies perform a series of newly arranged medleys and many of their most popular songs, and retrace their personal recollections of memorable cultural and historical moments that have anchored and shaped the ensemble’s resilient spirit and legacy. Forty & Fierce also includes a special pre-show presentation, SHE- ROCKS 5 Radio , a musical retrospective hosted by Epatha Merkerson that features songs culled from Sweet Honey’s 23 album releases. The show will also feature a series of video projected images and archival montages that will be thematically tied into personal anecdotes and narra - tive storytelling by each of Sweet Honey’s core members—Louise Robinson, Carol Maillard, Nitanju Bolade Casel, Aisha Kahlil, and Shirley Childress Saxton (American Sign Language interpreter)—plus guest vocalist Navasha Daya, bassist Parker McAllister, and a percussionist.
CAST
Sweet Honey In The Rock Louis Robinson, Carol Maillard, Nitanju Bolade Casel, Aisha Kahlil, Shirley Childress Saxton
Guest Performers Vocals Navasha Daya Bass Parker McAllister Percussion TBA Director & Choreographer Dianne McIntyre Lighting Design Guy Smith Visual Designer Robert Montenegro Production Manager & Technical Director Ves Weaver Sound Engineer Art Steele Road Manager Dwana Makeba Booking Agency Jeanna Disney, IMN Management Ramon Hervey II, Hervey & Company
CAL PERFORMANCES ABOUT THE ARTISTS
WEET HONEY IN THE ROCK has main - Symphony No. 10 (“Affirmations for a New Stained a rich and distinguished legacy as World”), co-commissioned by the National one of the most revered and treasured a cap - Symphony Orchestra and the Kennedy pella ensembles in contemporary music. Center. They also released the thought-pro - Over the past four decades, the Grammy voking single and video “Are We a Nation?,” Award-nominated group has stayed true to inspired by the controversial immigration law its adventurous and diverse mixture of blues, that was enacted in Arizona. The song cap - jazz, gospel, R &B, and African music, with tured a Gold Songwriter Award from the 27th more recent excursions into symphonic Mid-Atlantic Song Contest and was featured music and collaborations in dance-theater. on an all-star compilation, Bordersongs , which This year, the ensemble celebrates its 40th raised money for No More Deaths, an organ - annivers ary by presenting Forty & Fierce , ization that provides water and humanitarian their most adventurous live performance aid along the Arizona–Mexico border. Their presentation in their illustrious career. latest two-CD set, A Tribute—Live! Jazz at The ever-growing list of Sweet Honey’s Lincoln Center , released in February 2013 , musical and activist achievements since its pays homage to the great female African- founding as a quartet in 1973 by Dr. Bernice American vocalists whose songs and activism Reagon at workshop at the D.C. Black helped shape the group, including Abbey Repertory Company in Washington, D.C. Lincoln, Odetta, Miriam Makeba, and Nina The ladies have performed in Nairobi and Simone. Last year, the ladies performed sev - Beijing at the U.N. World Conference on eral major tribute performances with their Women; toured Europe, Japan, Africa, contemporary jazz trio, Honey Men—musical Australia, and New Zealand; and been the director-pianist Stacey Wade, bassist Parker subject of two PBS documentaries, Gotta McAllister, and drummer-percussionist Jovol Make This Journey , produced and directed by Bell—which played on Sweet Honey’s live Michelle Parkerson, and Sweet Honey In The recording at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Rock: Raise Your Voice , produced and di - Last year, Sweet Honey received the dis - rected by Emmy Award-winner Stanley tinguished award presented by the Search for Nelson. They have recorded film sound - Common Ground Organization and the tracks, received several Grammy nomina - Keeper of the Flame Award by the National tions (including one for the ir 2007 ch ildren Delta Sigma Theta Sorority at their 100th an - record Experience 101 ), and shared Grammys niversary celebration and national conven - for their participation in the multi-artist tion (both held Washington, D.C.). The year record Folkways: A Vision Shared—A Tribute 2013 was also highlighted by Sweet Honey’s to Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly , as well as for performance at the national memorial serv - their contribution to cELLAbration: A Tribute ice for the late Nelson Mandela at the to Ella Jenkins . In November 2012, they again National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., the honored Woody Guthrie in a centennial cel - successful launching of their first online ebration of his birth presented at the fundraising effort with Indie Gogo, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., which retirement of Dr. Ysaye Barnwell, a Sweet was broadcast on PBS in 2013. On the first Honey member for 34 years. In addition, the observance of M artin Luther King Day in Brooklyn Academy of Music’s annual 1986, Sweet Honey appeared in a PBS televi - Danceafrica 2013 featured Sweet Honey as sion special, The Dream and the Drum , and guest performers with Chuck Davis’s African in early 2012 performed at the unveiling cer - American Dance Ensemble and the BAM emonies for the monument to Dr. King on Restoration Dance Africa Ensemble. the National Mall. In 2008 , Sweet Honey was commissioned The same year, Sweet Honey débuted their by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater to first orchestral collaboration, providing the write an original music score for Go in Grace , lyrics for composer William Banfield’s which was directed and choreographed by
PLAYBILL ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Ailey member Hope Boykin. Go in Grace de - most recently, a finalist in the 2013 John buted as part the Ailey company’s 50th an - Lennon Songwriting Contest. As the pro - niversary season and tour and featured Sweet ducer of the Grammy-nominated recording Honey performing as singers and dancers. Experience… 101 by Sweet Honey In The The Go in Grace score was also recorded and Rock, she also produced their most current released independently by Sweet Honey’s release: A Tribute—Live! Jazz at Lincoln SHE-ROCKS 5 label. Center . Ms. Casel currently resides on the East Coast with her husband, Oso Tayari (a Nitanju Bolade Casel martial arts legend), and son, Obadele (a joined Sweet Honey In hard-working college student). The Rock in 1985 , and has served behind the Aisha Kahlil possesses a sc enes in the office of dynamic, innate power treasurer for over 25 and range in jazz, blues, years. As a dancer and traditional, contempo - choreographer, the for - rary, and traditional mer Assistant Director of the Art of Black African vocal styles and Dance and Music and Director of Young techniques. Her per - Afrique Dance Com pany in Massachusetts, formances of “See See Ms. Casel has also taught at Boston Rider” and “Fulani Chant” earned her the University, Roxbury Community College, title of best soloist from the Contemporary and the Joy of Movement Center. She has A Cappella Society of America. “Fulani volunteered with the National Association Chant,” written by Ms. Kahlil, was also in - of Music Educators as a public service an - cluded on the soundtrack to Down in the nouncer, and donated the use of her com - Delta, directed by Maya Angelou, and in position, Run , to Respond, Inc. (New Climb Against the Odds , a film produced by England’s first domestic violence agency). the Breast Cancer Fund. Her composition After years of studying, performing, and cul - “Wodaabe Nights” was featured in the film tural organizing in the United States and Africans in America . abroad, she was cofounder of Artistes des She has appeared in Joseph Papp’s off- Échanges Africaines, in Dakar, Senegal, Broadway production of The Haggadah , co- which worked in alliance with local artists composed and performed in the musical and organizations to strengthen the cultural Two Thousand Seasons, and performed the ties between African and African-American music of Ma Rainey in the Jazz in the Palm culture. Her film credits include Beloved , Court series at the Smithsonian Institution. Freedom Song , and The Box. In May 2012, Ms. Kahlil’s film credits include Beloved, she received an honorary doctorate degree starring Oprah Winfrey, and original music from the Chicago Theological Seminary. for the film Freedom Song , starring Danny Through her publishing company Clear Glover. Her arrangement of “Strange Fruit” Ice Music, her compositions have been li - was featured in Freedom Never Dies , a PBS censed in multiple disciplines, including the production of the life of Harry Moore. 2006 Aust ralian Broadcasting Company’s In 2005, Ms. Kahlil was a finalist with educational series Sing! , Pearson’s educa - her own group, MyKa and the Whole World tional series, and Mystic Seaport’s Black Band, in the annual Battle of the Bands Hands, Blue Seas: The African American contest, sponsored by Discmakers, and is a Maritime Experience . Ms. Casel placed as a winner in the International Songwriting finalist in the International Songwriter’s Com petition performance category with Compet itions (2006, 2007) and the Great her original song, “The Jewel Light.” American Song Contest (2011), runner-up A master teacher in voice and dance, in the Song of the Year Contest (2011), an d, Ms. Kahlil has taught at the Institute for
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Contemporary Dance, the Joy of Motion, Sweet Honey In The Rock: Raise Your Voice! the Boston Center for the Arts, Leslie on the PBS series American Masters . College, and the D.C. Black Repertory Produced and directed by Stanley Nelson, Company. She has taught and lectured at the film chronicled Sweet Honey’s 3 0th an - the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and at niversary year. She also produced the ac - Maharishi International University. companying soundtrack for the film. Ms. Kahlil has toured with her band in Ms. Maillard lives in Manhatta n and is the islands of Hawaii, performing at the the mother of Jordan Maillard Ware, who is Four Seasons Lodge at Koele, at Cassa - currently attending Morehouse College in nova’s, and at Studio Maui, where she also Atlanta, Georgia. SGMKJ! taught workshops in vocal improvisation and movement. She has recently presented Louise Robinson , a na - her signature workshops at the Kripalu tive New Yorker, studied Yoga Institute. concert bass for six years Journey to My-Ka , a compilation of her and attended the High own original compositions and arrange - School of Music and Art. ments, is her first solo release. A graduate of Howard University with a B.F.A., Carol Maillard was born Ms. Robinson began her and raised in Philadel phia, professional career at Washington, D.C.’s Pennsyl vania. Although Arena Stage. She accepted Robert Hooks’s she originally attended invitation to become a member of the new Catholic Uni versity of D.C. Black Repertory Company Acting America on scholarship as Ensemble. It was out of this theater com - a violin performance pany that Ms. Robinson, along with Carol major, she soon began Maillard, Bernice Johnson Reagon, and writing music and performing with the Mie, formed the a cappella quartet Sweet drama department and eventually changed Honey In The Rock. her major to theater. Ms. Robinson’s colorful career has taken This passion for the stage brought her to her up many paths, including perform - the D.C. Black Repertory Company and the ances, both on and off Broadway, and in beginnings of the vocal ensemble that was film and studio recording. She has also to become Sweet Honey In The Rock. Ms. worn the producer’s hat as she, along with Maillard is an accomplished actress and has Ms. Maillard and Smokey Ronald Stevens, performed in film, television, and on stage. produced A Sho Nuff Variety Revue, a series Her theater credits encompass a wide range of performances showcasing some of New of styles, from musical comedy and revues York’s finest talent, including Adolph to drama and experimental theater. She has Caesar, Sandra Reaves-Phillips, and leg - performed on and off Broadway with the endary tap dancers Gregory Hines, Avon Negro Ensemble Company and the New Long, and Joe Attles. York Shakespeare Festival, and at the Actors Ms. Robinson was the founding director Studio. She can be seen in the feature films of the Bay Area a cappella quintet Street Beloved and Thirty Years to Life . On televi - Sounds, taking their music around the sion, Ms. Maillard has appeared in For country and the world f or 14 years. Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide , Ms. Robinson returned to Sweet Honey In and Halleluiah! on PBS, Law & Order, and The Rock in 2004, and combines her expe - Law & Order: SVU . rience in theater and music to offer a work - Ms. Maillard was conceptual and cre - shop that explores the creative freedom in ative producer for the documentary film us all.
PLAYBILL ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Shirley Childress Saxton employees at staff meetings and confer - is passionate about her ences, for congregants at religious services, work and has been the and for performing artists and writers. She ASL interpreter for Sweet holds a bachelor’s degree in Deaf education Honey In The Rock since from the University of Massachusetts, 1981. She is a skilled pro - Amherst, and has studied adult education at fessional Sign language the University of the District of Columbia. interprete r having learned A native of Washington, D.C., Ms. American Sign Language (ASL) from her Saxton is an avid reader, loves photography, Deaf parents. In their honor, she founded the and has written several articles about her Herbert and Thomasina Childress work as Sign language interpreter and her Scholarship Fund to assist other children of life experiences with her Deaf parents. Ms. Deaf adults (CODA) to explore Sign inter - Saxton’s family, sons Reginald and Deon, preting as a career option. and sisters Maxine and Khaula all Sign. Ms. Saxton has interpreted for students in college and high school classrooms, for
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