Press Contact: New Masses Media
John Pietaro (646) 599-0060 leftmus@earthlink.net www.DissidentArts.com
New
York, NY:
Dissident Arts Festival Speaks Out Against Trump Over 3 Nights of Music, Spoken
Word, Film
The Dissident Arts Festival, the
11th annual showcase of “revolutionary creativity”, will occur on
three stages in as many nights this August, featuring music, spoken word and performance
art, and closing with the screening of a silent film complete with a live score
performed by some of NYC’s current new music coterie. This year’s Festival
occurs at sites in both downtown and uptown Manhattan as well as Williamsburg
Brooklyn. This 2016 Dissident Arts
Festival is dedicated to the people’s unity in the face of a divisive Right-wing.
Performers will use this opportunity to make definitive statements in opposition
to the hateful rhetoric of DONALD TRUMP.
A highlight of the Festival will be the celebrated poet and activist AMINA
BARAKA who will be accompanied by John Pietaro’s spoken word/free jazz
quartet THE LITERARY WARRIORS. The
poetry of Ms. Baraka, the widow of noted poet/journalist Amiri Baraka, has been
woefully under-acknowledged in the face of her husband’s storied career, thus
her performance on August 13 is viewed as an event of high relevance. She will
be reading current poetry as well as that which dates back some 50 years in
preparation for an upcoming recording session. The Literary Warriors perform an
opening set. Other features include THE
NEW YORK FREE QUARTET performance of Steve Cohn’s epic piece “Abstract
Meets the Fundamental” which fuses religious music of several cultures
into an avant jazz foray. Plus: the visiting Chilean improvisational guitarist LUIS TOTO ALVAREZ and his CHANGO project; saxophonist RAS MOSHE’s “Black Lives Matter Suite”, the
powerfully militant jazz/poetry of UPSURGE!
NYC and a set by downtown stalwart TRUDY SILVER and her multi-disciplinary
“Where’s
the Outrage?” project, as well as a performance by singer-guitarist BERNARDO PALOMBO and his neuva neuva cancion ensemble. THE
DISSIDENT ARTS ORCHESTRA closes this year’s Festival with a live score to
the 1928 silent film classic by King Vidor “The
Crowd” which will be projected on three big screens.
For more information visit
www.DissidentArts.com
FESTIVAL SCHEDULE:
Friday August 12, 8-11pm
5C Cultural Center
68 Ave C (at 5th Street) New
York NY 10009 (212) 477-5993 www.5cculturalcenter.org
8:00pm Trudy Silver’s Where’s the
Outrage?-Trudy
Silver-piano, word; Newman Baker- percussion, voice; Sanae Buck- Bhutto mime; others
TBA
9:00pm Ras Moshe’s Music Now! Unit
presents “The Black Lives Matters Suite”-Ras Moshe Burnett-tenor and soprano saxophones, flute; Lee
Odom-soprano saxophone, clarinets; Matt Lavelle- trumpet, bass clarinet; Gwen
Laster-viola; Emma Alabaster-bass; John Pietaro-percussion.
10:00pm Luis Toto Alvarez/Chango
project-Luis
Toto Alvarez- electric guitars; others TBA
10:45pm finale:
“Song of the United Front” by Bertolt Brecht & Hanns Eisler -performed by all
musicians in the house
Saturday August 13, 7-11pm
El Taller Latino Americano @Artspace PS109 215 East 99 Street, New
York NY
(212) 665-9460 www.tallerlatino.org
7:00pm The
Literary Warriors with special guest AMINA BARAKA – Amina Baraka- poetry, vocals; John Pietaro- spoken word,
hand drums, percussion; Ras Moshe Burnett- saxophones, flute; Rocco John
Iacovone- saxophones; Laurie Towers- electric bass
8:00pm
Bernardo Palombo Ensemble - Bernardo Palombo- vocals, guitar; others
TBA
9:00pm
UpSurge! NYC –Raymond Nat Turner-poetry; Zigi
Lowenberg-poetry; Ken Filiano-upright bass; Lou Grassi-drumset; Lee Odom-reeds
10:00pm The New York Free Quartet presents
Steve Cohn’s “Abstract Meets the Fundamental”
–Steve Cohn-piano, shakuhachi, trombone, percussion; Michael Moss-saxophones,
bass clarinet, flute; Larry Roland-upright bass; Chuck Fertal-drumset
11:00 finale:
“Song of the United Front” by Bertolt Brecht & Hanns Eisler -performed by all musicians in the house
Saturday August 27, 8-11PM
17 Frost Theatre of the Arts
17 Frost Street, Brooklyn NY 11211 (646)
389-2017 www.17frost.com
8:00 The
Dissident Arts Orchestra performs a live score to King Vidor’s 1928 silent film
classic, “The Crowd”, plus silent shorts
- Cheryl Pyle- flutes; Ras Moshe Burnett- tenor and soprano
saxophones, flute; Matt Lavelle- bass clarinet; Javier Miyares-Hernandez-
electric guitar Chris Forbes- keyboards; Laurie Towers- electric bass; John
Pietaro- conduction, drumset, percussion.
FESTIVAL HISTORY:
Since its inception in 2006, the
Dissident Arts Festival has been a powerful vehicle to bridge
radical arts to progressive socio-political activism.
Increasingly, the Festival has gained media attention over the course of its
decade-long history as evidenced by press in TimeOut NY, the Indypendent,
the Villager, Downtown Express, Peoples
World, Chronogram and
others. In 2013, noted jazz journalist Howard Mandel offered kudos in his
remarks on social media. Over the years the Dissident Arts Festival has
been endorsed by the Rosenberg Fund for Children, the Len Ragozin Foundation,
Local 802's Justice for Jazz Artists campaign, Occupy Musicians, the Howland
Cultural Center and DooBeeDooBeeDoo music
blog.
Originally based in the Hudson Valley
city of Beacon NY and moving to New York City in 2010, the Festival’s
performers and speakers over the years included actor/raconteur Malachy McCourt, late great trumpet
player Roy Campbell, folk legend Pete Seeger, filmmaker Kevin Keating, spoken word artists Steve Dalachinsky and the late Louis Reyes Rivera, the late reeds
player/composer Will Connell,
political satirist/activist Randy
Credico , multi-instrumentalist Daniel
Carter, hip hop ensemble ReadNex
Poetry Squad, labor leader Henry
Foner, punk-folk artist Lach and
many more. Films screened included ‘Giuliani
Time’, ‘Cultures of Resistance’,
‘Salt of the Earth’, ‘Battleship Potemkin’ and ‘Metropolis’. Other special features
were tributes to Paul Robeson, Bertolt Brecht, Woody Guthrie, and Phil Ochs.
The Dissident Arts Festival has also offered a voice to progressive political
candidates, the Occupy movement and radical labor organizations.
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