Artists Without Walls was created to provide artists of all disciplines an opportunity to experiment with new ideas in front of a live audience; create an environment that fosters collaborative and creative effort and promote members’ careers in the arts, whether they have already established themselves or are at the beginning of their artistic career. All of those objectives will be on display tonight when Lehman’s college’s City & Humanities Program, the CUNY Institute for Irish-American Studies and the CUNY Institute of Mexican Studies host an Artists Without Walls’ Showcase at Lehman College.
Among the evening’s performers:
Owen and Moley O Suilleabhain, singers from Ireland, and Koro Koroye, a spoken word artist from Nigeria, will be performing together for the first time. Their performance will explore the ancient traditions that they have inherited and how they have transformed this heritage into a voice they can truly call their own. Now living in the melting pot of New York City, they are sharing the common experience of rediscovering their ancient identities with their own contemporary voices.
Salina Sias will share stories of her journey toward self-identity, acceptance (and perceived disdain) for her Mexican roots while performing original numbers from her up coming album, including a personal song she penned in Spanish. Salina will be joined by guitarist Thad DeBrock.
Marni Rice, chanteuse-accordionist and theater artist from New York City, and Xio Evans, a dancer and choreographer from Costa Rica, wiil perform a piece called “Have You Seen My Son?” a performance piece about gun violence. The text is in Spanish and English and the performance is dedicated to the issue of social justice.
Honor Finnegan will be singing songs from her CD, The Tiny Life, as well as one of her newer pieces, which has been recorded by singer-songwriter, Amy Speace. The Tiny Life was #9 on the Folk DJ Charts in February 2012, and Honor was recently selected as a finalist in the prestigious New Folk Songwriting Contest as part of the Kerrville Folk Festival in Kerrville, Texas. Honor will be joined by guitarist Aviv Roth.
In addition, writer Billy Barrett, playwright and novelist Seamus Scanlon, violinist/fiddler Annette Homann and jazz and blues singer Antoinette Montague and jazz pianist extraordinaire Danny Mixon will be displaying their talents.
The show begins at 7pm in the Studio Theatre at Lehman College. Refreshments will be provided. The first Showcase at Lehman last fall was a great success. This one might even top that. Come find out. Hope to see you there.
