A Documentary Film “The Blues Society” by Augusta Palmer…#BlackLivesMatter

The Blues Society posterA movie about a collective of artists and musicians in Memphis who loved Blues music enough to change the way we think about it.

Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

DooBeeDoo and I are happy to hear that our contributor and friend the cool Augusta Palmer has a new film The Blues Society in the works. She’s been thinking to do this documentary for quite a while. I think it’s the right timing to do this docu film. It’ll support perfectly the “Black Lives Matter” movement. The Blues stands for #BlackLivesMatter. It’s the voice of this movement.

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Mali’s Musical Life (P.1): The Present Music Scene

Festival Acoustic de Bamako

Photo by Banning Eyre

Text by Banning Eyre

In January and February, I made my fifth visit to Bamako, Mali. It was the first time back in ten years, and I was there with Sean Barlow to research new programs for Afropop Worldwide. We were especially interested to see how musicians’ lives had been affected in the aftermath of tumultuous events in 2012 and 2013 – namely, a rebellion in the north, eight months of sharia law under which music was banned in northern cities like Timbuktu, Gao and Kidal, a coup d’etat in Bamako, French military action to restore the nation’s sovereignty, and fraught elections bringing a new, fragile civilian government to power.

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NY’s Castillo Theatre Presents: “Even Under Bitterness,” a multi-media performance piece

Otto Rene CastilloCastillo Theatre is proud to present the American premiere of Even Under Bitterness being directed by the Munich-based theatre artist, Hans Melzer. Even Under Bitterness is an avant-garde, multi-media performance made up of poems written by our namesake, the Guatemalan poet and activist, Otto René Castillo.

We at Castillo Theatre have long wanted to create a performance piece using Otto René Castillo’s poems so when Melzer reached out to us with a show he had been touring throughout Europe we were thrilled. Obviously Castillo’s poems and life have been inspirational to us here. His poems are passionate, sometimes sad, often outraged by poverty and injustice. Our work is an attempt to answer the question raised in Castillo’s “Apolitical Intellectuals”: What did you do when the poor suffered?”

Even Under Bitterness will be performed in English and German featuring German actress, Gabi Heller, and two Castillo actresses: Madelyn Chapman and Olivia Luna. The poems will be accompanied by improvised live music along with video projections.

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