On Thursday, May 10th, 12:30pm, Artists Without Walls, in conjunction with Lehman College’s City and Humanities Program, presents “Women Who Have Overcome,” a discussion with three women who, despite being presented with major obstacles at different points during their lives, have gone onto successful careers in the arts and education.
Jazz pianist/vocalist Mala Waldron, poet Connie Roberts and singer/songwriter Theresa Sareo will be discussing their lives as well as sharing their talents with the audience. Charles R. Hale will moderate the event. Special thanks to Professor Joseph McElligott for sponsoring this program.
The event will be held in the Lovinger Theatre at Lehman College. For directions to Lehman, click here.
Artists Without Walls, as part of Origin Theatre’s 1stIrish Fest, is proud to present “New York City: A Shining Mosaic,” a show that will celebrate America’s immigrants at the point of their arrival…in full view of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Pier A Harbor House, which looks out on the New York Harbor, will be the site of an evening of music, theatre and dance, and the memory of our ancestors who built the bridges and tunnels, paved and swept the sidewalks and streets….and stayed. Tuesday, September 27, 7.30pm
Written by Charles R. Hale and directed by Julie Kline and musical director Niamh Hyland, the show’s performers include vocalist/Niamh, guitarist/vocalist Walter Parks, cellist/vocalist Eleanor Dubinsky, flutist Elsa Nilsson, pianist/vocalist Mala Waldron, dancer Laura Neese, guitarist Yuri Juarez and actors John Duddy and Jack O’Connell.
Mitch Traphagen’s photos from Artists Without Walls’ Showcase at The Cell Theatre, April 26, 2016.
Christopher Dean SullivanGina Costigan and Cav EireKazuki KazuruMala WaldronPremik Russell TubbsCeleste MunizJohn AmbrosiniJean HuffJim HawkinsRichard CashmanMichelle MacauPatricia Schneider and Honor MolloyKazuki Kazuru, Paul Roberson, Celeste Muniz and Al Foote III
“Artists Without Walls has has gotten off to a fantastic start this year. I’m so very thankful for the artistic, cultural and social benefits I have reaped from this organization. Thanks, Charles and Niamh. Thanks everyone for your support.” Mark Donnelly
—–
Rick Cashman
We’ve got a great evening of diverse entertainment planned for Artists Without Walls’ April Showcase at The Cell Theatre, Tuesday, April 26. One of the group’s newest members, songwriter Rick Cashman, will be making his first AWoW appearance. Joining Rick will be jazz pianist John Ambrosini and saxophonist Premik Russell Tubbs, who has performed with Lady Gaga, Sting, Whitney Houston, Carlos Santana, Jackson Browne and James Taylor. Rick is also the creator, writer and producer of a weekly comedy podcast called “The Hickory Bench Playhouse”
Gina Costigan
Actress Gina Costigan will be performing a scene from Honor Molloy’s short play, “And in My Heart. ” The play is a young woman’s account of love and revolution during the 1916 Easter Rising, which is drawn from Honor’s Great Aunt Florence Kane’s eye witness account of the week when Ireland changed, changed utterly.
Mala Waldron
Mala Waldron, a New York City native, balances local performances with regular tours in Europe and Asia. Currently, the songstress is excited about her upcoming solo release, “Deep Resonance.” The project is an intimate, unplugged, personal glimpse into the heart of the artist, featuring her lush vocals and piano accompaniment. Mala’s recordings include her CD debut, “Lullaby,” a tribute to her godmother, Billie Holiday and a duo project with her father, pianist/composer Mal Waldron, “He’s My Father” and “Always There,” which, in addition to being her first U.S. release, was also licensed by Columbia Records (Japan) and voted one of the Top 20 Jazz CDs of 2006 by JazzUSA.
Jenai Huff
Jenai Huff, NYC based singer/songwriter composes songs that address life with its nuances, contradictions, and challenges. Working with acclaimed cinematographer and cameraman, Arthur Jafa (Selma, Crooklyn, Seven Songs for Malcolm, Beyonce, Lauren Hill), has put two of her songs to film, which she will be showing at Tuesday’s Showcase. One of the songs, “Just Like Me,” subtly addresses racism and how we really are all mostly a like.
Michelle Macau
Michelle Macau will be presenting a reading of selected poems from “The Surrender Tree” by Margarita Engle about Cuba’s struggle for freedom, experimenting with percussive sounds to enhance the story. Joining Michelle will be Al Foote III, Celeste Muniz, Paul Roberson and Kabuki Kozuru.
Jim Hawkins
Storyteller Jim Hawkins will pay tribute to the men and women of 1916 Ireland, with passages from Sean O’Casey’s writings and the song, “The Foggy Dew.” Jim has spent decades telling stories, with a sly, folksy understated humor, like the seanchaís of old, whom Hawkins emulates. Jim tells the stories of nearly vanished Irish folkways to audiences far and wide, in public libraries, pubs, churches, universities, in Ireland and here in the United States. “I wish to be a vehicle that carries the history, culture and traditions of the Irish people, and to share the stories, songs and poetry of this great culture with the world. It will be my contribution to keeping this wonderful art-form alive and well.”
Artists Without Walls’ Artistic Directors Niamh Hyland and Charles R. Hale will be hosting and emceeing the event. The Cell Theatre is located at 338 W23rd. St., NYC. The doors and bar open at 6:45. The Showcase begins at 7:30. For more information about the event click here.
This past Thursday, Lehman College: The City and Humanities Program and the CUNY Institute for Irish-American Studies sponsored a performance of Charles R. Hale’s “Musical History of the Lower East Side,” celebrating the music of a neighborhood from which many of our nation’s ethnic groups can trace their origins.
In the 1840s, almost half of America’s immigrants were from Ireland. Often leaving behind famine and poverty, the Irish would often sing ballads steeped in nostalgia and self-pity, and despite the troubles they’d left, singing the praises of their native soil. The Irish also brought Celtic music. Melodies common to fiddlers throughout Scotland and Ireland were transferred nearly intact to the American fiddle tradition. Deni Bonet performed one such tune that has remained a bluegrass fiddler favorite, “Red Haired Boy.”
Stephen Foster, who’s often referred to as “the father of American music,” moved to the Bowery in 1860. Foster was primarily known for his parlor music and minstrel music. Niamh Hyland, with accompaniment from Deni and Noah Hoffeld, sang two popular Foster tunes, “Hard Times Come Again No More,” 1854, and “Slumber My Darling,” 1862.
Niamh Hyland
A steady stream of Italian immigrants began arriving in America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Italians from Naples and Southern Italy brought with them a traditional form of singing called Neapolitan music. In New York City, Italian tenors Enrico Caruso and Beniamino Gigli popularized such songs as “O Sole Mio,” “Funiculi Funicular” and “Non ti Scordar di me,” which was performed by soprano Ashley Bell. Italian immigrants also helped popularize the Metropolitan Opera, which debuted a number of Italian operas, including Giacomo Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi in 1918. Ashley performed the opera’s most popular aria “O Mio Bambino Caro.”
Ashley Bell
The Lower East Side is especially remembered as a place of Jewish beginnings in America. Between 1880 and the start of World War I in 1914, about 2 million Yiddish speaking Jews left Eastern Europe and Russia where pogroms and persecution made life unbearable. While Jewish composers, many of whom lived on the Lower East Side, were influential in creating the American Songbook, they also brought a great deal of European music with them as well. Basya Schechter and Noah Hoffeld captured the spirit of the past with two Yiddish songs, “Oyfn Pripetchik” and “Shnirele Perele”
Basya Schechter and Noah Hoffeld
George and Ira Gershwin were composers who were raised on the Lower East Side. George’s classical music such as Rhapsody in Blue, his opera Porgy and Bess and his many show tunes remain popular today, but he also teamed up with brother Ira to write “I Got Rhythm,” “The Man I Love” and “Someone to Watch Over Me,” which was performed by jazz pianist and vocalist Mala Waldron with accompaniment from fiddler Deni.
In the mid 1950s many artists and musicians were drawn to the neighborhood around the Bowery by cheaper rents. The Five Spot Café, a jazz club located between 4th and 5th Streets, staged jam sessions with some of the giants of jazz: Thelonius Monk, Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, and Lower East Side resident, Charlie Parker. Waldron, accompanied once again by Deni, performed a Parker favorite “Embraceable You.”
Mala Waldron
In the 1940s and 50s Latin Jazz began to take hold in New York City. At the same time, there was the first great migration of Puerto Ricans entering the country. Shortly, Dominicans and other Spanish groups followed. Latin jazz musicians, guitarist Yuri Juarez and percussionist Jhair Sala, performed a tune that was popular in the Latin community, now known by its Spanglish name, Loisaida, in the 1940s and 50s, “Night in Tunisia,” written by jazz great Dizzie Gillespie.
The music of the Lower East Side has continued to evolve from garage band to punk to alternative rock and yet, each year, the Loisaida Festival continues to evoke the spirit of its immigrant past, as did Yuri and Jhair with the last song on the program, “La Bikina.”
Jhair Sala and Yuri Juarez
A big thank you to all the artists who participated in the “Musical History of the Lower East” and to Lehman College: The City and Humanities Program and the CUNY Institute for Irish-American Studies for sponsoring the event.
Mitch Traphagen’s photos from Charles R. Hale’s “Musical History of the Lower East Side,” at Lehman College. The event was sponsored by “Lehman College: The City and Humanities Program and the CUNY Institute for Irish-American Studies.
This Thursday, April 7, 12:30pm, Lehman College: The City and Humanities Program, The CUNY Institute of Irish Studies and Artists Without Walls presents Charles R. Hale’s “The Musical History of the Lower East Side. The event will take place in the Studio Theatre, 250 Bedford Park Blvd W., Bronx, NY. Click here for directions.
Here’s what actress/director Aedin Moloney said about the show: “Blown away tonight by the most talented collection of musicians! Artists Without Walls hosted a terrific musical evening at Rockwood Music Hall. What a line up of super talented vocalists. One after another boom, boom, boom! All equally stunning performances….A slice of New York History. Take it on the road guys! Hopefully this will be done again…. not to be missed.”
Performers include (clockwise from top left) Niamh Hyland, Noah Hoffeld, Mala Waldron, Yuri Juarez, Ashley Bell, Basya Schechter, Deni Bonet and (center) Charles R. Hale, who wrote and narrates the show.