JACK Presents BLACK STREET Featuring Martha Redbone & Ajamu Kojo

Part of JACK's year-long series, Reparations365 through song, spontaneous art, projection, and essay, BLACK STREET explores the historical eradication and systematic destruction of an African American economy, education, and progressive labour force on Friday, Sept. 29 at 7:30 pm.

The evening features performance by blues and soul singer Martha Redbone and Fred Cash (on bass), with live sketching by artist Ajamu Kojo, plus essays by and conversation with curator Carl Hancock Rux

TICKETS: $15 (in advance at www.jackny.org or cash only at the door)

LOCATION: JACK | 505 ½ Waverly Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11238 | C or G train to Clinton-Washington

BIOS:

Martha Redbone is a maverick artist who has never been chained by borders. Her award-winning music of Native and African American roots knee-deep in Appalachian folk and Piedmont blues favored by the matriarchy that raised her on a rich sojourn from Harlan County, Kentucky to streets of Brooklyn. Mentored by the late Walter "Junie" Morrison of Ohio Players/Parliament Funkadelic, Redbone has earned a solid reputation as a sought-after collaborator. Her current album, The Garden Of Love - The Songs of William Blake, traces the sonic path of her roots. Currently in development is Bone Hill, commissioned by Joe's Pub/Public Theater, inspired by her own family lineage in Appalachia, connections to one's homeland bringing to light an important piece of American history that has remained untold. Alongside her career as a recording artist and songwriter Redbone has maintained a steady involvement with causes she believes in for fundraising and leadership. She is a proud member of WHYHunger.org's Artist Against Hunger and Poverty program. Ms. Redbone is also a contracted teacher specializing in Southeastern Tribal Traditional Music for the State of Louisiana's Department of Indian Education for the United Houma Nation's Cultural Enrichment Summer Camp program teaching elementary school children the music from her own Southeastern (Choctaw/Cherokee) culture as well as working with the tribe's own Houma-French language. For more info, visit SROartists.com/martharedbone

Ajamu Kojo is a visual artist originally from Little Rock, Arkansas. His solo exhibition "Black Wall Street: A Case for Reparations" featured six pieces depicting descendants of Tulsa's Black Wall Street through live subjects and was presented at the Sheen Center in Manhattan in January/February 2017.

Carl Hancock Rux (Co-Curator, Reparations365) is an award-winning poet, performer, playwright and novelist. He is the author of the novel, ASPHALT, the OBIE Award-­winning play, TALK, and the Village Voice Literary prize-­winning collection of poetry, PAGAN OPERETTA. Mr. Rux is the recipient of the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts, The New York Foundation for the Arts Prize, and the Bessie Schomburg Award, NEA/TCG Playwright in Residence fellowship and the NEA Leadership Initiatives Meet the Composer Grant, among other awards.

REPARATIONS365

Reparations365: From Memory To Movement is JACK's year-long series of performances, workshops and discussions around the topic of distributive justice for Black Americans. Launched in February 2017, the series consists of at least 20 public offerings featuring a convergence of scholars, artists and activists. Through the series, participants will discover multiple ways to engage with the topic, all with an intention of offering tangible take-ways for participants and a concrete movement forward.

The performances feature a host of artists in dance, theater and music exploring the topic of repairing racial injustice. The series also includes several community conversations, panel discussions and interactive workshops curated with the participation of our neighbors and members of the artistic and activist community in New York.

BACKGROUND

The transatlantic slave trade has forever shaped the lives of global peoples in systematic and personal ways. Millions of Africans and their descendants have experienced trauma to their bodies, minds, hearts, homes, families and work as a result of the atrocities inherent to the design and execution of the slave trade. Those who participatEd Loudly, quietly, actively and passively in the systematic enslavement of African peoples and the economy rooted in their degradation and denunciation have exponentially benefited and accumulated an extraordinary debt.

Questions, debates and energy around the topic are resurgent -- through the writing of Ta-Nehisi Coates, Georgetown University's reparations efforts, the platform of The Movement for Black Lives and the United Nations call for the U.S. to consider reparations. Momentum towards action is brewing.

The series has expansive implications that reflect JACK's desire to contribute to the co-creation of a more just society, and to offer our space for conversation and imagination about how to get there. JACK is situated in a diverse neighborhood among other diverse neighborhoods - all of which are rich with Blackness and have varying degrees of trials, tensions and triumphs concerning black humanity, displacement, legacy and self-determination. This and many other factors affirm that the reparations series is well suited to our beloved Brooklyn.

JACK is an OBIE-winning performance venue founded in 2012 in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn by theater-maker Alec Duffy and several co-founders. Our mission is to fuel experiments in art and activism, collaborating with adventurous artists and our neighbors to bring about a just and vibrant society. We present about 200 theater, music and dance performances a year and hold community forums on racial justice, gentrification, and police/community relations. In 2016, DeeArah Wright joined Duffy as Co-Director.

Reparations365 is made possible by a Humanities New York Action Grant, by The New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and The New York State Legislature, and from many individual donors. JACK's season is made possible by The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and Councilmember Laurie Cumbo, by The New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and The New York State Legislature, M & T Charitable Foundation, Brooklyn Arts Council, The DuBose and Dorothy Heyward Memorial Fund, the Mental Insight Foundation and The Lida Foundation. ### Copyright © 2017 JACK, All rights reserved.
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Photo credit: Fabrice Trombert

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