The Public Announces Joe's Pub Working Group

Joe's Pub at The Public announces the new class of Joe's Pub Working Group (JPWG), the venue's artist development program dedicated to enhancing the career sustainability and growth of performing artists. Entering its fourth year, JPWG welcomes five artists - playwright and songwriter Dan Fishback, classically trained bandleader Juliette Jones, violinist and composer Dana Lyn, jazz composer and pianist Samora Abayomi Pinderhughes and cabaret darling Tori Scott - as the core group that represents the diversity and scope of the nightly programming at Joe's Pub.

Facing the rapidly shifting state of the music industry, Shanta Thake, Director of Joe's Pub, conceived of Joe's Pub Working Group to help artists at a critical point in their careers. "From where we stand, at the center of one of the most vibrant performance ecologies in the world, we have the great fortune of intersecting with hundreds of unique artists every year," said Thake. "We see it as our responsibility as a non-profit independent music venue to foster a community that elevates the work and reach of these artists."

Joe's Pub thrives at the crux of New York City's live music and downtown performing arts scenes. The venue has not only spring-boarded the rise of global superstars like Adele and Janelle Monáe but it also serves as the home for the genre-defying projects of artists like Bridget Everett and Mx Justin Vivian Bond. By furnishing a range of administrative and curatorial services, dedicated to project-based goals, JPWG offers both personalized practical and creative assistance and a group dynamic to deepen a communal atmosphere for developing new, ongoing and collaborative work.

Past participants include Bridget Barkan, Ali Grieb, Celisse Henderson, Larry Krone, Danny Lipsitz, Erin Markey, Stephanie McKay, Michael Mwenso, Trish Nelson, Isaac Oliver, Courtnee Roze, Kaylyn Marie Scardefield, Shaina Taub, Ike Ufomadu and Julian Velard.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Dan Fishback is a playwright and performing songwriter. His musical The Material World was called one of the Top Ten Plays of 2012 by Time Out New York. The Village Voice said his play You Will Experience Silence was "sassier and more fun than Angels in America." Fishback has released several albums and toured Europe and North America, both solo and with his band Cheese On Bread. Fishback founded and directs the Helix Queer Performance Network. Fishback is a member of the Jewish Voice for Peace Artist Council. Fishback will mount a reading of his new musical Rubble Rubble on March 1st. Cheese On Bread will release The One Who Wanted More, their first album in 11 years, at Joe's Pub on April 6, with a show hosted by Cole Escola and featuring Molly Pope and Michael R. Jackson.

Dana Lyn is a multi-instrumentalist and composer, who works and performs with artists like Tony Award-winning musicians Stew and Heidi Rodewald, Irish poet Louis de Paor, actor Vincent D'Onofrio, Taylor Mac and avant cellist Hank Roberts. Her compositions have been performed at Savannah Music Festival, Kilkenny Arts Festival, Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Austin's NMASS Festival, Stillwater Music Festival and Carnegie Hall. Her own projects include Mother Octopus, a collaboration with D'Onofrio called Slim Bone Head Volt, and a duo with guitarist Kyle Sanna, all of which have releases in 2018. Dana has been an artist-in-residence at the Avaloch Music Farm Institute since 2014 and was an artist-in-residence at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in 2017. She will celebrate the release of her third album with Sanna on April 13 at the Irish Arts Center, and the release of the second Slim Bone Head Volt album on May 4 at Joe's Pub.

Juliette Jones is a multi-genre acoustic and electric violinist. A BMI composer, Juliette has scored, recorded and contracted film, TV and multimedia projects, including the Oscar-nominated film Mudbound, the 60th Annual GRAMMY Awards Elton John Tribute, Solange Knowles's performances of A Seat at the Table at the Hollywood Bowl and Radio City Music Hall and more. Juliette has worked with Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, JustinTimberlake, Janelle Monáe, Hans Zimmer, John Legend, Toshi Reagon, Pharrell, Common, Frank Ocean, Hit-Boy, Florence + The Machine, Nicki Minaj, J. Cole, Ryan Leslie, Kid Cudi, Richard Smallwood and Sheila E. She is the founder of Rootstock Republic, a boutique string Production Company. Her six-piece orchestration of Nina Simone's love songbook, debut at Joe's Pub for Women's History Month.

Samora Abayomi Pinderhughes is a composer/pianist/vocalist, known for large multidisciplinary projects examining sociopolitical issues. His album The Transformations Suite was named by Downbeat Magazine and Apple Music as a Top 10 album of the year. A graduate of Juilliard, Samora has collaborated with Herbie Hancock, Anna Deavere-Smith, Glenn Ligon, Branford Marsalis, Lalah Hathaway, and more. He is also a member of Blackout for Human Rights, the arts & social justice collective founded by Ryan Coogler and Ava DuVernay, and was musical director for their #MLKNow and #JusticeForFlint events. A Sundance Composers Lab fellow, Samora recently scored the award-winning documentary "Whose Streets?", and co-wrote "The Cross" for the Netflix film Burning Sands along with Common and Robert Glasper.

Tori Scott is a singer, actress and comedian who was recently called "the Bette Midler of the new millennium" by Provincetown Magazine and has been named a Top 10 Cabaret Performer by Time Out New York. She has been a Joe's Pub regular for five years and has toured her solo shows to London, Los Angeles, San Diego, Dallas, Provincetown and cruise liners full of shirtless gay men at sea. On television, she's counted to 20 as a singing garbage woman on "Sesame Street" and dubbed the vocals of a singing hooker on HBO's Cathouse: The Musical. Her debut album Plan B! was released on Chicken Ranch Records in December 2017. Her new show Tori Scott Shame Spirals will be performed at Joe's Pub April 10, May 17 and June 12.

For all press inquiries, please contact Yuri Kwon at ykwon@publictheater.org or (212) 539-8563.

Joe's Pub AT THE PUBLIC, named for Public Theater founder Joe Papp, opened in 1998 and plays a vital role in The Public's mission of supporting young artists while providing established artists with an intimate space to perform and develop new work. Joe's Pub presents the best in live music and performance nightly, continuing its commitment to diversity, production values, community and artistic freedom. The organization also offers unique opportunities like New York Voices, an artist commissioning program that provides musicians the resources and tools needed to develop original theater works. Commissioned artists have included Ethan Lipton, Toshi Reagon, Bridget Everett, Allen Toussaint and more. In 2011, the Pub received a top-to-bottom renovation, leading to improved sightlines, expanded seating capacity and a new menu from acclaimed Chef Andrew Carmellini. With its intimate atmosphere and superior acoustics, Joe's Pub presents talent from all over the world as part of The Public's programming downtown at its Astor Place home, hosting approximately 800 shows and serving over 100,000 audience members annually.

THE PUBLIC is a theater of, by, and for the people. Artist-driven, radically inclusive, and fundamentally democratic, The Public continues the work of its visionary founder Joe Papp as a civic institution engaging, both on-stage and off, with some of the most important ideas and social issues of today. Conceived over 60 years ago as one of the nation's first nonprofit theaters, The Public has long operated on the principles that theater is an essential cultural force and that art and culture belong to everyone. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Oskar Eustis and Executive Director Patrick Willingham, The Public's wide breadth of programming includes an annual season of new work at its landmark home at Astor Place, Free Shakespeare in the Park at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, The Mobile Unit touring throughout New York City's five boroughs, Public Forum, Under the Radar, Public Studio, Public Works, Public Shakespeare Initiative, and Joe's Pub. Since premiering HAIR in 1967, The Public continues to create the canon of American Theater and is currently represented on Broadway by the Tony Award-winning musical Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda and John Leguizamo's Latin History for Morons. Their programs and productions can also be seen regionally across the country and around the world. The Public has received 59 Tony Awards, 169 Obie Awards, 53 Drama Desk Awards, 54 Lortel Awards, 32 Outer Critic Circle Awards, 13 New York Drama Desk Awards, and 6 Pulitzer Prizes.