THE YELLOWROOT to Premiere at Chandler Center for the Arts

Tickets will go on sale Thursday, Sept. 10 at 10 a.m. for the world premiere of The Yellowroot: A Juke Joint Cabaret, a new theatrical work by playwright, composer and jazz vocalist Ashli St. Armant that reimagines Black American folklore through live music and storytelling. The production will premiere March 19-20, 2027, at Chandler Center for the Arts (CCA), 250 N. Arizona Ave, in Chandler, Arizona.

The culmination of St. Armant’s three-year artist residency at CCA, The Yellowroot grew from extensive research into Black American folklore, including stories that have been forgotten, obscured or separated from the communities that carried them. St. Armant brings those stories into a fictional juke joint, transforming them into theatrical “story-songs” through an original score rooted in jazz, blues and gospel.

St. Armant, performing as “Honey Biscuits,” is joined by a national ensemble of jazz artists who serve as both musicians and characters in the production. Their collective credits include the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Wynton Marsalis, Gregory Porter, Anderson .Paak, Nas, Lizzo, Earth Wind & Fire and Nicholas Payton.

The ensemble includes bassist and composer Amina Scott as “Kouzinn,” pianist Adam Ledbetter as “Melvin,” Chicago drummer and bandleader Alfonzo Jones as “Sockhead,” Los Angeles-based saxophonist and flutist Jay Flat as “Tater Man” and trumpeter Kadir Muhammad as “Cheeky.”

Co-commissioned by Chandler Cultural Foundation/Chandler Center for the Arts and ArtPower at UC San Diego, The Yellowroot was also selected for a 2025 National Performance Network Creation Fund Award supporting the creation of new artistic work.

At the heart of the work is St. Armant’s extensive exploration of Black American folktales, legends and historical accounts. During her three-year residency, she researched hundreds of stories before selecting sixteen to reimagine for the stage. Her research took her on multiple trips to Vacherie and New Orleans, Louisiana, and drew on sources including a first edition of The Book of Negro Folklore, the landmark 1958 anthology edited by Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps, and the comprehensive 2017 anthology The Annotated African American Folktales, edited by Harvard scholars Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Maria Tatar.

The residency also brought St. Armant into the Chandler community, where she spent time with local artists, students, residents and business owners exploring personal stories, folklore and the ways history and cultural heritage are passed from one generation to the next. Some of those conversations became part of the creative development of The Yellowroot. Her time with Southside Chandler community members, along with her reading of Not All Okies Are White, helped inspire the song “I Think I Will.” Conversations with Dr. Adama Sallu and Emil Davies Venn about Mami Wata folktales also contributed to the creation of the song “Mami Wata.”

The stories she ultimately selected range from legendary and mythic figures such as Annie Christmas and Mami Wata to the true story of Henry “Box” Brown, who escaped slavery in 1849 by having himself shipped in a wooden crate from Richmond, Virginia, to abolitionists in Philadelphia.

'This work comes from a deep place,' says St. Armant. 'My roots run ten generations back to New Orleans and Vacherie, Louisiana. Jazz isn't just an influence for me, it's my lineage. With The Yellowroot, I reach back and reclaim the music and stories of my people, and give them new life through this performance. I'm honoring my ancestors by letting their stories breathe again — as something living and joyful, not just remembered.'

'The Yellowroot lives in the world of the juke joint,' St. Armant continues. 'Traditional jazz, blues, spirituals, and other folk forms were birthed from these Black American gathering places as expressions of survival and joy. The musicians in The Yellowroot aren't just accompanying the story; they are the story. Everyone in the room becomes part of it — through call-and-response, through the way the stories move through us. That's how these tales get told: not delivered to an audience, but created with them.'

St. Armant’s relationship with Chandler Center for the Arts began in 2021 with NORTH: The Musical. Her three-year residency has supported the development of The Yellowroot through research, writing, composition, casting, design and workshops, while also creating opportunities for her to work with members of the Chandler community around storytelling.

That community work continues Wednesday, Oct. 21 at 7 p.m. with Ordinary Folks, Extraordinary Tales, a free public storytelling event presented by Chandler Center for the Arts in partnership with Chandler Museum.

The event will feature community members sharing true stories ranging from hilarious to heartbreaking. Selected storytellers will participate in workshops and rehearsals with St. Armant before taking the stage to share their stories with the community.

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