Folk First: Black Roots Music

Friday, April 7, 2017,
8pm,
Triskelion Arts at Muriel Schulman Theater, 
106 Calyer Street, 
Brooklyn, NY 11222,
G to Nassau Ave (walk 3 blks north to Calyer & 3 blks west to #106) • map

The “What For? Why Not?” series combines two artists from different disciplines juxtaposing dance, music, spoken word, and visual art. 
Patti Bradshaw (dance) / Vienna Carroll & Keith Johnston (music)
Act 1: Choreographer and puppeteer Patti Bradshaw shares the evening with singing storyteller duo, Vienna Carroll and Keith Johnston. Bradshaw’s Flowers in Space uses dance, puppetry, and slide projections in a solo for dancer Valerie Striar inspired by the turn of the twentieth-century painter, poet, set designer, and subtle social commentator Florine Stettheimer, (1871-1944).
Act 2: In Folk First: Black Roots Music, Carroll as griot and Johnston as guitarist celebrate the spirituals, work songs, prison blues, and sea shanties of antebellum African Americans, and their links to contemporary artists like Biggie Smalls and Pharrell Williams.