Tuesday, August 16, 2011

The Blues: Liberation, Empowerment and Joy!


The Blues: Liberation, Empowerment and Joy! is the third in the series of seven evening performances in conjunction with Susan Singer’s exhibition of female nudes, Not Barbie: A Celebration of Real Women.  The series, Beyond Barbie: Piecing Together Today’s Woman, showcases and highlights the joys as well as the hardships that women face today.

The Blues: Liberation, Empowerment, and Joy! is an evening celebrating the life-changing power of music. Opening the evening with song will be Ana Rivera-Poland followed by a headlining performance from GayeAdegbalola, singer, composer, storyteller and activist.  Gaye has toured nationally and internationally, and has won numerous awards including the prestigious Blues Music Award (formerly the W.C. Handy Award – the Grammy of the blues industry). As of February 2009, Adegbalola has 13 CDs in national distribution, including 3 on her own label, Hot Toddy Music. Gaye composes, sings and plays acoustic guitar, slide guitar, and harmonica. By maintaining the blues legacy, Gaye sees herself as a contemporary griot - keeping the history alive, delivering messages of empowerment, ministering to the heartbroken, and finding joy in the mundane.  

The evening will go beyond the frequently heard sadness the Blues offers, to find the true joy and empowerment that comes from liberating one’s self.  As Gaye mentions in her hit song Big Ovaries Baby, “Assertive or aggressive/Name it what you will/Brazen or bodacious I got/Ovaries of steel.”

The Blues: Liberation, Empowerment and Joy! will take place October 6th from 7-9 PM at Crossroads Art Center at 2016 Staples Mill Rd, RVA 23230.  For more information or to purchase tickets, please go to www.crossroadsartcenter.com or www.susansinger.com or call Crossroads at 804-278-8950. 

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