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Heavy Florals VII curated by Shara Lunon

Date: May 7, 2024
Time: 7pm

7pm doors 8pm music 

Full dinner menu available; seating is first come, first served 

HEAVY FLORALS is a series that creates space for a community of POC musicians & their allies to exhale, curated by Shara Lunon

performing live in the back room

ALIYA & JAVEN

Aliya Ultan (she/her/hers) is a cellist, singer, and composer-improviser from Brooklyn based in New York. Growing up in a car with her mother and sister, Aliya’s music channels the energies one might associate with escape via catharsis or witchcraft. Throughout her time in NYC, Aliya has become deeply involved in the experimental music scene as both a performer and facilitator of creative happenings. The Wham Jam series in Redhook is one of her ongoing projects as well as an upcoming rooftop series starting May. With a passion for collaboration Aliya plays in three bands; GNR8RZ with Simon Hanes, Calvin Weston, and Anthony Coleman, Wicked Bush with Matt Bent and Kevin Eichenberger, and SEVEN which she co-leads with violist-singer songwriter Javen Lara. Aliya also performs on Broadway in Hadestown and with Yoshiko Chuma’s School or Hard Knocks. Come this Fall, Aliya will be releasing multiple records including a debut album with SEVEN produced by Randall Dunn, GNR8RZ produced by Marc Urselli, and a live album of her most recent solo tour across the States. For information about upcoming events and releases please follow @nocturnal_cellist on IG.

Javen Lara (she/her/hers), also known as Jae, is from Harlem, New York City. She attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School as an instrumental major. Jae has performed at Lincoln Center, Madison Square Garden, Carnegie Hall and more. Graduating from Bard College and Conservatory, Jae was one of two of the first African-American graduates of the Conservatory. Upon her return to New York City, she started “Javen’s House Concert Series: Through the Seasons”, where she hosted a fusion of classical chamber music favorites, improvisations, and original songs. Emma Kato, Christina Jones, Alyssa Yuge, Dharshan Chandrakumar. Gigi Hseuh, Alissa Mori, and Alec Manasse were collaborators playing works by Shostakovich, Tchiakovsky, Mozart. The improvisations were created by Jae and eclectic violinist, Scott Li. And original songs with her Manhattan-based band, The Slippers. Dharshan and Jae also started an improvisatory viola duet, using electronics and voice to expand the capabilities of their instruments. Lastly, Jae is the violist as well as co-lead vocalist with cellist/vocalist/one of Jae’s greatest inspirations, Aliya Ultan, in the Brooklyn based band, SEVEN. They have performed at Public Records, Chaos Computer, and look forward to collaborating with Pioneer works as well as more renowned venues around New York City. This Autumn, the band will be releasing their debut album, produced by Randall Dunn, through Applehead Studios in Woodstock and Circular Ruin Studios in Brooklyn. @sexistential_crisis and @seventimesinfinity on IG

BongoWattZ

Shamar Watt is an experimental multidisciplinary artist born in Kingston, Jamaica, raised in Miami, and based in Miami and New York City. He has worked as a multidisciplinary performer with Nora Chipaumire since 2015. He was nominated as one of the top 25 performers/choreographers to watch for 2019 Dance Magazine. Watt was the recipient of the prestigious Bessie Award for Outstanding Performance 2019. Watt collaborated and worked alongside Matthew Barney in ‘SECONDARY’ premiered in 2023. Watt challenges the way we perceive form through sound and the Body. He interrogates the forms of spiritual entertainment. Watt is currently pursuing an MFA at NYU Tisch in interdisciplinary research.

+ all night selector DJ SAGE LOVES NY

$10-20 sliding scale at the door


Patchwork Literary Salon: K-Ming Chang, Megan Milks, Maeve Barry

Date: May 8, 2024
Time: 7pm

Patchwork, a feminist literary salon, brings together writers across genres and stages in their careers to create a colorful tapestry of radical, experimental, and intersectional feminist conversation and community. Join us monthly for readings, lively discussion, drink specials, books for sale, and an opportunity to mingle and connect with fellow feminist writers and readers!

DATE: Wednesday, May 8
TIME: 7:00pm doors; 7:30 start
LOCATION: SISTERS, 900 Fulton St., Brooklyn, NY 11238

Patchwork is produced by the Feminist Press, the world’s longest-running feminist publisher. Founded in 1970 to diversify the literary canon, FP is proud to publish books that ignite movements and social transformation, and works to create a world where everyone recognizes themselves in a book. With Patchwork, Feminist Press aims to bring together a wide variety of writers to create an energetic, exciting space for feminist and independent literary community in New York.

🪡 ABOUT OUR READERS 🪡

K-MING CHANG is a Kundiman fellow, a Lambda Literary Award winner, a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree, and an O. Henry Prize winner. She is the author of Bestiary (One World/Random House, 2020), Bone House (Bull City Press, 2021), Gods of Want (One World, 2022), and Organ Meats (One World, 2023). Her books have been New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice selections, included on the New York Times Notable Books list, and considered for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award. She can be found at kmingchang.com.

MEGAN MILKS is the author of Margaret and the Mystery of the Missing Body, named a Lambda Literary Award finalist, and Slug and Other Stories, both published by Feminist Press, as well as Tori Amos Bootleg Webring, published in Instar Books’ Remember the Internet series. With Marisa Crawford, they coedited We Are the Baby-Sitters Club: Essays and Artwork from Grown-Up Readers.

MAEVE BARRY is a writer living in Brooklyn. She has stories in/forthcoming from FENCE, the Sewanee Review, Post Road Magazine, Sleepingfish and other places. She is working on her first novel.

Patchwork is hosted by NADINE SANTORO. Nadine Santoro is a multi-disciplinary artist, writer, and facilitator. She works as the Publicity & Events Coordinator at the Feminist Press, leads retreats, and teaches on creative attention. Nadine is the co-host of the podcast Thinking Straight, a lesbian anthropological dig into the world of heterosexual romance novels, and writes The Doorway, a biweekly snail-mail newsletter. She lives in Brooklyn with her girlfriend and their two senior dogs, Knives and Young Neil.

Logo and graphics by Neeti Banerji. Books will be available for purchase courtesy of Hive Mind Books. This programming is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.


Brooklyn Raga Massive Presents

Date: May 12, 2024
Time: 7pm

Get tickets here

7pm doors 8pm music

Full dinner menu available, seating is first-come first-served

performing live in the back room

GEORGE CROTTY TRIO

George Crotty has forged his own unique vocabulary on the cello. Expanding outward from the cello’s intrinsic lyricism, his sound introduces plaintive Irish ornamentation, melismatic gestures of Indian classical music, adapted electric guitar manoeuvres, and the bold articulation of jazz bass. He writes and performs for solo cello and small ensembles, and collaborates on film scores, original recordings, and theatrical productions. A member of the Brooklyn Raga Massive, and Detroit-based National Arab Orchestra, he has also worked with Bob Ezrin, Simon Shaheen, Paquito D’Rivera, Anat Cohen, and Darol Anger.

COMPASS TRIO 

Compass is a trio that brings an original compositional voice to the three musicians’ collective experience and expertise – Indian raga and tala, the art of flamenco, jazz harmony, and deep groove. The rhythmic form of North Indian music known as theka is a uniquely sophisticated container for exploring time and polyrhythm. Separated by hundreds of years and countless migrations of the Gitano diaspora throughout present day Middle East and Europe we find the same concepts in new forms through the Spanish compas. This musical connection through history and culture is referenced in the name Compass; both a tool to find one’s way home as well as that which structures time in music, another form of finding “home”. Compass Trio is comprised of guitar and effects (James Labrosse), tabla (Tripp Dudley), and sitar (Galen Passen)

Brooklyn Raga Massive is an adventurous nonprofit musicians’ collective that creates cross-cultural understanding through the lens of South Asian classical music by providing direct support to artists, fostering collaboration through our iconic concerts and jam sessions, facilitating cultural exchange through educational initiatives, and producing transcendent, and often massive, performances, festivals, and one-of-a-kind albums. BRM’s original ensembles have performed across the country at venues such as Lincoln Center, Fotografiska NY, Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, Pioneer Works, The Rubin Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Kennedy Center, and more. Through the curation of our signature series, festivals, and educational programs, we have brought raga into conversation with musical traditions coming from Iraq, Cuba, Morocco, Japan and more.This practice of cross-cultural collaboration both reflects the current global landscape and enables BRM to serve as an incubator of expansive, innovative, new genres of music indigenous to Brooklyn.


Vines / Kamra / Yaz Lancaster

Date: May 13, 2024
Time: 7pm

7pm doors 8pm music

full dinner menu available, seating is first-come first-served

 

performing live in the back room

VINES

…is the solo project of composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Cassie Wieland. Praised by The New York Times as “sweetly shimmering,” Vines masterfully experiments with intimate ambient and experimental pop sound worlds to achieve the massive and hand-made vibe she is often searching for. Across her practice, Vines’s music shines a light on knotty feelings that are hidden just under the surface

KAMRA

…is a singer-songwriter raised in the dry desert of Arizona now living between their farm in the Western Catskill Mountains and Toronto. Their music fuses string instruments, experimental sensibilities, field recordings, and band jams. Kamra’s practice centers collaboration, painterly storytelling, and transfigurations that emerge after a spiritual experience. Their popular single “Hear My No” is a socio-cultural cry for more honest communication in relationships. They are also the author of Care Manual, a practical workbook which challenges fixed notions of care, consent, pleasure, and harm. Kamra’s songwriting derives wisdom from lived experience and surfs the waves of traditional African-American music with ethereal charm. Channeling the legacy of Black femme folk singers, Kamra puts their twist on the genre by blending the sentimental deep rich tones with soaring falsettos floating listeners off their feet.

YAZ LANCASTER

…is a transdisciplinary artist residing in Lenapehoking (NYC). Their work as a performer, composer, poet/writer, and collaborator is grounded in queer, DIY, and liberatory frameworks. Their debut record AmethYst, comprising music for violin, voice, and electronics was released in April 2023 (ppr). Recent and upcoming collaborators include Black Mountain College/Hub New Music, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Dorothy Carlos, Eliza Bagg, Massa Nera, Mingjia, Minnesota Philharmonic, Miss Grit, and Sean Pecknold. Yaz additionally works as the co-manager of people places records, a co-organizer of abolitionist music collective Sound Off, and a freelance (music) writer. They love powerlifting, horror manga, and summers down South.


Luke Stewart’s Silt Trio “Unknown Rivers” Release Show

Date: May 14, 2024
Time: 7pm

7pm doors 8pm music 

Full dinner menu available, seating is first-come first served 

performing live in the back room 

SILT TRIO 

Luke Stewart – bass, compositions
Brian Settles – tenor saxophone
Trae Crudup – drums

Unknown Rivers is bassist Luke Stewart’s debut for Pi Recordings. An omnipresent and galvanizing force on the music scene, Stewart is a leader or co-leader of such bands as Irreversible Entanglements, Exposure Quintet, Blacks’ Myths, Heart of the Ghost, and Remembrance Quintet. He is also among the most in-demand collaborators, having performed with the likes of David Murray, Nicole Mitchell, Moor Mother, Jaimie Branch, Nate Wooley, Ken Vandermark and countless others. Stewart is also a curator and presenter of multiple concert series in New York and Washington, D.C., a writer, activist, producer and D.J.

Featuring his long-running Silt Trio, with Brian Settles on tenor sax, and drummers Trae Crudup on four studio tracks and Chad Taylor on three live ones, Unknown Rivers sees the band pushing towards greater emphasis on rhythmic acuity, highlighting the different approaches to the music of the two drummers. Settles – a stalwart of the fertile Washington DC jazz scene – plays with a quiet intensity, possessing a sound that reminds of players from a distant past set against a modernist’s vocabulary. Stewart is the master of a deep, wide groove that cushions and propels, making every musical situation he finds himself in sound good. The Quietus has called the band “gripping… relies on subtlety and insinuation to register its uncanny power.” The Silt Trio is that magical juxtaposition of playing with raw spontaneity while maintaining the music’s intent and purpose.

opening sets by special guests

JANICE LOWE & OLITHEA


Brooklyn Maqam Hang: Orchestra Farha

Date: May 21, 2024
Time: 8pm

Music starts at 8pm
Full dinner menu available
Seating is first come first serve

Hot off the NY Oud Festival, Brooklyn Maqam – the back room’s longest running monthly music series – returns with a special performance by

ORCHESTRA FARHA
Zahra Alzubaida – voice
Sami Abu Shumays – violin
Sarah Mueller – violin
Gideon Forbes – nay, saxophone
Amir ElSaffer – trumpet
Josh Farrar – electric guitar
Mohammad Araki – keyboard
Marwan Allam – bass
Johnny Farraj – percussion
Alber Baseel – percussion


James Arenas & Los Sucios

Date: May 26, 2024
Time: 7pm

7pm doors 8pm music 

Full dinner menu available, seating is first come first serve 

performing live in the back room 

JAMES ARENAS & LOS SUCIOS

“…synthesizes such seemingly disparate traditions as the pleading and desperate modern chanson of Jacques Brel; the liquid, undulating dreamscape of David Lynch; and the shadowy sounds of Leonard Cohen.” 

James Arenas – Guitar, Lead Vocal
John Anderson – Upright Bass
Mike Chambers – Electric Guitar
Amy de Arenas – Piano, Synths
Mike Glanzer – Cajon, Percussion
Claudia Mogel – Violin

+special guest
HARVEY VALDES


performing Erik Satie Improvisations for solo guitar

$15 at the door (cash/Venmo, no presale)


Sam Weinberg 2024 Residency

Date: May 28, 2024
Time: 7pm

7pm doors 8pm music

Full dinner menu available, seating first-come first-served

performing live in the back room

THE SAM WEINBERG TRIO

with HENRY FRASER + JASON NAZARY 

listen to Plays Quarter Notes and Other Notes

CARLO COSTA & ZOSHA WARPEHA 

Percussionist, drummer and composer Carlo Costa was born and grew up in Rome, Italy. Since 2005 he has been based in New York City. In the past several years he has been making music which is largely improvised and experimental in nature. Through the use of a variety of unusual techniques and added objects Carlo has meticulously developed a distinctive and wide-ranging sonic palette.

Zosha Warpeha is a composer-performer working in a meditative space at the intersection of contemporary improvisation and folk traditions. She performs primarily on Hardanger d’amore, a sympathetic-stringed instrument closely related to the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle, as well as five-string violin. Zosha’s long-form compositions explore transformations of time and tonality.

TILGHMAN GOLDSBOROUGH 

Tilghman Alexander Goldsboroughl (b. Richmond, VA, USA, 1991). Poet. His work has appeared in The Mall, the Leveler, and Nomaterialism (vol II). Forthcoming work includes The Western with 1080 press and object 7 ( ,a subject loosely, ,bunded in a frame, ) with Futurepoem. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.

MORE EAZE

more eaze is the project of composer/multi-instrumentalist mari maurice. her work touches upon myriad genres and often explores themes of gender, intimacy, identity, perception, and the mundane. resident advisor categorizes maurice’s work as “accomplished ambient pop” and the quietus has said that her work “unearths a raw poignancy in what can often be a coldly academic field.”


Adnata Ensemble / Brandon Seabrook Trio

Date: June 4, 2024
Time: 7pm

7pm doors 8pm music

Full dinner menu available

Seating is first-come first-serve

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ADNATA ENSEMBLE

double bass quartet

Scott Colberg, Ari Folman-Cohen, Michael Isvara Montgomery, Ran Livneh

BRANDON SEABROOK STRING TRIO

Brandon Seabrook – guitar, Erica Dicker – violin, Henry Fraser – bass


Amirtha Kidambi’s Elder Ones

Date: June 5, 2024
Time: 7pm

a co-presentation with Dada Strain

7pm doors 8pm music

Full dinner menu available

Seating is first come first serve

live in the back room 

AMIRTHA KIDAMBI’S ELDER ONES

Amirtha Kidambi’s Elder Ones pushes the boundaries of free jazz, composition and electronic forms, with the raw riotous energy of “spiritual punk”, comprised of vocalist, composer and keyboardist Amirtha Kidambi (Mary Halvorson’s Code Girl, Darius Jones), saxophonists Matt Nelson (Battle Trance,  Flying Luttenbachers) and Alfredo Colon (Henry Threadgill, Moses Sumney), bassist Lester St. Louis (jaimie branch’s Fly or Die, Wendy Eisenberg’s Darlin’), and drummer Jason Nazary (Anteloper, Saint Abdullah).
The ensemble’s instrumentation undergirded by the drone of the Indian pump organ harmonium forms an intricate landscape for Kidambi’s voice to traverse; she battles against its mountainous heights before sliding speedily down its slopes. Truly making an instrument of her vocal chords, Kidambi’s syllabic, frenzied, and powerful utterances weave into the alluring, hypnotic, and confronting jazz melodies of the ensemble.
Dealing with issues such as power, capitalism, colonialism, white supremacy, and fascism, Amirtha Kidambi’s Elder Ones are not shy to confront and resist systems of oppression and control through their music. As such, a sense of ancestral energy pulses through their performances; it feels as though they are not alone on the stage, but are rather carried along by an old knowledge buried deep within the music.
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