Detroit, MI
Invincible/ill Weaver is a Detroit based lyricist, performance artist, and activist. They spent over a decade organizing with Detroit Summer, a multi-racial, inter-generational collective in Detroit that is transforming communities through youth facilitative leadership, creativity, and collective action. Invincible co-founded the Detroit Future Youth network to support social justice and media-based youth projects throughout the city. They produce events, organize actions, design curriculum, facilitate workshops, weave participatory community media projects, and beyond, while simultaneously creating music, media, and touring internationally.
As a co-founder of EMERGENCE Media, Invincible released their debut album ShapeShifters (2008) and produced award winning videos like The Revival (2009) about women in hip-hop, and Locusts (2008) resisting displacement and gentrification in Detroit. They have performed around the world for two decades, both as a solo artist, and featured as part of the gender justice Hip-Hop collective ANOMOLIES, and in collaboration with Platinum Pied Pipers. They teamed up with longtime producer Waajeed in 2010 to release “Detroit Summer/Emergence.” Invincible was a 2010 fellow of Kresge Arts in Detroit, and a 2009 fellow of the Ellen Stone Belic Institute for Women and Gender in the Arts and Media. They currently do not perform or present solo work.
Invincible/ill is working with Complex Movements to create Beware of the Dandelions- an interactive multimedia installation exploring the relationship between complex sciences and social justice movements through science fiction, music, projections, animation, workshops, and organizing. The project is inspired by Grace Lee Boggs, Charity Hicks, Sheddy Rollins, and Detroit movement networks.
Detroit, MI
Born in diamond-rich Arkansas and then raised all around the country, songwriter, multi-instrumentist, singer and composer Shara Nova came from a musical family of traveling evangelists. Having decided to pursue a musical degree, she went on to study operatic voice at The University of North Texas. After moving to New York via Moscow, she chose to focus on arranging and began studying classical composition with composer / performer Padma Newsome (Clogs).
Nova then began issuing recordings as her chamber pop band, My Brightest Diamond, releasing four albums: Bring me the Workhorse (2006), A Thousand Sharks’ Teeth (2008), All Things Will Unwind (2011), and This is My Hand (2014).
Recent years have found Nova in the role of composer as much as songwriter. She has received numerous composer commissions that include work for the yMusic ensemble at Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series (2011), Brooklyn Youth Chorus (2012), Brooklyn Rider (2012), Young New Yorkers’ Chorus (2013), Nadia Sirota (2013), Clara Schumann Children’s Choir (2014), Roomful of Teeth (2015), and So Percussion (2015). Nova has performed her works with the San Francisco Symphony, BBC Concert Orchestra, North Carolina Symphony, American Composers Orchestra and the Indianapolis Symphony.
Additionally, many composers, songwriters, and filmmakers have sought out Nova’s distinctive voice, including David Lang, David Byrne, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Sufjan Stevens, Bryce Dessner, Steve Mackey, The Decemberists, Laurie Anderson, Meshell Ndegeocello, Matthew Ritchie and Matthew Barney.
Pittsburgh, PA
A new millennium leader leveraging the transformative power of Hip-Hop, Social Media and Technology into a new brand of social change. Jasiri performs nationally and internationally, delivers keynote addresses and speaks on scholarly panels. Jasiri has worked in underserved communities as a mentor, educator and community leader. He is a founding member of the anti-violence community organization, 1Hood. After garnering over 2 million YouTube views for his conscious elevating Hip-Hop, Jasiri felt that it was imperative to provide training for young people in new forms of digital media, empowering them to change their own communities and to tell their own, often maligned and marginalized stories. In 2010, Jasiri founded 1Hood Media Academy in Pittsburgh, where he leads a team of educators and artists in teaching young people media literacy, photography, videography, music production, creative lyricism, entrepreneurship, journalism and other 21st century skills. Jasiri X is a new millennium Civil Rights Activist working closely with his mentor, Harry Belafonte to address social ills of today’s society. A 6 time Pittsburgh Hip-Hop Award winner and recipient of the BMe Leader Award, Unsung Hero Award, and New Pittsburgh Courier Men of Excellence Award, Jasiri is poised to lead a global generation in changing Hip Hop’s bad rep by staying true to his artistic intention – FREEING MINDS ONE RHYME AT A TIME.
Nashville, TN
Alison Brown is a Grammy Award-winning banjo player from Nashville, Tennessee. In addition to being an exceptional player whose music has taken the banjo far beyond its Appalachian roots, she is also a scholar of the instrument who wrote her undergraduate thesis at Harvard on Bluegrass Music as a Reflection of Social Change in Appalachia post World War II. Alison’s overarching ambition, to bring the banjo into the mainstream, is accomplished through her music and performances as well as through her work as a producer and as co-founder of Compass Records. While her playing style is rooted in traditional bluegrass banjo technique, she delights in bringing jazz, Celtic and world music influences into her sound. Alison has also worked extensively with Alison Krauss, The Indigo Girls and Michelle Shocked. She is a strong advocate for female musicians particularly within the male dominated bluegrass culture. Before devoting her life to the banjo she put her MBA degree to work as an investment banker. The Alison Brown Quartet has appeared at the Newport Folk Festival, the New Orleans Jazz Festival, the Kennedy Center, the Grand Ole Opry and alongside several major symphony orchestras.
Durham, NC
Born in Boston (Roxbury) Massachusetts as John Mancebo Lewis – he studied Trombone and played with many of the Boston based Musicians, Dancers, Poets and Artists of the late 1940’s, and 1950’s as both a Trombonist and a percussionist (hand Drums/Conga) . He migrated to New York City in 1960 in the band of Ken Makanda McIntyre where they recorded and performed during the “NYC Loft Period” of the 1960’s and the 1970’s. Mr Haroon also recorded and performed in the bands of Sam Rivers, Ronnie Boykins and Earl Cross, to name a few.
In 1970 Mr. Haroon entered Wesleyan University, Middletown,Connecticut as a student /instructor in the music department. It was during his years at Wesleyan that he became interested in Ethnomusicology and began to explore many types of musics particularly the music of Africa, the Middle East and Asia. He began to explore the use of music as a healing modality (Music Therapy) and the interrelationship of indigenous music(s), particularly the evolution of African American Music from its African sources and the development of music in the African Diaspora. While at Wesleyan he was instrumental in helping to develop the Jazz Studies component at Wesleyan and served briefly in 1973/4 as Visiting Artist in African American Music. He has a BA in Music from Wesleyan and an MA in History from Texas Southern University, Houston, TX.
He is interested in the intersections of music, social justice and religion, and has travelled extensively throughout the Middle East, and Africa. While retired from teaching, he continues to perform and participate in various ensembles which include African /African American Dance – Sufi ‘spiritual’ music. He has also written several papers and short stories concerned with music, history and religion.
Brooklyn, NY
Canonized, marginalized or just scrutinized, Meshell Ndegeocello has given up trying to explain herself. After 20 years in an industry that has called her everything from avant garde to a dying breed, what unquestionably remains is the fearsome bassist, prolific songwriter, and the creativity and curiosity of an authentic musical force. With that, she has earned critical acclaim, the unfailing respect of fellow players, songwriters and composers, and the dedication of her diverse, unclassifiable fans.
“Pour Une Ame Souvraine” (For a Sovereign Soul), A Dedication to Nina Simone, is Meshell’s tenth record, her second for Naïve. Produced by Meshell and guitar player Chris Bruce, this album is a labor of love, a reflection of Meshell’s awe, affection, and gratitude for the pioneering work of a woman who refused to be owned by genre, industry, or expectation. Meshell and Chris turned well and lesser known songs into new experiences, inviting collaborations by Cody ChesnuTT, Valerie June, Sinead O’Connor, Lizz Wright, and Toshi Reagon, and the results are intoxicating. While Nina Simone is no longer here to pass the torch, this album, not just a tribute but a transformation, clearly nominates Meshell as her heir apparent.
About her choice to record the music made famous by Nina Simone, Meshell says, “Nina Simone was unusual, unruly, unparalleled. She has an unmistakable voice and an unavoidable spirit – she’s terse and angry and expressive of her despair and her joy and her sexuality. She is not an industry player, she was obviously difficult and volatile. She wanted success, was pressured to make hits, but her own sound was still irrepressible. She had things to say, she protested. She was a loud, proud black, female voice during a time when black female voices were not encouraged to make themselves heard.” Meshell Ndegeocello was born Michelle Johnson in Berlin, Germany and raised in Washington DC. By the early 90’s, she had landed in New York armed with a demo recorded in her bedroom, joined the Black Rock Coalition, and was soon signed to Maverick. Each of her albums have offered lyrical ruminations on race, love, sex, betrayal, God, and power, and she has simultaneously embraced and challenged listeners with her refusal to be pigeon-holed musically or personally. Meshell has been both celebrated and berated for her politically charged lyrics, sexual boundary crossing, and for choosing the road less traveled – a winding adventure through her own musical ambitions rather than the industry formulas. Everything that once counted against her has emerged in her favor, earning her unusual artistic freedom, pride in her open identity, and longevity due to the integrity and artistic ambition of her recordings.
A bass player above all else, Meshell brings her signature warmth and groove to everything she does and has appeared alongside the Rolling Stones, Madonna, Alanis Morrisette, James Blood Ulmer, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Tony Allen, John Medeski, Billy Preston, and Chaka Khan. As for her own bass-playing influences, she credits Sting, Jaco Pastorius, Family Man Barrett, and Stevie Wonder. Meshell was the first woman to be featured on the cover of Bass Player magazine and remains one of few women who write the music and lead the band.
Willow, NY
Jack DeJohnette is a legendary jazz drummer, pianist, and composer. After studying at the American Conservatory of Music, he began his career playing R&B, hard bop, and avant-garde music in Chicago with his own groups and with Roscoe Mitchell, and John Coltrane. In 1966, DeJohnette moved to New York. He has collaborated with most major figures in jazz history, including Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, Sonny Rollins, Sun Ra, Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, Chet Baker, Charles Lloyd, Betty Carter, and Eddie Harris. In January 2012, DeJohnette received a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master Fellowship.
Photo credit Ernest Gregory
Brooklyn, NY
Brothers Colin Jacobsen and Eric Jacobsen co-founded the music ensembles Brooklyn Rider, a string quartet, and an orchestra called The Knights. Colin is a violinist who first played to critical acclaim at age fourteen with Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic. His wide-ranging musical activities include performing with many orchestras, such as those of Albany, Chicago, and San Francisco, and playing with dance and theater companies such as New York City Ballet and the Mark Morris Dance Group. Eric is a conductor and cellist as well as the Music Director for The Knights, an orchestra founded with the goal of bringing the camaraderie of chamber music to the orchestral stage. The Jacobsons are also touring members of the Silk Road Ensemble.
Photo credit Keith Lew
Brooklyn, NY
Brothers Colin Jacobsen and Eric Jacobsen co-founded the music ensembles Brooklyn Rider, a string quartet, and an orchestra called The Knights. Colin is a violinist who first played to critical acclaim at age fourteen with Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic. His wide-ranging musical activities include performing with many orchestras, such as those of Albany, Chicago, and San Francisco, and playing with dance and theater companies such as New York City Ballet and the Mark Morris Dance Group. Eric is a conductor and cellist as well as the Music Director for The Knights, an orchestra founded with the goal of bringing the camaraderie of chamber music to the orchestral stage. The Jacobsons are also touring members of the Silk Road Ensemble.
Photo credit Keith Lew
Nashville, TN
Singer and songwriter Claire Lynch was a rare woman in the bluegrass field when she led the Front Porch String Band in the 1970s. When the group stopped touring in 1981, Lynch became an in-demand session vocalist and wrote songs that were recorded by Patty Loveless, The Seldom Scene, and Kathy Mattea, among others. She has sung back-up vocals with artists such as Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, and Linda Ronstadt. Lynch won the International Bluegrass Music Association Female Vocalist of the Year Award in 1997 and in 2010 for her work with the Claire Lynch Band, which she formed in 2005.
Whatcha Gonna Do, 2010; cover art Beth Thomas; photo credit Jim McGuire