PEOPLE’S CHAMPS to BRING GLOBAL FUSION DANCE RHYTHMS to MASS MoCA
(NORTH ADAMS, Mass.) – Brooklyn-based world dance outfit People’s Champs will lay down global rhythms for a dance party at MASS MoCA on Saturday, October 4, at 8pm in Club B-10. Led by trombonist Alex Asher and fronted by vocalist Cole Williams, the Brooklyn-based People’s Champs mash 1980s electro-accordion riffs, neo-soul vocals, and gritty drum grooves. The music is rooted in popular dance music from around the world, and the lush arrangements never lose track of the dance floor. The band mixes jazz, hip-hop, rock, and soul from the United States, Latin America, and Africa, and the result is a passionate new brand of soul music that is equal parts Gorillaz, Michael Jackson, Fela Kuti, and Ornette Coleman.
David Adkins
(STOCKBRIDGE, Mass.) – “POE,” a new play about the great American poet and short story writer Edgar Allan Poe and his mysterious disappearance for four days in Baltimore in 1849, will get its world premiere at the Unicorn Theatre in Stockbridge in a Berkshire Theatre Group production starring David Adkins in the title role, running from Thursday, October 2, through Sunday, October 26.
Pablo Aslan
PABLO ASLAN QUINTET BRINGS JAZZ TANGO to WILLIAMS
(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.) – The Pablo Aslan Quintet brings its jazz-infused tango to Williams College on Monday, October 6, at 8pm, in Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall. Aslan also holds a same-day master class featuring talented Williams music students at 4:15 p.m. These events are free and open to the public.
Audrey Niffenegger
NEIL GAIMAN in CONVERSATION with AUDREY NIFFENEGGER at BARD
(ANNANDALE-on-HUDSON, N.Y.) – In the second in a regular series of conversations hosted by Bard professor Neil Gaiman, author and artist Audrey Niffenegger (“The Time Traveler’s Wife”) discusses time travel, Doctor Who, graveyards, taxidermy, graphic novels, pictures, books, and long-distance romance. The program takes place on Friday, October 3, at 7:30 p.m. in the Sosnoff Theater in the Fisher Center at Bard College.
SHEMEKIA COPELAND to BRING MODERN BLUES and R&B to HELSINKI HUDSON
(HUDSON, N.Y.) – Grammy Award-nominated vocalist Shemekia Copeland will bring her singular brand of modern blues, funk, soul and R&B to Club Helsinki Hudson on Friday, October 3, at 9pm. The daughter of the late Texas blues guitar legend Johnny Clyde Copeland, Shemekia Copeland has established her own primacy in the field, literally having been crowned the new “Queen of the Blues” by the late Koko Taylor’s daughter, Cookie.
Work by Lauren Mabry
CHINESE PAINTER PAIRED with PHILLY CERAMICIST at IAP GALLERY
(NORTH ADAMS, Mass.) – Atmospheric paintings by New York-based Chinese artist Shen Chen and abstract-painting-inspired ceramic sculptures by up-and-coming American artist Lauren Mabry will be on view at Independent Art Projects (IAP) on the MASS MoCA campus through Sunday, November 16.