Intercultural journeys explores the black artistic experience in america
Philadelphia, March 2, 2017 - Identity. Race. Gender. Throughout the last months, these issues have boiled to the surface in the national debate around our identity as a nation. On March 26, Intercultural Journeys dives into these issues with Keisha Hutchins' powerful concert, Going Home.
Vocalist and singer-songwriter Keisha Hutchins debuts Going Home, a soaring and timely artistic exploration ofbeing a Black, female artist in America on Sunday, March 26. Seamlessly moving from arias to jazz to spirituals, Hutchins blends together a vibrant, thoughtful concert examining persistence and resistance, guiding the audience through a profound personal and historical roadmap that considers what it is to be Black in America. Hutchins is joined by guest artists Lela Aisha Jones, Douglas Hirlinger, Ashley Phillips, and Neil Podgurski.
Artist Keisha Hutchins states:
"As I prepared for Going Home, current events swirled through my mind. The prison- industrial complex, the brutal mass killings of Black bodies in this country, oppressive systems that are still hard at work—centuries of policies based on biases and unchecked assumptions that have been harmful and downright dangerous to humanity. It is for this reason that I also intentionally chose pieces that reflected my sorrow and grief around these systems, while also trying to open a space for light and hope."
In conjunction with Going Home, Intercultural Journeys presents Intersections: Art, Identity, Home, a panel conversation around how Black, female artists navigate nationhood, citizenship, and homeland. Keisha Hutchins is joined by Valerie Gay (Executive Director of Art Sanctuary), Yolanda Wisher (Philadelphia's Poet Laureate), and Lela Aisha Jones (2016 Pew Fellow) in a discussion moderated by Dr. Pia Deas. The program is free and open to the public, and presented in partnership with Art Sanctuary.
PERFORMANCE
Going Home
Sunday, March 26, 2017 - 7pm
Ibrahim Theater at International House, 3701 Chestnut Street
Tickets for the performance are $15 for General Admission, $10 for IHP members, and $8 for students. To purchase tickets, visit ihousephilly.org/goinghome or call 215-387-5125, ext. 2.
PANEL
Intersections: Art, Identity, Home
Thursday, March 23, 2017 - 6 pm
Art Sanctuary, 628 S. 16th St
Tickets for the panel are free and available online at: http://bit.do/IJintersections
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Trained at the prestigious Oberlin Conservatory, vocalist Keisha Hutchins has been exploring, blending, and bending genres from Carnegie Hall to the clubs of Philadelphia, and her sound today is a smooth, heady blend of folk, soul, and alt-country. In addition to her first group, the trip-hop electronic artists Vanishing Peoples of the Earth, the soprano has performed with the Philadelphia Singers, the former resident choir of the Philadelphia Orchestra, for seven seasons, and has collaborated with artists as diverse as hip-hop producer Justin Gilmore of KRU records, dance music producer and DJ MacGuyver, New York composer Andrew Shapiro, and New Orleans composer and trumpeter Hannibal Lokumbe. Her eclectic talents extend offstage: she is a music educator, serving as the Lower School Music Teacher at Abington Friends School and has received the Leeway Foundation’s Art and Change grant for women who use their art to create social change. Keisha recently collaborated with dancer, choreographer and 2016 Pew Fellow, Lela Aisha Jones and her company Flyground, in the premiere of the company’s piece, Release Mourning Clearing, presented by Intercultural Journeys (2016).
Hutchins’ debut solo album, Dedicated, moved the Philadelphia City Paper to name her one of its Great Unknown Artists in 2006. Her latest album, Press Play, draws on a wide range of influences, creating a mesmerizing work that defies categorization.
ABOUT INTERCULTURAL JOURNEYS
Intercultural Journeys uses the arts to promote peace and greater understanding between people of diverse backgrounds, faiths, and cultures with the aim of catalyzing social change and awareness. Founded in 2002, Intercultural Journeys believes that performances, done for the purpose of bringing people together that might otherwise be in conflict, give us the opportunity to play a small part in contributing to world peace.
Media Contact:
Carly Rapaport-Stein, Managing Director
carly@interculturaljourneys.org, 215-387-2310