Presented By: Institute for the Humanities
CANCELLED: Alexis Pauline Gumbs in conversation with Toshi Reagon
An Octavia Butler Week Event
Regretfully, the talk between Toshi Reagon and Alexis Pauline Gumbs has been canceled. Please join us for other Octavia Butler Week and Parable Path events this week.
See all Octavia Butler Week events at https://myumi.ch/n8VAR.
Alexis Pauline Gumbs in conversation with Toshi Reagon is the 2022 Marc and Constance Jacobson Lecture. Can't attend in person? Watch the live-stream at https://myumi.ch/y9VNR.
Writer Alexis Pauline Gumbs talks to musician, composer, producer, and activist Toshi Reagon about her opera Parable of the Sower, based on the book by Octavia Butler. Moderated by Ebony Elizabeth Thomas.
About Octavia Butler Week:
Octavia Butler was a renowned African American author who received a MacArthur “Genius” Grant and PEN West Lifetime Achievement Award for her body of work. With Octavia Butler Week, we aim to explore the work and legacy of this visionary writer. It’s part of a larger series of events that include a community read, a multimedia performance, an open-mic night, and additional events that together comprise Parable Path A2Ypsi.
Culminating Parable Path A2Ypsi is Toshi Reagon and Bernice Johnson Reagon’s genre-defying musical adaptation of Octavia E. Butler’s novel Parable of the Sower. UMS will present this powerful performance March 25-27, 2022 at the Power Center in Ann Arbor. Tickets and info at ums.org.
About Toshi Reagon:
Toshi Reagon has been described as “a talented, versatile singer, songwriter and musician with a profound ear for sonic Americana—from folk to funk, from blues to rock” by critic/blogger Eva Yaa Asantewaa (InfiniteBody). “She masters each of these genres with vocal strategies that easily spiral and swoop from the expressively sinuous to the hard-charging, a combination of warmth and mischief.”
While her expansive career has landed her comfortably in residence at Carnegie Hall, the Paris Opera House and Madison Square Garden, you can just as easily find Toshi turning out a music festival, intimate venue or local club. Toshi finds home on any musical stage. Toshi has had the pleasure of working with Lenny Kravitz, Lizz Wright, Ani DiFranco, Carl Hancock Rux, Nona Hendryx, Pete Seeger, Chocolate Genius and many other amazing artists, including her favorite collaborator, her mom, Bernice Johnson Reagon.
Yaa Asantewaa writes, “Toshi knows the power of song to focus, unite and mobilize people. If you’ve been lucky enough to be in Toshi’s presence, you know you can’t walk away from her without feeling better about yourself as a human being. She aims for nothing less.”
Toshi has been the recipient of a NYFA award for Music Composition, The Black Lily Music and Film Festival Award for Outstanding Performance. She is a National Women’s History Month Honoree, and is the 2010 recipient of OutMusic’s Heritage Award.
About Alexis Pauline Gumbs:
Alexis Pauline Gumbs is a Queer Black Feminist Love Evangelist and an aspirational cousin to all life. She is/they are the author of several books, most recently Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals and the co-founder of the Mobile Homecoming Trust, an intergenerational experiential living library of Black LBGTQ brilliance.
See all Octavia Butler Week events at https://myumi.ch/n8VAR.
Alexis Pauline Gumbs in conversation with Toshi Reagon is the 2022 Marc and Constance Jacobson Lecture. Can't attend in person? Watch the live-stream at https://myumi.ch/y9VNR.
Writer Alexis Pauline Gumbs talks to musician, composer, producer, and activist Toshi Reagon about her opera Parable of the Sower, based on the book by Octavia Butler. Moderated by Ebony Elizabeth Thomas.
About Octavia Butler Week:
Octavia Butler was a renowned African American author who received a MacArthur “Genius” Grant and PEN West Lifetime Achievement Award for her body of work. With Octavia Butler Week, we aim to explore the work and legacy of this visionary writer. It’s part of a larger series of events that include a community read, a multimedia performance, an open-mic night, and additional events that together comprise Parable Path A2Ypsi.
Culminating Parable Path A2Ypsi is Toshi Reagon and Bernice Johnson Reagon’s genre-defying musical adaptation of Octavia E. Butler’s novel Parable of the Sower. UMS will present this powerful performance March 25-27, 2022 at the Power Center in Ann Arbor. Tickets and info at ums.org.
About Toshi Reagon:
Toshi Reagon has been described as “a talented, versatile singer, songwriter and musician with a profound ear for sonic Americana—from folk to funk, from blues to rock” by critic/blogger Eva Yaa Asantewaa (InfiniteBody). “She masters each of these genres with vocal strategies that easily spiral and swoop from the expressively sinuous to the hard-charging, a combination of warmth and mischief.”
While her expansive career has landed her comfortably in residence at Carnegie Hall, the Paris Opera House and Madison Square Garden, you can just as easily find Toshi turning out a music festival, intimate venue or local club. Toshi finds home on any musical stage. Toshi has had the pleasure of working with Lenny Kravitz, Lizz Wright, Ani DiFranco, Carl Hancock Rux, Nona Hendryx, Pete Seeger, Chocolate Genius and many other amazing artists, including her favorite collaborator, her mom, Bernice Johnson Reagon.
Yaa Asantewaa writes, “Toshi knows the power of song to focus, unite and mobilize people. If you’ve been lucky enough to be in Toshi’s presence, you know you can’t walk away from her without feeling better about yourself as a human being. She aims for nothing less.”
Toshi has been the recipient of a NYFA award for Music Composition, The Black Lily Music and Film Festival Award for Outstanding Performance. She is a National Women’s History Month Honoree, and is the 2010 recipient of OutMusic’s Heritage Award.
About Alexis Pauline Gumbs:
Alexis Pauline Gumbs is a Queer Black Feminist Love Evangelist and an aspirational cousin to all life. She is/they are the author of several books, most recently Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals and the co-founder of the Mobile Homecoming Trust, an intergenerational experiential living library of Black LBGTQ brilliance.
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