INTERGENERATIONS: Toshi Reagon and Friends

Thursday, July 29, 9-11pm; 8:30pm: Doors 
Southpaw 
125 5th Ave. (Park Slope)
The legendary singer and composer Toshi Reagon and her band Big Lovely (Fred Cash, Robert 'Chicken' Burke, Adam Widoff, Judith Casselberry) perform with special guests Tamar-kali, Karma Mayet Johnson, Sun Singleton, Stephanie Battle, Josette Newsam-Marchak, Alsarah, Marcelle Davies-Lashley and DJ Shae. Toshi has invited a new generation of Brooklyn women singers of the African Diaspora to join her in a multi-generational mini-fest of music you won't want to miss. $10 tickets in advance and at door. *Join BK Art Lovers & get your ticket free!

Presented by BAC with support from American Express and the Emma A. Sheafer Charitable Trust. 

ABOUT TOSHI REAGON
Described by Vibe magazine as 'one helluva rock'n'roller-coaster ride' by Pop Matters as 'a treasure waiting to be found,' Toshi Reagon is a one-woman celebration of all that's dynamic, progressive and uplifting in American music. Since first taking to the stage at age 17, this versatile singer-songwriter-guitarist has moved audiences of all kinds with her big-hearted, hold-nothing-back approach to rock, blues, R&B, country, folk, spirituals and funk. Leading her renowned band--BIGLovely, launched in 1996--she instantly connects, inspires and empowers. 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 has collaborated with Lenny Kravitz, Nona Hendryx, Elvis Costello, Ani DiFranco, Me'shell NdegeOcello and her godfather Pete Seeger. She has also performed with the Freedom Singers at the White House for President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama's tribute to the music of the civil rights movement. Her musical work has been prominently featured in film and television including PBS's Africans in America, Showtime's The L Word, and HBO's award-winning Beah: A Black Woman Speaks. Reagon received an Out Music Award in 2009, the 2007 Black Lily Award for Outstanding Performance, a New York Foundation for the Arts award in 2004 and has been honored by the National Women's History Project.

ADDITIONAL ARTIST BIOS

BIG LOVELY Judith Casselberry
Born in Denver, CO and raised in the U.S. Army (everywhere), Judith now happily resides in the beautiful Hudson Valley. She's been playing with her sister Toshi in various configurations since 1984 and hopes to continue until the day she 'closes her Black eyes.' She performed as vocalist and guitarist with the internationally renowned duo Casselberry-DuPree from 1979-1994, sharing the stage with Odetta, Richie Havens, Stevie Wonder, Jimmy Cliff, Linda Tillery, and Ladysmith Black Mombazo among others. The last few years she's been working on her Ph.D. from Yale University in African American Studies and Anthropology. As soon as she submits her dissertation she'll reignite her trio, JUCA. Her other major passion is teaching college.

Robert 'Chicken' Burke: Drums
Native of Brooklyn, he received his first drum kit when he was 13 years old. He has been member of Toshi Reagon's BIGLovely band for five years. He is a self-taught musician, whose talents include writing, arranging and producing. His debut album, titled Drugs: The Prescription for Miss America, features Hall of Fame members of George Clinto's Parliament Funkadelic. He is currently working on his next release, titled Chicken & the Superstars.

Fred Cash, Jr.: Bass
Native of Chicago, Fred has been touring with Toshi Reagon's BIGLovely since 1998. Cash attended the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago. He has worked with such artists as Jean-Paul Bourelly, India Arie, Jerry Butler.

Adam Widoff: Electric Guitar
Adam is a multi-instrumentalist who lives in Woodstock, NY. Starting with piano at age five, he has since haphazardly studied several instruments and musical traditions including Balinese Gamelan orchestra with Nyoman Astita and North Indian classical music with Ali Akbar Khan and Jamaluddin Bhartiya. Widoff has recorded and performed with Lenny Kravitz, Toshi Reagon, David Torn, Kate Pierson and others. Current projects include Drugs: The Prescription for Miss America and Chicken & the Superstars.

SPECIAL GUESTS

Stephanie Battle
Stephanie Battle is a singer/songwriter and dancer currently living in Brooklyn. She's performed with Urban Bush Women, graced the Broadway stage in The Lion King, was a featured vocalist in Bernice Johnson Reagon and Robert Wilson's The Temptation of St Anthony and more recently was seen in The Alliance Theater's production of Jesus Christ Superstar Gospel. Stephanie's been a background vocalists for several artists including Toshi Reagon, Morley, Carl Hancock Rux and Sugabush. She had the great pleasure of performing in the 2010 Women in Jazz Series at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and is happy to be joining Toshi and Biglovely again for Intergenerations at Southpaw! Stephanie is currently working on her EP entitled 'Golden Sky' to be released in the Fall. Visit her at battlegroovemusic on Myspace and also on Facebook.com/Stephanie Battle.

Karma Mayet Johnson
Offering vital Roots music for the 21st century, Karma Mayet Johnson's vocal performance is equal parts funk and glitter, cornbread and molasses. Karma has worked with the Albany Symphony Orchestra, Meshell Ndegeocello, Burnt Sugar, The Black Rock Coalition Orchestra, Toshi Reagon, Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, Bill T. Jones, Antibalas, Melvin Van Peebles, The Roots, and Bajah and the Dry-Eye Crew. Her work has been presented at D.C.'s Corcoran Gallery of Art, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, and NYC's Dance New Amsterdam and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. MTV's 2008-9 Celebrate Black History PSA featured her solo vocal performance. She is a lead vocalist on the The Mercy Suite, a collaboration between poet Yusef Komunyakaa and composer Tomas Doncker. Composer of Indigo, a blues opera, she resides in Brooklyn, New York. She has just recorded her first EP, Karma: September Songs.

Tamar-kali
Brooklyn native and resident hardcore-soul queen, Tamar-kali, wields her pen and guitar with equal ferocity. Her hard-rocking brand of outsider art leaps from every track on her 2005 solo EP, Geechee Goddess Hardcore Warrior Soul, enchanting you with its melody, while delivering a swift kick to the gut with its incisive emotional core. Her first full-length release, Black Bottom, packs an even harder punch as audiences are invited to gaze deeper into the recesses of this urban warrior's mind. Her tales of revolution and love may seem contradictory, but the two worlds are inextricably linked by this powerful artist who grasps for the truth in both ideals. 

Download the Press Release toshi_PR.pdf

 View the event flyer intergenerations_july_29_color.pdf