S/He Speaks:                            

Voices of Women & Trans Folx

Book Release & Open Reading

Hosted by co-editor Cassendre Xavier

Contributors to this new anthology from Moonstone Press - to be released at the event - will read and discuss their writing

Readings by:

Samantha "Ghettosongbird" Hollins

Jess Kratzer

T.F. Daubert

Zoe Shelley

Brian "Brie" Sheridan

Ellie Smillie

Cassendre Xavier

Alexis Young

With an OPEN READING TO FOLLOW!  Bring your poems/essays and join in!

Admission is FREE and open to the public

THE INSTITUTE FOR COMMUNITY JUSTICE, SISTERS RETURNING HOME, FIRST

BORN CHURCH OF GOD IN CHRIST, INC. & PHILADELPHIA LAWYERS FOR

SOCIAL EQUITY PRESENT:

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT EVENT: RESOURCE FAIR AND RECORD REVIEW

FREE

Various organizations will be offering services such as linkages to care, reentry services, voting rights, educational services, FREE government phone assistance, and FREE Giveaways!

Connect with lawyers and law students to review your rights and options to erase information off your record! PA eligibility based on charges that did not end in conviction (found not guilty). Services are FREE!

10am-2pm

QUESTIONS? Contact: Gina Mencarelli at gmencarelli@fight.org | 215-525-0451

On Monday, June 12th, join us for Combining Your Art & Social Justice with Author, Poet, and Spoken Word Artist Kirwyn Sutherland.

In this virtual two-hour workshop, Kirwyn will facilitate as we dive deep into social justice and how we, as artists, can use our art as a medium for social justice impact.

WORKSHOP TOPICS INCLUDE:

Click here to register today!

The Bigger Picture is a free monthly resource workshop series connecting artists and arts organizations. This series is in partnership with The Rotunda, a community-gathering place fueled by the belief that art is a catalyst for social change and that the arts can lead to the formation of meaningful partnerships between the University of Pennsylvania and surrounding neighborhoods.

Attendees learn new skills, gain new resources, and meet and connect with other local artists.

Bowerbird is pleased to present interdisciplinary artist eddy kwon and the Philadelphia-based trio Totally Automatic at The Rotunda.

ABOUT THE ARTISTeddy kwon (b. 1989) is violinist/violist and interdisciplinary artist based in Lenapehoking (Brooklyn, NY). Her practice connects composition, performance, improvisation, dance, and ceremony to explore transformation & transgression, ritual practice as a tool to queer ancestral lineage, and the use of mythology to connect, obscure, and reveal. As a composer-performer and improviser, she is inspired by Korean folk timbres & inflections, textures & movement from natural environments, and American experimentalism as shaped by the AACM. Her work as a choreographer and movement artist embodies an expressive release and reclamation of colonialism’s spiritual imprints, connecting to both Japanese Butoh and a lineage of queer/trans practitioners of Korean shamanic ritual.

She is a United States Artists Fellow, Johnson Fellow at Americans for the Arts, Andrew W. Mellon Artist-in-Residence at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Van Lier Fellow and Artist-in-Residence at Roulette Intermedium, and a recipient of the National Performance Network Creation Fund Award. Recently, eddy was featured in The Wire Magazine’s Issue #463 (“absolutely stunning”) and as one of the Washington Post’s “22 for ‘22: Composers and performers to watch this year.” In addition to an evolving, interdisciplinary solo practice, she collaborates with artists of diverse disciplines, including The Art Ensemble of Chicago, cellist Tomeka Reid, sculptor Senga Nengudi, Degenerate Art Ensemble, Holland Andrews, and many others. www.eddykwon.net

Totally Automatic was formed by Anne Ishii, Eugene Lew and Matthew Smith Lee in the summer of 2021. They play unarranged music with each other, on drums, saxophone and electronics, and can be found around Philadelphia.totallyautomatic.net

totallyautomatic.bandcamp.com

More info: https://www.bowerbird.org/event/eddy-kwon/

Admission is FREE/pay-what-you-wish. Registration is encouraged: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/eddy-kwon-tickets-483135751037

Falsa is a New York based Sufi music ensemble that began in Philadelphia in 2013 and has since established a strong following on the East Coast. The instrumentation of vocal, harmonium, electric bass VI, Spanish guitar, drum set, tabla, Carnatic violin, and trumpet brings traditional melodies into a modern context in a way that is at times meditative and, at others, explosive. The lyrical content comes from the likes of classic poets Amir Khusrau, Rumi and Hafez, who touched on something essential to human existence in their writings, something that becomes even more palpable to the audience as singer Umer Piracha offers brief, soulful translations between songs. The overall feeling of a Falsa performance is that of virtuosity and transcendence.

Umer Piracha on Vocals, accompanied by Siddharth Ashokkumar on Carnatic Violin, Tom Deis and Paul Arendt on Guitars/Harmonium, Adam Hershberger on Trumpet, Roshni Samlal on Tabla, and Greg Foran on Percussion.

Kamyar Arsani & Sunken Cages:

Iranian multi-instrumentalist Kamyar Arsani and Indian-born drummer/electronic music producer Sunken Cages create their own brand of digital folk music that draws on Sufi mysticism, traditional Persian Music, street rhythms from Mumbai and contemporary electronic music at once. Momin accompanies Arsani’s vocals and daf (frame-drum) with a masterful blend of electronic and acoustic percussion, including live-looping via his unique drum-loop performance system. 

Kamyar Arsani is an Iranian multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter based in Washington DC. Through his solo work and numerous collaborations, Arsani creates music across an array of styles, ranging from classical Persian music to genre-defying electronic experimentation. A teacher, performer and scholar of the daf (the Iranian frame drum). Arsani has been a featured artist at the Kennedy Center, the Library of Congress, Voice of America, Georgetown University and numerous other stages throughout the region. Along with his solo work and collaborations, Arsani is also the singer and lyricist of Time is Fire, a pan-cultural punk band.

Sunken Cages is the moniker of drummer/electronic music producer Ravish Momin, who studied with US Jazz master-drummer Andrew Cyrille.  He has worked as a sideman with a wide array of musicians including US avant-Jazz legend Kalaparush Maurice McIntyre (AACM/Chicago.)  In addition, he has also led his own Jazz/global group Tarana on international stages for the past 14 years.As Sunken Cages, Momin plays electronic and acoustic drums. He layers loops while manipulating them in real-time to blur the lines between composition and improvisation. While rooted in Indian and Black Music traditions, he is also influenced by the street sounds of underground dance music from Sao Paolo to Durban to Mumbai and beyond. He is signed to OnTheCorner Records (UK). 

Admission is FREE. Registration is encouraged: eventbrite.com/e/falsa-kamyar-arsanisunken-cages-duo-tickets-516666071127