Meshell Ndegeocello: Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, The Works of Nina Simone   
Monday, March 5, 2012, 7 - 9 p.m.
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Langston Hughes Auditorium

Meshell Ndegeocello makes her debut at the Schomburg Center's Women's Jazz Festival. A bass player above all else, Meshell brings her signature warm, fat, and melodic groove to everything she does. Canonized, marginalized or just scrutinized, she has given up trying to explain herself. After 20+ years in an industry that has called her everything from avant garde to a dying breed, what unquestionably remains is the fearsome bassist, prolific songwriter and the creativity and curiosity of an authentic musical force. With that, she has earned critical acclaim, the unfailing respect of fellow players, songwriters and composers, and the dedication of her diverse, unclassifiable fans.

The Bernice Johnson Reagon Songbook
Monday, March 26, 2012, 7 - 9 p.m.
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Langston Hughes Auditorium

Featuring Bernice Johnson Reagon, Stephanie Battle, Marcelle Davies Lashley, Fred Cash, Sue Hadjopolous, and more...

"November, 1961, college students in Union Baptist Church after the first mass march in Albany, Georgia: It was where we could go after the first mass march in Albany GA. I was asked to lead a song; I began the spiritual which opens with the words, "Over my head I see trouble in the air," knowing that we were 'in trouble,' I instinctively inserted "freedom" renaming where we were and what we were doing. All in that space joined voices, charging the air with the new time. It was some years later that I began to not find the old or new songs holding me and I began to make my own songs and singing to name my position as a fighter, joined with others determined to be a sonic force shaping the world as I lived in it. Like then, tonight I am not alone, but joined by collaborators for whom music provides our first line..."