Be-troit Performance Poetry: documentary screening, poetry & music performance, and discussion

This event will feature a screening and discussion of the documentary film Be-troit, led by Be-troit co-creators and artistic directors Olad Aden and Veniece Session. The event will also feature performances by participating artists, poets, rapper, and singers.

Rhythm and musicality of poetry, their oral origin and their close connection to song was often part of the social fabric. These performative characteristics make poetry very attractive for performance events while it can be an enormous challenge to transfer its content to another language and culture. Cities worldwide have seen a renaissance of live poetry readings and performances, accompanied by increased interests in digital forms and methods of networking on a global scale.

Be-troit Performance Poetry, a project between Detroit and Berlin, is an international exchange literature project between the cities of Detroit and Berlin with a focus on contemporary performance poetry. It takes up impulses of poetry, Spoken Word, Slam Poetry and Rap from Detroit and Berlin. Building on specific local traditions these art forms mix literature, music, dance and visual arts. The numerous events in Detroit are combining Spoken Word and HipHop, improvisation and freestyle: beatboxers, poets, competitive battles and DJs support the performing poets.

Organized by the European Union Center. Co-sponsored by the Goethe Institut-Chicago.

Campfire Jamboree

The University of Illinois Community Credit Union presents the Allerton Park Concert Series
6:30-8pm | Gate House Lawn | Okee Dokee Brothers
Food + drink available for purchase. (BYO S’mores supplies for the campfire after the show!)

About the bands: The GRAMMY® Award-winning Okee Dokee Brothers, have put their passion for the outdoors at the heart of their Americana Folk music. “Joe and Justin record and perform family music with a goal to inspire children and their parents to get outside and get creative. They believe this can motivate kids to gain a greater respect for the natural world, their communities and themselves.

The four-time Parents’ Choice Award winners have garnered praise from the likes of NPR’s All Things Considered and USA Today, and have been called ‘two of family music’s best songwriters.'”

Three-time Grammy-nominated Afro-Caribbean music group Tiempo Libre is one of the hottest Latin bands today, presenting sizzling performances at venues around the globe as well as on The Tonight Show, Live from Lincoln Center, Dancing with the Stars, and many programs on Univision and Telemundo. Equally at home in concert halls, jazz clubs, festival stages, and dance venues, Tiempo Libre is celebrated for its sophisticated tropical music featuring an irresistible, exhilarating mix of jazz harmonies, contemporary sonorities, and seductive Latin rhythms. Since the group’s formation in Miami in 2001, its members have been on a mission to share their Afro-Caribbean heritage with as wide an audience as possible, reinterpreting and reinvigorating music born from the meeting of their musical origins with their American experience. Already a crowd favorite at Krannert Center, Tiempo Libre is sure to have the audience on its feet!

Stary Olsa (Belarusian medieval folk band)

Stary Olsa performs medieval, Renaissance, and early baroque music from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and western Europe. They use only period instruments (painstakingly handcrafted from historically accurate materials), such as cistra, Baltic psaltery, shawms, rebec, and Belarusian bagpipe. They sing in Belarusian. The band has received numerous positive critical reviews.

Their performance is sponsored by the Russian, East European and Eurasian Center and the support of the US Department of Education Title VI grant; the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures; The European Union Center (EUC); the Center for Global Studies; and the Robert E. Brown Center for World Music.

Musician Sean Gaskell learned to play the kora, a 21-string harp native to West Africa, during numerous visits to its native country, Gambia. Kora music is part of the oral tradition, and celebrates the history of the Mandinka people of West Africa. Sean will perform songs on the kora and discuss its history and cultural significance in this program for all ages.

For all events at the library:
http://champaign.org/events

The Program in Jewish Culture and Society at the University of Illinois presents:

Daniel Kahn, the front man of the punk-folk cult-kapelye The Painted Bird joins Psoy Korolenko, a poet-singer/songwriter, scholar, journalist, and musician. Together Kahn and Korolenko bring traditions of Russian and European popular and urban folk song, Yiddish folk and theatre song, with elements of rap and free-style poetry!

http://www.jewishculture.illinois.edu

Vicente Amigo

Andalusian guitarist Vicente Amigo began his studies at age eight with Spain’s great flamenco guitar maestros, eventually apprenticing with virtuoso guitarist and composer Manolo Sanlúcar, on whose masterpiece album, Tauromagia, Amigo performed. Amigo quickly set off on a solo career, with decades of solo performances and collaborations with artists across the musical spectrum earning him a Latin Grammy Award and continual praise for his elegant, melodic interpretations of the flamenco canon, for his exploration of pop-flamenco fusion, and for his own transcendent compositions. At ELLNORA, Amigo will be joined by a flamenco ensemble including a vocalist and dancer.

Part of ELLNORA | The Guitar Festival (biennial festival)
https://krannertcenter.com/ellnora

Makana

Described as “dazzling” by The New York Times, Hawaiian slack key guitarist Makana is an internationally acclaimed guitarist, singer, composer, and activist who is widely known for lending his musical talent for social change. Makana’s captivating and wide-ranging performance style has led him to share the stage with Jason Mraz and Jack Johnson; open for music legends Sting, Carlos Santana, Elvis Costello, and Common; and perform in venues from Asian and European opera houses to The White House. Slack key, or ki ho’alu, was created by families on the Hawaiian islands as a personal expression of their beautiful surroundings and way of life. The style is characterized by “slacking” the strings to open chords, thus freeing the hands to alter the sound. From this tradition Makana has evolved his own dynamic, high-octane style, dubbed “slack rock:” slack key infused with elements of bluegrass, rock, blues, and raga.

Part of ELLNORA | The Guitar Festival (biennial festival)
https://krannertcenter.com/ellnora

Dance the night away at Krannert Center! Come enjoy a FREE Latin Dance Night in the Krannert Center Lobby, co-sponsored by La Casa Cultural Latina. Celebrate the fall semester with rhythms from Latin America and the Caribbean—reggaeton, bachata, cumbia, salsa, merengue, and more! Free garage parking. Cash bar available. iVengan a bailar! Please join us!

Mathe-magic-music Show

There is going to be a never before seen Mathemagic show by our guest, Raghavendra, a teenager visiting from India on Saturday, September 9th. There will be mathematics, music and magic all by the same person in one place.