Rainbow Soul

Host Deardra Shuler talks with Desmond Richardson, one of the Artistic Directors of the Complexion Contemporary Ballet.  Complexions will feature its upcoming season at the Joyce Theater in NYC from January 21 – February 2nd.  Program A will feature the world premiere of “Love Rocks” a full company ballet set to works by the iconic GRAMMY Award winning singer and songwriter, Lenny Kravitz.  Photo credit for Love Rocks goes to Chad Wagner and Steven Trumon Gray, @THEGINGERB3ARDMEN; Sharen Bradford for Bach 25 Dance company photo and Woke photo by Joseph Franciosa.

In the second week (Program B), the company will reprise “WOKE,” a physical reaction to the daily news. A bold and dynamic socially conscious one act ballet featuring the full company that examines our humanity in conjunction with today’s political climate.  Also  featured“BACH 25.” Set to the music of Johann Sebastian and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach will be presented as part of Programs A*and  B.

Host Deardra Shuler talks with Dawn Marie Driver (member of the Irving Street Repertory) about the show "Ain't Misbehavin" being featured at Lehman Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday, January 18, 2020 at 8:00 pm,  

A strong soprano, Ms Driver tutored under Bishop Nathanial Townsley Jr and has traveled extensively across the US and overseas. She  has collaborated with Gospel Great-Edwin Hawkins, Director -Dwight R.B. Cook, B’way and Film Choreographer Louis Johnson, as well as with the legendary Woodie King, Bway, Movie & Television Stars Carol Woods, Ben Vereenand Ruby Dee to name a few. 

She is the Executive Producer and co-writer of four On-Stage Musicals:“NightSongz-The New Musical”, “Follow The Star-The Musical”, “Love Songs” and “Brooklyn To Bethlehem.”.Dawn is a cast member of Smokey

Joe’s Café and a 2015 Audelco Award Winner for Best Revival in Ain’t Misbehavin’ with Irving Street Repertory Company.

She appears in Ain't Misbehaven the musical featuring the songs of  Fats Waller with fellow cast members: Tony Perry, Anita Welch, Ron Lucas, Melvinna Rose.

Host Deardra Shuler talks with artist Dread Scott regarding his 6 year project in collaboration with John Akomfrah, Ghanaian-British artist, filmmaker, and writer on the Slave Rebellion Reenactment. Jointly they created the film documentation of a performance that includes hundreds of local community members in New Orleans who start in the River Parishes of New Orleans on Nov. 8, and for 2 days November 8-9, reenact a 26-mile Slave Rebellion that will end in Congo Square at an event featuring music and dance from community artists including trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis, rapper Truth Universal and the Kumbuka African Drum & Dance Collective. In 1811, those who hoped to abolish slavery took part in the uprising.  Individuals such as Charles Deslondes, Gilbert, Marie Rose, Jessamine, Quamana, Jupiter and others will be celebrated. 

The  German Coast 1811 uprising its said, claimed a total of 200 to 500 slaves participating in a 2-day, twenty six-mile march, wherein slaves burned five plantation houses, several sugarhouses, and crops. They were armed mostly with hand tools. Only 2 whites died and 45 slaves. Whites captured and killed many of the revolting slaves, killing other blacks without trial, as they went along.  Decapitating them and putting their heads on poles as a scare tactic to prevent future revolts.

The Slave Rebellion Enactment is a large-scale community-engaged art performance and film project reimagining the largest rebellion of enslaved people in the United States. This project was done in an effort to reclaim a narrative, redefine freedom and revive a story of revolutionary action. This is a project about resistance and freedom, exploring a significant moment in history, to reflect on how the past collides with the present.

Host Deardra Shuler interviews publisher/founder of African Voices, Carolyn A.Butts. African Voices is a leading non-profit arts magazine devoted to presenting fine art and literature by artists of color.  Carolyn is also the founder of the Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival & Lecture Series (www.reelsisters.org), an annual Brooklyn-based festival for women of color in the film industry. A Brooklyn native, Ms Butts served as an assistant press secretary to former New York State Comptroller H. Carl McCall and a press aide to former Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger.

Films featured: Skin, And Nothing Happened, Ballet After Dark,  Wash Day, Plant the Seed etc.

Reel Sisters 22nd Anniversary event will take place from Oct. 19 & 20th, 2019 at Alamo Draft House in Brooklyn.  Their awards ceremony took place October 11th where the honored Pioneering Activist/Author Nana Camille Yarbrough, Filmmakers Sandra Guzmán and Leslie Harris (Just Another Girl on the IRT).  Actress Rosie Perez presented the Trailblazing Filmmaker Award to Sandra Guzman.

http://www.blackstarnews.com/entertainment/movies/carolyn-a-butts-is-a-%E2%80%9Creel-sister%E2%80%9D.html

Deardra Shuler has as her guest nationally acclaimed minister, Rev. Herbert Daughtry, who is the National Presiding Minister of the House of the Lord Churches.  Rev. Daughtry has been involved in protest actions in cooperation with Brooklyn CORE and Operation Breadbasket, the economic arm of Dr. Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) as part of the struggle for equality and community control of schools in the 1950s-'60. In addition to serving as co-chairman of Ministers Against Narcotics, he also served as vice chairperson of the board of directors of Bedford Stuyvesant Youth in Action and executive vice chair of Operation Breadbasket’s Metropolitan New York Chapter.  Having authored several books, he includes among them “No Monopoly on Suffering: Blacks and Jews in Crown Heights and Elsewhere,” “My Beloved Community,” “Effectual Prayer and Dear 2pac: Letters to a Son.”  

He is a founding member of the Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, founder of the Alonzo Daughtry Family Life Services, Inc. which has served the needs of the community through various programs including Project Enlightenment, an AIDS education program and Families of Victims Against Violence.

Host Deardra Shuler talks with singer Jonathan Butler who was born and raised in Cape Town during Apartheid. Jonathan Butler started singing and playing acoustic guitar as a child. Racial segregation and poverty during Apartheid has been the subject of many of his records. His first single earned a Sarie Award, South Africa's equivalent to the Grammy Awards. Butler  has achieved chart-topping success, Grammy ® nominations and other accolades for his recordings. His self-titled debut album put him on the map internationally and garnered two Grammy ® nominations, which include the R&B-pop vocal statement "Lies" and the poignant instrumental, "Going Home." Butler, a multi-talented musician, produces, arranges, and plays guitar, bass and keyboards. He has released several best-selling Gospel CDs, most notably "Gospel Goes Classical" and "Brand New Day.  He  has come full circle and back to his love of Bacharach with the music of his new album, Close To You.

The 11-­song project features 10 Bacharach/David gemstones from the mid-­60s to early 70s (including vocal versions of “The Look Of Love,” “Walk On By,” “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again,” “This Guy’s In Love With You” the first single “What The World Needs Now Is Love,” plus instrumental versions of “Do You Know The Way To San Jose” and his new smooth jazz single “I Say A Little Prayer,” as well as one original composition, the ebulliently autobiographical “Cape Town.”

Host Deardra Shuler talks with creator, producer and director, Darrin Ross, who will be celebrating the 10th Anniversary of his spectacular show in tribute to Michael Jackson 10 years after his passing.  The Tribute show will be at Lehman Center for the Performing Arts in the Bronx, Saturday, May 25 at 8pm.

Darrin Ross has been producing and engineering songs since 1984. He worked with

Jam On Productions, producing hit songs “Jam On It,” “Push the Button,” “Destination Earth” etc. He later created his own record company with Keith Davis wherein they started a group called The Roots. He worked with Rennie Harris Pure Movement as the Executive Director and co-collaborator, creating music and lighting.  He worked on Rome and Jewels, a hip hop version of Romeo and Juliet resulting in Ross winning a Bessie Award for Sound Design and Composition. Darrin created his current show Invincible: A Glorious Tribute to Michael Jackson in 2009, right after Jackson died.

Ross searched all over the world to find people that could sing and dance like Michael and worked closely with them to perfect his vision of a one of a kind spectacular tribute show that truly captures the essence of Michael Jackson.

Tickets for INVINCIBLE can be purchased by calling the Lehman Center box office at 718-960-8833 or through online access at www.LehmanCenter.org.

Host Deardra Shuler interviews singer, author, motivational speaker and former Supremes member, Mary Wilson, who will be appearing at the Café Carlyle in NYC from, May 28-June 8.  Ms Wilson will also be releasing her latest book “Supreme Glamour” which will be released in the UK on May 23, 2019 and the US on September 17, 2019. The highly anticipated coffee-table book will showcase the gowns The Supremes were known for over the decades and delve into additional history of the most successful female recording group of all time. Supreme Glamour is now available for pre-order on Amazon.  In 2019, she will also be celebrating the 60th anniversary of The Supremes.

Wilson was named as a spokesperson for the Humpty Dumpty Institute's initiative to raise public awareness about the worldwide scourge of landmines. After helping to detonate 58 bombs and declaring safe zones, she held a charity concert in Colombo, Sri Lanka.   She is active in non-profit organizations, including the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, the American Cancer Society, St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, The Po Leung Kuk schools of Hong Kung, UNICEF, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and Figure Skaters of Harlem, a youth organization committed to helping children realize their dreams to compete in the Olympics. She has been active with Child Research, supporting a child around the world for the past 20 years.

Mary Wilson conducts “Dare to Dream” lectures, encouraging youth to perservere in achieving their goals, despite obstacles and adversities in their lives.

Further info See: www.marywilson.com

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Host Deardra Shuler talks with Malaika Uwamahoro (pronounced Mah-Like-ah  Ooh-wam-ah-har-oh) who is a young actor, spoken word poet-performer, singer, and social justice artist.  She will be performing the central character plus 9 others in the critically acclaimed play “Miracle in Rwanda,” at the Lion Theater on Theater Row off-Broadway beginning April 4, 2019.  The run of the play coincides with this 25th anniversary of the historic massacre in Rwanda where 800,000 lives were lost.

“I am so happy to pass on this role to a woman of Rwandan heritage. Malaika is a brilliant actress, and she brings a sensibility that will move and inspire the audience. I can’t wait for the world to see her work,” said Leslie Lewis.

MIRACLE IN RWANDA chronicles the dramatic events of Rwandan Genocide Survivor Immaculée Ilibagiza. The message is one of personal empowerment, of overcoming all obstacles through the power of faith, forgiveness and ultimately finding peace of mind amidst unbelievable hardship. 

The play runs from APRIL 4 - APRIL 21.

Deardra Shuler interviews Ruben Studdard, the Grammy nominated R&B, pop and gospel singer.  Born in Frankfurt, Germany while is father was stationed in the US Army. Later moved to Birmingham, Ala., where he grew up singing in the church.  He attended Alabama A&M University on a football scholarship graduating with a degree in music. Studdard’s big break came in 2003, when he was accepted as a contestant on American Idol. In a nod to Luther Vandross, he performed a cover of the song “Superstar”, an R&B hit for Vandross. Ruben’s 2003 debut album, the hip-hop flavored R&B record Soulful, hit #1  on the Billboard charts, has been certified Platinum,  sold over 1.8 million copies, and won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding New Artist .  He is appearing at Lehman Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday, March 30th, 2019 at 8pm.  For tickets call 718-960-8833.