Excited to announce the return of “Black Power Baby Blues” for Black History Month 2021. The event will take place online via Zoom on Sunday, February 28, 2021 at 6pm. This is a free event. Reserve your tickets here https://www.eventbrite.com/e/black-power-baby-blues-tickets-138301805423.
“Black Power Baby Blues,” a multimedia, spoken-word presentation written and performed by Tantra-zawadi, focuses on poetry, the blues, and black life in America with familial relevance. Music by Edde Yohan Baby Bey and Tony Vacca, with paintings by Shanna T. Melton. “Black Power Baby Blues” is sponsored in part by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by the Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC) and hosted by Open Road Poetry.
The performance runtime is 45 minutes, no intermission, and a 15 minute Q&A with Tantra-zawadi.
“When poet, educator and author Tantra-zawadi set the date to perform her one-woman show Black Power Baby Blues in front of an audience, she never imagined that COVID-19 would creatively challenge her to transform it into a one-woman multimedia event to be showcased on the Zoom video conferencing application. I didn’t know what to expect; I was rendered speechless. Delivered through masterful and passionate poetry, Tantra-zawadi’s soulful voice powerfully touches on the oppression of black life in America and pays homage to the connection between Blues music and the healing of those suffered by injustice. Poignant and heartwarming, Tantra offers up posthumous tributes to her late father through her emotional words and pictures they shared, and chronicles their relationship as it related to America’s subjugation towards black lives. I was left impressed that he blessed her with enormous wisdom, which became part of this triumphant stroke of genius. A collaborative effort woven through a tapestry of story-telling, visual art and colorfully eye-catching paintings by Shanna T. Melton, along with the soothing yet haunting melodic music of Edde Yohan Baba Bey and Tony Vacca, this contribution leaves an indelible mark on this country, reminding it that not even your oppression can suppress the healing that comes through art, music and achievement. Tantra-zawadi has a mass catalogue of creative projects that deserve veneration, but I must say that Black Power Baby Blues is in a class by itself as her magnum opus.” -Chuma-Christopher Hicks, author, poet, and publisher
Thank you for your beautiful support.
Peace, love and light,
Tantra-zawadi
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