Arts For Art Presents VISION FESTIVAL 2024

Arts For Art presents

VISION FESTIVAL 2024
BRIDGES

June 18, 2024 – June 23, 2024

Roulette Intermedium: 509 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NY, 11217
Films at Anthology Film Archive on June 16, 2024
Conference on June 14
artsforart.org/vision

Announcing the FULL SCHEDULE AND LINEUP OF PERFORMERS for VISION 2024, “BRIDGES” – bringing together the voices of hundreds of artists, of the vibrant Arts for Art (AFA) community to showcase Multicultural, Black, Improvised Creative Music & Arts. As a community of acclaimed creatives, these artists are showing the way to build a Bridge to PEACE.

In addition to a lineup of performers across six nights, Arts for Art is proud to open the festival honoring the spiritual and creative leader in NYC’s FreeJazz movement, William Parker with the Lifetime Achievement Award on June 18, 20243. We will close out the festival on Sunday June 18 with a grand celebration of the 100 year young, Marshall Allen as he leads the Arkestra. In between we have commissioned works by Matana Roberts, Coin Coin, Melanie Dyer’s new large ensemble, and Mendoza/Hoff/Revels. From start to finish this will be a celebration of Hope, Creativity and our community of Multicultural and Black Creative Artists and the beautiful audiences, staff, press and volunteers who participate.

Highlights: Amina Claudine Myers • Ava Mendoza • Darius Jones • Fred Moten •
Ingrid Laubrock Lilith • Isaiah Barr • Isaiah Collier • James Blood Ulmer Black Rock Trio •
James Brandon Lewis • Jason Kao Hwang & Cooper-Moore • Jen Shyu Fertile Land, Fertile Body Matana Roberts CoinCoin • Matthew Shipp Trio • Melanie Dyer • Nasheet Waits Tarbaby • Nicholson’s Holding Bridges Falling Down • Oliver Lake • Thollem McDonas •
Parker’s LifeTime Achievement: Trail of Tears, Raining on the Moon, Huey’s PocketWatch |
Finale Marshall Allen 100 birthday Celebration

Tuesday, 6/18/24

Honoring William Parker, LifeTime of Achievement Award

6:00 PM Invocation

William Parker – solo bass & poetry

6:30 PM “they tried to kill the sky ” from Parker’s Trail of Tears

vocals: AnneMarie Sandy, Andrea Wolper, Raina Sokolov-Gonzalez

Dara Bloom – cello / Melanie Dyer – viola / Gwen Laster, Jason Kao Hwang – violin

Dave Burrell – piano / Ava Mendoza – gtr / William Parker – bs / Hamid Drake – dr

7:00 PM Raining On The Moon

Leena Conquest – voice / Eri Yamamoto – piano / Rob Brown – alto sax

Steve Swell – trombone / William Parker – bass / Hamid Drake – drums

8:00 PM William Parker & Huey’s Pocket Watch

Isaiah barr, Alfredo Colon – tenor / Dave Sewelson baritone – sax

Rob Brown, Devin Brahja Waldman, Aakash Mittal – alto sax

Masahiko Kono, Colin Babcock – trombone / Diego Hernandez – trumpet

Colson Jimenez – bass / Hans Young Binter piano / Juan Pablo Carletti – drums

Vocals: Ellen Christi, Kyoko Kitamura – voice / Patricia Nicholson – voice, spoken word

Special guests Assif Tsahar tenor sax / Taylor Ho Bynum – trumpet

Wednesday, 6/19/2024

7:00 PM Davalois Fearon Dance

8:00 PM James Brandon Lewis / Chad Taylor

James Brandon Lewis – sax / Chad Taylor – drums

9:00 PM Matthew Shipp Trio CMA

Michael Bisio – bass / Newman Taylor – drums / Matthew Shipp – pianos

10:00 PM Nasheet Waits: Tarbaby

Orrin Evans – piano / Eric Revis – bass / Nasheet Waits – drums

Thursday, 6/20/2024

7:00 PM Jen Shyu: Fertile Land, Fertile Body (1st Movement)

Jen Shyu – composition, voice, violin, gayageum, Taiwanese moon lute /

Layale Chaker – violin, voice / Martha Redbone – vocals / Maeve Gilchrist – celtic harp

8:00 PM Ingrid Laubrock: Lilith

Ingrid Laubrock – saxophones / David Adewumi – trumpet / Yvonne Rogers – piano/

Adam Matlock – accordion / Eva Lawitts – bass / Henry Mermer – drums

9:00 PM Darius Jones Quintet

Darius Jones – alto sax / Christopher Hoffman – cello / Liani Matteo – bass / Nick Saia –

guitar / Jason Nazary – drums

10:00 PM James Blood Ulmer Black Rock Trio

James Blood Ulmer – guitar, vocals / Mark Peterson – bass / G. Calvin Weston – drums

Friday, 6/21/2024

6:30 PM The Isaiah Barr Band

Isaiah Barr – tenor / David Fraizer – drums

7:30 PM Miriam Parker Quartet

Miriam Parker – performance art / Lester St. Louis – cello, electronics /

Raina Sokolov-Gonzalez – vocals/ No Land – poetry

8:30 PM Fred Moten – poet

9:00 PM Trio Plex

Cooper-Moore – piano / TA Thompson – drums / Ken Filiano – bass

10:00 PM Mendoza / Hoff / Revels

Ava Mendoza – guitar, vocals / Devin Hoff – bass / James Brandon Lewis – tenor sax /

Ches Smith – drums

Saturday 6/22/2024

6:30 PM Thollem McDonas / ACVilla

Thollem McDonas – pianos / ACVilla – liveart projections

7:30 PM Amina Claudine Myers

Amina Claudine Myers – piano, voice

8:30 PM Matana Roberts COIN COIN midAtlantic

Matana Roberts – composer, horns, harmonicas, aux percussion, vocal, wordspeak/

Mike Pride – drums, aux percussion, vocal / Matt Lavelle- alto clarinet, trumpet, tin

whistle, vocal / Stuart Bogie – bass clarinet, clarinet, tin whistle, vocal / Cory Smythe –

piano, vocal, tin whistle / Mazz Swift – violin, vocal, tin whistle / Darius Jones – alto sax,

tin whistle, vocal / Ryan Sawyer – drums, aux percussion, vocal

9:30 PM Oliver Lake Poet

10:00 PM Holding Bridges Falling Down

Patricia Nicholson – composer, dancer, poet, vocals / DJ Marcellus /

Ellen Christi – vocals / TA Thompson – drums / Devin Brahja Waldman – sax

Sunday, 6/23/2024

5:00 PM MiM & the Intergenerational Ensemble led by William Parker

6:00 PM Watershed Continuum

Rob Brown – alto / Steve Swell- trombone / Alexis Marcelo- piano / Whit Dickey – drums

7:00 PM Melanie Dyer’s Incalculable Likelihood (dedicated to Rebecca Elliott)

Melanie Dyer – Composition, Video & Sculpture / Tape – Voice of Mary Elizabeth Burton
Vox – Carla Cook (alto), Kyoko Kitamura (Soprano), Jason Walker (Baritone)
JD Parran (Woodwinds) / Shanyse Strickland (French Horn)
Charles Burnham & Gwen Laster (Violins) / Melanie Dyer (Viola) / Alex Waterman (Cello) Ken Filiano (Bass) / Alexis Marcelo (Piano) /Malik Washington (Percussion)

8:00 PM Isaiah Collier & The Chosen Few

Isaiah Collier – sax / Nat Reeves – bass / Michael Ode – drums

9:00 PM Jason Kao Hwang & Cooper-Moore

Jason Kao Hwang – viola, violin / Cooper-Moore – didley bow, percussion

10:00 PM Marshall Allen & the Arkestra 100th birthday Celebration

About the Vision Festival

In 1996 Patricia Nicholson Parker put on the First Annual Vision Festival, presented at The Learning Alliance on Lafayette near Houston. The idea was to bring together luminaries from the different creative music scenes and, for the first time since the Sound Unity Festivals in the mid ‘80s, celebrate the important African American leaders of the music. Featuring artist Milford Graves, that first Vision Festival was unique in its multi-arts focus featuring poets such as Amiri Baraka, dancers such as Rod Rogers, and visual artists such as Jeff Schlanger, in collaboration with the music.

Each year the Vision Festival also brought attention to issues of social justice by curating panel discussions, such as “Decolonizing the Music: Reclaiming the Power of Creative Music in Communities of Color” or “How Funding Affects Creative Choices.”

In its totality the Vision Festival created and guaranteed a space for improvisation as a leading creative language.

In the current political and cultural climate, Arts for Art’s credo is felt more strongly than ever – using powerful music and art as expressions of commitment to life and justice. Past festival titles have included A Vision Against Violence, Avant Jazz For Peace, Studies in Freedom, The Revolution Continues, The Creative Option and Take a Stand.

The Vision Festival continues to honor and amplify the careers of legendary artists that are too often under-appreciated, such as Milford Graves, Kidd Jordan, Sam Rivers, Amina Claudine Myers, Connie Crothers, and many others.

About Arts for Art

Founded in 1996, Arts for Art (AFA) is a New York City based tax exempt organization dedicated to the promotion and advancement of Black Multicultural Improvised Creative Arts — an African American indigenous art form in which improvisation is principal. This art embodies music, dance, poetry and visual arts. It is recognized for its variety of highly developed and personalized improvisational languages. AFA works to preserve the legacy of FreeJazz, and to ensure a vital future through its re-imagination by new generations of artists. Spearheaded by the internationally renowned Vision Festival, AFA’s programming brings together multiple generations of vibrant, diverse and highly skilled artists. To further our goals of diversity and accessibility, we foster education initiatives and produce events that build community amongst artists and audiences.

Arts for Art Mission

Arts for Art is dedicated to the exceptional creativity that originated in the African American multi-arts jazz culture that utilizes improvisation to express a larger, more positive dream of inclusion and freedom.

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