Christopher Ellis

Antonio Bevacqua

Italian folk musician

Foto 2.jpg

He was born in Cosenza, Calabria, on 10/02/1973. He has been passionate about popular music since childhood, attending, thanks to his father, the battente guitar players of the Sila Greca. He began playing and studying guitar as a self-taught at the age of 8, perfecting his studies from various masters. In 1996 he graduated from the University of Calabria in Modern Literature with full marks with a thesis on Calabrian music and popular instruments. Subsequently he collaborates for several years with the Demo-anthropological Documentation Center of the Calabrian University, directed by Prof. Ottavio Cavalcanti, with whom he participates, as a researcher, in the cataloging of the Otello Profazio archive and in the creation of several documentaries including: Gitani in Provence (Le Saintes Maries de la Mer, France) and the serpari of Cocullo. In 1996, after 10 years of research, he published with the publisher Squilibri "The drums of the Casali, players and builders of Sila Grande", a volume that contains the results of the research carried out in Sila (Calabria), on the tradition of "tummarini" , traditional military drum and bass drum players. In 2004 he founded the Neilos association of which he is president, which is responsible for researching and disseminating the popular traditions of Southern Italy; in the same year, the association gave birth to a musical group of the same name. With the Neilos he makes numerous tours in Italy and abroad (United States, France, Germany, etc.). In 2006 he publishes with Imilibri, the Cd “Transumanza” in which he composes the music and many of the texts. From 2014 he started, through participation in the activities of the "Tury Band" group, a study on the new migration dynamics of Southern Italy, participating both as a musician and as a scholar in events held in England (Preston) and Germany (Frankfurt on the Main). Between 2016 and 2019 he made numerous tours in the United States and Canada carrying out several concert-lessons in San Francisco, Springfield, Washington, Grensboro (NC), New York, Ottawa, etc. He currently lives in Rossano where he teaches History and Philosophy at the Liceo Classico San Nilo di Rossano In recent years he has devoted himself to the study of various instruments, including the bagpipe, the lute, the bouzouki, the battente guitar and the accordion.

Share

Dano Colón

actor, clown, Commedia dell’arte

headshot dano colon 2018 2.jpg

Dano Colón is an actor, writer, and clown currently living in Houston, Texas. In addition to performing on stage and in films, such as the short-film-turned-web-series-turned-feature-film "People With Issues" which is currently streaming on Amazon Prime (and for which he was recently awarded "Best Supporting Actor" in TheMovieBuff.net's 2020 Independent Film Awards), he works to develop projects and write teleplays with Dawnrunner, Inc., a film studio based out of San Francisco. Among his contributions to Dawnrunner is a series development and teleplay contribution for Sol, a prospective sci-fi project that has won numerous film festival awards and accolades, including "Best Voice in a Screenplay" at Script Summit 2019, "Best TV Pilot" from GenreBlast 2019, and the top 50 list for the ISA in 2019.

Share

Sarita Smith Childs Dance

Sarita Smith Childs, a native of Chicago's West Side is a Choreographer and Master Instructor infusing Graham and Horton based modern influences with Jazz and West African Foundations to create contemporary works. She received her B.A. in Liberal Arts from Sarah Lawrence College, NY. Her work has been commissioned by Grammy nominated Blues Harpist, Billy Branch; Blues and Folk Fiddler Anne Harris; Joffrey Ballet Community Engagement; Visceral Dance Chicago and Grayscale Dance – Los Angeles. She is currently a Company Class Instructor for Inaside Chicago Dance; on faculty at the Academy of Movement and Music; a Guest Teaching Artist for Joffrey Ballet Community Engagement; Guest Faculty, Extensions Dance Company; former Contemporary Faculty, Visceral Dance Chicago; and a Lecturer/ Instructor of Dance at Loyola University Chicago. Sarita is a recipient of the Ruth Page Award for Dance Performance and the Black Theater Alliance Ira Aldridge Award for Best Performance; and a 2019 & 2016 Nominee for the 3Arts Chicago Award for Choreography. A 2017 Chicago United Business Leader of Color Nominee, she currently is the Strategic Advisor for Para.Mar Dance Theatre and sits on the Board of Directors of the Oak Park Area Arts Council; Roosevelt University Chicago College of the Performing Arts; Chicago Dancers United; and the Chicago Dance History Project.


Performer: Alicia Delgadillo performs courtesy of Para.Mar Dance Theatre (https://www.paramardance.com/


Share

Christopher Ellis

emcee, actor, writer

Christopher Ellis.jpg

Christopher insures the artistic quality of all Voice of the City programs. He works closely with the Associate Artists, fostering collaborations between artists of various disciplines. As the Executive Producer of Vaudeville Underground, he recruits performers, and provides artistic direction, as needed. He handles all marketing, writes and emcees the show, as well.

Christopher earned a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia College of Chicago in Film and Theatre in 1995, and is a graduate of the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. As an actor he was last seen in Corpus Christi at Bailiwick Repertory, and has performed with Apple Tree Theatre, Strawdog and Black Ensemble, to name a few. Christopher is a published, award-winning playwright. His plays: The Best of Days, Story Attic, House of Flo, My-Gration, Zero Wun Niner Tango Copy, The Fatal Gift of Beauty, Dirt & The Broken Museum have all been produced in the Chicagoland area. He co-wrote the screenplays for the award-winning short film, Wrestled and for The Man in the Silo with Phil Donlon.

Share

Sam Lewis

puppeteer

Sam Lewis.jpg

Sam is an accidental puppeteer who now tries to create intentional work. He has worked for over a decade with a vintage Black Americana marionette, he reimagined as, “Jus Hambone.” Currently, he’s building new puppets for the first time, with the generous help of Grace Needlman of Wonder Wagon, for a long form piece he’s creating based on newly discovered family history, tentatively titled, Everybody Knew Their Place

 

https://www.facebook.com/samlewisperformingartist/

Share

The Luna Blues Machine

acoustic hip-hop Latin folk-soul

TLBM.jpg

Based out of Chicago, The Luna Blues Machine fuses hip-hop, soul, Latin and folk music to create their own unique sound.  Led by the Cervantes sisters’ poetic lyrics and tight harmonies, the LBM stands out as one of the most experimental acoustic music acts working in Chicago today. 

 

Share

Jennifer Mabus

modern dance

Jennifer.JPG

Hailed as “bold and mysterious” by the NY Times, Jennifer Mabus has performed with Robert Battle, Amy Marshall, Heidi Latsky, Takehiro Ueyama, Bruce Wood Dance, Noble Motion Dance, Dark Circles Contemporary Dance, and the Transitory Sound and Movement Collective, as well as many independent projects. She is the dance program director at the University of St. Thomas and has taught at Texas Christian University, Booker T Washington HSPVA, Interlochen Arts Academy, HSPVA, and Sam Houston State University. Jennifer has presented her own work at the Dance Gallery Festival, Dumbo Dance Festival, and the Miller Outdoor Theater, as well as being an artist in residence with Rice University, Dance Source Houston, Pilot Dance Project, Contemporary Ballet Dallas, Muscle Memory Dance Theater, and Avant Chamber Ballet, among others. Mabus is also a 500-hour certified yoga teacher, and is studying to be a dance movement therapist.

Instagram @jenmabus

Facebook @jennifermabus

Work Description:

For One is a dance theater meditation on home and loneliness, using my great grandmother's dining room table. This table served generations of my family in her house in Oklahoma City. While now serving only me, and it stands as a metaphor for what it means to serve others and be emotionally fed.

Share

Norola Morgan

found object, storyteller

Norola.jpg

Norola Morgan was a weird kid who loved to read and draw and ask too many questions. She grew up in a small town in central Texas where there was plenty of cows and football, but not much art. Thank goodness for the local library and interlibrary loan! Voracious reading offered her windows to a wider world, and she left to explore that wider world as soon as she could. After earning a BFA in Painting at the University of Houston, she stayed in Houston for the museums, theaters, cultural diversity, authentic weirdness, and low cost of living.

Painting fell by the wayside once she discovered working with 3-d materials. She assembles fabric, found objects and paper into unique art dolls that shock and delight. Her love of multiple media fuel her explorations into performance, cosplay, and costume and prop fabrication. She's excited to see where these experiments take her.

Connect with her at instagram.com/moonyoonits

Share

DeMone Seraphin

writer, singer, actor

DeMone.jpg

DeMone Seraphin is a Helen Hayes Award nominee for his direction of TOPDOG UNDERDOG. Other directing credits include the Off-Broadway revivals of SPLIT SECOND and THE EXONERATED, the world premiere musical "ONCE UPONZI TIME: A Tale of An American Scheme" at the McCarter Theatre, Off-Broadway premieres of "YOURS TRULY, ELLA! A Celebration of The Ella Fitzgerald Songbook", the German premiere of August Wilson's JITNEY and the musical RUNAWAYS. As an actor DeMone has appeared on Broadway, nationally and internationally in MISS SAIGON, RENT, RAGTIME, J.C. SUPERSTAR, AIN'T MISBEHAVIN, and MAN OF LA MANCHA.

DeMone is the Founding Artistic Director of The New American Theatre Co. NY. and a Producing Partners for Avant Bard Theatre in Washington D.C.

Share