[Capdist-announce] Martha Redbone & Aaron Whitby at Ancram Center for the Arts

[Lauren Letellier]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE



*Martha Redbone and Aaron Whitby Present a Work-in-Progress *

*Performance of **CONVERSATIONS *

*at Ancram Center for the Arts Sunday August 4*



Afro-Indigenous singer/songwriter Martha Redbone and her
collaborator/husband Aaron Whitby will bring a work-in-progress showing of
their new theater project *CONVERSATIONS* to the Ancram Center for the Arts
on Sunday, August. 4, at 4pm.



This new piece was developed from intimate conversation with Native
American elders and family members who have been in Redbone's life for
decades. Working with The Civilians <https://thecivilians.org/about-us/> team
in residency as part of Ancram Center’s Summer Play Lab program, Redbone
and Whitby are turning these conversations into songs, stories and dramatic
vignettes in a cross-cultural art form that she hopes will speak to
audiences in a new way.



“Often we don’t get to hear the viewpoints of elders, and their role in the
world we live in today,” said Redbone. “The piece we’re developing will be
based on stories about their lives and personal experiences. They have
given me the honor and permission to turn their stories into songs written
with my longtime collaborator Aaron Whitby. I’m thrilled to have this
special time to develop it during the Ancram Center residency.”



Redbone is celebrated for roots music that combines the folk and mountain
blues sounds of her Appalachian childhood and the electric grit of her
teenage years in pre-gentrified Brooklyn. She inherited her powerful
gospel-singing father's voice and the resilient spirit of her mother's
Native American heritage. *The New Yorker *calls her music "a brilliant
collision of cultures."



Now in its 5th season, Ancram Center's *Summer Play Lab *offers exceptional
artists space, production support, and a budget to develop and present new
works. Ancram Center for the Arts is an award-winning theater located in
New York's Hudson Valley. Housed in an historic Grange Hall, Ancram Center
has since 2016 presented groundbreaking theater and musical performances by
nationally recognized theater artists. Ancram Center for the Arts receives
significant annual support from the New York State Council on the Arts and
in 2023 was awarded a generous grant from the National Endowment for the
Arts. For tickets and information visit www.ancramcenter.org*.*




[image: martha redbone and aaron whitby duo by molly magnusson.jpeg]

Photo Credit: Molly Magnusson
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