Joe's Pub Announces 2016 Pub Club Class

Joe's Pub at The Public announces the new class of Pub Club, the venue's artist development program dedicated to enhancing the career sustainability and growth of performing artists. In its second year, which commences January 2016, Pub Club welcomes a range of performers - blues/rock singer-songwriter Celisse Henderson, soulful vocalist Stephanie McKay, comedian and producer Trish Nelson, hilarious author and story-teller Isaac Oliver and folk singer-songwriter Kaylyn Marie Scardefield - that represents the diversity and scope of Joe's Pub's nightly programming.

A clear extension of The Public Theater's commitment to supporting artists, Joe's Pub goes beyond the traditional definitions of a music venue, providing extra support to the scores of artists that pass through the venerated room by offering programs like Pub Club and New York Voices, the venue's artist commissioning series. By furnishing a range of administrative and curatorial services, dedicated to project-based goals, Pub Club offers not just practical and creative assistance but uses a group dynamic to cultivate a community atmosphere conducive to developing new, ongoing and collaborative work.

Positioned within New York's music and downtown performing arts scenes, Joe's Pub maintains a rare perspective by spring-boarding the rise of stars like Adele and Janelle Monáe, serving as the home for outside-the-box projects of established professionals like Toshi Reagon and Mx Justin Vivian Bond, and remaining on the forefront of new and emerging artists including the five individuals represented in the Pub Club program.

"Our stage plays host to an incredible array of artists and ideas. Pub Club reflects that by considering the details one doesn't see or hear in a performance - the website, the manager, the rehearsal space - elements that are crucial to the infrastructure of any working artist's life," said Shanta Thake, Director of Joe's Pub. "We are looking at practical strategies to address a changing industry with artists and individuals we know have the talent and drive to reach a much larger audience."

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Celisse Henderson is a musician, singer and songwriter. From songs of love and blues on the piano and guitar, to songs of joy on the ukulele, with some spoken word on the side, Henderson shares her gifts on multiple instruments and pairs it with her soulful vocals to create an evening of musical magic. She recently returned from an acclaimed tour Live from the Heartland with Matt Alber. She is also known for her work in the Broadway revival of GODSPELL at Circle in The Square Theater and her work on The Electric Company. Henderson recently released a live EP entitled Celisse LIVE @ Rockwood Music Hall which is available on iTunes. Henderson will perform on January 26, 2016 - an opening set for Casey Breves. Tickets are available now.

Stephanie McKay is a singer, songwriter, musician, and collaborator, hailing from the Bronx. Her career has spanned over 20 years, during which time she has collaborated with artists including Anthony Hamilton, Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def), Talib Kweli, DJ Spinna, Toshi Reagon and BIGLovely, Jacques Schwarz-Bart, Katalyst, Tricky, Carl Hancock-Rux, Kelis and more. She was eatured on Roy Hargrove's Grammy Award-nominated RH Factor (alongside such luminaries as D'Angelo, Anthony Hamilton, Erykah Badu, Karl Denson, Pino Palladino, and Common). Her first two albums - McKay (2003, Go! Beat/Polydor/Universal), produced by Portishead's Geoff Barrow and Tim Saul, and Tell It Like It Is (2008, Pias/Muthas of Invention) - were released to great critical acclaim. McKay went on to perform at Glastonbury (UK), North Sea Jazz Festival (Netherlands) and Solidays (France) as well as two national tours in Australia (with Amp Fiddler and Katalyst) and an unprecedented seven-night stand in Greece. After a multi-year hiatus, Stephanie returns with a much-anticipated new collaboration, MKPower with legendary producer Bob Power (D'Angelo, Erykah Badu.)

Trish Nelson, founder of BanterGirl, is a producer, performer, and writer from Los Angeles, who for the past 10 years has resided in NYC. She's produced monthly shows at the Bell House, Joe's Pub, The Slipper Room, Littlefield, Union Hall, Ace Hotel, Wythe Hotel, and BRIC, and has regularly worked with talent such as Women of Letters, Carolyn Castiglia, Dave Hill, Jena Friedman, Jessica Delfino, and John Hodgman. She has also helped to put together live shows and tours across the country for Broad City, Impractical Jokers, Jim Jefferies, Bill Burr, Chris Hardwick, and Amy Schumer, among many others. She holds a BFA in Theater from Middlesex University in London, England, and an MFA in acting from the University of Washington's PATP. Women of Letters is a monthly series at Joe's Pub; the next show is on December 9 and features Mamie Gummer, Emma Straub, Erin Ryan and more incredible women reading letters to their "greatest gift." Tickets are available now.

Isaac Oliver is an award-winning playwright, author, and performer. His debut collection of essays, Intimacy Idiot, was published by Scribner in June 2015. His stories have been featured on BuzzFeed, Gawker, Out, and inNext Magazine and Frontiers. He is a frequent guest in the Soundtrack Series, How I Learned Series, Dead Darlings, and Showgasm. His plays include Electra in a One-Piece, Eddie Goshen is Dead, and the ten-minute plays 3, 2, 1, Film Forum and Come Here (New York Innovative Theatre Award, Outstanding Original Short Script). He is a graduate of Carver Center for Arts and Technology and Fordham College at Lincoln Center and a MacDowell Colony Fellow. He lives in New York City.

Kaylyn Marie Scardefield is an actress and singer-songwriter based in New York City. She performs her original music regularly throughout New York and the US - Joe's Pub, Paul Colby's The Bitter End, Bowery Poetry Room and more. Scardefield hosts a songwriter night called The Acoustic Soiree once a month. As an actress, she has appeared in off-Broadway productions (Twelfth Night (Queens Players); Love's Labour's Lost (Snorks and Pins)), independent and student films (Kirk White's F!CK New York, Jen Kim's Arsenic and Pink Lace), television (Michael Russell's Erroneous Convictions) and commercials. In February 2015, she released her debut EP Where I Need.