Club Passim to Host Celebration Of GroundTruth's Podcast 'The New American Songbook'

"The New American Songbook" - a five-part series of audio documentaries that comprise the new season of the GroundTruth podcast - invites listeners into the daily lives of immigrant communities. WGBH and Ground Truth Project will hold a special event at Club Passim on November 21st, with live performances by artists featured on the podcast including Haitian rapper Masterbrain, who works as a security guard in Back Bay while his songs go viral in Port-au-Prince, and Cambodian-American musician Sovann Khon, who escaped his country's genocide because of his drumming skills. Audience members will hear their songs and their stories, told in conversation with the show's producers.

The songs of immigrants have always told the story of our nation, and its times. The first book printed in what is now the United States was a book of songs - their tunes brought to our shores by English settlers. Centuries later, it was the descendants of African slaves who created jazz, and the children of Jewish immigrants who composed the Great American Songbook. In "The New American Songbook", the podcast explores how immigration continues to define our musical culture, and crucially: how music can help us understand the lives of today's immigrants.

The podcasts include the stories of a Haitian-American rapper in Boston trying to make it big back home, two young Somali women bonding over poetry on a commuter train, and a pair of intertwined musical legacies in Lowell.

"The New American Songbook" podcast is available on iTunes, Stitcher, RadioPublic, SoundCloud and other podcasting apps.

The GroundTruth Project is a nonprofit media organization dedicated to supporting a new generation of journalists and to adding increased knowledge and understanding on critical global issues through their enterprise journalism.

Learn more about "The New American Songbook" at http://thegroundtruthproject.org/projects/new-american-songbook/

Tickets are just $5. Club Passim is located in Harvard Square at 47 Palmer St. Cambridge, MA 02138. Tickets to shows at Club Passim are available online at www.passim.org, by phone at 617-492-7679 (9:30am-5:00pm, Monday-Friday) or at the box office sixty minutes before the show begins.

The mission of Passim is to provide truly exceptional and interactive live musical experiences for both performers and audiences, to nurture artists at all stages of their career, and to build a vibrant music community. We do so through our legendary listening venue, music school, artist grants and outreach programs. As a nonprofit since 1994, Passim carries on the heritage of our predecessors-the historic Club 47 (1958-1968) and for-profit Passim (1969-1994). We cultivate a diverse mix of musical traditions, where the emphasis is on the relationship between performers and audience and teachers and students. Located in Harvard Square, Passim serves Cambridge and the broader region by featuring local, national and International Artists. Our ultimate goal is to help the performance arts flourish and thereby enrich the lives of members of our community.

For a complete schedule, visit www.passim.org

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