Charlotte Martin, Maya Hawke and More Are Coming to Joe's Pub

Spring is coming in like a lion at Joe's Pub. This week our stage features Lebanese-American, New York-based pianist Tarek Yamani and the Tarek Yamani Trio; Becca Blackwell's latest deeply personal and deeply absurd solo show; Vietnamese pop star-turned protest singer Mai Khoi; Ryan Raftery's new satire IVANKA 2020; acclaimed lyricist and performer Charlotte Martin; celebrated comedienne Catherine Cohen; an album release concert from Divahn; a celebration of International Women's Day and Women's Month with ¡JEFAS!: A Celebration Of Latina Songwriters & Women In Music; and the return of Yemen Blues' brand of Yemenite chants swirled with jazz and rock grooves.

Next week, the first two curated performance from Laurie Anderson's Vanguard Residency take the stage: Stranger Things' Maya Hawke, followed by COSMO, an instrumental project by Jesse Harris. Then, we welcome Villain: DeBlanks, a fill-in-the-blanks comedy benefit where Mad Libs meets Clue; Songs for a Cause brings the Nashville In The Round experience to NYC with Carly Pearce, Michael Ray, Ryan Griffin, and Ryan Baird; the sophisticated and unique urban pop sound of Toby Lightman; songwriter, composer, and creative director Sye Elaine Spense; Albanian singer and multi-instrumentalist Elina Duni; Pianist, composer, and Artistic Director for Cuba's Jazz Plaza Santiago Festival, Roberto Fonseca; and the sequel to the legendary off-Broadway musical sketch hit Lemmings, National Lampoon's LEMMINGS: 21ST CENTURY.

It's all down below and on our site: www.joespub.com.

TAREK YAMANI TRIO

Wednesday, March 4 at 7:00PM
$15 advance / $20 at the door

Born and raised in Beirut, Tarek Yamani is a Lebanese-American, New York-based pianist who taught himself jazz at the age of 19. He has been dedicated to exploring relationships between African-American Jazz and classical Arabic music which are most evident in his second album Lisan Al Tarab: Jazz Conceptions in Classical Arabic, and in Peninsular which fuses jazz with quarter-tones and the rhythms of the Arabian Peninsula.

A recipient of many prestigious awards such as the Thelonious Monk Jazz Composers Competition, the Baryshnikov Artist-in-Residence, the Huygens Scholarship, the Prins Bernhard Culture fund, and the Abu Dhabi Festival Commission, Tarek has been part of three editions of the International Jazz Day Global Concert and performed in venues such as the Smithsonian (DC), Barcelona Cathedral at La Merce (Spain), Atrium at Lincoln Center (NYC), Boulez Saal (Berlin), MuCEM (Marseille), the UN Assembly Hall (NYC), Melbourne Arts Center, Sejong Center for the Arts (Seoul), and Gran Teatro de la Habana (Cuba).

Tarek is also an educator, author of two self-published music books on rhythm and a film score composer of films screened in 100+ festivals around the world and broadcasted on AMC network, BBC and Sundance TV.

Becca Blackwell: SCHMERMIE'S CHOICE

Wednesday, March 4 at 9:30PM
$20

Becca Blackwell is back with another deeply personal and deeply absurd solo show, and this time, it's about love. Get ready to witness another white, 40-something masc talk about their identity (but this time it's okay cause they have a pussy too). From exploring their past childhood truths and traumas, adolescent relationships, being a big ol' dyke in the 90's to now looking like a 4chan apologist's wet dream, Becca asks the fundamental question of who am I, and how does love fit in?

In collaboration with Jill Pangallo, Jess Barbagallo, and Hannah Gregg
Directed by Jess Barbagallo

MAI KHOI

presented in association with SHIM NYC

Thursday, March 5 at 7:00PM
$15

With a powerful voice that sings, speaks, and screams, and a style that defies genre, Vietnamese pop star-turned protest singer Mai Khoi performs her storytelling song cycle "Just Be Patient." In this performance, she tells her story about blazing trails as an artist-activist living under an authoritarian regime, and shares the risks and rewards of speaking truth to power through music. Drawing on a wide variety of influences, from traditional Vietnamese folk to blues, soul and rock, Mai Khoi has been compared to Pussy Riot and dubbed the Lady Gaga of Vietnam. Though she has had her concerts raided, faced retaliatory eviction from her home, and been detained and interrogated by the police, Mai Khoi continues to use her music and voice to fight censorship and advocate for human rights and freedom of expression in Vietnam and around the world. Songs are performed both in English and in Vietnamese with English translation.

Khoi is the current musician in residence with the Safe Haven Incubator for Music NYC (SHIM:NYC), an artist-at-risk residency program recently launched by Artistic Freedom Initiative and Tamizdat.

Ryan Raftery: IVANKA 2020

Thursday, March 5 - Friday, March 13 at Various Times
$35 - $45

One woman. Two personalities. A magic whistle with powers of mind control. It's not about being right...it's about WINNING.

Just in time for the start of the presidential primary season, Ryan Raftery returns to Joe's Pub for his fifth consecutive run, premiering his new celebrity bio-musical comedy IVANKA 2020. Inspired by the classic film The Manchurian Candidate and the beloved animated film Anastasia, Raftery's latest piece is a satirical commentary on what is arguably the most fascinating political landscape the United States has seen in decades.

IVANKA 2020 tells a tale that begins in turn-of-the-century imperial Russia, where a young girl named Anastasia receives a jewel-encrusted whistle as a gift from her doting grandmother. Unbeknownst to all within the golden palace, a courtier by the name of Rasputin has placed a curse on the whistle, allowing him to control the mind of the young girl, bringing about the sabotage needed to destroy the powerful family. Cut to almost a century later, where Russian government officials have discovered the whistle and its powers and set out to interfere with yet another powerful political family. This time, it will be another favored child in another golden palace that would be entangled in a game of international political espionage and her name...is Ivanka.

CHARLOTTE MARTIN

Friday, March 6 at 7:00PM
$25

Over the course of her career, Charlotte Martin has recorded both major label and independent releases, performed sold-out shows to audiences around the world and shared stages with the likes of Liz Phair, Pete Yorn, Damien Rice, Jason Mraz, and many others. Her music has been licensed for a plethora of television shows, including "So You Think You Can Dance," which regularly features her song "The Dance" during the show's open. Details magazine called her "a seductive performer" and "a skilled lyricist who writes with surgical precision" and Performing Songwriter praised Martin as "a born storyteller and affecting vocalist."

CATHERINE COHEN

Friday, March 6 at 9:30PM
$25

Catherine Cohen's live show is about living, laughing, loving, and losing your debit card five times in one year. Through original songs and stand-up, Catherine explores life as an immortal millennial who is addicted to attention. Winner of the Best Newcomer Award at the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, The Guardian called the show "can't-take-your-eyes-off-of-it entertaining," and The Telegraph heralded that "Cohen is a star in the making."

DIVAHN

Saturday, March 7 at 7:00PM
$20

Join us for Divahn's long-awaited new album release concert! Iranian-descended singer Galeet Dardashti leads the all-female power-house Middle Eastern Jewish ensemble, Divahn. The New York City-based group has gained an international following with its fresh and fiery renditions of traditional and original Sephardi/Mizrahi Jewish songs: lush string arrangements, eclectic Indian, Middle Eastern, and Latin percussion, and vocals spanning Hebrew, Judeo-Spanish, Persian, Arabic, and Aramaic. "Divahn," a word common to Hebrew, Persian, and Arabic, means a collection of songs or poetry. Through its music, Divahn underscores common ground between diverse Middle Eastern cultures and religions.

¡JEFAS!: A CELEBRATION OF LATINA SONGWRITERS & WOMEN IN MUSIC

Saturday, March 7 at 9:30PM
$15

Jefa. je·fa Feminine - Noun - Singular. Plural: jefas. Spanish term: woman in charge, boss, headwoman

March is Women's Month! Join us at Joe's Pub for an evening of tropical and empowering woman-fronted music on the Eve of International Women's day! These trailblazing Latina songwriters are making waves in the Latin alternative scene with a fresh approach to their Latin American roots. Discover new sounds with essences from Mexico to Panama to the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Join us for performances by Jessica Medina, Renee Goust, and Mai Elka plus surprise special guests. Hear their hits "La Cumbia Feminazi" and "Libre" as well the premiere of their new singles "A una mujer" and "Cuidao," and be part of this movement seeking to empower women through song.

With Spanish and English as her native tongues, and New York City as her home, Jessica Medina was recently referenced by NPR's Alt Latino music roundup as a "super talented vocalist that effortlessly bridges jazz, soul and even bits of Afro Caribbean music". Blending a World Music vibe with espresso shots of Afro-Peruvian and Caribbean flavor, her sound is an aromatic blend of life and love.

Through her music, she hopes to inspire others, especially girls and women, to believe that they too can pursue their dreams, and transform their own lives.

Latinx neo-folk artist Renee Goust, who grew up on the US/Mexico border, writes bilingual songs about gender equality, the LGBTQIA+ experience, immigration, and other social justice issues.

Renee's mission is to be a proud voice for the queer and gender non-conforming Latinx community that is typically under-represented in the folk music traditions of Latin America. She has performed in Mexico, Argentina, Italy, France, and the US, appearing in renowned stages such as New York's Lincoln Center and Mexico City's El Cantoral, and has shared the stage with artists such as Flor de Toloache's Mireya Ramos, Jorge Glem, Erin McKeown, Torreblanca, Diana Gameros, and Ampersan to name a few.

After a 19-date tour in Mexico, Renee is back in New York City to present her upcoming single "A una mujer" ("To a Woman"), a queer ranchera tracked, mixed, mastered and performed by an all-woman team featuring a collaboration with acclaimed Mexican songwriters Edna Vázquez and Grammy-nominated Sonia de los Santos.

Mai-Elka Prado Gil is a singer- songwriter born in Panamá City, Panamá 1986.

She is the founder of the Afro-Latino Festival of New York. She is a New York-based bilingual singer-songwriter. She has done many music collaboration such as vocal tracks for acclaimed Afro- Colombian artists Petrona Martinez and Magin Diaz. As an artist, her work has been focused on the exposure of Afrodescendant music sounds from Latin America in the city of New York.

YEMEN BLUES

Saturday, March 7 at 11:30PM
$30

Shavua Tov. Come join the great Ravid Kahalani and Yemen Blues perform Yemenite chants with swirls of jazz and rock grooves at a special late night performance at Joe's Pub. Welcome the new week with the uplifting sounds of this amazing band.

MAYA HAWKE

presented as part of Laurie Anderson's Vanguard Residency

Sunday, March 8 at 6:30PM
$25 / $35 combination with 9:00PM show

Maya Hawke (born 1998) is an actress, singer, and lyricist. She plays Robin in the new season of "Stranger Things" and a Flower Child in Quentin Tarantino's new film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. She and Grammy Award winning songwriter Jesse Harris have been collaborating on songs together since 2017 and are releasing an album in March 2020. A single and B side, "To Love a Boy" and "Stay Open," are available now.

COSMO (INSTRUMENTAL PROJECT BY Jesse Harris)

presented as part of Laurie Anderson's Vanguard Residency

Sunday, March 8 at 9:00PM
$15 / $35 combo with 6:30PM show

Cosmo is the instrumental project of Jesse Harris (guitar), CJ Camerieri (trumpet/flugelhorn/french horn), Jeremy Gustin (drums), Will Graefe (guitar), Michael Boschen (trombone), and Benjamin Lazar Davis (bass). With song-like compositions by Harris that vacillate between written melodies and modern improvised polyphony, Cosmo is propelled by Gustin's explosive and creative drumming, Camerieri and Boschen's mellifluous brass, and Graefe's soaring guitar.

VILLAIN: DEBLANKS, A FILL-IN-THE-BLANKS COMEDY BENEFIT

Monday, March 9 at 9:30PM
$30

It's "Clue" meets adult "Mad Libs," so you're guaranteed to laugh your (BODY PART)_____ off - and tonight 100% of proceeds benefit The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Our one-night-only lineup features buoyant Broadway luminary Betsy Wolfe (Waitress, Falsettos), iconic actress & painter Eve Plumb (A Very Brady Renovation, Crashing), incandescent funny-lady Jessica Vosk (Wicked, Fiddler on the Roof); Obie-winner & Tony-nominee Jeremy Shamos (Birdman, Better Call Saul), handsome & hilarious John Behlmann (Tootsie, CW's Riverdale), and the always marvelous Noah Galvin (The Real O'Neals, Dear Evan Hanson).

Also, for even more horseplay & hijinks, we have special musical guests Nick Cearley (The Skivvies, Buyer & Cellar) and Lauren Elder (Sideshow, HAIR); and guest sketch artist Squigs Robertson (Broadway Ink).

A Time Out NY Critics' Pick, Villain: DeBlanks is the uproarious improvisational comedy where the cast says words you put in their mouths. The audience provides nouns, adjectives, verbs, etc. (the wilder, the better), and the actors provide the laughs-uncensored and unrehearsed-as they enact the story of Philip DeBlanks' untimely demise.

SONGS FOR A CAUSE

featuring Carly Pearce, Michael Ray, Ryan Griffin, and Luke Laird

Tuesday, March 10 at 9:30PM
$35

Morris Higham Management is proud to bring Songs for a Cause to Joe's Pub. On March 10 and May 12, clients and friends of MHM will bring the Nashville In The Round experience back to New York City performing their hits and songs they have written in an intimate setting. The March 10 show will feature Big Machine Recording artist Carly Pearce, Warner Music Nashville recording artists Michael Ray and Ryan Griffin, as well as mega-hit writer and producer Luke Laird. The artists will be donating their proceeds to the TJ Martell/Phran Galante Memorial Fund for Lung Cancer Research.

Toby Lightman

Wednesday, March 11 at 7:00PM
$20

In a crowded social-media driven marketplace, Toby Lightman's pure and soulful voice connects with listeners emotionally and cuts through the noise. In the 15 years since signing with a major label, Toby has developed and mastered her own sophisticated and unique urban pop sound.

Darling to the normally harsh critics, Lightman received high praise from magazines like Rolling Stone, People, Billboard and others, which led to appearances on Letterman, Carson Daly, Conan, CBS Morning Show and more. Prince happened to be watching the night Toby appeared on Conan and was so impressed with her performance he invited her to open for him. Additionally, Toby has enjoyed tremendous success licensing her music for placement in film and TV, with credits including commercials for Microsoft and KMART, as well as her songs placed on episodes of Desperate Housewives, One Tree Hill, Vampire Diaries, 90210, The Fosters, and many more.

Toby is currently producing her new recordings entirely on her own, playing all of the instruments and mixing the tracks as well. These songs represent and were inspired by Toby's desire to get pregnant, something she had to struggle to accomplish. "These songs are extremely personal to me as they are what came out of a hard battle with infertility. I wanted the song as well as the production to be 100% from me and it is." Thankfully, after a long road, Toby gave birth to a beautiful baby boy named Leo Cash in 2017.

Toby Lightman's story is still being told, and she will be touring in support of new, deeply personal music in the months and years to come.

SYE ELAINE SPENCE

with opener Candice Hoyes

Wednesday, March 11 at 9:30PM
$15

Sye Elaine Spence is a New York City-based songwriter, composer, and creative director. Her audiovisual works have been featured and reviewed by NPR, Pigeons & Planes, Saint Heron, and others. Her most recent recording and debut album, MORE, was released on March 30th exclusively on Spotify. MORE unfolds an aural landscape, with contours of quiet and deep resonant sound. On March 11, she will present a never-performed orchestral rendition of the album exclusively for Joe's Pub.

ELINA DUNI

with Rob Luft & Rod Youngs

Thursday, March 12 & Friday, March 13 at 7:00PM
$40 advance / $45 at the door

Albanian singer Elina Duni was born into a highly artistic family in Tirana in 1981 and first sang on stage at the age of five. In 1992 after the fall of the communist regime, she and her mother settled in Geneva. Soon after, she started classical piano lessons and discovered jazz, before going on to study singing and composition in the jazz department at the Hochschule der Künste Bern.

During this time she also developed the Elina Duni Quartet to explore her musical roots, a combination of Balkan folk songs and jazz. The quartet released its ECM debut, Matanë Malit (Beyond the Mountain), a musical homage to Albania, in 2012.

In 2015 her quartet released its second album for ECM, Dallëndyshe (The Swallow). Duni contrasted this with her first quartet recording thus: it has, she said, "a different groove, a different momentum. It's become more rhythmic. Sometimes it's almost a trance-like propulsion." The album received great critical acclaim: "a sheer delight," in the words of UK Vibe's Tim Stenhouse.

Duni has said of her work with the quartet: "We focus all the intensity that the poetry needs. We have tried to convey its essence through our musical interpretation. To me, all improvised music is a jazz state of mind. We feel no obligation to play a song the same way twice."

Her latest album Partir released in 2018 on ECM Records features Elina Duni as a soloist, accompanying herself on piano, acoustic guitar and percussion, marking her most ambitious and intimate work to date.

ROBERTO FONSECA

Saturday, March 14 at 7:00PM & 11:30PM
$25

Pianist, composer, and Artistic Director for Cuba's Jazz Plaza Santiago Festival, Roberto Fonseca has toured the world's most prestigious venues with Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club® and the legendary Omara Portuondo. An artist of prowess and ideas, a musician with a questing jazz sensibility and deep roots in the Afro Cuban tradition, the Havana-born pianist releases his ninth solo album, Yesun, in Fall 2019 on Mack Avenue Records. Combining everything from jazz and classical music to rap, funk, reggaeton and electronica, Fonseca is ripping up the rule book. He celebrates the rich musical traditions of the island's past, with a vision of where Cuban music is headed in the future, entwining folkloric and modern sounds.

"Yesun is the album I've always wanted to make," says Fonseca, "It presents a Cuba without borders. I'm building bridges between my Afro Cuban traditions and other styles of music I've absorbed over many years of touring this world. I'm taking Cuban music forward, always forward, without ever forgetting my roots."

There's a new generation of artists reinvigorating the Cuban music scene and Fonseca is at the forefront, leading this cultural renaissance.

NATIONAL LAMPOON'S LEMMINGS: 21ST CENTURY

Saturday, March 14 & Sunday, March 15 at 9:30PM
$40

A sequel to its legendary off-Broadway musical sketch hit Lemmings, which helped launch the careers of John Belushi, Christopher Guest, and Harold Ramis, National Lampoon's LEMMINGS: 21ST CENTURY is a satire of modern Millennial corporate music festival culture.

LEMMINGS: 21ST CENTURY is written by Andrew Farmer, with a score by Henry Koperski, directed by Annie Tippe.

National Lampoon President Evan Shapiro announced the new Lemmings by saying: "a generation ago, National Lampoon skewered Boomers with 'Three Days of Peace, Love & Death.' We're working today's smartest artists to create a twisted musical comedy that mocks today's mainstream culture, when people can seemingly only watch rock music through Instagram filters."

Additional credits for Lemmings: Consulting Producer Patrick Catullo (Oh, Hello On Broadway, David Byrne's American Utopia) and Line Producers/General Managers Mike Lavoie and Carlee Briglia (Jacqueline Novak's Get On Your Knees, Oh, Hello On (Off) Broadway).

The cast is a group of performers known for crossing comedy with music: Natalie Walker (Search Party, Bojack Horseman), Kiko Soiree (Named by Time Out Magazine as one of the rising LGBT POC comedians to watch), Preston Martin (Little Women, The Rest of Us), Andrew R. Butler (Larson and Lortel Award winning musical maker, star and creator of Rags Parkland?), Kim Blanck (Dave Malloy's OCTET), Eric Lockley (Luke Cage, First Reformed), Aneesa Folds (the recent Broadway run of Freestyle Love Supreme) and Amanda Shechtman (NBC's Sunnyside, Comedy Central).

TICKETS:

ONLINE joespub.com / PHONE 212-967-7555
IN PERSON The Public Theater Box Office, 425 Lafayette Street, NYC

NOTE There is a $12 food / two (2) drink minimum per person per show, unless otherwise noted.

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