Uptown Nights At Harlem Stage Returns With Nona Hendryx, Christian Scott

Following a groundbreaking Spring 2011 season that saw meteoric star Jason Moran bring international acclaim and young scenesters to a night of reimagined Fats Waller music, Uptown Nights at Harlem Stage returns for a third season this fall, with an eclectic lineup of groundbreaking music and bold cultural discourse.

With monthly programs from September through December at the historic Harlem Stage Gatehouse, Uptown Nights blasts out of the gate with twin editions of the searing "WeDaPeoples Cabaret," spotlighting Marc Cary's cross-cultural collective Indigenous People, award-winning cultural critic and filmmaker Nelson George, preeminent black rocker and activist Nona Hendryx, and many more. October brings two nights of performances by Grammy-nominated trumPeter Christian Scott. In November DJ Rich Medina pays homage to the provocative and funky Fela Anikulapo Kuti at the tenth anniversary of his legendary "Jump N Funk" party with live music and indomitable spinning. The fall season closes in December with idiosyncratic singer/songwriter Imani Uzuri transforming notions of sacred music with a global reach and an all-woman collective.

Uptown Nights at Harlem Stage has played to sell-out crowds since its inception two years ago, reaching back to a time when Harlem was the place to seek out the next big thing in music and to hear top artists in settings where socializing and community building was paramount. All events take place at the Harlem Stage Gatehouse (150 Convent Avenue at West 135th Street). Tickets are $20-$45, available online at www.HarlemStage.org or by phone, 212-281-9240, ext. 19 or 20. A full listing of series events is below.

WeDaPeoples Cabaret
Thurs., September 15, 2011
Samita Sinha, curator
7:30 p.m., at Harlem Stage Gatehouse, 150 Convent Avenue (W. 135th St @ Convent Ave)
Tickets: $20
Throughout and around The Gatehouse (outside and in stairwells, and all through the main space), the first of two editions of the acclaimed WeDaPeoples Cabaret presents artists of multiple disciplines that will activate the audience and the space on multiple levels, through cutting-edge explorations of dance, song, food and language. Among the artists are Marc Cary's Indigenous People, Cecilia Vicuña, The Phoneme Choir, Nodutdol, Universes, LaTasha Diggs, Patricia and Paloma McGregor, and Samita Sinha. WeDaPeoples Cabaret is presented in partnership with The America Project/MAPP International Productions. Part of the Harlem Stage Uptown Nights series.

RIGHT NOW! (a WeDaPeoples Cabaret)
Carl Hancock Rux, curator
Featuring Nona Hendryx, Reno and Nelson George
Sat., September 17, 2011
7:30 p.m., at Harlem Stage Gatehouse, 150 Convent Avenue (W. 135th St @ Convent Ave)
Tickets: $45
Carl Hancock Rux returns with another fiery night of WeDaPeoples Cabaret, featuring legendary singer-songwriter Nona Hendryx, political monologuist Reno and writer-filmmaker Nelson George. Hendryx, in yet another incarnation, performs in an unusually intimate setting replete with politically charged, provocative, soulful pouncing on the likes of Rush Limbaugh, while remembering Rosa Parks and, ten years after 9/11, ushers us into in a new decade. George pays tribute to poet Gil Scott-Heron and introduces a short film by Carl Hancock Rux that focuses on the impact of Scott-Heron's radical political vision and transformative contribution to activism. Reno tackles America with her incendiary comedic wit and a machine-gun delivery, in a rant that moves from the neighborhood to the nation, reflecting on the ruins of 9/11 and the Ground Zero guerrilla puzzle of voodoo patriotism, peppered with scalding assessments of everyone from George W. Bush to Larry King, and Donald Trump to the Obama/Osama drama. Part of the Harlem Stage series Uptown Nights. Presented in partnership with The America Project/MAPP International Products

Double Take: Two Nights with the Christian Scott Quintet
Fri. & Sat., October 28 & 29
7:30 p.m., at Harlem Stage Gatehouse, 150 Convent Avenue (W. 135th St @ Convent Ave)
Tickets: $25
Continuing to push the boundaries of form, critically-acclaimed, Grammy-nominated trumpeter, Christian Scott presents two nights of groundbreaking music with his quintet. The first evening features five new compositions that build upon the "harmolodic" musical methodology of free jazz innovator Ornette Coleman as well as signature works from Scott's 2007 and 2008 releases Anthem and Live from Newport. On the second evening, the Christian Scott Quintet will premiere five new compositions called Forecasting Harmony and Rhythms of the Afro-Native American Tradition of New Orleans and showcasing Scott's own harmonic innovations, in addition to works from his 2010 release Yesterday You Said Tomorrow. Part of Harlem Stage's Uptown Nights and Harlem Stride series.

Jump N Funk Live with Rich Medina, Mark Hines & Special Guests
Sat., November 19, 2011
9 p.m., at Harlem Stage Gatehouse, 150 Convent Avenue (W. 135th St. @ Convent Avenue)
Tickets: $20
As part of the 10th Anniversary of his legendary party Jump N Funk, DJ Rich Medina transforms the Harlem Stage Gatehouse into a celebratory space of resistance, rebellion and liberation in honor of the life and work of musical icon Fela Anikulapo Kuti. Alongside visual artist Mark Hines and live special musical guests, Medina illustrates why music is a weapon and the people who participate in the collective outpouring of dance and conversation at Jump N Funk become the most potent political ammunition. Part of Harlem Stage's Uptown Nights series.

IMANI UZURI's MOSAIC Sacred Music Extravaganza
Sat., December 10, 2011
7:30 p.m. DJ set, 8 p.m. performance, at Harlem Stage Gatehouse, 150 Convent Avenue (W. 135th St @ Convent Tickets: $25
Imani Uzuri, an eclectic artist who creates, performs and collaborates across various genres, presents MOSAIC, her music series featuring contemporary women, artists and projects from across the globe that delivers a spiritually expansive range of healing music from ragas to rock. Featuring DJ Rekha and special guest vocalists Haale (The Mast), Soni Morena (founder of seminal Native American Women's a capella group Ulali), Maori vocalist Ata Papa (Matou), M. Nahadr, Morley, and the Mosaic Sacred Orchestra. Part of Harlem Stage's Uptown Nights series.

ABOUT Harlem Stage

For 30 years Harlem Stage has been one of the nation's leading arts organizations, having achieved particular distinction through commissioning and presenting innovative works by artists of color and facilitating a productive engagement with the communities it serves through the performing arts. Harlem Stage has a long-standing tradition of supporting artists and organizations around the corner and across the globe, including legendary artists such as Harry Belafonte, Max Roach, Sekou Sundiata, Abbey Lincoln, Sonia Sanchez, Eddie Palmieri, and Tito Puente and contemporary artists such as Bill T. Jones, Vijay Iyer, Mike Ladd, Tania Léon, Carl Hancock Rux and Jason Moran. Its education programs each year provide 10,000 New York City children with access to a world of diverse cultures through the performing arts. In 2006, Harlem Stage opened its new home ­ the landmarked, award-winning Gatehouse - once the source of fresh water flowing to New York City, now a vital source of creativity, ideas and culture.

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