Vashon Center for the Arts Presents A Tribute To Nina Simone With LaRhonda Steele, March 26

A Tribute to Nina Simone with LaRhonda Steele will take the stage Saturday, March 26 at 7:30 pm at Vashon Center for the Arts in the Katherine L White Hall.

LaRhonda Steele is recognized as one of the Northwest's best blues and gospel vocalists and songwriters. She has been dubbed "The First Lady of Portland Blues"-a title of leadership that she lives up to as she shares songs that carry forth directly from her soul and spiritual life force. Ms. Steele makes her Vashon Center for the Arts debut as she brings her expressive vocal style to an evening that celebrates the timeless songs of Nina Simone and honors all that she stood for.

Dubbed "The First Lady of Portland Blues" Ms. Steele currently fronts the LaRhonda Steele Band, is music director of the non-profit Portland Interfaith Gospel Choir, and is music director at the Portland Center for Spiritual Living.

Her long list of honors include: recipient of the 2021 Oregon Folklife Networks Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program Award, inductee into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame (2020), Cascade Blues Association Hall of Fame (2018), and Cascade Blues Association Best Female Vocalist Muddy Award 2016-2018.

Nina Simone was much more than a "smoky-toned jazz and blues singer," as many writers have characterized her. Through her life and music, she epitomized the essence of the black American -- and especially the black female -- experience. After a life of jazz and social justice activism, Nina Simone died at age 70, April 21st, 2003, but her impact lives on in her music, and through great performers like LaRhonda Steele.

Tickets: $23-$28 at www.vashoncanterfothearts.org.

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