Like a quasar burning past the gaslight, director Lisa Cortés’ eye-opening documentary explodes the whitewashed canon of American pop music. Little Richard: I Am Everything shines a clarifying light on the Black, queer origins of rock ’n’ roll, and establishes the genre’s big bang: Richard Wayne Penniman.
Crosstown Arts announces its spring 2023 arts programming — “Deceive the Heavens to Cross the Seas” by McLean Fahnestock, “Edgewise: Exploring Pattern and Rhythm with Line” by Khara Woods, “Entrances, Exits and the Spaces Betwixt” by Tangela Mathis, and “Color Thread” by Carl Fox.
The opening reception is scheduled for Friday, April 21, 6-8 p.m. The exhibitions run from Saturday, April 22, through Sunday, August 6.
Art rockers from Chicago, NOHMADS weave layers of noir, sludge, and pop to create their unique sound, combining songs, spoken word, and visual elements to tell stories. The band's debut LP, Chartreuse, contains seven original tracks. Soaring guitars, dynamic percussion, and haunting vocal harmonies escort the listener on a ride through everyday silenced small town dramas, into murky backwoods of past lives, and along hopeful deserted dream landscapes.
Join Grammy-winning saxophonist Kirk Whalum for Kafé Kirk, an ongoing jazz series in Crosstown Theater featuring musical and spiritual collaborations with special guest artists. This iteration’s performance will feature jazz singer Jazzmeia Horn.
John Cassavetes’ hymn to that berserk business of performing, Opening Night is enhanced by its intense “old Hollywood” pedigree as Ben Gazzara, John Blondell, Paul Stewart and Cassavetes himself are the backing band for Rowlands’ knife-edged soloing.
Gareth Pearson is referred to as “The Welsh Tornado” which is particularly appropriate, seeing as this special talent combines fingerstyle pyrotechnics, with explosive lead runs making Pearson one of the most exciting acoustic musicians gigging today.
The Mahogany Chamber Music Series is a series of three chamber music concerts curated by Dr. Artina McCain, spotlighting Black and other underrepresented composers and performers.
A girl on the verge of womanhood finds herself in a sensual fantasyland of vampires, witchcraft, and other threats in this eerie and mystical movie daydream. Valerie and Her Week of Wonders serves up an endlessly looping, nonlinear fairy tale, set in a quasi-medieval landscape.
Vocal, flute, drums, & machines — that’s ROSAWAY: a pop-jazz band hailing from Paris. Distinctly French, somewhat theme-tune-style, and a whole lot of groovy, this duo is a blend of past and present.
An exceptional guitarist with a beautiful sound and great fluidity, a unique composer that blends Brazilian music, classical music, and jazz, Chico's been nominated twice for the American Grammy Awards (in 2019 & 2020).
Indie Memphis and Crosstown Arts are honored to present Shifting Lines: New Queer Animation from Frameline Distribution. These six shorts traverse various styles of distinctive animation and live-action to explore relationships, family, and the development of identity in ways that are as thoughtful as they are stunning to watch.
Graber Gryass is an all-original, acoustic jam-grass band from Memphis, Tennessee. Take an award-winning writer, have him craft songs, and then layer in some of the regions hottest players, including a Winfield-winning banjo champion, the musical director of Public Enemy, members of such bands as Rumpke Mountain Boys, and others—and you have Gryass. This six-piece band can sing harmonies like the Mamas and the Papas, stretch out and jam like the Dead or New Grass Revival all while keeping audiences moving and inspired.
