Sculpture by Linda Stein entitled Justice for All 698, 2010

Wednesday, May 23rd
6-8pm
547 West 27th Street (near 11th avenue)
New York, NY 10001

On the evening of Wednesday, May 23rd, Astraea Executive Director, J. Bob Alotta will join in conversation with other leaders in philanthropy to discuss current trends in the gender justice movement. J. Bob Alotta will join Alison Bernstein, Executive Director of the Institute for Women’s Leadership at Rutgers University, Jessica Stern, Director of Programs of International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHR) and Rashid Shabazz, Program Officer at the Soros Foundations. Please RSVP here to attend the event.

About the speakers:

After the success of an Astraea & community outing to see Pariah in January, we’ve felt inspired to create more opportunities this year to support artists by gathering together. Astraea is offering a limited amount of discounted $20 tickets for the following events at the Schomburg’s 2012 Women’s Jazz Festival. Click here to purchase tickets!

Bernice Johnson Reagon

The Bernice Johnson Reagon Songbook
Monday, March 26, 2012
7 – 9 p.m.

Join us for a rare evening of song with civil rights activist-scholar-performer Bernice Johnson Reagon. For more than a half-century Dr. Reagon has been a major cultural voice for freedom and justice. The evening features Bernice Johnson Reagon, Stephanie Battle, Marcelle Davies Lashley, Fred Cash, Sue Hadjopolous, and more…

“November, 1961, college students in Union Baptist Church after the first mass march in Albany, Georgia: It was where we could go after the first mass march in Albany GA. I was asked to lead a song; I began the spiritual which opens with the words, “Over my head I see trouble in the air,” knowing that we were ‘in trouble,’ I instinctively inserted “freedom” renaming where we were and what we were doing. All in that space joined voices, charging the air with the new time. It was some years later that I began to not find the old or new songs holding me and I began to make my own songs and singing to name my position as a fighter, joined with others determined to be a sonic force shaping the world as I lived in it. Like then, tonight I am not alone, but joined by collaborators for whom music provides our first line…”

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

Langston Hughes Auditorium
515 Malcolm X Boulevard
New York, NY 10037-1801

Partially accessible to wheelchairs

Meshell Ndegeocello by by Charlie Gross

Meshell Ndegeocello: Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood, The Works of Nina Simone
Monday, March 5, 2012
7 – 9 p.m.

Meshell Ndegeocello makes her debut at the Schomburg Center’s Women’s Jazz Festival. A bass player above all else, Meshell brings her signature warm, fat, and melodic groove to everything she does. Canonized, marginalized or just scrutinized, she has given up trying to explain herself. After 20+ years in an industry that has called her everything from avant garde to a dying breed, what unquestionably remains is the fearsome bassist, prolific songwriter and the creativity and curiosity of an authentic musical force. With that, she has earned critical acclaim, the unfailing respect of fellow players, songwriters and composers, and the dedication of her diverse, unclassifiable fans.

Thanks so much to those who came to see Meshell Ndegeocello! Here are some pictures from the night:

A very cute Bob & Meshell series!

MISSING is a magic realist exploration of women’s relationships with black popular music in America. Our story begins aboard the slave ship Trouvadore, which mysteriously went missing in 1795. Aboard the ship, three women devise a plan to escape via the magic of the music they create together. Through music, they and the ship are transported into the future, in search of home. From ringshouts of the 1790’s to the door-knockers of the 1990’s we ask what is missing when we think about music and the often unrecognized influence of women to create magic.

Written by Hanifah Walidah and Mecca Jamilah Sullivan Ph.D.
Directed by dumeha V. thompson
Music by Hanifah Walidah and La Bande Magnetique

March 22th-24th, 29th-31st
8:00pm

WOW Cafe Theater
59 E. 4th Street
New York, NY

For one of four free tickets to the opening night, Thursday, March 22nd, email zmartohardjono@archive.astraeafoundation.org

Regular ticket sales ($10 in advance) can be purchased here.

For more information about the production, visit www.missingonstage.com or MISSING’s facebook page.

This is a workshop production, where all the talent in our community are welcome to give feedback and to come along for the ride as the production grows! The first week of shows (March 22th-24th) will have after show talkbacks with the writers and cast to explore the story, the history and the music.

ache what make

Written and Performed by Lenelle Moïse
Wednesday, March 14 at 7:30pm
Q&A with Lenelle Moïse led by Astraea’s Executive Director J. Bob Alotta to follow the performance.

Women Center Stage 2012 Festival
The Living Theatre – 21 Clinton Street (between E. Houston and Stanton)
Purchase tickets here

Lenelle Moïse’s Ache What Make braids sensuous odes, urgent prayers, layered songs and bright ritual. Whether she’s talking about post-earthquake Haiti, conjuring Michael Jackson, or recounting her run-in with a skinhead on a crowded city train, Moïse shares intricate stories of creative resilience, stubborn compassion and death-defying love. Ache What Make invokes brilliant ancestors, current luminaries, and fleeting foes to celebrate a receptive heart in all its chipped or chipper wakefulness.

View the trailer for Ache What Make

Presented each March for Women’s History Month, the Culture Project’s annual Women Center Stage Festival is a dynamic and diverse laboratory for new works by women performing artists. The 2012 Festival features 40+ performances from March 8 through April 7 at The Living Theatre (21 Clinton Street). Visit WomenCenterStage.org for tickets and more information.

Tuesday, March 6th, 2012
5:30pm – 7:30pm

Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice
116 East 16th Street
7th Floor
New York, NY 10003

FRIDA is a new funding initiative that promotes women’s rights by providing small flexible funding, networking, and capacity building opportunities to young feminists under 30 working in the Global South. In the midst of its first grantmaking cycle, FRIDA uses a unique model of grantmaking to support young feminists organizing across a broad range of human rights and social justice issues. Join Astraea staff and community members as we introduce FRIDA and learn about the dynamic and groundbreaking work being done by young feminist activists globally.

When: January 8th, 2012 3:00 PM Location: Landmark Sunshine Cinema | 143 East Houston Street | New York, NY 10002

About Pariah
A world premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and funded in part by the Astraea Foundation, the contemporary drama Pariah is the feature-length expansion of writer/director Dee Rees’ award-winning 2007 short film Pariah. Spike Lee is among the feature’s executive producers. At Sundance, cinematographer Bradford Young was honored with the [U.S. Dramatic Competition] Excellence in Cinematography Award.

Adepero Oduye, who had earlier starred in the short film, portrays Alike (pronounced ah-lee-kay), a 17-year-old African-American woman who lives with her parents Audrey and Arthur (Kim Wayans and Charles Parnell) and younger sister Sharonda (Sahra Mellesse) in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood. She has a flair for poetry, and is a good student at her local high school.

Alike is quietly but firmly embracing her identity as a lesbian. With the sometimes boisterous support of her best friend, out lesbian Laura (Pernell Walker), Alike is especially eager to find a girlfriend. At home, her parents’ marriage is strained and there is further tension in the household whenever Alike’s development becomes a topic of discussion. Pressed by her mother into making the acquaintance of a colleague’s daughter, Bina (Aasha Davis), Alike finds Bina to be unexpectedly refreshing to socialize with.

Wondering how much she can confide in her family, Alike strives to get through adolescence with grace, humor, and tenacity – sometimes succeeding, sometimes not, but always moving forward.

For more information about the film, including clips, visit https://focusfeatures.com/pariah

Poetry is not only dream and vision; it is the skeleton architecture of our lives. It lays the foundations for a future of change, a bridge across our fears of what has never been before.
-Audre Lorde, 1991 Lesbian Writers Fund Judge in Poetry

Writeous! Celebrating the Astraea Lesbian Writers Fund

This showcase event featured performances by award recipients and judges, a musical performance from Cocomama, and a special presentation honoring the late Cheryl B.

Featured performers:
R. Erica Doyle, Karma Mayet Johnson, Ana-Maurine Lara, Chinelo Okparanta, Kirya Traber, Lenelle Moïse & a special presentation honoring the life & work of poet/writer/activist, Cheryl B
Also, musical Performance by Cocomama and a set by DJ RiMarkable

November 11th • 7PM Doors, 8PM Show
Brecht Forum • 451 West Street, New York, NY [map]

Artist accommodations generously provided by the Brooklyn Apartment.