Friends of African and African American Art present an evening of spoken word, song, and live music, to honor the spirit of the DIA’s Regeneration exhibit. Rosemarie Wilson’s Jazzetry revue features performances by award-winning Detroit musicians and poets Will Harris on keys, Takashi Iio on bass, Randal Wilson on guitar, with poetry performed by BWard, Jason Ford, Esau Parker, and Tawana Petty. Rosemarie Wilson — aka One Single Rose — is a singer, actor, filmmaker, the author of three poetry collections, and winner of the 2023 Detroit Black Music /Spoken Word Award. 

This program is part of a companion series of film and music events presented in celebration of Regeneration: Black Cinema, 1898–1971, on view at the Detroit Institute of Arts Feb. 4–June 23, 2024. Regeneration is organized by the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.  

Madelyn Porter invites you to celebrate Black History month with a joyful and inspiring tribute to African American History through music, prose, poetry, folktales, song, and dance.

Madelyn Porter has been telling stories since she was able to speak and has worked as a professional storyteller/actress for the past forty years creating engaging, immersive programming for audiences of all ages. 

For families of all ages. 

Black musicians have always been integral to country, folk, blues, and Americana music genres; in many instances, it was Black musicians who first created these forms. The American music industry has an equally long history of not supporting them, or excluding them completely.

For these reasons, Black Opry was founded by Nashville's Holly G. as a collective of like-minded musicians, writers, producers, and supporters who created a website where Black artists could be heard and celebrated. The Black Opry Revue is the touring element of this collective and highlights their diversity of sound and stories. Every Revue features a unique line-up of Black artists.

For this program Friday Night Live will include performances by Isaiah Cunningham, Christine Melody, Jett Holden, and Nathan Graham. 

This program is part of a companion series of film and music events presented in celebration of Regeneration: Black Cinema, 1898–1971, on view at the Detroit Institute of Arts Feb. 4–June 23, 2024. Regeneration is organized by the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.  

Black History Month at the DIA is generously supported by Arn & Nancy Tellem.

Dr. Dom Flemons is a Chicago-based musician whose repertoire covers 100+ years of American Roots music. Flemons is a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, music scholar, actor, slam poet, record collector, and the host and producer of American Songster Radio Show on WSM in Nashville. He is considered an expert on banjo, guitar, harmonica, jug, percussion, quills, fife, and rhythm bones.

Flemons will perform music from his Grammy-nominated album Traveling Wildfire, and a tribute to the music of Herb Jeffries, The Sensational Singing Cowboy from Detroit, who performed in all-Black musical westerns in the 1930s. Free with admission. 

After the concert there will be a free screening of Jeffries’ 1939 classic, Bronze Buckaroo.  

This program is part of a companion series of film and music events presented in celebration of Regeneration: Black Cinema, 1898–1971, on view at the Detroit Institute of Arts Feb. 4–June 23, 2024. Regeneration is organized by the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.
 

The Vanaver Caravan, in collaboration with Arm-of-the-Sea Theater, present this fanciful multicultural dance, music, and theater spectacle that follows a young girl as she looks for joy in the dark days of winter. She is helped by a kind old Bear, who guides Lucia around the world to see how people everywhere keep the light of hope alive in the winter months, through the dance and music traditions of holidays like Santa Lucia, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Christmas, Diwali, Yule, Advent, and Solstice. 

Into the Light wraps all the magic of Arm-of-the-Sea Theater's giant puppets into the celebratory vision of The Vanaver Caravan's world dance repertoire. The performance raises our spirits and awareness for cultural traditions, using the winter holiday season as common ground. 

For families of all ages. 

This program is supported through the generous support of the Dr. Audley M. Grossman and Paul McPharlin Puppetry Funds.
 

This annual Michigan Philharmonic Miniature Masterpieces program highlights works for the keyboard, including harpsichord and organ.

The program centers around a dramatic J. S. Bach concerto and two pieces from Shruthi Rajasekar, a contemporary Indian American composer and vocalist who explores music that draws from both Carnatic (South Indian classical) and Western classical traditions.

Along with Bach and Rajesekar, Miniature Masterpieces will feature works by Gioachino Rossini and Wilhelmina von Bayreuth, performed by Michigan Philharmonic soloists Angie Zhang (harpsichord and organ), Dennis Carter II (flute) and Yuri Popowycz (violin).

For the last decade, Tres Souls—Rocio Mendoza, Roberto Carlos, and Jesus Martinez—have serenaded Los Angeles audiences with their interpretation of bolero, a musical genre that draws from the 1940s “golden era” of Mexican cinema as well as popular recordings from the 1950s and 1960s.

Each member of the trio is an accomplished musician, and each inherited the knowledge and importance of Mexican heritage music through their family and the generations before them.

In their own way, Tres Souls are following in the footsteps of other “Trio Romanticos," such as Eydie Gorme Y Los Panchos, Los Tres Reyes and Los Tres Ases, while interspersing musical influences that can be heard throughout the Los Angeles diaspora.
 

The DFT welcomes back Little Bang Theory to perform a new score for Victor Sjostrom’s great silent film The Wind, made in 1928 and starring the incredible Lillian Gish as Letty Mason, a young woman who travels to a barren West Texas town and becomes enmeshed with rival lovers and jealous friends; all the while haunted by the never-ending wind that blows through the town.

Little Bang Theory is the brainchild of Detroit avant-garde music legend Frank Pahl, who with Terry Sarris and Doug Shimmin, form a mini-orchestra of bells, whistles and toy musical instruments that bring to life the timeless art of silent cinema. 
 

Just in time for the holidays: Wonderspark Puppets’ Chicken Soup, Chicken Soup explores the sometimes-tricky situation when two families, and two traditions, come together.

Based on the beloved PJ Library book by Pamela Mayer, Wonderspark’s expressive and energetic hand puppets tell the story of two grandmothers, one Jewish and one Chinese, who come up with elaborate ways to convince their granddaughter Sophie that their cultural heritage (their chicken soup) is the best. But Sophie has some convincing of her own planned... (40 min.)  

Designed for young children from ages 4–8, but fun for all!

Presented with live ASL interpretation.

Odu Afrobeat Orchestra, led by saxophonist Baba BG, is comprised of Detroit’s best world music artists who deliver nothing short of a spiritual experience with every performance.

Odu is one of 256 divinatory principals In Yoruba spirituality associated with a traditional ancient verse; the term “Afrobeat” refers to the rhythms pioneered by late Nigerian superstar Fela Kuti, who used them as a means of expressing political and social messages through his music.