Nefasha Ayer Brings 'The Space of in Between' to Brava 2/6-2/7

Brava is excited to present our first musical performance of the season on our main stage February 6 and 7. This February, get ready for an extraordinary concert collaboration bringing together some of the Bay Area's most dynamic musicians! It's Black History month, and Nefasha Ayer is performing at the Brava to the tale of the way in which the African diaspora is still weaving its course throughout the world today. A Red Poppy Art House resident artist ensemble, Nefasha Ayer is an eight-member music ensemble that tells of a transcontinental odyssey of multiple characters who find themselves caught between national identities, cultures, and politics. Headed by Ethiopian-born vocalist/lyricist, Meklit Hadero, and composer/multi-instrumentalist Todd Brown, Nefasha Ayer joins melodies, rhythms, and poetic texts from the continents of Africa, South Asia, and the Americas. Through this interweaving, the ensemble explores the intangible quality of living in a world where borders have given way, where identity is fluid and moving, no longer framed by nation or tradition, but born in the space between the many.

This special two-night engagement will feature the culmination of Nefasha Ayer's first completed body of music, originally commissioned by the Red Poppy Art House, the San Francisco Foundation and the Fund For Artists. In an incredible weekend of music, these performances showcase a remarkable roster of artists, including Ethiopian singer-song writer Meklit Hadero, guitarist/composer, Todd Brown, Pan African instrumentalist Keenan Webster, South Indian Classical and Jazz Saxophonist Prasant Radhakrisnan, Kenyan percussionist Abdi Jibril, drummer Mohini Rustagi, and poet Michael Warr. Guest artists include Jazzmasters Marcus Shelby (upright bass) and Howard Wiley (saxophone), Afro-Peruvian Cajon Legend Lalo Izquierdo, Ethiopian Hip-Hop Emcee Gabriel Teodros, Peruvian Artist/Poet Adrian Arias, and members of Classical Revolution.

Nefasha Ayer is:

Meklit Hadero: voice, composition (Nefasha bandleader/lyricist, former Red Poppy Art House director)
Todd Brown: guitar, composition (Nefasha bandleader & Red Poppy Art House artistic director)
Keenan Webster: balafon, kora, m'bira (bandleader of Oakland's Talking Wood)
Michael Warr: poetic text (Founder of Chicago's cross-cultural literary hot spot- "the Guild Complex": http://guildcomplex.org/)
Mohini Rustagi: drums (from the all-women jazz-indian trio "Ambika")
Prasant Radhakrishnan, tenor saxophone (composer/band leader of South Indian carnatic jazz trio VidyA)
Abdi Jibril: percussion (percussionist from "Talking Wood")

Guest Artists:
Howard Wiley: tenor saxophone (composer/band leader, 2007 release, "the Angola Project")
Gabriel Teodros: emcee (first generation Ethiopian-born Emcee, flying in from the North West's hip-hop community)
Marcus Shelby: upright bass (composer/band leader of the Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra)
Lalo Isquierdo: cajón (Founding member, musician and choreographer, of the world-acclaimed Afro-Peruvian performance troupe "Peru Negro")
Adrian Arias: poetic text & performance (Peru-San Francisco interdisciplinary surrealist and creator of "Ilusion")
Classical Revolution: arrangements for string quartet (arrangements by Charith Premawardhana)

website: http://www.nefashaayer.com/

Brava Theater Center
February 6th & 7th, 8PM
2781 24th Street (at York)
San Francisco, CA 94110
PHONE: 415-647-2822
Box Office HOURS: 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM Monday - Friday

Tickets: $15 in advance, $20 at the door

Tickets at www.brava.org