Looking for some tips on what to do this weekend? We’ve got you covered. Here are a few recommendations from Ocean State Media’s Mareva Lindo and James Baumgartner.
Bach to the Future: The All-Night Bach Marathon at Brown University, Nov. 7-8
The annual, 12-hour-long concert includes some music by Johann Sebastian Bach, but also music inspired by Bach and remixes of Bach. You’ll find some more traditional performances of the prolific composer’s work alongside some unexpected interpretations – like someone playing piano while wearing mittens, or a cello suite played on electric guitar. It runs overnight, from 7 p.m. Friday to 7 a.m. Saturday, at the Manning Chapel, and it’s free. Audience members are welcome to come and go as they please – and if you’re there in the morning, you get to enjoy coffee with the sunrise.
Learn more about Bach to the Future here.
World premiere of ‘A Slater’s Tale’ at the Museum of Work & Culture, Nov. 7-9
This site-specific theater piece was inspired by the award-winning docuseries “Slatersville” by filmmaker Christian de Rezendes, originally presented on Ocean State Media. The darkly funny play, written by Guy Benoit, uses local historical figures to look at what happens when a wealthy family runs out of money – exploring the effects of wealth on those who have it, those who want it, and those who have it but don’t want it. Performed by the Rhode Island Stage Ensemble and directed by Meryn Flynn, it’s all set to traditional New England folk music. Showtimes are Nov.7 and 8 at 7:30 p.m., and on November 9 at 2 p.m.
Find out more about “A Slater’s Tale” here.
60th annual Armenian Festival at Rhodes on the Pawtuxet in Cranston, Nov. 8-9
They bill themselves as Rhode Island’s largest Armenian food festival, and that right there tells you what you need to know: there will be vendors, raffles, kids activities, and traditional music and dance performances – but the food is the centerpiece. The menu includes kebabs, sandwiches, pastries, and more. Festivities take place Saturday, 12-8 p.m., and Sunday, 12-7 p.m., and it’s free.
You can find more details about the Armenian Festival here.
Spotlight: Silkroad Ensemble with Wu Man performs ‘American Railroad’ at The Vets, Nov. 9 at 7:30 p.m.
This musical program is inspired by the construction of the transcontinental railroad in the 1800s. It draws on the musical traditions of Indigenous peoples and African Americans, as well as Chinese, Irish, Japanese, and other immigrant communities who laid the tracks of the American railroad.
Ocean State Media’s James Baumgartner spoke with Sandeep Das, a tabla player in the eight-person Silkroad Ensemble. He said the name of the group is a metaphor for “journeys that have connected and built civilizations and built eras. And here we are in the U.S., where these railroads not only connected people, it also divided people,” he said. “It’s basically to bring to the table the conversation about the people who actually made it happen, and those who were forgotten.”
Kathleen Pletcher is the founder of FirstWorks, the arts organization presenting the concert. She described the performance as a sort of giant cultural jam. “It’s really a pulse-racing kind of experience, I can say from having been in the audience.”
She added: “I love the way the Silkroad (Ensemble) talks about ‘We met as strangers and became a family.’ And so for the audience, if you are hearing the Chinese pipa by Wu Man and the tabla jamming together, that is both unexpected and music-making in the moment. I think it makes all of us become a family, understanding that cultures are intersecting and combining and uniting and that that is actually us as Americans.”
Click here for more information about “American Railroad.”
Note: FirstWorks is a business sponsor of Ocean State Media. Editorial decisions are made independently of financial support.
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