Arts & Entertainment
Martha Redbone Roots Project at the Kate November 18
Scheduled for Friday, November 18, 2022 at 8:00 pm in celebration of National Native American Heritage Month.
Martha Redbone Roots Project at the Kate November 18 in Celebration of Native American Heritage Month
OLD SAYBROOK, CT - The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center, “the Kate”, is excited to welcome the acoustic quartet, Martha Redbone Roots Project on Friday, November 18, 2022 at 8:00 pm in celebration of National Native American Heritage Month.
Martha Redbone is a Native and African-American vocalist/songwriter/composer/educator, known for her unique gumbo of folk, blues, and gospel from her childhood in Harlan County, Kentucky infused with the eclectic grit of pre-gentrified Brooklyn. Inheriting the powerful vocal range of her gospel-singing African-American father and the resilient spirit of her mother’s Southeastern Cherokee/Choctaw culture, Redbone broadens the boundaries of American Roots music. With songs and storytelling that share her life experience as a Native and Black woman and mother in the new millennium, Redbone gives voice to issues of social justice, bridging traditions from past to present, connecting cultures, and celebrating the human spirit.
Her discography includes 2012’s “The Garden of Love- Songs of William Blake,” produced by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band founder/Grammy Winner John McEuen. Featured on NPR’s All Things Considered the album, released on her own indie label imprint, rose to the Top Ten on Amazon Folk Charts for several weeks. It has become the bedrock of her live shows bringing audiences to their feet with her fiery old-time mountain gospel singing and foot-stomping energy.
From grassroots beginnings at powwows across Indian Country and in the underground clubs of NYC Redbone has built a passionate fan base with her mesmerizing presence and explosive live shows. She and her long-term collaborator/husband, composer/pianist/producer Aaron Whitby created “Bone Hill – The Concert,” an interdisciplinary musical theater work inspired by the lives of her family in the
hills of coal-mining Appalachia. A multi-racial Cherokee and African American family, they are permanently bonded to their culture, identity and the mountain despite its violent past and the ever-changing laws of the land that threaten to extinguish them. Commissioned by Joe’s Pub/NEA and Lincoln Center for the Arts, “Bone Hill – The Concert” toured extensively nationwide and is a recipient of the NEFA National Theater Project Creation and Touring Grant and National Performance Network Creation Fund.
Prior to the evening performance, Redbone will present an abbreviated version of “Bone Hill – The Concert” for area high school students in an afternoon event at Westbrook High School.
For more information and tickets, visit www.thekate.org or call 860-510-0453.
