Montgomery County Community College: Lively Arts Series Performances Make Great Holiday Gifts

Press release from the Montgomery County Community College:

Eric Devlin

December 16, 2021

There’s still time! This holiday season, give a gift your friends and family will
love with tickets to a Lively Arts Series main stage performance.

Kicking off the 38th season, Montgomery County Community College proudly presents 10-time Grammy-winning
jazz vocal Hall of Famers “The Manhattan Transfer” Sunday, Feb. 6, 2022, at 5 p.m.
in the Grand Ballroom at Blue Bell Country Club, 1800 Tournament Drive, Blue Bell.
Eisenhower Middle School Choir students will open the show under the direction of
Dr. Barbara Weikert.

Then Philadelphia’s own “Christian McBride and the Inside Straight,” will perform
Sunday, Feb. 27, at 5 p.m. in the Grand Ballroom at Normandy Farms Hotel, 1401 Morris
Rd, Blue Bell. McBride, a seven-time Grammy Award-winning jazz bassist/composer, has
been described as one of the most respected musical figures today.

Tickets are on sale now for the entire 2021-2022 season.

“Get tickets to a Lively Arts Series performance, as they are perfect as gifts,” said
Brent Woods, Senior Director of Cultural Affairs. “How can you beat a great dinner
and a show?”

Other up-and-coming artists set to hit the stage this season include: “Lakecia Benjamin
and Pursuance,” Sunday, March 6, at 5 p.m. in the Grand Ballroom at Normandy Farms
Hotel. Known as a charismatic and dynamic saxophonist, Benjamin fuses traditional
conceptions of jazz, hip-hop and soul.

South Korean jazz vocalist Youn Sun Nah performs Sunday, April 24, at 7 p.m. in the
Grand Ballroom at Blue Bell Country Club; and cellist “Joshua Roman,” hits the stage
embracing musical styles from Bach to Radiohead on Sunday, May 1, in the Parkhouse
Hall Atrium, on Blue Bell Campus, 340 DeKalb Pike.

Closing out the series with four performances is “The Voice That Would Not Be Silenced”
by Millicent Sparks, and directed by Lenny Daniels, Thursday, May 12, at 7 p.m., Friday,
May 13, at 12:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. and Saturday, May 14, at 7 p.m. all in the Black
Box Theatre of the Science Center on Blue Bell Campus.

The performances follow Black women fighting for the right to vote. On Aug. 18, 1920,
women across America celebrated the landmark 19th Amendment to the Constitution, finally
granting them citizenship and the right to vote after a 72-year battle. However, Black
women, particularly those in the Jim Crow South, had little to celebrate. Voter suppression
tactics and anti-Black violence continued to shut them out of the polls. The 19th
Amendment was not the culmination of a movement for them but rather the start of a
new fight, this time on their own.

Meet key Black women of the 19th-century Suffrage Movement and one of a new generation
of fearless women who carried the Black suffrage mantle into the 1960s civil rights
movement.

Theater Assistant Professor Tim Gallagher and theater students and will have a special
opportunity to collaborate with professionals for this production, the first collaboration
on the main stage.

“The best gift you could give this holiday season is a Lively Arts Series show,” said
Woods. “We’ll see you at the performances.”

For more information about the entire Lively Art Series, ticket, venue and seating
information, and/or health and safety procedures, visit the landing page or contact Brent Woods at livelyarts@mc3.edu.

This press release was produced by the Montgomery County Community College. The views expressed here are the author’s own.