esperanza spalding
Born in 1984 in Portland, Oregon, esperanza spalding is an eaabibacliitoti* artist, trained and initiated in the North American (masculine) jazz lineage and tradition. Her work interweaves through various combinations of instrumental music, bass playing, improvisation, singing, composition, poetry, dance, therapeutic research, storytelling, teaching, regenerative agriculture, urban land & artist-sanctuary custodianship, and growing in love as a daughter, sister, cousin, niece, auntie, great-auntie, and friend, while collaboratively decolonizing within and through her hometown community. She founded and co-directs Prismid Sanctuary, a nonprofit that creates and stewards free artist residency, performance, and workshop space in Portland (Prismid.org).
Milton + esperanza is spalding’s first new album release since 2021’s songwrights apothecary lab, which, along with 2019’s 12 Little Spells, both won Grammy Awards (Best Jazz Vocal Album). Last year, spalding released a protest song titled “Não Ao Marco Temporal” that was recorded in Rio de Janeiro and addresses the Temporal Framework, an initiative in Brazil that threatens Indigenous Brazilians’ land rights and poses a major risk to the Amazon rainforest. A 5-time Grammy winner and 11-time nominee, spalding has previously released 8 full-length albums and, in addition to working with her heroes including Nascimento and Shorter, has collaborated with Q-Tip, Janelle Monae, Robert Glasper, Terri Lyne Carrington, and many others.
esperanza continues to develop a mockumentary titled NIGREDO in collaboration with brontë velez to research, develop, and share liberation grammars in jazz and black dance // creatively consults and collaborates for upcoming productions of the opera …(Iphigenia) (music by Wayne Shorter; libretto by spalding) // and, through the Songwrights Apothecary Lab, collaborates with practitioners in various fields relating to sound, healing, and cognition to develop music with enhanced therapeutic potential.
With her dance project “Off Brand gOdds” and therapeutic music incubator “Songwrights Apothecary Lab,” she co-leads performance, teaching, workshop, and therapeutic-arts research residencies in collaboration with colleges and arts venues across the Americas and throughout the world. She is a 2024 recipient of the Doris Duke Foundation Artist Award and a 2016 Ford Foundation “Art of Change” Fellow.
Emphasizing simplicity and intimacy of her voice, bass, and songs, in this special configuration of two musicians and two dancers, esperanza will perform songs from her previous albums, current releases, plus a special preview of her forthcoming project.
*European-African ancestored being influenced by American cultures living in Indigenous Territories of Turtle Island
$1 charity fee per ticket will go toward Artist charity organization, Prismid Sanctuary.
Another Longworth-Anderson Series evening of great music, food, and drink! Complimentary pre-concert reception features live local music, light bites from Ollie’s Trolley and N.Y.P.D. Pizza, and craft beer tastings from HighGrain Brewing Co.
Madison Cunningham: The Ace Tour
Depending on the game, an ace can be the highest or lowest card, zero or infinity. A breakup feels similar—one path crumbles, while all others remain infinitely possible. How do you write about heartbreak when you’re going through it? Ace, GRAMMY Award-winner Madison Cunningham’s third record for Verve Forecast, tracks every part of it: falling out of love, having your heart broken, and then falling in love again. Co-produced by Cunningham and Robbie Lackritz (Feist, Rilo Kiley, Bahamas, Peach Pit), the fourteen-track album is honest and full of heart, even as it breaks. Ace builds off of the success of Revealer (2022), a darkly funny portrait of an artist that won Cunningham her GRAMMY for “Best Folk Album,” but it is a different record. A slow burn until it wasn’t. It follows a period of writer’s block. On Revealer and her debut album Who Are You Now (2019), Cunningham says that she was writing songs about heartbreak, but they weren’t about her heartbreak. They were sketches, observations. She wanted Ace to be emotions first. Heartbreaking and lush and bold. Her first single from Ace, “My Full Name,” was released to praise by Paste Magazine, who called the lyrics, “simultaneously sprawling and intimate,” recalling “an ancient work of poetry.” On Ace, for which Cunningham serves as co-producer, she wanted piano to move into the foreground. “I wanted it to feel like a mountain peak,” she says. “I wanted Ace to feel like a mountain we built together.” It’s a record that feels alive and lush in all the ways Cunningham hoped when she started writing. It is a record of mastery and honesty. Cunningham loves every single song on it. You can tell.
Another Longworth-Anderson Series evening of great music, food, and drink! Complimentary pre-concert reception features live music from Stone & Snow, light bites from Ollie’s Trolley and N.Y.P.D. Pizza, and craft beer tastings from HighGrain Brewing Co.
“Taste and Tour” with Colonel Todd Mayer
Cincinnati Memorial Hall Society (CMHS) is pleased to present our new “Taste and Tour” series at historic Memorial Hall, with generous support from the Friends of Memorial Hall. Join us on a one-hour tour hosted by Colonel Todd Mayer, CMHS Trustee. Learn about Memorial Hall’s storied past and stunning 1908 Beaux Arts architecture. Enjoy complimentary, artfully crafted charcuterie from Taste of Boujie and a Veterans Affairs art exhibition on view in the lower-level ballrooms.
CHARCUTERIE & SELF-PAY BAR (21+): 5:30-6pm
TOUR: 6-7pm starting at the Memorial Hall front steps and moving inside
FREE | 18+ | MAXIMUM CAPACITY 25
REGISTER AT MEMORIALHALLOTR.COM