PUTNEY, Vt. – Next Stage Arts presents improvisational artist and musician Lonnie Holley, in performance with Afrofuturist collective Mourning [A] BLKstar at Next Stage on Friday, Jan. 19, at 7:30 p.m.
“Lonnie’s work over the past few decades has been a shining example of an outsider artist’s work becoming so meaningful that the establishment has to take notice,” says Keith Marks, executive director of Next Stage. “The pairing of Lonnie’s work backed by Mourning [A] BLKstar is one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities – Afrofuturism at its best.”
Since 1979, Lonnie Holley has devoted his life to the practice of improvisational creativity. His art and music, born out of struggle, hardship, but perhaps more importantly, out of furious curiosity and biological necessity, has manifested itself in drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, performance, music, and filmmaking. Holley’s sculptures are constructed from found materials in the oldest tradition of African American sculpture. Objects, already imbued with cultural and artistic metaphor, are combined into narrative sculptures that commemorate places, people, and events. His work is now in collections of major museums throughout the world – The Museums of Fine Arts in San Francisco, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Smithsonian American Art Museum, The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and many others – on permanent display in the United Nations, and has been displayed in the White House Rose Garden.
Holley did not start making and performing music in a studio, nor does his creative process mirror that of the typical musician. His music and lyrics are improvised on the spot, and morph and evolve with every event, concert, and recording. In Holley’s original art environment, he would construct and deconstruct his visual works, repurposing their elements for new pieces. This often led to the transfer of individual narratives into the new work, creating a cumulative composite image that has depth and purpose beyond its original singular meaning. The layers of sound in Holley’s music, likewise, are the result of decades of evolving experimentation.
A multi-generational, gender, and genre non-conforming amalgam of Black culture, Mourning [A] BLKstar is dedicated to sharing stories and songs of America’s unfolding apocalypse. Their music melds live instrumentation with hip-hop production, creating sonic frequencies that illuminate the African diaspora. Founded in Cleveland, the U.S.-based Afrofuturist collective continues touring their music globally across Europe and the U.S., playing festivals from Crossing Border in Berlin with Lonnie Holley, to Big Ears Festival and Le Guess Who? in Utrecht.
Next Stage is located at 15 Kimball Hill in downtown Putney, Vt. Tickets are discounted in advance at www.nextstgearts.org. There is also a livestream option. Next Stage will provide a beer, wine, and cocktail cash bar. For information, call 802-387-0102 or visit the website above.