Days & Nights: Summer at the CFA

June 30 – July 23, 2009
Tickets for summer events are on sale online now.
The Box Office opens for walk-up and phone sales on Monday, June 22nd.

• CFA Days
• CFA Nights

CFA Days

Learn about dance, music and more during these informal performances and talks. Each event begins at 12:10pm and is free.

Marilyn Nelson

Tuesday, June 30 in the CFA Cinema
Free admission

Poet Marilyn Nelson is the author or translator of twelve books and three chapbooks. Her book The Homeplace won the 1992 Annisfield-Wolf Award and was a finalist for the 1991 National Book Award. The Fields Of Praise: New And Selected Poems won the 1998 Poets' Prize and was a finalist for the 1997 National Book Award, the PEN Winship Award and the Lenore Marshall Prize. Her honors include two NEA creative writing fellowships, a Fulbright Teaching Fellowship and a fellowship from the J.S. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Nelson is a professor emeritus of English at the University of Connecticut and was Poet Laureate of the State of Connecticut from 2001-2006.

Dana Ellyn: From Creative Youth to Creative Woman

Tuesday, July 7 in the CFA Cinema
Free admission

Dana Ellyn attended the Center for Creative Youth's visual arts program in the summer of 1987 and received her BA in Fine Arts and Art History from George Washington University. But only after leaving a corporate job in 2002 did she pursue painting as a full-time artist. Now well known for her risk-taking, colorful critiques of social mores, she resides in Washington DC, in close proximity to the culture, politics and policies she documents and responds to through her work. Provocative, outspoken, innovative and often satirical, she seeks to create meaningful, socially conscious art that does more than just hang above the sofa. Dana will be showing examples of her often-controversial paintings while discussing the circuitous path her life and art have taken so far.

Hawk Henries

Tuesday, July 14 in the Crowell Concert Hall
Free admission

Hawk Henries is a musician, storyteller, artisan and member of the northeastern Algonquian tribe of Chabuna-gungamaug, Band of the Nipmunk Nation. In addition to composing and performing his own music, Hawk crafts each of his Eastern-style flutes by hand from a single piece of wood. Traveling throughout the United States and internationally, he shares his insights into spirituality through music with powerful performances in schools, museums and workshops. He seeks to give voice to peace and Sacredness with his flute playing and storytelling. Hawk lives with his family, friends and community in the forests near the coast of Maine.

Music From China: Performance/Talk

Tuesday, July 21 in World Music Hall
Free admission

Music From China, under the artistic direction of Wang Guowei, is an extraordinary musical ensemble that invokes the delicacy and power of both traditional and contemporary Chinese music. The group commissions and performs innovative works that mix Chinese and Western instruments, as well as combining traditional and modern influences. The percussive strength of drums, gongs, cymbals and woodblocks combined with the sounds of "silk strings and bamboo winds" summons the spirit of ancient music and invokes the vitality of folk music and traditional opera. Music from China was founded in 1984 and has since performed over 111 new works by 67 composers, of which 36 are competition prizewinners. It is the first Chinese ensemble to receive an Adventurous Programming award from Chamber Music America.

PRICE KEY
A General
B Seniors/Wesleyan Faculty & Staff
C Students
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CFA NIGHTS

Nation Beat (due to rain, concert will be in Crowell Concert Hall)

Thursday, July 2, 7pm
CFA Courtyard (rainsite: Crowell Concert Hall)
Free admission

"the most original and alluring fusion group I have heard in years."
—NPR's All Things Considered music writer Banning Eyre

Nation Beat is a six member New York based band that combines rural music from northeastern Brazil and the American South. Nation Beat's latest recording Legends of the Preacher is a fusion of thunderous Brazilian maracatu drumming, New Orleans second line rhythms, Appalachian-inspired bluegrass music, funk, rock and country-blues. Their explosive live shows have attracted music fans from a wide demographic, including bluegrass and country music fans, Brazilian music lovers and outdoor festival-goers. They will surely appeal to any lovers of dance and music.

Artist Website

Doug Varone and Dancers

Thursday & Friday, July 9 & 10, 8pm
CFA Theater
$22 general; $18 senior citizens, Wesleyan faculty/staff; $12 students

"...a luscious torrent of movement..."
—Village Voice

Known for his “kinetically thrilling” dancers, Doug Varone returns to Wesleyan with three works that exemplify the emotionally charged and physically exciting work for which the company is known. Currently in residence at New York’s 92nd Street Y, the company tours nationally and internationally and is highly acclaimed for its technical virtuosity, propulsive movement vocabulary and dramatic lyricism. Tomorrow is a poignant and tender work danced to the songs of the Belle Epoque; Lux is a luxuriant dance about freedom with music by Phillip Glass. The evening concludes with a stunning masterpiece, Boats Leaving, with music by Arvo Pärt.

Artist Website

Hendrik Meurkens Samba Jazz Quartet

Thursday, July 16, 8pm
Crowell Concert Hall
$18 general; $16 senior citizens, Wesleyan faculty/staff; $10 students

"Meurkens has earned the right to carry the jazz harmonica torch."
—All About Jazz

From tranquil bossa nova treatments to burning New York samba jazz versions by the way of authentic chorinhos and in-the-pocket sambafunk, Hendrik Meurkens Samba Jazz Quartet explores the wide terrain of Brazilian jazz. The band's unique sound is defined by Hendrik Meurkens' trademark jazz harmonica, plus the swinging rhythm section of Misha Tsiganov on piano, Gustavo Amarante on bass and Adriano Santos on drums. The group explores the great Brazilian songbook from a jazz point of view and also features compositions by Hendrik Meurkens.

Artist Website

Eilen Jewell and The Sacred Shakers

Saturday, July 18, 8pm
Crowell Concert Hall
$17 general; $15 senior citizens, Wesleyan faculty/staff; $10 students

"Jewell's songs are achingly good, twanged-out elegies to a world of barbed wire, rusty trucks, and a frontier that no longer exists."
—The Boston Globe

Boise-born and Boston-based, Eilen Jewell has quickly distinguished herself as one of the rising stars of a new generation of roots musicians. She will be joined by her band, which includes Jason Beek (drums, harmony vocals), Jerry Miller (electric, acoustic and steel guitars) and Johnny Sciascia (upright bass). Jewell and her band form the heart of the American gospel supergroup The Sacred Shakers, which brings in Daniel Kellar (violin), Eric Royer (vocals and banjo), Greg Glassman (vocals and acoustic guitar) and Daniel Fram (vocals and acoustic guitar). The Sacred Shakers, who will open the concert, offer new life to the gospel genre by revisiting the stripped down country and bluesy gospel material that has inspired them.

Artist Website

Chicago City Limits: Wikiphobia

Thursday, July 23, 8pm
CFA Theater
$18 general; $16 senior citizens, Wesleyan faculty/staff; $10 students

"New York's Funniest Comedy Revue!"
—New York Magazine

Chicago City Limits, New York City's legendary improv comedy group, has thrilled audiences of all ages for nearly thirty years with its unique style of improv comedy. In Wikiphobia, the cast of Chicago City Limits surfs the web at high-speed, taking issue with the issues and finding comedic links between the biggest stories in the news and actual news. Whether it's global warming or global blogging, networking or Netflix, international affairs or interpersonal ones, Chicago City Limits delivers an evening of fast-paced, high-energy comedy!

Artist Website

All programs, artists and dates are subject to change. Outdoor events will be moved indoors in the event of rain.

Summer at the CFA is co-sponsored by the Capital Regional Education Council's Center for Creative Youth. Artist residencies are made possible by the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism and the Surdna Foundation. Additional support provided by Wesleyan's Graduate Liberal Studies Program.

PRICE KEY
A General
B Seniors/Wesleyan Faculty & Staff
C Students
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