Fire + Fire: The Sounds and Stories of Two Cultures Bound by Rhythm and Race

Fire + Fire is a music-theater work that explores the parallels between Roma and African American experience. It features an ensemble of 16 performers from both cultures who are deeply rooted in their traditions and intensely experimental in their expression of them. The ensemble employs a fusion of spoken word, movement, and "jam sessions" to  bring the tale of these two cultures to life.

Performers

• David Pleasant, drummer, percussionist, and Gullah musicologist
• Valerie June, Delta blues guitarist, vocalist, and banjoist
• Mazz Swift, vocalist and violinist
• Ayodele Maakheru, guitarist, banjo and kora player
• LaTasha Nevada Diggs, electronic vocal maven
• Marilys Ernst, visual artist
• Fatima Mohamed, vocalist
• Ági Szalóki, vocalist
• Robert Farkas, violinist
• Mihály Farkas, cimbalom player
• Richard Farkas, bassist
• Béla Szakcsi Lakatos, pianist
• Zsolt Farkas, percussionist and dancer
• Gusztáv Balogh, vocalist and guitarist
• Kiégő Izzók, visual artist

Fire + Fire is curated by Andrea Gáncs (Hungary) and Greg Tate (USA). Gáncs is an independent music producer and manager who founded the successful Budapest Bar with Roma musicians and Hungarian rock singers. Tate is a longtime staff writer at The Village Voice, author of the acclaimed essay collection Flyboy In The Buttermilk, and leader of the conducted improv ensemble Burnt Sugar, who are currently preparing for a Parisian stage revival of Sweet Sweetbacks Badass Song with the legendary Melvin Van Peebles.

The event is the product of collaboration among musical director Melvin Gibbs, a New York composer, producer, and bandleader; dramaturge Eisa Davis, a playwright, musician, and actor recently seen on Broadway in Passing Strange and whose play Bulrusher was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 2007; and Curacao-born dancer and filmmaker Gabri Christa, who choreographs, directs, and orchestrates multimedia for the event.

Tickets

$30 (in advance), $35 (at door), $25 (Symphony Space members), $15 (students with ID)

Please click here to purchase tickets.

Location

Symphony Space
2537 Broadway at 95th Street
New York, NY

View the Event Trailer

Fire + Fire is part of Extremely Hungary, a yearlong festival showcasing contemporary Hungarian visual, performing, and literary arts at leading cultural institutions in New York City and Washington, DC, throughout 2009.