This inspiring concert features a diverse range of choral groups, demonstrating the power of music to foster “Community, Courage, and Resistance”. The concert opens up the People’s Music Network Winter Convergence in East Harlem, which runs from January 24-26, 2025. The convergence is a space where artists and activists from across the Northeast and beyond gather in person and online to sustain and develop traditions of music as a tool of social change. This music is essential to our activism, which brings us together in community. The songs strengthen the courage of people to resist injustice, war, and the destruction of the planet.
NOTE: One concert ticket is included when you register for the PMN Winter Convergence. Buy a concert ticket if you wish to attend the concert without registering for the full Winter Convergence.
*** PMN’S policy is to not turn anyone away for lack of funds.
PMN Pick Up Chorus, led by Jane Sapp: Jane Sapp is a powerful and highly regarded performer, songwriter, recording artist and educator who for many years has engaged with disenfranchised urban and rural communities in the United States and around the world. She has years of experience leading choirs as well as helping young people find their own voice through music. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia and is a member of the PMN Steering Committee. www.janesapp.org
New York City Labor Chorus: We bring labor’s message wherever we can, sharing the importance of unions in the struggle for social and economic justice and encouraging solidarity among working people everywhere. Our members belong to over 20 different unions, and we promote union solidarity and social justice through song. Our repertoire tells the story of labor’s history and ongoing struggles, drawing on gospel, jazz, classical, and folk traditions. We sing on picket lines, and we’ve sung at Carnegie Hall. Since 1991 we’ve brought our musical message to union halls, community centers, protests, and stages throughout the New York area and to Canada, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Sweden and Wales. https://nyclaborchorus.org/about-us/
Professor Louie: The “Poet of the Streets” has performed at more rallies, benefits, street fairs, meetings, and demonstrations than he, or anyone else, can remember.
Cappella Sur: We are a chamber vocal group dedicated to promoting the music of the Americas. Our members are artists from around the world, musicians, professionals, travelers, dreamers, teachers, dancers. Formed and conducted since 2013 by Maestro Guillermo Vaisman (musician and choral conductor), Cappella Sur invites you to take a musical road trip through Latin America.
The Brooklyn Women’s Chorus. We are a community chorus that was formed in October 1997 by Bev Grant, who was the director until she retired in 2021. This year we are thrilled to introduce our new director Caroline Kuhn. The chorus sings socially relevant songs by contemporary American songwriters such as Bev Grant, Garth Brooks, Jackson Browne, Pat Humphries and Sandy O. Topics range from freedom and social justice, to peace, resistance, women’s labor history, and empowerment. There are no auditions necessary to join the Brooklyn Women’s Chorus, only a strong desire to sing. The Brooklyn Women’s Chorus communicates with a joyful voice, sure to uplift anyone who hears them. https://www.brooklynwomenschorus.com/
The DC Labor Chorus. Founded in 1998, Elise Bryant continues to serve as Director of the chorus, and Steve Jones as the Music Director. Over the course of 25 years, the chorus has thrived while sticking closely to its core missions—to make music together and to advance the cause of social justice. We have sung for protest marches and union meetings, serenaded workers on picket lines, and performed at political rallies, church services, parades, and funerals. The chorus has performed the classic works of Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Joe Glazer, Bernice Johnson Reagon, and Bev Grant, sung traditional folk songs, jazz and Broadway standards, and spirituals, and offered up original compositions tied to the breaking news of the day. We’ve performed two concerts every year and served as a vital part of the annual Great Labor Arts Exchange. And we’ve even staged two full original “jazz labor operas,” entirely composed by Steve Jones. The DCLC is excited and honored to be featured at the People Music Network’s Winter Convergence opening concert of 2025.
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