Audiences are invited to explore sonic worldmaking in this collaborative performance featuring Moor Mother, an American poet and composer, and composer and pianist James Gordon Williams, an assistant professor of music at UC Santa Cruz.

Light refreshments begin at 6:30 PM—enjoy a complimentary cup of tea or coffee and a treat in the lobby before the concert.

Tickets are available online at Eventbrite. Free for UCSC students (ticket required for entry).

Parking is available at Lot 126, the closest parking lot to the event. Parking is by UCSC permit, Park Mobile, or pay $5 cash/credit to the on-site parking attendant in Lot 126. More visitor parking information here.

This event is presented by the UCSC Music Department, for information and questions about tickets, please contact the UCSC Arts Division. Event is co-sponsored by the Arts Research Institute, the Humanities Institute, and the Institute of Arts and Sciences.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Camae Ayewa (Moor Mother) is a national and international touring musician, poet, visual artist, and Professor of Composition at the USC Thornton School of Music. Her work speaks to many genres from electronic to free jazz and classical music. Camae’s work has been featured at the Guggenheim Museum, The Met, Carnegie Mellon and Carnegie Hall, Documenta 15, the Berlin Jazz Festival, and the Glastonbury Festival. Through the lens and practice of Black Quantum Futurism the art she makes is a statement for the future, as well as a way to honor the present and its historic connections to a multitude of past realities and future outcomes. Camae is a Pew Fellow, a The Kitchen Inaugural Emerging Artist Awardee, a Leeway Transformation Award, a Blade of Grass Fellow as part of Black Quantum Futurism, and a Rad Girls Philly Artist of the Year. She has been an Artist-in-Residence at West Philadelphia Neighborhood Time Exchange, WORM! Rotterdam residency, and the Creative Capital and CERN collide residency with Black Quantum Futurism.

James Gordon Williams is a dynamic composer, pianist, and cultural theorist. He has worked with artists Crystal Z. Campbell, Maria Gaspar, Fred Moten, Cauleen Smith, and Suné Woods. He has performed with pianist/composer Anthony Davis, bassist Mark Dresser, Joseph Jarman, Gregory Porter,  George E. Lewis, Mark Dresser, Greg Osby, Charenée Wade as well as other musical luminaries. He held the piano chair for several years in the late Charli Persips’ Supersound band. He has performed at Birdland, the former Lenox Lounge, Knitting Factory, Symphony Space, Village Vanguard, and music festivals around the world.