60 Cove St
Portland, ME 04101
USA
Led by multi-hyphenate musician, Toshi Reagon, join us for a community sing with songs from Octavia E. Butler’s Parable Of The Sower Opera!
Presented as a part of the Parable Path Maine, join us for Songs of The Living. Led by Toshi Reagon, Bowdoin College’s 2022-2023 Joseph McKeen Visiting Fellow, this community sing-along will teach participants songs from Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower the Opera. We invite you all to gather with us as we explore the beautiful restorative power that resides in our collective voices. Participants who are able to attend the performance at Merrill Auditorium, April 14th will be invited by Toshi to lend their voices at key points from their seat in the audience. Join us Sunday February 12th for a harmonious afternoon of song and deep conversation.
Parable Path Maine is a framework Toshi Reagan is bringing to Bowdoin during the course of her fellowship that is based on Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower. Through a decades-long career, and most recently through national and international Parable Path collaborations, Reagon has brought people together to name precarities, expand networks, and craft solutions to create a framework for community organizing through artistic engagement.
This event is free, open to all, and takes place at the Indigo Arts Alliance Studio in Portland, ME.
PLEASE NOTE: For the health and safety expectations, all attendees at indoor events and performances are required to provide proof of vaccination against the COVID-19 virus, or a negative PCR test from within the previous 48 hours or a negative ‘Rapid Test’ from the previous 12 hours. It is necessary to also show a legal photo identification along with your vaccination proof, or test result. All proof may be original or digital. Participants are asked to remain masked. There will be extra masks and hand sanitizer stations provided.
Learn More:
Toshi Reagon is a versatile musician and songwriter described as having a profound ear for sonic Americana. Reagon has been the recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts award for music composition, OutMusic’s Heritage Award, the Black Lily Music and Film Festival Award for Outstanding Performance, the Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP) Award Merit for Achievement in the Performing Arts, and the 2021 Herb Alpert Award in Music. She has been an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Creative Futures Artist-in-Residence with the Carolina Performing Arts organization. In 2022, she received an honorary doctorate from Emerson College. Other recent projects include her involvement in the Met Civic Practice.
Parable Path Maine is a framework Toshi Reagan is bringing to Bowdoin during the course of her fellowship that is based on Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower. Through a decades-long career, and most recently through national and international Parable Path collaborations, Reagon has brought people together to name precarities, expand networks, and craft solutions to create a framework for community organizing through artistic engagement.
For the Parable Path Maine initiative, the McKeen Center will be working alongside Portland-based Indigo Arts Alliance, which supports Maine-based Black and brown artists and activists, and the Maine Humanities Council, whose focus on Afrofuturism for the next two years brings the work of Butler to libraries, correctional facilities, and community organizations across the state.
The fellowship culminates with a performance of Toshi and Bernice Reagon’s congregational opera adaptation of Parable of the Sower. This one-night-only event will be presented by Indigo Arts Alliance and Portland Ovations in association with the College, and will be performed at Merrill Auditorium in Portland, Maine, on April 14, 2023. Click here to purchase tickets and learn more.