“DIRT: The Secret Life of Soil” with Arm-of-the-Sea Theater
2022-10-08 14:00 - 15:00 (America/New_York) | Freedom Square, 35 5th Ave, Troy, NY, 12180, United States
Join us for a theatrical production about the dirt under our feet by Arm-of-the-Sea Theater, an arts ensemble that fuses visual storytelling with live music in contemporary works of mask and puppet theater.

This production will take place outdoors in Freedom Square, a two-minute walk from the Sanctuary.

Where does food “come from” and from what is it made? Here’s a lively primer for urban bumpkins and upcountry gardeners alike. Fusing cutting-edge science and age-old puppetry, DIRT takes audiences on an extravagant journey of discovery into the Great Underneath—revealing the epic alchemy of plants, the fungi’s dance of mutual delight, and the microbes’ herculean labors. Fifty minutes in length, performed by a five- member company, and featuring live music and a myriad of puppet figures ranging from 12 inches to 12 feet tall, the show reminds earthly residents of all ages how profoundly essential the ground beneath their feet is.

Arm-of-the-Sea Theater’s mission is to inspire wonder, offer insight, spark joy and enrich the public imagination. They accomplish their mission through the symbolic visual language of mask and puppet theater. This handmade, low-tech form of communication is decentralized and locally adapted. It can bridge language barriers and engage people of many ages and walks of life.

Arm-of-the-Sea was founded in 1982 by Marlena Marallo and Patrick Wadden as an experimental hybrid performance group combining art, ecology and social action. They continue to experiment with this ephemeral art form as a symbolic visual language that can illuminate the links between human communities and the life-support processes of this blue ocean planet.

Photos by Robert Cooper from the performance at Freedom Square on October 8, 2022

Sponsored by NATURE Lab and People’s Health Sanctuary.

Al Bilali Soudan
2022-10-16 19:00 - 21:00 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
Join us for a concert from Al Bilali Soudan from Timbuktu, Mali. Their performance is an improvisational tour de force of traditional instruments (incl. tehardant and calabash), rhythms, and scales. These traditional instruments are foundational to the development of the style that has evolved into the modern desert blues sound.

Tickets

***In line with our commitment to equity, love and justice, we ask that you please keep your mask on at our indoor events.

The group members all come from a well-known Tuareg griot family who have performed for generations. Aballow Yattara is the current group leader. Other members of the group are his uncle Aboubacrine Yattara and their sons Mohamed Ag Abellow and Tchiale Ag Aboubacrine.

Abellow and Aboubacrine Yattara began to play the tehardant, a three-stringed fretless instrument that some refer to as precursor to modern banjo, when they were adolescents. Both their fathers were master musicians. His uncle can be heard on the first recordings of traditional music in Northern Mali. Abellow Yattara can be heard on early recordings by Ali Farka Toure, on 1970’s recordings of the Orchestre de Tombouctou, and many Radio Mali broadcasts. He accompanied the vocalist, Khaira Arby, on recordings and on tour. In 2010 he gave a master class at Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Hear the interview with Al Bilali Soudan

Salon Séance: "The End of Time"
2022-11-19 19:00 - 21:30 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
Join us for an interdisciplinary presentation combining live classical music with visual and theatrical storytelling. This is the regional premiere of The End of Time, an immersive experience with themes of trauma and healing, by Salon Séance. The performance will be followed by an audience conversation about the music and re-interpretations of the themes as seen from the eyes of youth and community members today. The End of Time was inspired by Quartet for the End of Time by composer Olivier Messiaen.

This event is co-sponsored by the Friends of Chamber Music.

***In line with our commitment to equity, love and justice, we ask that you please keep your mask on at our indoor events.

Salon Séance creates a new ritual to experience the intersection between music, history, and our lives. The End of Time is centered around the French composer Olivier Messiaen and his masterwork Quartet for the End of Time, written and premiered during his captivity at the prisoner-of-war camp in Görlitz, Germany during WW2 in 1941. It explores the theme of hope in times of desperation through stories that inspired Messiaen to compose this work: the stories of the musicians that premiered this work and the story of the Book of Revelation. The musical work, which embodies the collective experience of captivity as well as the concept of a renewal after the End of Time, become a source of hope for the future as the most destructive war in history was raging.

Founded by Mari Lee and Simon Lee, Salon Séance is a live experience channeling kindred spirits through music and the ritual of seance. Developed in interdisciplinary collaboration with world-class performers and creators, our seances bring composers, audiences, and performers to experience the intersection between music and our lives. Salon Séance is a recipient of Tarisio’s Young Artists Grants and Britten-Pears Foundation’s Britten Award, and has been presented by Yellow Barn Festival, The Crypt Sessions, Schubert Club, among others.

Credits:

Music // Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time

Created by Mari LeeDirected by Jay StullSound design by John GasperResearch by Simon Angseop Lee

Performers:

Mari Lee, violinist

Jay Stull, director

Nile Assata Harris, actor

Yoonah Kim, clarinet

Henry Kramer, piano

Mihai Marica, cello

Andrea Cunliffe interviewed members of Salon Séance:

• Intro to Salon Séance: “The End of Time” with Friends of Chamber Music President Jennifer Laursen• “The End of Time” Cellist Mihai Marica• Salon Séance Arts Administrator Sam Paris• “The End of Time” Director Jay Stull• Co-Creators of Salon Séance, Simon Lee•“The End of Time” with Mari Lee of Salon Séance

Join the zoom discussion with the artists prior to the event on Nov. 12, 2022 at 7:00pm! To learn more and register, check out the Friends of Chamber Music of Troy NY’s “Conversation with Notables in the World of Classical Music: Performance in Context — Salon Seance.“

Troy Black History Celebration 2023
2023-02-25 16:00 - 19:00 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
Join us for an in-person celebration of Black History Month with an exhibition, music, spoken word, and community. Troy NAACP, Team HERO, Coalition for Black Trade Union, and The Sanctuary for Independent Media have partnered together in Troy to honor our Black history and its living legacy. The exhibition is curated by Malik Muhammad, music by King Malachi, spoken word by Diamond Owens, and Shania Jackson, and beats by DJ Hollyw8d.

Masks are encouraged and will be available at this event. If you are feeling unwell or have any symptoms of illness please stay home and rest.

Featuring:

Brother Malik Muhammad is the curator of The Sankofa Project, a traveling visual museum which showcases photos and text of the history of Black people.

Music performance by King Malachi. Website.

Beats by DJ Hollyw8d. Website.

Spoken word by Shania Jackson.

Spoken word by Diamond Owens.

Spoken word by Justin Irby.

Co-Organizers:

NAACP Troy Branch #2182-B: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s (NAACP) mission in the 21st century is “to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination.” Contact: TroyNYNAACP@gmail.com or on facebook.

Team HERO: H.E.R.O. standing for Helping Everyone Recognize Opportunities which focuses on youth mentoring, character and leadership development and linking families to resources. https://www.facebook.com/TeamHero101

Coalition for Black Trade Union: CBTU is not a black separatist or civil rights organization. It is the fiercely independent voice of black workers within the trade union movement, challenging organized labor to be more relevant to the needs and aspirations of Black and poor workers. https://cbtu.org/about.html

"Rooted in Independent Media, Growing Toward a Just Future" with Eljuri & Taína Asili
2023-04-21 19:00 - 21:00 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
Two amazing Latinx artists, Taína Asili and Eljuri reunite on the Sanctuary stage for the first night of our weekend celebration Rooted in Independent Media, Growing Toward a Just Future! Join us on Friday, April 21, for an eclectic mix of salsa, reggae, and political hip-hop that will speak to your soul and make you move!

Rooted in Independent Media, Growing Toward a Just Future! is a weekend celebrating the contributions of Steve Pierce to the Sanctuary’s legacy.

“Rooted in Independent Media, Growing Toward a Just Future” Sanctuary Weekend Celebration!

Join us for a weekend celebrating this historic time at the Sanctuary, starting with a night of amazing music by Taína Asili and Eljuri and ending the following night with a presentation by Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman! During this weekend celebration, each evening will include refreshments and reflections from friends old and new about how the Sanctuary (and Steve) has made an impact on them!

It seems incredible but, thanks to Steve’s leadership, we owe just $25,000 left to pay off the complete mortgage for our entire Sanctuary campus! This includes four buildings — the Sanctuary with presentation venue, live production, radio and video studios; NATURE Lab with a level-1 Biology Laboratory and Peoples Health Sanctuary, the NATURE Lab Residency House, the Carriage House, plus Collard City Growers Gardens’ four lots and our outdoor community presentation space Freedom Square!

Your contribution, of any size, would greatly contribute to the impact of our organization by helping us move into the future with a new Executive Director with our goal of being fully debt free!

See all ticket options here.No one will be turned away for a lack of funds

Photos by Sara Beck

Taína Asili is a New York-based Puerto Rican singer, filmmaker and activist carrying on the tradition of her ancestors, fusing past and present struggles into one soulful and defiant voice. Taína Asili combines powerful vocals with a multi-genre fusion – confidently weaving between salsa, rock, reggae, cumbia, reggaeton, and hip hop – with multilingual songs that beat with the heart of social change. Asili’s music offers a sound that spans continents, exuding strength of Spirit, inspiring audiences at venues across the globe – From Carnegie Hall to the Women’s March on Washington to the main stage of San Francisco Pride. With energetic and infectious rhythms, Asili’s music urges people to get on their feet and dance to the rhythm of rebellion.

Cecilia Villar Eljuri is a revered storyteller and genre fuser. She is a Latina artivist living in NYC who tours internationally sharing her music and message of empowerment. Touted as one of the top Latinx guitar players in the world, Eljuri navigates through the musical landscapes of her Ecuadorian, Spanish and Lebanese heritage all presented with an elegant and socially conscious voice. As a musical activist for Immigrant and Women’s Rights, Eljuri has her guitar strings and voice on the pulse of some of the most timely issues echoing through our communities.

The Insects are Present
2023-09-01 05:00 - 08:00
The Insects are Present is a participatory installation by artist Lisa Schonberg that engages with insects and their sound to compose music compositions. Alluding towards Marina Abramović’s 2010 work, Schonberg’s installation asks audience members to spend an extended time listening to insects in real time, both through hearing and touch. Schonberg developed this modular system during field research in Oregon, the Brazilian Amazon, the Mobile-Tensaw Delta (AL), and New York, adapting recording and playback elements to insects and their sounds at each study site. Participants will be invited to contribute their own sounds to the work in an assertion of our ongoing connection with the insects in our shared living environments.

The installation will take place at Ellie Irons’ Lawn (Re)Disturbance Laboratory, part of NATURE Lab and the Sanctuary’s Eco-Art Trail in North Troy. Participants are encouraged to sign up for a listening session in advance at this form (or click the registration button below). A limited number of walk-in sessions will also be available.

Dates/Times:

Friday Aug 11, 3-6 pm (during Collard City Growers Open Hours)Saturday Aug 12, 1-4 pm (during People’s Health Sanctuary Healing Day)Sunday Aug 13, Sunset: 8-11 pmSaturday Aug 26, 10am-1 pmSunday Aug 27, 1-4 pm Friday Sep 1, Sunrise: 5-8 am

MediaSanctuary · "The Insects are Present" at Lawn (Re)Disturbance Laboratory

Lisa Schonberg is a composer and percussionist creating sound works based on ecological research. Informed by her background in entomology, Schonberg is interested in how listening to cryptic sound can reveal and challenge assumptions about insects and other overlooked soundmakers. Since 2017 she has been collaborating with Brazilian entomologists on ATTA (Amplifying the Tropical Ants), a project investigating ant bioacoustics in the Amazon. Her other recent work includes investigations of old-growth forests in Oregon, endangered Hawaiian Hylaeus bees, mushrooms, and plastics. Schonberg’s compositions are performed by percussion ensembles Secret Drum Band, Antenna, & UAU, and presented as solo performance and installation. Schonberg presents workshops on methods for environmental listening, including workshops with Allie ES Wist for their collaboration Sensory Kinship of the Third Kind. She is the author of Text Scores for Getting to Know the Invertebrates, The Hylaeus Project, and the The DIY Guide to Drums, and has presented work or performed at FILE Festival (BR), the Pompidou, the Brooklyn Museum, Bosque da Ciencia (BR), the American Museum of Natural History, and Museo Reina Sofia (SP). She has developed her work through residencies at Labverde, the Banff Centre, Pioneerworks, HJ Andrews Experimental Station, and Signal Fire.

Wheelchair Procession Along Sanctuary Eco-Art Trail
2023-10-12 17:00 - 18:00 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
Join Petra Kuppers on a literal journey, as we will walk the Sanctuary Eco-Art Trail and engage in a number of easy 7-minute improvised dances together. Our dances might develop from touching a leaf or from letting fingertips rest on the soil.

5PM – 6PM: Wheelchair Procession along Sanctuary Eco-Art Trail with Petra Kuppers & diverse disability networks (we will start from the Sanctuary @ 3361 6th Ave. and journey to Freedom Square at the intersection of 6th Ave & 101st St.)

6PM -7 PM: Community meal

7PM – 9PM: Petra Kuppers’ Dream Performance & Workshop (3361 6th Ave, Troy, NY 12181)

We welcome people of all abilities!

A co-production of iEAR Presents, sponsored by The Department of the Arts and the School of Humanities Arts and Social Sciences, and the New York State Council on the Arts.

REGISTER

Volunteer Application

MediaSanctuary · Petra Kuppers: Disability Culture Activist and a Community Performance Artist

SCROLL DOWN FOR THE TRANSCRIPTION OF THIS INTERVIEW

ADDITIONAL INFO: In these two sessions, Petra will take participants on journeys: in the first at 5pm, on a literal journey, as we will walk the trail and engage in a number of easy 7-minute improvised dances together. We will then gather together and share a community meal in the Sanctuary.

In the second session, Dream Performance and Workshop at 7pm in the Sanctuary, Petra will use the inspiration from the trail procession to improvise a movement meditation that connects us to the land and its histories and futures. You can engage this meditation in stillness, lying on the floor or sitting in a chair, or you can dance freely in space – your choice. Bring comfy clothes, and maybe a blanket. If accessible to you, also bring writing or drawing material, so we can have a harvesting session after the dream journey, for you to chronicle your experience.

This workshop is a development from Petra’s Starship Somatics classes – a modality she developed during the lockdown of COVID. Starship Somatics engage our bodymindspirits as portals, as trance-mobiles that honor pasts and jet us toward speculative futures, among the stars or deep into the earth, in flux and transformation.

This event is preceded by a presentation by Kuppers on October 11 at EMPAC. Kuppers’s Troy engagement is a collaboration with EMPAC and iEAR Presents! and is made possible in part by New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Co-sponsored with Deep Listening/ ISATMA (Assistive Technologies for Music and Art Symposium) Conference; the Independent Living Center of the Hudson Valley; NATURE Lab/ People’s Health Sanctuary.

Petra Kuppers (she/her) is a disability culture activist and a community performance artist. Petra grounds herself in disability culture methods, and uses somatics, performance, and speculative writing to engage audiences toward more socially just and enjoyable futures. Her latest academic study is Eco Soma: Pain and Joy in Speculative Performance Encounters (University of Minnesota Press, 2022, open access). Her third performance poetry collection, Gut Botany (Wayne State University Press, 2020), was named one of the top ten US poetry books of 2020 by the New York Public Library, and won the 2022 Creative Book Award by the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment. In 2022, she was named a Dance/USA Fellow, and in 2023, she won a Guggenheim Fellowship. Petra is Artistic Director of The Olimpias, an international disability culture collective, and she co-creates Turtle Disco, a somatic writing studio, with Stephanie Heit. She is the Anita Gonzalez Collegiate Professor of Performance Studies and Disability Culture at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. www.petrakuppers.com

Transcription of Radio interview:

Sina Basila Hickey: Petra Kuppers is a disability culture activist and a community performance artist who is coming to Troy for two events. First, she will give an artist lecture at EMPAC on October 11, and then on October 12, she will come to the Sanctuary to connect with the community. Petra Kuppers joins me now. Welcome to Hudson Mohawk Magazine.

Petra Kuppers: Thank you so much for having me, Sina. It’s lovely to be here and lovely to have you pronounce my name in a real German way. I adore that. I take all kinds of pronunciations of my names, but this is lovely to hear.

Sina Basila Hickey: Wonderful. It’s so great to talk to you. That one sentence barely does you justice. So, could you please introduce yourself to our listeners?

Petra Kuppers: Yes. Hello there. So, I am a German person who lives right now in Michigan on Three Fires Confederacy land in a little rust belt town called Ypsilanti. And I am indeed a disability culture activist and I am a community performance artist. These are my two core identities. So I work with other people in the disability community. I myself am disabled. I’m also a CIS, queer, White woman, and I love bringing people together to create art, and I’m very much looking forward to doing that in Troy next week.

Sina Basila Hickey: You have a pretty full schedule starting at EMPAC and then two events at the Sanctuary. What can we expect? And, what are you thinking will take place in Troy? Let’s begin with what’s taking place on Wednesday at EMPAC.

Petra Kuppers: Lovely. So, on Wednesday at EMPAC, I will be sharing with people the first cut— the early cut, it’s not quite finished— the first cut of the Crip/Mad Archive Dances. This is a project I’ve been engaged in since 2021. It started with a residency at the New York Public Library in the dance archives there, and I was looking for disabled presences, disabled and mad presences in the archive. I’m not really a historian, though, so I’m in the stacks for a little bit and finding material. But then I go outside and I invite my fellow disabled friends, dancers and choreographers to join me outside the archive, to engage in these embodied transmissions. I’m bringing out gestures and we dance these together. And I hope to do something very similar to that on Wednesday in Troy as well. I will be sharing with you community media clips from people who identify as disabled and or as mad and in which they share through movement something about their experiences, and we will take these in and think together about what it means to engage in embody transmission.

Sina Basila Hickey: The idea of sharing experiences through movements, do you see dance as a form of communication?

Petra Kuppers: I do see dance as a form of communication, and I also see dance as a form of sharing energy and agency. So that’s for me, a very important aspect here is that we’re moving away from the kind of memoir narrative of this is what happened to me. This is my story. This is how I came from beginning, middle, end, and, of course, most of these conditions that we have do not have an end. We’re living our lives as we move through. We’re improvising and shifting our way through our lives. So, dance for me is a very beautiful metaphor and a beautiful concrete, material way of thinking about the agency of disabled people.

Sina Basila Hickey: And then on Thursday, you’ll be coming to the Sanctuary as part of the NEA, Our Town Sanctuary Eco Art Trail project. How does the wheelchair procession along the Sanctuary Eco Art Trail, followed by the Dream Performance and Workshop, connect us to land and its histories and futures and support the Eco Art Trail’s goal of connecting living Indigenous legacy with striving for more environmentally just futures?

Petra Kuppers: Thank you. So, yeah, I’m very excited about this part of my visit because it is a complete improvisation. I have not been to this space yet. I’m a visitor. I am the visitor who will ask for permission to enter this land and to be in engagement with this land. I am someone who flies in and flies out, and I come. And I like to offer, if I am invited, the invitation to explore with me what it means to be on this land as Indigenous people, as settler people, our different histories, our different connections to industry, to brownfield sites, to urban development, to, all the aspects that likely are part of this trail. So if you come to join, us, you will find yourself part of a procession that stops and engages in seven minute dances, short seven minute dances where people can move just with their hands or just with their eyebrows or even just incite themselves. So it’s not like you have to now go out and fully dance and pirouette through the street. Very few people will be listening right now are, probably likely to do that. But if you want to, you’re welcome to. But most of us, I imagine, will be just sensing away on the street, sensing through the asphalt, sensing through the gravel, sensing down into the Earth and gaining a sense of what might have been there. And we’ll call on the knowledge that is in the street with us at that point. I do not hold that knowledge. I have to ask local people as knowledge carriers to share that knowledge with me in improvisation.

Sina Basila Hickey: So on Thursday, there will be the Eco Art Trail Wheelchair Procession, then a community meal, and then the Dream Workshop Performance. And this is developed from your Starship Somatics classes, a modality you developed during the lockdown of COVID. You write that “Starship Somatics engage our bodymindspirits as portals, as trance-mobiles that honor pasts and jet us towards speculative futures among the stars or deep in the Earth, in flux and transformation.” What else can you tell us about Starship Somatics?

Petra Kuppers: Lovely. Thank you. Yeah, this is one of these, my description of Starship Somatic is a little bit nebulous, but I hope it works. So we started this in March 2020, so just as the pandemic began, everything shut down, right? None of us could go anywhere, and, I really thought about, well, how can I create a Somatic modality that is accessible to all people, that is accessible to people who are disabled, who have painful bodies, who, are painful body, mind, spirits, who cannot just go out and have a run in the neighborhood? What else can we do to keep our tissues engaged creatively? And how can we use this screen as a way of doing that? So I started to run these sessions, which are usually about just under an hour long, and it’s a dream journey, take people on a journey. And when I do this, particularly in 2020, when we were in the lockdown phase of it all, usually half of the screens in front of me, half of the zoom screens, had people who were in their tiny little apartments in Brooklyn or what have you, like really small, and they were dancing full out from the bed to their know. I could see them just, like, reaching across the Zoom square. And the other half, of the zoom squares showed people resting very peacefully and just going on this deep internal journey. No outward dancing visible at all. I could just see these deeply relaxed faces, these deeply relaxed, human, beautiful bodies lying there. And then at the end of the session, when we come out, we usually create a little communal poem, in which people share a little glimpse of what they’ve done and where they’ve been. And I get to see and I get to hear that they’ve been on amazing planets. When I take people on a journey, I don’t tell them what the planets look like. It’s your imagination that furnishes where we’re going. So these little glimpses of poetry are the only way that tells me about the intense experiences people have, and they’re delicious and beautiful and remind us again and again of the deep creativity that we all hold and that we can activate them through internal and external movement practices. And that’s what Starship Somatics is about. We’re journeying into the Earth, we’re journeying into the stars. But really what we’re doing is we’re journeying with our bodymindspirits imaginations.

Sina Basila Hickey: That’s wonderful. You wrote on your website that your love of movement is pushing against the established definitions of what dancers can be. So can you talk about what these established definitions of dance are and how you are pushing against that?

Petra Kuppers: So established definitions of dance are not, really that established anyway, right? Because dance is always shifting. Dance is always something different. But I imagine many of the people who are listening to us right now have an idea in their mind of when you say dance. It could be that they’re imagining, a beautiful, rich African dance practice that’s really grounding us into the Earth. It could be that you’re imagining right now, a European ballet practice of people, like, flying off into space in beautiful linear ways. So these are some of the imaginations that people hold when they think about dance. I think very few of us think about dance as just this creative, tender shifting of bodies, minds, together, just being engaged creatively in the fact that we have a body. That is, for me, one of the core aspects of dancing. That we are, in various ways, spiritually, physically, energetically engaged in enjoying, moving and being creative with the fact that we are material beings on this material world. So that somewhat minimal definition of dance is what I mentioned. Activating that very base, material sense of enjoyment, agency and creativity.

Sina Basila Hickey: Petra Kuppers we’re very excited to welcome you to Troy to EMPAC on Wednesday, October 11, and to the Sanctuary on Thursday, October 12. Would you like to leave our listeners with anything?

Petra Kuppers: Yes. So, dear listener, for, a second, just feel your feet or your sits bones on the ground just as you’re listening right now. And feel your shoulders dropping down into your hands if you’re sitting. And just take, a breath and feel the roots extending down from your sit bone from, whatever it is that’s touching the surfaces closest to Earth right now. And I invite you to listen to the rhythm of the environment that you are in. What are the rhythm and the pulses that come to you? I’m sitting here in a McDonald’s in Madison, Wisconsin, because, this is where I find internet. And so I am listening right now to the pulses and the rhythms of the kitchen, the radio station cars driving by our doors. And I just invite you to enjoy whatever symphony you are in right now. Invite you to think of it as a symphony, as a, musical event, as an event that can move your bodymindspirit, Thank you, and I hope to see some of you on Wednesday and Thursday.

Sina Basila Hickey: Thank you so much.

Petra Kuppers: Dream Performance & Workshop
2023-10-12 19:00 - 21:00 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
Connect to the land, its’ histories, & its’ futures with Petra Kuppers for a dream performance & workshop that utilizes movement meditation. Following an improvised Wheelchair Procession along Sanctuary Eco-Art Trail and a community meal, this performance and workshop will take place inside the Sanctuary main space.

Petra will use the inspiration from the trail procession to improvise a movement meditation that connects us to the land and its histories and futures. You can engage this meditation in stillness, lying on the floor or sitting in a chair, or you can dance freely in space – your choice. Bring comfy clothes, and maybe a blanket. If accessible to you, also bring writing or drawing material, so we can have a harvesting session after the dream journey, for you to chronicle your experience.

We welcome people of all abilities!

ADDITIONAL INFO: This workshop is a development from Petra’s Starship Somatics classes – a modality she developed during the lockdown of COVID. Starship Somatics engage our bodymindspirits as portals, as trance-mobiles that honor pasts and jet us toward speculative futures, among the stars or deep into the earth, in flux and transformation.

This event is preceded by a presentation by Kuppers on October 11 at EMPAC. Kuppers’s Troy engagement is a collaboration with EMPAC and iEAR Presents! and is made possible in part by New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Co-sponsored with Deep Listening/ ISATMA (Assistive Technologies for Music and Art Symposium) Conference; the Independent Living Center of the Hudson Valley; NATURE Lab/ People’s Health Sanctuary.

Petra Kuppers (she/her) is a disability culture activist and a community performance artist. Petra grounds herself in disability culture methods, and uses somatics, performance, and speculative writing to engage audiences toward more socially just and enjoyable futures. Her latest academic study is Eco Soma: Pain and Joy in Speculative Performance Encounters (University of Minnesota Press, 2022, open access). Her third performance poetry collection, Gut Botany (Wayne State University Press, 2020), was named one of the top ten US poetry books of 2020 by the New York Public Library, and won the 2022 Creative Book Award by the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment. In 2022, she was named a Dance/USA Fellow, and in 2023, she won a Guggenheim Fellowship. Petra is Artistic Director of The Olimpias, an international disability culture collective, and she co-creates Turtle Disco, a somatic writing studio, with Stephanie Heit. She is the Anita Gonzalez Collegiate Professor of Performance Studies and Disability Culture at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. www.petrakuppers.com

Old Growth Playback: Four new sound works by Lisa Schonberg
2023-12-16 19:00 - 21:00
with Nina Isabelle & Brian McCorkle, 5 objects, piano, and percussion

Join us for an evening of sound works by Lisa Schonberg, and Nina Isabelle with Brian McCorkle.

Lisa Schonberg will be presenting a body of 4 new spatialized sound works that are the culmination of Old Growth Playback, which asks us how we can listen in the present to speculate about future old growth soundscapes and our role in them. This work began in the forests of Oregon at HJ Andrews Experimental Forest (HJA) in 2018, and has evolved in the urban ecosystems of Troy, New York. Lisa’s compositions focus on cryptic sounds beyond the limits of typical human hearing ability without the use of technology; so that through this focus, we might consider non-human listening positions and perspectives.

Register Here

Lisa Schonberg is a composer, percussionist and ecological sound artist. Her recent work includes investigations of ant acoustics in tropical forests, Hawaiian endangered bees, insects and human technology, and fungi. She is a PhD candidate in Electronic Arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

MediaSanctuary · Old Growth Playback with Lisa Schonberg

Nina and Brian’s performance combines improvisational piano with an experimental percussion process that uses five shapes (five-pointed star, square, triangle, line segment, and a single point) to determine patterns of action inspired by somatic memories encoded through dance training, skateboarding, and trampoline. The structure considers speaker placement, room dimensions, and materials as a way to demonstrate an intuitive interpretation of the psychoacoustic phenomena of apparent source width and attempts to conjure LEV, the entity of listener envelopment.

Nina Isabelle is an artist researching the hidden layers of Process Art. She makes art as inquiry into how sensory perception, memory, and motive inform the decision-making processes used to construct meaning in art and life.

Brian McCorkle is a composer, performer, and digital artist in Hurley, NY. He studied jazz piano with the late Geri Allen and performs regularly as a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist

Old Growth Playback is made possible, in part, by the New York State Council on the Artswith the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York StateLegislature through the Media Arts Assistance Fund, a regrant partnership ofNYSCA and Wave Farm. This work has also been supported by HJ Andrews Experimental Forest and The Spring Creek Project at Oregon State University, and is presented in partnership with The Sanctuary for Independent Media, NATURE Lab, Hudson Mohawk Magazine, and Publication Studio Hudson.

Caña Dulce y Caña Brava In Concert!
2024-04-13 19:00 - 21:00 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
Caña Dulce y Caña Brava offers a performance which exhibits the dance, poetry, and the traditional attire of Veracruz, Mexico. These noteworthy performers, who are beneficiaries of the Jarocho culture, bring years of experience on both the national and international stages with them. Join us for this exciting performance!

*Tickets are priced at $20 for General Admission and $10 for Student or Low-Income Admission. The Sanctuary recognizes that even with a sliding scale, cost can affect the accessibility of any event. We want to emphasize that no one will be turned away at the door for a lack of funds. Please contact us with any questions or concerns.

Caña Dulce y Caña Brava

Made up mostly by women, Caña Dulce y Caña Brava are exceptional performers of son jarocho, a traditional Mexican expression who combines music, dance and poetry. With a deep connection to tradition, the group sang poetic messages with a feminine perspective, offering a unique show within the traditionally male-dominated scene of music performers. Thanks to their dedication, innovation and perseverance, the group has established itself as a benchmark for son jarocho, bringing innovation to traditional Mexican music. Caña Dulce y Caña Brava delivers a unique sound composed on top by the poetry and harmony of their voices, floating around the vibrations of the horse jaw, the mystical harmony of the harp and the strums of the jaranas, while the beat is foot-tapped on stage and flashy colors emanate from their dresses. The music virtuosity of its members are deeply rooted in the jarocho tradition, where all of them have learned directly from ancient masters and have developed and proven their skills both at national and international stages.

Adriana Cao – Harp

Born in the port city of Veracruz, her musicalformation began when she was merely a child. Herpassion and tenacity for playing the jarocha harphave positioned herself as the most well-known harp player in the son jarocho universe, learning thetradition directly from “maestros” such as PánfiloValerio, Nicolás Sosa and Andrés Alfonso Vergara,amongst others. Adriana has been invited to perform with the most representative groups of son jarocho, such as Zacamandú, Mono Blanco, Chuchumbé and Tembembe.

Raquel Palacios – Jarana

A distinguished singer and “jaranera”, born into one of the most respected dynasties of son jarocho music: the Vega family. Native of Boca de San Miguel, Tlacotalpan, Veracruz, she has lent her unique voice and talent to diverse musical projects such as Los Utrera and Son de Madera, and she has collaborated with Jorge Drexler, Ernesto Anaya and Geo Meneses, amongst other artists. In 2012, Raquel, alongside her family, received the National Prize of Sciences and Arts for the cultural contributions of the Vega and Utrera families.

Violeta Romero – Jarana & Dance

Born in Mexico City, she began her formation in music and dance from an early age, studying in Mexico, Guinea, Canada and the United States. Violeta is known for her dance style that is both powerful and elegant. Over the years, she has formed part of bands such as Tamakán, Maíz Negro and Los Utrera. Currently, she is a cultural producer, band member of Caña Dulce y Caña Brava since 2013, and cast member in Pachuquísmo (dance project based in San Francisco, CA, USA).

Anna Arismendez – Leona

Mexican descent who was born and raised in Austin, TX, USA. Ana encountered son jarocho for the first time in 2010. Since then, she has been an avid student of the tradition, participating in fandangos, and learning directly from different maestros and collectives. With persistence, she embraced the guitarra grande (also called “leona”), a bass instrument not commonly played by women, that she plays with charm and strength. Anna currently lives in Mexico City and has been a member of Caña Dulce y Caña Brava since 2016.

Alonso Borja – Requinto

Alonso joined the band in 2023, but has been an active member of the Mexican music tradition since 1996, when he founded “Chéjere”, a widely recognized band mixing tradition with innovation, who has performed at national and international festivals. With a major in classical guitar studies, he has been a member of the Mexican National System of Creators since 2019, and has received awards for his compositions, such as the Ibermúsicas popular song composition.

The zapateado (percussive dance) on the tarima (wooden platform) accentuates the beat, while the band’s colorful wardrobe embellishes their musicality. Appealing instrumental landscapes include the captivating vibrations of the horse jaw, the profound and mystical harmonies of the harp, the percussive atmosphere created by the jarana, the robust rhythm of the guitarra grande, and the renaissance-sounding bowed instruments created ex profeso for the group, resurrecting extinct baroque instrumentation.

Freedom Fest: Sanctuary Eco-Art Trail Celebration
2024-06-08 14:00 - 17:00 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
FREEDOM FEST HAS BEEN MOVED INSIDE TO OUR MAIN SPACE AT 3361 6TH AVE, TROY!

Join us for our annual community celebration in our main space with free music, food, games, and the launch of our Eco-Art Trail Walk!

We’ll start the day with a community BBQ followed by games, art activities, and live music by Jordan Taylor Hill and D.J. Shub! Community groups include Albany Symphony, Soul Fire Farm, Troy NAACP, Troy Public Library, Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, TVCOG,

Activities include:

Guided tours along the Eco-Art Trail

Face painting

Flower Pot Drum-Making

Raft making

Garden & environmental justice demonstrations

and more!

Photos by Robert Cooper

Help us keep Freedom Fest free! Donate a one-time contribution below, or consider becoming a Sanctuary Sustainer with a monthly, quarterly, or yearly contribution of any amount! We also accept Cash App, PayPal, or Venmo!

Donate Here!

Performers:

DJ Shub is considered to be the Godfather of PowWowStep. Born Dan General, he is a Mohawk, turtle clan of the Six Nations of the Grand River located in Ontario, Canada. His latest album War Club (2020) was released to critical acclaim during the pandemic, featuring collaborations with other indigenous and BIPOC artists like Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Boogát, Fawn Wood, and Phoenix Pagliacci to name a few. DJ Shub won the 2022 JUNO award for Contemporary Indigenous Artist of the Year, and previously won Breakthrough Group of the Year in 2014 (with A Tribe Called Red).

Jordan Taylor Hill gives captivating performances & workshops that bring the vibrant spirit of West African music and dance to your doorstep.

"Last of James Fenimore Cooper"
2024-06-09 16:00 - 18:00 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
Composer Brent Michael Davids (Mohican/ Munsee-Lenape) has composed a charming quartet about James Fenimore Cooper. Davids, who embraces Indigenous themes and subjects in his music, considers Cooper’s ignorance of native culture in “The Last of the Mohicans” for this delightful work for string quartet, featuring members of Albany Symphony. This event is featured as part of the Sanctuary for Independent Media’s Freedom Fest in collaboration with the American Music Festival. Join us at the Sanctuary Main Space for the culmination of our multi-year NEA Our Town Sanctuary Eco-Art Trail Project!

Brent Michael Davids is an internationally celebrated Mohican and Munsee-Lenape composer, and self-described music warrior. As an advocate for Native equity and parity, Davids places Native voices front and center. He originated and co-founded the award-winning Native American Composer Apprentice Project (NACAP), championing indigenous youth to compose their own written music. He uses indigenous instruments, including handmade quartz flutes, and pens performable notations that are themselves visual works of art. Davids is co-director of the Lenape Center in Manhattan, and is enrolled in the Stockbridge-Munsee Community. His composing career spans nearly five decades, with countless awards and commissions from America’s most celebrated organizations and ensembles.

“When we collaborate and experiment in song, we are discovering life benefits, not simply musical ones. Our interactions as composers, performers, audiences, students and teachers constitute important relational skills. If we can excite creativity and cooperation in each other, we have accomplished a magnificent thing.” – Brent Michael Davids

Brent Michael Davids · LAST OF JAMES FENIMORE COOPER

Get a taste, or rather, a listen of what’s to come on June 9th, 2024 with the string quartet version of, “Last of James Fenimore Cooper.” Via Miro Quartet, Brent Michael Davids. Copyright ©2001, Brent Michael Davids. All Rights Reserved.

The Albany Symphony Orchestra is a supporting partner of our NEA Our TownSanctuary Eco Art Trail Project.

The Orchestra’s American Music Festival is a weekend-long festival of innovative concerts, new music, and artistic happenings around historic Troy, NY. The Festival traditionally takes place on the first weekend in June and comes to North-Central Troy for the first time in collaboration with the Sanctuary’s Freedom Festival on Sunday, June 9th, 2024, at 4PM.

Colombian and Latin American Songs with Lucía Pulido
2025-05-10 19:00 - 21:00 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
Join us for Lucía Pulido Quartet in concert, performing Colombian and Latin American songs, infusing Afro-Colombian, Mexican, Venezuelan folk sounds with experimental arrangements. Lucía Pulido is a torrent of sound and emotion that mesmerizes with its energy and captivates with its sensibility. Spanish flyer below.

*Tickets are priced at $30 for General Admission and $20 for Sustainer, Student, or Low-Income Admission. The Sanctuary recognizes that even with a sliding scale, cost can affect the accessibility of any event. We want to emphasize that no one will be turned away at the door for a lack of funds. Please contact us with any questions or concerns.

Become a Sanctuary Sustainer and get access to our special event ahead of the concert! Details below

Hear some of Lucía Pulido’s music here

The Lucía Pulido ensemble pays homage to Colombian music through a highly experimental style. Traditional genres such as cumbia and bullerengue from the Atlantic Coast, currulaos from the Pacific Coast as well as joropos of the Colombian Eastern Plains are the point of departure for musical creativity. Lucía’s vocal sophistication is enhanced in genres such as herding songs (cantos de vaquería), funeral laments (alabaos) and harvest chants (cantos de zafra) which give the singer the liberty to explore her voice fully. The ensemble also performs songs written for Lucía by composers Iván Benavides and Sebastián Cruz.

The quartet, comprised of guitar, bass, drums, and voice, generates a unique sound, allowing each member to explore their instruments, and making each presentation an incomparable and entertaining experience. The program includes traditional Colombian and Latin American songs, and original compositions.

Line Up:Lucía Pulido, voice, percussionSebastian Cruz, guitarStomu Takeishi, BassMichael W. Davis, drums

Sustainer Event

We couldn’t do our work without the support of our sustainers! As a thank you for the regular support, we are inviting Sustainers for a special event from 6-7pm ahead of the concert with special mixed drinks, light bites, a special live DJ set, and an artist talk with Kathy High, Bio-Artist and co-Director of NATURE Lab, about Microplastics: A BioArt Exhibition. More information to come!

Become a Sustainer

Taína Asili’s Fever Pitch
2025-10-04 19:00 - 21:00 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
Join us for Taína Asili’s interdisciplinary production of Fever Pitch, uniting decades of her original work into a one-hour spectacle designed to ignite climate justice action on local, national, and global scales. This tapestry of sound, movement, and imagery is a celebration, a ritual, and a bold vision for a just and sustainable world.

*Tickets are priced at $20 for General Admission and $10 for Student or Low-Income Admission.The Sanctuary recognizes that even with a sliding scale, cost can affect the accessibility of any event. We want to emphasize that no one will be turned away at the door for a lack of funds. Please contact us at info@mediasanctuary.org with any questions or concerns.

The Rhythm of Rebellion: BTM! workshop, 10/3, 5pm

Fever Pitch is more than a performance—it is a celebration, a ritual, and a bold vision for a just and sustainable world. At its heart is Taína Asili, a dynamic singer, composer, interdisciplinary artist, and educator carrying on the tradition of her Puerto Rican ancestors, fusing past and present struggles into one soulful and defiant voice. She is celebrated by NPR, Rolling Stone, Billboard and Democracy Now! for her soulful, genre-blending music echoing calls for love and liberation. For the past 30 years she has offered energetic performances at diverse venues nationwide – from iconic stages such as Carnegie Hall, to renowned festivals like San Francisco Pride, to historic events like The Women’s March on Washington – inspiring audiences to dance to the rhythm of rebellion.

The liberation themes in Asili’s work are deeply rooted in her involvement in local and national activism, collaborating with numerous organizations throughout the years. As U.S. Coordinator for One Billion Rising and Board Chair of Soul Fire Farm, Taína’s artistic and activist work sits at the intersection of racial, gender, food, and climate justice. Her Resiliencia album embodies this mission, drawing from interviews with women of color across the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico—stories of resilience in the face of cancer, hurricanes, migration, and sexual violence. This project extended into an award-winning documentary series, offering a powerful musical and visual exploration of these lived experiences. Additionally, during her residency with the Social Justice Portal Project, Asili created The Justice Suite, a multimedia trilogy of music and video interventions addressing abolition, climate justice, and economic democracy.

Fever Pitch, Asili’s latest interdisciplinary production, unites decades of her original work into a one-hour spectacle designed to ignite climate justice action on local, national, and global scales. Collaborating with choreographer Gregory Theodore Marsh and dancer/vocalists Eliane Rowe and Hettie Barnhill, she has crafted a mesmerizing fusion of live music and movement. Media artist Joseph Amodei adds another layer of depth with stunning projections featuring footage from Asili’s award-winning documentaries and music videos. The result is a breathtaking tapestry of sound, movement, and imagery that demands our attention and stirs our collective imagination.

Ethereal Egyptian Rhythms with Abu Zeyn
2026-10-09 19:00 - 21:00 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
Bass, clarinet, and vocal loops weave rhythmic tapestries of original Sufi and Ancient Egyptian spiritual compositions. …more info coming soon

Abu Zeyn أبو زين creates rhythmic tapestries by weaving live bass, clarinet and vocal loops with soulful improvisation. He is a child of the Nile River and the Arabian Desert. The date palm shaded and nourished his youth. His tongue was tuned to cardamom and tangerines. The salt of the Red Sea cured his infant skin and the sands of Alexandria baked his tender feet. His ears were raised on the sounds of braying donkeys, the call to prayer and tuktuk soundsystems.
