FeatureDecember 15, 2000

Entertainment/Night Life

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Standard Staff
Standard Newspapers
6 min read · 1108 words

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Poetry Contest Open to Chicago Heights Residents

Greetings

from DanceAfrica Chicago!

DanceAfrica

Chicago!

Art

Of Makin' Music Foundation Hosts Inaugural Event

Newly

crowned Face of Africa 2000 Winner Nombulelo Mazibuko Poised to make American

debut

McDONALD'S

CREATES THE MUSIC EVENT OF THE SUMMER

"HOT

JAZZ - SIX COOL NITES" PAYS TRIBUTE TO BILL EVANS

INTERNATIONAL

FESTIVAL OF LIFE TOUR, SET FOR MARQUETTE PARK BEACH, GARY, INDIANA, JULY

29TH & 30th

FIRST-EVER

MONTREUX FESTIVAL ON TOUR HOLDS CHICAGO JAM SESSION WITH FIVE JAZZ LEGENDS

CHICAGO'S

SOUTHSIDE NEIGHBORHOOD GOSPEL FEST

Chicago

Human Rhythm project celebrates 10th Year

DuSable

Museum presents Senior Appreciation Day on July 24th Featuring Shirley

King and The Blues Boys

MUSICAL

COMEDY-DRAMA "THIS FAR BY FAITH" RETURNS TO eta THURSDAY JULY 20th THROUGH

AUGUST 27, 2000

Jamaica's

Ziggy Marley Ready To Quit The Music Business?

MEE

Film to Make Ancient Egypt Relevant to Today's Hip-Hop Generation

AHN

"Monthly Movie Classics" will Broadcast Juice-A Tribute to the Late Tupac

Shakur

Khalilah

Ali Challenges Movie on Life of Former Husband Muhammad Ali

Jimmy

Cliff to Headline Int'l Festival of Life - July 4, Independence Celebration

Illinois

Philharmonic Orchestra Performs Free 4th of July Concert at Chicago Heights

CrossRoads Fest

Disney

Channel Premiers in the Park offers Chicago-area families a free night

of Original entertainment for all ages

Holyfield

Foundation Announces main event Weekend 2000

JEWEL-OSCO

AND WBEE 1570AM ARE JAZZIN UP FOR A HEALTHY CHICAGO

Municipal

Band Concert Schedule

Sears

to send six lucky customers to Soul Train 'Lady of Soul' Awards

Why

Shaft Should Be Shafted

'The Grandma

Tree: A Folk Fable' opens at ETA Thursday, May 25 through July 9

Miles and 'Trane

CHICAGO - The power and beauty of

the simple, honest wisdom of the elders is explored in "The Grandma Tree:

A Folk Fable' by Benard Cummings. Directed by Delia Coy Gray, the show

opens Thursday, May 25 through Sunday, July 9, 2000 at eta Square, 7558

S, South Chicago Avenue. Presented by eta Creative Arts Foundation, performances

are at 8:00 p,m, Thurs. thru Sat.; 3:00 & 7:00 p.m, Sundays. General

admission is $20; $10 for students, seniors and groups of 10 or more. For

tickets and information, call eta at 773-752-3955.

"The Grandmama Tree: A Folk Fable'

is the story of what happens when the frustrations of the younger generation

come face to face with the folk wisdom of the elders. In director Gray's

words, "What better tale to tell than that of a young male who finds in

the affirming presence of an old woods woman, his path to responsibility

and true manhood."

"The Grandma Tree" was commissioned

by the Actor's Theatre of Louisville's New Play Development Program. It

has received extensive workshops with The Juneteenth Festival of New African

American Plays in Louisville, Kentucky, the New Harmony Project and with

The Drama League in NYC. It received its world premiere at The Stamford

Theatre Works in Stamford, Connecticut It has also been produced by The

Jubilee Theatre of Ft. Worth, Texas. "The Grandmama Tree" is the 1998 recipient

of the Theodore Ward prize for playwriting, presented by Columbia College

Chicago.

The cast features Ira Carol McGill,

Elizabeth Shivers, Eliyannah A. Yisrael, Edward Lee Shines III and Quinton

T. James. Understudies are 'Serious" Charles Gardner and Thetu K. Mwawiki

Cummings' other plays include "Your

Obituary is a Dance" and "Here Am I, Send Me,' which was part of the recent

inaugural season of the Juneteenth Theatre in Louisville. As an actor,

he has worked extensively in regional theater, on TV and in film. He is

a graduate of the Yale School of Drama (MF.A.), Southern Methodist University

(B.F.A.) and Tyler Junior College. A native Texan, Cummings lives in New

York City.

"This play is my attempt at showing

how that incredible homespun intelligence of our mostly illiterate ancestors

is perhaps as equally valid as anything put down by a Eurocentric philosopher,"

says Cummings "For their wisdom came out of hard work under the burning

sun; from daily degradation of their humanity; and from the sheer power

to overcome the evils of racism."

Also opening in the eta Gallery May

25 - July 9, 2000 is a mixed media group show by visual artists Harry Detry

Roman Villarreal and Sura P. DuPart. Originally from the West Indies, Detry

is a multi-talented artist whose powerful paintings, sculptures and jewelry

designs have earned him numerous honors for over two decades Villarreal,

"a sculptor of the people" has been producing sculpture in many media for

more than 20 years. He currently works in limestone and teaches his craft

to teens in Englewood through the Arts Employment Training Program of Boulevard

Arts Center. He is of Mexican American heritage, born and raised near the

steel mills on Chicago's southeast side. DuPart began his three decades

of artistry working in oils The native Chicagoan has also worked in wood

and metal ire has been creating with stone sculpture for the past 5 years.

His work is included in the DuSable Museum's collection of Chicago artists

and shown in special exhibit at the University of IFE, in Ife, Nigeria.

The opening reception for the exhibition

will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, May 25. For more information, call

eta at 773-752-3955.

For collectors, the beauty of The

Complete Miles Davis and John Coltrane (Columbia/Legacy) is that it puts

three hours of music by one of the greatest groups in jazz history in one

neat box. But for listeners who wish to understand the emotional roots

of jazz, this set is revelation. The music spans 1955 to 1991, including

Davis' re-formed original quintet of 1957. That band was a compendium of

cutting-edge players who blended perfectly with Davis. Saxophonist Cannonball

Adderly was lyrical, mercurial and rooted in the blues. Pianist Bill Evans

brought modality, subtle harmony and composition. Coltrane called Paul

Chambers "One of the greatest bass players in jazz." Hard-driving drummer-Philly

Joe Jones rounded out the group. But the power behind this band was Coltrane,

jazz's most revolutionary saxophonist. 'Trane reflects the turbulence of

the time, though he was not yet playing all that he wanted. His depth and

insatiable appetite for expression are evident.

In most pieces, you hear the contrast

of Adderley's facile lyricism with Coltrane's straining, even within Davis'

liberating modal forms. 'Trane's biographer, Bill Cole, once heard him

play one phase 29 times. "Miles pulled he cuff on 'Trane's pants so he

would move into something different," Cole says. "'Trane sprang into a

completely new line, like being launched out of Cape Kennedy." These musicians

have all passed on. But this music like the human spirit, is eternal. Four

decades later, it resonates.

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