Act I: Women of the Revolution collaborate to perform poetic tribute

When the Women in the Arts Festival opens for the 38^th time this Friday, the featured performance will be a spoken word and song performance by a group with deep roots in the Lansing area.

Voices of the Revolution joins with California composer and pianist Adrienne Torf to perform Torf and June Jordan’s “Collaboration.” The two collaborated on a poetry and music recording before Jordan’s death, but this will mark the first time that a selection of their collaborative works will be performed in this format. They’ll be joined by special guests Rose Jangmi Cooper and Shelia (cq) Burks who will sing gospel to accompany the spoken word.

The group will perform at 7:30 p.m. at the Festival, which takes place at Edgewood United Church in East Lansing on Friday and Saturday. Doors open at 5 p.m. on Friday. On Saturday the festival runs from 10 a.m. to the end of the film screening that starts at 6 p.m. Other events include an artist market, Sistrum Café, an online auction and day stage performances of music, dance, spoken word and choral music.

Voices of the Revolution is a Lansing-based collective of feminists who grew out of a previous group, Two Butches and a Broad, that did erotic poetry readings starting in the 1990s. In 2018, they formed a new group that focuses on performing the work of women, especially LGBTQ+ women of color and their own poetry. They perform in libraries, community centers and art galleries and the group includes Kim Griffin, Susan Harris, Laurie Hollinger, Tari Muňiz, Lisa Sarno and Ruelaine Stokes.

Torf is a composer and pianist who has created three solo albums and more than a dozen releases with other artists.

This collaboration came about when Susan Frazier from Lansing’s Goldenrod Music fell in love with “Collaboration: Selected Works 1988-2000,” which was written and recorded by Jordan and Torf and released in 2003. She thought it would make a perfect performance to be done at the Women in the Arts Festival.

“(Frazier) approached Torf and said, ‘We have this local bunch of poets who love to perform,” Hollinger said of how the collaboration came to be. “We have been rehearsing via Zoom since the end of July. We all worked really well together.”

The poetry, which includes content discussing misogyny, racism, violence and intersections of oppression, was divided among the readers in Voices of the Revolution. Hollinger said they decided they needed to reach out to involve others to effectively perform a four-movement suite called “Freedom Now” because it required gospel singing and none of them were singers.

“We knew we wanted somebody familiar with gospel and the folks we thought of were Shelia and Rose and we invited them to join us for it,” Hollinger said. “Rose is also going to do a largely acapella version of ‘Straight and True’ which will just be chilling. Shelia brings the high range and Rose brings the lower range.”

Jordan was an American poet and essayist who died in 2002. Using Black English, she wrote poetry about a wide range of topics related to oppression including the injustice of capitalism, immigration, sexual violence, racism, misogyny, apartheid and Palestine.

Torf will share stories during the event of previous performances of the poetry including a time in Augusta, Georgia, where they performed the Freedom Suite with a Klan demonstration taking place right outside.

Hollinger said that working on this performance has reinforced how important it is to speak out about all these issues.

“Part of why we started the collective was to make sure that the younger generation wouldn’t miss out on some of this work that the older, lesbian feminist poets have put out there,” Hollinger said. “We’ve always included something a little educational in our introductions and how we curate the programs. But this one brought us even more together as a cohesive collective that continues to get better and deeper.”

For information on the events, go to www.witafestival.com.

Act II: Theater abounds in Greater Lansing

If you’re a fan of live theater, this weekend might make you swoon. Between high schools, colleges and community theaters, there are seven options to see live theater.

• “Trail to Oregon” opens at Riverwalk Theatre, a musical comedy parody that pokes fun at the video game “Oregon Trail” with the audience getting to choose the fate of one of the characters. Like the video game, there is also plenty of dysentery. Taking place in the Black Box and directed by Ayden Soupal, the show runs this weekend and next, Thursdays at 7 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m.
• “The Prom” continues at Peppermint Creek Theatre Company’s new Stage One home, but unless you already have tickets, you won’t be able to see it as they have sold out all their seats for the weekend.
• “The Witch’s Princess” continues at the Hannah Center for another weekend. This children’s production is put on by All-of-us Express Children’s Theatre at 7 p.m. Friday and 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
• For those willing to travel a bit, the Portland Playhouse is putting on “Guys and Dolls” at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday.
• The MSU Department of Theatre presents the classic Shakespeare comedy, “Much Ado About Nothing” today through Nov. 19 at the Arena Theatre in the MSU Auditorium. Directed by Deric McNish, the show runs 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays and second Saturday, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday.
• LCC’s Black Box Theatre plays host to “Sense and Sensibility” directed by Mary Job. It runs this weekend and next at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays.
• Lansing Catholic High School is performing “Our Town” at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

And if that’s still not enough for you, wait one more weekend and you can see the MSU Opera Theatre perform Stephen Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music” and Williamston Theatre will open their holiday show, “Murder for Two.”

Encore!

• Brit Floyd is returning to the Wharton Center to celebrate 50 years of “The Dark Side of the Moon” on Nov. 14 at 8 p.m.