Ponderosa Stomp will celebrate the legacy of Gil Scott-Heron and others at the free Roots of American Music Festival at Lincoln Center this weekend
LINCOLN CENTER OUT OF DOORS: ROOTS OF AMERICAN MUSIC FESTIVAL
Lincoln Center
Bruno Walter Auditorium, Damrosch Park Bandshell, Hearst Plaza
Saturday, August 11, and Sunday, August 12, free
www.lcoutofdoors.org
www.ponderosastomp.com
The Ponderosa Stomp, whose official mission is “to ensure that the unsung heroes of American music are given their due: celebrated, included, and remembered, but most of all, heard,” returns to New York City for its fourth year participating in the Roots of American Music series at the free Lincoln Center Out of Doors festival, and the nonprofit organization has again brought an amazing cast of characters. “Songs of Social Activism” will take place August 11-12, with the first day dedicated to soulful songwriters and the second to socially conscious musicians. Saturday begins with the Stoned Soul Symposium at 12:30 in Bruno Walter Auditorium, with Michele Kort hosting a discussion on Laura Nyro, Gayle Wald talking about the fortieth anniversary of the Soul at the Center festival, and Greg Tate moderating a panel on Gil Scott-Heron. At 5:00, everyone will head outside to the Damrosch Park Bandshell for Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls All-Stars Band: Sister Songwriters, led by drummer LaFrae Sci, followed at 6:00 by the Triple Goddess Twilight Revue — Celebrating the Music of Laura Nyro, with such performers as Nona Hendryx, Sarah Dash, Desmond Child & Rouge, Melissa Manchester, and Kate Ferber. At 7:30, the Soulful Songwriters Circle consists of Dan Penn, Teenie Hodges, and William Bell, with the great Otis Clay and the Platinum Band closing the night at 8:45. On Sunday from 12 noon to 5:30, Hearst Plaza will be home to Erin McKeown & Her Fine Parade, Taylor Mac, Tom Paxton, Daniel Kahn & the Painted Bird, and the Pura Fé Trio. The party then moves back to the bandshell, where Swamp Dogg takes the stage at 6:00 and Aloe Blacc at 7:00 before the festivities come to a stirring close with Pardon Our Analysis: An All-Star Gathering for Gil Scott-Heron, featuring the Black Rock Coalition Orchestra and such poets, writers, and musicians as Brian Jackson, Sapphire, Martha Redbone, Abiodun Oyewole, Sandra St. Victor, Cark Hancock Rux, A. Van Jordan, Gordon Voidwell, Hanifah Walidah, Willie Perdomo, and more.
“If we don’t open our eyes, if we are afraid of challenges, then we won’t be cultivating life,” Flor Ilva Triochez says near the start of the compelling documentary We Women Warriors, continuing, “We will be cultivating death.” From 2002 to 2009, journalist Nicole Karsin covered the ongoing bloody battle in Colombia between the army, the paramilitary, and rebel guerrillas, a violent struggle whose collateral damage includes atrocities being suffered by the more than one hundred indigenous tribes caught in the middle, their very existence being threatened by the unending drug-related violence. Karsin picked up a camera to tell the story through the eyes of three three brave women who, independent of one another, decided to do what the government and others refused to and take matters into their own hands. Karsin follows Doris Puchana, an Awá governor who risks her life by speaking out publicly about a horrific massacre; Ludis Rodriguez, a Kankuamao mother who watched her husband get murdered and was then falsely accused of having killed fifteen policemen; and Flor Ilva, who, as the first female leader of the Nasa people in three hundred years, demands that the police take down their barracks and leave her community. Eventually the three amazing women come together to share details not only of their lives but of their organizational methods, unwilling to be silenced as they seek peace for their people. Part of the sixteenth annual DocuWeeks festival at the IFC Center, We Women Warriors is an inspiring tale filled with hope in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, as three strong women overcome personal tragedy to fight for justice and freedom. We Women Warriors runs August 10-16, with the filmmakers on hand for one of the two daily screenings. The festival continues through August 23 with such other documentaries as Eugene Martin’s The Anderson Monarchs, about an African-American girls soccer team in an at-risk Philadelphia neighborhood, Dafna Yachin’s Digital Dharma: One Man’s Mission to Save a Culture, about Mormon E. Gene Smith’s determination to preserve ancient Sanskrit and Tibetan writings, and Thomas Riedelsheimer’s Garden in the Sea, in which Spanish artist Cristina Iglesias builds an underwater sculpture in the Mexican Sea of Cortez.
“Beginnings are always difficult,” suave thief Gaston Monescu (Herbert Marshall) says at the beginning of Trouble in Paradise, but it’s not difficult at all to fall in love with the beginning, middle, and end of Ernst Lubitsch’s wonderful pre-Code romantic comedy. It’s love at first heist for Gaston and Lily (Miriam Hopkins) as they try to outsteal each other on a moonlit night in Venice. Soon they are teaming up to fleece perfume heir Madame Mariette Colet (Kay Francis) of money and jewels as the wealthy socialite takes a liking to Gaston despite her being relentlessly pursued by the hapless François Filiba (Edward Everett Horton) and the stiff Major (Charles Ruggles). Displaying what became known as the Lubitsch Touch, the Berlin-born director has a field day with risqué sexual innuendo, particularly in the early scene when Gaston and Lily first meet (oh, that garter!) and later as Madame Colet’s affection for Gaston grows, along with Lily’s jealousy. Loosely based on the 1931 play The Honest Finder by Aladár László, which was inspired by the true story of Romanian con man George Manolescu, the 1932 film remained out of circulation for decades during the Hays Code, and it’s easy to see why. Trouble in Paradise is screening August 10 in the BAMcinématek series “American Gagsters: Great Comedy Teams,” which runs through September 17 and consists of fifty films (all but one in 35mm), including such other classics as Some Like It Hot, Sullivan’s Travels, Born Yesterday, Blazing Saddles, Airplane! and multiple movies starring Cary Grant, Woody Allen, Peter Sellers, Steve Martin, and Bill Murray.
