This Hammer Can’t Kill Me: Paul Robeson, His Music and His Story

This Hammer Can’t Kill Me: Paul Robeson, His Music and His Story

Hosted by HB Studio, artistic home to Uta Hagen, who played Desdemona to Paul Robeson’s Othello on Broadway, this public conversation with baritone James C Martin will explore Robeson’s lasting impact as artist and activist. It will examine Robeson’s political and artistic journey, and the sold-out 1958 Carnegie Hall concert that marked his comeback from 11 years on the political blacklist. Martin, and pianist-collaborator Lynn Raley, will share selections from Robeson’s repertoire, and from their critically acclaimed album, Wide As Heaven: A Century of Song By Black American Composers.

Thomas Paine’s Greenwich Village, walking tour

Thomas Paine’s Greenwich Village, walking tour

Before America had free speech, it had Thomas Paine: pamphleteer, provocateur, the sharpest pen behind two revolutions. He arrived in Greenwich Village broke and forgotten, boarding on Bleecker Street and dying on Grove Street in 1809 with only six mourners at his funeral. But his fire never went out. Join Marc Catapano on this insightful and timely tour.

Janie Barnett Sings the Songs of Cole Porter: An Unlikely Renegade

Janie Barnett Sings the Songs of Cole Porter: An Unlikely Renegade

Born into Gilded Age luxury, Cole Porter defied family expectations to forge a life in popular music, trading classical expectations for exotic melodies, harmonic innovation and modern rhythms coupled with sophisticated, urbane lyrics packed with cultural references, sexual innuendo, and complex rhymes. In so doing, Porter wrote the songs that form the backbone of the Great American Songbook – timeless numbers that have transcended generations. Join award-winning singer and arranger Janie Barnett as she turns Porter’s sophisticated classics on their head, reinterpreting them with raw, rootsy soul.