Black Voices In Cabaret partners with the Guild Literary Complex for The Musicality of Poetry series featuring singer-storyteller Lynne Jordan and vocalist Arlene Armstrong, and poets Nikki Patin and Toni Asanti Lightfoot. Raymond Glover is at the keyboard.
Along with poetry performances, there will be a little Gershwin, a bit of Nina Simone and a lot of fabulous!! All in the amazingly beautiful backdrop of the Art Deco ballroom at the Douglass Park fieldhouse. This event is supported by the Chicago Park District Night Out in the Parks program.
The one-hour program is free and open to the public.
Working In Concert and the Guild Complex thank you for your free-will donation to support this and future programs. Donate Here.
Doors open at 6:30 PM, Street Parking Available
| Toni Asanti Lightfoot Lightfoot is a native of Washington, DC and moved to Chicago 20 years ago to work as the outreach and business manager for the Guild Complex. Since then she has won the GBOMA prize and has taught poetry in over 40 schools. 10 years ago she left the not-for-profit world to become a holistic health practitioner and an acupuncturist. She has never given up writing and finds never ending metaphors in the human body. Lightfoot most recently has been a guest in the podcast Historical Drama with the Boston Sisters where Lightfoot’s poem written in the voice of famed Black comedian Jackie “Mom’s” Mabley, Bat Her Up is featured. |
Nikki Patin Featured in The Guardian, Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Reader, on WBEZ, WTTW, FoxSoul, and on international television and radio, Nikki Patin has been writing, performing, educating, and advocating for over two decades. In 2014, Patin addressed the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland on behalf of Black women survivors of sexual violence in the U.S. Nikki Patin holds an MFA in Creative Non-Fiction from the University of Southern Maine and is founder of Surviving the Mic, a survivor-led organization that curates performances and workshops for survivors of trauma. Patin’s memoir, Working on Me, is forthcoming from Vine Leaves Press in April 2024. |
| Lynne Jordan Declared by the late Roger Ebert as his “favorite diva,” and backed by her band The Shivers at jazz and blues clubs and The Chicago Bluesfest, Lynne brings her storytelling and raw humor wherever she performs, including her sold-out show, A Musical Tribute to Nina Simone. She represented Chicago as an Arts Ambassador to Moscow and Kyiv, and was featured in the Jazz Opera, Don’t Worry, Be HaRpy by Isabelle Olivier. Lynne is featured with the Corky Siegel Chamber Blues on a number of recordings, and as part of the Live Lit (Storytelling) community by performing monologues from her one-woman show: A GREAT BIG DIVA. She is a 2022 artist-in-residence for the Raue Center for the Arts. |
Arlene Armstrong Chicago-born and bred, actor-director-musician before she was out of grade school, Arlene “wrote the scripts, built the set, auditioned all the acts. Ever since I played the Goose That Laid the Golden Egg in a school production of Jack and the Beanstalk, the stage was mine.” She sang in the church choir and local gospel groups, and listened to blues and jazz with her family. Her solo shows with pianist Bobby Schiff include Just a Girl and a Piano, Jazz Bird and To Carmen, with Love (a tribute to Carmen McRae). She has appeared in Life is…Snapshots in Song and Thank You for the Music with Ruth Fuerst and Carol Weston. As member of Chicago Cabaret Professionals, she has performed in CCP and Midwest Cabaret Conference showcases, and in several SongShop Live concerts. Dedicated to Duke: the Music of Ellington is her most recent show. |