Join vocalist/guitarist Gizelxanath Rodriguez and saxophonist/composer Benjamin Barson for an evening of musical performance, social movement histories, and reflections on years of arts and activism. Barson and Rodriguez will be performing both original work and that of revolutionary composers from Latin America and New Orleans. From collaborations with water defenders in Kurdistan and Sonora, to multimedia projects that highlight suppressed histories and forgotten struggles, these two musicians will share some lessons on the importance of and possibility afforded by the arts in struggle for a world where many worlds fit.
Guest Bios:
Gizelxanath Rodriguez is an internationally renowned vocalist, cellist, guitarist and educator. Her musical work spans a range of styles and cultures. Gizelxanath has led several bands with her partner, Benjamin Barson, including the Afro Yaqui Music Collective, Insurrealistas, and Latin Sway. These projects have been presented at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., by the ASCAP Jazz awards in Los Angeles, and many other leading national venues.
Gizelxanath has produced three solo albums and continues her life as an educator. She has been an artist-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2020 and has taught music throughout various private and public schools in the Pittsburgh and upstate NY areas for a period of ten years. Rodriguez was the Interdisciplinary artist-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2020, where she taught “Artivism: Decolonizing Performance through Intercultural Solidarity.” She has performed at social movement gatherings in Kurdistan, Iraq; Veroes, Venezuela; and in Puerto Rico. She currently teaches voice at Bucknell University.
Benjamin Barson is a saxophonist, historian, radical educator, and organizer. He is an assistant professor of music at Bucknell University. He received his PhD in Music from the University of Pittsburgh and recently completed a Fulbright Garcia-Robles postdoctoral fellowship at the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California in Mexicali, Mexico and a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Cornell University’s Africana Studies & Research Center. Barson has performed with luminaries including Fred Ho, Arturo O’Farrill, Craig Harris, and Geri Allen, and at a wide range of national and international venues, including the Kennedy Center, the Guggenheim Museum, CECUT in Tijuana, and the Mesopotamian Water Forum – an event organized by ecological activists in northern Iraq’s Kurdistan. He is the winner of the 2018 Johnny Mandel Prize from ASCAP for his composition “Insurrealista,” and was a member with the Afro Yaqui Music Collective when the group was named Pittsburgh’s “Best Jazz Band” by the readers of the Pittsburgh City Paper in 2018. Barson is also an activist, and was a cultural organizer in the campaign to free political prisoner and Black power activist Russell Maroon Shoatz. He currently works closely with a group inspired by Maroon’s legacy named Ecosocialist Horizons.
