WHAT’S GOING ON FEATURING FELICIA COLLINS, TOSHI REAGON, SIEDAH GARRETT, KECIA LEWIS, AND OTHERS, AT THE BRIC CELEBRATE BROOKLYN! FESTIVAL
Listings Information
Who: What’s Going On featuring Felicia Collins, Toshi Reagon, Siedah Garrett, Kecia Lewis, and others
Where: BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival at the Prospect Park Bandshell (Prospect Park West & 9th St., Brooklyn)
When: Friday, August 9 at 7:30pm (Gates open at 6:30pm)
Admission: Free ($5 suggested donation)
More information: www.BRICartsmedia.org/cb or 718.683.5600
BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival, now in its 41st season, presents acclaimed guitarist, vocalist, and bandleader Felicia Collins, a host of friends, and an all-star band performing Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On in its entirety. For this deep dive into Gaye’s legacy, Collins brings together Toshi Reagon, Siedah Garrett, Kecia Lewis, and more to be announced, with a band including Terri Lyne Carrington, Bette Sussman, Alexa Tarantino, Nicki Richards, Tabitha Fair, La Tanya Hall, Valerie Naranjo, and Deah Harriott. The event, which takes place Friday, August 9 at the Prospect Park Bandshell (9th St. & Prospect Park West) is free to the public (with a suggested $5 contribution at the gate) and begins at 7:30pm (with gates opening at 6:30pm).
What’s Going On, Marvin Gaye’s 1971 classic concept album (his 11th studio album) sung from the point of view of a Vietnam vet who returns home to a country torn by hatred, suffering, and injustice, has become a cultural touchstone—and its relevance today is chilling.
What’s Going On was released on May 21, 1971, by the Motown Records-subsidiary label Tamla. Recorded between 1970 and 1971 at Hitsville U.S.A., Golden World, and United Sound Studios in Detroit; and at The Sound Factory in West Hollywood, it was the first album Gaye produced himself and the first to credit Motown's now-legendary in-house studio band, the Funk Brothers. What’s Going On was met with immediate critical and commercial success and soon came to be regarded as a landmark recording in American popular music. Rolling Stone ranked it sixth on the magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time."
Music Director Felicia Collins is best known around the world as the guitarist and vocalist in the CBS Orchestra on The Late Show with David Letterman / World's Most Dangerous Band with Paul Shaffer. Prior to The Late Show, Felicia was the lead guitarist and vocalist in Al Jarreau's band and then a member of Cyndi Lauper's band. She has also led her own bands: 360 (a power trio starting with Will Lee and Anton Fig), and B!tchslapp, which went on to become Felicia Collins and the Life. She produced Anarchists Of Color ll, the live music show which featured Black Rock musicians and artists celebrating Black Rock past and present, and (with Kecia Lewis, Rebecca Naomi Jones, and Deah Love-Harriott) was in the cast of the Atlantic Theatre Company's Off-Broadway Production of Marie and Rosetta, a story about Marie Knight and the legendary gospel singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the electric guitar innovator who was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 2018. Felicia paid tribute in Sister Rosetta's induction performance, channeling Tharpe on vocal and electric guitar.
Of the BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival, Billboard writes, “In the crowded summer festival season, BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! stands apart.” Since it began in 1979 as a catalyst for a burgeoning Brooklyn performing arts scene, and to bring people back into Prospect Park after years of neglect, the Festival has become one of the city’s foremost summer cultural attractions. Winner of the Village Voice Readers’ Poll and Critics’ Picks for “Best Free Concert Series,” the BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival is New York City’s longest-running summer outdoor performance festival. Over its 41-year history, the Festival has presented more than 2,000 artists, drawing a diverse audience upwards of 200,000 each season. Time Out New York writes, “Catching one of these gigs is guaranteed to be a highlight of your summer show-going season, whether you're seeing a buzzy indie-rock band, a classic soul or funk group, or one of the best hip-hop artists around.”
The Festival welcomes several Co-Sponsors:
The Festival welcomes several Co-Sponsors including 90+ Cellars and Lila Wines, who will offer an array of wines perfect for outdoor summer concerts; Svedka Rose Vodka and Tequila Mi Compo which will offer specialty cocktails; and Brooklyn SolarWorks whose Solar Canopy will power an interactive onsite activation.
WorldStage and Audible Difference Inc. return as the official providers of the Festival’s lighting, video and audio systems.
Hilton Brooklyn New York is the official hotel partner for the Festival, and Delta Air Lines is the official airline.
WNET’s ALL ARTS, WABC-TV, WNYC 93.9 FM/820 AM and WFUV 90.7 FM return as Season Media Partners. WFUV 90.7 FM will be live broadcasting a variety of shows all season long.
Longtime promotional partner on select jazz performances include WBGO 88.3 FM.
The Festival is presented in partnership with the City of New York Parks & Recreation and the Prospect Park Alliance.
A complete list of supporters can be found at www.BRICartsmedia.org/cb.
About BRIC
BRIC is the leading presenter of free cultural programming in Brooklyn, and one of the largest in New York City. The organization presents and incubates work by artists and media-makers that reflects the diversity of New York. BRIC programs reach hundreds of thousands of people each year.
BRIC’s main venue, BRIC House, offers a public media center, a major contemporary art exhibition space, two performance spaces, a glass-walled TV studio and artist work spaces.
Some of BRIC’s most acclaimed programs include the BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival in Prospect Park; groundbreaking media initiatives, including BRIC TV, BRIC Radio, and Brooklyn Free Speech; and renowned contemporary art exhibitions. BRIC also offers education and community-building programs at BRIC House and throughout Brooklyn.
In addition to making cultural programming genuinely accessible, BRIC is dedicated to providing substantial support to artists and media makers in their efforts to develop work and reach new audiences. BRIC is unusual in both presenting exceptional cultural experiences and nurturing individual expression. This dual commitment enables BRIC to most effectively reflect New York City’s innate cultural richness and diversity.
About BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival
The BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival is BRIC’s flagship performing arts program. Unlike the multi-stage destination festival scene, the BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival is a free, summer-long experience allowing New Yorkers to come back again and again with their friends and family to appreciate or discover a new genre, acclaimed artist, or world culture each night of the Festival. From its very first performance in the summer of 1979, the mission of the Festival has been to bring Brooklyn together in a safe, harmonious setting that enhances our quality of life and understanding of the world by illuminating the vibrant cultures that make our borough so unique.
During its 40-year run, the BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival has presented more than 2,000 artists including celebrated global music icons, legendary jazz artists, chart-topping indie bands, gravity-defying dance troupes, large-scale film projects and even a virtual reality performance, drawing a diverse audience upwards of 200,000 each season.
“In the crowded summer festival season, BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! stands apart.” — Billboard
Winner of the Village Voice Readers’ Poll and Critics’ Picks for “Best Free Concert Series”
“Every year, BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! broadens the city’s horizons with dozens of shows by an unbelievable lineup of artists to the Prospect Park Bandshell.” — Metro
The festival’s Executive Producer is Jack Walsh. Its Artistic Director is Rachel Chanoff. Kristina Newman-Scott is the President of BRIC.
For more information, please visit www.BRICartsmedia.org.
Press Contacts: Ron Gaskill at Blake Zidell & Associates:
718.643.9052, ron@blakezidell.com.