Women's History Month 2022 with Gregory Burrus Productions (RECAP)

By Gregory Burrus | Posted Tuesday, March 29, 2022

As you know, Women’s History Month is an annual declared month that highlights the contributions of women to events in history and contemporary society (source: Wikipedia). Here, Gregory Burrus Productions has big fun discovering, acknowledging and celebrating the accomplishments of local women during Women’s History Month. While we celebrate women all year long, we take a special time to focus on some that we know that are doing significant and amazing work every day. Therefore, we either create events to celebrate those women who are performers and acknowledge others in our area who are just moving through life and making a huge difference in our lives every day.   

Let's get started as we recap our events for Women’s History Month 2022.

• March 2 Kim Clarke, Lucianna Padmore and Yayoi Ikawa

• March 4 WHM2022 Just Us Just Music

• March 4 Sleep Out Montclair Community Edition

• March 13 Equinox – Art and Music Exhibition

• March 23 Dara Starr Tucker

March 2 Kim Clarke, Lucianna Padmore and Yayoi Ikawa

Event Overview 

Jazz973 Presents Kim Clarke Trio at Clements Place Jazz

Very happy that Bassist Kim Clarke Founder of Lady Got Chop Festival is joining us for Women’s History Month as Part of  The Lady Got Chop Festival. In its 20th year this festival presents some of the most notable women professionals playing Jazz in the industry.

Interview with Kim Clarke

We were very happy to have our Gregory Burrus Productions Interviewer, Lynette Sheard talk with Bassist Kim Clarke before our Jazz973 st Clements Place Jazz  honoring Women’s History Month.

Performance Short — Jazz973 Presents Kim Clarke Trio at Clements Place Jazz

For this Jazz973 event Kim Clarke is bringing with her some jazz industry heavyweights – Lucianna Padmore on Drums and Yayoi Ikawa on Keys to perform at Newark Rutgers Institute of Jazz Studies – Clements Place Jazz Club.

Full Performance

You can catch the full performance right here on my Youtube Channel.

March 4 WHM2022  Just Us Just Music 

Event Overview 

WHM2022 Womens History Month Celebration at the Cricket Club

Celebrating Ife Basim’s 9th Annual Women’s History Month Celebration, “Just Us. Just Music.” Always, a night you don’t want to miss, and a night you won’t forget. Just Us. Just Music.

Interview with Ife Basim

In its 9th year our Gregory Burrus Productions Interviewer, Lynette Sheard talk with the Founder Joy Topping Mann right before this very successful sold out event.

Performance Short

Over 125 folks showed up to have a great time on Friday March 4th at the Cricket Club,. The musicians featured were Kate Cosco on Keys, Caylen Bryant on Bass, Iyonna Herbert on Drums and Lee Odom on Saxophone.

Our vocalist included Jackie Harmon Johnson, Patricia Walton, Omisanya Karade, Phyllis Blanford, Zakiyyah Zai’meh and the founder Joy Topping Mann. The night was hosted by Norman Mann.

Full Capture of the nights events:

Click Ife Basim WHM2022 at the Cricket Club Entertainment Complex by Gregory Burrus Productions.

March 4 Sleep Out Montclair Community Edition 

Event Overview

2022 Sleep Out: Virtual Discussion Aging Out Foster Care and Homelessness

Every year we lose kids to gangs, jail, human trafficking, substance abuse, and even death. Covenant House, New Jersey mission is to provide comprehensive residential care and related services to help New Jersey’s youth who have suffered from abuse, neglect, abandonment, human trafficking and homelessness. The Junior League of Montclair – Newark, Inc (JLMN) is committed to helping resolve this situation by conducting this years’ 2022 Sleep Out: Montclair Community Edition,

Interview with Heather LeClair

Discussion on Homelessness, Aging Out of Foster Care and Mental Health

The Junior League Montclair – Newark  President Heather LeClair and our interviewer, the  Director of Mental Health in New Jersey, Lynette Sheard  conducted an important conversation to discuss this situation and help us understand the implications of aging out of Foster Care, Homelessness and the impacts upon one’s Mental Health.

Learn More

2022 Sleep Out: Montclair Community Edition Junior League Montclair – Newark  

March 13 Equinox – Art and Music 

Event Overview 

WHM2022 Art Exhibition featuring the Latin Jazzy Sounds of Marilyn Castillo

Equinox, the Exhibit

Through an exciting collaboration between photographer/artist Christine Keeley and collage/mixed media artist Maria Estrela, the idea of Equinox: The Birth and Rebirth of a Woman, a celebration of Women’s International History Month, was born.  The exhibition will be on view at The Jewish Museum of New Jersey in Newark, New Jersey from March 6th to April 3rd.

Interview with Artist Maria Estrela – Christine Feeley

We caught up with Maria Estrella and Christine Keeley to understand the exhibition and more importantly the connection between the artist and their work. Take a listen. 

Performance Short

Exhibition till April 4th.

Click here to read all about the event:
Equinox Art Exhibition Featuring Maria Estrela and Christine Keeley with Live Music by Marilyn Castillo and Nedelka Sotelo (Sunday, March 13, 2022)

Full Performance

Click here to see the  live music performance:
Castillo – Nedelka Sotelo – Antonios Cotez – at Equinox Exhibit by Gregory Burrus Productions

March 23 Dara Starr Tucker   

Overview Event Link

Jazz973 Presents Dara Tucker and her Band at Clements Place Jazz

Dara Starr Tucker is making her mark in the world of music and activism as a singer, satirist and social commentator. Her latest album, Dreams of Waking: Music For A Better World (2021), was featured on Grammy.com and in American Songwriter Magazine. On the album, Tucker embraces the urgent, topical works of songwriters of the protest era, along with her own compositions, as vessels for justice awareness, instruction and healing. Her album reached #7 on the Jazzweek National Radio Charts and reached #6 on the ITUNES jazz chart.

Interview with Dara Starr Tucker

Dara Starr Tucker Interviewed by Lynette Sheard for Gregory Burrus Productions

Today on Interviews by Gregory Burrus Productions, we encountered a truly fabulous, soulful multidimensional singer. As you may know, a live music career is a business that requires the performer to stay relevant in the audience’s mind. The performer in order to be successful must be committed to ensure long-term relevance. Dara Tucker has found many ways to stay in the minds of fans using multiple platforms and, as her bio proclaims, singer/songwriter Dara Tucker is no stranger to producing “composition as commentary.” Take a listen.

Performance Short

Jazz973 Presents Dara Tucker and her Band at Clements Place Jazz

This very special Womens History Month Celebration produced by Jazz973 featured the fabulous Dara Starr Tucker and her awesome band. Dara Starr Tucker – vocals, Mike King – piano, Greg Bryant – bass and Curtis Nowosad- drums.

Full Performance

You can catch the full performance right  here on my Youtube Channel.

Thank you for joining us - Hope you enjoyed our Women's History Month 2022 Recap.

About the Author — Gregory Burrus

Gregory Burrus is a local live music ambassador, producer, promoter, event planner, and community partner. He combines his extensive corporate business and technology expertise with his love of live music and being a strong community advocate.

I love writing about it all. My mission is to help community groups, live music bands, and local nonprofits, reach their goals and accomplish their missions while enjoying the day-to-day process of life.

https://www.jerseyindie.com/ji-blogger-gregory-burrus  
https://patch.com/users/gregburrus 

Equinox Art Exhibition Featuring Maria Estrela and Christine Keeley with Live Music by Marilyn Castillo and Nedelka Sotelo (Sunday, March 13, 2022)

By Gregory Burrus | Posted Friday, March 11, 2022

Equinox, the Exhibit

Through an exciting collaboration between photographer/artist Christine Keeley and collage/mixed media artist Maria Estrela, the idea of Equinox: The Birth and Rebirth of a Woman, a celebration of Women’s International History Month, was born.  The exhibition will be on view at The Jewish Museum of New Jersey in Newark, New Jersey from March 6th to April 3rd.

We caught up with Maria Estrella and Christine Keeley to understand the exhibition and more importantly the connection between the artist and their work. Take a listen. 

The work focuses on the connection between women and nature; how women’s spiritual, emotional, and psychological being changes through the seasons. Equinox comes from a response to those changes. It's the yin/yang, the dark/light, black/white, sun/moon, past/future. We need to feel deeply the importance of our ancestors and what we are creating for the future generations. As we make those connections we understand that Equinox can bring moments of happiness, warmth, and love.  Even in the midst of the long, dark days, we can still find happiness.

The Artists

Christine Keeley

“Christine has a natural gift for capturing the human form and spirit.”

Christine Keeley is a studio owner and independent photographer based in NY and Summit NJ, best known for her bold and emotive imagery. Christine’s lifelong passion for the visual and performing arts is reflected in her unique photographic style, capturing the natural movement and expressions of her subjects.  Inspired by feminine strength, she uses the camera as a tool to elevate and inspire her subjects.

Christine developed her keen eye for visual storytelling at a young age, influenced by her father and maternal grandfather- both physicians and avid photography enthusiasts. Her large extended Irish-American family became her own visual time capsule of the complex moments in time of human love, innocence,  joy, sorrow, hope and contradiction.  

With a lengthy corporate career and the rise of digital art, Christine was able to envision a path to a successful business as an entrepreneur. After raising her two young children, she made the bold career move to the visual arts, where she naturally felt the transition to photography. She invested heavily in fine-tuning her craft, shooting in the studios of some of the world’s top fashion and beauty photographers. A year later, Christine’s instagram @christinek_nyc led to her first commercial shoot - and she never looked back. In 2018, Christine was invited to join a boutique art gallery in New York as Associate Art Director which led to a position on the board of Summit Public Arts. From there, Christine embarked on her own exhibition projects in NYC and NJ.  You can learn more here:

Christine Keeley Photography

www.christinekeeley.com

info@christinekeeley.com

Instagram: @christinek_nyc

Maria Estrela

I make art to heal and inspire myself and to transform the resilience and strength women carry in themselves into a visual form that encourages and empowers all women, from young to old. My collages reunite women with nature by placing them in landscapes, decorating them with found objects, and re-contextualizing their power. I want to emphasize the beauty of nature and the natural beauty of all women. By paying attention to the changing seasons, I understand more deeply the seasons in my own life and connect the world around me to the phases in a woman’s life. 

Maria Estrela was born in Cascais, Portugal and raised in a large extended family from Cape Verde, West Africa. Settling in Newark, NJ in 2002, she attended The Newark School of the Arts in 2008, where she was able to further develop, explore, and broaden her interest in digital photography. Estrela’s photographs of nature and scenes from independent travels serve as a means of self expression, escape, and self-healing. Photography is where she finds stillness, freedom, and a doorway to connect to her inner self.  Maria’s interest in collages started when she met Artist Mansa Mussa in 2018 in one of his collage workshops. Since that first experience, collages and mixed media have become part of her artistic development. You can learn more here:  IG @estrela37_ and www.mariaestrela.com 

Live Music Performance

This wonderful event will contain a performance by up and coming singers Marilyn Castillo and Nedelka Sotello. 

Singer Marilyn Castillo

"Marilyn is a rising Latin Diva with a soulful voice" - Ilana Martin, Vocal Workout

Marilyn Castillo is an independent Chicana singer-songwriter who comes from a long lineage of musicians and troubadours who passed on the passion for fine, bold and moving music that make both her singing and songwriting exotic and glamorous.

She is currently co-producing her first solo album “Chicana en Nueva York” with themes of her authorship, her first single “Todavia” granting her the Latin Artist Revelation of Premios Latinos Fama in 2019. In 2020 she released her second single "Noche de Marzo".

Born and raised in El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez, México her love for these borderlands and in order to take her music career to another level Marilyn moved to New York in 2014 and has lived there ever since. She has shared the stage with Bobby Cruz, Richie Ray, Arturo Ortíz, and Latin Grammy winners Samuel Torres Flor de Toloache among others. In 2018 she became the female lead singer of Calpulli Mexican Dance Company. She is also the lead singer of Mexican Latin Alternative band Adderesound.

https://www.marilyncastillo.com/ 

Singer Nedelka Sotelo

Nedelka Sotelo is a performer/teaching artist born and raised in Mexico City. Currently living in New York acting with different theater companies (Teatro SEA, Mexico Beyond Mariachi, etc) and singing with her Mexican Reggae Band "Nedelka & Latin Roots".

https://www.facebook.com/NedelkaSoteloArtist/  

Equinox Art Exhibition

Won’t you join us, March 13 - 2-5 PM. Let us know you are coming.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/whm2022-art-exhibition-featuring-the-latin-jazzy-sounds-of-marilyn-castillo-tickets-288314084187

About the Author — Gregory Burrus

Gregory Burrus is a local live music ambassador, producer, promoter, event planner, and community partner. Gregory Burrus combines his extensive corporate business and technology expertise with his love of live music and being a strong community advocate. 

I love writing about it all. My mission is to help community groups, live music bands, and local nonprofits, reach their goals and accomplish their missions while enjoying the day-to-day process of life. 

https://www.jerseyindie.com/ji-blogger-gregory-burrus   
https://patch.com/users/gregburrus