PROJECTS
Through the end of 2023, the Foundation has given grants to 221 artists in fifteen rounds of Grant funding and was also the recipient of a grant to help produce the musical adaptation of Dan Baum’s book ‘Nine Lives’, a project by Paul Sanchez and Coleman DeKay. A total of over $825,000 has been rewarded in our history through grants, donations and special programs.
We will keep the information on all of our grant projects updated here, so please visit us often.
We also invite you to become a member of the Foundation to assist us in raising the funds to provide grants, and to receive regular updates on our activities. For information on applying for a grant from the Foundation, please see the Grants page.
2023 Round 15 Grant Recipients
Renée Gross
Renée Gros is an emerging singer and songwriter born, raised, & based in New Orleans, LA. Known for her powerfully soulful voice, Renée’s performances have captivated audiences on stages in her hometown and across the country, including the world famous Tipitina’s, House of Blues Chicago, and Chickie Wah Wah. She has been selected to receive a 2023 Threadhead Cultural Foundation Grant Award to record her debut, full-length LP. The album will be a collection of entirely original music, written by herself and her collaborator, Brazilian-born singer/songwriter, Tiago Guy. The album will be co-produced by Gros herself, Guy, and GRAMMY®-winning vocalist, keyboardist and studio musician, Nigel Hall, and will feature some of New Orleans’ finest musicians. For more on Renée go to www.reneegros.com
Art Camp 504
Art Camp 504 is a student-run art studio offering year-round workshops for passionate young artists. From Art Camp 504: We enable students to lead their own creative journey through choice and exploration, guided by professional artists. Our Rising Artists Scholarship Program provides income based financial aid for families in need. Programs include Summer Camp, Holiday Breaks, and After School Classes. We serve ages 7-14 at our partner venue: the Tigermen Den in the Bywater. We foster a diverse and inclusive environment, welcoming all pronouns, races, cultures, genders, and religious affiliations. Art Camp 504 is a 501(c3) non-profit organization serving the New Orleans community. To learn more about Art Camp 504 go to www.artcamp504.org
Mia Borders
In collaboration with the Threadhead Foundation, Mia Borders will release a new album of original music will celebrate the culture and soul of New Orleans. Drawing from her own multicultural background, this collection will be deeply infused with New Orleans funk, latin bass, classic soul, West African polyrhythms, and more. A portion of the proceeds from the album will go to The Borders Foundation – a local non-profit that seeks to elevate the art of BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and female-identifying creatives. For more on Mia Borders go to www.miaborders.com
Sweet Magnolia Brass Band
Sweet Magnolia Brass Band is excited to complete their first full-length album, Miss Missed Connection. Earnest, bold, and fiercely feminine, the album, Miss Missed Connection, tells stories of missed connections but celebrates that there is romance to the struggle of connecting, laughter with the grind, and definitely music to be heard in the low and high seasons of life. There are upbeat songs about missed loves, missed friendships, and even missed alter-egos. With a little nod to some New Orleans brass band conventions, such as opening tuba bass lines, horn solo backgrounds, and counterpart horn solos, Sweet Magnolia continues to blend the genres of a powerhouse brass band with the forms and earworms of pop music. The band is extremely grateful to The Threadhead Cultural Foundation for making this album possible and their support. Thank you Threadheads for all of your generosity and work keeping our music culture rich and alive! For more on all things Sweet Magnolia, check out https://linktr.ee/sweetmagnoliabrassband.
Los Güiros
Los Güiros is a NOLA-based Psychadelic Cumbia band that has quickly become one of the most recognizable and original groups in the local Latin Music scene. Due to busy performance schedules and financial constraints, Los Güiros has only been able to release their first single “Cumbia Mezcal” in July ’22. However, the band has seven more original songs and is ready to record a full-length debut album! The Threadhead Cultural Foundation Grant will allow the band to take this long-anticipated project over the finish line, with a proper release that will not only make the record a local success but be a great example to the world of what New Orleans can offer to the Latin Music community. For more info check out www.losguiros.com
The Fire Weeds
The Fire Weeds is a new, female-focused theatre company based in New Orleans. From Jaclyn Bethany: “We aim to perform bold and complex works at non-traditional venues, with collaborative artists that hold value and contribute to our emerging company. We hope to inspire the community by questioning what theatre can be and to both interpret classic and new works from the female gaze. Our first production, one acts The Pretty Trap and Interior: Panic by Tennessee Williams will be performed at the Tennessee Williams New Orleans Festival in March 2024.” To keep up with the Tennessee Williams Theater Co go to www.twtheatrenola.com
The Coven
The Coven will create a video documentation of an upcoming performance. From Kimberly Kaye: “Formed in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Ida, The Coven is a lady-fronted consortium of musical magick and mutual aid featuring some of the finest frontwomen in New Orleans today. An ongoing collaboration between lady bandleaders too rarely featured together in a male-dominated festival and live music scene, The Coven features a rotating ’supergroup’ of award-winning vocalists, including Arsene DeLay (Funk Monkey; The A2D2 Experience); Kimberly Kaye (Loose Cattle); Debbie Davis (Debbie Davis & Josh Paxton; The Mesmerizers); Mia Borders; Miss Sophie Lee, and cohorts like Lilli Lewis, Dayna Kurtz, Bunny Love, and Meschiya Lake. Supported by their all-star backing band, Some Men Playing Instruments, The Coven showcases popular music written, or made famous by, the myriad practicing witches hiding in plain sight within the Billboard charts and American songbook, spotlighting the legacy of female and queer artists in an industry which otherwise forces their contributions into shadow. A “you had to be there” experience, The Coven’s shows are a high vibration marriage of blood harmonies, group ritual, women’s history, and musical community healing, rooted deeply in the showmanship of New Orleans hoodoo, Celtic witchery, and indigenous ancestor worship.
Dave Malone & Kevin Aucion
Dave Malone & Kevin Aucoin will complete an original music recording. The “River Road Collective” project was started in February 2016, when Joe Tullos (singer/songwriter/guitarist-Big Sun) approached Dave Malone (singer/songwriter/guitarist-The Radiators) and Kevin Aucoin (drummer-Big Sun) about a musical project that would be comprised of musicians that grew up in St. John the Baptist Parish, part of the River Parishes of south Louisiana. After the initial meeting, the three, along with another River Parish transplant, Frank Girard (Bass-Exit 209), started recording demos of songs from both Joe and Dave’s respected catalogs and collaborated on other songs. Tracking began shortly thereafter in Aucoin’s French Quarter Studio. Other musicians on the project included Tommy Malone (guitar/vocals-the Subdudes) and Michael “Mikey B3″ Burkart (keyboards/vocals-Raw Oyster Cult). These sessions ended in 2019 with 12 tracks that included the songs “Loo-Z-Ann” (featuring Dave and Tommy sharing vocals and guitar parts) – Dave’s song “Living In A River Town” – Joe’s song “Lay The Cane Low” and “Cherry Bounce” co-written by Joe and Dave. Mixes were then started but were abruptly stopped because of Covid. Unfortunately, in the summer of 2020, Joe was diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer and the completion of the project was put on hold. Joe died in November 2020. One year later Frank died unexpectedly. As of July 2023, Dave and Kevin, along with award winning engineer/producer Jack Miele, have resumed mixing the project for a 2024 release.
Double Whisky
Leo Forde and his band, Double Whisky will complete a new record project. From Leo: “We’re planning to use the grant money to allow us to record our second album, this time in a trio setting with electric guitar, exploring the later part of Django Reinhardt’s career as well as New Orleans repertoire. The band has been together for two years and we’re excited to have the album ready for a little tour in the summer of 2024 and our first time at Jazz Fest. This group features Ben Powell on violin ( Gary Burton, Julian Lage, New Hot Club of America), Nobu Ozaki on bass (John Boutte, Harry Connick) and myself on guitar.” For more on Leo and his music go to leofordemusic.com
Carson Station
Ghosts of New Orleans is an original album project that the band Carson Station will undertake in early 2024. The project is led by singer/ songwriter Mark Carson, who has been a mainstay at festivals and venues in New Orleans and across the Gulf South for many years. In addition, he has had over 40 songs recorded by other artists in New Orleans, Nashville and beyond. As is typical for a Carson Station album, the songs will span a variety of genres. In particular, this album will reflect Mark’s New Orleans roots and include a number of collaborations with New Orleans musicians, including John “Papa” Gros. For more on Carson Station check them out on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/carsonstation/
New Orleans Cigar Box Guitar Festival
New Orleans Cigar Box Guitar Festival at the Jazz Museum is a glorious 3-day celebration of the music, art and cultural significance of homemade stringed instruments. Twenty-one marvelous acts, many from Louisiana, will provide the exciting indoor musical entertainment honoring Jazz, Blues and Americana traditions…performed on unique and amazing devices. For more about this fun Fest go to https://www.neworleanscbg.com
John “Papa” Gros
John “Papa” Gros will create a recording of original music. John is a bedrock New Orleans artist, a keyboardist, singer, and songwriter who draws on funk, rhythm & blues and Americana songcraft; he also knows his way around the Mardi Gras music repertoire as well as anyone. From John: “I am humbled and honored to be a recipient of this 2023 Threadhead Cultural Foundation Grant to produce my fourth solo record. This process was to begin the last quarter of 2021, but Hurricane Ida had a different plan when she sent an oak tree into our house and studio. After two plus years of rebuilding and with the help of the TCF, I am encouraged to be back on my feet. The creative juices are flowing, and I am excited to document the newly conjured sounds. Yeah You Right!” For more on John and his music, go to www.johnpapagros.com
Steve Masakowski
Modern jazz guitarist Steve Masakowski will record and release a new album of original music, together with his talented children, vocalist Sasha and upright bassist Martin. After a successful European tour this past fall, this unique family trio is ready to embark on their new recording project – a full length album entitled “Sweet Dreams” featuring a cast of distinguished contemporary jazz musicians on the New Orleans music scene and beyond. The album will act as an homage to luminary jazz pianist Ellis Marsalis, who was a close friend and mentor to Steve. During their long-standing duo gig at Tyler’s in the 1980s, Ellis would often tell Steve that his favorite composition of his was an intricate 3/4 ballad that Steve wrote called “Sweet Dreams,” and the duo played this song frequently together. After Ellis’s passing, Sasha wrote lyrics to “Sweet Dreams,” and the family trio performed it for the first time together during Snug Harbor’s live-streamed tribute to Ellis Marsalis in April of 2020. In keeping the multi-generational, familial jazz tradition alive, the Masakowski Family wanted to pay tribute to the musical ancestors who came before, thus deciding to name the album “Sweet Dreams” in Ellis’s honor. For more info check out Sasha on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/smasakowski?mibextid=LQQJ4d
Loose Cattle
Loose Cattle will manufacture, self-release and promote a 4 song EP of original material. From Michael Cerveris: “Loose Cattle is tremendously grateful to the Threadhead Cultural Foundation for their generous grant to assist in manufacturing their next EP. Recorded during the same sessions that produced their upcoming full-length LP, these songs were produced by John Agnello (Son Volt, Dinosaur Jr.) and tracked in Louisiana at the celebrated Dockside Studios and Marigny Studios. Featuring a host of Threadhead favorites including Alex McMurray, Arsene Delay, Debbie Davis, Meschiya Lake and Lilli Lewis along with guests Lucinda Williams, Patterson Hood and Jay Gonzalez of the Drive By Truckers, the EP will have a release date in 2024. For more about the band go to www.loosecattleband.com
Mem Shannon
From multi award-winning blues artist Mem Shannon: “I am producing, arranging and writing a new studio recording project featuring original material as well as re-worked versions of some legendary songs. Musical legends such as Leo Nocentelli, Davelle Crawford and Cedric Burnside have shown some interest in participating in the project. It has been quite a while since I have done any studio recordings, and I am looking forward to returning to the studio with ears honed and burning once again.” For more on Mem Shannon and his music please go to www.memshannon.com
True Friends Society of Lafayette
True Friends Society of Lafayette will produce a live performance music series. True Friends Society, circa 1883, served as a mutual aid organization supporting its neighbors and promoting the cultural vibrancy of Freetown, an historic African American community in Lafayette, LA. One of True Friends Society’s most notable accomplishments was the creation of Good Hope Hall (aka True Friends Hall), a great jazz house of its time. Jazz orchestras and touring bands from across the country played at Good Hope Hall, including such New Orleans musicians as Louis Armstrong and Walter “Fats” Pichon. Many traditional Jazz musicians of the 1920s and 30s would travel on railroad excursions to this iconic Creole “jazz mecca,” to play music til the early morning. Today, True Friends Society of Lafayette has rekindled the torch to celebrate the cultural and historical significance of its community. It serves as protectors of the flame and utilizes its community-driven African American museum, Maison Creole de Freetown to tell these rich stories. Live at Maison Freetown Sessions aims to recreate the magic of this bygone Jazz era in Lafayette. Through multi-discipline methods, artists will perform and document their artistry within the same musical landscape that early Jazz era musicians got their start. This live performance series aims to connect back to Freetown’s rich musical tradition and provide a creative launchpad for musicians to perform their original work in a creative space. The artist series will serve as a bridge between past and present, creating a musical archive of the time and a curated repository for people to enjoy for years to come. Learn more at www.maisonfreetown.org
Goat in the Road Productions
Goat in the Road Productions will present an original music theater production. Carlota, a new musical created by Goat in the Road Productions and Dr. Denise Frazier scheduled for May of 2024, will examine the life and descendants of Carlota Ruíz de González, a fictionalized version of a 19th-century Afro-Cuban revolutionary. Jumping back and forth in time, the story will revolve around González’s time as an enslaved woman in colonial and Reconstruction-era New Orleans, her work in the Cuban War for Independence, and the connection with her great-great-great granddaughter Carlota James, living in present-day New Orleans. Goat in the Road is a New Orleans-based performance ensemble founded in 2008 with two main goals: 1.) To create new works of theater that foster discussion around important social issues. 2.) To cultivate young artists through its Play/Write program. For more on GRP check out www.goatintheroadproductions.org
Save the Music Foundation
Lumar LeBlanc
Lumar LeBlanc is recording of new original music. From Lumar: “My name is “LuCaVitch” (Lumar Leblanc) and the Album is called “LuCaVitch The Culture”. My Album is a solo project, a Cultural Experience in Hip-Hop and Poetry. I am going to create an album that displays the rich cultural heritage of New Orleans music. As leader and member of Soul Rebels Brass Band I have been in the music industry for over 30years. This album will have the vibrant love and expression of New Orleans music. I will be doing my own music, I have been blessed to travel the world and represent New Orleans culture and music, all over the globe. Respect and appreciation for my home New Orleans and the music, is my life and very, very important. My musical history is well documented, I was born and raised in the Treme, Lafitte Housing Project into the music and performed with my drums regularly. This shows the support and presence I have been blessed with from New Orleans, thank you for the opportunity. This will be my solo project of music as Lumar LeBlanc. This music will uplift the culture and affect the youth in a positive way. I am so grateful for the Threadhead Cultural Foundation Support on this thank you!” For more on Lumar and the Soul Rebels go to www.thesoulrebels.com
Make Music NOLA
Make Music NOLA will have their special summer Creative Composition Week to take place in June at their Bell ArtSpace campus. This immersive music program is designed for students from Kindergarten to 12th grade, offering a unique opportunity to enhance their understanding of New Orleans musical styles. Under the guidance of local professional musicians serving as instructors, students will not only learn and improve but also have the exciting chance to create their own melodies, harmonies, and rhythms. Make Music NOLA (MMN) was founded in September 2011 as the “Youth Orchestra of the Lower 9th Ward.” The program has expanded to eight locations around the city, including five charter schools and their after school and Summer headquarters at the Bell Artspace Campus in the historic Treme neighborhood of New Orleans, a community deeply rooted in the city’s musical history and legacy. MMN has upheld the same central mission since its founding: to give the children of New Orleans the keys to claim their musical heritage and the tools to build their creative legacy through music education. MMN’s curriculum specifically focuses on teaching and promoting music by BIPOC composers from the South. Through consistency, discipline, and a supportive community, MMN strives to create opportunity and access for students from marginalized communities. MMN supports learning and enrichment that falls outside of the K-12 system by providing instruction during out-of-school-time. For more on Make Music NOLA please go to www.makemusicnola.org o
Julie Holman
Julie Holman will produce an educational film and digital series. In collaboration with musicians, artists and culture bearers from Bvlbancha and across Turtle Island, award winning filmmaker Julie D. Holman will direct and creatively produce a documentary celebrating and amplifying the voices of Louisiana’s underrepresented indigenous nations influence and contributions to our unique musical and cultural landscape. The documentary (40-60 minutes) and micro-series (2-4 episodes) aims to take you on a musically rich road-trip throughout Louisiana’s diverse waters and roadway-where the voices of musicians, artists, cultural bearers and representatives from the Chitimacha, Coushatta, Jena Band of Choctaw, Grand Caillou/Dulac Band, Tunica-Biloxi, Pointe-Au-Chien and United Houma Nations share their oral history. Referencing Ethnomusicology with an emphasis on demonstrating how the sublime cultural and social sound components are blended in our rich cultural fabric. The intention is to intersect in regions and spaces such as Bvlbancha. Bvlbancha means “place of babbling tongues,” or “place of many languages” in Chahta (Choctaw) and is the only recorded pre-colonial name for the land that is now known as New Orleans. Julie’s creative works aim to demonstrate the interconnectedness of all beings while respecting the power of each person’s unique voice. Julie’s most recent work, her documentary “Once Upon a Time in New Orleans” screened at the 2022 New Orleans Film Festival. Featuring musical artists and cultural bearers Grayhawk Perkins, Wendell Brunious and Luther Gray for the inaugural NOVAC & Sync-Up Collab, uplifting emerging New Orleans Directors. For more on Julie go to www.juliedholman.com
Families Helping Families of Southeast Louisiana
Familes Helping Familes of Southeast Louisiana – The Prism Project of GNO is in its eleventh season of bringing inclusive after-school performance-arts programming to youth with disabilities and their neurotypical peers in the Spring of 2024. Since 2013, Prism Project of GNO (PRISM) has been closing a gap in Greater New Orleans by providing performance-arts-recreational-services, offering inclusive & specialized accommodated-programming for neurodiverse & neurotypical youth. The program, steeped in our city’s rich jazz and blues tradition, receives enrollments from Orleans, Plaquemines, St Bernard, and Jefferson Parishes. This year PRISM is honored to be a recipient of the Threadhead Cultural Foundation Award and recognize and share our gratitude that their support will help provide the staffing to facilitate creative exploration & education, culminating in a final performance, while in tandem providing opportunities for the development of social skills, peer-relations, self-esteem, & friendship building. Prism employs four Behavior Specialists who focus on the individual & group behavioral needs of the performers and four Creative Coordinators in Dance, Music Instruments, Voice, and Theater. For more on this worthwhile project please check out www.fhfnola.org/the-prism-project/
LOTAGRFD
LOTAGRFD will complete an album of original music. From James Beaumont: “LOTAGRFD is the collaboration of five composers and improvisers, namely Chris Senac, Austin Clements, Tyler Clements, Ian Cunningham and James Beaumont. We love making music together and have honed our craft over the years playing clubs and festivals in and around New Orleans. Our soundscapes reflect the stories that we grew up around, whether playing video games or playing music on Bourbon Street as teenagers, and we seek to play music that is inspired by New Orleans but takes a modern approach by using synths and electronic textures. The funding will enable us to record our debut album, which will be the culmination of years spent writing and performing together.”
Nickle a Dance
NICKEL A DANCE is a free series of Sunday afternoon jazz concerts each spring and fall that is a hit with children, families, seniors and the general dancing public that don’t tend to go to night clubs. It attracts a diverse group of fans that meet on Frenchmen Street to celebrate jazz as America’s original dance music while listening to the best of today’s classic jazz bands. The fiscal sponsor is the New Orleans Jazz Celebration, a 501(c)3 organization. In 1994 the Louisiana Jazz Federation presented a traditional New Orleans Jazz band to perform one Sunday afternoon in October at the legendary Café Brasil on Frenchmen Street. The event was free and open to the public as part of the annual Jazz Town Awards ceremony in celebration of Jazz Awareness Month. The event was so well received that many people requested that the event be presented more often. . The following year it was decided to make the event a weekly concert every Sunday in October to satisfy demand. From a suggestion by jazz historian Dick Allen, the new series was given the name Nickel-A-Dance, a payment to dance partners at the dance hall shows that were held in neighborhoods all over New Orleans in the 1920s. The Maison on Frenchmen Street has become the newly adopted home of Nickel a Dance. For more on this fun, family event go to https://www.nojc.org/
The Next Generation Jazz Band
The Next Generation Jazz Band is a community group made up of student musicians from New Orleans and the surrounding areas. The band’s mission is to preserve, perpetuate and provide local youth with educational, real-life opportunities to learn and perform this vital American art form we call New Orleans Jazz. Preserving and perpetuating the traditions of New Orleans jazz to the next generation of young musicians is priority one for the band. Jazz is purely an American artform. With jazz being created in New Orleans it is even more vital for this music to be preserved in the very city it was created. Too many times music education is driven by the financial and social economic status of the local area. As a band we believe that music education is something that should be offered to all young people despite their differences. After all, the diversity of the New Orleans melting pot is what helped to create this music. The Next Generation Jazz Band of New Orleans will be recording and preserving the music of legendary New Orleans trumpet players Louis Armstrong, John Brunious, and Wendell Brunious. Elder New Orleans musicians will be working and recording with the members of the Next Generation Jazz Band of New Orleans to preserve and perpetuate traditional New Orleans Jazz in its purest form. Along with absorbing the vital knowledge of this music, the young musicians will also be educated on the recording process and the business side of music. For updates on The Next Generation Jazz Band check them out on FB at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087984957412…
Malcolm Welbourne “Papa Mali”
Malcolm Welbourne, aka Papa Mali, will finish and release a new album, several singles and a possible EP, of all original songs. Papa Mali is a New Orleans based, American singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer who has been a touring musician and recording artist for decades. He presently works with his trio including Cass Faulconer and Russ Broussard as well as Shantytown Underground, a horn-driven ensemble connecting the musical dots between classic New Orleans R&B and the origins of Jamaican ska, rocksteady, and reggae. Past collaborations include super-group projects The M&M’s and 7 Walkers. From Papa: “2024 is off to a great start, with some very exciting news! Not only will I be performing on the first weekend at this year’s New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, but I have just received a grant from Threadhead Cultural Foundation, to release a new Papa Mali album and several new singles, in the upcoming year! As a few of you may know, I began recording a new batch of original songs, several months ago, at world-renowned Dockside Studios, laying basic tracks, over five days, with Casandra Faulconer on bass, Russ Broussard on drums and yours truly, on guitars and vocals. This grant money makes it possible to complete and release this long-overdue follow up to my last full length album, Music Is Love. Stay tuned, for updates. I can’t wait for you all to hear what we’ve been up to! Thanks to everyone at Threadhead Cultural Foundation, for all that you do and for your help in making musical dreams come true! And of course, none of it would be possible, without you – my loyal friends and fans! Your support means the world to me!” To keep up with Papa go to www.Facebook.com/papamali
Daniel Moses Barker Foundation
The Daniel Moses Barker Foundation is in production for the 10th year of the Danny Barker Banjo and Guitar Festival. The festival will begin on March 6th, 2024 with a Patron Party at the Terrell House and continue to March 10th, 2024 at venues to include George and Joyce Wein Center, Tipitina’s, Snug Harbor and the New Orleans Jazz Museum. There will also be a Parade through the French Quarters following a Church service at Fairview BC where Mr. Barker organized a youth band and contributed his talent and service. From Detroit Brooks: “This is the 10th year!! We are happy to say we are here, working hard for this year’s festival, and it is our greatest pleasure to present to you the best of the best. It is because of everybody that we can celebrate this momentous event. Thank you, everyone, for your love, support, and faith in our production. We always strive to satisfy all of you and provide a week of music, education, and interviews of local musicians, as well as an outlet for employment and economic development for our local community and the state.” To keep up with the schedule and planning for this important event go to www.dannybarkerfestival.com
Johnette Downing
Johnette Downing will produce an album of original music. Snap Bean: Zydeco for Children is not only an authentic Louisiana zydeco album with lyrics written specifically for children, but is also an historic collaboration between award-winning New Orleans children’s musician Johnette Downing and Grammy nominees Nathan Williams and the Zydeco Cha Chas. The recording is co-produced by Johnette, Nathan, and Grammy winner Scott Billington, and recorded at Cha Cha Studio in Lafayette. Vocals, in both English and Creole, will be shared by Johnette and Nathan, accompanied by Johnette on guitar and ukulele, Nathan on accordion, Naylan Williams on drums and keyboards, Lee Allen Zeno on bass, Dennis Paul Williams on guitar, and Scott Billington on harmonica. For more information on Johnette you can go to www.johnettedowning.com
The Tennessee Williams Theater Company of New Orleans
The Tennessee Williams Theatre Company of New Orleans will produce Kingdom of Earth. From Nick Shackleford: “Spring 2024 welcomes TWTC’s production of its flagship play Kingdom of Earth, starring local artists; Rebecca Elizabeth Hollingsworth, Edward Carter Simon, and Benjamin Dougherty, directed by Tennessee Williams scholar and dramaturg Augustin J Correro. This dark, sensual production will plumb the depths of desire, desperation, and prejudice with exciting design elements and some of the most talented performers in the city to mine the nuance from the complex script. We aim to spur discussion surrounding generational curses and the meaning of race and color, all while presenting the material in a thrilling and entertaining fashion.” Founded in 2015 right here in New Orleans, TWTC is the first professional theatre company in the United States to focus on the works and legacy of New Orleans’ resident playwright, Tennessee Williams. They have produced three fully staged productions a year since 2015 and just finished a very successful seventh season, with many sold out performances, which included: Night of the Iguana at Loyola, Sweet Bird of Youth at the Marigny Opera House and Spring Storm, also at Loyola. For more on TWTC go to www.twtheatrenola.com
Lyrica Baroque
Lyrica Baroque will host Creativity Day, a day-long event during NOLA Chamber Fest dedicated to offering support, education and chamber music opportunities to New Orleans students and educators. Creativity Day 2024 will be held April 6th at the University of New Orleans and serve youth from community partner organizations from across our region. From Jaren Atherholt: “Lyrica Baroque is committed to deepening our understanding of systems of inequity in race, gender, and interpersonal relationships in the arts and the communities where we live and work. We aim to acknowledge practices of bias, exclusion and oppression, and work through this lens to prioritize diverse professional, racial, and economic representation reflective of our community at every level of decision making throughout the organization. We are committed to using music, the arts and education to inspire change so that all people – especially those who are marginalized – are safe, secure, and thriving. We are thrilled to welcome guest teaching artist Loki Karuna to New Orleans to help students with their musical exploration and how music can play a role in their lives. Thank you, Threadhead Cultural Foundation, for your continued support of music education in New Orleans!” For more on Lyrica Baroque check out www.lyricabaroque.com
N’Fungola Sibo African Dance and Drum Company
N’Fungola Sibo African Dance and Drum Company, Inc., is one of the South’s premier traditional West African dance companies, and will host NOMAADS 2024, a three-day festival taking place in August, 2024, featuring all-day West African dance and drum workshops, a lively slate of local musicians, and a culminating gala performance. The New Orleans Music and African Dance Spectacle (NOMAADS) Festival uses music and traditional West African dance, song, drumming, and folklore to bridge the cultures of the African diaspora in New Orleans and beyond, bringing in guest artists from Mali, Senegal, and Guinea to work alongside local musicians, dancers, griots, and culture bearers toward promotion of cross-cultural engagement and understanding of our shared culture and history. Creative directors and co-producers Mikeall Hawkins and Solomon Mason will once again work alongside co-producer Rickey Caesar of Casear Brothers’ Funk Box to curate a robust mix of local and international master artists and musicians, with a particular focus on highlighting under-discovered local talents not yet getting the attention they so richly deserve. NOMAADS 2024’s exciting slate of workshops and live music will take place once again at The George and Joyce Wein Jazz & Heritage Center, a spectacular venue at the gateway between the French Quarter and Tremé neighborhoods. N’Fungola Sibo is so humbled to be standing alongside the rest of this grant cycle’s amazing artists as members of the Threadhead family, and so immensely grateful to the Threadhead Cultural Foundation for once again helping our vision become a reality—and for all they do to support New Orleans artists and culture bearers, the true lifeblood of this city. For more information go to www.nfungolasibo.com
Erica Fox
Erica Fox will produce her solo debut album which will feature her original compositions and arrangements. Erica Fox is known as a songwriter and vocalist on over 40 commercially produced projects for other artists and has penned songs by Master P, C-Murder, Tank and Timothy Bloom but has yet to create her own solo project. Having started her career at MCA and then later No Limit Records, she has waited in the wings for more than three decades to produce a project that is uniquely her own. She continues as a working musician from Louisiana and her music is a blend of influences ranging from New Orleans blues, R&B and gospel. In 2021, Erica received a Grammy consideration for Best R&B song for “I Still Love You” featuring Timothy Bloom. Her album will showcase original compositions with a feel that hearkens to the Soul of legends like Carol Fran and Irma Thomas. The project will be recorded at both Esplanade and Dockside Recording Studios. For more information and to keep up with Erica and this project go to www.ericafox.com
Tekrema Center for Art and Culture
Tekrema Center for Art and Culture will host Blues to Bounce, the third sequel of Yé Va Toujou Dansé! – They Will Always Dance! (formerly Born In Blackness – Born In LOVE). The project is the choreographic, literary, and documentary treatise of Louisiana’s African American traditional and social dance practices. Blues to Bounce is the exploration of New Orleans’ Bounce music and dance as commentary on the social-political structures in New Orleans at the time of the genre’s inception, and Bounce’s role as a communal response to the social constructs of the era. Included will be Louis Armstrong’s seminal work, “What Is This Thing Called Swing” addressing the inter-connection of art/music/dance as expressions of social thought. Blues to Bounce will be designed in three parts: research, choreographic/performance creation, and writing workshops/publication. Artists will be retained as project creators, creative consultants, and essential performers. The mission of Tekrema Center for Art and Culture is to create a legacy of artistic excellence, intellectual development, scholarly achievement, and community responsibility through the study, maintenance, development, and perseverance of African, African American and African Diaspora art and culture. Tekrema has continued to work, serve, grow, and learn from all people and cultures. Tekrema Center for Art and Culture asserts that all people, their cultures, and socially artistic processes deserve respect and recognition. For more information on Tekrema Center please check out www.tekremaarts.org
HollyRock
HollyRock will record their first full length album of original music and print the album on vinyl. From the band: “HollyRock is a New Orleans based band whose members all hail from the same small hometown. The name is synonymous with small town simple living and with original songs like `200 Miles` and `Life is Fine`, the group expresses their longing to leave rural Louisiana and move to the city of New Orleans to search for new influences and experiences while at the same time pining away for the comfort and love of their familiar home. Steve Staples, William Murry, and Charlie Murry bring their individual musical talents together to not only entertain, but to enhance the atmosphere and vibe of any event. They bring their music as an art form that allows anyone listening to have fun and celebrate. Their sound is unique with a mixture of blue grass, rock, classical, gospel and country. They have witnessed in their youth firsthand the raw talent of their ancestors and friends and community that went unrecognized and quite frankly unnoticed. Each time they perform they are shining for and representing those early contributors that never got the chance to record their music or even to perform in front of an audience. By recording their original songs, these three musicians hope to encourage other unknown talents to step out and go the extra mile for their talent. Though HollyRock has performed across Louisiana from bars, restaurants, and music venues to music and film festivals, another goal of this project is to create momentum in the marketplace and to gather traction as artists in order to advance new projects, releases, new collaborations, and tours. Thanks also to the Threadhead Cultural Foundation for their generosity, inspiration, and vison.” For more on HollyRock go to https://www.facebook.com/HollyRockMusic/about