Phoebe Legere Performs on WBAI and the Theater for the New City

WBAI  and Fran Luck’s

“Joy of Resistance Radio”

PRESENTS MODERN DAY FEMINISTS

SHARING TRUTHS OF FREEDOM FIGHTING FOREMOTHERS

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Trailblazing Musician-Artist-Composer Phoebe Legere Featured

In All-Star Line-up of Women Saluting Women To Celebrate 100 Years of Women’s Constitutional Right to Vote. 

On August 26^th, Phoebe and a group of brilliant actresses including Obie winner Crystal Field and Lissa Morra reenact highpoints in women’s battle for equality and elective enfranchisement.

On Wednesday, August 26^th, WBAI Radio 99.5FM NYC (wbai.org) will broadcast a day devoted to the history of the Women’s Suffrage Movement featuring contemporary feminist icons.  The cast will re-enact highlights from 100 years of the campaign for equality.

Transdisciplinary artist and renowned feminist Phoebe Legere will play the part of Chairwoman at the historic first women’s rights convention: the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848.

Legere will also present a stunning rendition of several 100-year-old Suffrage songs including “GLORY.”

Legere’s interpretation on piano, guitar and accordion, and vocals is a formidable anthem for our time. Legere’s powerhouse interpretation of “GLORY” celebrates the past achievements of women fighting for the freedom to vote, while heralding the need to continue the battle for true equality.

ABOUT “GLORY” 

This song, with words by L. May Wheeler sung to the music of “John Brown,” was first performed by Susan B. Anthony and a chorus of women on July 4, 1876 at the Women’s Centennial Celebration of American Independence held at the First Unitarian Church in Philadelphia.

After singing the song, Anthony read the Women’s Declaration of Rights to a cheering crowd.

“Our hearts have felt the glory of the coming of the time,

When Law and Love shall make our land sublime,

When every mountain hill and rock with freedom’s light will shine,

And truth goes marching on.”

Legere says, “The use of ‘John Brown’ as the melody of this song amplifies the strong ties between the Abolitionist Movement and Women’s Suffrage.”

The WBAI program will be broadcast on  August 26^th, Wednesday, from 11 am – 5 pm EST on Fran Luck’s “The Joy of Resistance, Multicultural Feminist Radio”,  99.5 FM and streaming live at http://wbai.org

The show will be presented again on August 27^th at 7 pm by the Theater for the New City. Watch at Theaterforthenewcity.net.

Phoebe Legere is a pioneer female composer and multi-instrumentalist and a well-known activist and community leader championing women’s causes.

Her work as a playwright has chronicled many women’s issues.  In her musical, “Hello, Mrs. President,” Legere’s book presented the first woman of color to become president of the United States. Legere’s play, starring Laverne Baker debuted at Theater for The New City in 1992 and 2004 playing to sold out crowds.

Phoebe Legere’s “Speed Queen,” presented at Dixon Place in 2018 was based on the Life of Joe Carstairs, the World Champion Speedboat Racer and lesbian action hero. 

As a visual artist Legere has created cutting-edge paintings and installations celebrating the beauty and fecundity of the female body. Legere’s art transgresses normative sexuality and gender identity. 

Legere launched Foundation for New American Art, a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit dedicated to bringing arts education programs to underserved children in low-income communities.

Phoebe will make a download of her “GLORY” available at no charge to those who visit her website at www.phoebelegere.com 

PHOEBE LEGERE (Abenaki) is the President of the Foundation for New American Art a nonprofit whose mission is to bring free art and music lessons to the children of low-income communities.  She is a composer, playwright, poet, painter and multi-disciplinary performance artist. Legere has received numerous awards including NYSCA, a Pulitzer nomination and a recent YADDO Fellowship. Legere is the Conductor and Music Director of the Lower East Side Children’s Chorus. She is a lecturer at NYU Gallatin School. Vassar graduate and Juilliard-trained composer. Phoebe Legere has collaborated with some of the most creative personalities of modern times: David Bowie, Joni Mitchell, Steve Martin, Billy Joel, Allen Ginsberg, and Crystal Field. Her epic poem “The Waterclown” about water issues and water rights can be heard in the current issue of the Abenaki anthology Dawnland Voices. Legere’s new play will open at TNC in 2021. Her native name is “Songbundle.”