Small Island Big Song

Asian and Asian American Arts and Culture Program
Sunday, March 27, 2022 - 4 p.m. ET

 

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Framed in a theatrical narrative amongst panoramic visuals of the artist’s homelands, the audience experiences a musical journey across the breadth and into the soul of island nations of Pacific and Indian Ocean, meeting an ancient seafaring ancestry and confronting the impacts of climate crisis head on.

Drawing on a roster of renowned first nation artists from across the Pacific and Indian Oceans, from Taiwan, Rapa Nui, Madagascar, Mauritius, Marshall Islands, and Tahiti, the concert features musicians performing irresistible oceanic grooves to soulful island ballads engaging audiences from huge festival stages to intimate theatres. Combining music, spoken word and AV projections featuring footage collected during a 3-year film trip across 16 countries guided by the artists on their homelands.

Watch the video for the group's powerful new single here.

Toured to 15 countries across four continents, 170K+ audiences have seen it live since it’s premiere at SXSW 2018. It has become a feature of SIBS concerts for encore to spontaneously erupt into a shared celebration, with instruments, voices and dancing bodies rising from the seats.

Ticket holders are invited to join us for a pre-show Lobby Festival focused on climate change, open for 3pm.
Concert will be followed by a Q&A with the artists!

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This and the following events on this page are part of Art. Sustainability. Activism., a collaboration between the Fine Arts Center, the MFA for Poets and Writers, and the School of Earth & Sustainability. Please join us for the full weekend of events!

 

Eco Lit: Readings from Paperbark magazine and The Massachusetts Review

Saturday, March 26, 2022 | 1 p.m. | Augusta Savage Gallery | Free event

Paperbark, an interdisciplinary literary magazine on campus, publishes criticism, art, poetry, and prose engaged with the environmental humanities. Paperbark is celebrating the launch of Issue 03 with complimentary readings The Massachusetts Review's climate issue. Contributors to both magazines will read work from their recent issues, prose and poetry in conversation with climate and ecologies in crisis — and offer a Q&A period to the audience.

Register here

Eco Lit: Kimberly Blaeser

Saturday, March 26, 2022 | 6 p.m. | John Olver Design Building | Free event

Poet and prose writer Kimberly Blaeser will read from past and current work.  Formerly the Wisconsin Poet Laureate,  Blaeser is the author of five poetry collections including Copper Yearning, Apprenticed to Justice, and Résister en dansant/Ikwe-niimi: Dancing Resistance.  A UW–Milwaukee professor and MFA faculty for Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, Blaeser is founding director of In-Na-Po—Indigenous Nations Poets.  Santee Frazier, visiting faculty in poetry in the MFA for Poets and Writers, will moderate a Q&A following the reading. 

Register here

 

Art. Sustainabilty. Activism. Climate Panel Discussion

Monday, March 28, 2022, 7 p.m. ET | Bowker Auditorium | Free event | In Person & Livestreamed

Continuing our annual partnership with the UMass School of Earth & Sustainability and the MFA Program for Poets and Writers. Please join us for this meeting of minds working at the intersection of climate change, literature, and social justice. This event will be a lively discussion that connects an exciting mix of scientists, artists, changemakers, and scholars. Topics will include climate impacts on culture, the power of indigenous knowledge, and how science and art communities can work together to address the pressing issues of our time. Featured guests include international artist producers from Small Island Big Song.

Register here