Northern Kentucky University’s School of the Arts, in association with Jazz Alive, Inc with support from Ohio Arts Council, will be hosting a multi-day event entitled “Sistahs Who Swing.”
The event will celebrate and highlight African American women artists, educators, and businesswomen. There will be discussion and reflection on a variety of issues that all women in business and the arts face in the pursuit of successful careers and lives.
Internationally renowned and award-winning jazz vocalist René Marie will be the guest artist-in-residence/clinician for this event. The celebration will conclude on Saturday, March 26 with a performance by René Marie and the NKU Jazz Faculty.
All events are free and open to the public, thanks to the support of the NKU SOTA Tom and Christine Neyer Family Visiting Artist Fund and NKU College of Arts and Sciences Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Fellowship. But you must make reservations.
Thursday, March 24th: (Newport residents are panel participants)
10:30 am – Sistahs Who Swing Panel Discussion/NKU Otto Budig Theatre
Staking Your Place: African American Women in Business, Education & the Arts
• Laura Gentry, President, Jazz Alive
• Kathy Wade, Jazz Vocalist and CEO, Learning Through Art, Inc.
• Angela Powell Walker, Artistic Director, SCPA
• Taren Plesinger-Kenebrew, Local Business Entrepreneur
• Virinda Garland Doddy, NKU Alum – 2nd Vice President Northern Kentucky Branch NAACP & Newport resident
• Adoria L. Maxberry, Artist and Owner, Most outGROWing, LLC
• Shelia Williams, Author & Newport resident
Noon – Luncheon with Panelists/UC Ballroom
Lunch provided for the first 65 registrations through generous support of the NKU College of Arts and Sciences Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Fellowship
1 p.m. – Keynote/Art & Design Speake/NKU Otto Budig Theatre
Josie Love Roebuck: Roebuck’s process addresses the contemporary complexity of identifying as biracial through symbolizing pain and triumph, exclusion, and acceptance. The act of Roebuck sewing together portraits has allowed her canvas to become her paper and her needle to become her pen, in order for Roebuck to draw upon the past and present to convey a story of her experiences and her family’s experiences.
Josie Love Roebuck is represented by Latchkey Gallery (NY) and is an interdisciplinary artist from Chattanooga, TN. Roebuck is currently teaching at the University of Cincinnati where she received her M.F.A (2021). She received her B.F.A with an emphasis in drawing and painting, from the University of Georgia (2019).
She has exhibited her work at Kunstheille Krems Art Museum (AUT) forthcoming, LatchKey Gallery (NY) forthcoming, Akron Art Museum (OH), Ann Arbor Art Center (MI), New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art partnered with University of Southern Indiana (IN), Denny Dimin Gallery (NY), Roy G Biv (OH), Christie’s at Rockefeller Plaza in collaboration with 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair (NY), NADA House (NY), LatchKey Gallery (NY), Contemporary Arts Center (OH), Portrait Society Gallery (WI), and Untitled Art Fair with Denny Dimin Gallery (NYC/online).
Rene Marie
Friday, March 25th:
10:30 a.m. – René Marie: Guest Speaker/NKU Greaves Concert Hall
3 p.m. – Master Class with Rene Marie/NKU Greaves Concert Hall
Saturday, March 26th Headline Event:
8 p.m. – René Marie Concert NKU Greaves Concert Hall
René Marie Performance with NKU Jazz Faculty. In a span of two decades, 11 recordings and countless stage performances, vocalist René Marie has cemented her reputation as not only a singer, but also a composer, arranger, theatrical performer, and teacher. Guided and tempered by powerful life lessons and rooted in jazz traditions laid down by Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington and other leading ladies of past generations, she borrows various elements of folk, R&B, and even classical and country to create a captivating hybrid style. Her body of work is musical, but it’s more than just music. It’s an exploration of the bright and dark corners of the human experience, and an affirmation of the power of the human spirit.
