Vanessa Ruben
Mini-Festival: Celebration of International Day of Peace
Sept 18 & 19 special events @Soapbox Gallery, Brooklyn
Friday, September 18th, 8pm (Doors at 7:30pm)
One Breath Rising https://www.onebreathrising.org/ and Melchizedek Music Productions /Open Fortress https://www.melchizedekmusicproduction.com/
Vocalist Vanessa Rubin & her Trio featuring pianist Brandon McCune, bassist Kenny Davis , multi-percussionist Winard Harper & Poet Nancy Mercado
Revered as both a torchbearer and a storyteller, jazz vocalist Vanessa Rubin possesses a voice hailed with crystalline clarity, hearth-like warm, emotional depth and keen burnished wisdom she can deliver with playful lioness sass. The Cleveland native brings a wealth of diverse influences to her vocal performances. From swing to bossa nova to blues, ballads and contemporary covers performed with small and large ensembles, Rubin’s interpretive ability to move through the Great American Songbook to modern jazz composers/arrangers like Tadd Dameron and Horace Silver to contemporary composers as Stevie Wonder, Bill Withers and Sting is masterful. “The Great American Songbook continues to expand with songs by outstanding composers who can paint pictures of the life of our times with their unique melodies and lyric that also stand the test of time”, Rubin asserts.
Rubin’s passion for rich musical stories is evidenced throughout her nine recordings as a leader plus numerous guest appearances. A recipient of numerous awards and citations, she is most proud of a 2011 Kevin Klein Nomination for Best Actress in a Musical called Yesterdays: An Evening with Billie Holiday in which she performed a one woman show about the life and music of the iconic jazz singer. The Dream Is You, her most recent self-produced recording and the first all vocal tribute to another native Clevelander known as “the romanticist of the bebop period”, Tadd Dameron, enthusiastically garnered a 2020 nomination at the 51st NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Jazz Album. Rubin continues to be a favorite at jazz clubs and festivals here in the US and abroad. Her work as a performing artist, writer, producer, clinician/educator at educational institutions, as well as her most recent 2021 endeavor, curator and producer of Sundown Jazz @ V’s Place, an outdoor summer performance jazz series in Cleveland, Ohio is ongoing.
Nancy Mercado was recently named New York’s New Generation Beat Poet Laureate, (Lifetime Award) by the National Beat Poetry Foundation. She is also the recipient of the American Book Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Before Columbus Foundation and was named one of The Frederick Douglass 200 by the Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives and American University’s Antiracist Research and Policy Center.
An award-winning poet, playwright, editor, and activist, Mercado has presented her work throughout the United States and internationally at the United Nations Committee on the Status of Women, Lincoln Center, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the University of Nantes, the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, Casa de las Américas in Cuba, The Public Theater, Town Hall, Symphony Space, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, and numerous other venues.
Mercado is the author of It Concerns the Madness, Las Tres Hermanas, and seven stage plays. She is the editor of if the world were mine, a young adult anthology, as well as three digital anthologies. Her poetry, essays, and interviews have appeared widely in literary and arts journals, including Tar Baby, and in anthologies such as Blind Persistence and Bigotry on Broadway, among others.
Throughout her distinguished career, Mercado’s work has reflected a steadfast commitment to artistic excellence, cultural memory, and social justice.
Visit: nancy-mercado.com
Mini-Festival
On Friday and Saturday, September 18th and 19th the Greenhouse Creators Consortium will present an innovative festival at Soapbox Gallery, 636 Dean Street, Brooklyn in association with One Breath Rising (OBR) https://www.onebreathrising.org/, the Festival of New Trumpet Music (FONT) https://fontmusic.org/, and Continuum Culture and Arts, Inc. https://www.continuumculture.org/greenhouse which will feature workshops on September 13th, 15th, 18th, as well as performances on September 18th and 19th.
The Greenhouse Creators' Consortium (GCC) is comprised of six 501(c)(3) organizations focused on developing projects through organic collective action, with the goal of raising the awareness of artists and audiences. The six entities operate individually under the direction of a diverse and accomplished group of artists, all deeply focused on the art of improvised music and embracing a variety of disciplines in arts and education.
Ahmed Abdullah's Diaspora with Monique
Ngozi Nri, Don Chapman, Alexis Marcelo,
Norbert Marius & George Gray
D.D. Jackson with Jay Rodriguez, Norbert
Marius & Michael Wimberly
Martha Cinader & Jay Rodriguez
Iqua and Adegoke Steve Colson with Mark
Helias & Michael Wimberly
Jay Rodriguez - Composition for the
Greenhouse Creators’ Consortium
Billy Lester, from Yonkers, NY, began playing piano at age 41/2. At age 16 he began studying with the great Jazz master improviser Sal Mosca; a stint that lasted 15 years.
Here are excerpts from a review of Lester"s latest release "High Standards" written by Tony Frankel in CD-DVD.
"Billy Lester reminds us that reinvention isn't just possible in Jazz--it's the point."
"Lester plunges into the American songbook not to pay homage but to interrogate it, dismantle it, and rebuild it on his own terms. [His music] is no polite stroll through familiar melodies. Instead, each [song] becomes a high-wire act of improvisation, exhilarating in its spontaneity and fearless in its abstraction."
"Listeners familiar with Lester's lineage, a [student] of Sal Mosca and by extension Lennie Tristano will recognize the deep commitment to improvisation that's less about showing off and more about searching. [His songs] are pushed to their harmonic edges. The melodies are not introduced outright, so those who don't know the original standards should listen intently."
Billy Lester thanks Soapbox gallery for providing a venue for him to share his improvised music.
Margaret Slovak is a guitarist, composer and painter. Born and raised in Denver, Colorado, she began playing the guitar at age 11 and composing at age 14. Margaret studied jazz, classical music and visual art, receiving her BFA in music from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, Washington. Her teachers included guitarists John Abercrombie, Dale Bruning, Dave Peterson and Ralph Towner. Margaret has performed throughout the US, Canada, Germany and the Czech Republic.
She has released five CDs, four of which feature her original music. In addition to public performances, Margaret plays for patients in cancer centers, hospitals and hospice; she also performed for wounded combat veterans at the Bronx VA hospital in NYC from 2009–2012. Margaret is also a painter, creating visual images which reflect her musical compositions; her artwork appears on her album packages and sometimes on stage!
Although Margaret is currently based in Austin, TX, she lived and performed in New York City from 1988–1993 and 2008–2012. In 1989, during her first stint in NYC, she recorded an album of eight of her original compositions; the project featured Margaret on electric guitar, along with three stellar NY musicians: pianist Fred Hersch, bassist Michael Formanek and drummer Michael Sarin. This album, entitled For the Moment, was released on CD in 2007. Now, in 2026, Margaret is releasing a vinyl version of this acclaimed NYC album!
To celebrate the vinyl release, she will perform a quartet concert at Soapbox Gallery featuring the music from For the Moment. She will be joined by the exquisite drummer who was on the original 1989 recording session, Michael Sarin. The quartet will also include two wonderful NYC-based musicians, pianist Gary Versace and bassist Simón Willson.
Margaret Slovak: guitar; Gary Versace: piano; Simòn Willson: bass; Michael Sarin: drums.
www.margaretslovak.com; Instagram: @margaretslovakguitar
COMING UP
Vanessa Ruben
Mini-Festival: Celebration of International Day of Peace
Sept 18 & 19 special events @Soapbox Gallery, Brooklyn
Friday, September 18th, 8pm (Doors at 7:30pm)
One Breath Rising https://www.onebreathrising.org/ and Melchizedek Music Productions /Open Fortress https://www.melchizedekmusicproduction.com/
Vocalist Vanessa Rubin & her Trio featuring pianist Brandon McCune, bassist Kenny Davis , multi-percussionist Winard Harper & Poet Nancy Mercado
Revered as both a torchbearer and a storyteller, jazz vocalist Vanessa Rubin possesses a voice hailed with crystalline clarity, hearth-like warm, emotional depth and keen burnished wisdom she can deliver with playful lioness sass. The Cleveland native brings a wealth of diverse influences to her vocal performances. From swing to bossa nova to blues, ballads and contemporary covers performed with small and large ensembles, Rubin’s interpretive ability to move through the Great American Songbook to modern jazz composers/arrangers like Tadd Dameron and Horace Silver to contemporary composers as Stevie Wonder, Bill Withers and Sting is masterful. “The Great American Songbook continues to expand with songs by outstanding composers who can paint pictures of the life of our times with their unique melodies and lyric that also stand the test of time”, Rubin asserts.
Rubin’s passion for rich musical stories is evidenced throughout her nine recordings as a leader plus numerous guest appearances. A recipient of numerous awards and citations, she is most proud of a 2011 Kevin Klein Nomination for Best Actress in a Musical called Yesterdays: An Evening with Billie Holiday in which she performed a one woman show about the life and music of the iconic jazz singer. The Dream Is You, her most recent self-produced recording and the first all vocal tribute to another native Clevelander known as “the romanticist of the bebop period”, Tadd Dameron, enthusiastically garnered a 2020 nomination at the 51st NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Jazz Album. Rubin continues to be a favorite at jazz clubs and festivals here in the US and abroad. Her work as a performing artist, writer, producer, clinician/educator at educational institutions, as well as her most recent 2021 endeavor, curator and producer of Sundown Jazz @ V’s Place, an outdoor summer performance jazz series in Cleveland, Ohio is ongoing.
Nancy Mercado was recently named New York’s New Generation Beat Poet Laureate, (Lifetime Award) by the National Beat Poetry Foundation. She is also the recipient of the American Book Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Before Columbus Foundation and was named one of The Frederick Douglass 200 by the Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives and American University’s Antiracist Research and Policy Center.
An award-winning poet, playwright, editor, and activist, Mercado has presented her work throughout the United States and internationally at the United Nations Committee on the Status of Women, Lincoln Center, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the University of Nantes, the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, Casa de las Américas in Cuba, The Public Theater, Town Hall, Symphony Space, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, and numerous other venues.
Mercado is the author of It Concerns the Madness, Las Tres Hermanas, and seven stage plays. She is the editor of if the world were mine, a young adult anthology, as well as three digital anthologies. Her poetry, essays, and interviews have appeared widely in literary and arts journals, including Tar Baby, and in anthologies such as Blind Persistence and Bigotry on Broadway, among others.
Throughout her distinguished career, Mercado’s work has reflected a steadfast commitment to artistic excellence, cultural memory, and social justice.
Visit: nancy-mercado.com
Mini-Festival
On Friday and Saturday, September 18th and 19th the Greenhouse Creators Consortium will present an innovative festival at Soapbox Gallery, 636 Dean Street, Brooklyn in association with One Breath Rising (OBR) https://www.onebreathrising.org/, the Festival of New Trumpet Music (FONT) https://fontmusic.org/, and Continuum Culture and Arts, Inc. https://www.continuumculture.org/greenhouse which will feature workshops on September 13th, 15th, 18th, as well as performances on September 18th and 19th.
The Greenhouse Creators' Consortium (GCC) is comprised of six 501(c)(3) organizations focused on developing projects through organic collective action, with the goal of raising the awareness of artists and audiences. The six entities operate individually under the direction of a diverse and accomplished group of artists, all deeply focused on the art of improvised music and embracing a variety of disciplines in arts and education.
Ahmed Abdullah's Diaspora with Monique
Ngozi Nri, Don Chapman, Alexis Marcelo,
Norbert Marius & George Gray
D.D. Jackson with Jay Rodriguez, Norbert
Marius & Michael Wimberly
Martha Cinader & Jay Rodriguez
Iqua and Adegoke Steve Colson with Mark
Helias & Michael Wimberly
Jay Rodriguez - Composition for the
Greenhouse Creators’ Consortium
Billy Lester, from Yonkers, NY, began playing piano at age 41/2. At age 16 he began studying with the great Jazz master improviser Sal Mosca; a stint that lasted 15 years.
Here are excerpts from a review of Lester"s latest release "High Standards" written by Tony Frankel in CD-DVD.
"Billy Lester reminds us that reinvention isn't just possible in Jazz--it's the point."
"Lester plunges into the American songbook not to pay homage but to interrogate it, dismantle it, and rebuild it on his own terms. [His music] is no polite stroll through familiar melodies. Instead, each [song] becomes a high-wire act of improvisation, exhilarating in its spontaneity and fearless in its abstraction."
"Listeners familiar with Lester's lineage, a [student] of Sal Mosca and by extension Lennie Tristano will recognize the deep commitment to improvisation that's less about showing off and more about searching. [His songs] are pushed to their harmonic edges. The melodies are not introduced outright, so those who don't know the original standards should listen intently."
Billy Lester thanks Soapbox gallery for providing a venue for him to share his improvised music.
Margaret Slovak is a guitarist, composer and painter. Born and raised in Denver, Colorado, she began playing the guitar at age 11 and composing at age 14. Margaret studied jazz, classical music and visual art, receiving her BFA in music from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, Washington. Her teachers included guitarists John Abercrombie, Dale Bruning, Dave Peterson and Ralph Towner. Margaret has performed throughout the US, Canada, Germany and the Czech Republic.
She has released five CDs, four of which feature her original music. In addition to public performances, Margaret plays for patients in cancer centers, hospitals and hospice; she also performed for wounded combat veterans at the Bronx VA hospital in NYC from 2009–2012. Margaret is also a painter, creating visual images which reflect her musical compositions; her artwork appears on her album packages and sometimes on stage!
Although Margaret is currently based in Austin, TX, she lived and performed in New York City from 1988–1993 and 2008–2012. In 1989, during her first stint in NYC, she recorded an album of eight of her original compositions; the project featured Margaret on electric guitar, along with three stellar NY musicians: pianist Fred Hersch, bassist Michael Formanek and drummer Michael Sarin. This album, entitled For the Moment, was released on CD in 2007. Now, in 2026, Margaret is releasing a vinyl version of this acclaimed NYC album!
To celebrate the vinyl release, she will perform a quartet concert at Soapbox Gallery featuring the music from For the Moment. She will be joined by the exquisite drummer who was on the original 1989 recording session, Michael Sarin. The quartet will also include two wonderful NYC-based musicians, pianist Gary Versace and bassist Simón Willson.
Margaret Slovak: guitar; Gary Versace: piano; Simòn Willson: bass; Michael Sarin: drums.
www.margaretslovak.com; Instagram: @margaretslovakguitar
Vanessa Ruben
Mini-Festival: Celebration of International Day of Peace
Sept 18 & 19 special events @Soapbox Gallery, Brooklyn
Friday, September 18th, 8pm (Doors at 7:30pm)
One Breath Rising https://www.onebreathrising.org/ and Melchizedek Music Productions /Open Fortress https://www.melchizedekmusicproduction.com/
Vocalist Vanessa Rubin & her Trio featuring pianist Brandon McCune, bassist Kenny Davis , multi-percussionist Winard Harper & Poet Nancy Mercado
Revered as both a torchbearer and a storyteller, jazz vocalist Vanessa Rubin possesses a voice hailed with crystalline clarity, hearth-like warm, emotional depth and keen burnished wisdom she can deliver with playful lioness sass. The Cleveland native brings a wealth of diverse influences to her vocal performances. From swing to bossa nova to blues, ballads and contemporary covers performed with small and large ensembles, Rubin’s interpretive ability to move through the Great American Songbook to modern jazz composers/arrangers like Tadd Dameron and Horace Silver to contemporary composers as Stevie Wonder, Bill Withers and Sting is masterful. “The Great American Songbook continues to expand with songs by outstanding composers who can paint pictures of the life of our times with their unique melodies and lyric that also stand the test of time”, Rubin asserts.
Rubin’s passion for rich musical stories is evidenced throughout her nine recordings as a leader plus numerous guest appearances. A recipient of numerous awards and citations, she is most proud of a 2011 Kevin Klein Nomination for Best Actress in a Musical called Yesterdays: An Evening with Billie Holiday in which she performed a one woman show about the life and music of the iconic jazz singer. The Dream Is You, her most recent self-produced recording and the first all vocal tribute to another native Clevelander known as “the romanticist of the bebop period”, Tadd Dameron, enthusiastically garnered a 2020 nomination at the 51st NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Jazz Album. Rubin continues to be a favorite at jazz clubs and festivals here in the US and abroad. Her work as a performing artist, writer, producer, clinician/educator at educational institutions, as well as her most recent 2021 endeavor, curator and producer of Sundown Jazz @ V’s Place, an outdoor summer performance jazz series in Cleveland, Ohio is ongoing.
Nancy Mercado was recently named New York’s New Generation Beat Poet Laureate, (Lifetime Award) by the National Beat Poetry Foundation. She is also the recipient of the American Book Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Before Columbus Foundation and was named one of The Frederick Douglass 200 by the Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives and American University’s Antiracist Research and Policy Center.
An award-winning poet, playwright, editor, and activist, Mercado has presented her work throughout the United States and internationally at the United Nations Committee on the Status of Women, Lincoln Center, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the University of Nantes, the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, Casa de las Américas in Cuba, The Public Theater, Town Hall, Symphony Space, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, and numerous other venues.
Mercado is the author of It Concerns the Madness, Las Tres Hermanas, and seven stage plays. She is the editor of if the world were mine, a young adult anthology, as well as three digital anthologies. Her poetry, essays, and interviews have appeared widely in literary and arts journals, including Tar Baby, and in anthologies such as Blind Persistence and Bigotry on Broadway, among others.
Throughout her distinguished career, Mercado’s work has reflected a steadfast commitment to artistic excellence, cultural memory, and social justice.
Visit: nancy-mercado.com
Mini-Festival
On Friday and Saturday, September 18th and 19th the Greenhouse Creators Consortium will present an innovative festival at Soapbox Gallery, 636 Dean Street, Brooklyn in association with One Breath Rising (OBR) https://www.onebreathrising.org/, the Festival of New Trumpet Music (FONT) https://fontmusic.org/, and Continuum Culture and Arts, Inc. https://www.continuumculture.org/greenhouse which will feature workshops on September 13th, 15th, 18th, as well as performances on September 18th and 19th.
The Greenhouse Creators' Consortium (GCC) is comprised of six 501(c)(3) organizations focused on developing projects through organic collective action, with the goal of raising the awareness of artists and audiences. The six entities operate individually under the direction of a diverse and accomplished group of artists, all deeply focused on the art of improvised music and embracing a variety of disciplines in arts and education.
Ahmed Abdullah's Diaspora with Monique
Ngozi Nri, Don Chapman, Alexis Marcelo,
Norbert Marius & George Gray
D.D. Jackson with Jay Rodriguez, Norbert
Marius & Michael Wimberly
Martha Cinader & Jay Rodriguez
Iqua and Adegoke Steve Colson with Mark
Helias & Michael Wimberly
Jay Rodriguez - Composition for the
Greenhouse Creators’ Consortium
Billy Lester, from Yonkers, NY, began playing piano at age 41/2. At age 16 he began studying with the great Jazz master improviser Sal Mosca; a stint that lasted 15 years.
Here are excerpts from a review of Lester"s latest release "High Standards" written by Tony Frankel in CD-DVD.
"Billy Lester reminds us that reinvention isn't just possible in Jazz--it's the point."
"Lester plunges into the American songbook not to pay homage but to interrogate it, dismantle it, and rebuild it on his own terms. [His music] is no polite stroll through familiar melodies. Instead, each [song] becomes a high-wire act of improvisation, exhilarating in its spontaneity and fearless in its abstraction."
"Listeners familiar with Lester's lineage, a [student] of Sal Mosca and by extension Lennie Tristano will recognize the deep commitment to improvisation that's less about showing off and more about searching. [His songs] are pushed to their harmonic edges. The melodies are not introduced outright, so those who don't know the original standards should listen intently."
Billy Lester thanks Soapbox gallery for providing a venue for him to share his improvised music.
Margaret Slovak is a guitarist, composer and painter. Born and raised in Denver, Colorado, she began playing the guitar at age 11 and composing at age 14. Margaret studied jazz, classical music and visual art, receiving her BFA in music from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, Washington. Her teachers included guitarists John Abercrombie, Dale Bruning, Dave Peterson and Ralph Towner. Margaret has performed throughout the US, Canada, Germany and the Czech Republic.
She has released five CDs, four of which feature her original music. In addition to public performances, Margaret plays for patients in cancer centers, hospitals and hospice; she also performed for wounded combat veterans at the Bronx VA hospital in NYC from 2009–2012. Margaret is also a painter, creating visual images which reflect her musical compositions; her artwork appears on her album packages and sometimes on stage!
Although Margaret is currently based in Austin, TX, she lived and performed in New York City from 1988–1993 and 2008–2012. In 1989, during her first stint in NYC, she recorded an album of eight of her original compositions; the project featured Margaret on electric guitar, along with three stellar NY musicians: pianist Fred Hersch, bassist Michael Formanek and drummer Michael Sarin. This album, entitled For the Moment, was released on CD in 2007. Now, in 2026, Margaret is releasing a vinyl version of this acclaimed NYC album!
To celebrate the vinyl release, she will perform a quartet concert at Soapbox Gallery featuring the music from For the Moment. She will be joined by the exquisite drummer who was on the original 1989 recording session, Michael Sarin. The quartet will also include two wonderful NYC-based musicians, pianist Gary Versace and bassist Simón Willson.
Margaret Slovak: guitar; Gary Versace: piano; Simòn Willson: bass; Michael Sarin: drums.
www.margaretslovak.com; Instagram: @margaretslovakguitar