MUSIC TALK:

Nona Hendryx is a revolutionary art rock, new wave goddess. The vocalist, songwriter, musician, and multimedia artist tackles social issues, love, and politics in her work. Hendryx’s career spans decades of sound and style evolution. Longtime Hendryx fans know her as a member of the groundbreaking group Labelle and as the writer behind their iconic songs “Can I Speak To You Before You Go To Hollywood” and “Nightbirds.” Hendryx came into her own as a solo artist, post-Labelle’s no. 1 worldwide hit “Lady Marmalade” with rock infused albums. Her album Mutatis Mutandis (“changing those things which need to be changed”) lends necessary gravitas to a striking rendition of Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” with a smoky vocal tessitura somewhere between funk and the end of the stratosphere. Hendryx is an ambassador for artistry in music for Berklee College at Boston Conservatory and Berklee NYC. She curated and performed in a production created for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Nona Hendryx and Disciples of Sun Ra in the Temple of Dendur. Currently she is composing music for the revival of Blue, a play with music, and has written two compositions for Roundabout Theater’s production and the Broadway debut of Trouble in Mind written by Alice Childress and directed by Charles R. Wright. She also received a grant from Jazz South Arts to compose music for a new play, Young Nerds of Color, written by Melinda Lopez and directed by Dawn Meredith Simmons at Boston’s Central Square Theater. Hendryx is passionate about music, visual art, and technology and continues to be a prolific artist.

Jamila Woods is a Chicago-bred singer-songwriter and award-winning poet whose inspirations include Gwendolyn Brooks and Toni Morrison. Following the 2016 release of her debut album HEAVN, Woods received critical acclaim for her singular sound that is both rooted in soul and wholly modern. Her 2019 sophomore release LEGACY! LEGACY! featured 12 tracks named after writers, thinkers, and visual artists who have influenced her life and work. She is a Pushcart Prize–winning poet and coeditor of BreakBeat Poets: Black Girl Magic (2018). Her poetry was recently published in the Library of America anthology African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle & Song (2020). Woods recently made her television debut, performing “SULA (Paperback)” on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on January 6, 2021.

Ayana Contreras is a cultural historian, memory worker, radio DJ, and archivist. An avid collector with more than 8,000 vintage vinyl records, she hosts the Reclaimed Soul program on WBEZ and Vocalo Radio in Chicago. She is also a columnist for DownBeat magazine, and her writings have been published in Chicago Review, Oxford American, and Bandcamp Daily, among others. Her book on post–Civil Rights Era cultural history, titled Energy Never Dies: Afro-Optimism and Creativity in Chicago, was published in December 2021 through the University of Illinois Press.

Etienne Stadwijk (pianist) was born in the Netherlands, where he was exposed to music at a very early age. As early as preschool he performed at school and events around town. When he was in his early teens his family relocated to Suriname in South America, where both his parents were born. He quickly established himself as one of the premiere keyboard players on the scene, and with his broad stylistic interests work was never in short supply. After high school, he moved to Boston to study music at the prestigious Berklee College of Music. He majored in contemporary arranging. After successfully completing his studies, he moved to New York, which has been his home ever since. He divides his time between recording, producing, and performing live in New York and around the world.