Cultural Revolution

This Saturday, sixteen artists spanning the globe will converge on the three stages of the Public Theatre for GlobalFEST, an evening of world music that includes everything from Persian fiddle playing to Cuban hip-hop. The festival comes at a time when foreign artists are having difficulty gaining entry into the U.S. for concert tours, and world music risks losing whatever visibility it currently enjoys. To discuss these issues, host John Schaefer is joined by festival organizer and Joe’s Pub director Bill Bragin, and Haitian singer Emeline Michel. Also on the show, music journalist Ken Smith stops by to preview “Voice of the Dragon 2: Shaolin Secret Stories,” a work by composer and performer Fred Ho that is billed as a “musical-martial arts opera,” and which receives its premiere this week.
Additional Resources:
More about GlobalFEST including a complete schedule
More about Emeline Michel
More about Fred Ho’s Voice of the Dragon