U of A Faulkner Center Welcomes Martha Redbone to the Stage

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Jim and Joyce Faulkner Performing Arts Center at the University of Arkansas welcomes award-winning musician and songstress Martha Redbone for her upcoming performances and speaking engagements on Nov. 14 and 15.

Redbone is one of today’s most vital voices in American Roots music. She is celebrated for her tasty gumbo of roots music embodying the folk and mountain blues sounds of her childhood in the Appalachian hills of Kentucky mixed with the eclectic grit of her teenage years in pre-gentrified Brooklyn.

“Through our FPAC Presents series, we are able to bring diverse musicians and performances to our area and cultivate a meaningful discussion around an array of topics,” said Nicole Leachman, managing director of the Faulkner Center. “Martha has such a unique lived experience, and we believe that she is an artist who will be able to spark those conversations with our patrons.”

With the power of her gospel singing African American father’s voice and the determined spirit of her Cherokee/Shawnee/Choctaw mother, Redbone broadens all boundaries of Americana.

Her latest CD, The Garden of Love – Songs of William Blake, produced by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band founder and Grammy Winner John McEuen, is an unexpected twist – “a brilliant collision of cultures” (New Yorker) and features Redbone's magnificent voice, Blake's immortal words and a masterful cornucopia of roots music.

On Thursday, Nov. 14, from 6 to 7:15 p.m. at the Fayetteville Public Library, Redbone will hold a discussion about cultural preservation, indigenous rights, cultural identity, racial identity, diversity, racial identity as expressed by DNA, laws, choices, and finding one’s own roots.

This event is free and open to the public.

On Friday, Nov. 15, from 10 to 11 a.m. at the Faulkner Center, in collaboration with the Walton Arts Center Colgate Classroom Series, Redbone will perform Native American traditional music and lead a call and response along with her distinctive cross-cultural sound.

If you would like for your school to attend, check out the Walton Arts Center Colgate Classroom Series.

On Friday, Nov. 15, from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at the Faulkner Center, Redbone will perform the entire Blake album and other Appalachian-themed tunes from Bone Hill: The Concert. This theatrical concert was commissioned from the Public Theater, for which the Blake project was the catalyst, sparking an exploration into Redbone's family roots in Black Mountain, Kentucky. There will also be a post-show Q&A.

To purchase tickets to the performance, please visit www.UarkArtsTickets.com or the FPAC Box Office, in person Monday through Friday 1:30–5 p.m. or call 479-575-5387.

For additional information about Martha Redbone, the FPAC Present series, and much more, please visit faulkner.uark.edu.

About the Jim and Joyce Faulkner Performing Arts Center: The newest performing arts center at the University of Arkansas — a renovation of the old Field House — is named the Jim and Joyce Faulkner Performing Arts Center, in honor of the couple’s major gift to the project. Completed in September 2017, this world-class performance venue is 39,400 square feet, with seating for 587, and a stage that can accommodate as many as 250 performers. The center is the main performance venue for the university’s J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences Department of Music and hosts guest musical activities for the university and Northwest Arkansas community.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs.