Discussion 3: Marcus Shelby Presents Beyond the Blues: Ending the Prison Industrial Complex

The Red Poppy Art House is pleased to present Beyond the Blues: Ending the Prison Industrial Complex on March 12th, 19th, and 26th, 2015. A series of interactive discussions, Marcus Shelby will delve into our justice system, its flaws, and how music can be used as a tool for reform and change; both in front and behind bars. This lecture series will culminate with a performance on Friday, March 27th.

These engaging discussions will explore the blues, the prison industrial complex, mass incarceration, the school-to-prison pipeline, restorative justice, prison abolition, and more led by Marcus Shelby. Using readings, recorded music, poetry, video, these events are open to anyone interested in reforming our criminal justice system and how art can be part of that process.

Discussion and Performance Schedule

March 12: History of Prisons, Rockefeller Laws, School-to-Prison Pipeline

March 19: Mass Incarceration, The Prison Industrial Complex, Black Prison Movement; Incarcerated Women with guest speaker Naima Shalhoub 

March 26: Ending the Death Penalty, Restorative Justice, Prison Abolition

March 27: Performance by Marcus Shelby Quartet: Beyond the Blues: Ending the Prison Industrial Complex

Time: Doors for all lectures and final performance will open at 6:30 pm and begin at 7:00 pm.
Admission: $10 for lectures and $20 for final performance. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. All ages are welcome.

Marcus Anthony Shelby is an accomplished teacher, composer, arranger, and bassist who currently lives in San Francisco, California. Over the past 24 years, he has built a diverse biography. From 1990-1996, Shelby was bandleader of Columbia Records and GRP Impulse! Recording Artists Black/Note and is currently the Artistic Director and leader of The Marcus Shelby Orchestra.

Shelby was awarded a 2009 Black Metropolis Research Consortium Fellowship in Chicago for summer 2009 to conduct research for his commission to compose “Soul of the Movement”—a 12 part musical suite on MLK and the Civil Rights Movement. Shelby was also a 2006 Fellow in the Resident Dialogues Program of the Committee for Black Performing Arts at Stanford University to conduct research for his commission to compose “Harriet Tubman.”

Shelby has also worked extensively in Bay Area Theater and dance composing scores for Margo Hall’s “Bebop Baby” and “Sonny’s Blues”, and Joanna Haigood’s dance theater work “Dying While Black and Brown”, and many other productions. Currently Shelby is an artist in residence with the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, who support the community-based projects developed by Shelby and where his orchestra performs annually.

Shelby also has arranged for and conducted the Count Basie Orchestra featuring Ledisi, performed and recorded with Tom Waits, and received the City Flight Magazine 2005 award as one of the “Top Ten Most Influential African Americans in the Bay Area”. Shelby is currently working with playwright and actress Anna Deveare Smith on her new work “Pipeline to Prison”. As the 1991 winner of the Charles Mingus Scholarship, Shelby’s studies include work under the tutelage of composer James Newton and legendary bassist Charlie Haden.

Shelby is also very active in music education and currently teaches at The Community Music Center and the Stanford Jazz Workshop. Shelby also has led many of the San Francisco Jazz Festival Family Matinee Concerts and is the music director of the Healdsburg Jazz Festival Freedom Jazz Choir. In March 2013, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee appointed Shelby to the San Francisco Arts Commission.

Learn more about Marcus here: www.marcusshelby.com

You can also catch “Beyond the Blues: A Prison Oratorio,” commissioned by the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, premiering at the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival on September 27, 2015.