Friday, January 20
Doors + Streaming Begins at 7pm ET | Show at 7:30pm ET
Pay what you can! All ticket sales go to support our efforts to provide an inclusive and accessible community arts space, while also (always!) compensating our participating performers.
Join Story Parlor for an evening of stories, music, and performance featuring local artists paying tribute to their international homelands.
CALL FOR PRE-SHOW SUBMISSIONS!
Do you have a “homeland” inspired story that can be told with a photograph and short caption? Please send it to us to be considered for our pre-show slideshow.
ARTIST LINE UP
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Gina Cornejo
Multidisciplinary artist Gina Cornejo (she/they) lives in Asheville, NC. She is the daughter of a Peruvian mariachi singer and a professional jazz dancer from Chicago. As an acclaimed artist who embraces risk and honesty, autobiographical writing, performance, and sacred travel serve as her guides to fresh creations of exposed storytelling.For 17 years, she claimed Chicago as her artistic home where she performed on the stages of the Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago Dramatists, 16th Street Theater and the Neo-Futurist Theater. As an ensemble member of Teatro Luna (Chicago, LA, touring cast), Gina contributed her original writing, performance, and choreography to this multiple Jeff Award winning ensemble.
At Asheville’s REVOLVE gallery, she was chosen for the First Draft Residency program (Sept-Oct 2021) where she debuted her solo performance “when sugar was sugar was sugar,” and her pandemic-born collaborative film piece “Atmosphere.”
“Atmosphere” as a part of a greater evening-length work, “Still: Life” had been reimagined on the Wortham Center for the Performing Arts stage with AVL local collaborators Stewart/Owen Dance and filmmaker Michael-Jamar Jean Francios.
“Dirty Laundry,” featuring Gina’s autobiographical writing coupled with innovative choreography from Stewart/Owen Dance, was selected for the first Story/Arts Residency at Story Parlor. This ambitiously immersive theatrical performance and dance film combination discloses the irreverent unraveling of Gina's marriage, divorce, and queer reclamation.
Most recently, Gina debuted an original and autobiographical piece in the iconic Swannanoa Solstice production at Wortham Center. In this new collaboration, they fused their writing and concept with local singer, songwriter, and music producer M A R.
Gina proudly resides on the Board of Story Parlor. Visit ginacornejo.com and @GinaWillTravel more details.
M A R
Born in Peru and based in the US, M A R is a non-binary/trans singer, songwriter, and producer who fuses pop-folk elements through bilingual lyrics and indie-flavored acoustic guitars.
M A R's music career took off in Miami, FL with the debut release of the EP “En Silencio” which won him Song of the Year (2007) with “Busca Tu Voz”. Winner of the Peruvian Pride Award (2009), M A R remembers his roots with love and loyalty to the place where he grew up, and began playing and singing on stage with his guitar at a very young age.
With his second album "Lineas 1000" and then third release "The One" (2015) M A R toured different cities in North, Central and South America. He has shared his music on national radio and television networks such as Azteca TV, Telemundo, Mega in the US and in Latin America.
In early 2020, M A R packed the Wortham Theater in Asheville NC for the release of his EP I AM I, a collaboration with renowned LA music producer Billy Lefler (Ingrid Michaelson, Dashboard Confessional, Avril Lavigne). Early June 2022, M A R released his latin-urban song "Vuelve a La Vida" with his collective Les Graines de Porcelaine, and later in August the indie-electronic single “Hollow” currently streaming steady in Finland and other European countries, as well as US and South America.
Recipient of the 2022 LGTBQ+ Emerging Artist Award, and founder of Óyelo Music Productions, you can catch MAR at a local show in Asheville, NC with his band M A R and The Marmeladies, a lively 4-piece band grounded stylistically in Latin-American Folk fused with a quirky bluesy indie and Latin flair, who currently tours in the Southeast of the US.
Most recently, M A R debuted an original and autobiographical piece in the iconic Swannanoa Solstice production at Wortham Center. In this new collaboration, he fused his music and writing concept with local multidisciplinary artist Gina Cornejo (she/they).
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Adama Dembele is a master djembéfola (djembe player) from Ivory Coast, West Africa. Born into a family of musicians, his life is a testament to the music and rhythms of his people. Adama has toured several continents with various major acts such as Ahmed Fofana, Affou Keita, Sogona Djata, and many others. Adama has played in several drum and dance companies such as Yelemba d’abidjan, Ensemble Koteba, Congoba, and many more. In 2002, in collaboration with Siriki Sanogo, Adama founded Djembeso CI Drum and Dance Ensemble. “Djembeso” in the West African dialect Bambará means "the house of djembe". Adama chose that name because his family has been carrying the culture and music of the Madinge people for generations and his native home was known as the house where the djembe is played. In 2005, Adama moved to the US to perform and teach the sacred art of West African drumming and began his work with LEAF in 2008. Since, he has played in major cities all over America and at every LEAF festival. Currently, Adama resides in Asheville, NC where his frequently performs and teaches authentic rhythms from the Ivory Coast, Mali, and Guinea, West Africa.
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Jimmie Griffith is a multi-instrumentalist who performs under the project name "MaisCéu", which is derived from his Brazilian middle name "Maciel". Jimmie was born and raised in Minas Gerais, Brazil, son of an American father and Brazilian Mother. His upbringing exposed him to both American and Brazilian culture at an early age, influencing his musical references and compositions. The project MaisCéu is an opportunity to explore sounds and themes of his upbringing and musical influences.
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Shunyu "AJ' Huang was born in 1989 in a Southern China town Zhuhai to a working class family.
Before getting her Bachelor’s degree in Ecology, she travelled to Tibet, southwest China and southeast Asia with her film cameras in search of a connection of different peoples and their land.
Weaving from the metropolitan hometown, through the Himalayas, the Mekong, the Yangtze, and now the Appalachia, Shunyu continues to redefine meaning of homeland.
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Juan G. Sánchez Martínez, grew up in Bakatá/Bogotá, Colombian Andes. He dedicates both his creative and scholarly writing to Indigenous cultural expressions from Abiayala (the Americas.) His book of poetry, Altamar, was awarded in 2016 with the National Prize Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia. He collaborates and translates for the online publication Siwar Mayu, A River of Hummingbirds. His last book of poetry is Bejuco (2021). He is currently Associate Professor of Languages and Literatures, and Native American and Indigenous Studies at the University of North Carolina Asheville.
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Mitchell Rose was originally a choreographer. His company toured internationally for 15 years and he was called "a rare and wonderful talent" by The New York Times. He then entered The American Film Institute as a Directing Fellow. After 10 years in Hollywood he revisited dance, synthesizing his two loves, and is now one of the leading figures in the dance-film world. His 39 films have won 98 festival awards.
Mitchell was a professor of dance-filmmaking at Ohio State University until he moved to Asheville a year ago.
Globe Trot is an international crowd-sourced dance-film involving 54 filmmakers in 23 countries—conveying a message that people, all over the world, are equal.