FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 2, 2023
Contact: kelly@epitaph.com

LEYLA MCCALLA WINS FOLK ALLIANCE INTERNATIONAL’S PEOPLE’S VOICE AWARD

SPRING TOUR DATES BEGIN NEXT WEEK

New Orleans songwriter Leyla McCalla was honored to receive the The People’s Voice Award at Folk Alliance International’s International Folk Music Awards last night; The People’s Voice Award is presented to an individual who unabashedly embraces social and political commentary in their creative work and public careers and past recipients include Jackson Browne and Ani DiFranco.

“I am incredibly grateful to our exceptionally nurturing and loving community here at Folk Alliance,” McCalla said of receiving the award. “This award is extremely validating and life-affirming recognition. Throughout my career, I have committed to continually learning about history, to see my place in it, and to make art from what I am experiencing. I’ve found myself continually drawn to stories that need to be told, that have been hidden or buried and finding collaborations to breathe life into them. I read a quote recently that has me feeling shook. It is by a woman named Mariam Kaba who is an abolitionist and community organizer working for incarcerated youth. She says that “Hope is a discipline.” And to that I want to add that I believe imagination is also a discipline. We cannot create the world that we want to live in or the change that we want to see unless we can imagine it. Do we allow ourselves to really think about what it would mean to be free? Free from the capitalist construct, free from neo-colonialist ways of thinking and being, free from fear? There is not one perfect answer, but many ways for the answer to this question to manifest in our lives. As artists, I believe that we are doing some of the most critical work in healing our society."

Last year McCalla released her critically acclaimed ‘Breaking The Thermometer,’ which combines original compositions and traditional Haitian tunes with historical broadcasts and contemporary interviews to forge an immersive sonic journey through a half century of racial, social, and political unrest. The music is captivating, fueled by rich, sophisticated melodic work and intoxicating Afro-Caribbean rhythms, and the juxtaposition of voices—English and Kreyòl, personal and political, anecdotal and journalistic—is similarly entrancing, raising the dead as it shines a light on the enduring spirit of the Haitian people.

The record was featured in the best songs and albums of 2022 by NPR Music, Folk Alley, PopMatters, Variety, The Guardian, MOJO and more, and the song “Dodinin” was featured on Barack Obama’s Favorite Music of 2022 Playlist.

McCalla was granted access to Radio Haiti’s archives via Duke University in 2016, and from researching those archives ’Breaking The Thermometer’ was born. In delving into the project, McCalla found herself forced to grapple with her own experiences as a Haitian-American woman, unraveling layers of marginalization and generations of repression and resolve as she searched for a clearer vision of herself and her purpose. The result is at once a work of radical performance art, historical scholarship, and personal memoir, a wide-ranging and powerful meditation on family and democracy and free expression that couldn’t have arrived at a timelier moment. She speaks about this process in a new mini documentary about the album’s creation. Directed by Lily Keber, watch it below.

‘Breaking The Thermometer’ Mini Documentary: https://youtu.be/Mujo3mOazBA

McCalla is also the Artist-In-Residence at the University of Richmond, and a research artist at the Amistad-Rivers Artist Research Residency in New Orleans. Next week she will begin select tour dates at Lincoln Center, Philharmonie De Paris and the Joshua Tree Music Festival, among others. See all upcoming dates below.

TOUR DATES
2/10 - Alexandria, LA @ Coughlin-Saunders Performing Arts Center
2/16 - Nashville, TN @ Analog
2/17 - Memphis, TN @ Crosstown Arts
2/18 - Pacudah, KY @ Clemens Fine Arts Center
3/2 - 3/5 - New York, NY @ Lincoln Center
3/24 - 3/25 - Boise, ID @ Treefort Festival
4/10 - 4/13 - Richmond, VA @ Artist in Residence
4/12 - Richmond, VA @ Modlin Center for the Arts
4/21 - Paris, France @ Philharmonie De Paris
4/22 - Paris, France @ Philharmonie de Paris
4/27 - Ferrol, Spain @ Auditorio
4/28 - Zaragoza, Spain @ Centro Cívico Delicias
5/6 - New Orleans, LA - @ New Orleans Jazzfest
5/10 - Norfolk, VA @ Virginia Arts Festival
5/20 - Los Angeles, CA @ Moroccan Lounge
5/21 - Joshua Tree, CA – Joshua Tree Music Festival
 

Listen + Order ‘Breaking The Thermometer’

https://leylamccalla.com/
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Breaking the Thermometer to Hide the Fever is made possible, in part, with a grant from the MAP Fund, supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; a grant from New Music USA, made possible by annual program support and/or endowment gifts from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, Baisley Powell Elebash Fund, and the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation; a grant from the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation; a grant from South Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the North Carolina Arts Council; and a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

Breaking the Thermometer to Hide the Fever is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by Duke Performances at Duke University, the Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans, MDC Live Arts – Miami Dade College, and NPN. The Creation & Development Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Special thanks to the Human Rights and Radio Haiti archives at the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Duke University for serving as the research site and partner on Breaking the Thermometer to Hide the Fever, and to the Forum for Scholars and Publics.
 
Explore the Radio Haiti digital archives here: https://repository.duke.edu/dc/radiohaiti

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For More Info on Leyla McCalla, Contact:
Kelly Kettering | ANTI- Records Publicity | kelly@epitaph.com