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GOSPEL AND SOUL ICON MAVIS STAPLES AT WILLIAM PATERSON UNIVERSITY ON NOVEMBER 8
—Concert coincides with exhibition of New Jersey tapestry and folk art
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Mavis Staples |
Mavis Staples, gospel and soul legend and former lead singer of the Staples Singers, will give a rare concert performance on Saturday, November 8 at 8 p.m. at Shea Center for Performing Arts at William Paterson University in Wayne, N.J.
A Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and one of VH1’s “100 Greatest Women of Rock and Roll,” Staples -- both with the Staple Singers and on her own -- is responsible for blazing a rhythm and blues trail while never relinquishing her gospel roots.
Staples has recorded with a wide variety of musicians, from her close friend Bob Dylan (with whom she was nominated for a 2003 Grammy Award in the "Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals" category for their duet on "Gotta Change My Way Of Thinking" from the album Gotta Serve Somebody: The Gospel Songs of Bob Dylan) to The Band, Ray Charles, Nona Hendryx, George Jones, Natalie Merchant, Ann Peebles, Delbert McClinton and many others. She has provided vocals on current albums by Los Lobos and Dr. John, and she appears on recent tribute albums to Johnny Paycheck, Stephen Foster and Bob Dylan.
Her 2004 album, Have a Little Faith, on Chicago’s Alligator Records, is a collection of gospel-rooted songs deeply seated in her faith and spirituality. In 2007, she released We’ll Never Turn Back on the Anti label, featuring traditional freedom songs of the civil rights movement. An upcoming album, Mavis Staples Live: Hope at the Hideout, is set for release in November.
Staples was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) National Heritage Fellowship, the country's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. In conjunction with this project, the exhibit titled “Culture in Context: A Tapestry of Expression” will be on view in the lobby of Shea Center. The traveling exhibit examines and celebrates the rich tapestry of folk art by focusing on the work created through the New Jersey State Council on the Arts (NJSCA) Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program. The exhibit is free and open to the public and will be on view from October 31 to November 26.
Funding for these events is made possible, in part, by the NEA National Heritage Fellowship program, celebrating its 25th anniversary, an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts, and presented with support from the Darden Restaurants Foundation and the Darden family of restaurants.
The musical event is part of William Paterson’s Vistas Series, designed to serve the University’s students and faculty as well as the surrounding multicultural community. Funding for the Vistas Series at William Paterson University has been made possible, in part, by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State.
Tickets to the show are $40 for Gold Circle; $35 for Orchestra; and $32 for Loge. For additional information, please contact the Shea Center Box Office at boxoffice@wpunj.edu or call 973.720.2371.
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October 8, 2008
www.wpunj.edu
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