Cannabis! A Viper Vaudeville
Cannabis! A Viper Vaudeville is a theatrical concert exploring the history of cannabis using music, dance, and spoken word. The team includes Baba Israel as writer, performer, and co-director, Grace Galu as composer/performer; and dramaturg/co-director, Talvin Wilks in collaboration with Soul Inscribed and an ensemble of dancers. Inspired by Martin A. Lee’s book Smoke Signals: A Social History of Marijuana – Medical, Recreational, and Scientific, this theatrical concert weaves the histories of icons such as Louis Armstrong and Bob Marley and grassroots activists such as Dennis Perron and Brownie Mary with personal narrative. Join us for a time-traveling tale of jubilation, injustice, and transformation.
Part of HERE RAW/Resident Artist Works 2021
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Grace Galu & Baba Israel
Both Work-In-Progress Concerts are Outdoors, at different venues:
July 10, 8pm at Culture Lab LIC
Entry is free, no RSVP is required. Food and drink will be available for purchase.
This production is produced in partnership with Culture Lab LIC, as part of the Emergence Residency Program.
August 12, 7:30pm at Little Island
Entry is free, RSVP required. Reserve here starting August 6.
This concert is presented as part of NYC FREE, a one-time only multidisciplinary arts festival at Little Island from August 11–September 5, 2021. Free tickets are open to the public starting August 6; visit the “Buy Tickets” link below for more information about visiting Little Island.
Grace Galu & Baba Israel
Grace Galu is a vocalist, actor, guitarist and composer. She combines the sounds of her Irish and Congolese heritage and her LES upbringing in a soulful and gritty twist.. Grace was featured in Buskerball, and recorded “Firelight” with Fearless Music. Her composition, “Ordinary Sentiment” was featured in the Ed Burns film, “Purple Violets'' which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. Grace devised The Mendelssohn Electric with Trusty Sidekick, and was cast as the lead in their production, The Gospel Electric, commissioned by the Park Avenue Armory. She is a core member of the band Soul Inscribed, and was twice selected as a cultural ambassador for the American Music Abroad program. She has been selected as a cultural ambassador for their next residency program (2022). Grace is also a recipient of the NEFA NTP grant. Soul Inscribed has recently been signed to the music label, Tokyo Dawn and just released their EP, Tune UP. Grace is an artist in residence at HERE Arts Center and the composer for Cannabis! A Viper Vaudeville. Grace voiced Wisdom in Nia Witherspoon’s production, The Dark Girl Chronicles (2021 at The Shed).
Baba Israel is an artist, producer, educator and consultant raised in New York by parents who were core members of the Living Theatre. He co-founded Playback NYC, the first playback theatre company to integrate freestyle hip hop. His debut solo show “Boom Bap Meditations” was supported by the Ford Foundation and the Hip Hop Theatre festival. He has toured across Asia, Africa, Europe, the South Pacific, North and South America as a hip hop and theatre artist and led cultural ambassador programs internationally supported by the US State Department. His work has been featured in documentaries such as Freestlye and Hip Hop for Hope, and on MTV and BET.He was Artistic Director and CEO of Contact Theatre in Manchester, a leading venue at the intersection of youth leadership and innovative performance. He premiered his most recent multimedia performance The Spinning Wheel as a resident artist at BRIC in Brooklyn. The production was developed and toured in the UK, Holland and Norway and in America with MDC Live Arts and the University of Madison, Wisconsin. He holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College and is the Co-Artistic Director of the Performance Project based at the University Settlement.Soul Inscribed is a hip hop, and spoken word collective who are the core band for the production. The ensemble creates an eclectic new vision of jazz, dub, and funk.