Back in 2002, Joy Rose was living in Westchester, NY looking for a venue to play her music. Rose wanted to create a venue for herself to play music but that would also feature people like her. That little thought turned into a concert, dubbed “Mamapalooza.” It featured a one night event on the lower East Side of NYC with just ten bands. It was a concert that spawned a global movement featuring women artists and artists who are mothers.
Annette Daniels Taylor had just moved to Buffalo with her husband. Her husband was originally from Buffalo, but Davis was born and raised in Staten Island. She had been in Buffalo for three years and was working on a music commission, when as Taylor says, “ I was trying to find a venue where we could play it again because it was called ‘Mama’s Song.’”
After some Internet browsing, Taylor stumbled across Mamapalooza. “I called and asked how I can get a festival here and she told me,” says Taylor. Rose simply told Taylor to put up the flyers and start asking people and that they would do it. She promised Taylor they would call, and sure enough, they did.
Now, with the support of the Just Buffalo Literary Center, Robin Brox, a public relations representative of the center says, “This is the third year that Mamapalooza has been in Buffalo and it’s something we continue to support.” Luckily for Taylor, she also received support from Down In My Soul Productions, a local Mother-run production company, for the past three years for the event, giving her a strong support base.
This year it will be on May 9th in Clifton Hall at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the concert now has additional sponsors from the Buffalo Teachers Federation as well as Think Twice Radio. Taylor explains that being in the hall will provide people with the space to dance and move and look around, not to mention the bar that the gallery sets up. “Hopefully we’ll get a big audience now that we’re at the Albright-Knox,” says Taylor.
Here is a schedule of what’s going on:
+5pm Annette & Lilliangina – “The Rewards Of Kindness (Children’s Storybook Theater)
+5:20pm Linda M or LindaM.org
+5:40pm Verneice Turner with Odell Northington
+6:00pm Annette Daniels Taylor or myspace.com/adanielstaylor
+6:20pm Beat Chicks
+6:40pm vonetta t. rhodes
+6:50pm Folkloric Productions Dance Co.
+7:10pm Barbara Levy Daniels
+7:30pm Kilissa Cissoko or kilissa.com
+7:50pm Jennifer Elinge
+8:10pm Noa Bursie
+8:30pm Daughters of Creative Sound or myspace.com/daughtersofcreativesound
+8:50pm Belly Dance with Faaria
+9:10pm Wise Mecca
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