The International Human Rights Art Festival hosts an evening of music and dance to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We are featuring an all-female evening, highlighting issues of concerns to women, to honor the legacy of Eleanor Roosevelt, chair of the drafting committee and spiritual advisor for and married to of four-term American president Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The evening features:

Rachael Sage: New York singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist Rachael Sage was “indie” before it was in fashion. In 1996, inspired by such strong female artists as Indigo Girls and Loreena McKennitt, Sage forged her own indie label – the aptly named MPress Records – and has never looked back. For over 20 years, Sage has released empowering anthems such as “Sistersong”, alongside creative and label collaborations with trailblazing female artists like Judy Collins, Dar Williams, Melissa Ferrick and Paula Cole. An original Lilith Fair performer, Rachael has never been afraid to stand up for her beliefs, and through her music she has championed LGBT rights and cast light on such social issues as homelessness, hunger, eating disorders, sexual abuse and bullying. On a lighter note, she has recently been conducting creativity workshops with school children of all ages throughout the US and UK, integrating music, dance and comedy to help young girls and boys channel their inner artist in a positive direction. Sage will be releasing her 13th full-length album, “Myopia”, this Spring, featuring much of the material she will be performing this evening!

Dancing Georgina Project: Performing “Deconstructing Venus: A Moving Female Portrait” – Choreography by Kyle Georgina Marsh. Throughout history, flowers and plants have been used as symbols to define the female body, femininity, and fertility. Reexamining the female form and its relationship to nature by contextualizing this idolization “Deconstructing Venus” creates a viscerally responsive, moving portrait of “womanhood” by utilizing a dance vocabulary developed from written texts and poems about the gender and sexuality of plant life; romanticizing and abstracting the female body in all of its flowering beauty.

Marni Rice: “In Search of the Past: Memories of a NY Farm Girl from the 1920’s.” A farm girl in search of answers about her family origins, discovers a dance class taught by Martha Graham, who in turn, during her early explorations in Interpretive Dance is in search of ‘An American Story’. The play is set in a farming community just a few years after the passing of the 19th Amendment. Although Women had been granted the right to vote in State and Federal Elections, lacked rights within their own household, even for the right to claim their full identity.

Xiomara Evans: Her piece is inspired by Jayne Cortez’s poem, “If the Drum is a Woman”, and by Edvard Munch’s painting, “Woman”, which depicts haunting anxiety. The dancer, Xiomara Evans (Costa Rica/USA), conceived this piece to raise awareness about domestic violence and to explore women’s rights issues. The performance combines beautiful dance, theater, and live-music to convey a powerful message: “if the drum is a woman, do not abuse your drum.”

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the most translated document in the world, available in more than 500 languages.