WALK A MILE IN OUR SHOES~
Music and perspective stories from Artists in our African American community.
featuring; LaRhonda Steele, Chuk Barber, Lo Steele, Arietta Ward, MaryEtta Callier and Amy LaSage!
"WALK A MILE IN OUR SHOES"
Musicians are considered healers but during the Pandemic they struggled to be there for those that needed their voices. This series came out of the pandemic which seemed to enhance the issues of race and identity in the 21st Century. Take a musical journey from Africa to Brazil, from Cuba to New Orleans, from gospel to funk, this concert entertains, educates, and speaks to our shared humanity, Walk A Mile in Our Shoes!
ARTISTS
LaRhonda Steele began singing in Church at age 13, in Jones Oklahoma. She adds to our delicious Gumbo of African Americans that have moved to our area from ALL parts of the country. Since LaRhonda moved here in 1994, she’s become “Portland’s First Lady of the Blues” dubbed by Channel 6 KOIN TV news anchor Ken Boddie. LaRhonda has been inducted into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame, the Cascade Blues Association Hall of Fame and serves as Choir Director for the Portland Interfaith Gospel Choir, she’s performed internationally and has recorded several albums of her own along with being featured on countless others.
Chuk Barber moved to the NW from New Orleans and has been a percussionist for 59 years. Chuk is a grounding member of the iconic group WAR, currently touring under the name The Low-rider Band as well as guesting with other bands when his schedule permits. At the impressionable age of 12, Chuk attended the famous March on Washington where Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech, Woodstock, Vietnam War protests and was there during Katrina. Chuk has been fighting for Injustice and Equality his entire life. An author, playwright and educate in the Portland public school system. Endangered species. Chuk’s father an active member of NAACP and Pullman Car Porter Association.
LO STEELE is a Portland-born singer-songwriter, poet and actor. Known in her hometown as the daughter of Portland’s first lady of the blues—LaRhonda Steele—Lo has felt at home on the stage from a young age. Whether the medium is music, theatre or spoken word, Steele uses her platform to call attention to social issues. Steele’s most recent EP, Trust My Love, tackles issues of love, race, equality, self love and forgiveness, concepts she works to make prevalent in all of her art. Fortunate to have performed nationally, on stages ranging from Portland’s Waterfront Blues Fest to August Wilson’s Broadway stage in New York, Steele is a young artist who shows promise in more than one area.
Featuring members of the Portland Gospel Choir, Arietta Ward, MaryEtta Callier and Amy LaSage.
