Coming Up at the Mark Twain House

Napua Davoy at Jazz Brunch, May 13.

BRAZILIAN MUSIC
In a free event in conjunction with Trinity College's Samba Fest & The Mark Twain House & Museum's "Race, Rage & Redemption" exhibition, Trinity College Professor Eric Galm, musician Dinho Nascimento and the group Berimbrown will provide a lecture and demonstration of Brazilian music -- specifically the music of the single-stringed berimbau -- at The Mark Twain House & Museum on Thursday, May 3, at 7:00 p.m. 
The berimbau is most commonly associated with a combination martial art, dance and game called capoeira. Both the instrument and the game have descended from African cultures and provide strong icons of Afrocentric identity in Brazil, the berimbau serves as a focal point of Nascimento's and Berimbrown's musical identities.

MOTHER'S DAY JAZZ BRUNCH
Fresh, strong, sensual, exquisite, the voice of Napua Davoy has been heard on concert stages and major jazz venues in New York City and around the world, where she has toured extensively throughout Russia with her longtime collaborator, Russia's famed pianist/composer Andrei Kondakov.
And on Sunday, May 13, at 11:30am and 1:15 pm Davoy brings her smoky tones to the Murasaki Cafe at The Mark Twain House & Museum. It's a Mother's Day Jazz Brunch curated by the famed Dan Blow of Japanalia Music.
The $35 admission includes the performance, full brunch, soft drinks and hot beverages. Alcoholic beverages are available at an additional charge. Call 860-280-3130 for reservations.
THE TROUBLE BEGINS AT 5:30
"The Trouble  Begins at 5:30," The Mark Twain House & Museum's popular series of free, after-work lectures on Twainian subjects, continues on Wednesday, May 16, with a talk by Dr. Jeffrey Ogbar, Associate Dean for the Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Connecticut, on "Beyond Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben: American National Identity and Race."

This spring's series of "Troubles" explores themes of our provocative exhibition, "Race, Rage and Redemption," which includes a tough and disturbing display of racist artifacts and imagery called "Hateful Things." These artifacts provide a stepping-off point for Ogbar's lecture.
"The Trouble Begins at 5:30" is free, with no reservations necessary. It begins with hot hors d'oeuvres and wine and coffee at 5:00 p.m., with the Trouble -- the lecture, that is -- beginning at 5:30.

DJSPOOKY
This is not your great-grandfather's Birth of a Nation, but Rebirth of a Nation, a 2004 work riff on the original by internationally acclaimed director/performer Paul D. Miller, who calls himself DJ SPOOKY That Subliminal Kid.

DJSPOOKY will be speaking and screening the 100-minute riff on Griffith, reduced from the three-hour original and adding a new moody, electronica/hip-hop score and visual effects, at The Mark Twain House & Museum on Thursday, May 17 at 7 pm.

Tickets are $20, $15 for Mark Twain House & Museum and Stowe Center members. Reservations are strongly recommended: Call 860-280-3130.