The Light of Early Morning

3pm Sunday may 5

AT Rosendale theatre

408 Main St. Rosendale, NY 12472

Volunteers needed ! all are welcme !!!!! Rehearsal on Tuesday 4/30.evening and saturday 5/04 afternoon Call 510 316-0105

Come to see a giant adult puppet & new music show honoring local Esopus native matriarch, Sunksqua Mama Nuchwe. We are searching for what Mama Nuchwe can teach us about living through our own world crises.

Your children are welcome to accompany you as we aspire to become our better selves together.

on donation (nobody turned away)

Native American local author & expert, Evan Pritchard, is culminating the hour-long puppet presentation with a talk & launch of his new book honoring Mama Nuchwe. His books are for sale.

Local musicians are creating new music ranging from Congolese West African eclectic to Pauline Oliveros inspired ‘deep listening’ soundscapes.

reception at Redwing Blackbird Theater’s 413 Main St. Puppet Museum immediately following this puppet show & book launch.

Thanks also to the Rosendale Library for publicizing this event & to the Rodney L. White Foundation for its substantial financial support.

"The Light of Early Morning", a new work by director Amy Trompetter of Redwing Blackbird Theater in Rosendale NY, is a giant puppet, mask and music spectacle, inviting us to unstick ourselves from modern paralytic privacy to a yet-to-be-invented communal dance, inspired by three local women; Sunksqua Mama Nuchewe, Sojourner Truth & Hanna Arendt.

Sunksquaw Mama Nuchwe, a Native American matriarch, led her council-ring a few miles up the creek in the Rosendale/Kingston area, and, as a peace-maker, averted the decimation of the Esopus Tribe. MicMac Native and New York regional historian, Evan Prichard, is our source for material which is just coming to light.

Sojourner Truth, born in this same region of New York State, launched her national anti-slavery, pro-women's suffrage pilgrimage here. Her grandmother's region of the Congo was rich in women Griottes, gifted in preaching and song.

Thinker and writer, Hannah Arendt was buried at Bard College. She escaped Nazi concentration camps several times before emigrating to the United States and writing tomes that shed light on the rise of Fascism.

Now is the time to make a large puppet piece in honor of three extraordinary women who worked against the odds to overcome devastating circumstances. This is the moment to inspire hopeful art-making & activism in a population inheriting worldwide ecological disaster, nuclear escalation & severe wealth inequality.