Curated Evenings of Poetry and Music Continue Winter Programming CAP UCLA's Nimoy Theater

UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance (CAP UCLA) presents singer-songwriter India Carney who curates and performs in a two-night celebration of music titled Riding the Rollercoaster: An Artist's Life in Los Angeles at The Nimoy on Thursday, February 15 and Friday, February 16 at 8 pm. Then, Grammy-winning spoken word artist J. Ivy returns to host the continuation of the Poetry Uncut Series: Part III at The Nimoy featuring performances from Def Sound and Sunni Patterson on Saturday, February 17 at 8 pm. Tickets are available now at cap.ucla.edu, by phone 310-825-2101 or at the UCLA Central Ticket Office.

American singer, songwriter, actress and UCLA graduate, India Carney, curates and performs in a special two-night celebration of music titled Riding the Rollercoaster: An Artist's Life in Los Angeles at The Nimoy on Thursday, February 15 and Friday, February 16 at 8 pm. The first night features a performance from Carney while the second night features performances from five Los Angeles-based YoungArts program alumni including D'Angelo Lacy, Ashley Long, Scarlet Lastrapes, Elena Pinderhughes and Kyreeana Breelin Alexander.

A native of Brooklyn, New York and graduate of LaGuardia Arts High School, Carney received classical music training at UCLA. Carney made her national television debut on season eight of NBC's Emmy-winning series The Voice and was a top five finalist. She has toured with pop artist Katy Perry and sung for Grammy-award winning artists including Dua Lipa, Mariah Carey, Lady Gaga and Billie Eilish among others and will be joining Olivia Rodrigo's 2024 GUTS Tour. Carney has performed at the VMAs, Grammy Awards, BET Awards, The Ellen Degeneres Show and Coachella. As a vocal coach, she worked with the singers of American Idol (2020 - present), I Can See Your Voice (2023) and Alter Ego (2021). Her original music fuses her pop, folk, classical, R&B, A Cappella, jazz and musical theater influences. She released her debut single, "Human," a personal account on equality, representation and empathy in 2021 and her most recent single, "Where Your Heart Is" released in the summer of 2023. Her newest single "Recovery" releases this year.

On Saturday, February 17 at 8 pm Poetry Uncut, a four-part series of curated poetry and music, continues with Poetry Uncut: Part III as Grammy Award-winning artist J. Ivy hosts an evening with performances by Los Angeles artist Def Sound and poet and author Sunni Patterson. The evening also features Emmy Award-winning DJ Niéna Drake and opens with Get Lit, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit working to increase literacy, empower youth and energize communities through poetry. The Poetry Uncut series culminates in a final poetry jam on April 6. Ivy is well recognized for his appearances on HBO's Def Poetry Jam and his feature with Jay-Z on Kanye West's Grammy-winning album The College Dropout. He was also instrumental in advocating for the Grammy Awards to add a new category dedicated to Poets and Spoken Word Artists worldwide and, in 2022, the Recording Academy finally created a new category for "Best Spoken Word Poetry Album." Following this, Ivy received his second Grammy nomination and his first Grammy Award for his Spoken Word Poetry album, The Poet Who Sat By The Door. Ivy's recent works include his third book, Dear Father: Breaking the Cycle of Pain and Grammy-nominated albums The Light Inside and CATCHING DREAMS: Live at Fort Knox Chicago.

Def Sound is an Afro-Caribbean transdisciplinary artist and a nonbinary Grammy Award-considered contemporary hip-hop artist, producer, poet and award-winning academic. Def's work as a poet has been included in Saul Williams' anthology Chorus and their music has been featured in Season 4 of ABC's Grownish, LA Weekly, LA Record, The Los Angeles Times, The Frieze Art Fair, LACMA's Poetry series Poetry In Color, the art exhibition The Black Index curated by Bridget Cooks, the Emmy-nominated television series Music Diaries and the Emmy-winning arts and culture series Artbound on KCET. Def currently teaches Hip Hop/Black Critical Theory at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts).

Sunni Patterson is an internationally acclaimed poet, performer, certified Spiritual life coach/consultant and an initiated priestess and minister. Armed with an engaging story and voice, Patterson uses art, poetry and praise (ancestral remembrance) to encourage dialogue, connectivity, spiritual awareness and healing. Her performance at The Nimoy explores the poetic and spiritual traditions of her native New Orleans. Patterson is a 2020/2021 John O'Neal Cultural Arts Fellow and she currently serves as a Resident Artist for both the City of New Orleans' Claiborne Corridor Cultural Initiative and Junebug Productions. Patterson is also co-founder of Environmental Arts and Public Health Organization, Breath is Lyfe.

Niéna Drake is a highly respected Emmy Award-winning executive producer, director, founder, philanthropist and DJ. Her media and television work includes on-camera appearances, hosting, developing and producing for ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, OWN, Disney, Showtime, Paramount, Apple, Netflix, Complex Media, iHeart Media and many more. The Chicago Tribune named her "one of the most influential" Chicagoans. Drake is currently starring as the official DJ for the new TV show Celebrity Squares hosted by DC Young Fly on VH1, including celebrity guests Babyface, Bobby Brown, Tiffany Haddish and Taye Diggs.

The CAP UCLA 2023 winter programs continue on Saturday, February 24 with Dan and Claudia Zanes and Thursday, February 29 with Nico Muhly and Alice Goodman's The Street.

DETAILS

CAP UCLA presents India Carney, Riding the Rollercoaster: An Artist's Life in Los Angeles: Thursday, February 15 and Friday, February 16 at 8 pm and Poetry Uncut: Part III, J.Ivy Hosts Def Sound and Sunni Patterson: Saturday, February 17 at 8 pm

WHERE: UCLA Nimoy Theater - 1262 Westwood Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90024

ABOUT CAP UCLA

UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance (CAP UCLA) is the public-facing research and presenting organization for the performing arts at the University of California, Los Angeles-one of the world's leading public research universities. We are housed within the UCLA School of the Arts & Architecture along with the Hammer and Fowler museums. The central pursuit of our work as an organization is to sustain the diversity of contemporary performing artists while celebrating their contributions to culture. We acknowledge, amplify and support artists through major presentations, commissions and creative development initiatives. Our programs offer audiences a direct connection to the ideas, perspectives and concerns of living artists. Through the lens of dance, theater, music, literary arts, digital media arts and collaborative disciplines, informed by diverse racial and cultural backgrounds, artists and audiences come together in our theaters and public spaces to explore new ways of seeing that expands our understanding of the world we live in now.

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