Bread & Roses presents: May Around the Bay - a public concert series

Bread & Roses will provide an opportunity for the music-loving public to learn more about the normally behind-the-scenes benefits that it provides to Bay Area communities in an outreach program throughout May, in public concerts at a variety of venues throughout the Bay Area.

Since 1974, Bread & Roses has been bringing live music and performing arts to hidden audiences of all ages in places like homeless shelters and hospitals. These shows provide hope and healing to individuals isolated in a broad range of facilities in eight counties around the Bay Area, day in and day out, year after year. Last year, we brought live music and other performance art to more than 24,000 people by providing over 550 shows in 115 facilities.

The May Around the Bay shows are designed to raise public awareness of the benefits that these performers bring to our communities, and to hopefully make new friends for Bread & Roses.

We could not do our program without the support of performers like Si and Max Perkoff, a father/son team on jazz piano and trombone, who along with global percussionist Ian Dogole, will bring their inventive quartet Skin & Bone to Anna's Jazz Island in Berkeley on May 22 for this year's May Around the Bay. They will be joined by virtuoso bass player Sam Bevan.

So many of our isolated audiences in senior convalescent and other facilities have been thrilled to hear these players perform their unique arrangements of jazz pieces from legendary composers with unusual combinations of instruments. For this special show at her warm and intimate club, talented jazz vocalist Anna de Leon, another regular Bread & Roses volunteer performer, will sit in on the first set.
A portion of the proceeds from a selection of these concerts will come to Bread & Roses.

This third-annual May Around the Bay concert series takes place at the following public venues throughout the Bay Area:

FRIDAY, MAY 22
Skin & Bone with Anna de Leon at Anna's Jazz Island, Berkeley. 7:30 p.m.

SATURDAY, MAY 23
The Acoustic Vortex Presents Calaveras with The Triplicates at the Sleeping Lady, Fairfax. 9:30 p.m.
The Acoustic Vortex is a Larkspur-based non-profit organization that promotes high caliber acoustic music through a house concert series, performs benefit concerts for other non-profit organizations, and mentors young musicians. For more information: http://www.acousticvortex.com.

SUNDAY, MAY 24
Roy Rogers at Yoshi's San Francisco. 2:00 p.m.
Known as one of the leading slide guitarists in the world, as well as producing records for John Lee Hooker and Rambin' Jack Elliott, Roy Rogers is the epitome of the modern travelling blues musician.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 27
Freddy Clarke and Wobbly World, at Pena Pachamama, in North Beach, San Francisco. 8:30 p.m.
Flamenco guitarist/singer/songwriter Freddy Clarke brings together musicians from Pakistan, Bulgaria, Vietnam, Morocco, Cuba, Iran, Bulgaria, Denmark and the US singing in 9 native languages to create a sound that is a rhythmic and melodic feast. They utilize a variety of eclectic ethnic instruments guided by the flamenco guitar, bass and drums.

THURSDAY, MAY 28
"Salt & Pepper Showcase" with Bronkar Lee at The Mixing Bowl, Oakland. 7:00 p.m.
A night of comedy, music, juggling, beatboxing, and more…

ABOUT BREAD & ROSES
Bread & Roses is dedicated to uplifting the human spirit by providing free, live, quality entertainment to people who live in institutions or are otherwise isolated from society. We also seek to create a social awareness of people who are isolated from society and to encourage the development of similar organizations in other communities.

The audiences we serve live in hospitals, senior convalescent homes, AIDS facilities, special needs schools, shelters for the abused or homeless and other facilities serving children, teens, adults and elders.

The audience members we serve do not have the physical, emotional or financial capacity to attend live performances outside of the facilities in which they live. Their circumstances are such that if the live art does not come to them, they will not have access to it. In this way, their isolation is increased. While it may be tempting to dismiss live art as a luxury in times of crisis or economic scarcity, it is during these lonely times that its benefits can be most powerful.