FIRST FRIDAYS LIVE AT WESTBETH – December 2 at 7 pm

December 2 at 7 pm: An Evening of Music and Spoken Word.
with Alexandra Leff, Rebecca Keith, Andrea Mazariello, Jessica Safran, and the legendary Barney Miller!

Suggested donation $10

PERFORMERS

Alexandra Leff
Alexandra grew up in New York City playing guitar and listening to Pete Seeger, James Taylor, Cat Stevens and Carole King. She has been writing songs in the folk tradition for many years. Alexandra is also a visual artist and her work has been on exhibit at the Westbeth Gallery, Artbreak Gallery, at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, and later this month her work will be on view at the Arsenal Gallery in Central Park. Her illustrations have been published in The New York Times Book Review, and by Pearson, EAMC, and others. Alexandra is currently the Deputy Director of LEAP, an arts education nonprofit organization and has created a social-action-through-art program for young people, that culminates in an annual historic citywide parks exhibition.

Rebecca Keith
Rebecca’s poems and other writing have appeared in Best New Poets (2009), The Laurel Review, The Rumpus, The Awl, BOMBlog, Dossier, Storyscape, The Millions, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College, was a semi-finalist for the 2010 “Discovery”/Boston Review poetry contest and has received honors from the Atlantic Monthly and BOMB magazine. A native of downtown New York, Rebecca is a founder, curator, and host of Mixer Reading and Music series at Cakeshop. She also sings and plays guitar and keyboards in the Roulettes and Butchers & Bakers.

Andrea Mazzariello is a composer, performer, and writer. His creative output is diverse, from concert music to rock songs, memoir to scholarship. Especially interested in the ways that composers and performers negotiate issues of physicality and push their bodies to develop new approaches to music making, he often devises novel instrumental configurations on which he performs or asks others to perform. So Percussion, Newspeak, NOW Ensemble, and the Berkshire Symphony have performed his work, and his sound design has been featured in the New York Fringe Festival. His rock and roll collaborations have taken him from the now-defunct CBGB’s in New York to Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio in Chicago to South by Southwest in Austin. He holds a Ph.D and an M.F.A. in Composition from Princeton University, an M.M. from the University of Michigan in Composition, and a B.A. with Highest Honors in Music from Williams College. Currently, Andrea is on the faculty of the Princeton Writing Program, in which he teaches a freshman seminar on subversive music. For more information, please visit www.andreamazzariello.com.

Jessica Safran
Jessica is a writer recently was a top finalist in New York Press’ memoir writing contest for her short piece, Marry Me. She’s also blogged recently at Smartly NY, an online writer’s collective. Currently, she is VP, Operations for BigVoice Unlimited, a digital marketing consultancy, and recently launched the company’s blog, Voiceterous. Some of her best pieces to date have been text messages to her husband and treasure hunt clues on sticky notes for her seven-year-old daughter.

The Legendary Barney Miller
Barney has opened for The Clash, studied song writing with Rosanne Cash and had a 1970’s TV Show named after him. He was a founding member of the classic Miller Miller Miller & Sloan band, opening for acts like Chaka Kahn, The Tom Tom Club and The Clash. His mid-90’s power pop band Astro Chicken who’s last album, “Almost Anywhere” was recorded by Glee hit maker Robert L. Smith featured guest stars from Ryan Adam’s original group Whiskeytown. Barney is also a film maker, music video director and editor and lives in New York City.