BRIC presents Brittany Howard, frontwoman and guitarist for the chart-topping, GRAMMY Award-winning band Alabama Shakes, to open the 42nd annual BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival with a free concert on June 9 at the Prospect Park Bandshell. Preceding the concert, BRIC will hold its beloved annual opening night REVEL fundraiser, an immersive artist driven experience from day to dusk to dark.
Over its four decade history, the Festival has grown into one of the city’s foremost summer cultural attractions, presenting more than 2,000 artists and drawing an audience upwards of 200,000 each season. Each year, BRIC invites a diverse range of magnetic performers across musical disciplines to kick off its season—including in recent years the legendary Chaka Khan, GRAMMY Award-winning entertainer Patti LaBelle, cultural luminary David Byrne, reggae icon Jimmy Cliff, and pop innovator Janelle Monáe. This year’s opening concert continues to push the envelope with Brittany Howard, one of music’s most celebrated figures, who comes in support of her GRAMMY-nominated, critically-acclaimed debut solo album, Jaime.
Recorded after a cross country drive that took her from Nashville to a small house in Topanga, CA, Howard titled Jaime after her sister, who taught her to play the piano and write poetry, and who died of cancer when they were still teenagers. Upon its release, Pitchfork awarded the album its Best New Music certification, calling it a “thrilling opus that pushes the boundaries of voice, sound, and soul to new extremes;” Rolling Stone and The Guardian each gave it 4/5 stars. The album opener, “History Repeats,” received two nominations at the 62nd Annual GRAMMY Awards, for Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance.
Under Howard’s leadership, Alabama Shakes won four GRAMMY Awards and topped the Billboard 200 with the Gold-certified Sound & Color, the follow-up to its Platinum debut album, Boys & Girls. Howard has performed everywhere from the Obama White House to the main stage at Lollapalooza, where she sang with Paul McCartney at his invitation.
“We are thrilled to be kicking off our 42nd season with a show-stopping performance by Brittany Howard and honoring Brooklyn’s own David Ehrenberg,” said BRIC President Kristina Newman-Scott. “This night celebrates our commitment to present bold work from risk-tasking artists and creators across stages, screens and galleries.”
Prior to the free concert, BRIC will host the BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival REVEL, proudly honoring David Ehrenberg. As President and CEO of the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation, David currently oversees its diverse tenant base and ongoing expansion efforts. Previously, he was Executive Vice President of Real Estate Transaction Services at the New York City Economic Development Corporation, where he managed many of the city’s priority economic development projects.
REVEL tickets, starting at $750, can be purchased online at www.BRICartsmedia.org/cb. The proceeds provide vital funds that help keep BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival programming free and accessible to everyone.
ABOUT BRIC
BRIC is a leading arts and media institution anchored in Downtown Brooklyn whose work spans contemporary visual and performing arts, media, and civic action. For over forty years, BRIC has shaped Brooklyn’s cultural and media landscape by presenting and incubating artists, creators, students, and media makers. As a creative catalyst for the community, BRIC ignites learning in people of all ages and centralizes diverse voices that take risks and drive culture forward. BRIC is Building Brooklyn’s creative future.
ABOUT BRIC CELEBRATE BROOKLYN! FESTIVAL
The BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival is BRIC’s flagship performing arts program. Unlike the multi-stage destination festival scene, the BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival is a free, summer-long experience allowing New Yorkers to come back again and again with their friends and family to appreciate or discover a new genre, acclaimed artist, or world culture each night of the Festival. From its very first performance in the summer of 1979, the mission of the Festival has been to bring people together to have meaningful connections to artistic experiences, reflecting diverse audiences that speak to the world.
During its 42-year run, the BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival has presented more than 2,000 artists including celebrated global music icons, legendary jazz artists, chart-topping indie bands, gravity-defying dance troupes, large-scale film projects and even a virtual reality performance, drawing a diverse audience upwards of 200,000 each season.
