Back to school and ready to be entertained? Bring your crew to the University of Alabama at Birmingham campus Friday, Aug. 25, for a free Arts Block Party featuring Red Baraat in concert.
Join UAB’s arts organizations the Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts, Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center, ArtPlay Community Education and UAB Arts in Medicine for a memorable night of art and music. Enjoy activities indoors and outdoors in UAB’s Cultural Corridor — on both sides of 10th Avenue South — featuring art exhibitions, artist talks, make-your-own art, food trucks, cash bars and more.
The party will start at 5 p.m. at AEIVA, 1221 10th Ave. South, and the Alys Stephens Center, 1200 10th Ave. South.
- At AEIVA enjoy a free exhibition opening — including cash bar — for new exhibitions by artists Jacqueline Surdell and Michael Dixon.
- At the same time, across the street outside the Alys Stephens Center, visitors can check out vendors, art activities, food trucks, a cash bar and more.
- At 6 p.m., attend an artist gallery talk at AEIVA, or enjoy some outdoor fun around the Alys Stephens Center’s Engel Plaza.
- Outdoors in the Alys Stephens Center’s Engel Plaza, explore the ArtPlay kids’ zone and make art with Arts in Medicine. Learn about UAB organizations at their table displays while a DJ spins the hottest tunes.
- At 7 p.m., dance to the global beat of Red Baraat, a pioneering brass band from Brooklyn, New York.
All events are free and open to the public. The Arts Block Party with Red Baraat is sponsored in part by the Dora and Sanjay Singh Cultural Arts Fund.
Red Baraat, conceived by dhol player Sunny Jain, has drawn worldwide praise for its singular, multi-ethnic sound — a merging of hard-driving North Indian bhangra with hip-hop, jazz and raw punk energy. Created with no less a purposeful agenda than manifesting joy and unity in all people, Red Baraat’s spirit is worn brightly on its sweaty and hard-worked sleeve, according to the band’s artist statement. Red Baraat is at its best in live shows, “communing with their audience in a joyful, near hedonistic celebration of music and dance which, tellingly, draws a crowd even more diverse than the players on stage.”
Songlines magazine compared Red Baraat to New York world fusion acts like Gogol Bordello and Yerba Buena. The band has performed at Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits, globalFEST, Lincoln Center and New Orleans Jazz Fest, along with clubs, theaters and arts centers, and sold-out rooms as diverse as the Luxembourg Philharmonic and New York City’s legendary rock club Bowery Ballroom. In 2021, Red Baraat headlined the Wolf Trap Performing Arts Center with master percussionist Zakir Hussain, performed at the Dubai World Expo and toured its 11th annual Red Baraat Festival of Colors. The band’s 2018 album release, “Sound the People,” hit the Top 10 on the World Music Charts Europe and was heralded in the United States as the anthem soundtrack for the South Asian diaspora by indie-rock magazine Stereogum.