Richmond meets Java meets Baltimore at Le Mondo! The night will feature several exciting new performance works from Rumput, an experimental multimedia group out of Richmond, VA who meld American and Indonesian folk traditions through music and shadow theatre. Joining Rumput is Baltimore cranky legend Katherine Fahey with Dan Van Allen.

About the Artists

Rumput (Richmond, VA)
Rumput plays keroncong (a string-band tradition from Indonesia) and explores parallel threads with other traditions, especially old-time string-band music of the United States and British Isles, and Indonesian gamelan. They produce multimedia performances involving traditional and original music paired with shadow theater comprising elements of American and Indonesian traditions — crankies (scrolling panoramas) and wayang (shadow puppets).

They will be premiering two new commissioned works from scrolling panorama artist Dani Iswardana and musician Danis Sugiyanto, both of whom are from Java. Rumput has learned from and collaborated with Danis Sugiyanto and a number of other Javanese musicians for many years.

Katherine Fahey (Baltimore, MD)
Katherine Fahey utilizes crankies to tell folks tales as far-reaching as the southern swamps of Louisiana and the northern reaches of Inuit Quebec, but also tell true stories from her childhood in Virginia or from the streets of Baltimore. For the last 10 years, she has been exploring visual storytelling through illustration, paper cutting, and shadow puppetry. Collecting memories from songs, folk tales, and her own experience of the world, she stages narrative allegories, mostly in silhouette.