PARADISE GRAY, FREESTYLE, HANDSDOWN + BZE JOIN SOANDRY

We are thrilled to announce additional performers and a very special host who will join Soandry on stage this Saturday at the New Hazlett Theater. Soandry will be joined by special guests and Pittsburgh and international favorites FREESTYLE, HANDSDOWN (ShaRon Don and Deejay Huggy), and BZE! We are honored to have PARADISE GRAY host this special event!

Freestyle a.k.a. FRZY

As an international recording artist, Freestyle has collaborated with other artists from Japan, Morocco, Bulgaria, and Germany and has reached great success. He has been featured on DJ Khaled's "Drive Time Show" twice, has reached the top ten charts in Germany, and has already performed for crowds as large as 30,000 people. He has been featured on two of the largest Jay-Z fansites as the "Next Jay-Z" and all hail his upcoming project "Reincarnation" as one of the most remarkable projects ever released in hip-hop.

Handsdown (ChaRon Don and Deejay Huggy)

Handsdown (ChaRon Don and Deejay Huggy) is a Pittsburgh native duo hip-hop group who have performing, recording and distributing music internationally and are working on a new release which is due to drop next month.

BZE (a.k.a. the Cuban Cruise Missile)

BZE, also known as the Cuban Cruise Missile, grew up in Northern California and was born to Cuban immigrants. The majority of BZE's cuts are dark, funky beats with production assistance by Omar-Abdul.

Paradise Gray (left)

Paradise Gray, who will host this performance, has a long track record in hip-hop, beginning with his membership in the socially conscious group the X-Clan. On the business side, he was a photographer for hip-hop magazines and manager of entertainment for The Latin Quarters, the legendary New York club that helped launch such acts as Public Enemy and A Tribe Called Quest.

Paradise Gray and X-Clan's "Xodus"

Order tickets in advance here.
Tickets will also be available at the door:
$12 general admission
Mattress Factory members (+1) free at the door
Pitt & CMU students with I.D. are $9 at the door
Performance begins at 8pm

Gee's Bend Quilters at the Mattress Factory

Gee’s Bend is a small community located in a pocket of land surrounded on three sides by the Alabama River. The community, now called Boykin, is home to a remarkable group of quilters. In the 1960s, Gee’s Bend became an important part of the Freedom Quilting Bee (a branch of the Civil Rights movement), which aimed to increase community development by the sales of their unique and beautiful quilts.

The artists of the Gee’s Bend quilting community have shown their quilts at many museums, from the Whitney Museum to the Smithsonian. For the first time in their lives, many of the quilters have a real income and have been able to inject new life into a vanishing community.

Please join the remarkable women of Gee’s Bend Quilting at the Mattress Factory on Tuesday, October 12th, 2010, from 6-8pm. There will be a quilt-making demonstration and discussion with the ladies of Gee’s Bend. View handmade quilts in the Mattress Factory lobby, see their history, and listen as they convey their stories through words, song, and craft.