New York City staple Tomas Doncker has dipped his hands into another fresh and innovative project. In celebration of the release of his new album, “Big Apple Blues,” which he wrote with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa, Doncker is launching the first ever South by South Orange Festival.
Doncker will also perform with his band, True Groove All-Stars, which includes Josh David (currently the front man for the Wailers) and critically acclaimed violinist Alan Grubner, at the new festival.
Presented by South Orange Village and Seton Hall University, South by South Orange will feature 12 creative and interactive sessions, 15 musical performances and a “Creative Midway” of unique participatory happenings and community art projects.
This year’s theme is “Creative Collisions,” intended to showcase the way in which interesting aspects of our lives come from perceived incongruence yet end up providing for deep satisfaction and interest.
“‘Creative Collisions’ is a natural theme for South Orange, where so many different types of people, ideas and sensibilities collide every day to make something incredibly wonderful,” said Stephen Schnall, the festival’s founder.
An integral member of New York City’s downtown “no wave” scene in the early 1980s, Doncker cut his teeth as a guitarist with groups such as James Chance and the Contortions, Defunkt, J. Walter Negro and the Loose Jointz and others. Eventually he began producing studio and songwriting sessions with Bootsy Collins, Yoko Ono, Grammy-nominated reggae vocal group the Itals and Grammy-winning producer Prince Charles Alexander.
The South by South Orange Festival takes place June 26 to 28. It’s a diverse event for the entire family and includes child care options.