Fred Ho
Fred Ho was very important to the founding of the East Side Freedom Library. His work in music, theater, organizing, and writing inspired us — and many, many others. A leading figure in avant-garde jazz from the 1970s through the 2010s, Fred was a scholar of culture and politics and a political activist. His passions and interests brought him to the Twin Cities on many occasions, not only for residencies at the Walker Art Center and Macalester College, and as a recipient of a McKnight Composer’s Fellowship but also for a collaboration with the Hotel and Restaurant Workers’ Union (HERE Local 17) and its diverse membership before and after their 1999 strike. Before his death in 2014, he shipped ESFL100 boxes of materials — books, recordings, and manuscripts.
Towards the end of his life, Fred became intentional about mentoring young people and considering ways that his work might continue. Ben Barson is one of those young people. While Fred left his books to ESFL, he left his saxophone to Ben. Like Fred, Ben is also an activist scholar, writing a PhD dissertation at the University of Pittsburgh, which explores the ways that African and Caribbean diasporic musics found expression in early 20th century New Orleans.
Ben Barson and Fred Ho
Ben and his partner Gizelxanath Rodriguez have formed the Afro Yaqui Music Collective as their own expression of diasporic musics which, in Fred’s tradition, they are using to engage critical political issues of our day. We are excited that, on Saturday evening, September 14, Ben and Gizel will present their work, through narrative and performance in “Art as Decolonization: The Making of the Jazz Opera Mirror Butterfly.” Subtitled “The Migrant Liberation Movement Suite”, this opera draws on the revolutionary Zapatista myth relating to local ecology, sustainability and rebellion—told through metaphors of a tree, a stone, and a river. Based on interviews with three women activists from different parts of the world, the story focuses on their confrontation with violent, repressive colonial occupation, whose destruction of ecologies results in forced migration and climate crisis. The opera’s multi-genre and multi-aesthetic approach is meant to communicate the diversity of migrant experiences and cultures, and fight stereotypical and destructive representations of migrants entering or living in the United States.
You can listen to a taste of Mirror Butterfly here. We hope you can join us on September 14 when the spirit of Fred Ho is sure to be in the house, and that you will visit us to engage Fred’s stunning collection of books.