September 30, 2003
Contact: Susan Gwynne
(805) 893-2098
e-mail: gwynne-s@sa.ucsb.edu

Award-winning actor and playwright Sarah Jones
presents the humorous and moving Surface Transit
at UCSB Campbell Hall

Summary Facts:

• Sarah Jones in Surface Transit
• Award-winning hip-hop poet, actor and playwright
• Acclaimed for her one-woman show Waking the American Dream
• Jones is a UC Regents’ Lecturer in the Department of Dramatic Art
• Wednesday, November 5 / 8 pm
• UCSB Campbell Hall
• General: $30/$25, UCSB students: $19/$16
• Tickets/information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at 893-3535

The spectacularly talented actor, playwright and hip-hop poet Sarah Jones performs Surface Transit on Wednesday, November 5 at 8 pm in UCSB Campbell Hall. Jones is returning to Campbell Hall for another amazing evening of theater following her breath-taking performance of Waking the American Dream in February 2003. Jones conceived Surface Transit by combining and shaping poems and monologues she had previously written, including some works that helped her win the 1997 Nuyorican Poets Café’s Poetry Slam. Surface Transit went on to win the Best One-Person Show Award at HBO’s Aspen Comedy Arts Festival and a revival of the show this summer at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre earned rave reviews. “Jones inhabits so many diverse characters so effortlessly and expertly that she’s as mercurial as a chameleon—though far more exciting. Not to mention funny, penetrating, provocative and engaging,” praises the San Francisco Chronicle. “Surface Transit...is must-see theater with a capital M.”

Surface Transit is a rich evening during which Jones brings to life diverse inhabitants of Brooklyn. These characters include: a young Russian immigrant widow; a rapping, wise coed; a recovering hip-hop “addict” hoping to kick the habit with an unusual 12-step program; and a young British actress with West Indian roots hoping to land a spot on a new reality series called SICK: Seven Immigrants, a Campsite and a Kayak. “What makes each one of these characters so involving is that Jones can point out their flaws without damning them as people,” writes the SF Weekly. “Jones’s characters, in other words, aren’t just studies in race and contemporary prejudice; they’re studies in contradiction, and she explores them with compassion as well as biting humor.”

Jones grew up in urban areas like Washington D.C., Boston and New York, and her own biracial background was nurtured in an even more diverse melting pot when she went to the United Nations International School. After attending Bryn Mawr College, she took to writing and performing in the New York hip-hop and spoken word communities. She has performed in such diverse settings as Lincoln Center, The Apollo Theater, Riker’s Island, The Public Theater and the 92nd Street Y, and alongside such luminaries as Charles Dutton, Danny Hoch, Susan Sarandon and Meryl Streep.

In January 2002 Jones filed suit against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), charging that it violated her First Amendment rights when it fined an Oregon radio station for playing her song “Your Revolution (Will Not Happen between These Thighs)” in 1991. The song, which protests the degradation of women in mainstream hip-hop lyrics, uses sexually explicit language to point out the misogyny prevalent in rap. The case was Jones’s way to fight censorship and to criticize the too frequently sexist world of rap. In February 2002 the FCC ruled the Oregon station had not violated the indecency rule. “I am pleased that the FCC has admitted its error and removed the gag order against ’Your Revolution,’” Jones was quoted as saying. “But I am still bothered that because the FCC has no timeline or process it has to follow, my work was effectively censored by the federal government for almost two years without me having any role in their deliberations. I’m free for now, but who’s next?”

Read more about Sarah Jones and see a clip from Surface Transit on her website.

The audience is invited to remain after the performance to take part in a Meet-the-Artist discussion. In Arts & Lectures’ on-going effort to make our events accessible to all who wish to enjoy them, Waking the American Dream will be a signed performance. Sign language interpretation is made possible by the California Arts Council in collaboration with the National Arts and Disability Center and by the Santa Barbara Foundation’s Access Theatre Endowment Fund.

As a UC Regents’ Lecturer in the Department of Dramatic Art, Jones will visit several UCSB classes during her residency, which is made possible by the Regents’ Lectureship program of the University of California. Instituted in 1962 to encourage rare and invaluable interaction between gifted non-academics and the university community, the program has continued to provide campus residencies in sponsoring departments for people with distinguished achievement in the arts, sciences, humanities, business, politics and international affairs.

Sarah Jones is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and sponsored by the Daily Nexus and Hotel Oceana. Tickets are $30 and $25 for the general public and $19 and $16 for UCSB students.

For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.

Editor: For photos, please call
Susan Gwynne at (805) 893-2098.