Ani DiFranco to Perform at The Center for the Arts on June 28

The Center for the Arts is pleased to welcome back folk rock singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco to The Marisa Funk Theater on June 28, 2022 with support by Abraham Alexander. 

Widely considered a feminist icon, Ani DiFranco’s prolific music career spans over twenty self-released albums under her own record label, Righteous Babe Records which she launched at the young age of 19. Since Ani bucked the major label system in the early-‘90s, opting to release her music on her own terms, the self-described Little Folksinger has been the subject of all kinds of hyperbole. She’s been called “fiercely independent” (Rolling Stone), “inspirational” (All Music Guide), “the ultimate do-it-yourself songwriter” (The New York Times).

Although DiFranco’s music has been classified as both folk rock and alternative rock, she has reached across genres since her earliest albums incorporating punk, funk, hiphop, and jazz influences. DiFranco supports many social and political movements by performing benefit concerts, appearing on benefit albums and speaking at rallies, also backing grassroots cultural and political organizations supporting causes including abortion rights and LGBTQ+ visibility. 

Ani DiFranco has written hundreds of songs, played thousands of shows, captured the imaginations of legions of followers, and jammed with folkies, orchestras, rappers, rock and roll hall-of-famers, jazz musicians, poets, pop superstars, storytellers and a martial arts legend. DiFranco has collaborated with a wide range of artists including Prince, Utah Phillips, Bruce Cockburn, Rob Wasserman, Maceo Parker and Rising Appalachia and shared stages with Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Pete Seeger, Kris Kristofferson, Billy Bragg, Michael Franti, and many more. 

The transcendent new album from Ani Di Franco, Revolutionary Love, marks the latest proof of one of her most powerful gifts as an artist: a rare ability to give voice to our deepest frustrations and tensions, on both a personal and political level. “My songs have always reflected an acute connection between my personal life and the life of my society,” says the trailblazing musician and activist. “As I started to come out of years of dealing with marriage problems, I saw my entire country in the same situation; the complete breakdown of communication and loss of empathy and connection. But after what seems like unforgivable damage, then where do you go? You can’t kick each other off the planet, you can’t change the past, so what then?”

Produced by Di Franco and recorded mainly in two whirlwind days at Overdub Lane in Durham, Revolutionary Love more than justifies the mad dash behind its making. As her first studio effort since the release of No Walls and the Recurring Dream (Di Franco’s widely praised 2019 memoir), Revolutionary Love arrives as an instantly transportive selection of songs. Rooted in her poetic lyricism and ever-commanding vocal work, the album unfolds in an understated yet captivating alchemy of folk and soul and lushly textured jazz-pop. 

In support of her new album, Ani DiFranco comes to Grass Valley’s The Center for the Arts on June 28, 2022.