The Peoples' Voice Cafe 239 Thompson St, New York, NY 10012 / 212-787-3903
PVC is an alternative coffeehouse offering live and live-stream entertainment in New York City,
presenting folk, blues, jazz, rap, poetry, spoken word, storytelling, theater and dance since 1979.
We shine a spotlight on social issues and artists from underrepresented cultures.
SONiA of disappear fear
SONiA - aka, the independent singer/songwriter Sonia Rutstein - once compared her musical stylings to "a bird jumping off a window ledge. It's in that split second of trust and light and talent and God."
For nearly four decades, music lovers and fans around the world have relished "that split second" and the eclectic sounds of SONiA and disappear fear.
Writing and performing in genres ranging from the Blues and Folk to World Music, SONiA has appeared at concerts around the globe and performed with such luminaries as Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, the Indigo Girls, Sheryl Crow, Arlo Guthrie, and Peter Paul and Mary. Her latest recording is Album 23. soniadisappearfear.com
Tonight's concert is supported by the Folk Music Society of New York.
LOCATION:
Judson Memorial Church
Assembly Hall (not the main sanctuary on West 4th St.)
239 Thompson Street, between West 3rd and West 4th Streets
New York NY 10012
TRANSPORTATION:
to West 4th St./Washington Square - south exit
Walk three blocks east to Thompson Street; turn left. (3 minutes) MAP
SHOWTIMES:
All shows start at 8 PM, Saturdays. Doors open at 7:15.
No reservations, so come early to be assured a seat.
ADMISSION:
Suggested contribution: $20. Friends of PVC*: $12. Students & Youth: $12
Folk Music Society of NY Members: $12. Judson Memorial Church Members: $12
More if you choose, less if you can't. No one turned away for lack of money. *Friends of PVC include monthly sustainers, regular volunteers, Collective members,
performers and people who donate at least $30.
ACCESSIBILITY:
Wheelchair accessible (including bathrooms). For info call 212-787-3903.
Masks are no longer required
We will continue to offer KN95 or other high quality masks to anyone who wants one.
We use three HEPA air purifiers within the Assembly Hall.
Hawaii's State Flower, Mao Hau Hele (Hibiscus brackenridgei)
Hawaiian Music & Dance Night
Come beat the winter chill with an evening of traditional Hawaiian music and dance produced by Evy Mayer, and supported by the Folk Music Society of New York, Inc. You will hear ukuleles, slack key guitar, steel guitar and more, from some of the finest practitioners of Hawaiian music and Hawaiiana, including Makalina, Claudia Goddard, Andy Wang, Evy Mayer and Chris Davis. In addition, you will enjoy authentic hula dancing by the New York branch of Kumu Hula (Master Teacher) Vicky Holt Takamine's Pua Ali'i 'Ilima. Wear a Hawaiian shirt or other festive attire.
Printable Flyer
Tonight's concert is supported by the Folk Music Society of New York.
Charlie King
Charlie King is a musical storyteller and political satirist. Pete Seeger hailed him as "One of the finest singers and
songwriters of our time." Charlie has been at the heart of American folk music since the early 60s. His songs have been
recorded and sung by Pete Seeger, Holly Near, Ronnie Gilbert, John McCutcheon, and Arlo Guthrie. "If we had more Charlie Kings in the world, I'd be less worried." - Peggy Seeger "Luckily, we have him!" - Tom Paxton
charlieking.org
Tret Fure
Tret Fure began her career at the age of 16, singing in coffeehouses and
campuses in the Midwest. At 20, she was performing as guitarist and vocalist for
Spencer Davis, touring with him and penning the single for his album
Mousetrap. She recorded her first album in 1973.
Some career highlights include winning the South Florida
Folk Festival Singer/Songwriter Competition in 2 out of 3 categories (Best
Overall and Best Up-Tempo Song), winning the Women in the Arts Jane
Schliessman Award for Outstanding Contributions to Women's Music, and
winning the A Still Small Voice 4U songwriting competition with her song
"Monuments". Tret's latest album, Lavender Moonshine, addresses the
times in which we live.
Tret also teaches guitar and songwriting, paints pet portraits on
commission, and has even published a cookbook, Tret's Kitchen. tretfure.com
Brooklyn Women's Chorus
The Brooklyn Women's Chorus was formed in October 1997 by Bev Grant, who was the director until she retired in 2021. Last year they welcomed new director Caroline Kuhn. The chorus sings socially relevant songs by contemporary American songwriters such as Bev Grant, Garth Brooks, Jackson Browne, Pat Humphries and Sandy O. Topics range from freedom and social justice, to peace, resistance, women's labor history, and empowerment. The Brooklyn Women's Chorus communicates with a joyful voice, sure to uplift anyone who hears them.
brooklynwomenschorus.com
Lissa Michalak
Lissa Michalak loves songs that make her laugh, stick in her head, or send chills down her spine. She has performed solo and unaccompanied as well as with friends and guitars since the mid-1980s. She uses her rich knowledge of human movement, expression, and anatomy to enhance both her vocal sound and physical performance. Lissa is also one half of the traditional song duo Hilo.
hilotradsongs
Songs of the Season, with Robin Greenstein & Cecilia Kirtland
Robin Greenstein is an accomplished musician and performer with a fascinating resume. She majored in music in college (classical guitar) and worked under folk legend Hedy West ("500 Miles"). After graduation, she was signed as a songwriter to Bob Dylan's company. Robin was a Clinician-Performer for Martin Guitars and a headliner for Renaissance Cruises. She toured the U.S. college circuit and Europe for years and performs for Club Med. She has released six CDs of original music, traditional folk, children's music and a holiday CD, Songs of the Season. Robin is delighted return to Peoples' Voice to perform her multicultural holiday show celebrating Chanukah, Christmas, Yuletide, Kwanzaa and Solstice! Tonight she
will be joined by Cecilia Kirtland. robingreenstein.com
Lucas Maehara Rotman
Brooklyn based singer-songwriter Lucas Maehara Rotman is a storyteller of the human experience. His lyric-driven Mosaic Americana blends the whimsical and the profound, creating a sound as diverse as the influences that have shaped his journey. Word craft and poetic imagery run through Lucas' lyrical universe, with an arc that bends towards social justice, lending weight and depth to his storytelling. Lucas' music connects hearts and souls through the expressive artistry of his poetic imagination, storytelling prowess, and the intensity and playfulness of his live performances. Award winning songwriter, Lucas Maehara Rotman is excited to introduce new music from his upcoming album Lost and Found. lucasmaehararotman.com/home
The Ranzo Boys
The Ranzo Boys are an NYC-based maritime and traditional folk trio of Lafayette Matthews (he/him), Jules Pieperl (they/them), and Lindsey Smith (she/they). Since forming in 2020, they have performed
at
the Connecticut Sea Music Festival, the Portsmouth Maritime Folk Festival, the Peoples’ Voice Cafe, and the South Street Seaport Museum, among others. They are dedicated to honoring the tradition of the songs they sing while making the folk community a more inclusive and welcoming space for all people. Their repertoire includes buzzy English harmonies, Appalachian ballads, sea chanteys, and any trad song that can be remotely construed as queer.
theranzoboys.com
Saturday, January 17, 2026, at 8pm
Martin Luther King Day Celebration!
Atiba Wilson & Kiyoko Yamaoka-Layne
Atiba Kwabena Wilson is a musician, published poet, storyteller, and the founder/artistic director of both the Songhai Djeli Folkloric Ensemble and the
Befo' Quotet Rhythm 'n' Dues Band. He has been a featured artist for several National Association of Black Storytellers festivals, the International African
Arts Festival and at FESTAM International Music Festival, Inc. in Dakar, Senegal. Atiba also served as the artistic director of the Music Meets Poetry
series at Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Plaza from 1999 to 2009, and wrote a poetic narrative for, and performed in, Harlem School of the Arts'
presentation of the Kwanzaa Nutcracker from 1996 to 2002. He has also recorded with Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber. Atiba can be contacted at befoquotet@hotmail.com
Kiyoko Yamaoka-Layne is a classically trained pianist from Kyoto, Japan. She was a member of the well-known Japanese Gospel Choir the Naniwa Black
Peppers and later moved to the US to study Jazz and Gospel at the Berklee College of Music, where she earned a degree in Jazz Composition. Since moving to
Harlem in 2008, Kiyoko has performed in numerous jazz clubs, in the house band at the Jazz Foundation of America's Monday Night Jam, and at United Nations
Plaza, while also working as music librarian for the Duke Ellington Orchestra and teaching. Her first CD, Kiyoko in Harlem, came out in 2009.
Thelma Thomas
Thelma Ruffin Thomas is the artistic director of Pearls of Wisdom, a touring ensemble of elder storytellers. She has brought her lively, spirited, authentic presentations to Tanzania, Brazil, Ghana, Costa Rica, The Gambia, South Africa, Russia, Australia, Kenya, and Cameroon, continuing the tradition of elder folk art stories.
Saturday, January 31, 2026, at 8pm
Lisa Roma and Friends
Lisa Roma, aka ElectrikGoddess, is a singer-songwriter of jazz-infused folk and pop songs that embody the human experience, love, our
etheric connection to Nature, and the search for peace. Inspired since childhood, influenced by Rodgers & Hammerstein, Debussy, Jobim, The
Beatles, The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Billie Holiday, Carole King, Laura Nyro, Joni Mitchell, Coltrane,
Armstrong and others, lisa began composing and writing original songs and poetry, recording since the early 1970s, and writing prose and
performing since the early 1980s, and over the years at local venues around NYC. She has performed with Poetic Notion, and her own
ElectrikGoddess, along with Barry Kornhauser and Peter Pasco and the late Bob Lepre, Paul Decoster, and others. soundcloud.com/electrikgoddess
Saturday, February 7, 2026, at 8pm
Jendog Lonewolf
Jendog Lonewolf is a Two Spirit Black Native Photographer, Hip Hop Lyricist, and Cultural Worker from Bushwick, Brooklyn, who navigates a myriad of spaces, challenging stereotypes and issues at the intersections of class, race, gender and sexuality. She's gracefully shared stages with Harry Belafonte, Nile Rodgers, Desmond Tutu, and Joan Baez, worked with Grammy winner Dan Zanes on two Hip Hop/Folk songs, including a LeadBelly tribute for Smithsonian Institute's Folkways Records, toured South Africa, Sri Lanka, UK, Toronto, US, and Cambodia with YaliniDream as the duo Brooklyn Dreamwolf, and is a proud member of the People's Music Network for Songs of Freedom and Struggle, their Steering Committee, as well as Great Labor Arts Exchange (GLAE) Next Generation Team.
ilovejendog.bandcamp.com
Lindsey Wilson
Lindsey Wilson is an NYC singer-songwriter with a flare for nostalgia with her memorable mix of 70's style urban folk rock and conscious lyrics. Throughout her musical career, Lindsey Wilson has embraced issues of the heart and mind within her original music. Love songs, protest tunes and lyrics of empowerment have all been a true representation of her style and sensibilities. Her songs "Stand for the People" and "The People Shall Rise" have caught the attention of culturally diverse audiences throughout the country. Lindsey's influences stem from a myriad of musically conscious voices such as Odetta, Richie Havens, Joni Mitchell, and Joan Armatrading. However, Lindsey's message is truly her own.
lindseywilsonmusicnow.com
Saturday, February 14, 2026, at 8pm
Photo by Christy Gallois
Vincent Cross
Vincent Cross is a rustic folk troubadour rooted in Ireland and Australia, now based in New York City. Inspired by 60s icons like Seeger and Dylan, he blends poetic songwriting with folk tradition. His album Old Songs For Modern Folk reached #2 on the Folk DJ Chart, while The Life & Times of James "The Rooster" Corcoran drew critical praise. His essay "Writing the Songs of our Ancestors" appeared in Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore. His fifth album, A Place Where Songs Come to Live arrived in June and features an International Acoustic Music Awards finalist
"In the Eyes of My Father."
vincentcross.org
Mike Lee
Mike Lee grew up in the northern prairie of South Dakota and now calls Queens home. He sings the blues with a grin, exploring why we laugh through hard times and why life's highlights can bring a tear to our eyes. After releasing his debut solo effort, Pick Me Up Café, Mike founded the roots-rock band Goatroper with his partner Abbey Janii - "words you can dance to." You can find the two of them cutting a rug in a Brooklyn honky-tonk just as soon as singing a sweet tune around a fire in the north woods.
linktr.ee/thirdeye_grind
Tonight's concert is supported by the Folk Music Society of New York.
Saturday, February 21, 2026, at 8pm
Rod MacDonald with Mark Dann
Rod MacDonald was born in Connecticut and began singing professionally in New York City, where he became a
leading headliner in Greenwich Village clubs in the 1980s. He recorded 21 songs for Fast Folk magazine
(now in the Smithsonian Folkways collection), including "American Jerusalem," "A Sailor's Prayer," "Every Living
Thing," and "White Buffalo," also recorded by numerous other artists. He has 14 solo CDs, mostly recently Rants and Romance.
The last four have made the top ten nationally on folk radio charts. Rod has also recorded three CDs with the
Palm Beach County band
Big Brass Bed, which New Times named "Best Folk Band" in 2016. Now living in south Florida, Rod has
been named to the "Ten Greatest South Florida Folksingers Of All Time" list by New Times, and one of
"Ten Magnificent Musicians of Palm Beach County" by The Palm Beach Post. He is also Music Americana
instructor with Osher Lifelong Learning at Florida Atlantic University, and was named Distinguished Faculty
Member in 2012. His second novel, The American Guerillas, was published in 2021.
rodmacdonald.com
Lisa Klotz
Lisa is a singer/songwriter whose style is a combination of folk, blues and gospel held together by a powerful and resonant voice.
Both her original and cover songs touch upon themes of social justice, environmental awareness, women's rights, empowerment, family,
conflict resolution and spirituality. Lisa's first CD Morning Sun, was released last year and reached #32 on international folk
radio stations.
lisaklotz.com
Peoples' Voice Cafe, started in 1979 by members of Songs of Freedom and Struggle, carries forward the vision of
using songs and performing arts to support the struggle for peace and justice.
All are impacted by the history and ongoing practice of systemic racism in this country and the continuing
brutal murders of Black Americans by police.
We stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter, outraged by the many faces of racism found in education,
healthcare, housing, jobs, poverty, criminal justice, and voting. All must be free to move about in the
"land of the free" without suspicion, harassment, or arrest.
Peoples' Voice Cafe stands committed to speak out, sing out, and work against racism, white supremacy, and
indifference.
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