We're thrilled to present Hamed Sinno's 'Poems of Consumption' as the kickoff performance in Next50, the Fine Art Center's special anniversary season series.
Choose what you pay! Through 6:15 p.m. on the day of the show, Thursday, October 9, tickets for Poems of Consumption are available for as little as $5! Prices increase in $5 increments. You choose the price that's right for you. Choose what you pay pricing is available on advance purchases only. Tickets purchased after 6:15 p.m. October 9 will be priced at the original door rates: $40, full; $25, Five College students; $22.50, youth 17 and under.
Next50 features artists on the rise and artists actively engaged in reimagining the media in which they work. Sinno, through their latest work, fits both criteria. Though well established from their time as leader of the Beirut-based indie rock band Mashrou’ Leila, Sinno is only now building a presence as a solo artist. And they've taken their work in a stunning new direction with new sounds, new instrumentation, a fantastic multimedia stage show, and a boundary-pushing creative process.
Sinno who is Lebanese American, gay, and nonbinary, has advocated for LGBTQ+ rights and called attention to injustice across the globe throughout their career.
With this new song cycle, Poems of Consumption, they turn their focus on the far-ranging negative implications of consumer culture. Passages lifted from Amazon product reviews serve as building blocks for commentary on such subjects as surveillance capitalism, heartbreak, boycotts, and Orientalism. Sinno’s R&B-tinged compositions and lush arrangements evoke artists ranging from Morcheeba and Massive Attack to Lambchop and Raphael Saadiq. Performed by Sinno on vocals and electronics with the accompaniment of a string quartet, the songs in Poems of Consumption speak truth to power and its subjects alike, and question expectations, excess, and the very foundations of empire. Brilliant multimedia projections complete the experience and drive home the message.
Hamed Sinno is part of the Fine Arts Center's Asian and Asian American Arts and Culture Program as well as both the Codemakers and Next50 series.