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Current Covid Policy: **For the safety of our artists, crew, staff and patrons, we strongly encourage properly worn masks when in Black Cherry's theater while not actively eating or drinking. Thank you!**


If you have accessibility needs or questions, please call 410-752-7272 or email info@blackcherry.org

UPCOMING EVENTS


Saturday September 30th, 2023 Puppet Slamwich at Current Space

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Black Cherry Puppet Theater's Fall Puppet Slamwich
​Outside at Current Space:

An evening of Puppetry & Performance for Grown-ups!

Saturday September 30th
Shows @ 5pm (doors 4:30) & 8pm (doors 7:30)

Tickets: $12-15
TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW VIA CURRENT SPACE! 
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE!

*Show contains mature content*

(Don't forget to bring extra cash for popcorn to support Black Cherry!)

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This outdoor event will be held in Current Space's rear courtyard.
Enter through the alley at 421 Tyson Street 
Baltimore MD 21201

Accessibility and Parking Info: currentspace.com/contact

Events at Current Space are rain or shine. Tickets are non-refundable

poster by Valeska Populoh

RECENTLY PAST EVENTS...


Fri Sept 15th, Sat Sept 16th, Sun Sept 17th An evening with Alex and Olmsted featuring Milo the Magnificent with music by Witchez Bite!

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An evening with Alex and Olmsted featuring Milo the Magnificent
with musical guest Witchez Bite


Internationally acclaimed puppet theater duo Alex and Olmsted
are bringing their award winning show "Milo The Magnificent"
to Black Cherry Puppet Theater!
Along with some variety acts and a short puppet films too!

Musical Guest Witchez Bite (Zach Serlèt, Tomas Drgon & Sami Arefin)
will get us in the mood with an opening set of swinging tunes before the show!


All ages welcome!
​
Showtimes:
Friday September 15th @7pm
Saturday September 16th @7pm
Sunday September 17th @11am

Tickets $15-$17.50 adults
$10 kids under 16
available online now
Click HERE to purchase tickets!

"The Jim Henson Foundation grant awarded MILO THE MAGNIFICENT® is a highly engaging puppet show about an aspiring magician. This wordless comedy, inspired by turn of the century vaudeville entertainers, is as highly physical as it is charming. Using stunningly innovative puppetry, Milo presents a variety of magic tricks which don’t always go as planned. Great for all ages!"

To learn more about Alex & Olmsted and the amazing work they do please check out their website: https://www.alexandolmsted.com/

FB event page

Tuesday July 25th, 2023 Poose the Puppet & Toybox Theatre

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Poose the Puppet & ​Toybox Theatre
at Black Cherry

Tuesday, July 25th at 7pm
(doors open @6:30pm)

Tickets $15/$12.50
Available Now Click HERE! 


Don't miss these two captivating performance artists, coming all the way from North Carolina for one night only in Baltimore! 

Check out Toybox Theatre's Youtube page
and Poose the Puppets Website

Saturday July 15th, 2023 Namaslay: A puppet musical

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PLAYDOH PRODUCTIONS
presents
NAMASLAY: A PUPPET MUSICAL

Saturday, July 15th at 7pm
Doors open 6:30
At Black Cherry


​Tickets $12.50-$15
TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW!
CLICK HERE!



"Namaslay” is a comedy puppet musical. It premiered in the 2023 New Orleans Giant Puppet Festival at Happyland Theater. This touring version is a solo-show adaptation of the original ensemble production. The show features a soundtrack of original musical numbers that are fun and thought-provoking for people of all ages. It deals with themes of gentrification, greenwashing, labor exploitation, toxic positivity, and wellness culture in the age of social media.

**There is occasional explicit language. Show runs approx. 1 hour


Playdoh is a multimedia performance artist exploring contested spaces and animated objects. They work as a prop and puppet maker and performer, creating work that irreverently comments on the way we structure our lives under capitalism, and the ways we try and fail to create and maintain authentic connections with one another. Puppetry performance and adjacent forms are uniquely situated to address how we perform and perceive "realness" within the artificial hells of our bureaucratic and tech-driven world. 

Friday July 14th, 2023 Resonant Rogues with Joe's Truck Stop

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RESONANT ROGUES with JOE'S TRUCK STOP

Friday, July 14, 2023 at 7pm
Doors open 6:30pm
At Black Cherry Puppet Theater


​Tickets $15-20
TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW
CLICK HERE! 

​
The Resonant Rogues’ dark Appalachian folk paints a picture of their lives in the mountains of Western North Carolina and on the road. Anchored by the songwriting duo of Sparrow (banjo, accordion) and Keith Smith (guitar), they’ve traveled the byways and highways of America and crossed the oceans with instruments in tow. From riding freight trains to building their own homestead, the pair are no strangers to blazing unconventional trails. At once rooted and adventurous, each song tells a story of real experiences, friendships, and challenges. 


From a ridge in the Ohio River Valley, on a front porch where Kentucky’s visible through the winter’s bare trees,  Joe's Truck Stop conspires over a smoking blend of Bluegrass, Honky Tonk, Western Swing, and whatever else finds itself inhaled and manifested by way of a wood box and steel wire...Years of digesting so much of the Country Blues lexicon and traveling the country learning the numerous styles of fiddlers, writers, and travelers alike has led to the original music that comes by way of Joe’s Truck Stop.


The songs are stories of living on the road, love, temptation, heartbreak, family, banjo pickin' tobacco spittin' women, gas station sushi, and much more...
​

Wednesday July 12th, 2023 Puppet Potluck with Peter Court

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A special Puppet Potluck welcoming Peter Court to Baltimore

Wednesday, July 12th 6:30pm-8:30pm

Peter is visiting Baltimore and Black Cherry before attending the National Puppetry Festival. He is Executive Director of Creative Madness, and is an avid maker of puppet magic. For nearly thirty-five years he has worked in education, the creative arts, and theatre, and in South Africa for over twenty-five years. Much of his current work focuses on strengthening school systems through the creative arts -- all on a shoestring budget!


Join us to share a meal, welcome him and learn about his work!
We also have slots available if you would like to share a puppet work in progress/idea with the group! 

Please sign up HERE! 


Wednesday June 21st, 2021 Puppet Potluck

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We are pleased to offer up our third Puppet Potluck! 

Come join the circle to share ideas and works in progress! These sessions aim to build a supportive community for those interested in developing and sharing puppet shows! Have an idea to pitch, a work in progress you want to get feedback on, or just seek creative community around puppetry?

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THE POTLUCK! 

Wednesday, June 21st 6:30pm-8:30pm
at Black Cherry Puppet Theater

There will be no audience, just your peers!


Friday June 16 through Sunday June 18th, 2023 Black Cherry at The Columbia Festival of the Arts

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BLACK CHERRY
performs
REQUIEM FOR A LANDFILL
(our classic marionette show made entirely of trash!)
at the
THE COLUMBIA FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS

10475 Little Patuxent Parkway
Columbia, MD 21044

Friday, June 16, 7:00pm
Saturday, June 17, 1:45pm & 4:15pm
Sunday, June 18, 12:20pm & 1:50pm

Click here for more information about the festival! 




June 14th, 2023 Spirit-Rider and Night-Heart

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 SPIRIT RIDER and NIGHT HEART
Georgia Beatty & Maisie O’Brien
with
CURVING TOOTH

Liz Downing & Greg Hatem

Wednesday June 14th at 7pm
Doors open @ 6:30pm

Tickets $12.50--$15

Click here to purchase tickets! 

Fiddler Georgia Beatty and shadow puppeteer Maisie O’Brien bring you “Spirit-Rider and Night-Heart", a tale of the haunted horse rider who spends years following a mystical drum in search of her heartbeat.

This is a performance where shadow dreams play, and song weaves a story from the future about the tasks of being alive.
​
Bill to be shared with the enchanting Baltimore duo  Curving Tooth--
​Liz Downing & Greg Hatem

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Maisie O'Brien
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Georgia Beatty
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Liz Downing
Maisie O’Brien is a Philadelphia-based shadow puppeteer simmering together everything from cut paper to overhead projector, crankie theater, animation, printmaking, and cello. She has performed and workshopped her shadows nationally at puppetslams, festivals, and classrooms from Camden to Chicago. They have also developed shadows, puppets, sets, and costumes for local and international collaborations with filmmakers, dancers, musicians, playwrights, and educators.

Georgia Beatty is a fiddler and songwriter focused on cycle, lineage and healing through cultural transmission. Georgia’s first full-length album, Apprentice to Transformation is a collection of original & traditional fiddle tunes honoring death as a moment in transformation. Their playing uses microtonality and subtle pulse to create cavernous, oceanic space while holding grounded, danceable beats. Georgia’s study as a fiddler is in Norwegian traditional music.

​Liz Downing creates aural images as companions to visual symbols. She collects sounds from beloved environments as a blanket for words to rest upon. When these words are sung, vibrations activate the symbols. This is the magic of music. Liz's visual images arise from the landscapes, which she loves to manipulate into existing upon a flat surface. This is the magic of art.

April 30th through May 28th, 2023 Our Roots Are Entangled--Parade Build

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​Our Roots Are Entangled

JOIN US FOR A PARADE BUILD AT BLACK CHERRY PUPPET THEATER

Help us build large puppets and prepare other puppets for the Sowebo Festival Parade on Sunday, May 28. On Sunday we will parade around Hollins Market at 1pm & 3pm. Gather outside Black Cherry 30 minutes before!
All are welcome to attend or march with us! 


We will also be fixing and shining up last year's puppets!

Drop-ins welcome, Masks encouraged, no need to RSVP, just come by and lend a hand:

SUN 4/30 12-4pm
SAT 5/6 12-4pm
SUN 5/7 12-4pm
WED 5/10 5-9pm
SAT 5/13 12-3pm
WED 5/17 5-9pm

Parade Headdress Workshop SAT 5/27 12-4pm


1115 Hollins Street (south of the market), Baltimore, MD 21223

Email valeskapopuloh@yahoo.com for accessibility needs and info

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Saturday May 20th, 2023 Puppet Slamwich at Current Space!

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We're taking the Puppet Slamwich back to the lovely outdoor courtyard of Current Space!

TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW via Current Space! CLICK HERE!

An evening of Puppetry & Performance for Grown-ups!
SATURDAY MAY 20th, 2023
TWO Shows @ 5:00pm (doors 4:30) & 8:00pm (doors 7:30)

Tickets: $12-15 Purchase online in advance HERE!
*or CASH ONLY at the door while they last* 
Current's Garden Bar will be open for your drink desires--
& don't forget to bring extra cash for popcorn to support Black Cherry!


Hosted by Laure Drogoul
with Musical Guest: Ghost Modal

Performances by:
Peter Redgrave
Danny Joe's Treehouse
Marian McLaughlin
Lil Lamberta
Schroeder Cherry
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This outdoor event will be held in Current Space's rear courtyard. Enter through the alley at 421 Tyson Street. Baltimore, MD 21201

Accessibility and Parking Info: currentspace.com/contact

Events at Current Space are rain or shine. Tickets are non-refundable

Thanks Esie Cheng
@esie_doodles for the poster!  

The Puppet Slamwich series is made possible by the generous support of the The HBH Fund and the Puppet Slam Network and in part by the Maryland State Arts Council and the Creative Baltimore Fund, a program of the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts!


Wednesday April 26th, 2023 Charming Disaster

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Charming Disaster returns to Black Cherry Puppet Theater for
TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT performances at 7pm and 9:30pm on
Wednesday April 26th
​(aka the eve of Ellia's birthday)


Advance Tickets available: Click Here! 

FB Event Page

Goth-folk musical duo Charming Disaster, based in Brooklyn, NY, perform playfully dark original songs inspired by death, crime, myth, magic, science, and the occult. Inspired by the macabre humor of Edward Gorey and Tim Burton, the murder ballads of the Americana tradition, and the dramatic flair of the cabaret, they write songs that tell stories about death, crime, myth, magic, folklore, science, and the occult.


Their latest album, Super Natural History, is a musical cabinet of curiosities inspired by the natural world and the metaphysical realm, uniting the worlds of magic and science with songs that explore subjects like witchcraft, monsters, and the underworld alongside bats, plants, poisons, and parasites.

Learn more about Charming Disaster HERE! 

“What do you get when you combine everything cryptic, horror, weird, macabre, showmanship, and pure dedication? You get the duo Charming Disaster.” –VWMusic

“Charming Disaster sound like the music that Pugsley and Wednesday Addams might have made after listening to the Decemberists, Squeeze and some Chopin.” - Yes! Weekly


Wednesday April 12th, 2023 Puppet Potluck

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After our first successful gathering in February we are pleased to offer up a second Puppet Potluck!

Come join the circle to share ideas and works in progress! These sessions aim to build a supportive community for those interested in developing and sharing puppet shows! Have an idea to pitch, a work in progress you want to get feedback on, or just seek creative community around puppetry?

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THE POTLUCK! 

Wednesday, April 12th 6:30pm-8:30pm
at Black Cherry Puppet Theater

There will be no audience, just your peers!








Sat March 25th & Sun March 26th 2023: Poncili Creación/Daxophone Consort

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Black Cherry is thrilled to welcome back Poncili Creación from Puerto Rico, along with obscure composer collective The Daxophone Consort to perform their newest show
DEEPER CLOSER WARMER
TWO NEW SHOWTIMES JUST ADDED! 

Saturday March 25th 8pm 
Saturday March 25th 10:30pm
(late night raunchy special!) 

Sunday March 26th at 4pm (family friendly!)
Sunday March 26th at 8pm 

Doors open 30 minutes before each showtime!! 


Tickets available now: https://blackcherry.ticketspice.com/poncili-creacion

"Puppeteers Poncili Creación and experimental musicians The Daxophone Consort perform an ancient surgery that examines the crevices of flesh and consciousness. The operating theater is prepared for an unorthodox procedure, performed with instruments of bowed wood, foam, and circuitry. Inside the organism empires of bacteria will fall and new organic machines will be created while they search deep within the organisms for simple truths about existence"

To learn more about Poncili and see images of their mind bending creations follow them on Instagram

And check out this PBS interview with Poncili
Creación creators--brothers Pablo and Efrain Del Hierro

And learn about the Daxophone Consort HERE

Thursday March 23rd, 2023 Trio Fadolín ​

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Music at Black Cherry presents: Trio Fadolín 
A cultural intersection through contemporary classical music
at Black Cherry Puppet Theater 
Thursday March 23rd at 7pm
​

Tickets available now! Click Here to purchase! 

Trio Fadolín members: Sabina Torosjan (violin), Ljova (fadolín), and Valeriya Sholokhova (cello)

More about Trio Fadolín  in their own words....
Trio Fadolín is a new ensemble with a unique sonority — featuring Sabina Torosjan on violin, Valeriya Sholokhova on cello, and Ljova, performing on the fadolín – a new instrument that encompasses the range of the violin, viola, and most of the cello, finding its footing in an acoustic chamber music setting for the first time.    We formed during the COVID-19 pandemic — our first performances were in the summer of 2021, on a makeshift stage at the Javits Convention Center mass vaccination site, operated by the US Army and sponsored by Sing for Hope. Since that time, we have made appearances at Bargemusic, Barbès, Symphony Space, and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We continue to perform outreach events for Sing For Hope’s stage at the new Moynihan Train Terminal at Penn Station, where we frequently perform with special guests.  As our opportunities to play together grew, our repertoire evolved steadily — it now includes works by Ukrainian composers Vasily Barvinsky, Mykola Kolessa, and Miroslav Skoryk, Spanish-American composer Andrea Casarrubios, folk music from Denmark, Sweden and Romania, in addition to original works by our fadolínist, Ljova. All three of us are graduates of The Juilliard School.

Our focus is multifaceted — on the one hand, we are exploring the unique sonority of the acoustic fadolín  (six-string violin, with low C and F strings) within a trio context, using it — for the first time in history — as an integral instrument in an acoustic chamber music setting.

On the other hand, we also share a deep personal connection — all three of us grew up in the former Soviet Union and arrived in New York as teens.  Sabina was born in Estonia of Armenian-Jewish heritage; Valeriya was born in Ukraine of Ukrainian, Jewish, and Russian heritage; Ljova was born in Moscow, Russia, of Ukrainian-Jewish, German-Jewish, Polish and Romanian heritage.  We share a common bond of immigration, Eastern European literature, humor, animation and music.

We are here to tell the complicated story, to tell the stories of immigrant composers, to collaborate with immigrant artists, to showcase places where cultures intersect.
​
CLICK HERE TO VISIT Trio Fadolín's Website to learn more--read performer bios and hear them play!

Facebook event page

Saturday March 18th, 2023 Puppet Slamwich at Black Cherry

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It's time once again for another evening of puppetry
​and performance for grown-ups!


Join us on Saturday March 18th, 2023 for our kinda famous Puppet Slamwich series, a variety-like show of puppet acts and music at Black Cherry Puppet Theater! Support the arts and artists from in-town and beyond!

1115 Hollins Street, Baltimore, MD 21223

TWO showtimes at 6:30pm and 9:30pm
(doors open 30 minutes before each showtime)

BOTH SLAM SHOWTIMES ARE NOW SOLD OUT!! THANKS FOLKS! 
Tickets are available NOW online
Click HERE! 


Performers include:
Yates Godfrey
David Greenfieldboyce
Valeska Populoh & Marian McLaughlin
Floozy Charmichael & Yoru the Bunny Bear
and More!


Hosted by Sheila Strawberry Gaskins

​with Musical Guest--Underworld Orchard
featuring Baltimore's own Elizabeth Downing,
Hanna Olivegren and Steve Strohmeier.


Poster Design by Annie Howe 
​
Enjoy Puppets! Popcorn! Music! Drinks! Merch! and Community!

**For the safety of our artists, crew, staff and patrons, masks must be worn properly when not actively eating or drinking. Thank you!**

The Puppet Slamwich Series is made possible by the generous support of the The HBH Fund and the Puppet Slam Network 
and supported in part by the Maryland State Arts Council and the Creative Baltimore Fund, 
a program of the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts! ​

Friday March 3rd, 2023 Long/Gone by Erik Ruin

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***JUST ADDED A SECOND SHOWTIME AT 9:30pm***

Don't miss
Erik Ruin's epic and immersive
scrolling shadow show LONG/GONE 
at Black Cherry Puppet Theater


Friday March 3rd
Shows at 7pm AND 9:30pm 
**BOTH SHOWTIMES HAVE SOLD OUT! THANKS FOLKS!**
Doors open 30 minutes before each showtime!

TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW!
This show is limited capacity and expected to sell-out
Masks required when not eating/drinking

Over 100 feet in length, Long/Gone is a single intricately-cut piece of paper. The piece flows freely from image to image, while narratives and scenarios (often drawn from classic works of literature from Homer to Dante) emerge, collapse, and spill over and into each other. Philly Voice calls it “stark, intricate and wondrous – Ruin’s paper-cut art combines the enthralling fantasy of a storybook with the prismatic, fragmented beauty of a stained-glass window.”

In performance, Ruin scrolls the paper-cut continually across the surface of an overhead projector, creating an epic and immersive shadow-show, while musicians provide a live soundtrack. For this performance, he'll be joined by Jesse Sparhawk on harp and pedal steel guitar with special guest Will Yager on double bass.

Opening act by the musical wonder, singer, improviser Bonnie Lander!

Click here for the FB Event Page


Learn more about Erik Ruin HERE

Monday February 20th, 2023 Sixteen Tons: Limberjacks and American Folk Puppetry Workshop

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This 3 hour workshop can accommodate up to 15 participants,
Open to all...adults, teens and kids ages 6 and up
**Children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult**
To register visit: https://16TonsLimberjacks.eventbrite.com


Workshop is free, but space is very limited so please only register if you are sure you are able to make it! Thank you! 

Black Cherry Puppet Theater, along with local performers and puppeteers including Sheila Gaskins and Valeska Populoh, are thrilled to host independent scholar and puppeteer Dr. Paulette Richards from Atlanta for a free limberjack workshop and look at the complex history of this folkart form. Dr. Richards co-curated the exhibition "Living Objects: African American Puppetry" at the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry in 2018-19. Her book "Object Performance in the Black Atlantic" is coming out this year!

"Limberjack puppets have constituted some of the most egregious examples of blackface material characters - a legacy that weighs on
American object performance like the proverbial sixteen tons of number nine coal. Yet limberjacks are a folk art form that incorporates elements of object performance traditions from European immigrant groups such as the Scotch and Irish. along with African American and indigenous peoples. In this workshop we will therefore review the history of limberjack puppets in the U.S .. build a simple. cardboard limberjack. and celebrate the bonds of solidarity workers of all ethnicities formed in the United Mine Workers of America union while performing to "Sixteen Tons,"originally composed by Merle Travis in 1946.

Paulette Richards is a puppet artist and independent researcher. She holds a Ph.D. in French Civilization from the University of Virginia and has taught at Georgetown University, Tulane University, and Georgia Tech. Richards has taught animatronic puppetry workshops at Friends School of Atlanta. Decatur Makers. the Dekalb County Public Library, the Center for Puppetry Arts. and the Puppeteers of America 2017 National Festival. She co-curated the Living Objects: African American Puppetry exhibit that ran at the University of Connecticut's Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry and co-edited the anthology of essays from the Living Objects Symposium. Her book. Object Performance in the Black Atlantic is forthcoming from Routledge in 2023.

​16 Tons FaceBook Event Page

Wednesday February 15th, 2023 Puppet Potluck

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Puppet Potluck

After years of dreaming and scheming, Black Cherry is finally launching our inaugural Puppet Potluck!

Come join the circle to share ideas and works in progress! These sessions aim to build a supportive community for those interested in developing and sharing puppet shows! Have an idea to pitch, a work in progress you want to get feedback on, or just seek creative community around puppetry?

Wednesday, February 15 6:30pm-8:30pm
There will be no audience, just your peers!


Bring food to share and SIGN UP HERE if you want to attend!





Friday January 27th, 2023 Trucker Talk 

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Trucker Talk presents:
Dreams & Nightmares EP Release Party


With performances by: 
Sam Grossman with a brand new crankie,
accompanied by Trucker Talk

Lady Ro
​
Liz Downing & Hanna Olivegren

Doors 7:30, Show 8pm

Tickets $15
UPDATE: SHOW IS NOW SOLD OUT!! 
Available Now Online! Click HERE 
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​
FB Event Page

**For the safety of our artists, crew, staff and patrons, masks must be worn properly when not actively eating or drinking. Thank you!**

Saturday January 14th, 2023 Puppet Slamwich

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