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The Europe Day Event 2021, on 5 May 2021, 1.00pm EST  is devoted to gender equality stories -displaying EU efforts, in partnership with the UN, in achieving &supporting Women’s & Girls’ Rights around the world.

There will be video messages of Josep Borrell, EU High Representative/Vice-President & Helena Dalli, EU Commissioner for Equality, UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcukainterview by EU trainees, Irina Sukhy, Women Environmental Human Rights Defender,Ecohome co-founder, Belarus, Sara Serpa, vocalist, composer & gender equality activist and a performance by Mycale featuring Ayelet Rose Gottlieb, Sofia Rei, Sara Serpa & Malika Zarra. Mycale is a group of four vocalists-arrangers, put together by John Zorn in 2009 to create an acapella quartet that would collaboratively arrange selections from his Book of Angels compositions. 

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Sara Serpa will premiere her new piece Miniatures online, commissioned by the Jazz Coalition, on Thursday, April 22nd, at the Biophilia Records Festival.

Featuring Sara Serpa on voice and André Matos on guitar, Miniatures is a reflection on Serpa’s experience during the Covid-19 pandemic in New York. The piece is divided in 4 parts: 1. News Cycle, 2. Optimism and Despair (with text by Zadie Smith), 3. How Can I Create? , 4. Watching You Grow. Video was created by Mariana Meraz.

To sign up for the Biophilia Records Festival, click here.

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Sara Serpa is included in the list of nominees for the 2021 Jazz Journalists Awards, in the Female Vocalist of the Year category.

Nominees in most categories were chosen by the votes of the Professional Journalist Members of the Jazz Journalists Association. Nominations were made on the basis of work done in calendar year 2020, with the exception of Lifetime Achievement Awards categories, in which nominations are for a lifetime body of work. For more info on the nominees click here.

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Sara Serpa was voted #1 Vocals of the Year 2020 by the NPR (National Public Radio) Jazz Critics Poll.

“Below are the results of NPR Music’s 8th Annual Jazz Critics Poll (my 15th, going back to the poll’s beginnings in the Village Voice). These are the jazz albums that lit up a dark, unsettling year. Maria Schneider’s Data Lords was the critics choice — no surprise, though relative unknown Sara Serpa’s victory in the Vocal category in a year when both Kurt Elling and Gregory Porter released new albums was.” Click here to read more.

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Recognition has been included in several Best of 2020 and Releases of the Year 2020:

The 2020 NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll

The Wire Magazine

New York Music Daily

Plastic Sax

The Jazz Trail

The Absolute Sound

The New Noise

Jazz.pt Magazine

Downbeat Magazine Top-Rated Albums of 2020

Additionally, Sara Serpa was featured as:

Vocals #1 – NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll 2020

Musician of the Year 2020 – Jazz.pt Magazine

Female Vocalist of 2020 – El Intruso

Mulheres Que Causaram Ondas em 2020 – Rimas e Batidas

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“M³ is a revolutionary new model for mentorship which was created by co-founders Jen Shyu and Sara Serpa in March and launched in June 2020 at the height of the pandemic. The founders describe M³ as “a think tank for new ways to connect, collaborate, support, create, and empower womxn musicians worldwide including BIPOC, LGBTQIA2S+, and musicians of all abilities across generations.”

To celebrate these first two concerts of this new initiative, we asked the twelve initial participating musicians about why they decided to participate in this opportunity and how mutual mentorship and creative collaboration have affected their artistic process. New Music USA is funding the next round of M³ collaborations. “

Read more here.

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Aline Frazão recording in Luanda.

From Luanda to New York: the amazing Angolan singer Aline Frazão is lending her voice to Recognition. I hope you watch this iteration of the film: Aline narrating Amílcar  Cabral’s texts is so powerful and deep.

Recognition portrays scenes of Black female workers out in salt fields, doing extremely hard work repetitively, sometimes with children on their back or barefoot. Black Angolan women suffered much violence during Portuguese occupation while simultaneously being erased from the country’s official liberation history. For that reason, and to make this project complete, it became particularly important for me to have the voice of a Black Angolan woman narrating the injustices and violence perpetrated during colonial times. 

Although the film was released back in June, I felt that Recognition wasn’t completely finished. It is hard to let go and accept that each album/ project has a timeline and belongs to a specific moment. But I feel that with Aline’s voice, Recognition is now concluded.

Thank you, Emmanuel Iduma for your kindness and insight and to Bruno Soares for continuously helping me improve the film. To Zeena Parkins, Mark Turner and David Virelles for giving life to my music. And to Aline who graciously accepted my invitation, deepening the dialogue and opening a new door to a reality I’ve been researching for such a long time.

Sara