Name: SONGS FOR THE PEOPLE - benefitting Santosha Village
Start: 2026-05-06T18:30:00-05:00
End: 2026-05-06T22:00:00-05:00
Location: Cafe Istanbul

SONGS FOR THE PEOPLE - benefitting Santosha Village

Featuring artists artists Kelly Love Jones, Johanna Rose, Unscripted, Sariyah Idan performing in the round. $10-20 at the door.
About this Event

SONGS FOR THE PEOPLE is a monthly event. Returning to Cafe Istanbul May 6 featured artists will perform in the round (2 pieces per round, 3 rounds). Artists will often collaborate with each other in the moment, or perform pieces they had not planned as a result of being inspired by each other. This month's event features/benefits SANTOSHA VILLAGE. $10-20 at the door. https://santoshavillage.org/home

SANTOSHA VILLAGE: Orleans based non-profit seeking to build community with and provide ongoing necessary mutual aid services to our unhoused neighbors. Their Kula Bus is A school bus that has been converted into a unique mobile community center that is run collectively with unhoused neighbors.

KELLY LOVE JONES: Reggaemericana vanguard Kelly Love Jones joins Caribbean rhythms with a skillfully wholesome body of lyrics that celebrate kindness, growth and the sweetness of connection. This New Orleans musician’s flair fuses World, Reggae, Hip Hop, and Soul. Love Jones is a regular performer at local festivals French Quarter Fest, Jazz Fest, an MC for many festivals in Congo Square, and DJ on WWOZ and host on WRBH Radio for the Blind and Print Handicapped.

UNSCRIPTED (Kay Joe) is a unique New Orleans-based artist and cultural bearer known for impromptu, high-energy freestyle performances atop his Ford truck on Frenchmen Street and near Jackson Square. He is recognized as a staple of local NOLA hip-hop culture, blending storytelling and poetic freestyles that engage locals and tourists alike.

JOHANNA ROSE is a New Orleans-based singer, songwriter, upright bassist, and street performer making music that lives somewhere between the stars and the gutter. Her sound - smoky, sultry, chaotic - walks the line between beauty and grit. With vocals that can cut or soothe and bass lines that feel like a heartbeat and a tightrope all at once, Rose builds songs that don’t ask permission. It’s jazz with a crooked grin; grounded in tradition but never content to stay there.

SARIYAH IDAN: known among New Orleans locals and tourists as "the most hauntingly beautiful voice of the French Quarter streets", Sariyah Idan is a captivating performer, multi-instrumentalist, bandleader, and community organizer. A gifted poetic songwriter bridging many genres in both her compositions and selections she uniquely interprets. Jazz and folk trained, hip-hop educated, and influenced by both Latinx sounds and her Jewish roots, she believes honoring both influences and ancestors is a form of cultural activism.