WILMINGTON — An iconic female folk artist and activist is returning to Wilmington to perform this May, with tickets on sale to Ani DiFranco’s show at Greenfield Lake Amphitheater this week.
DiFranco, who performed in town at Brooklyn Arts Center a decade ago, is making her local stop May 3 as part of a 20-city “The Spirt of Love Tour.” She will be joined by Valerie June and tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday, Feb. 20, 10 a.m.
An American-Canadian singer-songwriter, DiFranco has dropped 20 albums that blend folk and alternative rock, punk, funk, hip hop and jazz. Like all of her releases, 2024’s “Unprecedented Sh!t” came out on her record label Righteous Babe, which she started in 1990.
DiFranco’s music, comprising fierce vocals with staccato rapid guitar playing, is both political and personal. The Grammy-winning artist is known for albums including “Not a Pretty Girl,” “Dilate,” “Little Plastic Castle,” “Evolve” and “Living in Clip.”
In addition to her passion for creating music, DiFranco also is well-known for her advocacy work, with organizations like the The Southern Center for Human Rights and The Innocence Project. She has been outspoken against the Gulf War in the 1990s, advocated to get out the vote during presidential years with “Vote Dammit” tours, and most recently called for a ceasefire in Gaza.
DiFranco also has donated songs for benefit albums and created specialized concerts, such as 2010’a “For Our Coast” in response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. She started a nonprofit “Aiding Buffalo’s Children” in the early aughts to raise money for Buffalo’s public school system and today it has folded into the Community Foundation of Greater Buffalo.
Among many awards and accolades, DiFranco’s voice for positive change received the Woody Guthrie Award in 2009.
Her 2019 memoir “No Walls and Recurring Dreams” is being turned into a feature and DiFranco is working on a new nonfiction book, “The Spirit of Ani.” She also just wrapped her Broadway show playing Persephone in the Tony and Grammy-winning show “Hadestown.
Tickets to her May performance in Wilmington are available here.
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