Toshi Reagon and Big Lovely + Meshell Ndegeocello + Staceyann Chin + House of Ladosha

Gay youth organization FIERCE celebrates its tenth anniversary with this strident femme bill. The daughter of Sweet Honey in the Rock cofounder Bernice Johnson Reagon, Toshi Reagon demonstrates her ability to merge diverse textures, gospel and blues in the headline slot. Equally stirring stuff comes from Meshell Ndegeocello, the singer-songwriter and bassist endowed with a seductive charm that enables her to sing about any topic—particularly hot-button issues such as politics, race and religion—and make it sound like pillow talk. Plus there's slam poetry from Chin, who has appeared in (and written for) Russell Simmons’s Def Poetry Jam.