Vive La Revolution: Bad Reputation
Hear the Gypsy jazz-influenced, raunchy and subversive chansons of legendary French singer Georges Brassens in English and French alongside an exhibit of James Shearwood's collection of revolutionary 1968 posters.
Friday, February 13th, 2026 at 7:30pm, at the Old Town Hall Theater, 67 Main Street, Brewster, NY.
The music:
Bad Reputation is the musical project of Paris-born, New York–based musician Pierre de Gaillande, reimagining the songs of legendary French poet and singer Georges Brassens for English-speaking audiences.
De Gaillande’s translations capture the wit, rhythm, and lyricism of Brassens’ originals with remarkable fidelity and musicality. Three volumes of Bad Reputation—released on Barbès Records and Vermillion Music—offer a rare chance to experience Brassens’ genius through a fresh, natural English voice.
Bad Reputation has been featured on NPR’s The World, TV5, and in numerous outlets across France, Spain, and the U.S., praised for opening Brassens’ work to a new generation of listeners.
Watch a clip of Bad Reputation at Barbès here.
The posters:
Exhibited at Old Town Hall theater will be reproductions of a selection of James Shearwood's collection of revolutionary French posters, produced during the 1968 student uprising in Paris. Workers and students came to the Atelier Populaire in the occupied School of Fine Arts with ideas for poster designs, which would then be printed and plastered all over Paris alongside a wave of radical graffiti. The posters are beautifully simple and yet the perfectly express the feelings of hope and resistance flooding the streets at the time. They still feel relevant to today's viewer.
Please note: Old Town Hall Theater is not fully handicapped accessible at this time. Entering the theater involves a set of stairs. Please contact us with concerns: [email protected]
Cultural Arts Coalition's programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
Flyer artwork by Jean Basiletti.
