Black Arts Movement: Examined Part III—Poetry

CALENDAR

PART I: INTRODUCTION

Pat Cruz & Carl Hancock Rux In Conversation

PART II: FILM

Dutchman Film & Conversation

PART III: POETRY

Music & Poetry: Thulani Davis + Wadada Leo Smith

FRI-SAT, FEB 24–25 | 7:30PM

$35 / $25

PART IV: MUSIC

Max Roach’s We Insist! Freedom Now Suite Reimagined feat. Michela Marino Lerman

FRI, MAR 24 | 7:30PM

$25 / $15

PART V: THEATER

Readings + Conversation

Funnyhouse of a Negro by Adrienne Kennedy

THU, APR 20 | 7PM

FREE ZOOM

VISUAL ARTS

Dive Deeper with Tavia Nyong’o & Michael Sawyer

THU, MAY 11 | 7:30PM

$15 / $7 SUGGESTED

DONATION

FILM SCREENING

Jason and Shirley

Presented in collaboration with Maysles Documentary Center

THU–SAT, MAY 18–20

PART VII: BLACK ARTS

MOVEMENT: THEN AND NOW CONFERENCE

THU–SAT, APR 13–15 | 7:30PM

$35 / 25

PART VI: DANCE

E-MOVES

Our signature dance series curated this season by Stefanie Batten Bland

The Black Arts Movement Conference is a three-day event featuring panels, discussions, essays, and performances that reflect, examine, and point to the full experience and culture of the Black Arts Movement, culminating in a concert curated by Vernon Reid.

The Black Arts Movement: Examined series and conference have been made possible by a generous grant from the Mellon Foundation.

PICK-3 OR MORE PACKAGE

Enjoy 25% OFF of your purchase when you buy tickets to 3 or more live events!

Photos by Kwame Brathwaite

FROM THE ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC

DIRECTOR/CURATOR-IN-RESIDENCE

Over the course of the 2022/2023 Season, Harlem Stage examines the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s to the 1970s, and its relationship to race, gender, sexuality, music, photography, film, poetry, theater, and dance, as well as its intersectionality with the larger Black Power Movement. Harlem Stage also intends to raise key questions that remain relevant to artistic production: what is the relationship between art and politics and what is the role of the politically conscious artist?

Harlem Stage will convene seven programs, culminating in a spring conference and concert, paying tribute to the groundbreaking writers, poets, visual artists, musicians, and intellectuals who attempted to situate their work within the political, economic, social, historical, and artistic context of Black Americans. Employing roundtables, public dialogues, and screenings, Harlem Stage also intends to explore controversial areas of tension between the intellectual, ethical, and commercial imperatives of the Black Arts Movement, its scholarship, and the professional demands many of its leaders (given the constraints, and disparate doctrinal paths of debate, within its institutional academy) imposed upon artists, and whether or not the Black Arts Movement’s libertarian, racism-countering goals were ever truly achieved.

Employing “conversations” between highly esteemed sovereigns of the Black Arts Movement and a contemporary generation of artists, Black Arts Movement: Examined centers itself within a dialogue that is both historically and culturally relevant in the ever-changing present world.

Carl Hancock Rux Associate Artistic Director/Curator-in-Residence

FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR & CEO

When Carl Hancock Rux and I first started discussing his joining the staff of Harlem Stage as our Associate Artistic Director and Curator-in-Residence, our conversations centered on how a practicing artist with an active career would be able to adjust to the various responsibilities associated with the running of an arts organization. More significantly we talked about curatorial processes involving the design and implementation of our programs within the context of a team. Even before we sealed the deal for his engagement, made possible through the generosity of the Mellon Foundation, Carl, who had presented his art at Harlem Stage for over 30 years, was brimming with ideas. Certainly something that I should have expected, but when one of his many ideas was to propose a yearlong series of programs examining the Black Arts Movement, I was deeply moved and inspired.

Essentially, I cut my teeth in performance and administration as a participant in the Black Arts Movement almost accidentally as the young partner of the artist, Emilio Cruz, who reluctantly left a career in the NY art world to join the Black Arts Group (BAG) in St. Louis. It was life-changing in many unexpected ways. We were suddenly in the center of an amazing group of artists and activists who mixed their dedication to creative work with the idea of building and transforming community, confronting the social and political strictures that reinforced racist oppression. In part as a response to the Civil Rights movement of the ’60s, we marched, we protested, and we created art meant to respond to and challenge the status quo. Carl and I spent many hours discussing the parallels between those times 50 years ago to the police killings of Black men, women, and children and the continued oppression that inspires the Black Lives Matter movement of today. The ultimate parallel is the creative response of contemporary artists, looking back and creating forward.

Cycles abound sometimes more quickly than we can record or absorb. The point of the series that Carl has conceived, and programmed collaboratively with myself, Managing Director Eric Oberstein, and Programming Manager Yunie Mojica, is not only to absorb, but it is also to examine, to expand our understanding, to learn from the past through the lens of transformative art. As an organization that sits proudly at the intersection of art and social justice, this examination of an arts movement born out of resistance exemplifies the mission of Harlem Stage. I hope that you will join us and participate with us in this examination.

Artistic Director & CEO

ABOUT THE EVENT

Playwright, journalist, librettist, novelist, poet, and screenwriter

Thulani Davis and Pulitzer Prize-nominated trumpeter and composer Wadada Leo Smith perform an evening of poetry and music alongside Smith’s Kikuyu Ensemble. Harlem, a Futuristic vision: a Historical and Cultural Oasis and a Sanctuary for the Spiritual Rebirth of America engages with Davis’ works, Nothing But the Music and The Emancipation Circuit.

Thank you for joining us!

Harlem Stage

ARTISTS

Wadada Leo Smith Trumpet & Digital Piano

Thulani Davis

Poetry Recitations

Ashley Walters Cello

Erika Dohi Piano & Electronic Keyboard

Pheeroan akLaff Drums

Presented in collaboration with Blank Forms.

Black Arts Movement: Examined is supported by the Mellon Foundation.

Photo by Kwame Brathwaite

BIOGRAPHIES

THULANI DAVIS POET, SCHOLAR, WRITER

Thulani Davis is an interdisciplinary artist and historian, whose work includes poetry, theater works and cultural criticism. Her work as a dramaturg includes Anna Deavere Smith’s Fires in the Mirror: Crown Heights, Brooklyn and Other Identities, and Twilight Los Angeles, 1992, and foundational work on Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf. Davis wrote the libretti for Anthony Davis’s X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, and his Amistad, and many other musical works. Her forthcoming operas are The Little Rock Nine by Bernadette Speach, and Fire Across the Tracks: Tulsa 1921 by Anthony Davis. Her produced plays include: Everybody’s Ruby: Story of a Murder in Florida, The Souls of Black Folk: An Oratorio for Five Actors, the adaptation for George C. Wolfe’s production of The Caucasian Chalk Circle, and Where the Mississippi Meets the Amazon, with Shange and Jessica Hagedorn. Davis wrote the book and lyrics for The Sojourner Washing Society, A Musical in Gospel & Blues, with Steven Robinson. She has written the scripts for several narrative films, and award-winning documentaries. The author of six books, she has two new works: Nothin but the Music (2020), and The Emancipation Circuit: Black Activism Forging a Culture of Freedom (2022). She is a professor and a Nellie Y. McKay Fellow in Afro-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

WADADA LEO SMITH

TRUMPETER, COMPOSER

Trumpeter, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser Wadada Leo Smith is one of the most boldly original and influential artists of his time. Transcending the bounds of genre or idiom, he distinctly defines his music, tirelessly inventive in both sound and approach, as “Creative Music.”

Throughout his career, Smith has been recognized for his groundbreaking work. A finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Music, he received the 2016 Doris Duke Artist Award and earned an honorary doctorate from CalArts, where he was also celebrated as Faculty Emeritus. In addition, he received the Hammer Museum’s 2016 Mohn Award for Career Achievement “honoring brilliance and resilience.” In 2018 he received the Religion and The Arts Award from the American Academy of Religion.

Smith has released more than 50 albums as a leader on labels including ECM, Moers, Black Saint, Tzadik, Pi Recordings, TUM, Leo and Cuneiform. His diverse discography reveals a recorded history centered around important issues that have impacted his world, exploring the social, natural and political environment of his times with passion and fierce intelligence. Rosa Parks: Pure Love, an Oratorio of Seven Songs was released on February 15, 2019 via TUM Records. His 2016 recording, America’s National Parks earned a place on numerous best of the year lists including The New York Times, NPR Music and many others. Smith’s landmark 2012 civil rights opus Ten Freedom Summers was called “A staggering achievement [that] merits comparison to Coltrane’s A Love Supreme in sobriety and reach.”

www.wadadaleosmith.com

ASHLEY WATERS CELLO

Cellist Ashley Walters has been described as performing “with the kind of brilliance that beckons a major new performer on the new music scene” (Mark Swed, L.A. Times). She has been praised for her “imposing talents” (Sequenza 21) and “impressive” (Pitchfork) and “beautiful playing” (All About Jazz). Walters maintains a uniquely diverse career, performing music that blurs the boundaries between classical, avant-garde, and jazz, breaking new ground in repertoire with microtonality, extended techniques, alternative tunings, and improvisation.

As a solo artist known for tackling virtuosic, demanding works and collaborating with composers, Walters has been the dedicatee of significant additions to the cello repertoire and has appeared on concert series and venues throughout the United States, including Walt Disney Concert Hall, Spectrum (NYC), Center for New Music (San Francisco), Continuum Music Festival (Memphis), Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, San Fransisco State University, Southern Utah University, San Diego New Music soundON Festival, Nief-Norf (Knoxville), Tuesdays @ Monk Space (Los Angeles), wild Up’s WORK series (Los Angeles), REDCAT (Los Angeles), the wulf (Los Angeles), People Inside Electronics (Los Angeles), Equal Sound (Los Angeles), the Outhaus (Los Angeles), and wasteLAnd music (Los Angeles).

ERIKA DOHI

PIANO & ELECTRONIC KEYBOARD

Described as “virtuosic” (NY Times) and “barrier-defying artist” (Mix Magazine), Osaka-born and New York-based pianist Erika Dohi is a multi-faceted artist with an eclectic musical background. From highly polished traditional classical to bold improvisation, she is a dynamic performer whose timeless style and unidiomatic technique sets her apart in contemporary NYC avant-garde circles. I, Castorpollux, Dohi’s debut solo album, which was released in May 2021 under 37d03d, the label founded by Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), Aaron Dessner, and Bryce Dessner (The National), is a profound personal excavation set to a gripping landscape of wild, genre-fluid composition; a virtuosic, but emotionally generous convergence of the technical and the spiritual. With understated piano & keyboards at its center, I, Castorpollux is equal parts hazy nostalgia, science-fiction soundtrack, and electro-acoustic experimentation. The project features contributions from Channy Leaneagh (Poliça), Andy Akiho, Immanuel Wilkins, Ambrose Akinmusire, Jeremy Boettcher, Emily Wells, Zach Hanson, and is produced by William Brittelle, a vital modern composer himself. The album has received “The Best Ambient Albums in May 2021” (Bandcamp), “Best of the Week” (Brooklyn Vegan and JAZZIZ Magazine), described as a “retro-futuristic piece of poetry” (Mixmag), and was featured on The New York Times’ Playlist and WNYC’s New Sounds/ Soundcheck. Most recently, Dohi was featured in MusicNOW Festival in collaboration with Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra along with So Percussion, Bonny Light Horseman, and Daniil Trifonov.

PHEEROAN AKLAFF DRUMS

Pheeroan aklaff is a Detroit born drum-set doyen who emerged amid a cadre of New York based composers and improvisors. Mentored by Travis Biggs, “Pistol” Allen, Randall Hicks, Dwight Andrews, Robert Ferris Thompson, Rashied Ali, and Billy Hart. He made his first New York performances with Leo Smith, Oliver Lake, Anthony Davis, Henry Threadgill, and Amina Claudine Myers.

His residencies in Africa, Asia and South America have influenced his releases of percussion collages and songwriting; House of Spirit Mirth, Fits Like A Glove, Sonogram, Brooklyn Waters, Global Mantras. He has enjoyed accompaniment activity with Cecil Taylor, Andrew Hill, Yamashita Yosuke, Tom Pierson, Dewey Redman, and Sonny Sharrock. Pheeroan continues to make appearances as a leader of jazz ensembles in Europe and Asia. Wesleyan University, musical neuroscience research, and civic enrichment, keeps him cooking.

His newest recorded music: Hana Dharma will be released at the Seed Artists; Freedom Sound Celebration Percussion on May 3rd & 4th 2019, featuring the string quartet of Aska Kaneko.

He is fastidious, a percussive perfectionist who plays with crisp, pinpoint definition and always goes for the groove.”

—Robert Palmer, The New York Times

OUR SUPPORTERS

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in Partnership with the City Council.

Harlem Stage’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.

This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

ABOUT HARLEM STAGE

Harlem Stage is the performing arts center that bridges Harlem’s cultural legacy to contemporary artists of color and dares to provide the artistic freedom that gives birth to new ideas.

For nearly 40 years our singular mission has been to perpetuate and celebrate the unique and diverse artistic legacy of Harlem and the indelible impression it has made on American culture. We provide opportunity, commissioning, and support for artists of color, make performances easily accessible to all audiences, and introduce children to the rich diversity, excitement, and inspiration of the performing arts.

We fulfill our mission through commissioning, incubating, and presenting innovative and vital work that responds to the historical and contemporary conditions that shape our lives and the communities we serve.

Board of Directors

Courtney F. Lee-Mitchell, President

Jamie Cannon, Vice President

Michael Young, Secretary

Mark Thomas, Treasurer

Angela Glover Blackwell

Jenna Bond

Jamila Ponton Bragg

Staff

Patricia Cruz, Artistic Director & CEO

MANAGEMENT

Eric Oberstein, Managing Director

DEVELOPMENT

Shamar Hill, Director of Development

Shanté Skyers, Associate Director of Development

Julianna Friedman, Development Manager

PROGRAMMING

Carl Hancock Rux, Associate Artistic Director/Curator-in-Residence

Sarah McCaffery, Programming Manager and Associate Curator

Maurice Ivy, Programming Associate

Ashley Areche, Programming & Management Intern

MARKETING

Deirdre May, Senior Director of Digital Content and Marketing

Andre Padayhag, Marketing Manager and Graphic Designer

Ashabi Owagboriaye, Social Media Manager

EDUCATION

Jordan Carter, Education & Community Engagement Manager

BOX OFFICE

Eddy Perez, Box Office Manager

PRODUCTION

Amanda K. Ringger, Director of Production

Yolanda Royster, Stage Coordinator

Clarence Taylor, Lighting Operator

Orlando Alvarado, House Audio Engineer

David Barrett, Julio Collado, Saul Ulerio, Deck, Lighting, and Audio Crew

JoAnn K. Chase

Patricia Cruz

Hugh Dancy and Claire Danes

Jenette Kahn

Rebecca Robertson

LaChanze Sapp-Gooding

Tamara Tunie

OPERATIONS

Rodney Bissessar, Director of Operations

Lamont Askins, Operations Associate

Acey Anderson Sr., Maintenance

ADMINISTRATION & FINANCE

NCheng LLC, Accountants/Advisors

Jake Lee, Partner

Aaron Lam, Supervising Senior Accountant

CONSULTANTS

Aon/Albert G. Ruben Company (NY)

—Claudia Kaufman, Insurance

DAS Services, IT Consultant

Digital Video Services—BriGuel

Lutz & Carr/Chris Bellando, Accountants

Madison Consulting Group—Matt Laurence

Manchester Benefits—Greg Martin

Marc Millman Photography

Digital Video Services—Jess Medenbach

RL Stein Group—Robyn L. Stein

Snugg Studios—Derrick Saint Pierre Development Consultant

The Whelan Group Incorporated

—Charles Whelan

Blake Zidell & Associates, Public Relations & Marketing

USHERS

Nobar De leon, Toma Carthens, Andy Garcia, Julian Norales, Miriam Hernandez, Robert Gibbons