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
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–SAT, APR 13–15 | 7:30PM
$35 / 25
PART VI: DANCE E-MOVES
Our signature dance series curated this season by Stefanie Batten Bland
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
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
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-ResidenceWhen 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
As part IV of the Harlem Stage series Black Arts Movement: Examined, Harlem Stage presents tap dancer, Michela Marino Lerman’s Love Movement, who will perform and re-imagine Max Roach’s groundbreaking 1960 album, We Insist! Freedom Now Suite.
In 1959, acclaimed jazz musician, Max Roach, embarked upon a collaboration with singer and poet, Oscar Brown, Jr., on a suite of songs commissioned by the youth movement of the NAACP to commemorate the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation. What resulted, We Insist! Freedom Now Suite, marked a decisive shift challenging jazz music conventions, as its sentiments conveyed a growing impatience with the lagging pace of the American civil rights movement, and demanded a turn toward global anti-colonialism. Released on Candid Records in 1960, featuring Roach, and singer Abbey Lincoln, and a host of noted musicians, the music quickly became a global phenomenon. At Harlem Stage, Marino Lerman pays tribute to this groundbreaking album, selected in 2022 by the Library of Congress as being“culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
Thank you for joining us!
Interdisciplinary poet and playwright, Ishmael Reed, joins Harlem Stage Associate Artistic Director and Curator-inResidence, Carl Hancock Rux, to discuss Max Roach’s We Insist! Freedom Now Suite, ahead of the electrifying performance. Reed, a member of the Umbra Writers Workshop in the early 1960s, some of whose members went on to establish the Black Arts Movement, has written about the work.
Michela Marino Lerman Tap
Orlando Hernández Tap
Roxanne King Tap
Russell Hall Bass/Music Director
Charenee Wade Vocals
Ebban Dorsey Saxophone
Jeff “Tain” Watts Drums
Miki Yamanaka Piano
Black Arts Movement: Examined is supported by the Mellon Foundation.
Photos by Martina DaSilva
In a 1961 interview with Downbeat Magazine, Max Roach vowed that he would “never again play anything that did not have social significance.” Roach, in addition to his drumming, was a tap dancer. He was once described as playing “phrases with the clarity and grace of a tap dancer.” Tap dancing and jazz’s unique relationship with each other stems right from the very creation of the two artforms themselves. They are the artistic expressions that directly emerged through the struggle and fight for freedom following the outlawing of the drums from enslaved peoples in Stono, South Carolina in 1739. All of the spiritual and traditional African drum rhythms transferred from the hands to the feet combined with dances such as the gioube or juba, and tap dance was born. This exchange throughout time of these traditional African rhythms from hands, to feet, and back again is the life force of the music and tap dance and speaks to the power of spirituality, prayer and perseverance and its role within protest. Abbey Lincoln once said, “There is no jazz, there is only song, spirit and ancestors.”
Michela Marino Lerman, recipient of the Hoofer Award and Flo-Bert Award, is a globally sought after tap dance artist, performer, choreographer, band leader, educator and all-around creative spirit. The Huffington Post has called her a “hurricane of rhythm” and The New York Times has called her both a “prodigy” and has described her dancing as “flashes of brilliance.” Quincy Jones has said she is an “absolute tap dancing star who knows her roots.” She very proudly, was mentored by some of the innovators of tap dance including Gregory Hines, Buster Brown, Leroy Myers, Peg Leg Bates, Marion Coles, Jeni LeGon and Mable Lee. Most recently Michela can be seen featured in the new US Postage Stamp series dedicated to the art form of Tap Dance. Michela has performed, choreographed, written, produced, and directed many projects throughout her career including leading her own group Love Movement. She recently was commissioned by the Joyce Theater to create and premiere her new full length work Once Upon A Time Called Now in the spring of 2022. Some additional performance highlights include the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Kennedy Center, Newport Jazz Festival, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Marciac Jazz Festival, Little Island, The Shed at the Hudson Yards, The Other Palace on London’s West End, Umbria Jazz Festival and co-producing the documentary American Tap. Michela has had the honor of working with and collaborating many masters throughout her career some of whom include Wynton Marsalis, Anna Deavere Smith, Roy Hargrove, Jon Batiste, Quincy Jones, Steve McQueen and many more. www.michelataps.com @michelataps
Ishmael Reed is the author of novels, plays, poetry, and non-fiction and has received prizes in every category. The University of California at Berkeley’s Distinguished Emeritus Awardee for the year 2020, his most recent novel, The Terrible Fours, the third in Reed’s Terribles series, was published by Baraka Books in June 2021. To commemorate its 50 years in print, in 2022 Scribner’s released a new edition of Mumbo Jumbo, cited by Harold Bloom as one of 500 great books of the Western Canon. It will include a new introduction by Reed.
Reed’s most recent poetry collection is Why the Black Hole Sings the Blues: Poems 2007-2020, (Dalkey Archive Press, 2020). Two audio books, a short story titled The Fool Who Thought Too Much, and the memoir Malcolm and Me, were released by Audible in 2020, which will release Reed’s newest short story, The Man Who Was Not Himself, in November 2022. His newest play, The Conductor, will receive a virtual reading hosted by Off-Off Broadway’s Theater for the New City from October 13-16, 2022. His tenth play, The Slave Who Loved Caviar premiered in a full production at Theater for the New City, running December 23, 2021-January 9, 2022. His ninth play, The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda, premiered at the Nuyorican Poets Café in 2019, and was published by Archway Editions in 2020. His online literary magazine, Konch, can be found at www.ishmaelreedpub.com and his author’s website at www.ishmaelreed.org.
TAP
Orlando Hernández is a tap dancer based in New Jersey. He has performed at On the Boards, the Joyce Theater, Jacob’s Pillow, the Guggenheim, City Center, the Royal Theater Carré (Amsterdam), and La Casa Ruth (Puerto Rico). He is a member of the companies Subject:Matter and Music From the Sole and has danced with Cats Paying Dues, the Tap Family Reunion, Arc Iris’ iTMRW, and Danny Fisher-Lochhead’s Tap Quartet. He is a 2022-2023 Fresh Tracks Artist at New York Live Arts and a 2023 Artist-in-Residence at the Center for Performance Research. You can find him at www.orlyhernandez.com.
TAP
Roxanne King is a tap dancer, teacher, and company director based in Washington D.C. Roxy received her dance training primarily at the Metropolitan School of the Arts, where she also teaches tap classes. Currently she is the Artistic Director of DynaMYTE which is the junior company of the Metropolitan Youth Tap Ensemble (MYTE). She has taught all across the US and Brazil, at festivals such as Riff (Dallas, TX), the D.C Tap Festival, and Tap in Rio. In 2017 Roxy attended the Jacob’s Pillow Tap Program, run by Michelle Dorrance, and Dormeshia, after which she was invited to be a guest performer with Dorrance Dance in The Blues Project.
Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Russell Hall began his journey as an actor from the tender age of 3. Performing in Jamaican adaptations of popular musicals to serious prose, he was destined to take the stage. Everything changed when he migrated to the United States in 2007. Under the tutelage of The Commodores, he discovered the bridge between the world of drama and the world of music. He progressed quickly from the electric bass to the double bass through the rigorous programs of The Dillard Center for the Arts and The Juilliard School. Now, he is revered as one of the most in demand artist in New York City, performing with some of the biggest names in music, dance and film. His work is featured on the Grammy nominated album “My Favorite Things” by Joey Alexander, “Motherless Brooklyn”, a film by Edward Norton which was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Score, and HBO’s “Masterclass Series” which feature Wynton Marsalis as a master teacher which was nominated for an Emmy. Russell’s own work has been acknowledged with prestige in some of the most renowned venues and festivals around the world such as The Appel Room, The St. Lucia Jazz Festival, The Apollo, The Marciac Jazz Festival and many more. His most recent album, “Black Caesar” is available on all platforms.
1st Runner-Up in the 2010
Thelonious Monk Vocal Competition, the award-winning and critically acclaimed vocalist, arranger, educator and composer Charenee Wade, from New York City, has excited audiences all over the world with her ingenuity and vibrancy through her artistry. Recipient of the 2017 Jazz at Lincoln Center Millennial Swing Award, Wade has worked with notable artists including Wynton Marsalis, Terri Lyne Carrington, Christian McBride, Winard Harper, Eric Reed, Jacky Terrason, Curtis Lundy, Robert Glasper, and Kyle Abraham (MacArthur Genius Awardee). Wade’s current CD, Offering: The Music of Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson, is a powerful re-interpretation of the poet’s musical library, which features notable artists including Lonnie Plaxico, Marcus Miller, Stefon Harris, Malcolm-Jamal Warner and Christian McBride (spoken word). An alumni of Manhattan School of Music and Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, Wade has performed at some of the top venues including Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Jazz Standard, The Apollo and has performed at major festivals worldwide including Montreux, the Copenhagen Jazz Festival, Istanbul Jazz Festival, Spoleto, Savannah Music, Jazz En Tete, Bern Jazz Festival, and Charlie Parker Jazz Festival. As an educator, Wade has taught masterclasses, clinics and jazz camps in the U.S. and all over the world, is currently an instructor at Aaron Copland School, Peabody Institute of John Hopkins University, and The Juilliard School.
18-year-old alto saxophonist, composer, and bandleader Ebban
Dorsey is an extraordinary rising star making waves in the contemporary jazz scene. A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Dorsey graduated from the Baltimore School for the Arts and is currently a freshman at Johns Hopkins Peabody Institute. She was also a member of the Herbie Hancock Institute’s National Peer-to-Peer Quintet and Carnegie Hall’s NYO Jazz from 2020-2022.
Dorsey has flourished with the support of a brilliant village of musicians. Despite her young age, she has already played with giants including Kamasi Washington, Terrace Martin, Kenny Garrett, Ronald Bruner Jr., Dontae Winslow, Marcus Gilmore, Sean Jones, Chief Adjuah, Gary Bartz, José James and many more in premiere venues such as Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola, The Kennedy Center, Blue Note NYC and BRIC Jazz festival. Her improvisational prowess is featured extensively on José James’ forthcoming album On & On, a jazz tribute to Erykah Badu. Destined for greatness, Dorsey continues to blaze a trail forward with her trademark humility, melodic invention and forward thinking musical concept.
One of the most in demand jazz drummers in the world today, Jeff “Tain” Watts initially majored in classical percussion at Pittsburgh’s Duquesne University, where he was primarily a timpanist, followed by enrollment at the Berklee School of Music, where he pursued jazz studies alongside such talented players as Branford Marsalis, Kevin Eubanks, Greg Osby, Aimee Mann, Steve Vai and Marvin “Smitty” Smith. Jeff joined the Wynton Marsalis Quartet in 1981 and proceeded to win three Grammy Awards with the ensemble. Watts left Wynton Marsalis in 1988. After working with George Benson, Harry Connick. Jr. and McCoy Tyner, he joined the Branford Marsalis Quartet in 1989. Jeff has worked in the film and television industry as both a musician on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and as an actor, Rhythm Jones in Spike Lee’s Mo Better Blues. Jeff joined Kenny Garrett’s band after returning to New York in 1995 after three years in LA on the Tonight Show. Watts also continued to record and tour with Branford Marsalis as well as Danilo Perez, Michael Brecker, Betty Carter, Kenny Kirkland, Courtney Pine, Geri Allen, Alice Coltrane, Greg Osby, Steve Coleman, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, and Ravi Coltrane. Jeff has an extensive discography as a side-man, as well as six albums as a leader. Along with explosive power, blinding speed and mastery of complex rhythms and time signatures, Watts brings a rare sense of elegance, tried-by-fire composure, and a gritty street funk to his music. His artistic ingenuity expresses itself in his incomparable technique, sweltering sense of swing, and an extraordinary ability to imbue his music with majestic grace and elegant repose. A true jazz innovator, Watts never fails to deliver the percussive magic that has been his trademark since his emergence on the contemporary jazz scene.
33-year old Japanese-born pianist Miki Yamanaka has called New York City home since 2012 and in the past decade has wasted no time establishing herself as one of the leading personalities of her generation on the piano and beyond. Critics laud her “light, expressive touch and solidly crafted, mainstream approach” - Mike Jurkovic (All About Jazz), while audiences delight in not only her playing, but her vibrant personality as well. Yamanaka has gained international recognition from her albums as a leader; her most recent and most intimate release, Stairway to the Stars (Outside In Music), features Jazz masters Mark Turner and Orlando le Fleming. Additionally, Miki has emerged as a leader of the “New York Scene” via her notable residencies at mainstay West Village sister clubs Smalls and Mezzrow. During the pandemic, she developed a successful in-home live-streaming weekly concert series cleverly titled “Miki’s Mood” where she features a veritable who’s who of NYC talent (including her husband and frequent collaborator - drummer Jimmy Macbride). The series showcases her vast knowledge of Jazz standards and tunes, often featuring themed offerings of various composers from both the Great American Songbook as well as iconic Jazz composers.
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.
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.
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
Eric Oberstein, Managing Director
Shamar Hill, Director of Development
Shanté Skyers, Associate Director of Development
Julianna Friedman, Development Manager
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
Deirdre May, Senior Director of Digital Content and Marketing
Andre Padayhag, Marketing Manager and Graphic Designer
Ashabi Owagboriaye, Social Media Manager
Jordan Carter, Education & Community Engagement Manager
Eddy Perez, Box Office Manager
Amanda K. Ringger, Director of Production
Yvonne H. Chow, 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
Rodney Bissessar, Director of Operations
Lamont Askins, Operations Associate
Acey Anderson Sr., Maintenance
NCheng LLC, Accountants/Advisors
Jake Lee, Partner
Aaron Lam, Supervising
Senior Accountant
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
Nobar De leon, Toma Carthens, Keyry Duran, Julian Norales, Miriam Hernandez, Andy Garcia, Fabian Franco