LIVE IDEAS SYMPOSIUM - PROGRAM

: S D L R ION T A O R E W L

CCE D A E F O R ALTE THE AGE ND

PIA A O T U BLACK

SYMPO MAY 14 SIUM , 1-530P M Image by BLACKMAU

New York Live Arts is located in Lenapehoking. We acknowledge and pay respect to the Lenape people, the elders and ancestors, past, present and coming in the future. We acknowledge and offer deep gratitude to Lenapehoking - the land and waters of the Lenape homeland.

Special thanks to our partners, collaborators and sponsors

Live Ideas 2021 is co-curated by Reynaldo Anderson and New York Live Arts in partnership with the Black Speculative Arts Movement (BSAM).

Live Ideas 2021

ALTERED-WORLDS: BLACK UTOPIA AND THE AGE OF ACCELERATION Contemporary Afrofuturism may be defined as an emerging social philosophy of the African diaspora and Africa.

Today, partly because of a crisis in globalization, social media and other technological advances, second wave Afrofuturism is emerging as the High Culture of the African diaspora and is the cultural vibranium of a rising virtual African civilization. The 2021 edition of Live Ideas, Altered-Worlds: Black Utopia and The Age of Acceleration, will explore this second wave of Afrofuturism as an alternative to the social anomie, reactionary impulses and neo-fascism of late capitalism. The five-day inter-disciplinary hybrid festival will unfold across multiple dimensions through installations, conversations and performances at the intersection of arts, techno-culture, sci-fi, social sciences, philosophy and the imagination.

SYMPOSIUM ALTERED-WORLDS: BLACK UTOPIA AND THE AGE OF ACCELERATION MAY 14, 1PM (EST) 1:00 – 1:05pm: Welcome by Bill T. Jones 1:05 – 1:20pm: Afrofuturism 2.0, High Culture and the Black Atlantic World Opening remarks by Reynaldo Anderson 1:20 – 2:20pm: New Suns Rising: The Black Speculative Arts Movement and Future Time Panel with Danilo Deluxo, Tasha Douge, Andrea Hairston, John Jennings & Tiffany E. Barber (moderator) Panelists share ideas, challenges and experiences of Black Speculative production and politics during the pandemic and the acceleration of social change.

2:20 – 2:35pm: Afro-Rithms From The Future (ARFTF): Democratizing the future where Black Futures Matter Presentation with Ahmed Best & Lonny J. Avi Brooks Developed by Afrofuturist Podcast co-creators Lonny J. Avi Brooks and Ahmed Best and game designer Eli Kosminsky, the game Afro-Rithms from the Future provides players with the tools to imagine and create a foundation for more equitable futures.

2:35 – 3:35pm: After The Dark Winter Panel with Robyn Maynard, Ingrid LaFleur, John T. Maddox IV, Andrew Rollins & tobias c. van Veen (moderator) What is the shape of future politics to come in the Black Atlantic world after the pandemic passes and the increasing threat of fascism? What are the implications of the open political repression or Jim Crow 2.0 by right wing politicos to suppress the vote?

3:40 – 3:55pm: Calculating the Sensory Aesthetics of Black Liberation Presentation with Stacey Robinson Calculating the Sensory Aesthetics of Black Liberation is Stacey’s art practice as a visual analysis and the beginnings of theorizations in the hope to define Blackness, liberation, and nationhood via the messages within his inherited album collection, the visual art, and collected writing of radical thinkers who inspired his art practice for the last three decades.

3:55 – 4:10pm: Black Quantum Futurism: CPT Symmetry* and Violations Presentation with Rasheedah Phillips BQF’s Artist residency with CERN seeks to understand the ways in which quantum physics can influence how people think about, experience, and measure time in everyday reality, exploring the possibilities that quantum physics offers beyond the limitations of traditional, linear notions of time. (*Charge, parity, and time reversal symmetry is a fundamental symmetry of physical laws under the simultaneous transformations of charge conjugation (C), parity transformation (P), and time reversal (T). CPT is the only combination of C, P, and T that is observed to be an exact symmetry of nature at the fundamental level.

4:10 – 5:10pm: “Where There Is A Woman There Is Magic”: Forecasting the Speculative Vision of Black Women Panel with Natasha A. Kelly, Danielle R. Littlefield, Florence Okoye, Niama Safia Sandy & Sheree Renée Thomas (moderator) Ntozake Shange’s powerful quote speaks to the resourcefulness and innovation of women. Black women were adversely affected by the pandemic. What are their challenges and how have they triumphed as they work to build a transformative future?

5:10 – 5:20pm: Coda by Reynaldo Anderson 8 – 11pm: ALTER-WORLDS (( COSMIC FUNK )) AFTER-PARTY with DJ STACEY ROBINSON DJ TOBIAS

SUPPORT Without our wonderful friends at Crux, we would not have been able to create such an innovative and interactive virtual performance space.

INTERSPACE is the vision of the Crux team and we highly recommend them if you’re looking for your next digital venue! Click here to learn more and reach out to them.

Support for Live Ideas is provided by: Partners for New Performance: Julie Orlando (Chair), Alexes Hazen, Linda Hirschon, Andrea Rosen, Nina Stricker.

Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund, Joseph and Joan Cullman Foundation for the Arts, Ford Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Google, Marta Heflin Foundation, Alex Katz Foundation, Lambent Foundation, Alice Lawrence Foundation, The Poss Family Foundation, Jerome Robbins Foundation, The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, The Semel Charitable Foundation, Scherman Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, Stavros Niarchos Foundation.

Support for discounted tickets provided by Con Edison.

Live Ideas receives public funds from Humanities New York, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with City Council with special thanks to Council Member Corey Johnson.

Enjoy this presentation and your experience at Live Arts?

Please consider making a donation so we continue to support artists like this and their critical work!

Donate at newyorklivearts.org/support/donate

CALENDAR & EVENTS Virtual Events MAY 10 7PM

Live Ideas Gala 2021 Digital Gala | $100 Digital Event Tickets

MAY 12 6PM

Insighting and Foresighting: The Extraordinary Prescience of Octavia Butler INTERSPACE | Tickets start at $10

MAY 12 7PM

Interspace Exhibition Opening INTERSPACE | FREE with RSVP

MAY 13 5PM

AFROFUTURIST INVERSE INTERSPACE | FREE with RSVP

MAY 14 1PM

Live Ideas Symposium INTERSPACE | Tickets start at $15

MAY 14 7PM

Saul Williams: The Motherboard Suite Livestream | Tickets start at $20

MAY 14 8PM

ALTER-WORLDS (( COSMIC FUNK )) AFTER-PARTY Livestream | FREE

MAY 15 12PM

Upcycling Movement Revolutions & Re:INCARNATION INTERSPACE | Tickets start at $25

MAY 15 7PM

Saul Williams: The Motherboard Suite Livestream | Tickets start at $20

Box Office

Tickets can be purchased at newyorklivearts.org.

Discounts

FESTIVAL PASSES: $50/$35/$25 virtual pass Use code liveideas2021 and get 50% off the virtual pass when you buy 1 live in-person ticket to The Motherboard Suite or Drexcia Redux: An Afrofuturist Cabaret.

Installation Theater Hours: May 12 7pm-10pm, May 13 following the Viewing Hours performance, approx. 8pm-10pm, May 14 following the performance, approx. 8pm – 10pm, May 15 2pm – 8pm Lobby Hours: May 12-14 3pm-10pm, May15 2pm-8pm Studio Hours: May 12 8:30-10pm, May 13-14 5pm- 7:30pm & 9:30pm-10p, May 15 2pm – 8pm

Live In-person MAY 11 7PM

Installation Opening: Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another, Baïlaurâ & Drexciya Redux FREE with RSVP

MAY 12 730PM

Drexciya Redux: An Afrofuturist Cabaret Studio | Tickets start at $20

MAY 13 7PM

Saul Williams: The Motherboard Suite Theater | Tickets start at $45

MAY 13 830PM

Drexciya Redux: An Afrofuturist Cabaret Studio | Tickets start at $20

MAY 14 7PM

Saul Williams: The Motherboard Suite Theater | Tickets start at $45

MAY 14 830PM

Drexciya Redux: An Afrofuturist Cabaret Studio | Tickets start at $20

MAY 15 7PM

Saul Williams: The Motherboard Suite Times Square | FREE

MAY 15 8PM

Cosplay @ Time Square Times Square | FREE

COVID precautions

In-person audience will be required to provide proof of negative results from a PCR or rapid antigen COVID-19 test or COVID-19 full vaccination, as well as temperature checks on event day in order to gain entry. More info

Directions

219 W 19th Street, New York, NY 10011 (Between 7th & 8th Aves) Subway: 1 to 18th Street, 2/3, F, M, L and A/C/E to 14th Street.

BIOGRAPHIES Co-curator of the Live Ideas Festival Dr. Reynaldo Anderson currently serves as an Associate Professor of Communication and Chair of the Humanities department at Harris-Stowe State University in Saint Louis Missouri. Reynaldo has earned several awards for leadership and teaching excellence and he is currently the Past Chair of the Black Caucus of the National Communication Association (NCA). Reynaldo has not only served as an executive board member of the Missouri Arts Council, he has previously served at an international level working for prison reform with C.U.R.E. International in Douala Cameroon, and as a development ambassador recently assisting in the completion of a library project for the Sekyere Afram Plains district in the country of Ghana. Reynaldo publishes extensively in the area of Afrofuturism, communication studies, and the African diaspora experience. Reynaldo is currently the executive director and cofounder of the Black Speculative Arts Movement (BSAM) a network of artists, curators, intellectuals and activists. Finally, he is the co-

editor of the book Afrofuturism 2.0: The Rise of Astro-Blackness published by Lexington books, co-editor of Cosmic Underground: A Grimoire of Black Speculative Discontent published by Cedar Grove Publishing, the forthcoming volume The Black Speculative Art Movement: Black Futurity, Art+Design to be released by Lexington press in 2018, and the co-editor of Black Lives, Black Politics, Black Futures, a forthcoming special issue of TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies.

Bill T. Jones (Artistic Director/ Co-Founder/Choreographer: Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company; Artistic Director: New York Live Arts) is the recipient of the 2014 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award; the 2013 National Medal of Arts; the 2010 Kennedy Center Honors; a 2010 Tony Award for Best Choreography of the critically acclaimed FELA!; a 2007 Tony Award, 2007 Obie Award, and 2006 Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation CALLAWAY Award for his choreography for Spring Awakening; the 2010 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award; the 2007 USA

Eileen Harris Norton Fellowship; the 2006 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Choreography forThe Seven; the 2005 Wexner Prize; the 2005 Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement; the 2005 Harlem Renaissance Award; the 2003 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize; and the 1994 MacArthur “Genius” Award. In 2010, Mr. Jones was recognized as Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government, and in 2000, The Dance Heritage Coalition named Mr. Jones “An Irreplaceable Dance Treasure.”

Mr. Jones choreographed and performed worldwide with his late partner, Arnie Zane, before forming the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company in 1982. He has created more than 140 works for his company. Mr. Jones is the Artistic Director of New York Live Arts, an organization that strives to create a robust framework in support of the nation’s dance and movement-based artists through new approaches to producing, presenting, and educating.

John Jennings is a Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of California at Riverside. Jennings is co-editor of the Eisner Award-winning

collection The Blacker the Ink: Constructions of the Black Identity in Comics and Sequential Art. Jennings is also a 2016 Nasir Jones Hip Hop Studies Fellow with the Hutchins Center at Harvard University. Jennings’ current projects include the horror anthology Box of Bones, the coffee table book Black Comix Returns (with Damian Duffy), and the Eisner-winning, Bram Stoker Award-winning, New York Times best-selling graphic novel adaptation of Octavia Butler’s classic dark fantasy novel Kindred. Jennings is also founder and curator of the ABRAMS Megascope line of graphic novels.

Tasha Dougé is a Bronx-based, Haitian-infused artist, artivist and cultural vigilante. Her body of work activates conversations around women empowerment, health advocacy, sexual education, societal “norms,” identity and Black community pride. Through conceptual art, teaching, and performance, Dougé devotedly strives to empower and to forge broad understanding of the contributions of Black people, declaring that her “voice is the first tool within my art arsenal.”

She has been featured in The New

York Times, Essence Magazine and Sugarcane Magazine. She has shown nationally at RISD Museum, The Apollo Theater and Rush Arts Gallery (Philadelphia).

Internationally, Dougé has shown at the Hygiene Museum in Germany. She is alum of the Laundromat Project’s Create Change Fellowship, Urban Bush Women’s Summer Leadership Institute, The Studio Museum of Harlem’s Museum Education Program, the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute’s Innovative Cultural Advocacy (ICA) Fellowship and their inaugural Digital Evolution Artist Retention (DEAR) program.

Andrea Hairston is a novelist, playwright, and scholar. Aqueduct Press published her first three novels: Will Do Magic For Small Change, a New York Times Editor’s pick and finalist for the Mythopoeic, Lambda, and Otherwise Awards; Redwood and Wildfire, winner of the Otherwise and Carl Brandon Awards; Mindscape, winner of the Carl Brandon Award. Aqueduct also published Lonely Stardust, a collection of essays and plays.

“Dumb House,” a short story appears in New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of

Color edited by Nisi Shawl. Andrea has received grants from the NEA, Rockefeller, and Ford Foundations, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Her latest novel, Master of Poisons, came out from Tor. com and is on the 2020 Kirkus Review’s Best SF and F list. In her spare time, Andrea is the Louise Wolff Kahn 1931 Professor of Theatre and Africana Studies at Smith College and the Artistic Director of Chrysalis Theatre.

Dr. Tiffany E. Barber is a scholar, curator, and critic of twentieth and twenty-first century visual art, new media, and performance of the Black diaspora. Her work spans abstraction, Afrofuturism, Black feminist praxis, dance, and fashion. She is Assistant Professor of Africana Studies and Art History at the University of Delaware.

Lonny J Avi Brooks is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at California State University, East Bay, where he piloted the integration of futures thinking into the communication curriculum for the last fifteen years. A leading voice of Afrofuturism 2.0, Brooks contributes to journals, conferences and anthologies, and

is co-executive producer, with Ahmed Best, of The Afrofuturist Podcast; co-editor for the special issue: “When is Wakanda?

Afrofuturism & Dark Speculative Futurity” (Journal of Futures Studies); lead co-organizer in Oakland, for the Black Speculative Arts Movement; Co-Creative Director with Ahmed Best of the Afro-Rithms Futures Group, using gaming for imaginative, actionoriented thinking to democratize the future. Brooks creates games envisioning social justice futures for Black, Indigenous & Queer liberation with the game Afro-Rithms From The Future.

Brooks is co-director of the Community Futures School, Museum of Children’s Arts (Oakland); Research Affiliate for the Institute For The Future; and a Long Now Foundation Research Fellow. Brooks is co-editor of the book series Afrofuturist Studies & the Speculative Arts, Lexington Press; on the editorial board for the Handbook of Universal Foresight (forthcoming), and contributing lead author of the chapter “Imagining Queer Futures with Afrofuturism” for the Handbook of Social Futures (Routledge, forthcoming).

Robyn Maynard is a Toronto

based author and scholar-activist.

She is the author of Policing Black Lives: State violence in Canada from slavery to the present (Fernwood 2017), a national bestseller, designated as one of the “best 100 books of 2017” by the Hill Times, listed in The Walrus‘s “best books of 2018”, shortlisted for an Atlantic Book Award, the Concordia University First Book Prize and the Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-fiction, and the winner of the 2017 Annual Errol Morris Book Prize and the 2019 Prix de libraires in the category of “essais”. She is also the author of “Reading Black Resistance through Afrofuturism: Notes on post-Apocalyptic Blackness and Black Rebel Cyborgs in Canada” in the special issue of TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural studies. Her current project is a collaboration with Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, titled Rehearsals for Living, under contract with Knopf Canada (2022).

The Reverend Andrew Rollins is a native of Kansas City, Kansas. He attended Kansas State University; University of Missouri in Kansas City and matriculated at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, where he majored in political science and philosophy, with a

community and take a stand on social justice issues. In keeping with this approach, while pastoring at Quinn Chapel, Lincoln Nebraska, he served as a member of the Police Advisory Board of the City of Lincoln; while pastor at St. Mark, Topeka, Kansas, he served as a member Upon completion of the of the Riverfront Development Ministerial Training administered Task Force of Topeka. Also, by the Board of Examiners of while serving as pastor of St. the A.M.E. Church, Rev. Rollins James A.M.E. Church in San Jose, was ordained an Itinerant Elder California, Rev. Rollins was an in 1986. The Ministerial Training active member of the San Jose/ curriculum included Biblical Silicon Valley Chapter of the studies; theology; church history; NAACP and PACT (People Acting polity; homiletics; pastoral care in Community Together). Rev. and church administration. Rev. Rollins ministers out of a Full Rollins has served as a pastor Gospel spiritual orientation which throughout the Fifth Episcopal includes healing and deliverance District of the A.M.E. Church, and the free operation of the gifts specifically in the states of of the spirit. He knows that the Missouri, Wyoming, Nebraska, age of miracles has not passed Kansas and California. On November 1, 2016, Bishop Clement and the church today can operate in the realm of the supernatural as W. Fugh appointed him to Ward recorded in the Book of Acts. God Chapel A.M.E. Church, Junction has anointed Rev. Rollins to lead City, Kansas where he currently churches into revivals in which the serves as pastor. windows of heaven were opened and the Spirit of God flowed in Rev. Rollins has a holistic abundance. philosophy of ministry. His philosophy of ministry is a Rev. Rollins is a nationally combination of Liberation renowned writer and lecturer. His Theology and Charismatic works have been published in two Theology. He believes that a widely distributed anthologies. pastor should be involved in the focus of study in political theory and metaphysics. He has also been committed over the years to religious studies. Rev. Rollins answered the call to preach in the African Methodist Episcopal Church in the year 1980.

He has authored a full chapter in AFROFUTURISM 2.0: THE RISE OF ASTRO BLACKNESS, an anthology. The title of his chapter in this work is “Afrofuturism and Our Old Ship of Zion: The Black Church in Post Modernity”. It is written from a Christian futurist perspective and gives direction to the 21st century church on how to navigate through the complexities of contemporary society. He also has two chapters in the anthology, COSMIC UNDERGROUND: A GRIMOIRE OF BLACK SPECULATIVE DISCONTENT. One chapter is entitled, “The Oddities of Nature”. This essay is about the life, theology and ministry of Bishop Charles Mason, the founder of the Church of God in Christ. The other chapter is entitled “The Harmonics and Modalities of Metaphysical Blackness”. It is an interpretation of Modern Jazz as an expression of Afro-Orientalism. Rev. Rollins has lectured at conferences on futurism and speculative arts, respectively sponsored by the University of California, Berkeley; Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles; Jackson State University, Jackson, Mississippi; and Harris Stowe State University, St. Louis, Missouri. He has lectured on several topics,

including: Transhumanism and the Prophetic Voice of the Black Church; Dark Politics and the Occult; The Ethics of Survival and Black Slave Religion the Roots of Afrofuturism.

Ingrid LaFleur is a curator, pleasure activist and Afrofuturist.

Her mission is to ensure equal distribution of the future, exploring the frontiers of social justice through new technologies, economies and modes of government. As a recent Detroit Mayoral candidate and creator of AFROTOPIA, LaFleur implements Afrofuturist strategies to empower Black bodies and oppressed communities through frameworks such as blockchain and universal basic income.

Ingrid LaFleur is currently the Social Impact Advisor for Detroit Blockchain Center and the founder and director of The Afrofuture Strategies Institute. As a thought leader, social justice technologist, public speaker, teacher and cultural advisor she has led conversations and workshops at Centre Pompidou (Paris), TEDxBrooklyn, TEDxDetroit, Ideas City, New Museum (New York), AfroTech Conference, Harvard University and Oxford University, among others. LaFleur serves on

Studies & Speculative Arts series at Lexington Books; coeditor with Reynaldo Anderson of the “Black Lives, Black Politics, Black Futures” special issue John T. Maddox IV is Associate of TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Professor of Spanish and Cultural Studies (2018); editor African American Studies at of the Afrofuturism special the University of Alabama at issue of Dancecult: Journal of Birmingham. He is author of Electronic Dance Music Culture Challenging the Black Atlantic: (2013); and co-editor of the The New World Novels of Zapata special issue Echoes from the Olivella and Gonçalves (Bucknell Dub Diaspora (2015). Since 1993 University Press, 2021) and cotobias has exhibited with galleries author of Dictionary of Latin and festivals worldwide as a American Identities with Thomas M. Stephens (University of Florida media arts curator, sound artist, photographer and filmmaker.

Press, 2021). He specializes in He hosts the Other Planes: contemporary narrative of the Hispanic Caribbean and Brazil. His Afro/Futurism podcast on articles have appeared in Callaloo CreativeDisturbance.org and DJs and Afro-Hispanic Review, among cosmic house & techno at http:// other peer-reviewed publications. twitch.tv/pandemixDJs. the board of JustSpace Alliance, Powerhouse Productions, and the Cooley ReUse Project.

Dr. tobias c. van Veen is Visiting Professor in Politics at Acadia University. He holds doctorates in Communication Studies and Philosophy from McGill University. His research addresses philosophy of race, sound, and technology in critical media studies, and he has published widely on Afrofuturism, posthumanism, and electronic dance music cultures (EDMC).

Tobias is co-editor with Lonny Avi Brooks of the Afrofuturist

Stacey Robinson, is a visual artist, an Assistant Professor of graphic design at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign. As a Arthur A. Schomburg fellow, he completed his Masters of Fine Art at the University at Buffalo. He’s a 2019-2020 Nasir Jones Hip-Hop Fellow at the Hutchins Center for African & African-American Research, at Harvard University where he’s researching Hip-Hop’s multimodal performance practice as activism. His multimedia work

discusses ideas of “Black Utopias” Shriver Center’s Racial Justice Institute, and a 2018 Atlantic as decolonized spaces of peace Fellow for Racial Equity. As part by considering Black affluent, of BQF Collective and as a solo self-sustaining communities, artist, Phillips is currently a CERN Black protest movements, and Artist Resident, Vera List Center the arts that document(ed) Fellow, a former Pew and A Blade them. As the collaborative team of Grass fellow, and has exhibited, “Black Kirby” with artist John presented, been in residence, Jennings, he creates graphic and performed at Institute of novels, gallery exhibitions and Contemporary Art London, The lectures that deconstruct the Metropolitan Museum of Art, work of comic book creator Jack Philadelphia Museum of Art, Kirby to re-imagine resistance spaces inspired by Black diasporic Serpentine Gallery, Red Bull Arts, Chicago Architecture Biennial, cultures. His latest graphic novel, Manifesta Biennial, and more.

‘I Am Alfonso Jones’ with writer Tony Medina is available from Lee Florence Okoye is a User & Low books.

Experience/Service designer, writer, maker and curator Rasheedah Phillips is a queer whose work focuses on using Philadelphia-based housing attorney, parent, interdisciplinary participatory methods for designing within complex systems. artist, and Black Futurist Much of her current work is split cultural producer whose writing between creating practical design has appeared in Keywords frameworks using critical inquiry for Radicals, Temple Political and speculative approaches, but and Civil Right Journal, The also engaging in design education Funambulist Magazine, Recess where she focuses on sharing Arts, and more. She is the decolonial and deconstructive founder of The AfroFuturist approaches to digital design.

Affair, a founding member of Metropolarity Queer Speculative She has worked in a range of Fiction Collective, co-founder fields from cybersecurity to the of Black Quantum Futurism, cultural sector and her articles and co-creator of Community Futures Lab. She is a social justice on futurism and Blackness have been published by journals such advocate, a 2016 graduate of

as openDemocracy, How We Get To Next (now defunct) and Het Nieuwe Instituut.

In 2015 she established AfroFutures_UK, an informal collective of creatives, coders, designers who produced conferences, meetups and events, collaborating with organisations such as Writing on the Wall, Culture Word and AfroFlux which focussed on exploring the future of Black identity in the UK. More recently she has been working on projects that use digital art and zines to critically examine the way that kyriarchal dynamics are embedded in and transmitted through computational interfaces from apps to museum databases.’

Danielle L. Littlefield is an AfroMississippi writer, editor, and professor. A regular contributor to creative and literary projects in the “MemphisSippi” region, she works to document and preserve Black vernacular and culture from the American South.

A two-time Callaloo Fellow, she holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College and extensive graduate work in African American Literature. She

currently serves as Assistant Professor of English at HBCU Rust College and as a Genre Editor at Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora.

Niama Safia Sandy is a New York-based cultural anthropologist, curator, producer, multidisciplinary artist and educator. Niama’s work delves into the human story, often with stories of the Global Black diaspora at its center.

In 2020, Sandy helped found The Blacksmiths, a coalition forging support for Black liberation against anti-Black racism in the academy and at presenting institutions. Through The Blacksmiths, she has produced resources and public events engaging communities, activists, artists across disciplines, and more to close the gaps in appropriate opportunities for Black artists of all disciplines, curators, and administrators on the global stage.

Niama is a member of the Resistance Revival Chorus, a group of women and nonbinary identifying musicians bringing song to life in the spirit of activism, collective joy and

resistance. She is also an active member of the Wide Awakes, an international open-source network of artists and creatives radically reimagining the future through creative collaboration.

She has presented work, and spoken at art institutions around the world. Niama and her work have been featured in The New York Times, Teen Vogue, The Washington Post, Hyperallergic, OkayAfrica, and more. She has written for outlets including Artsy, Active Cultures LA, and NAD NOW. Niama is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at Pratt Institute and Curator-inResidence at Fridman Gallery.

Sheree Renée Thomas is a two-time World Fantasy Awardwinning writer, poet, and editor.

Her work is inspired by music and mythology, natural science and the genius culture created in the Mississippi Delta. She is the editor of Dark Matter, two groundbreaking anthologies showcasing a legacy of over a century of black science fiction writing, which first introduced W.E.B. Du Bois’s work as science fiction and helped to launch the careers of some of the most exciting new voices in the field.

She was the Lucille Geier-Lakes

Writer in Residence at Smith College where she taught creative writing and magical realism. A fiction writer and poet with fellowships from the Millay Colony of the Arts, Bread Loaf Environmental, VCCA, Tennessee Arts Commission, NYFA, and the Cave Canem Foundation, Thomas is the author of Sleeping Under the Tree of Life (Aqueduct Press, 2016), honored with a Publishers Weekly starred review and longlisted for the 2016 Otherwise/ James Tiptree, Jr. Award, and of Shotgun Lullabies (2011), which garnered comparisons to Jean Toomer’s Cane. Her stories were nominated for the Pushcart Prize and appeared in several volumes of the Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror. Her new, debut fiction collection, Nine Bar Blues: Stories from the Ancient Future, is available now from Third Man Books, and she has work forthcoming in The Big Book of Modern Fantasy, 1945-Present edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (Vintage, July 2020).

A former New Yorker, Sheree lives in her hometown, Memphis, Tennessee.

ALTER-WORLDS (( COSMIC FUNK )) AFTER-PARTY DJ STACEY ROBINSON (UrbanaChampaign) is a fine purveyor of Afrofuturist funk & soul, hip-hop & house music. An Assistant Professor of graphic design at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Stacey is a graphic novelist and one half of collaborative team Black Kirby.

His smoove sets can be found at: mixcloud.com/StaceyARobinson DJ TOBIAS (Whistler CAN) is a veteran vinyl selector hailing from the West Coast technoculture, known for dropping deep & cosmic cuts gleaned from decades of collecting the Afrofuturist underground. A Visiting Professor in Media Studies and Philosophy at Quest University, tobias is series editor of Afrofuturist Studies & the Speculative Arts at Lexington. His interstellar sets can be found at: soundcloud.com/djtobias

LIVE ARTS CONTRIBUTORS New York Live Arts is deeply grateful to all the individuals listed below for their vital gifts to New York Live Arts over the last year: $500,000 and higher Anonymous Slobodan Randjelović & Jon Stryker $100,000-$499,999 Eleanor Friedman Ruth & Stephen Hendel Alex Katz Foundation Ellen M. Poss Jane Bovingdon Semel & Terry Semel / Semel Charitable Foundation $50,000 - $99,999 Zoe Eskin Suzanne Karpas Barbara & Alan Marks $25,000 - $49,999 Anonymous Patricia Blanchet / Ed Bradley Family Foundation David Dechman & Michel Mercure Adam Flatto Lorraine Gallard & Richard H. Levy Helen & Peter Haje James C. Hormel & Michael P. Nguyen in memory of Linda Grass Shapiro Charla Jones Amy Newman & Bud Shulman Randy Polumbo / Plant Construction Matthew Putman Alanna Rutherford Diana Wege $10,000 - $24,999 Bloomberg Philanthropies Alexes Hazen Colleen Keegan Julie Orlando Andrea Rosen Ruby Shang $5,000 - $9,999 Derek Brown & Deborah Hellman Paula Cooper & Jack Macrae Agnes Gund Bill T. Jones & Bjorn Amelan Jeffrey B. & Wendy Liszt Deborah Ronnen Melissa Schiff Soros Cindy Sherman Williams Family Foundation

$1,000 - $4,999 Anonymous Gerald Appelstein Charlotte & Charles Buchanan Jonathan J. Cohen Charitable Fund Jeannie Colbert Kim Cullen Joan Davidson Lil and Jim DeMarse Dobkin Family Foundation Margaret Doyle Philip Gallo Mimi Garrard Judith & Steven Gluckstern Michael & Deborah Goldberg Otho Kerr Glenn Ligon Anna Maltby & Akshay Patil Tommy McCall & Victor Zonana Nancy Meyer & Marc Weiss Susan Micari Meridee Moore & Kevin King Thomas Nichols & Daniel Chadburn Deborah Pines Rita Salzman The Susan Stein Shiva Foundation Catharine R. Stimpson Kristalina & Jack Taylor Kate Whitney & Franklin Thomas James & Azin Wilcox Bruce & Megumi Williams Timothy Wu & Eric Murphy $500 - $999 Arthur Aviles Timothy Benning The Marshall Frankel Foundation Sharon Gerstel Olivia Katz Kenneth Machlin John Sansone Deborah Swiderski Gifts and commitments between 4/1/2020-3/31/2021

Support is provided by the Alice Lawrence Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Arnhold Foundation, Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund, Con Edison, Dance/NYC, The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc., Ford Foundation, Harkness Foundation for Dance, Humanities New York, Hyde & Watson Foundation, Jerome Robbins Foundation, Joseph & Joan Cullman Foundation, MAP Fund, Marta Heflin Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, National Performance Network, New England Foundation for the Arts, New Music USA, O’Donnell Green Music & Dance Foundation, Samuel Levy Foundation, Scherman Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Studio Institute, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, William Penn Foundation.

New York Live Arts is supported by public funds from Humanities New York, National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with City Council with special thanks to Council Speaker Corey Johnson, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

STAFF & BOARD Artistic Leadership

Executive Leadership

Board of Directors

Bill T. Jones Artistic Director

Kim Cullen Executive Director & CEO

Stephen Hendel Co-Chair

Janet Wong Associate Artistic Director

Development

Richard H. Levy Co-Chair

Dave Archuletta Chief Development Officer

Helen Haje Vice Chair

Kyle Maude Producing Director

Ali Burke Individual Giving & Special Events Manager

Slobodan RandjeloviĆ Vice Chair

Hannah Emerson Producing Associate

Erin Baskin Institutional Giving Manager

Veronica Falborn Producing Associate & Production Stage Manager

Bianca Bailey Member Services & Education Coordinator

Davin DeCicco Producing Assistant

Candystore Development Assistant

Kim Cullen Chief Executive Officer Ex-Officio

Hans Rasch Institutional Giving Assistant

Bjorn Amelan

Production Hillery Makatura Director of Production

Finance & Operations

Creative Director

Nupur Dey Director of Finance

Programming, Producing & Engagement

Bjorn G. Amelan Communications Tyler Ashley Director of Communications

Gregory English Rentals Coordinator

Alan Marks Treasurer Alanna Rutherford Secretary Bill T. Jones Artistic Director Ex-Officio

Sarah Arison Aimee Meredith Cox LaToya Ruby Frazier Charla Jones Colleen Keegan Amy Newman Randy Polumbo

Human Resources

Ellen M. Poss

ADP TotalSource

Matthew Putman Jane Bovingdon Semel

Mayadevi Ross Digital Media Coordinator

Legal Services

Ruby Shang

Hannah Seiden Front of House Coordinator

Lowenstein Sandler, PC Pro-Bono Counsel

Catharine R. Stimpson

Liliana Dirks-Goodman Graphic Designer Pentagram Pro-Bono Branding Randjelović/Stryker Resident Commissioned Artist Raja Feather Kelly Faye Driscoll Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company Vinson Fraley, Jr., Barrington Hinds, Chanel Howard, Dean Michael Husted, Shane Larson, s. Lumbert, Marie Paspe, Nayaa Opong, Huiwang Zhang

Diana Wege Board Emeritus Derek Brown Terence Dougherty Eleanor Friedman Advisory Council Margaret Doyle, Chair Alberta Arthurs Beverly D’Anne Lisa Frigand Jenette Kahn Susan Micari Alton Murray Lorraine Gallard Lois Greenfield Martha Sherman