Bill T. Jones And Elizabeth Alexander To Appear In Conversation At New York Live Arts

Legendary choreographer, National Medal of Arts (2013) MacArthur "Genius" Award (1994) recipient, and artistic director of New York Live Arts (Live Arts), Bill T. Jones comes together in discussion with esteemed poet, essayist, scholar and president of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Elizabeth Alexander.

As part of the conversation, there will be a work-in-progress screening of Can You Bring It: Bill T. Jones and D-Man--a highly anticipated documentary on Jones and centered around a group of dancers triumphing over physical and emotional challenges as they learn one of the most important works of art to come out of the age of AIDS. The film's co-directors Rosalynde LeBlanc and Tom Hurwitz will join Jones and Alexander.

This first Bill Chats of the season is presented in partnership with The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. It will include a 5:30 pm reception before the discussion.

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 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 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 for The 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 Artistic Director of New York Live Arts an incubator for movement based artists at every level of their career.

Elizabeth Alexander
Elizabeth Alexander - poet, educator, memoirist, scholar, and cultural advocate - is president of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the nation's largest philanthropic funder in arts and culture, and the humanities in higher education. Dr. Alexander has held distinguished professorships at Smith College, Columbia University, and Yale University, where she taught for 15 years and chaired the African American Studies Department. She is a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, serves on the Pulitzer Prize Board, and co-designed the Art for Justice Fund. Notably, Alexander composed and delivered "Praise Song for the Day" for the inauguration of President Barack Obama in 2009, and is author or co-author of fourteen books. Her book of poems, American Sublime, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 2006, and her memoir, The Light of the World, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography in 2015.