Culture Project to Welcome Stephen Bright, GQ of the Q Brothers & Tyrone Taylor

Culture Project, New York's home for socially conscious theater, announces "Prologue to Progress," a two-week series of music, performance, and discussion led by over a dozen International Artists and thinkers from Sunday, October 1 through Sunday, October 15.

Prologue to Progress invites the public to join Culture Project in celebrating the future of award-winning, politically incisive theatre in its new home at the Saint Mary Church on the Lower East Side. Prologue to Progress is aligned with Culture Project's reinvigorated mission to amplify marginalized voices, champion new and timely work, and speak to today's most pressing issues through innovative artist-activist collaboration.

Featuring seven nights of programming, Prologue to Progress invokes narratives of resilience told from the perspectives of women, people of color, the previously incarcerated, and the LGBTQ community. Prologue to Progress reaffirms Culture Project's commitment to bringing together artists, activists, and experts to inform and inspire contemporary audiences through unique theatrical experiences. Featured talent includes Kristin Norderval, Guillermo Gregorio, Nicole Ansari, Shahrokh Moshkin Ghalam, Maybe Burke, Alika Hopes, Heather Robles, Tom Tsai, Angela Polite, Kathleen Turner, RUDRA, Yale University lecturer Stephen Bright, GQ of the Q Brothers, actor Tyrone Taylor, and improv group Thank You for Coming Out.

Prologue to Progress kicks off on Sunday October 1 with I AM ANTIGONE, a contemporary retelling of Sophocles' Antigone written by poet Saudamini Siegrist and directed by award-winning writer and director Myriam Cyr. It will be followed later that week by Rob Urbinati's REBEL VOICES: Stories, Speeches, and Songs of Resistance, an evening with the International Human Rights Arts Festival, and more.

Stephen Bright, GQ, and Tyrone Taylor
Wednesday, October 11th at 7:00pm

President and senior counsel of the Southern Center for Human Rights and distinguished law professor Stephen Bright will join Chicago-based rapper GQ of the hip-hop collective Q Brothers, and NYC-based actor Tyrone Taylor to present an evening of discussion on the topic of criminal justice and capital punishment. Bright, GQ, and Taylor will engage in an exploration of justice as interpreted through a legal lens, the language of hip hop, and the prison experience. GQ and Taylor will open the evening with a performance of "17 to New Life," a story of redemption and self-forgiveness told from the perspective of Taylor's younger self. GQ and his collaborator JQ most recently wrote, directed, and prepared original music for the hip hop-inspired Othello: The Remix, which premiered at the Globe Theater in London, and was staged at Chicago's Cook County Jail in co-production with the Chicago Shakespeare Company before debuting at NYC's Westside Theatre last year.

Tickets for all events are $25. Purchase tickets online at cpprologuetoprogress.eventbrite.com, or by phone at 212-925-1806 weekdays from 11am-6pm. All events are held at The Grand Hall at Saint Mary Church, 440 Grand Street, New York, NY 10002