Harlem Stage Presents HOLDING IT DOWN 2/10

Holding It Down, the latest in the WaterWorks series at Harlem Stage, will play at The Gatehouse on February 10. Vijay Iyer (composer/pianist) and Mike Ladd (poet/performer) roll out a stunning new work with Iraq veteran/poet Maurice Decaul. Produced in collaboration with Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans of color, Holding It Down explores words and sounds that bespeak the dreams -- harrowing, surreal, mundane -- of a new generation of soldiers. Iyer and Ladd are joined by special guests Pamela Z, Guillermo E. Brown, Liberty Ellman, Okkyung Lee and Kassa Overall.

This project considers what it means for soldiers of color to move from a complex American landscape into the international context of war and imperialism - and then to return home, to widespread indifference, numbing bureaucracy, and an economic crisis that hits their communities especially hard. How is this new generation of veterans suffering and surviving, and what are they able to dream about? How do they go about their irreversibly transformed lives, moving from the unspeakable back to the speakable? And a still newer question: What is the relationship between soldiers of color and our first African American president? How do they fit into a newly transformed American race dynamic? Using the condensed, universal logic of dreams to express and affirm their essential humanity, Holding it Down pays tribute to young men and women returning home.

Holding It Down will play Wednesday, February 10 at 7:30 pm at The Gatehouse. Tickets are $15. For more information or to buy tickets online visit http://www.harlemstage.org/.