Friday, April 20, day two of Live Ideas 2018: Radical Vision looks into the role of the press, what it means to be a journalist in an endangered liberal democracy, and what obligations the press has today. Opening the day will be visual artist Huiying B. Chan, who will read words by legendary activist Grace Lee Boggs, followed by author and journalist Moustafa Bayoumi's reading of works by Edward Said and a presentation of speeches by Muhammad Ali read by journalist Greg Tate. The readings will start at 4 pm. Admission is free.
April 18-22, 2018
Contents Under Pressure: Democracy in Crisis
Keynote conversation
April 18, 2018, 6:30 pm
New York Live Arts, Theater
Admission: Tickets start at $15 Join Sherrilyn Ifill, President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., and Professor Lawrence Lessig, Roy L. Furman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and former director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University, in conversation with Bill T. Jones regarding how our system of government is impacted by the postmodern pressures of relentless media, corporate ambitions, and a deeply divided electorate. Opening performance by mezzo-soprano vocal artist Alicia Hall Moran with artist and puppeteer Matt Acheson.
Public Readings on Democracy
April 19 & 20, 2018, 4:00-5:00 pm
April 21, 2018, 11:30 am-12:30 pm
New York Live Arts, Lobby
Admission: Free, $10 suggested donation An array of today's artists, activists, and thinkers will read seminal texts on democracy by such radical visionaries as Hannah Arendt, James Baldwin, Cesar Chavez, Frederick Douglass, Audre Lorde, Harriet Tubman, Yuri Kochiyama, Gloria Anzaldúa, Berta Cáceres, Grace Lee Boggs, Abraham Lincoln, Harvey Milk, Henry David Thoreau, Alexis de Tocqueville, among others.
Bending Towards Justice?
Panel discussion
April 19, 2018, 5:30-7:00 pm
New York Live Arts, Studio
Admission: Tickets start at $10 It is widely known that the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, and that people of color are disproportionately affected. Join us for a conversation on the current state and future vision of criminal justice in America, with Adam Foss (Director/Founder of Prosecutor Impact), Meg Reiss (Executive Director, the Institute for Innovation in Prosecution at John Jay College), Michelle Jones (scholar, activist, playwright, and formerly incarcerated), Steven Teles and David Dagan (co-authors Prison Break: Why Conservatives Turned Against Mass Incarceration), and moderator Max Kenner (Founder/Director, Bard Prison Initiative). The discussion will open with a short play reading of an excerpt from The Duchess of Stringtown, written by Michelle Jones and Anastazia Schmid.
Spiritrials
Primetime performance
April 19, 2018, 8:00-9:15 pm
New York Live Arts, Theater
Admission: Tickets start at $25
A timely exploration of the American criminal justice system, this multidimensional play blurs the line between hip-hop and dramatic performance. Writer/performer Dahlak Brathwaite weaves through the autobiographical and the fictional, music and soliloquy to examine his place in what appears to be a cultural rite of passage as a young black male. Written and performed by Dahlak Brathwaite, scored by Brathwaite and Dion Decibels, and directed by Marc Bamuthi Joseph and Sean San Jose.
The End of Journalism
Primetime performance
April 20, 2018, 8:00 pm
New York Live Arts, Theater
Admission: Tickets start at $25
A monologue by Mike Daisey The End of Journalism explores how journalism in America ended, peeling back layers of "real" and "fake" news to find the darkly hilarious truth about the world we've made. Daisey is hailed as the pre-eminent monologist in the American theater today.
Hands-on Politics
Workshop with Zephyr Teachout
April 21, 1:00-2:30 pm
New York Live Arts, Studio Admission: Tickets start at $10 or pay what you can Tocqueville argued in Democracy in America (1835-40) that Americans showed how democracy in the modern world might look: when they want something done, they form democratic associations to accomplish it. Just fifty or sixty years ago, one in four people held leadership positions in local politics. Fordham Law Professor, political activist, and former New York gubernatorial candidate Zephyr Teachout will share the fundamentals of working with, protesting against, and/or participating in local government.
Resistance & Friends
Primetime performance
April 21, 2018, 8:00-9:15 pm
New York Live Arts, Theater
Admission: Tickets start at $25 An evening of cutting-edge performances hosted by Drag King Elizabeth (Macha) Marrero from the Bronx. Featuring Portland based extended technique vocalist, composer, and performer Like a Villain (Holland Andrews), multi-octave and multi-genre singer Joseph Keckler, Choreographer/dancer Marguerite Hemmings, Drag Queen/performance artist Ragamuffin, poet and performer Saul Williams, the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, and Choreographer/dancer Keely Garfield will re-imagine her latest group work Mandala for this performance.
Learn a Song of Resistance with Cynthia Hopkins
April 22, 2018, 11:00 am-12:00 pm
New York Live Arts, Lobby
Admission: Free, $10 suggested donation Throughout human history, communal singing has served as a source of both solace and empowerment for societies in crisis. Voices raised together in song can energize and propel through uplifting expressions of solidarity and resistance. Drawing on legacies of protest songs that have fueled social justice movements of the past, singer/songwriter and performance artist Cynthia Hopkins invites everyone to learn a new song of resistance against current threats to human rights.
The Secret Court
Theatrical reading
April 22, 2018, 12:30-2:15 pm
New York Live Arts, Theater
Admission: Tickets start at $15
This staged reading is of a new play based on the 1920 ad hoc disciplinary tribunal of five administrators at Harvard University formed to investigate charges of homosexual activity among the student population that began with the suicide of a student. The affair went unreported until 2002. The Secret Court has been written by members of the Plastic Theatre and was conceived by Tony Speciale. Co-presented with the Abingdon Theatre.
Democrazy Ball April 22, 2018, 7:30-10:00 pm
Admission: Tickets start at $10
Take up space as an act of resistance and release pent up political angst on the dance floor with festival-goers and participants. High energy layered dance music by DJ JLMR and special guest performance by spitfire cabaret artist Daphne Always. Hosted by Tyler Ashley, The Dauphine of Bushwick.
Support for New York Live Arts is provided by Con Edison, the Joseph and Joan Cullman Foundation for the Arts, the Ford Foundation, the Howard Gilman Foundation, the Harkness Foundation for Dance, The Harnisch Foundation, the Alice Lawrence Foundation, the Samuel M. Levy Family Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Metropolitan Capital Bancorp, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, the National Performance Network, the New England Foundation for the Arts, New York Community Trust, The O'Donnell Green Music and Dance Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Jerome Robbins Foundation, The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, the Scherman Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, the Theatre Development Fund, and the Wege Foundation.
Public support for New York Live Arts is from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
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