Mabou Mines presents 6 Days of Performances with SUITE/Space Artists

From March 27-April 1, Mabou Mines is proud to present the work of its 2018 SUITE/Space artists in a festival-like setting-two performances each night for 6 nights in a row-in the newly renovated, state-of-the-art Mabou Mines Theater. The inaugural SUITE/Space artists, Tariq Al-Sabir, Tamar-kali, Davalois Fearon and Sanaz Ghajar, work in a variety of disciplines and share Mabou Mines' commitment to breaking new ground in form and content. Founded in the summer of 1970 as an artist-driven collective, Mabou Mines has a long history of fostering the next generation of artists through mentorships and residencies. SUITE/Space is a new performance initiative for artists that reflect New York City's rich cultural landscape and provides artistic advisement, development support, rehearsal space, and opportunities for public performance.

In the fall of 2017, Mabou Mines returned to the 122 Community Center, a City-owned former public school in the East Village, taking over the remodeled former Performance Space 122 second floor theater. For the first time, Mabou Mines has a 1700 sq. ft., 99-seat theater, with an additional rehearsal studio, dressing room and office totaling 3400 sq. ft.

"Our new state of the art theater allows us to redefine and expand our organization and mission," says producing Co-Artistic Director Sharon Ann Fogarty. "For the first time, Mabou Mines is presented with an opportunity to expand our support to the artistic community, especially underrepresented artists. With SUITE/Space, we hope to support independent artists and artist collectives who share our commitment to experimentation and collaborative creative processes. This new initiative gives priority to artists who might not have access to resources or facilities of this caliber, particularly artists of color and diverse backgrounds, and those from outer boroughs."

For the 2018 inaugural year of the program, SUITE/Space artists were nominated by community and performing arts organizations. The artists were selected by Mabou Mines' curatorial team - Mabou Mines Co-Artistic Director Karen Kandel, Mabou Mines Associate Artist David Neumann, and playwright and former Mabou Mines Resident Artist Carl Hancock Rux. For 2019 and beyond, the SUITE/Space artists will be selected through nominations and a public RFP process.

Performances by the 2018SUITE/Space artists will take place March 27 - April 1 at the Mabou Mines Theater (150 First Avenue, Manhattan). Regular tickets, priced at $20-$50, go on sale on February 28 and can be purchased at maboumines.org or by calling 866-811-4111. Presale tickets are already available through an Indiegogo Campaign through February 27, with proceeds benefiting both the artists and Mabou Mines.

Details on the Mabou Mines SUITE/Space 2018 Artists

Time to Talk
Davalois Fearon
March 27 at 7pm, March 28 & 29 at 9pm

Time to Talk is a multimedia dance-theater piece rooted in research on American history, dance history, racial identity formation and systemic racism. It is inspired by Davalois' own experience of oppression and racial bias within academia that she encountered in 2015. Dynamic fluid dance, live music, spoken word, projection art, and dialogue to call attention to racial inequalities within American concert dance and society at large. Performed with critically acclaimed Jazz multi-reedist Mike McGinnis, projection art by interdisciplinary artist André Zachery, and lighting by Sarah Hamilton. Time to Talk aims to encourage audience members to question how they may knowingly or unknowingly contribute to maintaining social norms that support a status quo of inequity.

DavaloisFearon is a Bessie award-winning, critically acclaimed dancer, teacher, and choreographer born on the island of Jamaica and raised in The Bronx, New York. She is the founder and Artistic Director of Davalois Fearon Dance, a company with a mission that pushes both artistic and social boundaries. Her choreography has been presented nationally and internationally, including by The Joyce Theater, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Manhattan Movement, the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, and Edna Manley College in Kingston, Jamaica. She has received awards from Bronx Council on the Arts and Pentacle among others. In addition, she has been has been commissioned to create new work by organizations such as Harlem Stage and The Bronx Museum. In 2005 she joined the Stephen Petronio Company, whom she performed and taught around the world with until 2017. Fearon has collaborated with internationally renowned poet Patricia Smith, multi-reedist Mike McGinnis, fashion photographer Nigel HoSang, and interdisciplinary artists André Zachery and Deborah Castillo. www.davaloisfearon.com

Unwanted
Tariq Al-Sabir
March 27 at 9pm, March 28 & 31 at 7pm

A multimedia song cycle written for a unique ensemble (including voice, actor, woodwinds, brass, percussion, synthesizer and electronics) that communicates real-time with film, focusing on the present trauma and cynical frustrations that plague social media oriented Black Millennials. Video direction by Monique Muse Dodd.

Tariq Al-Sabiris a composer and vocalist based in New York City. Since being a lead voice on the season 4 theme song of HBO's "The Wire," Al-Sabir has been described as a "boundless talent" by Baltimore's City Hall and the Baltimore Examiner dubbed him "a rising musical mastermind." A conservatory-trained musician with roots in gospel and soul music, he has been featured on Al Jazeera, TEDx, Lincoln Center and Joe's Pub Public Theater in New York for his work that pushes the boundaries of classical music and sensitively fuses several genres. www.tariqalsabir.com

Excerpts from Demon Fruit Blues
Tamar-kali
March 29 at 7pm, March 30 at 9pm, April 1 at 5pm

Demon Fruit Blues is an immersive music-based experience that explores the origin of misogyny and 'curse of womanhood' as outlined in Genesis 3:16, inspired by the majesty of female African deities, 'goddess' themed art and feminist theory. This collection of work speaks to how the perception of the female body in this context has reverberated throughout Western history and left an indelible sociopolitical mark on those who identify as women.

Tamar-kali is a Brooklyn born and bred, second-generation musician with roots in the coastal Sea Islands of South Carolina. As a composer, Tamar-kali has defied boundaries to craft her own unique alternative sound. The pieces she composes and arranges for her string sextet and voice project: Psychochamber Ensemble, marries the classical music of her Catholic upbringing with post-punk sensibilities. The start of 2017 marked her debut as a film score composer for Dee Rees' Mudbound which premiered to rave reviews at the Sundance Film Festival. Her powerful vocals have been featured in the Rees' award-winning film Pariah (2011, Focus Features) and in HBO's biopic Bessie (2015), starring Queen Latifah. She has performed with a diverse list of artists from Paramore, Vernon Reid, and Roger Waters to Vijay Iyer, Me'shell Ndegeocello and The Roots. www.tamar-kali.com

Red Wednesday
Sanaz Ghajar and Built for Collapse
March 30 & April 1 at 7pm, March 31 at 9pm

A multimedia production written and directed by Sanaz Ghajar about a family brought together and torn apart by revolution. Inspired by the controversial story of Sadegh Ghotbzadeh, Iran's Foreign Minister during the 1979 hostage crisis and Ghajar's great uncle, the play investigates Iran and America's relationship through the lens of a growing young woman. An historical allegory that pays special attention to those left to clean up the mess when we blow each other up. Featuring Bahar Beihaghi, Neimah Djourabchi, Vincent Santvoord, Vida Tayebati, and Merlin Whitehawk*. (*Actor appears courtesy of the Actor's Equity Association.)

Sanaz Ghajar is an Iranian-American director, writer, DJ and Artistic Director of award-winning theatre company Built for Collapse. Recently, she directed Danger Signals by Nina Segal at the OBIE Award-winning Ice Factory Festival. Before that she directed her company's Nuclear Love Affair, which played to sold out houses in NYC, Prague, Rome, and Krakow. She has developed work with New York Theatre Workshop, BRIC Arts | Media, 3LD, Clubbed Thumb, Civilians, Drama League, Ars Nova, New Ohio Theatre, Red House Center for Culture & Debate in Bulgaria, Prague Film & Theater Center, and others. Current fascinations include the integration of film into live performance and working with playwrights on developing innovative play structures. Alumni of Drama League Director's Project, NYTW 2050 Fellowship, Clubbed Thumb Fellowship. NYTW Usual Suspect. BFA: NYU Tisch. built4collapse.org

About the Curators

Karen Kandel, a Queens native, is a performer with more than 30 years of experience in experimental theater. She has been awarded OBIE awards for her performances in Mabou Mines' Lear, Peter & Wendy, and TALK by Carl Hancock Rux. Karen is also a writer and visual artist. She continues to study the traditional art forms of Japan including: Noh, Gidayu (storytelling for bunraku puppet theatre).

David Neumann, son of the late Mabou Mines' artists Director Fred Neumann and Honora Fergusson, is a performer/choreographer and artistic director of Advanced Beginner Group, creating multi-disciplinary dances or "Dance Theater" from scratch, bringing to gesture, word and proximity a delighted embrace of our contradictory lives. His work has been performed in New York City at: The Kitchen, Dance Theater Workshop, PS122, Baryshnikov Arts Center, The Whitney Museum & Danspace. Regionally at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival; Mass MoCA; The Walker Arts Center and many other venues. He is currently a Professor of Theater at Sarah Lawrence College.

Carl Hancock Rux, a Bronx native, is an award-winning poet, playwright, novelist, essayist and recording artist. He has recorded four CD's and is the author of several publications. Rux's essay "The New White Negro" was selected for Best American Music Writing 2004. He is also a frequent collaborator with several artists in the fields of dance, theater, film, and contemporary art.

About Mabou Mines

Mabou Mines is an artist-driven experimental theater collective generating original works and re-imagined adaptations of classics. Work is created through multi-disciplinary, technologically inventive collaborations among its members and a wide network of contemporary filmmakers, composers, writers, musicians, choreographers, puppeteers and visual artists. Mabou Mines' artistic programs include the development and premiere of new work through workshops, residencies, remounts of productions from our repertory, as well as through national and international touring.

In the summer of 1970, a group of artists that included British actor David Warrilow, American actors/directors Lee Breuer, Ruth Maleczech, JoAnne Akalaitis and composer Philip Glass retreated from New York City to Philip and JoAnne's summer house near Mabou Mines, Nova Scotia in Canada to create their first theater piece, Red Horse Animation. The company took the name "Mabou Mines," and has since become not only a collective of artists, but of ideas and approaches.

Mabou Mines' original works are created through our extended, signature development process