Miller Theatre Presents MORNINGSIDE LIGHTS This September

On the evening of September 29, 2012, "a strange and luminous city will emerge amidst the streets of Morningside Heights. Winding its way around Morningside Park and through the heart of the Columbia University campus, MORNINGSIDE LIGHTS-a procession of illuminated mobile architecture-will be the culmination of a week of drop-in workshops at the university's Miller Theatre, during which community members from the campus and surrounding neighborhood will come together to create their vision of an imaginary metropolis."

Beginning on Saturday, September 22 and running daily through Friday, September 28, the workshops-which are free and open to participants of all ages-will take place at Miller Theatre at Broadway and 116th Street. Participants are invited to paint, craft, sew, papier-mâché, and put their creative skills to use in building illuminated lanterns and fantastical city-inspired sculptures. On September 22 and 23, workshops will run from noon to 6 p.m. During the week, workshops will run from 2 to 8 p.m. Those interested in taking part can visit www.morningside-lights.com for more information and to sign up to participate in the build, the procession, or both.

The procession will also include musicians of all backgrounds, invited to perform in a world premiere by composer Nathan Davis. The score, like the parade itself, will be participatory in nature, with opportunities for musicians to perform as part of the piece or to submit recorded audio to be integrated into the work. In addition to live music, the piece will incorporate an electronic score broadcast simultaneously on WKCR-FM and tuned in on a variety of radios and smartphones carried by participants, who can also contribute to the score by recording and submitting sound clips via SoundCloud using a computer or smartphone. Visit www.morningside-lights.com for details and a link to the MORNINGSIDE LIGHTS dropbox.

The artists from Processional Arts Workshop (PAW)-a New York-based partnership whose creations lead the city's annual Halloween Parade-will be on hand to guide the building of the large-scale illuminated structures throughout the week, and they will help each participant realize his or her own individual vision of urban space-realistic or fantastical. Composer Nathan Davis will also be in residency, working closely with musicians interested in performing.

Inspired by the theme "The Imagined City," MORNINGSIDE LIGHTS will explore concepts of urban planning and development in one of New York's most diverse neighborhoods, at the intersection of Harlem, Morningside Heights, and the Upper West Side. When Olmsted and Vaux designed Morningside Park in 1873, they could not have foreseen the diversity of communities who would one day settle along its borders. Produced by two of Columbia University's artistic powerhouses, MORNINGSIDE LIGHTS seeks to celebrate and further the continued revitalization of Morningside Park and its surroundings through a shared act of creation and public performance.