Poet-Performer Marc Bamuthi Joseph Brings Spoken Word And Love Of Soccer To The Stage

ArtsEmerson is honored to welcome/peh-LO-tah/ a futbol framed freedom suite created byMarc Bamuthi Joseph,a child of Haitian immigrants turned poet-performer activist, and now Artistic Director of Social Impact at The Kennedy Center.

/peh-LO-tah/ (meaning ball/court game/soccer in Spanish) combines spoken word and futbol-inspired choreography to tell a love letter to black culture, and examines the promise of blissful freedom on the soccer field set within the realities of racial inequality. /peh-LO-tah/ takes audiencesfrom the pickup games in rural Haiti to the World Cup stadiums of Rio de Janeiro and Johannesburg, and plays ArtsEmerson for its closing five performances, May 1-5, at the Emerson Paramount Center Robert J. Orchard Stage. Tickets for /peh-LO-tah/start at just $20 and may be purchased online at www.ArtsEmerson.org, by phone at 617.824.8400, or in person at the box office. Group, student, and senior discounts are also available.

"/peh-LO-tah/first premiered in November of 2016 as a love letter to immigrant joy in a tense political moment," says creator Marc Bamuthi Joseph. "Two years and more than a dozen cities later, we lovingly close our tour in the great city of Boston, a foundational site of both immigrant ambition and American promise. This piece places global futbol at the center of a universe of challenging parenthood, conflicting views of justice, and sincere inquiry about how we might all co-create a more inspired and inclusive world. ArtsEmerson is the perfect landing place for this maelstrom of ideas, because it, like /peh-LO-tah/, knows that even after the lights go down, the journey to the goal continues..."

"Marc Bamuthi Joseph is not new to Boston, but this is our first opportunity to include his work in an ArtsEmerson season," says ArtsEmerson Artistic Director David Dower. "Bamuthi's signature is a high-energy, visually and emotionally ravishing, poetic style that weaves elements of hip hop culture, contemporary dance, spoken word, and his Haitian-American roots into powerful and moving odes to black joy. Here he's set his signature style on the world's most popular sport, and created an event that celebrates futbol's power to bring us together. And in the same breath, he shares the risk, the pain, and the challenges that confront him on and off the field in a culture determined to separate us. /peh-LO-tah/carries forward so many of the ideas we've been working with here at ArtsEmerson over these first nine seasons we are thrilled to share it with our audiences."

Ticket Information:

Online: ArtsEmerson.org

Phone: 617-824-8400

In Person: Paramount Center Box Office,open Tuesday-Saturday from 10am-6pm and 2 hours prior to any event until 30 minutes after the start of the show.

Prices range from $20-$85 (subject to change)

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