651 Arts Launches 2024 Season With Move To Permanent Home In Downtown Brooklyn And A World Premiere

651 ARTS has announced the Fall/Winter programs for its 2024-25 season – 651 ARTS: A Homecoming - to include major programming details as well as news of the organization’s official move into its first-ever permanent space at 10 Lafayette in Downtown Brooklyn.

The much-buzzed about move has been a long time coming for 651 and, to meet the moment, programming for the Homecoming season will celebrate the return of the institution to its roots and will center around the development and production of its mainstage presentation - Against Gravity: Flying Afrikans + Other Urban Legends. Having started with a residency program for the piece in the Summer, this work-in-progress will include the Against Gravity: Community Fly Zone Workshop Series to be held throughout the Fall and will culminate with the show’s world premiere in January, 2025 - marking the first performance at 651’s new home. 

Conceived by Renegade Performance Group’s Artistic Director and renowned choreographer André M. Zachery, Against Gravity: Flying Afrikans + Other Urban Legends is a solo performance that uses movement to explore the self-examination of Black masculinity through history, memory, text, poetry and geography. It is a personal narrative that begins with Zachery’s youth in 1980-90’s Chicago and intersects with three legendary figures: Fred Hampton, Ben (Benji) Wilson and Harold Washington. Guided in part by the oracular voice of Chicago ancestor laureate Gwendolyn Brooks, the performer grapples with the legacy of these three men -- a revolutionary, an athletic phenomenon and a post-Civil Rights era politician, all viewed in their primes as messiahs. The work unpacks how the expectations and pressures cast by their lives, deaths and pursuant mythologies shaped Black men who came of age in the city they left behind. Co-written by producing director Ayinde Jean-Baptiste, the work features original compositions by Chicago Poet Laureate avery r. young, and improvisations & textures by sound artist Sadah Espii Proctor. Against Gravity... will have its debut on Thursday, January 16, 2025 running through Sunday, January 19, 2025.  

Prior to the world premiere, 651 will present the Against Gravity: Community Fly Zone Workshop Series beginning in October with black revival, a movement-based workshop for Black men and boys. Taking place at Weeksville Heritage Center, the session will convene an intergenerational group of men and boys in a safe space -- leveraging the themes of Flying Afrikans. Led by Zachery and Jean-Baptiste, participants will be guided through sequences of motion, stillness, and supported partnering grounded by the poetry of Brooks as well as other notable Black poets. Following the movement portion, there will be a reflective discussion (October 19).

Later in the month, the next event under the community engagement workshops - chimeful poemhood, a Literary Circle and Poetry Workshop, will be held at The Free Black Women’s Library in Bed-Stuy. Facilitated by Professor Rosamond S. King, this event will further explore the profound writings of Brooks found in the performance, reflect on its contemporary relevance and participants will compose and share poetry of their own. It will also offer space for Black expressive resistance and imagination and how Black poetry and literature bring new perspectives to individual narratives and stories relevant to the community (October 27). 

The final workshop will be held at 10 Lafayette and will feature a screening of ESPN’s 30 for 30 presentation Benji (2012). Directed by Chicago native Coodie and his New Orleans born collaborator Chike Ozah, the powerful film recalls the life and impact of rising Chicago basketball star Ben “Benji” Wilson who was ranked as the number 1 player in the country in the Summer of 1984 and was deemed to be the one that would make it to the league and put Chicago on the map. Benji’s life was cut tragically short at the age of 17 years old when, during a brief scuffle prompted by an unintentional shoulder bump, he was shot and killed - and with him went the hopes and dreams of his family, classmates, and Black Chicago. The screening will be followed by an artist conversation (Late Fall, 2024).

“This project is an internal reckoning of self-reflection and is a departure from my previous works that were more so outward facing considerations of contemporary Black existence. I became inspired to create a work about my personal coming-of-age experiences as a young Black man in Chicago during the 1980s and early 1990s. One thing that continually came up in this exploratory process was how we sometimes felt pressure to measure up to certain persons, specifically Black men, who held almost mythological status in our community. I was able to identify three men specifically: Fred Hampton, Harold Washington, and Ben Wilson,” said Zachery. “While this project is a Chicago story, in many ways, these three men continue to represent dashed hopes and dreams of Black Chicago and, more broadly, Black people in America. With this work, I want to provide a space for audiences to discuss and come to terms with what has been handed down to us from our elders and how we deal with these histories as we move forward into the future.”

In addition to its mainstage presentation, 651 will also host cultivated activations to include opening studios for artists to work out of as well as guided tours - all intended to welcome artists and the community to its new home throughout the season. 651 ARTS’ upcoming season signals a new era for the legacy institution as well as a major step in its continued growth and expansion. The new 12,500 sq ft., state-of-the-art, multipurpose facility at 300 Ashland will deepen 651’s programming and allow it to become the premiere hub for Black artistic creation and to set a new stage for Black artistry.

“This is a landmark year for 651 in so many ways and we approached it with intentionality and purpose to reflect this milestone moment in our history. This season is an invitation to our 651 ARTS family and the community to join us and experience our vision for the future of this institution with our major season presentation of Against Gravity: Flying Afrikans + Other Urban Legends. I don’t think there is a more fitting way to celebrate this new era of 651 ARTS and help us settle into our new home than with this work that embodies the very foundation of this institution – cutting-edge Black artistic brilliance,” said 651’s Executive Director Toya A. Lillard. “Beyond us finally having a physical space, this move will allow us the opportunity to be an expanded resource for the cultivation, exploration and celebration of artists like André from across the African Diaspora. It allows us to further explore the breadth and scope of the stories we tell and be an even more rooted anchor for the community. 651 ARTS is an idea, a feeling and now a fully realized place to create and experience art that is led by, centers and celebrates Black voices.”  

AGAINST GRAVITY: FLYING AFRIKANS + OTHER URBAN LEGENDS SCHEDULE

Against Gravity: Community Fly Zone Workshop Series 1 - black revival  

Date(s): Saturday, October 19, 2024

Location: Weeksville Heritage Center - 158 Buffalo Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11213

Against Gravity: Community Fly Zone Workshop Series 2 - chimeful poemhood with Rosamond S. King 

Date(s): Sunday, October 27, 2024

Location: The Free Black Women’s Library - 266 Marcus Garvey Blvd. Brooklyn, NY 11221

Against Gravity: Community Fly Zone Workshop Series 3 - Benji 

Date(s): Late Fall 2024

Location: 651 ARTS – 10 Lafayette, Brooklyn, NY 11217

Against Gravity: Flying Afrikans + Other Urban Legends: World Premiere

Date(s): Thursday, January 16 – Sunday, January 19, 2025

Location: 651 ARTS – 10 Lafayette, Brooklyn, NY 11217

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