Work by Camille A. Brown, Ronald K. Brown & More to be Presented as Part of Harlem Stage's 40th Anniversary Season

Harlem Stage has announced its 40th Anniversary Season, a celebration of the institution that has, since its founding, provided an indispensable platform to both emerging and established artists of color working in an array of forms. In events throughout the 2023–24 season, Harlem Stage engages artists with whom the organization has, through the decades, cultivated lasting relationships—to in turn champion visionary emerging artists of color they admire, offering a platform and building relationships for the institution’s future. 

Patricia Cruz says, “Artists have some of the biggest ears and eyes for exciting new work; they are uniquely positioned to spot, and understand, both the daring and the technical requirements of extraordinary artists at the beginnings of their careers. As emerging artists are lifted up, the whole field is lifted up, and our culture is lifted up and sustained. On the occasion of our 40th Anniversary, we see a process of renewal, facilitated in part by artists acting as guest curators, providing us an opportunity to expand our curatorial vision, and discover the new for ourselves and our audiences.” 

Originating as a hub for art and ideas long excluded from and ignored by other cultural institutions, Harlem Stage has in its 40 years become an epicenter for groundbreaking performance and vital thought from around the corner and across the globe, helping sustain and propel forward the monumental and ever-evolving artistic legacy of one of the world’s most culturally influential neighborhoods. In an era of surging censorship of ideas that challenge dominant historical narratives, Harlem Stage continues to offer thoughtful, thought-provoking, and eye-opening work from voices that expand our understanding of the world.”

Cruz adds, “Harlem Stage began in a time of great inequity, resulting in a form of censorship by exclusion of visionary artists of color. Our intent was to level the playing field by supporting the development of their new work in new forms. Artists of color are constantly in a dialogue with their worlds—and Harlem Stage has always sought to be a place where all of our constituents can engage in the kind of transformative discourse that enriches our lives and broadens our horizons.” 

Throughout the season, acclaimed artists—four of whom received MacArthur Genius grants during their careers (Kyle Abraham, Vijay Iyer, Bill T. Jones, and Jason Moran)—bring together other creative forces in their orbit for unique events that embody Harlem Stage’s mode of looking back and creating forward. Jason Moran’s guest-curated event, for instance, reimagines a program Cruz first presented at Harlem Stage (then known as Aaron Davis Hall) in 1999 celebrating the music of Duke Ellington—for which Moran was the youngest of six pianists (and is now the only living pianist to have participated). Now, nearly 25 years later—on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of Ellington’s birth—Moran organizes an evening, presented in the round, with legendary jazz pianist Abdullah Ibrahim alongside extraordinary emerging piano talents in Pianos for Duke Reimagined: Featuring Jason Moran, Abdullah Ibrahim, and Friends, April 26 & 27, 2024. Vijay Iyer enlists musicians Nasheet Waits (drummer), Milena Casado (trumpet player), Mark Shim (saxophonist), and others in celebration of another jazz legend, Andrew Hill (March 1 & 2, 2024). 

One of this season’s WaterWorks commissions, Ambrose Akinmusire’s multipart suite Banyan, speaks to the power of  intergenerational connection, using interviews to coalesce community between jazz elders and younger musicians (March 29 & 30, 2024). A special 40th Anniversary project, Craig Harris’ TONGUES OF FIRE (in a harlem state of mind) convenes three generations of Harlem-based artists to explore the community’s evolution from the mid-70s through today (October 20 & 21, 2023). 

Choreographer Bill T. Jones has participated in various presentations at Harlem Stage since the 1980s; in 2006, he created the Harlem Stage commission Chapel/Chapter, inaugurating the Harlem Stage Gatehouse with what The New York Times would deem the “most affecting, the most disturbing, the most powerful and the most compassionate” dance from Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. In this season’s E-Moves series, Harlem Stage’s flagship dance program, known for showcasing dance artists across the spectrum of their careers, Jones will return to present a dynamic program of works, including work from an emerging artist he will select (April 19 & 20, 2024). Ronald K. Brown’s company EVIDENCE likewise returns in an evening highlighting an emerging choreographer while revisiting beloved repertory (October 13 & 14, 2023), and nora chipaumire—whose revolutionary dance performance has enlivened Harlem Stage on numerous occasions—presents an immersive performance installation that turns into a dance party ShebeenDUB, featuring designs from celebrated artists Ari Marcopoulosand Kara Walker, and constructed by Matt Jackson Studio (May 17 & 18, 2024). Kyle Abraham—who received early-career support and exposure as a part of E-Moves, and has gone on to choreograph for some of the world’s most esteemed institutions—will similarly program an evening, on a to-be-announced date. Camille A. Brown, who has a long and rich history of performing work at Harlem Stage, will present a work of her own and introduce the performances of four of the dancer/choreographers who have contributed to her growing body of creations—Rickey Tripp, Mayte Natalio, Chloe Davis, and Maleek Washington—on June 14 and 15, 2024.

The past becomes a medium for innovative performance in works by Tamar-kali, who presents excerpts from her in-development opera Black Damask, featuring a libretto by Harlem Stage Associate Artistic Director and Curator-in-Residence Carl Hancock Rux, about William Dorsey Swann, the activist who was the first person to call himself a “queen of drag” (May 3 & 4, 2024); george emilio sanchez, who collaborates with visual artist Patty Ortiz on In the Court of the Conqueror, a solo performance unpacking 200-year-old U.S. Supreme Court Rulings that have diminished the Tribal Sovereignty of Native Nations (November 3, 2023); and Tony-winning musician and composer Stew’s irreverent musical tribute to radical poet and playwright Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones’ influences within his own art and life, HIGH SUBSTITUTE FOR THE DREAD LECTURER: Baraka Jones in Dub (March 22 & 23, 2024). 

Harlem Stage also returns with its beloved music series, Uptown Nights, to present a dynamic set of artists across a wide range of genres throughout the anniversary year. From September to December 2023, the institution presents the Uptown Nights Latinx Music Series, an exciting lineup that celebrates music from the Latinx diaspora, including Cuban-born MacArthur Fellow drummer, composer, and bandleader, Dafnis Prieto, with songs from his recent Cantar album (October 27, 2023). As part of Uptown Nights, Harlem Stage will also collaborate with Harlem-based Sugar Hill Salon—one of the first chamber music series and artistic collectives that centers on black and brown woodwind artistry in classical music—and Concert Artists Guild—which has, since 1951, launched the careers of hundreds of emerging classical artists and ensembles—to curate an evening of chamber music at the Gatehouse, featuring works by living composers of color, performed by musicians from each organization’s ranks. The full Uptown Nights lineup will be announced in September.

40th Anniversary Season Schedule and Programming Descriptions 

 

WaterWorks Commissions

Harlem Stage’s signature commissioning program, WaterWorks, was created to identify, cultivate, and nurture the talents of visionary artists of color—ranging from artists that are just emerging in the field to artists who have well-established careers. Harlem Stage’s role is, by intention, to shine a light on these artists and to light the path on their road to artistic achievement. Through WaterWorks, Harlem Stage provides critical support to create new, innovative, and socially significant work and engage our community through residency and educational activities.

 

WaterWorks Established Artists 

 

Ambrose Akinmusire 
Banyan
Fri, Mar. 29 & Sat, Mar. 30, 2024

Composer, trumpeter, and bandleader Ambrose Akinmusire  builds on his interest in the intersection of the griot, mentor, and oral historian in social history to develop a multi-part suite. Like the banyan tree, which starts as a plant growing on another plant to become a tree of far-flung roots and interwoven vines, the project incorporates interviews with jazz elders in order to share ideas, knowledge, history, and community with younger musicians, and to connect audiences to the living stories of jazz—its social innovation and endless creativity. 
 

Tamar-kali 
Black Damask
Fri, May 3 & Sat, May 4, 2024

Following Cabaret Chocolat: An Autumn Night's Soiree, staged previously at Harlem Stage, composer, vocalist, and performing and recording artist Tamar-kali presents excerpts from work-in-progress Black Damask—an opera about the life and times of William Dorsey Swann, the first person known to dub himself a “queen of drag” with a book and libretto by Carl Hancock Rux. The program features an excerpt in staged concert form, followed by a discussion with the creators.

 

WaterWorks Emerging Artists

For nearly 30 years, Harlem Stage’s WaterWorks Emerging Artists program, formerly Fund for New Work (FFNW), has provided commissioning grants to emerging artists of color. Today, the program continues this tradition by awarding five early-career artists of color per year. This program supports artists early in their careers as well as artists developing new aspects of their artistic practice. 
 

WaterWorks Emerging Artists Showcase
Sat, Dec. 9, 2023

Throughout the duration of the year-long WaterWorks program, artists develop an original performance piece, presented as part of a work-in-progress showcase at the historic Harlem Stage Gatehouse. The 2023 WaterWorks Emerging Artists cohort comprises: 

• interdisciplinary performing artist and painter Shantelle Courvoisier Jackson
• singer/songwriter Hannah Lemmons
• choreographer and dancer Bobby Morgan
• interdisciplinary artist, composer, and pianist Mary Prescott
• trumpeter and composer Kalí Rodríguez-Peña

 

E-Moves 

Harlem Stage's flagship dance series, E-Moves, has for over 20 years brought together phenomenal choreographers, artists, musicians, and dance artists of color to showcase their movement-based creations. On the occasion of Harlem Stage’s 40th Anniversary, Harlem Stage invites back to the Gatehouse artists who have been critical to the legacy of the institution’s dance programming and who serve as inspiration for the future of dance. These artists include: Kyle Abraham, Camille A. Brown, Ronald K. Brown, nora chipaumire, and Bill T. Jones. In addition to performances, the 40th Anniversary edition of E-Moves will feature conversations on critical topics to the field, including the role of art in social consciousness with Bill T. Jones.

            Kyle Abraham
            Kyle Abraham, who first performed in E-Moves in 2006 and created Pavement through 
            Harlem Stage’s commissioning program, WaterWorks, which premiered in 2012, returns 
            for the 40th anniversary celebration. 

         Camille A. Brown
         Fri, June 14, and Sat, June 15, 2024
         First presented in E-Moves in 2004, Camille A. Brown returns to Harlem Stage’s 
         flagship dance series to present a work of her own, alongside works by her 
         associate choreographers in the theater and commercial work,  in an evening of repertoire 
         celebrating the theme BLACK JOY. The choreographers are Rickey Tripp, Mayte Natalio, 
         Chloe Davis, and Maleek Washington.
 

Ronald K. Brown, EVIDENCE 
Fri, Oct. 13 & Sat, Oct. 14, 2023
First presented at Aaron Davis Hall in 1998, EVIDENCE returns for a not-to-be-missed performance featuring beloved repertory from the company as well as a work by an emerging choreographer selected by Brown. 

Bill T. Jones, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company 
Fri, Apr. 19 & Sat, Apr. 20, 2024

The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company performed in the opening of the Harlem Stage Gatehouse in 2006 and transformed the theater in the past with the striking commissioned work, Chapel/Chapter. The company returns to perform a dynamic program on the occasion of Harlem Stage’s 40th Anniversary, which will include an emerging artist selected by Jones. 

 

nora chipaumire
ShebeenDUB
Fri, May 17 & Sat, May 18, 2024

Contemporary artist, choreographer, and performer based in Berlin and Harare, Zimbabwe, nora chipaumire presents ShebeenDUB. The performance features three dancers and a dub DJ staged on a monumental sound installation, soundshitsystem, designed by Ari Marcopoulos and Kara Walker, and constructed by Matt Jackson Studio.

 

Guest Curated Programs and Special Projects

 

Guest Curated Programs

 

Vijay Iyer 
Eternal Spirit: Vijay Iyer and Friends Celebrate the Music of Andrew Hill
Fri, Mar. 1 & Sat, Mar. 2, 2024

Composer and pianist Vijay Iyer returns following his Harlem Stage commissioned work, Holding It Down, to guest curate and perform in Eternal Spirit: Vijay Iyer and Friends Celebrate the Music of Andrew Hill. Iyer leads a stellar ensemble, including drummer Nasheet Waits, trumpet player Milena Casado, saxophonist Mark Shim, and others, through his arrangements of compositions by Hill, Iyer’s friend and hero, in this fitting tribute to the vastly influential jazz piano legend. 

Jason Moran
Pianos for Duke Reimagined: Featuring Jason Moran, Abdullah Ibrahim, and Friends
Fri, Apr. 26 & Sat, Apr. 27, 2024
 

In 1999, Harlem Stage presented a historic concert dedicated to the music of Duke Ellington Pianos For Duke, featuring a young up-and-coming jazz pianist named Jason Moran alongside superstars of the instrument. Now one of the brightest stars of his field, Moran performs in and guest curates Pianos for Duke Reimagined: Featuring Jason Moran, Abdullah Ibrahim, and Friends. Presented in the round at the historic Gatehouse, on the occasion of the 125th Anniversary of Ellington’s birth, Moran enlists legendary jazz pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, and other acclaimed pianists, to join him in the celebratory performance of Ellington’s music.

Special Projects 
 

Harlem Stage 40th Anniversary Concert
Thu, Sep. 14, 2023

Harlem Stage and Bryant Park present a major jazz artist (TBA) on the occasion of Harlem Stage’s 40th Anniversary Celebration and Bryant Park Picnic Performances. 

Craig Harris
TONGUES OF FIRE (in a harlem state of mind)
Fri, Oct. 20 & Sat, Oct. 21, 2023

Following the success of his Harlem Stage commissioned work Nocturnal Nubian Ball for Conscientious Ballers and Cultural Shot Callers, jazz trombonist Craig Harris presents TONGUES OF FIRE (in a harlem state of mind), a concert of music, poetry, and movement. Harris explores the evolution of the Harlem community from the mid-’70s to the present day, gathering an all-star intergenerational cast spanning three generations of Harlem-based artists.

george emilio sanchez
In the Court of the Conqueror 
Fri, Nov. 3, 2023

 

george emilio sanchez, in collaboration with visual artist Patty Ortiz, presents this solo performance, revolving around the 200-year-old history of U.S. Supreme Court rulings that have diminished the Tribal Sovereignty of Native Nations, juxtaposed against sanchez’ experiences of navigating generational trauma and Indigenous identity in an Ecuadorian immigrant household. This performance collaboration that bridges textual and visual narratives reveals how the U.S. Constitution camouflages the violent intentions of Settler Colonialism, and a legal structure that embraces the unscientific ideal of racial superiority.

Stew
HIGH SUBSTITUTE FOR THE DREAD LECTURER: Baraka Jones in Dub
Fri, Mar. 22 & Sat, Mar. 23, 2024

In his second in a series of “black super-hero free-constructions,” Stew’s HIGH SUBSTITUTE FOR THE DREAD LECTURER: Baraka Jones in Dub finds him working through Amiri Baraka’s, and LeRoi Jones’, twin influences on his life and art. In the spirit of his critically acclaimed NOTES OF A NATIVE SONG, the musical meditation on James Baldwin, also commissioned by Harlem Stage, HIGH SUBSTITUTE will irreverently transmit troubadour songs scribbled on and about the life-trail blazed by Baraka Jones. 

Uptown Nights

 

Harlem Stage's beloved music series, Uptown Nights, presents a dynamic set of artists across a wide range of genres throughout the anniversary year. 

From September to December 2023, Harlem Stage presents the Uptown Nights Latinx Music Series, an exciting lineup that celebrates music from the Latinx diaspora, including Cuban-born MacArthur Fellow drummer, composer, and bandleader, Dafnis Prieto, with songs from his recent Cantar album.

As part of Uptown Nights, Harlem Stage will also collaborate with Harlem-based Sugar Hill Salon— one of the first chamber music series and artistic collectives that centers on black and brown woodwind artistry in classical music—and Concert Artists Guild—which has, since 1951, launched the careers of hundreds of emerging classical artists and ensembles—to curate an evening of chamber music, featuring works by living composers of color, performed by musicians from each organization’s ranks.

The full Uptown Nights lineup will be announced in September.

About Harlem Stage

Harlem Stage is the performing arts center that bridges Harlem’s cultural legacy to contemporary artists of color and dares to provide the artistic freedom that gives birth to new ideas. For nearly 40 years, the organization’s singular mission has been to perpetuate and celebrate the unique and diverse artistic legacy of Harlem and the indelible impression it has made on American culture. Harlem Stage provides opportunity, commissioning, and support for visionary artists of color, makes performances easily accessible to all audiences, and introduces children to the rich diversity, excitement, and inspiration of the performing arts.

Harlem Stage fulfills its mission through commissioning, incubating, and presenting innovative and vital work that responds to the historical and contemporary conditions that shape our lives and the communities the organization serves.

With a long-standing tradition of supporting artists and organizations around the corner and across the globe, Harlem Stage boasts such legendary artists as Harry Belafonte, Max Roach, Sekou Sundiata, Abbey Lincoln, Sonia Sanchez, Eddie Palmieri, Maya Angelou, and Tito Puente, as well as contemporary artists like Mumu Fresh, Jason “Timbuktu” Diakité, Xian aTunde Adjuah, Tamar-kali, Vijay Iyer, Mike Ladd, Meshell Ndegeocello, Jason Moran, José James, Nona Hendryx, Bill T. Jones, and more. Harlem Stage’s education programs serve over 2,300 New York City school children each year.

The New York Times has saluted Harlem Stage as “an invaluable incubator of talent” and it has been hailed as an organization still unafraid to take risks. Harlem Stage’s investment in this visionary talent is often awarded in the early stages of many artists’ careers, and the organization proudly celebrates their increasing success. Five members of its artist family have joined the ranks of MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship awardees: Kyle Abraham (2013), Vijay Iyer (2013), Jason Moran (2010), Bill T. Jones (1994), and Cecil Taylor (1991).

Harlem Stage is a winner of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters William Dawson Award for Programming Excellence and Sustained Achievement in Programming.