Verses @ Work at Jersey City Theater Center

JERSEY CITY THEATER CENTER  (October 26-27, 2024) – back by popular demand, NYC-native poet-actor-writer-musician Malik Work brings his internationally acclaimed show Verses @ Work to the renowned theater. Behold a groundbreaking, tremendously unique multi-media performance guaranteed to delight, inspire and uplift. 

But stop the presses! This presentation of the show is in conversation with Nobel Peace Prize nominee, South African writer Es'kia Mphalele and his renowned piece,  Down 2nd Avenue. Verses @ Work will be followed by a reception (with free drinks!) and talk back featuring Malik Work and actor/producer Marcus Mabusela, visiting from Johannesburg. The evening will be capped off by Mabusela's performance of Mphalele's classic. 

Credits: Written by: Malik Work. Produced by Malik Work, The Real Live Show, and the Public Theater’s Mobile Unit. Directed by: Vernice Miller. Performed by Malik Work. Featuring: Quincy Valentine (musical director, keys) and Swiss Chris (drums, percussion, samples).

Verses At Work Synopsis 
Malik Work bares his soul while sharing his story that made history. This is the story of a Black artist on the rise. A story of hip hop and nightlife in New York City. Verses @ Work is a sneak-peak into the wild and adventurous world of live music born in the depths of lounges and clubs in the East Village and Lower East Side of Manhattan. Included is the birth story of a musical movement, as the jazz world embraces the growing impact and cultural reign of hip hop. Moonlighting as a promoter, the uber-creative and multitalented NYC-native, Malik meant to start the first hip hop reality TV series back in the early 2000s. In a twist of events, he formed a groundbreaking band by mistake. The Real Live Show explodes, and Malik struggles to regain the reins of his life. Through laughter and tears, Verses @ Work inspires and transforms. It seamlessly intertwines video, live music, musical theater, hip-hop, poetry, dance, and conventional monologue in a captivating and charismatic show, featuring original music by a variety of New York’s finest jazz, dance, groove, and hip hop music producers, showcasing the present and future of creative, immersive, musical storytelling and performance. 

Verses At Work Themes 
Verses at Work explores the cultural nuances of traditional African-American gender roles, artistry, and survival. What role does self-determination play in achieving “success”? What roles are already constructed for Malik? Which ones does he reject? Which roles does he accept? In this piece, Malik finds he must reconcile the expectations of the world with his expectations of himself. Navigating that treacherous terrain becomes a road map to making a life. Every ‘verse’ in the play is a conversation about that struggle.
Verses @ Work poses questions about the insidious role institutionalized racism plays in the trajectory of a life. Whether the effects of said racism are perceived internally or actualized externally, the results are the same: lowered expectations and frustrated ambitions. Along his way, Malik realizes that it is not only as an actor, that he is being typecast.
Malik Work’s struggle also encapsulates the struggle of the developing artist in cities all over the world, especially the United States. How does one survive, while staying creatively sharp and available for preferred artistic opportunities? Many artists end up dabbling in the service industry, or the nightlife economy, and summarily never make it back out.
Malik Work’s autobiographical narrative takes us back to a different New York City. Gentrification is just beginning to impact historically underserved communities. Hip Hop music and culture is reflecting the city’s changing landscape. Just ‘pre’ and ‘post’ 9/11, New York is the epicenter of urban renewal. New nightclubs are opening up, as old ones are closing down. The city’s nightlife is vibrant and fluid. Sensing an opportunity, Malik and his cohorts look to make their mark on the world of live music. In this distinctly original format, his verses testify to and narrate a quite remarkable tale: the transformation and evolution of both Hip Hop and himself.

Verses At Work History 
Verses.. has had many iterations, including its epic immersive Black History Month version at Nublu in February of 2020, and collaborations with the Public Theater's Mobile Unit culminating in a performance at Joe's Pub in NYC.  Work has continuously, creatively and successfully adapted his script since he started sharing it with the public. The film adaptation directed by Lucas Mendes has successfully screened across coasts winning the “International Spotlight Award” at the Los Angeles Brazilian Film Festival, and receiving recognition at the Harlem International Film Festival in 2017, and the Hip Hop Film Festival in 2018. The 2017 national premiere of the one-man theater show at Theater for the New City, in the script’s original format, saw Work nominated alongside Sarah Jones and Anna Deveare Smith in the “Best Solo Performance” category of the AUDELCO Awards. The 2018 international premiere at the Umtiza Arts Festival in East London, and the Market Theater in Johannesburg, South Africa was such a success, he was to return the following year for a second run at the National Arts Festival in Makhanda. The 2019 shortened version of the script saw light as Nostos in Verse, paying homage to The Odyssey and the Greek classics, and filled the room at the Park Avenue Armory during Sunday Salon: Spoken Word, alongside the 20th anniversary of the Friday Night Poetry Slam of the New York City’s renowned Nuyorican Poets Café.