Little Island Unveils Seven Weeks of Free, Live Performances at The Glade
From July 10-14, Suzan-Lori Parks’s Tell Me More series will pair a musical performance with a conversation between Parks and an expert from a different field.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Jul. 01, 2024
Little Island has revealed the line-up for The Glade Series, an array of free-to-the-public live performances, launching July 10. These events will take place Wednesday through Sunday for seven weeks inside the Island’s 200-seat venue. This announcement comes on the heels of the sold-out run of Twyla Tharp, T Bone Burnett, and David Mansfield’s How Long Blues, which opened Little Island’s blockbuster summer season of world premiere events.
From July 10-14, each night of Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks’s Tell Me More series will thoughtfully pair a musical performance with a conversation between Parks and an expert from a different field. On July 10, for an evening themed “Greens & Blues,” a set by blues legend Ruthie Foster will precede a talk between Parks and Majora Carter, founder of Sustainable South Bronx. Other guests include designer Daisy Wang, who will also dress Lori-Parks, freestyle MC Corey James Gray, Columbia astronomy professor Jane Huang, harpist Brandee Younger, historian Eric Foner, and Parks’ own Psychedelic Soap Box, a post-bop jazz collective with spoken word. On Saturday July 13, Parks will invite the audience into one of her engaging Watch Me Work sessions, alongside a very special guest, before taking the stage with her band Sula & the Joyful Noise.
Taking the Glade stage from July 17-21 will be “wondrous” (The New York Times) dancer Melissa Toogood, in an intimate epilogue to Pam Tanowitz’s Day for Night, playing concurrently in Little Island’s Amphitheater (The Amph).
Mx Justin Vivian Bond, downtown cabaret legend and recent recipient of the first Judy Icon Award, will play five nights from July 24-28.
The Island will host a one-of-a-kind Oyster Market, July 31-August 4, curated and overseen by New Amsterdam Market founder and culinary world all-star Robert LaValva. Alongside live oyster shucking, the market will feature local vendors selling their unique culinary creations, which pair perfectly with The Oyster Radio Hour playing simultaneously in The Amph.
Then, from August 7-11, Morgan Jay returns to Little Island for his third consecutive summer to host and curate a week of comedy, including acts by Jay Jurden, Neel Gosh, and Sarah Tollemache.
From August 14-18, linguists Ross Perlin and Daniel Kaufman, co-founders of the Endangered Language Alliance, will collaborate with Michael Leibenluft and Gung Ho Projects to create a series of performances about the past, present, and future of the world’s most linguistically diverse city. The series will be led by speakers of endangered, Indigenous, and minority languages, talking about their communities in their own words and in their own languages, alongside poetry, music, and movement, with texts based on Perlin's Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York. A multilingual soundscape will draw on ELA’s digital language archive, with its recordings in more than one hundred languages, as well as visual elements from ELA’s digital landscape map and creative translanguaging translation strategies.
From August 21-25, Grammy Award-winning artist Cécile McLorin Salvant will lend her curatorial vision to the Glade, programming a set of performances by other musicians at the vanguard of their styles and forms, including jazz vocalist Vanisha Gould, folk artist June McDoom, multi-instrumentalist Lua Noah, pianist Sullivan Fortner, and more.
Closing out summer in the Glade, from August 28-September 1, Gio Escobar will host a series of unique, genre-bending experiences, including a bomba and a salsa night, before taking the stage with his own avant-garde collective, Standing on the Corner.
Tickets to Little Island’s summer season of performances, as well as information on free programs, are available at littleislanditickets.com.
THE GLADE SERIES / FULL PERFORMANCE CALENDAR
JULY 10-14 / Suzan-Lori Parks
"Tell Me More"
A series of performances and conversation curated and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winner Suzan-Lori Parks. Each evening, conceived around a pair of ideas, will feature a musical act and a conversation between Parks and a cultural luminary.
Wednesday, July 10, 2024, 7:00 PM
Blues & Greens: Conversation with Suzan-Lori Parks and Majora Carter / Performance by Ruthie Foster
The Glade
Thursday, July 11, 2024, 10:00 PM
The Runway & The Street: Conversation with fashion designer Daisy Wang / Performance by MC Corey James Gray & Freestyle Monday
The Glade
Friday, July 12, 2024, 10:00 PM
Outer Space & Inner Space: Conversation with Columbia Astronomy Professor Jane Huang / Performance by Psychedelic Soap Box /
The Play Ground
Saturday, July 13, 2024, 7:00 PM
Work & Play: Watch Me Work w/ Suzan-Lori Parks & Special Guest / Performance by Suzan-Lori Parks's Sula & the Joyful Noise
The Glade
Sunday, July 14, 2024, 7:00 PM
Past & Future: Conversation with Suzan-Lori Parks and Eric Foner / Performance by Brandee Younger
The Glade
JULY 17-21 / MELISSA TOOGOOD
“Epilogue: Pam Tanowitz’s ‘Day For Night’”
"Wondrous performer" (New York Times) Melissa Toogood dances an epilogue to choreographer Pam Tanowitz's Day for Night, playing at 8:30pm each night in The Amph.
Wednesday, July 17, 2024, 9:30 PM
Epilogue: Day for Night
The Glade
Thursday, July 18, 2024, 9:30 PM
Epilogue: Day for Night
The Glade
Friday, July 19, 2024, 9:30 PM
Epilogue: Day for Night
The Glade
Saturday, July 20, 2024, 9:30 PM
Epilogue: Day for Night
The Glade
Sunday, July 21, 2024, 9:30 PM
Epilogue: Day for Night
The Glade
JULY 24-28 / Justin Vivian Bond
A Week of Cabaret
Wednesday, July 24, 2024, 6:30 PM
Justin Vivian Bond
The Glade
Thursday, July 25, 2024, 6:30 PM
Justin Vivian Bond
The Glade
Friday, July 26, 2024, 10:00 PM
Justin Vivian Bond
The Glade
Saturday, July 27, 2024, 10:00 PM
Justin Vivian Bond
The Glade
Sunday, July 28, 2024, 6:30 PM
Justin Vivian Bond
The Glade
July 31-August 4 / NEW AMSTERDAM OYSTER MARKET
A week of food. Curated by Roberta LaValva & the New Amsterdam Market
Food & Beverage available for purchase*
AUGUST 7-11 / MORGAN JAY & FRIENDS
A Week of Comedy
Wednesday, August 7, 2024, 7PM
Morgan Jay, Usama Siddique, Isa Medina, Daniel Bridgegadd
The Glade
Thursday, August 8, 2024, 7PM
Morgan Jay, Sean Donnelly, Tatiana Frank, Myq Kaplan
The Glade
Friday, August 9, 2024, 10:00 PM
Morgan Jay, Sahib Singh, Shane Torres, Jordan Jensen
The Glade
Saturday, August 10, 2024, 7:00 PM
Morgan Jay, Jay Jurden, Carmen Lynch, Neel Gosh
The Glade
Sunday, August 11, 2024, 7:00 PM
Morgan Jay, Sarah Tollemache, Leclerc Andrew, Erin Jackson
The Glade
AUGUST 14-18 / ENDANGERED LANGUAGE ALLIANCE
“Language City”
A series of performances about the past, present, and future of the world’s most linguistically diverse city. The series will be led by speakers of endangered, Indigenous, and minority languages speaking about their communities in their own words and in their own languages, alongside poetry, music, and movement, with texts based on Perlin's Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York. A multilingual soundscape will draw on ELA’s digital language archive, with its recordings in over a hundred languages, as well as visual elements from ELA’s digital landscape map and creative translanguaging translation strategies.
Conceived by Ross Perlin, Daniel Kaufman, Michael Leibenluft, the Endangered Language Alliance, and Gung Ho Projects. Directed by Michael Leibenluft.
Wednesday, August 14, 6:30 PM
Language City
The Glade
Thursday, August 15, 2024, 6:30 PM
Language City
The Glade
Friday, August 16, 2024, 10:00 PM
Language City
The Glade
Saturday, August 17, 2024, 6:30 PM
Language City
The Glade
Sunday, August 18, 2024, 6:30 PM
Language City
The Glade
AUGUST 21-25 / CURATED BY CECILE MCLORIN SALVANT
A Week of Celebrated Jazz and Folk Artists
Wednesday, August 21, 2024, 8:30PM
Vanisha Gould (ASL Interpreted)
The Glade
Thursday, August 22, 2024, 8:30-9:30PM
June McDoom
The Glade
Friday, August 23, 2024, 10:00 PM
Lua Noah
The Glade
Saturday, August 24, 2024, 8:30PM
Sullivan Fortner
The Glade
Sunday, August 25, 2024, 8:30PM
TBA
The Glade
AUGUST 28-SEPTEMBER 1 / CURATED BY GIO ESCOBAR
A Week of Music and Performance Art
Wednesday, August 28, 2024, 7PM
The Glade
Thursday, August 29, 2024, 7PM
The Glade
Friday, August 30, 2024, 10:00 PM
TBD
Saturday, August 31, 202, 7PM
The Glade
Sunday, September 1, 2024, 7PM
The Glade
After the conclusion of these public performances in September, The Glade will become New York’s newest outdoor cocktail lounge, complete with a bar designed by Green River Project and a menu of beer, wine, cocktails and mocktails that can be consumed in The Glade or enjoyed anywhere on Little Island. This is just one of the multiple food and beverage venues in the park, throughout the summer.
Little Island’s first annual, four-month-long summer season of world premieres, which kicked off on June 1, features a total of nine newly commissioned pieces. Little Island’s new arts program moves towards the future with a commitment to a multi-year roster of original work, all commissioned by and developed at Little Island. Bookended by the premiere of choreographer Twyla Tharp’s newest work How Long Blues and a 90-minute remix of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro in which outré opera diva Anthony Roth Costanzo sings every leading role, the season offers premieres of varying scales across all areas of performance – including music, dance, theater, opera, comedy, jazz, pop, and funk, all outdoors and directly sited on the Hudson River at 14th Street in New York City. The Amph, the park’s 700-seat amphitheater, will house larger scale performances at a $25 ticket price, while The Glade, the park’s 200-seat venue, will be home to more intimate works, all of which will be completely free to the public.
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