Photos: New Images Released for The Flea's ARDEN: BUT, NOT WITHOUT YOU

The Flea announced today the formerly titled ARDEN: A Ritual for Love and Liberation will now be titled ARDEN: But, Not Without You. They have released new photos of the artists of this genre-bending, boundary-breaking, and interactive new work that is commissioned by The Flea and led by Black and queer artists. Rehearsals for ARDEN began last week, with previews commencing on February 6, 2022 and an official opening night set for February 11, 2022. This strictly limited engagement will play through March 6, 2022.

Check out photos below!

The Flea's Artistic Director, Niegel Smith said, "We changed the title! We started rehearsals and within a few days we realized we couldn't lead everyone to liberation - that has to be defined by them - but we could lead audiences into relationship. With each other. With us. With grace. Carrie Mae Weems suggested, "Arden: But, Not Without You." We knew this was at the heart of our work. ARDEN is about how we get to love and connection when rage and isolation are so profitable. How do we not discard each other in this quest for liberation? That's what Arden asks."

This last year has been a momentous transformation for The Flea. They have proudly focused their new mission to support and invest in experimental art by Black, brown and queer artists, and are the only theater in New York City focused on supporting experimental work at this intersection.

ARDEN is a new performance ritual that creates space for grace and communal practice in the face of indifference and division. It was developed in collaboration by Niegel Smith, Diana Oh, Peter Born, and MacArthur Fellows Okwui Okpokwasili and Carrie Mae Weems.

Smith and Nia Witherspoon co-direct a group of performers that includes Smith, Weems, Oh, Okpokwasili, Born.

Oh and Jack Fuller also serve as Co-Music Directors.

ARDEN's band features Fuller, Serena Ebony Miller (bass), Bernice "Boom Boom" Brooks (percussion), and Viva DeConcini (guitar).

The design team includes Born (Environmental Designer), Tony Award winner Linda Cho (Costume Designer), and Hao Bai (Projection, Sound, and LX Design)

Love. Grace. Power.

Let's light a light and lay it all down. Out of years of division and separation comes Arden: But, Not Without You. This genre-bending, boundary-breaking new work, commissioned by The Flea and led by Black and queer artists, is about grace, love, and the bravery it takes to find each other again after periods of darkness and indifference.

The Flea invites you to take a walk down a path that leads to a clearing. In this clearing, you are invited into a strange, raw and thrilling ritual full of song, dance, and testimony. Come to Arden and happen upon a kind of love that feels too dangerous for the world we live in.

Bring your hopes. Bring your fears. We'll stir them together, pass them through our sieve, and re-emerge with a newfound sense of awe and possibility for ourselves and the others with whom we move through this world.

Come as you are.

For all information, please visit www.theflea.org.

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