BLESSING THE BOATS: THE REMIX Plays TPAC, Now thru 6/30

BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center, the longest operating performance venue in lower Manhattan, in partnership with Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC), presents blessing the boats: the remix, a re-imagining of an original play written and performed by Sekou Sundiata, performing today, June 27-29 at 8pm and June 30 at 3pm at TPAC, Theater 2 (199 Chambers Street). This performance has been co-commissioned by LMCC and BMCC, presented as part ofBlink Your Eyes: Sekou Sundiata Revisited, a citywide retrospective produced by MAPP International Productions, and as part of the River To River Festival 2013.Tickets are FREE, but first come, first served - box office opens 45 min. prior to curtain.

blessing the boats: the remix is a powerful re-imagining of one of Sekou Sundiata's acclaimed plays. Originally presented as a solo performance, director Rhodessa Jones revisits Sundiata's story of life-threatening illness and recovery as told through the unique interplay of three next-generation poet/performers: Will Power, Carl Hancock Rux, and Mike Ladd. These three compelling voices revive Sundiata's incisive writing, finding the universal in the particular and exploring the ritual and complexities of the play. This remix encompasses language, music, and visual projections of healing and hope. Video projections by Sage Marie Carter, set by Mimi Lien, lighting by RodeRick Murray, sound design by Garth MacAleavey, and costumes by Oana Botez.

Blink Your Eyes: Sekou Sundiata Revisited is a seven-month New York City-wide retrospective produced by MAPP International Productions in collaboration with 18 cultural and educational institutions. Blink Your Eyes honors and explores the legacy of artist, poet, and educator Sekou Sundiata through a series of events including the re-imagining of major theater pieces and concerts of poetry and music, as well as poetry readings, humanities programs, and community engagement activities. Blink Your Eyes: Sekou Sundiata Revisited celebrates Sekou Sundiata's broad vision for bold, rigorous, multidisciplinary artistic expression that emerges from a love for one's community, a passion for real democracy and social justice, and a vision for a better world. We invite you to celebrate Sundiata's legacy through live performances by the artists he inspired- in the places and communities that inspired him.

For more information about this retrospective: sekousundiata.org.

Rhodessa Jones is Co-Artistic Director of the San Francisco acclaimed performance company Cultural Odyssey. She is an actress, teacher, singer, and writer. Ms. Jones is also the Director of the award winning Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women, which is a performance workshop designed to achieve personal and social transformation with incarcerated women. Ms. Jones was most recently selected as an "Arts Envoy" by the U.S. Department of State, Educational and Cultural Affairs Bureau to conduct an international residency/workshop process inside the Naturena Women's Prison in Johannesburg, South Africa. The residency utilizes the medium of theater, movement, and literature to increase self and social awareness and explores an arts-based approach to help reduce the numbers of women returning to jail. Ms. Jones' directing credits include; Lysistrata, for the African American Shakespeare Company; My Life in the Concrete Jungle, The Lorraine Hansberry Theater, San Francisco; and Sekou Sundiata's Blessing the Boats, Aaron Davis Hall, New York.

Writer and music producer, Michael C. Ladd was born in Boston, MA. He has published in several literary magazines including Long Shot Review and Bostonia. His work is also featured in the book Swing Low, Black Men Writing and several anthologies, including, Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Café, In Defense of Mumia, and Bum Rush The Page. Ladd is the writer and producer of ten albums, among them, Easy Listening For Armageddon (Scratchie/Mercury Records). As a Fellow at the Institute for Arts and Civic Dialogue at Harvard University, Mr. Ladd produced and directed Blood Black and Blue, an audio documentary/performance about Black police officers in the United States. Most recently, Ladd has been an Artist-in-Residence at L'abbaye de Royaumont and Harlem Stage. Ladd received an MA in poetry from Boston University and currently lives in Paris with his wife and two children.

Will Power is an award-winning playwright and performer. Power's adaptation of the Greek tragedy Seven Against Thebes, retitled The Seven, enjoyed a successful Off-Broadway run at the New York Theater Workshop and The La Jolla Playhouse. His solo show FLOW was featured in the Hip Hop Theater Festival before touring nationally and internationally to critical acclaim. Power's numerous awards include a United States Artist Prudential Fellowship, a Lucille Lortel Award for Best Musical, the TCG Peter Zeisler Memorial Award, a Jury Award for Best Theatre Performance at the HBO US Comedy Arts Festival, and the Trailblazer Award from The National Black Theater Network. Power's numerous film and television appearances include The Steven Colbert Report (Comedy Central), and Bill Moyers on Faith and Reason (PBS). Presently, Power is in the process of developing new works for The Dallas Theatre Center, The Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles, Hartford Stage, and The Royal Shakespeare Company.

Carl Hancock Rux is a writer and recording artist who crosses the disciplines of poetry, theater, film, music, and literary fiction. His critically acclaimed debut CD, Rux Revue (Sony Music), was voted one of the top ten alternative music CDs of 1998 (New York Times). With his powerful eleven-piece band, Rux has brought down the house at festivals like Transmusicales and Central Park Summerstage and at venues from the Jazz CafÈ in London to the new Casa da Musica in Porto, Portugal. His plays and performance works have been produced and or commissioned throughout the United States and internationally at venues including The Public Theater, the Robert E. Fischer Center for the Performing Arts, PS 122, the Kitchen, HERE Arts Center, Lincoln Center, BAM Harvey Theater (Next Wave Festival), REDCAT, Mass MOCA, University of Ghana at Legon, Ebenezor Experimental Theater Festival, Maison des Arts (Creteil, France), and the Victoria Theater (Singapore) among others.

MAPP International Productions is dedicated to developing sustainable environments for artists to create, premiere and tour performing arts projects. We provide support and opportunities for challenging artistic voices to be fully heard and engaged by bringing together arts, humanities and public dialogue. This means not only placing live work on the stages of performing arts venues worldwide, but also creating opportunities for discussion, learning and civic engagement that encourage appreciation of different cultures and perspectives. We nurture contemporary artists who reside and create in many parts of the world, embracing multidirectional infiltration and invigoration, and contributing to the U.S.'s role as a valued partner in a global creative community. For more information: mappinternational.org

FUNDING CREDITS

MAPP International Productions gratefully acknowledges the generous funders who have been instrumental in bringing Blink Your Eyes to life: Rockefeller Foundation New York City Cultural Innovation Fund, Surdna Foundation, Lambent Foundation Fund of the Tides Foundation, Leveraging Investments in Creativity, Ford Foundation, Nathan Cummings Foundation, Axe-Houghton Foundation, the New York Council for the Humanities, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council. The development and presentation of blessing the boats: the remix is supported by The Apollo Theater's Salon Series, the Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC), Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC), and the 2013 River To River Festival. Major support for blessing the boats: the remix comes from the Ford Foundation.

BMCC Tribeca PAC is Downtown Manhattan's premier presenter of the arts, reaching audiences from the college community, downtown residential and business communities, local schools, families, and audiences of all ages. BMCC Tribeca PAC strives to present a broad global perspective through the presentation of high-quality artistic work in music, theatre, dance, film and visual arts. BMCC Tribeca PAC is located on the Borough of Manhattan Community College campus, 199 Chambers Street (between Greenwich Avenue & West Street) and is convenient to the 2/3, A/C/E and R/W subway lines and the New Jersey Path Train. For more information please visit our website, www.tribecapac.org.

The annual River To River Festival is produced by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council in partnership with Founding Partners Arts Brookfield, Battery Park City Authority, and South Street Seaport.

LMCC, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, has been a leading voice for arts and culture since 1973, presenting cultural events in Manhattan, advocating for artists and the arts, and working in partnerships to improve the quality of life for the New York City's workers, residents, and visitors.

River To River is made possible with support from the Alliance for Downtown New York, American Express, The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, HUD, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Westfield World Trade Center, and in part by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, as well as other underwriters.

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