YBCA Announces The Return Of 'Transform' Performing Arts Festival

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) announces the return of Transform, its signature two-week festival occurring each fall and spring. Running May 9-20, 2018, in the YBCA Forum and Theater, the festival convenes leading contemporary artists for a provocative showcase of dance, music, and theater that can only happen at YBCA. Following its highly acclaimed debut in fall 2017, which explored the timely question, "Why citizenship?" the spring 2018 edition is built around the question: "Where is our public imagination?"

Headliners include: music wiz DJ Spooky; the visually stunning dance-cirque company Capacitor; the inventive Campo Santo theater ensemble with Obie Award-winning actor Roger Guenveur Smith; a stunning West Coast theatrical debut from Bessie Award-winning Okwui Okpokwasili; a multimedia theatrical journey by visual artist Lars Jan, and more! Find the complete festival schedule here.

Explains festival curator, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, YBCA's Chief of Program and Pedagogy, "This edition of Transform is framed around a soaring question: 'Where is our public imagination?' In other words, where can the public go to consume, participate, and be inspired? The artists participating in this year's festival have recognized specific challenges in the cultural landscape, from surveillance, to the inability to socialize because of our phones, to the melting of glaciers and polar ice caps, to alcoholism and the intersection of addictive behavior with economics, to an underappreciation of the beauty and diversity of black women. These artists have confirmed these challenges and have given us really beautiful examples of how we might think beyond the obvious. They offer us hope and a way forward when we need it most."

The spring Transform festival emphasizes theater and interdisciplinary performances. Bessie Award-winning artist Okwui Okpokwasili opens the festival with the West Coast premiere of Poor People's TV Room, inspired by the Nigerian Women's War of 1929 and the Boko Haram kidnappings. Told in an interplay of music, spoken word, storytelling, vocals, movement, and theater, the play examines female vulnerability, hardship, and resilience. In Institute of Memory (TIMe), artist Lars Jan offers a personal multimedia journey about his enigmatic father-a Cold War operative whose fascinating story prompts questions about privacy, memory, and fatherhood.

Then award-winning and Oscar-nominated actor, writer, and director Roger Guenveur Smith teams up with the Bay Area-based performance group Campo Santo to direct the world premiere of their new performance piece, Casa de Spirits. This must-see collaboration follows a group of people through their interactions with liquor stores in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood for an exploration of what the community has survived and what it will see after another chapter of massive changes.

The festival features a number of music-infused performances. Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky performs his highly acclaimed Arctic Rhythms, an evocative multimedia trip through the Arctic landscape, which juxtaposes images with live and recorded hip-hop, electronic, and minimalist music to create a unique experience. The award-winning poet Jessica Care Moore brings her popular Detroit production of Black Women Rock! This multigenerational fourteen-year-old concert brings together more than twenty of the most dynamic Black women rockers in the country, including Kimberly Nichole, Steffanie Christi'an, Nik West, Divinity Roxx, Tamar-Kali, Sh8peshifter, ideya, and Joi, for a tribute to pioneer rocker Betty Davis. Rounding out the music experience, equal parts pianist, composer, and live production wizard Mark de Clive-Lowe performs a one-of-a-kind art jazz show with a stellar cast and special guests, featuring his Signature Sound of technology- and beat-infused jazz mash-up that casually erases the lines between genres and eras.

Transform will feature two local Bay Area dance companies. Capacitor, a dance, cirque, and sculpture company founded by artistic director Jodi Lomask will premiere Left to Her Own Devices: 20 Years of Sculptures in Motion, a distillation of all of the company's work to date, exploring the theme of liberation that has marked Lomask's work over twenty years and ten full-length pieces. In a double-bill program that also features DJ Spooky, the multi-genre dance ensemble Printz Dance Project performs GLASSlands, a dance exploration of proximity, visibility, technology, and intimacy.

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About the Curators

Marc Bamuthi Joseph is a 2017 TED Global Fellow, an inaugural recipient of the Guggenheim Social Practice initiative, and an honoree of the United States Artists Rockefeller Fellowship. He is also the winner of the 2011 Herb Alpert Award in Theater, and an inaugural recipient of the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award. In pursuit of affirmations of black life in the public realm, he cofounded the Life Is Living Festival for Youth Speaks, and created the installation Black Joy in the Hour of Chaos for Creative Time. Joseph's opera libretto We Shall Not Be Moved was named one of 2017's "Best Classical Music Performances" by the New York Times. His latest evening-length work, /peh-LO-tah/, was commissioned by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and was presented at BAM's Harvey Theater as a part of the 2017 Next Wave Festival. He proudly serves as Chief of Program and Pedagogy at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

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Ticket information

Full festival packages: $60 / YBCA members $48

Two-night packages: $45 / YBCA members $36

Regular admission: $25 in advance / $30 at the door

Senior, teacher, student: $22-$27

YBCA members, Individual level and above: single-program tickets $20-24

YBCA members at the All Access level and above: free single-program tickets and festival passes.

Prices vary per performance. Buy two or more tickets and save 15 percent off. Senior Teacher Students receive 10 percent off with valid proof. YBCA Members receive 20 percent off

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Credits

Transform is supported in part by the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Theater Project, with lead funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; and the National Endowment for the Arts.

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About Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) is one of the nation's most innovative contemporary arts centers. Founded in 1993, YBCA''s mission is to generate culture that moves people. Through powerful art experiences, thoughtful and provocative content, and deep opportunities for participation, YBCA is committed to creating an inclusive culture that awakens personal and societal transformation. YBCA presents a wide variety of programming year-round, including performing arts, visual arts, film/video, and civic engagement. YBCA venues include the Forum, Screening Room, Galleries, and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater. For tickets and information: www.ybca.org; 415.978.2700.

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