Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Presents The WORLD PREMIERE of Marc Bamuthi Joseph's /peh-LO-tah/

In a world premiere, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA)presents /peh-LO-tah/, a high-powered multimedia theatrical experience featuring live music, dance, and spoken-word poetry, which examines the complexities of soccer as a conduit for global joy and corruption.

Written and performed by the award-winning poet-performer and YBCA's Chief of Program and Pedagogy Marc Bamuthi Joseph, /peh-LO-tah/ is an autobiographical work based on Joseph's experiences as a child of Haitian immigrants playing soccer in the United States, and the journals of his travels to World Cup games in South Africa and Brazil./peh-LO-tah/ will run in the YBCA Theater, November 18 and 19, 2016, at 8 p.m., and November 20, 2016, at5 p.m. The YBCA performance will kick off a US tour that will include a stop at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, and the Brooklyn Academy Of Music, among other notable venues.

At its heart, the music-infused production brings Joseph's explosive hip-hop style to bear on the political, economic, and social significance of the spinning ball (pelotah) we call Earth. The riveting performance features original music and choreography inspired by South African and Brazilian movement styles and techniques from the soccer field. It is, as Joseph describes it, "a dance about the economy, choreographed to the rhythm of the beautiful game."

The dynamic work is both reflective and timely, examining the role of soccer in Joseph's personal journey, and the sport as a precipitator of sociopolitical patterns. /peh-LO-tah/ appreciates soccer as a fixture of camaraderie, pride, and tradition across cultures. Themes of freedom and citizenship are surfaced through the lens of immigration. Joseph equally appreciates conditions here in his own backyard, as the work is also in tune with the pulse of Black Lives Matter, and responds to the movement.

"The soccer field was the site of my first joy. It's also a place of radical corruption and exploitation," says Joseph. "/peh-LO-tah/ explores the ecology of egalitarianism played out inside the world's game. With this piece I'm intrigued by the elusive riddle of equality, and curious and fascinated that soccer seems to be the only thing the entire planet can agree to do together. My inquiry involves the joy of the game and the complexity of the Global South sites of the last two World Cups. The throughline of the piece is trying to find freedom in your body. It asks, 'When was the last time you felt really free?' For my company of collaborators, it is a structural experiment: physically demanding, visually deft, viscerally reaching, and linguistically twisted in hip-hop and hope."

Featuring a prolific team of collaborators, /peh-LO-tah/ is performed in multiple dimensions through the moving bodies of the poets, musicians, and dancers on stage, and through silhouette and three-dimensional shadow play, all against a vibrant background of filmed imagery in the form of video projections. The live music ranges from gospel and African American spirituals, to bossa nova and Brazilian carnival, to beatboxing and hip-hop.

Beyond the show, /peh-LO-tah/ features moving and passing, a powerful education and outreach program that examines the cultural complexities of soccer, including ways in which the global sport may be used to connect young people with the arts and raise awareness around issues facing immigrant communities. Joseph will work with Bay Area youth in soccer clinics and writing workshops, fostering discussions around global economies and sports as politics. Led by Joseph along with partners Youth Speaks, Culturestrike, and other local community groups, the program will target soccer clubs especially, as well as immigrant youth organizations and other kinds of sports organizations.

Joseph comments: "These are politically volatile and ecologically urgent times that demand a deeper level of civic accountability on the part of both artists and arts institutions. My hope is that our project will lay the foundation for other models of kinesthetic learning and make more visible the link between aesthetics and athletics in the social realm."

Of Joseph's past performances, The Philadelphia Inquirer writes, "Marc Bamuthi Joseph belongs to a rare breed of artists who can kindle political and cultural awareness while delivering a highly entertaining performance." Addsthe San Francisco Chronicle, "Marc Bamuthi Joseph's riveting multimedia hip-hop performance at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, is, first of all, a great idea. . . . Joseph takes the audience on a trip through space and time to bring key moments of his and hip-hop's life together. It's as complicated and powerful as the best hip-hop can be." The San Francisco Bay Guardian opines, "Joseph's words can take an audience's breath away, then coax out sighs, exclamations of approval, and finally draw them to their feet." The Walker Art Center says of his work that "it's socially engaged without being didactic; utilizes a high-level of self-awareness, self-deprecation and humor that disarms an audience that worries about being preached to."

The creative team for /peh-LO-tah/ includes: Michael John Garcés (director), Christine Marie (shadow scenic designer), David Szlasa (media and video designer), Stacey Printz (choreographer), Tom Ontiveros (lighting designer), and TaiReikca (shadow caster). Performing collaborators include Amara Tabor-Smith, Tommy Shepherd, Traci Tolmaire, and Yaw Agyeman.

/peh-LO- tah/ was commissioned by The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. It is made possible with funding support by the New England Foundation for the Arts; the National Theater Project, with lead funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; the MAP Fund (a program of Creative Capital, supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation); Panta Rhea Foundation; and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Marc Bamuthi Joseph is a participant in the Global Connections-ON the ROAD program, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and administered by Theatre Communications Group, the national organization for the professional not-for-profit American Theatre. Support for the pilot of moving and passing in Harlem and the Bronx, New York, is funded by Guggenheim Social Practice, an initiative supported by the Edmond de Rothschild Foundations.

About Marc Bamuthi Joseph
An arts activist, spoken-word artist, performer, and librettist, Marc Bamuthi Joseph is a pillar of American performance, arts education, and artistic curation. He is currently chief of program and pedagogy at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA). After appearing on Broadway as a young actor, Joseph wrote and performed in a series of poetically based works for the stage that have toured worldwide, including Word Becomes Flesh, Scourge, andthe break/s: a mixtape for stage, all of which were produced by MAPP International Productions. His full-evening theater work red, black & GREEN: a blues was also produced by MAPP; it premiered at YBCA in 2011 and toured through 2014, and was nominated for a Bessie (2013) for "Outstanding Production of a work stretching the boundaries of a traditional form."

To learn more about this event and purchase tickets, visit: https://ybca.org/whats-on/peh-lo-tah

About YBCA
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 visit ybca.org or call415.978.2700.

To post a comment, you must register and login.