In this week’s round-up of new works, we hope you will find a moment to reflect on the events of the last few weeks and the history of oppression in this country. We also hope you find a moment to refresh, as the work is far from over…

In Case You Missed It

The B-Side: “Negro Folklore from Texas State Prisons” A Record Album Presentation | Kate Valk & Eric Berryman | Fringe Festival 2019  The Wooster Group’s  The B-Side “Negro Folklore from Texas State Prisons” A Record Album Presentation was presented in the 2019 Fringe Festival. The Wooster Group, under the direction of Elizabeth LeCompte, makes original works for the theater integrating visual media, sound, architectonic design, and text with live performance. The B-Side is a live record album interpretation based on an LP of work songs, blues, spirituals, and toasts recorded in 1964. The African-American men whose voices appear on the record were serving time, doing hard labor on prison farms, many of which, were formerly family-owned plantations worked by slaves. In this video, you hear from director Kate Valk and Eric Berryman, lead performer and conceiver of the live performance.

Le Cargo | Faustin Linyekula | Fringe Festival 2014  Congolese dancer and choreographer Faustin Linyekula lives and works in Kisangani, northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Combining personal narratives with the history of violence experienced in his home country,  Le Cargo explores memory, forgetting, and the suppression of memory. Through movement, the piece addresses the legacy of decades of war, terror, fear, and the collapse of the economy for Linyekula, his family, and his friends and was presented as part of our 2014 Fringe Festival. 

Portrait of Myself as My Father Excerpt  & PCAH interview | Nora Chipaumire | Fringe Festival 2016  In collaboration with the Philadelphia Museum of Art, FringeArts presented Nora Chipaumire’s Portrait of Myself as My Father during the 2016 Fringe Festival. The Zimbabwe/New York-based choreographer continues her investigations of the black body, Africa, and the self in the work. Situated in a boxing ring, Chipaumire trades jabs with the specter of her estranged father as he fights against prejudice, social pressures, and the weight of history. Here, Chipaumire sits down with our friends at the Pew Center for the Arts and Heritage.

We 💙 our Alumni

NPR Tiny Desk Concert | Sun Ra Arkestra  Sun Ra, Herman Poole Bolount, was a big-band innovator, a pioneer of recording and playing with electronics, a poet, a cosmic philosopher, a bandleader and a keyboard innovator who claimed to be from Saturn. Although Bolount has passed, Sun Ra lives on through his long-running band, who performed as part of the music festival The October Revolution in 2017 presented at FringeArts in collaboration with Ars Nova.

“Real Love Stories Are Nothing Like Rom-Coms” | Michelle Buteau  Actress-comedian Michelle Buteau took the FringeArts stage in our inaugural Blue Heaven Comedy Festival in 2019. Here, Michelle Buteau gives hilarious insight into relationships. 

When the Wolves Came In | Kyle Abraham   Bessie Award-winning choreographer and performer Kyle Abraham presented an evening-length program of new work inspired by jazz great Max Roach’s We Insist Freedom Now. When the Wolves Came In, an ensemble work for six dancers set to the music of the acclaimed American contemporary composer Nico Muhly, was featured in that program and can now be seen here. Abraham has previously been presented at FringeArts in 2011 with his piece  The Radio Show. 

Other Places to Find Great Art

Revival! | Blackstar Film Festival  Part virtual dance party and part live performance, Revival! is a celebration of the visual and sonic frequencies that are contained within and spill out of Black spiritual and ecstatic experience. This series will take the form of livestream sessions on Sundays in June. During these engagements, longtime friends and frequent collaborators DJs Lil’ Dave (illvibe Collective/Eavesdrop), Oluwafemi (Worldtown), and Rashid Zakat will take turns creating live sound mixes over moving image backdrops.

Revival! is presented by Philadelphia’s Blackstar Film Festival, an annual celebration of the visual and storytelling traditions of the African diaspora and of global communities of color, showcasing films by black, brown, and indigenous people from around the world. 

Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am (June 21st)  Over the last few weeks, the Knight Foundation has partnered with Magnolia Pictures to make available documentaries that speak powerfully to systemic inequality and serve as blueprints for effecting change. This week’s film, free with sign-up in advance, is Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am about the lauded and Nobel Award-winning Black novelist and essayist.

The Dance Union Podcast  New York-based dancers J. Bouey, a current dancer with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, and Melanie Greene, a 2017 Bessie Award Recipient for Outstanding Performance, co-host The Dance Union podcast offering insightful discussions of vital topics such as self-care, diversity, body positivity, and more within the dance community.

We’ll see you for next week’s Curators’ Choice, but in the meantime, stay connected with us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.