Hip-hop Meets Performance Art in SPIRITRIALS at Alexander Bar This May

Hip-hop will meet perfromance art in SPIRITRIALS, directed by Marc Bamuthi Joseph and Sean San Jose, when the production plays the Alexander Bar and Café's Upstairs Theatre for two performances only this May.

Written and performed by Dahlak Brathwaite, SPIRITRIALS explores the intersection between addiction, religion, and the law against the backdrop of a government-funded drug rehabilitation programme. A timely exploration of the American criminal justice system, this multidimensional play blurs the lines between hip-hop and dramatic performance. Brathwaite weaves through the autobiographical and the fictional, through music and monologue, to examine his place in what appears to be a cultural rite of passage for Black Americans.

SPIRITRIALS is made possible through the Zellerbach Family Foundation, Columbia Foundation and Ictus, a fiscally sponsored project of Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco. Youth Speaks/The Living Word Project is a NPN Partner for the National Performance Network (NPN). This project is made possible in part by the support from the NPN Creation Fund, NPN Forth Fund and the NPN Performance Residency Program. Major Contributors include the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts (A Federal Principal development support was provided by Painted Bride Arts Center (PA), Ithaca College (NY), Sonoma State University, and the Montalvo Art Center (Saratoga, CA).

Presented by Joan Osato & Kyla Smith of The Shortened Tongue, SPIRITRIALS will be performed on 1-2 May at 19:00. Tickets cost R90 (or R80 if paid in advance) and are available online at The Alexander Bar website. You can also purchase tickets in person at the bar anytime during our regular opening hours or call 021 300 1652 for telephone bookings and enquiries. The Alexander Bar & Café is situated at 76 Strand Street in the Cape Town city centre. To stay in step with all things Alexander Bar, visit the venue's Facebook page or Twitter account.