Harlem Stage Announces Spring 2019 Performing Arts Season

Harlem Stage, the legendary uptown venue that for over 35 years has promoted the creative legacy of Harlem and artists of color from around the corner and across the globe, is proud to present its Spring 2019 season of performances. The season marks the 20th anniversary of Harlem Stage's signature dance program E-Moves, which for two decades has nurtured and presented choreographers of color across the spectrum of contemporary dance idioms to create new work.The season also features collaborations with exciting new partners including the Prototype Festival and the French Institute Alliance Francaise (FIAF), and continued relationships with venerable arts institutions such as Repertorio Español, Carnegie Hall, Manhattan School of Music, and Chamber Music America.

The 2019 spring season is curated by Monique Martin, Director of Programming for Harlem Stage and features artists who #Disrupt and take creative risk. The performances feature a range of artistic genres, offering audiences the chance to experience legendary performers, as well as rising stars. Performances reflect Harlem Stage's dedication to presenting visionary work that addresses the inequity in our society, and places justice and cooperation above control, isolation and domination.

The season begins with a newly launched conversation series, Dive Deeper,which features discussions with artists, thinkers and true #Disrupters who are blazing their own paths across many genres.Conversations include examinations of:the cradle to prison pipeline and analysis of the collective trauma of being Black in America with members of the creative team of the opera Stinney: An American Execution; how to thrive in multiple artistic spaces as artists, creators and producers with multi award-winning theater, film and movie artists LaChanze, Tamara Tunieand Ron Simons; and how to fluidly move theater through different spaces featuring three of the brightest theater makers of today, Liza Jessie Peterson, Nsangou Njikam and Will Power.

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MUSICAL HIGHLIGHTS:
Celebrate Valentine's Day with Mo Beasley's UrbanErotika, a live neo-burlesque variety show that celebrates erotic love through poetry, spoken word, music, dance, and multimedia arts. "The house that Lust built, and Love saved from damnation..." will feature works that range from the soft and sensual to the bold and audacious; reflecting the full spectrum of romantic and sensual love in a healthy journey of fantasy and desire. Artists include: Regie Cabico, The SoulFolk Experience, Nemiss ChiYork, Peter 'Rainmaker' Seaton, Shannon Lower, Zyra Lee Vanity, Shye Poet anddelicious surprises.

Pianist, composer and professor Guthrie Ramsey brings his book, ' Soundproof: Black Music, Magic and Racial Intimacies', alive with an ensemble of musicians and poets that revisit music from the past through current styles like gospel, jazz, soul and hip-hop. This multi-media concert explores how enslaved African Americans used music as proof of their humanity and as a melting pot in which diverse African cultural groups became an African American people.

As part of Carnegie Hall's Migrations: The Making of America festival, Harlem Stage and the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute present a two-part series of music and conversation celebrating the Caribbean immigrants who traveled across land and sea and arrived in El Barrio, aka Spanish Harlem, seeking a bright future. Spoken word, hip-hop, DJ and Afro-Latin jazz will be the vehicles that transport us to sunny beaches, sofrito, five floor walk-ups and sun kissed dreams of belonging.Circa '95, Patty Dukes and Reph,rhyme seamlessly through English and Spanish, showcasing music and stories inspired by their families' migration to New York City during the golden era of hip-hop. The Curtis Brothers explore West Africa's influence on American music from Latin America by mapping rhythms that evolved from the African slave trade: from samba, hip-hop, R&B, gospel, to blues, jazz and rock music.

Grammy-nominated and Edison award winning trumpeter Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah's Stretch Music Residencyis in its third and final year at Harlem Stage and this season the venue and will present the 3rdannual Stretch Music Festival, a FREE Stretch Music Intensive, along with a FREE pop-up jazz performance at the famed Silvana's restaurant in Harlem and a conversation with and performance from composer and trombonist Steve Turre.

To close out the season,the 2ndannual Pride program givesvoice to the unique experiences of Southern Black Gay Men.E. Patrick Johnson will discuss his collection of oral histories for his book, Sweet Tea, and how he adapted the book to a stage play and then to a documentary film. Following the conversation, he will perform an excerpt from the collected oral histories and from the forthcoming documentary film, Making Sweet Tea. Tavia Nyong'o will moderate the discussion, while the Illustrious Blacks aka ManchildBlackand Monstah Blackbring their ethereal vocals, celestial sonics and earthly musical messages from the cosmos in a gravity defying performance and DJ set.

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DANCE HIGHLIGHTS:
In May, join Harlem Stage to celebrate 20 years of their signature dance series E-Moves with 6 unforgettable nights of dance. In this edition, the cogent power of Hip-Hop dance is uplifted to transport the crowd and push the boundaries of movement. Born out of social dance in urban community park cyphers, basement ballrooms and now seen across the globe on esteemed stages and concert halls Hip-Hop dance is a prayer and a roar. Two commissioned choreographers FLUXX and Omari Mizrahi/Les Ballet Afrikwill present new works. E-Moves choreographers also include It's Showtime NYC,Joseph Webb and Barédu Ahmed aka Long Arms (L.A.)and pop-up performances curated by Adesola Osakalumi, including works from Sun Kim, Cein Lockefeller, Soraya Lundy and TweetBoogie.

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FREE EVENTS:
For the young or the young at heart, Harlem Stage presents aspecial afternoon of performances presented as part of the Tilt Kids Festival 2019.The Tilt Kids Festival is produced by the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in New York. The event features a joyful music celebration of AJOYO led by French-Tunisian musician Yacine Boularèswith Sarah E. Charles, along with an engaging instrument making workshop.

From Repertorio Español comes "El Coronel no tiene quien le escriba/No one writes to the Colonel," based on the famed novel by Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez.The story covers a few months in the life of a colonel whose pension, delayed 15 years by an overwhelming bureaucracy, becomes an obsession. The protagonist and his wife live in anticipation of his pay, but every Friday the only apparent contact with the outside world comes and goes with the same declaration from the postmaster, "Nothing for the colonel. No one writes to the colonel." The show is performed in Spanish with English super titles.

Celebrate the 7thAnnual National Chamber Music Month with Chamber Music America, featuring the music of jazz drummer and bandleader, Kendrick Scott, who will be joined by his ensemble, Oracle. The program will also include new contemporary works performed by the dynamic classical ensemble, the Attacca Quartet. Whether you're an avid classical music listener, jazz fan, or an adventurous concert-goer, this program will have something for you.

"This season we are conversing, collaborating, and of course singing and dancing. We are thrilled to be working with a growing list of programming partners, who enable us to bring new audiences to Harlem Stage and align ourselves with organizations and artists who share our values. We welcome you to join in this communion of art that informs, inspires and ultimately transforms," said Patricia Cruz, Executive Director of Harlem Stage.

Monique Martin, Director of Programming,said "As we wade through these precarious times of polarizing speech, mass shootings and mass incarceration we need our #Disrupters now more than ever. The trifecta of art, culture and activism provides us with tools that can guide us to a deeper understanding of the past, present and forecast the future. Harlem Stage continues to entrust artists to co-create with us, a fertile sanctuary space of mutual respect and understanding. We are honored to create generative spaces for our community to see and be with each other. All are welcome!"

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TICKETING INFORMATION

Box Office Location: Harlem Stage Gatehouse (150 Convent Avenue at West 135th Street, Manhattan).
Box Office Hours: Regular box office hours are 10AM-3PM Monday through Friday, except on performance days when the box office remains open until one hour after the start of the performance.
By Phone: 212.281.9240 ext. 19
Online: www.HarlemStage.org

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ABOUT Harlem Stage

Harlem Stage is the performing arts center that bridges Harlem's cultural legacy to contemporary artists of color and dares to provide the artistic freedom that gives birth to new ideas.For over 35 years Harlem Stage has been one of the nation's leading arts organizations, achieving this distinction through its work with artists of color and by facilitating a productive engagement with the communities it serves through the performing arts. With a long-standing tradition of supporting artists and organizations around the corner and across the globe, Harlem Stage boasts such legendary artists as Harry Belafonte, Max Roach, Sekou Sundiata, Abbey Lincoln, Sonia Sanchez, Eddie Palmieri, Maya Angelou and Tito Puente, as well as contemporary artists like Bill T. Jones, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, Tamar-kali, Vijay Iyer, Mike Ladd, Stew, Meshell Ndegeocello, Jason Moran, José James, Nona Hendryx and more. Its education program each year provides over 1,000 New York City children with introduction and access to the rich diversity, excitement and inspiration of the performing arts. In 2006, Harlem Stage opened the landmarked, award-winning Harlem Stage Gatehouse. This once abandoned space, originally a pivotal source for distributing fresh water to New York City, is now a vital source of creativity, ideas and culture. Harlem Stage is a winner of the William Dawson Award for Programming Excellence and Sustained Achievement in Programming (Association of Performing Arts Presenters).

For more information on Harlem Stage, visit: www. harlemstage.org