The Kitchen Presents M. LAMAR: THE DEMON RISING

The Kitchen will present M. Lamar: The Demon Rising, on November 5. M. Lamar's new composition - for male soprano, piano, and projections - is in part inspired by the grand jury testimony of Darren Wilson (the white police officer who murdered unarmed black teenager Michael Brown and is quoted as saying "he looked up at me and had the most intense, aggressive face... it looks like a demon"). The Demon Rising embraces and incarnates white fantasies of blackness as oversized, superhuman, a supernatural menace.

At the same time, it charts the black subject's psychic and mythic odyssey from dehumanizing rituals of death toward a self-made re-membering. M. Lamar sings, "trying to put ourselves back together we're in pieces." From these pieces, Lamar imagines a new subject emerging. The performance features M. Lamar on piano, voice and music; a libretto by M. Lamar and Tucker Culbertson; and art direction and projection by Sabin Michael Calvert.

M. Lamar is a composer and visual artist working across opera, metal, performance, video, sculpture and installation to craft sprawling narratives of radical transformation and becomings. M. Lamar's been praised by outlets including The New York Times, Vice, OUT and Hilton Als of The New Yorker among various others. M. Lamar is a self-described Negrogothic Devil worshipping free black man in the blues tradition. M. Lamar holds a BFA from The San Francisco Art Institute and attended the Yale School of Art's sculpture program, before dropping out to pursue music. Lamar's work has been presented internationally. This fall, M. Lamar is releasing two books. The first is Funeral Doom Spiritual with Rita Books; the second is Negrogothic with Participant Inc Gallery.

M. Lamar: The Demon Rising will take place on Saturday, November 5 at 8pm. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased online at www.thekitchen.org; by phone at 212.255.5793 x11; or in person at The Kitchen (512 West 19th Street), Tuesdays - Saturdays, 2:00 - 6:00 P.M. This event is organized by Matthew Lyons and Ikechukwu Onyewuenyi.

Funding Credits

M. Lamar: The Demon Rising is organized in conjunction with the exhibition Sondra Perry: Resident Evil and is made possible with endowment support from Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, annual grants from The Amphion Foundation, Inc., The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Howard Gilman Foundation, and The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation; and in part by public funds from New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

About The Kitchen

The Kitchen is one of New York City's most forward-looking nonprofit spaces, showing innovative work by emerging and established artists across disciplines. Our programs range from dance, music, performance, and theater to video, film, and art, in addition to literary events, artists' talks, and lecture series. Since its inception in 1971, The Kitchen has been a powerful force in shaping the cultural landscape of this country, and has helped launch the careers of many artists who have gone on to worldwide prominence.