Carrie Mae Weems to Helm GRACE NOTES: REFLECTIONS FOR NOW at Yale Rep

Yale Repertory Theatre's 2016-17 No Boundaries performance series begins with GRACE NOTES: REFLECTIONS FOR NOW, directed by Carrie Mae Weems, September 9 and 10 at 8PM at the University Theatre (222 York Street).

Acclaimed photographer and video artist Carrie Mae Weems presents a powerful and provocative new work-rooted in poetry and her stunning projections and featuring music, song, and spoken word-that examines themes of social justice, race, and identity in the context of our historical moment. Weems, a 2013 MacArthur Fellow, has spent a lifetime reflecting on these issues and addresses them in her work with a force and clarity unmatched in contemporary art, a fact that burned brightly when she became the first African American woman to have a major career retrospective at the Guggenheim in New York in 2014.

Grace Notes: Reflections for Now-originally conceived as a response to President Obama's singing of "Amazing Grace" during his eulogy for Emanuel AME Church victim Reverend Clementa Pinckney-brings together a cast of extraordinary artists from different disciplines, among them composer/musician Craig Harris, composer James Newton, poet Aja Monet, writer and theatre artist Carl Hancock Rux, dancer Francesca Harper, and singers Alicia Hall Moran, Imani Uzuri, and Eisa Davis. Weems shapes an immersive experience from these elements, with herself at the center and her arresting video and photography as a framework. In a performance that is indelibly linked to this time of civic unrest, its escalating violence, and the bizarre political rise of Trump, Weems asks and explores complicated questions about the meaning of grace and its role in the pursuit of democracy.

Tickets for GRACE NOTES are $50-70 and are available online at yalerep.org, by phone (203) 432-1234, and in person at the Yale Rep Box Office (1120 Chapel Street). Student tickets are $25.

Grace Notes: Reflections for Now is co-sponsored at Yale by the Office of the President; the Andrew Carnduff Ritchie Fund; Yale Center for British Art; Yale University Art Gallery; Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration; Beinecke Rare Books & Manuscript Library; Alumni Diversity and Inclusion Task Force; Department of African American Studies; Department of History of Art; Initiative for Race, Gender, and Globalization; Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale; Office of the Associate Dean for the Arts in Yale College; Office of the Secretary and Vice President for Student Life; Yale Alumni Art League; Yale Black Alumni Association; Yale Chaplain's Office; Yale College Dean's Office; Yale Divinity School; and Yale School of Music.

Running time: 1 hour and 20 minutes, no intermission. For more, visit yalerep.org.

To post a comment, you must register and login.