CAP UCLA Presents Carrie Mae Weems PAST TENSE

UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance (CAP UCLA) presents Past Tense, a production by acclaimed artist Carrie Mae Weems on Friday, March 8 at the Theatre at Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles. Tickets for $29-69 are available now at cap.ucla.edu, theatre.acehotel.com, 310-825-2101 and The Theatre at Ace Hotel box office.

A rule-breaker, one of the foremost photographers of her generation, Carrie Mae Weems is a contemporary artist whose work insists on the worth of black women. In Past Tense, Weems takes a refreshed look at the story of Antigone. A visual compilation and delight, Past Tense, includes a Greek chorus, musicians, a poet, dancer, and screen projections to explore social justice, violence, gender, politics, and personal identity.

"While working on Grace Notes for months it occurred to me that I was telling the story of Antigone, wherein an innocent man dies by unjustified means and his sister fights for the right to bury him honorably. But the wider community refuses her; her right to justice, and to peace, is denied," said Carrie Mae Weems.

The cast includes spoken word artist Carl Hancock Rux whose excerpt from The Exaltedwas part of CAP UCLA's 2012-13 season. The remainder of the cast currently includes Carrie Mae Weems with singers Eisa Davis, Imani Uzuri, Alicia Hall Moran and dancer Vinson Fraley. Music direction will be given by and trombone played by Craig Harris.

Weems, 65, was the first African-American woman to have a retrospective at the Guggenheim. Existing in a cultural mythosphere, it is difficult to separate the artist from the art. Aside from Weems inspired and inspiring photography, she is name-checked in a lyric on the Black Thought album, appears in Spike Lee's new Netflix series "She's Gotta Have It," and is said to have influenced the videos of Beyoncé's Lemonade.

Funds for this performance provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation multi-year grant for Collaborative Intersections in the Visual and Performing Arts.

CAP UCLA's Theater series continues with The White Album by Joan Didion by Lars Jan/Early Morning Opera in association with Center Theatre Group (April 5-7, Freud Playhouse).

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