Harlem Stage Announces 2022 Spring Season

Harlem Stage, the legendary uptown performing arts venue led by Patricia Cruz (artistic director and CEO), announced its new spring 2022 season of live performance (music, theater, dance) and digital programming, curated with multidisciplinary artist Carl Hancock Rux, who recently joined the organization as associate artistic director/curator-in-residence.

Described by Cruz and Rux as a "global diaspora of transformative, risk-taking artists of color who have created community and connection through innovative and healing works," the spring 2022 season, beginning Saturday, January 29 at the intimate and iconic Harlem Stage Gatehouse - subject to change as coronavirus pandemic conditions and guidelines evolve - will feature:

Alto saxophonist and composer Immanuel Wilkins and the album release show for his latest recording, The 7th Hand on Blue Note Records (Saturday, Jan. 29 at 7:30 PM)

Harlem Stage premiere of world-renowned Cuban percussionist, vocalist and Grammy/Latin Grammy nominee, Pedrito Martinez, and his new work, Rumba Con Fundamento, presented in partnership with the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (Friday, Feb. 11 at 7:30 PM & Saturday, Feb. 12 at 7:30 PM)

Grammy nominee Carla Cook and her jazz quartet (Saturday, Mar. 12 at 7:30 PM)

Singer/songwriter/rapper Maimouna Youssef aka Mumu Fresh, presented in partnership with the Carnegie Hall Citywide program (Saturday, Mar. 19 at 7:30 PM)

Co-presentation with Repertorio Español of the theatrical play, En El Tiempo de las Mariposas / In the Time of the Butterflies, a fictionalized account of the courageous Mirabal sisters, during the time of the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic, based on Julia Álvarez's popular novel of the same name. Performed in Spanish with English supertitles. (Wednesday, Mar. 23 at 1 PM matinee & 7:30 PM evening)

E-Moves, Harlem Stage's signature dance series - presented for more than 20 years, showcasing emerging, evolving, and established dancers and choreographers of color - will feature works by Dormeshia, Leslie Cuyjet, Sydnie L. Mosley, Vinson Fraley, and Du'Bois A'Keen in a five-night performance run, developed with special residency support from the new NYC cultural center, Chelsea Factory (Friday-Saturday, Apr. 15-16 at 7:30 PM and Thursday-Saturday, Apr. 21-23, at 7:30 PM)

Queen Esther, singer/songwriter & jazz vocalist who cultivates a sound she describes as "Black Americana," her own soulful-infused reworking of country and folk music (Saturday, Apr. 30 at 7:30 PM)

Harlem Stage premiere of six-time Grammy-nominated pianist and composer Gerald Clayton and his multidisciplinary project, Piedmont Blues: A Search for Salvation, featuring vocalist René Marie and Clayton's nine-piece jazz ensemble, The Assembly, and direction by Christopher McElroen, Classical Theatre of Harlem's co-founder (Thursday, May 19 at 7:30 PM & Friday, May 20 at 7:30 PM)

2022 GALA: A Drop of Midnight - The Harlem Stage spring 2022 season will culminate with its annual gala (Monday, June 6 at 7 PM) and also marks the opening night performance and US premiere of A Drop of Midnight by the chart-topping, global hip-hop artist and bestselling author Jason 'Timbuktu' Diakité. The gala evening at the Harlem Stage Gatehouse is co-chaired by award-winning actors and Harlem Stage board members Claire Danes and Hugh Dancy.

Commissioned through Harlem Stage's WaterWorks program, A Drop of Midnight is a compelling solo theatrical performance starring Diakité, with live musical accompaniment by the six-piece Rakiem Walker Project (house band at Red Rooster Harlem) and Swedish composer/musician Erik Hjärpe. Jonathan McCrory (Obie Award-winning, Harlem-based artist and artistic director of National Black Theatre) is director and dramaturg. Adapted from Diakité's 2016 bestselling memoir of the same name, A Drop of Midnight follows the hip-hop artist, born to interracial American parents in Sweden, and his story of growing up in the frail cultural and racial divide. Diakité takes audiences on a journey through his ancestors' origins as enslaved people in the antebellum South, his parents' struggles as an interracial couple, and his connection to hip-hop that helped him build a strong Black identity in Sweden.

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