THE GATHERING: A COLLECTIVE SONIC RING SHOUT to Stream on ALL ARTS

House Seats: The Gathering: A Journey to Grace will premiere tomorrow, Wednesday, June 18, on ALL ARTS in honor of Juneteenth and during Black Music Month. 

Starring Nona Hendryx, the documentary film will launch nationally at 6pm ET on the ALL ARTS website and free streaming app, and air that same evening at 8pm ET on the ALL ARTS broadcast channel in the New York Metro area. The production features original narration by award-winning writer Mahogany L. Browne, the first-ever poet-in-residence at Lincoln Center.

Filmed on location in 2024 at the Kennedy Center, House Seats: The Gathering: A Journey to Grace captures the creation and live performance of The Gathering: A Collective Sonic Ring Shout. The documentary weaves together rehearsal footage, interviews and live performance segments, offering a comprehensive behind-the-curtains view of the original multidisciplinary production, which was created as a call for justice, joy, collective liberation and healing. 

The Gathering brought leading Black artists working across music, poetry and social impact to the stage, including Hendryx, acclaimed composer and performer Toshi Reagon, Grammy-nominated composer Carlos Simon, composer Joel Thompson, whose work serves as the emotional centerpiece of The Gathering – and an 80-member orchestra and 48-member choir. The project was developed by National Black Theatre in partnership with the Apollo Theater, American Composers Orchestra and the Kennedy Center.

Through orchestral, choral, gospel and soul choral music, this one-night-only event was the signature celebration for the Kennedy Center’s Conflux partnership with National Black Theatre (NBT). The Gathering: A Collective Sonic Ring Shout served as a sonic quest produced by National Black Theatre & The Apollo.

Taking place in the Opera House at the Kennedy Center, The Gathering centered the soul of Black folks and the heart of America's brilliant and bitter present. With creative concept and direction by NBT’s Executive Artistic Director, Jonathan McCrory, and featuring 80 members of the American Composers Orchestra, conducted by Chelsea Tipton, II and 48 members of NEWorks Voices of Inspiration chorale under the leadership of Nolan Williams, Jr., the evening also featured the DC premiere of “Seven Last Words of the Unarmed” by Joel Thompson alongside Carlos Simon’s “Amen!” and Courtney Bryan’s “Sanctum.”

In conjunction with these pieces, the night was curated in the African tradition of call and response and included original works by genre-defying Black artists such as Abby Dobson, Toshi Reagon, Troy Anthony, and Nona Hendryx.