Harlem Stage Reveals Lineup For 2024 Season

Harlem Stage begins 2024 with an array of programming that continues the indispensable institution’s 40th anniversary season. Featuring celebrated artists who have premiered career-breakthrough work at Harlem Stage and emerging artists of color they admire, the Winter-Spring lineup, like the Fall 2023 programming that kicked off the season, finds Harlem Stage looking back and creating forward simultaneously.

Harlem Stage today announces details of the first 2024 events in its Uptown Nights music series. First up, on January 26, is a double bill featuring Kimberly Nichole, of The Voice fame, and rising star in music, fashion, and LGBTQ+ activism Ian Isiah. An Uptown Nights event produced in collaboration with Sugar Hill Salon and Concert Artists Guild on February 23 will feature musicians from both organizations, including Alexander Davis (bassoon), Adam W. Sadberry (flute), David Valbuena (clarinet), and Fei-Fei (piano). They will perform works by living composers of color including Tania León (recipient of Harlem Stage’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023), Allison Loggins, Beata Moon, Mauricio Murcia, Mary Watkins, and Xiaogang Ye. Additionally, Harlem Stage recently announced a new collaboration with National Sawdust, Uptown Nights: Convent to Wythe, featuring an in-process solo by violinist, vocalist, poet, and interdisciplinary performance artist yuniya edi kwon and a world premiere performance by SUN HAN GUILD, led by kwon, February 16 at Harlem Stage; and composer, vocalist, and sound artist Bora Yoon in performance with R. Luke DuBois, March 9 at National Sawdust.

Harlem Stage today also announces an initial list of honorees for this year’s gala, scheduled for June 3: Camille A. Brown (Transformative Artist Award); BET and Jeanine Liburd, its Chief Social Impact and Communications Officer (The Philanthropy Award); longtime Harlem Stage Board member, writer, publisher and producer Jenette Kahn (the inaugural Patricia Cruz Medallion Award); and the organization’s own Artistic Director and CEO, Patricia Cruz.

These new programs expand a star-studded schedule of previously announced Winter-Spring performances. A centerpiece of the 40th anniversary season is the 25th anniversary edition of Harlem Stage’s signature dance series, E-Moves, featuring artists who have been crucial to the institution’s legacy and emerging dance artists selected by them. Urban Bush Women, in the midst of their own 40th anniversary, perform a site-specific and interactive ensemble dance-theater work entitled Haint Blu (January 11-13). Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, which has collaborated with Harlem Stage on various projects dating back to the 1980s, returns to present a dynamic program of works, including an intervention, revisiting and reflecting on Degga (1995)—a performance that was created through a legendary collaboration between Jones, Max Roach, and Toni Morrison—as well as a piece from emerging artist Roderick George (April 19 & 20). nora chipaumire—whose revolutionary dance performance has enlivened Harlem Stage on numerous occasions—presents an immersive performance installation that turns into a dance party, ShebeenDUB, featuring designs from celebrated artists Ari Marcopoulos and Kara Walker, and constructed by Matt Jackson Studio (May 17 & 18). Camille A. Brown, who has a long history of performing at Harlem Stage, returns to curate works on the theme of BLACK JOY (June 14 & 15) by associate choreographers in her theater and commercial work who are pursuing their own careers in the field: Chloe Davis, Juel D. Lane, Mayte Natalio, Rickey Tripp, and Maleek Washington. Brown will also present an excerpt of a new work featuring her “tour de force” (The New York Times) company, Camille A. Brown & Dancers.

Harlem Stage this season premieres several works created through the institution’s WaterWorks commissioning program. Performing and recording artist Tamar-kali presents a new work-in-progress opera, The Swann, featuring a libretto by Harlem Stage Associate Artistic Director and Curator-in-Residence Carl Hancock Rux, based on the first known drag queen, a formerly enslaved person named William Dorsey Swann (May 3 & 4). Renowned trumpeter and composer Ambrose Akinmusire and his music project banyan seed explore the influence of jazz elders as they impart their wisdom to younger musicians (March 29 & 30).

Two programs pay homage to iconic American composers and pianists. Vijay Iyer leads a stellar ensemble including drummer Nasheet Waits, trumpet player Milena Casado, saxophonist Mark Shim, and others in a celebration of the music of mentor and trailblazer Andrew Hill (March 1 & 2). Pianist, composer, and artist Jason Moran and legendary jazz pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, along with fellow virtuosi of the instrument Bertha Hope and Joanne Brackeen, and rising pianist Micah Thomas, will pay tribute to Duke Ellington on the 125th anniversary of his birth in an evening of solo piano in the round (April 26). On April 27, Matthew Whitaker (recipient of Harlem Stage’s Emerging Artist Award in 2018) joins Moran, Ibrahim, Hope, and Brackeen for a benefit concert for Harlem Stage followed by a post-performance discussion between Moran and Ibrahim about Ellington’s significance as well as a cocktail party.

Another Harlem Stage 40th Anniversary Season highlight is the return of Tony Award-winning playwright, composer, and performer Stew, with the premiere of a new work, HIGH SUBSTITUTE FOR THE DREAD LECTURER: Baraka Jones in Dub, which explores the life of Amiri Baraka (March 22 & 23).

The 40th anniversary season, underway since September 2023, has already presented a robust schedule of remarkable artists and works. José James kicked off the season with a performance in Bryant Park, and the inaugural Uptown Nights: Latin Music Series featured artists and music from the Latin diaspora, including pianist, composer, and educator Pablo Mayor, performing with his Folklore Urbano Orchestra; Cuban-born MacArthur Fellow and GRAMMY Award-winning drummer, composer, and bandleader Dafnis Prieto, with Luciana Souza; powerhouse all-women Mariachi band Flor de Toloache; and Afro-Dominican bandleader and guitarist Yasser Tejeda. The legendary Craig Harris came back to Harlem Stage to premiere a new work, TONGUES OF FIRE; george emilio sanchez performed his solo piece In the Court of the Conqueror, a collaboration with visual artist Patty Ortiz; and the 2023 WaterWorks Emerging Artists cohort—Shantelle Courvoisier Jackson, Hannah Lemmons, Bobby Morgan, Mary Prescott, and Kalí Rodríguez-Peña—showcased their remarkable talents. Ronald K. Brown, presenting works featuring his company, EVIDENCE, a Dance Company and emerging choreographer Joya Powell, kicked off the 25th anniversary E-Moves series.

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