Okwui Okpokwasili News

In 1893, social work and public health pioneer Lillian Wald (1867-1940) founded Henry Street Settlement on Manhattan's Lower East Side to serve New York City's most vulnerable people through social service, healthcare, and arts programs. Since that day, Henry Street Settlement has been a crucial force for progressive reform and a leading advocate for social change, serving 60,000 New Yorkers each year. 

In a short film released today by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the foundation's president and CEO, Edward P. Henry, was joined by several previous Doris Duke Artist Award winners in announcing the 2018 recipients of the $275,000 award. The new awardees include Dee Dee Bridgewater, Regina Carter and Stefon Harris for their continuing contributions to jazz; Michelle Dorrance and Okwui Okpokwasili for contemporary dance; and Muriel Miguel and Rosalba Rolon for theater. Each 2018 Doris Duke Artist is receiving $250,000 in flexible funding, along with up to an additional $25,000 to encourage contributions to retirement savings.

Performance Space New York closes out its by-turns pensive, provocative, and radically festive East Village Series with The Independence Day Ball, a Kiki ball from the organization's neighbors at Alliance for Positive Change (June 29).

Performance Space New York's East Village Series, the first themed series under the leadership of Executive Artistic Director Jenny Schlenzka, has reexamined the audacious origins of the organization and the communities that formed around it. In 1986, choreographer Ishmael Houston-Jones, composer/guitarist Chris Cochrane, writer Dennis Cooper, and an ensemble of dancers performed the first full version of THEM, an unblinking interdisciplinary work of scored improvisational dance, spoken text, and guitar, at what was then Performance Space 122.

Performance Space New York continues its East Village Series' examination of the history, assessment of the present, and radical gaze into the future of the neighborhood in which it was founded and has boldly returned this season. Autonomous, anti-capitalist, gender self-determining collective BRUJAS-who build revolutionary political coalition through youth culture, and express community through skateboarding, art, and political organizing-will be in residence at Performance Space New York from May 25-June 9. With their project, Training Facility, they have enlisted industrial designer Jonathan Olivares to transform the organization's new theater into a skate park and intimate meet-up spot. On May 25, as part of Red Bull Music Festival, the collective will throw their third annual Anti-Prom in the space, kicking off their residency with the gender-queering party described by the New York Times as 'an effervescent celebration of people usually sidelined by traditional prom culture.' Or, as BRUJAS co-founder Arianna Gil herself has described it, 'the Met-Gala of the underground.'

Performance Space New York continues its East Village Series' examination of the history, assessment of the present, and radical gaze into the future of the neighborhood in which it was founded and has boldly returned this season. Autonomous, anti-capitalist, gender self-determining collective BRUJAS-who build revolutionary political coalition through youth culture, and express community through skateboarding, art, and political organizing-will be in residence at Performance Space New York from May 25-June 9.

Legendary Downtown New York artist Penny Arcade is now 50 years into a career in which she continues to turn a mirror back on society with highly original and entertaining investigations into the human condition that perhaps best described as cultural criticism you can dance to. She revives her international hit Bitch! Dyke! Faghag! Whore!: The Penny Arcade Sex and Censorship Show, May 11-19 at Performance Space New York, as part of the institution's East Village Series.

Amidst Performance Space New York's exhilarating first series of interdisciplinary works under the new leadership of Executive Artistic Director Jenny Schlenzka, the organization's 2018 gala will celebrate game-changing and iconic figures from the arts sector (April 14).

New York Live Arts presents the world premiere of Bessie Award winner Joanna Kotze's What will we be like when we get there, a new interdisciplinary dance performance with long-time collaborators dancer/choreographer Netta Yerushalmy, visual artist Jonathan Allen, and composer/musician Ryan Seaton. What will we be like when we get there will premiere at New York Live Arts March 28-31, 2018, 7:30 PM. In conjunction with the performance, an exhibition, Knowing that your House is on Fire in the lobby of New York Live Arts, will feature new works by visual artist, Jonathan Allen. Tickets for the performance start at $15 and may be purchased at 212 924 0077 or online at newyorklivearts.

New York Live Arts 2018 Live Ideas Gala, co-chaired by Slobodan Randjelovi? and Jon Stryker and Ruth and Stephen Hendel and hosted by award-winning performer and playwright Anna Deavere Smith, pays tribute to Live Arts' annual Live Ideas Festival. The Gala will take place at Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, New York City on Monday, April 16, starting with a cocktail reception at 6:30pm and followed by the dinner and program at 7:15pm.

 Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) announces the return of Transform, its signature two-week festival occurring each fall and spring. Running May 9-20, 2018, in the YBCA Forum and Theater, the festival convenes leading contemporary artists for a provocative showcase of dance, music, and theater that can only happen at YBCA. Following its highly acclaimed debut in fall 2017, which explored the timely question, "Why citizenship?" the spring 2018 edition is built around the question: "Where is our public imagination?"

Performance Space New York kicks off its East Village Series, contemplating the past, present, and future of the organization and its neighborhood, with Welcome to Lenapehoking (February 17, 4pm, Free), a partnership with the The Lenape Center, and Avant-Garde-Arama, the extravaganza of experimentation that's also the organization's longest-running program (February 18, 6pm, Free). Performance Space New York's Executive Artistic Director Jenny Schlenzka steps into her new curatorial role with these events honoring the neighborhood's original caretakers and the organization's own trailblazing roots, as springboards into an exhilarating new chapter.

REDCAT, CalArts' downtown center for contemporary arts, presents the Los Angeles premiere of Poor People's TV Room, the newest work by Bessie Award-winning choreographer/artist Okwui Okpokwasili, Thursday February 8 to Sunday February 11, 2018.

United States Artists (USA) is pleased to announce its 2018 USA Fellows. This year, 45 artists and collectives across nine creative disciplines will receive unrestricted $ 50,000 cash awards. The Fellowships honor their creative accomplishments and support their ongoing artistic and professional development, however the recipients choose to spend them.

United States Artists (USA) is pleased to announce its 2018 USA Fellows. This year, 45 artists and collectives across nine creative disciplines will receive unrestricted $50,000 cash awards. The Fellowships honor their creative accomplishments and support their ongoing artistic and professional development, however the recipients choose to spend them.

Performance Space 122, the birthplace of contemporary performance as it is known today, returns to its legendary home in the East Village, under the leadership of new Executive Artistic Director Jenny Schlenzka, after nearly six years presenting new works in partnership with venues across New York City. The institution will welcome the public to its newly renovated, column-free facilities at 150 1st Avenue - custom-designed by Deborah Berke Partners for interdisciplinary performance - with its 2018 Coil Festival (January 10 February 4, 2018).

Performance Space New York (formerly Performance Space 122) presents the East Village Series, its first semi-annual themed series, and the first program curated by the institution's new Executive Artistic Director, Jenny Schlenzka. This presentation of works from some of today's most radical performers and multidisciplinary artists resituates the institution in newly revamped spaces, designed by Deborah Berke Partners, in 122 Community Center (150 First Avenue, at East 9th Street), where Performance Space 122 was founded, and where it operated until it moved out in 2011 for the building renovation. The series contemplates the past, present, and future of the organization and its neighborhood.

The Kitchen presents the world premiere of Jim Findlay's Electric Lucifer, an experimental rock opera based on the 1970s concept albums of the late Canadian electronic music pioneer Bruce Haack.

Performance Space 122, the birthplace of contemporary performance as it is known today, returns to its legendary home in the East Village, under the leadership of new Executive Artistic Director Jenny Schlenzka, after nearly six years presenting new works in partnership with venues across New York City. The institution will welcome the public to its newly renovated, column-free facilities at 150 1st Avenue - custom-designed by Deborah Berke Partners for interdisciplinary performance - with its 2018 Coil Festival (January 10 February 4, 2018).

Sundance Institute showcases bold, independent storytelling at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, beginning with today's announcement of feature films selected across all categories. The Festival hosts screenings in Park City, Salt Lake City and at Sundance Mountain Resort, from January 18 28.