A season-long firehouse of arts and activism
Combining art and activism has been JACK's mission from its very inception, and this season we feel more strongly than ever about relevance of this approach. Throughout the season, we will be presenting FORWARD FERGUSON – a series dedicated to furthering the conversation around racial justice in America, featuring dance, music, theater and performance art. The highlights include a discussion on community-police relationships; work by Social Health Performance Club; the dance collective Wildcat!; a Freedom Songs Festival; readings of Black-authored anti-lynching plays of the early 1900s, performances by our resident youth theater company Truthworker, and a partnership with the activist group Equality for Flatbush.
Brooklyn Gypsies
Conversation: How to Make it in Black America, Pt. 1
July 2 - 12
Wednesday - Saturday at 8 pm
Sunday at 7 pm
Tickets: $20, available for advance purchase here.
Conversation: How to Make it in Black America, Pt. 1
July 2 - 12
Wednesday - Saturday at 8 pm
Sunday at 7 pm
Tickets: $20, available for advance purchase here.
PAST EVENTS
Colloquy Collective presents:
STRANGE FRUIT
Readings of Black-Authored Anti-Lynching Plays from the early 1900s
Sundays: Feb. 8 March 8 April 19 May 17 June 7
TIME: 7 pm, with discussion following
Suggested donation: $5 - $10
In the early 1900s, many Black playwrights wrote works about lynching -- usually family-centered dramas focused on the tensions leading up to a lynching, or the effect on the family after a lynching. Given the renewed, legalized violence on black and brown bodies, JACK, in collaboration with director Courtney Harge of Colloquy Collective, will present readings of five of these plays throughout the spring, with professional actors. Each reading will be followed by a discussion. More info here.
STRANGE FRUIT
Readings of Black-Authored Anti-Lynching Plays from the early 1900s
Sundays: Feb. 8 March 8 April 19 May 17 June 7
TIME: 7 pm, with discussion following
Suggested donation: $5 - $10
In the early 1900s, many Black playwrights wrote works about lynching -- usually family-centered dramas focused on the tensions leading up to a lynching, or the effect on the family after a lynching. Given the renewed, legalized violence on black and brown bodies, JACK, in collaboration with director Courtney Harge of Colloquy Collective, will present readings of five of these plays throughout the spring, with professional actors. Each reading will be followed by a discussion. More info here.
AKAI GURLEY BENEFIT READING --
moved to SPECTRUM in Bushwick
Sunday, Feb. 15, 7 - 11 pm
$5-$25 suggested donation. No one turned away.
Students and faculty in The Pratt Institute MFA in Writing program, along with Ty Blizzy Black (Akai Gurley organizer), host a benefit reading on behalf of his surviving family and to raise awareness around their struggle, featuring readings by Pamela Sneed, Sarah Gambito, Mahogany L. Browne and more. More info here.
moved to SPECTRUM in Bushwick
Sunday, Feb. 15, 7 - 11 pm
$5-$25 suggested donation. No one turned away.
Students and faculty in The Pratt Institute MFA in Writing program, along with Ty Blizzy Black (Akai Gurley organizer), host a benefit reading on behalf of his surviving family and to raise awareness around their struggle, featuring readings by Pamela Sneed, Sarah Gambito, Mahogany L. Browne and more. More info here.
Which side are you on, friend?
A Freedom Songs Festival
Feb. 18 – 22
Featuring The Peace Poets, Justin Hicks, Chaney Sims, Equality for Flatbush and The Illustrious Blacks
TICKETS: varied.
In the wake of continued racial injustice in America, JACK provides a platform for contemporary artists to revisit and reinterpret songs of the Civil Rights era, in an effort to fill our city with activist energy.
Feb. 18 at 8 pm: The Moment: Protest Songs of Right Now, featuring The Peace Poets, JoAnn DeLuna and We are Temporary, among others.
Feb. 19 – 20 at 8 pm: The Odetta Project: waterboy and the mighty world Justin Hicks brings Odetta, the Queen of American Folk Music, back to life through an evening of channeling, covering and re-mixing her great works. Produced by Kaneza Schaal. Tickets: $15 (purchase here).
Feb. 21 at 8 pm: Grammy-nominee Chaney Sims presents an evening filled with performers channeling freedom songs of the civil rights era. Tickets: $15 (purchase here).
Feb. 22 at 3 pm: activists Equality for Flatbush lead a community discussion around gentrification, and how to get involved in the fight for tenants' rights.
Feb. 22, from 6 - 11 pm: The Blowout: An activist dance party led by The Illustrious Blacks. $10 at the door.
Pictured: Chaney Sims
A Freedom Songs Festival
Feb. 18 – 22
Featuring The Peace Poets, Justin Hicks, Chaney Sims, Equality for Flatbush and The Illustrious Blacks
TICKETS: varied.
In the wake of continued racial injustice in America, JACK provides a platform for contemporary artists to revisit and reinterpret songs of the Civil Rights era, in an effort to fill our city with activist energy.
Feb. 18 at 8 pm: The Moment: Protest Songs of Right Now, featuring The Peace Poets, JoAnn DeLuna and We are Temporary, among others.
Feb. 19 – 20 at 8 pm: The Odetta Project: waterboy and the mighty world Justin Hicks brings Odetta, the Queen of American Folk Music, back to life through an evening of channeling, covering and re-mixing her great works. Produced by Kaneza Schaal. Tickets: $15 (purchase here).
Feb. 21 at 8 pm: Grammy-nominee Chaney Sims presents an evening filled with performers channeling freedom songs of the civil rights era. Tickets: $15 (purchase here).
Feb. 22 at 3 pm: activists Equality for Flatbush lead a community discussion around gentrification, and how to get involved in the fight for tenants' rights.
Feb. 22, from 6 - 11 pm: The Blowout: An activist dance party led by The Illustrious Blacks. $10 at the door.
Pictured: Chaney Sims
Fundraiser for EQUALITY FOR FLATBUSH
Wednesday, April 8, 8 pm until late
Ticket info to come
JACK hosts a benefit party for Equality for Flatbush, a new people of color-led grassroots organization which does anti-police repression, affordable housing and anti-gentrification organizing in Flatbush and East Flatbush, Brooklyn. They seek to organize communities for social change and justice through street outreach, social media campaigns, political advocacy and direct action.
Wednesday, April 8, 8 pm until late
Ticket info to come
JACK hosts a benefit party for Equality for Flatbush, a new people of color-led grassroots organization which does anti-police repression, affordable housing and anti-gentrification organizing in Flatbush and East Flatbush, Brooklyn. They seek to organize communities for social change and justice through street outreach, social media campaigns, political advocacy and direct action.
Truthworker Theatre Company:
IN | PRISM: Boxed In & Blacked Out in America
May 7 - 10, 2015
JACK's youth theater company-in-residence, led by Samara Gaev, presents an original work devised through direct conversation with those inside the U.S. prison system, examining the impacts & practices of solitary confinement and tracing one mans remarkable capacity for liberation within the walls of death row. Truthworker has had the unique and humbling opportunity to be working directly with Jarvis Jay Masters, an innocent man on death row, who has been incarcerated since the age of 19 in San Quentin Prison & institutionalized since he was a young boy.
IN | PRISM: Boxed In & Blacked Out in America
May 7 - 10, 2015
JACK's youth theater company-in-residence, led by Samara Gaev, presents an original work devised through direct conversation with those inside the U.S. prison system, examining the impacts & practices of solitary confinement and tracing one mans remarkable capacity for liberation within the walls of death row. Truthworker has had the unique and humbling opportunity to be working directly with Jarvis Jay Masters, an innocent man on death row, who has been incarcerated since the age of 19 in San Quentin Prison & institutionalized since he was a young boy.
Wildcat!
Assembly
June 11 - 14
Wildcat!, a dance collective consisting of interdisciplinary artists Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste, Eleni Zaharopoulos, and André M. Zachery, will hold an assembly presenting two programs: I DO MIND DYING: danse précarité and 3 Meaningful Meditations. These two evening-length performances address social justice issues of racism, gender inequality, and economic oppression through the lens of three artists from unique artistic mediums: dance, physical performance, and sound. Photo by Eleni Zaharopoulos.
Assembly
June 11 - 14
Wildcat!, a dance collective consisting of interdisciplinary artists Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste, Eleni Zaharopoulos, and André M. Zachery, will hold an assembly presenting two programs: I DO MIND DYING: danse précarité and 3 Meaningful Meditations. These two evening-length performances address social justice issues of racism, gender inequality, and economic oppression through the lens of three artists from unique artistic mediums: dance, physical performance, and sound. Photo by Eleni Zaharopoulos.
PAST EVENTS
Social Health Performance Club II:
DARK DICTION
January 16 and 17 at 7:30 pm
Tickets: $15 (advance purchase here)
The Brooklyn-based performance art group Social Health Performance Club brings several performance artists to JACK with works that investigate resistances, regulations, and relationships between public speech, vocabularies of image and symbol, diction, and construction of identity. The two evenings are curated and organized by Ayana Evans, Esther Neff, and Elizabeth Lamb, who will also be performing framing texts and raising questions as emcees throughout the two nights. Info about the line-up for the two nights can be found here. Pictured: Nyugen Smith.
DARK DICTION
January 16 and 17 at 7:30 pm
Tickets: $15 (advance purchase here)
The Brooklyn-based performance art group Social Health Performance Club brings several performance artists to JACK with works that investigate resistances, regulations, and relationships between public speech, vocabularies of image and symbol, diction, and construction of identity. The two evenings are curated and organized by Ayana Evans, Esther Neff, and Elizabeth Lamb, who will also be performing framing texts and raising questions as emcees throughout the two nights. Info about the line-up for the two nights can be found here. Pictured: Nyugen Smith.
Public Discussion:
COMMUNITY-POLICE RELATIONS
Led by Prospect Heights Democrats for Reform
Wed., Jan. 21 at 7:30 pm
Come and talk to your neighbors, and tell us what you think. Let's work together towards a positive resolution to an intolerable situation. More info here.
COMMUNITY-POLICE RELATIONS
Led by Prospect Heights Democrats for Reform
Wed., Jan. 21 at 7:30 pm
Come and talk to your neighbors, and tell us what you think. Let's work together towards a positive resolution to an intolerable situation. More info here.
Photos of Andre Zachery (top) by Rachel Neville