On Thursday evening, Harlem Stage is sponsoring a public panel discussion in the new theater on the role of the arts in Harlem. The choreographer Bill T. Jones; the pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, the Rev. Calvin Butts III; and the architect Max Bond will engage in a conversation moderated by Leonard Lopate.
Harlem Stage, formerly known as Aaron Davis Hall, has been presenting theater, dance, music, and literary events for more than 25 years, but this is the first time the organization will have a home of its own. (Its previous location was in Aaron Davis Hall, a City College facility just across the street from the Gatehouse.) Ms. Cruz, formerly an actress and then a deputy director of the Studio Museum in Harlem, took the reins at Aaron Davis Hall in 1998. The renovation of the building, a grand Romanesque Revival construction from 1891, took three years and cost around $21 million, $18 million of which was provided by the city. The other $3 million came from private donors.
The schedule for the first fall season at the Gatehouse includes four new commissions: Roger Guenveur Smith’s “Who Killed Bob Marley?,” an experimental work of theater and film with site-appropriate themes of water and drowning; Sekou Sundiata’s “Days of Art and Ideas”; a piece of chamber music by the composer Tania León, and a new work by Mr. Jones.
The four artists in this fall’s series have all been in artistic residency at the company for two years, doing workshops and talkbacks with audiences about their process.
Excerpts from “Invigorating Culture in Harlem” [NY Sun]
Related: Observer
Posted on September 19, 2006 by D. Bell