651 ARTS Announces 2022 Season

Liminal Spaces: Homebound

Programs and Initiatives Include:

Performing an Afro Future Panel Discussion

Malik Work’s Solo Performance Verses at Work

Towards a Generative Theater: Works-in-Progress

The Return of The Woodshed Network
Residency Program for Women in Jazz Created and Led by Jazz NEA Master and Music Legend
Dee Dee Bridgewater

The Launch of 651 ARTS’ Home Warming Initiative
as the Institution Prepares the Move into its First-ever Permanent Home in Downtown Brooklyn in Spring, 2023

BROOKLYN, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--651 ARTS, Brooklyn’s premier institution for the African Diasporic performing arts, today announced details for its 2022 season - “Liminal Spaces: Homebound” - to include a mix of feature presentations, performances, and new programming. In addition to its Fall schedule, 651 also unveiled that it will launch the Home Warming Initiative as it prepares the move into the institution’s first-ever rooted space at 10 Lafayette in Downtown Brooklyn in Spring, 2023. Marking a watershed moment in the institution’s history, the new 12,500 sq ft., multipurpose facility at 10 Lafayette will deepen 651’s programming and gather the multiple communities it serves in ways never before possible.

With the recent appointment of its new Executive Director, Toya Lillard and on the threshold of moving into its first permanent home, 651 ARTS’ upcoming season signals a new era for the legacy organization as well as a major step in its continued growth and expansion. Since its inception in 1988, 651 ARTS has navigated both literal and figurative liminal spaces and is now - with the move - homebound. This “Liminal Spaces: Homebound” season offers an opportunity to think, individually and collectively, about “how we will show up in the future that we imagine.”

“For more than 34 years, 651 ARTS has answered the call to create programming that centers and values the performing arts and cultures of the African Diaspora. And until now, the institution has fulfilled its mission to deepen awareness of and appreciation for contemporary arts and culture of the African Diaspora without its own physical space. We wanted this season to reflect and encapsulate both where we have been and where we are landing, especially as we look forward to moving into our new home and celebrating 651’s 35^th Anniversary in 2023,” said Lillard. “The word liminal is rooted in the Latin word limen, meaning ‘threshold.’ In its literal sense, a threshold is a doorway--or border between two places or stages. 651 ARTS has a history rooted in fueling the arts ecosystems within Brooklyn, while also presenting and producing work by emerging, established, and world-renowned artists from all over the United States, and the globe. For Black people world-wide, liminal spaces have historically offered the opportunity to imagine and create more sustainable futures where we may survive and thrive.”

With that concept in mind, 651 ARTS’ Fall programming will include unique collaborations with world class artists and arts leaders. The season will kick off on October 15^th with Performing an Afro Future, at The Center for Fiction. This panel discussion will explore the creative cartography involved in imagining Afro futures. The first performance of the season will occur November 18-20^th at The Center for Fiction with Malik Work’s award-winning Verses at Work, a vibrant performance piece in which the dynamic actor/MC tells his own story of perseverance, love, music, and the struggle to survive as an artist in New York City.

Educational Residencies include Towards a Generative Theater: Works-in-Progress by The Black Seed Cohort at Weeksville Heritage Center on December 2^nd, and the fourth year of The Woodshed Network, a mentorship and career accelerator residency program for emerging self-identifying women artists in Jazz . This legacy project of NEA Jazz Master and music legend Dee Dee Bridgewater, and artistic director and associate director Tulani Bridgewater-Kowalski, will take place in February of 2023. The application and submission process for the program will begin in October.

Launching today, 651 ARTS’ Home Warming Initiative seeks to galvanize support from key stakeholders around the organization’s efforts to transform its new home into Downtown Brooklyn’s premiere hub for Black artistic creation and to set a new stage for Black artistry.

FALL 2022 SEASON HIGHLIGHTS

Performing an Afro Future
Date(s): October 15, 2022
Location: The Center for Fiction - 15 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217

Verses at Work
Date: November 18-20, 2022
Location: The Center for Fiction - 15 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217

RESIDENCIES

Towards a Generative Theater: Works-in-Progress
Date: December 2, 2022
Location: Weeksville Heritage Center - 158 Buffalo Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11213

The Woodshed Network
Date(s): Begins February 27, 2023

About 651 ARTS

Since its founding in 1988, 651 ARTS has become a trusted convener of contemporary African Diasporic artistic expression, a champion and nurturer for emerging artists and their work and a vital cultural resource for its surrounding community. As it moves forward, part of 651 ARTS’ mission is to preserve the legacy of Black culture in Brooklyn, celebrate the eclecticism of Black performance and to pioneer new visions of African Diaspora artists. This year – the transition year – is integral for the institution as it continues to lay the framework that will further help to reinforce 651 ARTS’ role as a leader of African Diasporic culture while also establishing it an incubator for artistic innovation in the 21^st century.

For additional information, please visit: www.651ARTS.org.

651 ARTS’ programs are made possible by gifts from generous individuals and grants from The Bay and Paul Foundations, The Baisley Powell Elebash Fund, The Black Seed Fund, Con Edison, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, Harkness Foundation for Dance, Howard Gilman Foundation, Lambent Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, The New York Community Trust Mosaic Network & Fund, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Wallace Foundation, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, including Majority Leader Keith Powers, the Office of the Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.