live performance

A DAYLONG CELEBRATION—BEFORE YESTERDAY WE COULD FLY: AN AFROFUTURIST PERIOD ROOM

Before Yesterday We Could Fly is the Met’s latest period room (photo © the Metropolitan Museum of Art)

A DAYLONG CELEBRATION
Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Ave. at 82nd St.
Sunday, March 13, free with museum admission, 11:00 am – 4:00 pm
212-535-7710
www.metmuseum.org

In November, the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened a new period room, the spectacular Afrofuturist Before Yesterday We Could Fly, an homage to the nineteenth-century Seneca Village, a thriving African American community, including Black landowners, that was taken away by the city in order to build Central Park. Named after Virginia Hamilton’s 1985 children’s book, The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales, the installation features more than six dozen objects, including bowls, vases, cups, plates, chairs, jars, boxes, paintings, sculpture, and more by such artists as Robert Lugo, Zizipho Poswa, Atang Tshikare, Elizabeth Catlett, William Henry Johnson, Magdalene Odundo, and Njideka Akunyili Crosby. The room is instilled with a spiritual energy that is intoxicating, melding past and present with the future.

“I think for a lot of us, when we were kids, our ability to envision a future that was different than some of the things that we didn’t like that we were seeing around us was to escape into a fantasy and envision a future that’s more akin to a superhero comic book than it is to actual reality — and I think that comes through in my work and a lot of the people that express visions in an Afrofuture,” Swiss industrial designer and artist Ini Archibong says in a Met video; Archibong contributed two Atlas Chairs, an Orion Table, and the Vernus 3 chandelier to the room.

“The Black imagination and manifestation of freedom is really what I was aiming at. And my feeling that roots, magic is really at the center of our strength and identity, and is something that has always helped direct us into the future and given us strength in the present,” Haitian-born, Brooklyn-based conceptual artist Fabiola Jean-Louis says in another Met video; her ornately designed Justice of Ezili corset dress, a tribute to Vodou loa (spirit) Ezili Dantor, is a highlight of the room.

Also be on the lookout for Henry Taylor’s Andrea Motley Crabtree, the first, a portrait of the first woman and Black woman army deep-sea diver; Willie Cole’s Shine, a mask made of high-heeled leather shoes equating soles and souls; Tourmaline’s photographic self-portraits Summer Azure and Morning Cloak; Njideka Akunyili Crosby’s Thriving and Potential, Displaced (Again and Again and…), wallpaper that merges a Seneca Village map with images from the African diaspora; Andile Dyalvane’s Umwonyo, a pot that collapsed when he danced in his studio; Roberto Lugo’s Digable Underground, a porcelain sculpture with images of Harriet Tubman and Erykah Badu, in a place of honor on a glass plinth within an open brick tower; and Jenn Nkiru’s Out/Side of Time, a mysterious photo made specifically for the period room.

On March 13, the Met will host an all-day celebration of the installation, running from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm, consisting of art workshops in which participants can make tech-y accessories and social justice pottery; gallery chats with curators and researchers Sarah Lawrence, Ian Alteveer, and Ana Matisse Donefer-Hickie; the panel discussion “In the Parlor” with Rena Anakwe, Dyalvane, Jean-Louis, and Tourmaline; storytelling; and more. All events are free with museum admission; some require advance registration.

SOCIAL ALCHEMIX (LIVE!)

Social Alchemix (Live!) is back for monthly Monday night festivities (photo by Karen May)

Who: Social Alchemix (Live!)
What: Cocktail party social experiment
Where: the Studio @ Threes Franklin, Threes Brewing Greenpoint, 113 Franklin St., Brooklyn, and Caveat NYC, 21 A Clinton St., Manhattan
When: Monthly Monday nights: March 14 and April 18, the Studio @ Threes Franklin, $18-$49, 6:30; May 16, Caveat NYC, $18, 7:00
Why: After being locked inside for much of the last two years, we are all ready to break out and party with friends, relatives, colleagues, and strangers (in safe spaces). During the pandemic, Social Alchemix held events over Zoom, an interactive game night featuring storytelling, an original card deck, and specialty drinks conceived, designed, and hosted by cocktail guru Wil Petre. The participatory event, held monthly on Monday nights, encourages everyone to come together in the spirit of fun and camaraderie. The cards features such prompts as “What rules are meant to be broken?” and “How would you like to be remembered?”

Social Alchemix (Live!) is now back in person; the March 14 and April 18 gatherings take place at the Studio @ Threes Franklin in Brooklyn, while the May 16 edition moves to Caveat NYC in Manhattan. “This game and show certainly had weight prepandemic,” Petre said in a statement. “Feelings of isolation due to this hyperconnected hustle-culture — the past two years only seemed to underline these issues. As a country we’re as divided as ever, and after months of lockdown, we’re incredibly rusty when meeting new people. If ever there was a need for an evening of permission, not only to share our stories but to deeply listen, listen longer than we are used to, that time is now.” General admission is $18; for $49, you get to take home your own copy of the game. And be prepared to hang out for the afterparty.

LET THERE BE THEATRE — A CALL TO ACTION: WHITE RABBIT RED RABBIT

Who: Et Alia Theater
What: One-night-only performance of White Rabbit Red Rabbit
Where: Theater for the New City, Johnson Theater, 155 First Ave. between Ninth & Tenth Sts.
When: Sunday, March 13, $10-$18, 8:00
Why: On Friday, March 13, 2020, theaters across New York City were shuttered because of Covid-19. On March 13, 2022, at 8:00, to mark the two-year anniversary and to celebrate the reopening of venues around the globe, international companies will be performing Berlin-based Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour’s 2011 autobiographical hit White Rabbit Red Rabbit as part of Let There Be Theatre — A Call to Action. The event is organized by Berlin-based Aurora Nova founder Wolfgang Hoffmann, who explains: “Ten years ago, almost to the day, I performed in a show at the Fadjr Festival in Tehran. At the festival hotel I was introduced to a young unpublished playwright who did not have a passport because he had refused to do military service. In order to get his work in front of an audience, he had devised a play that had to be performed as a cold read, without the need of a director, set, or rehearsals. All it needed was for a brave performer to agree to read a text in front of a live audience, without first knowing what the play was about. I liked this young man and loved his idea and spontaneously agreed to help produce his show at the Edinburgh Fringe later that year. When I finally saw the show performed live, I realised what this playwright had achieved. Through the power of his words alone he had written himself to freedom.”

Here in New York, Et Alia Theater, a company founded and led by international women, will be staging White Rabbit Red Rabbit at Theater for the New City, performed by co-artistic director Maria Müller (On How to Be a Monster, Where Are You from Again?). During the pandemic, Et Alia made the indie film This Is Me Eating___, then performed it live at the Alchemical Studios for one day last October. Tickets are only $10–$18 to see the sixty-to-ninety-minute show, which is always just as surprising for the actor as it is for the audience. I saw Obie winner Linda Emond in Soleimanpour’s autobiographical Nassim in 2018, which also involved no rehearsals and no prior access to the script, and it was a joy from start to finish. Among those who have previously performed White Rabbit Red Rabbit are John Hurt, Whoopi Goldberg, Nathan Lane, Stephen Rea, Sinead Cusack, Dominic West, Wayne Brady, Darren Criss, Kathy Najimy, Cynthia Nixon, Bobby Cannavale, Michael Urie, and Ken Loach.

Et Alia Theater will perform White Rabbit Red Rabbit on March 13 at Theater for the New City

“It is a one-time experience because the performer will have its opening and closing night of this play at the same time,” Hoffmann continues. “At 8 pm in every time zone there will be a multitude of shows starting at the same time for twenty-four hours, thus creating a massive theatrical community. On March 13 hundreds of courageous performers will face the same daring task to read a text they have not seen before to a live audience and everybody will be present at the same moment. The thought of all of us together, making theater once again — gives me boundless hope and energy.” Yes indeed, it’s great to be back.

SERGEY ANTONOV, CELLO, AND NARGIZ ALIYAROVA, PIANO, AT CARNEGIE HALL

Pianist Nargiz Aliyarova and cellist Sergey Antonov will perform an all-Chopin concert at Carnegie Hall on March 15

Who: Nargiz Aliyarova, Sergey Antonov
What: Benefit concert of Chopin music
Where: Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall, 881 Seventh Ave. at West 57th St.
When: Tuesday, March 15, $30-$60, 8:00
Why: “I am so excited,” New York–based Azerbaijani pianist Nargiz Aliyarova told me recently about making her Carnegie Hall debut. “Any musician in the world would be happy to be on this stage!” Aliyarova, who is also a professor with a doctorate in art, will be joined by US-based cellist Sergey Antonov in a special all-Chopin program at Weill Recital Hall on March 15. The concert is being presented by the National Music & Global Culture Society, a nonprofit organization founded by Aliyarova “to unite our multicultural community through the advocacy of music from around the world,” focusing on providing lessons to disadvantaged youth, hosting contests and festivals, and publishing a quarterly online magazine.

Aliyarova, who began giving recitals at the age of nine and was awarded a diploma “for outstanding contribution to the legacy of Frédéric Chopin” by the Polish government in 2010, has released three albums of works by Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, and Chopin in addition to two CDs of Azerbaijani music, including compositions by Jovdet Hajiyev, Gara Garayev, Franghiz Alizadeh, Vagif Mustafazadeh, and Javanshit Guliyev. The Russian-born, Grammy-nominated Antonov, a gold medal winner at the XIII International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 2007, began playing the cello when he was five; he has released Elegy with pianist Ilya Kazantsev, Strauss & Rachmaninov: Sonatas for Cello & Piano, and an album of music by Robert Schumann. He is also a member of the Hermitage Piano Trio with Kazantsev and violinist Misha Keylin.

The Carnegie Hall program features an exciting mix of works by Chopin, the Polish Romantic composer and pianist who passed away in 1849 at the age of thirty-nine. Aliyarova and Antonov will be performing Polonaise Brillante for cello and piano Op. 3, Sonata for cello and piano Op. 65, Nocturne Op. post in C sharp Minor, Waltz Op. 34 N.2 in A minor, Waltz Op. 64 N.2 in C sharp Minor, Ballade in F minor, Op. 52, and the world premiere of Chopin and August Franchomme’s Grand Duo concertant in E major, B. 70, arranged for cello and piano by Lala Jafarova. Antonov and Aliyarova previously played together at the International Mugham Center in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku in September 2021, performing works by Chopin and Claude Debussy. The Carnegie Hall concert by these internationally renowned musicians is both a respite from the latest news and a reminder of how important it is “to unite our multicultural community through the advocacy of music from around the world.”

THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF A WOMAN IN NEED

Naima Mora portrays different versions of herself in The Amazing Adventures of a Woman in Need (photos by Harris Davey)

THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF A WOMAN IN NEED
Triad Theater
158 West 72nd St. between Amsterdam & Columbus Aves.
Saturday, March 12, April 9, May 14, June 18, $30, 7:00
www.theamazingadventuresofawomaninneed.com
triadnyc.com

In the prologue to her debut solo show, The Amazing Adventures of a Woman in Need — which streamed during the pandemic and now returns to the Triad for an encore run monthly Saturdays beginning March 12 — Naima Mora, wearing jeans and a tight white tank top, holding a pink rose, describes the day in Harlem in 2002 when she realized she needed to turn her unhappy, unsatisfying life around. “I sit alone in my room, on my bed, wondering how I got here, wondering why I’m in this hell of a city, wondering why I’m killing myself to be here, wondering why my hair is falling out, wondering why I partied all night shoveling drugs up my nose, wondering why I’m sabotaging myself,” she says. “And then, I have to cradle myself, be gentle with myself, fall in love with myself, breathe and try to forget the last eight hours, and then forgive myself: forgive myself for being a drunk, for wanting insatiable fun to fill a void and forget the disappointment that I have with myself. And to myself, in my room, on my bed, guilt having settled in, and a little bit of a panic attack, just a little bit, I think to myself, I forgive you. I forgive you for being a fucking mess.”

Mora then admits, “Now, I’ve lived many lives: a supermodel, a crazy woman, and a gold digger, but I still haven’t really lived. So why not tell my story. I need to tell my story. I need to get this shit out of my body and out of my head. I need to rid myself of this self-inflicted destruction.” For the next seventy-five minutes, Mora portrays each of those characters, Penelope the supermodel, who can’t get a runway job anymore; the quirky Joanne, who suffers miscarriages and spends time in a psychiatric hospital; and Marisol Yanette Arnelis Rodriguez Lopes, a ritualistic woman facing too much solitude, offering such life lessons as “Get Your Hands Off My Peach Fuzz” and “Checkmate the Seduction: Train the Eggplant.” The set features a chair, a table, and a couch, a few props, and a screen on which photographs are projected.

An America’s Next Top Model winner, actress, author, and inspirational speaker, Mora who was born in Detroit in 1984, is barely recognizable in the roles, immersing herself fully into them, each with very different costumes, accents, hair, and movement. Directed and cowritten by Brooklyn native Marishka S. Phillips, The Amazing Adventures of a Woman in Need is a deeply intimate tale that also provides a roadmap for personal introspection; watching Mora deal with her issues so openly is likely to encourage audiences to do the same.

The virtual show I saw was recorded live with an audience at the Triad on October 16, 2021; it will be back at the Upper West Side theater for four performances, March 12, April 9, May 14, and June 18. Mora bravely puts herself out there as she battles her demons in public; she also traced the development of the play on social media. In a Twitter post last fall, she wrote, “My director is pushing me to my limits this week. Asking me to expand and literally stretch my artistic muscle for our show coming up in just 2 days!!! This has truly been a transformative experience.” It should be even more transformative now that it’s back in person.

A BENEFIT FOR UKRAINE

Who: Eugene Hütz, Gogol Bordello, Craig Finn & Franz Nicolay, Jesse Malin, Lady Lamb, Marc Roberge, Matisyahu, Patti Smith, Stephin Merritt, Suzanne Vega, more
What: Benefit concert for Ukraine and the Come Back Alive Foundation
Where: City Winery on Mandolin
When: Thursday, March 10, $20, 8:00
Why: City Winery’s all-star benefit for Ukraine sold out almost instantly, but you can still catch it from the comfort of your own home while donating to help a sovereign nation deeply in need of support, with nearly two million refugees seeking new places to live. City Winery will be livestreaming the show, raising funds for Ukraine and the Come Back Alive Foundation, an organization, founded in 2014, that declares: “Ukraine is the Shield of Europe. We believe that a threat to freedom anywhere is a threat to freedom everywhere. We are here defending the values we share across Europe and the world. We are doing our best to make sure Putin’s values do not spread further, even beyond our borders. Our Army is strong and determined, but they are underequipped.”

For a mere twenty bucks, you can watch a parade of musicians take the stage at the Far West Side venue, hosted by Eugene Hütz and his band, Gogol Bordello; Hütz was born in Ukraine to a Russian father and a Ukrainian mother. “Ukraine belongs to Ukrainians! We are an ancient independent nation distinctly and forever different from this criminally insane neighbor,” Hütz said in a statement. “The proof you all see now in the fierce mind-blowing battle that the world is witnessing, a battle of Ukrainian people’s choice of freedom and democracy against a psychotic totalitarian regime next door. Please help us to win this battle, help us to end this catastrophe immediately and bring the intruder to justice. Please stand with Ukraine in the battle for its democracy and freedom. Please donate and fundraise with us. Ukraine needs all of you. All your support counts.”

The lineup, so far, includes Craig Finn and Franz Nicolay of the Hold Steady, Jesse Malin, Lady Lamb, Marc Roberge of O.A.R., Matisyahu, Patti Smith, Stephin Merritt of the Magnetic Fields, and Suzanne Vega. You can also join the waitlist to see the concert live and in person. Хай живе, вільна Україна!

CELEBRATING MOLIÈRE’S 400th BIRTHDAY

Who: Lisa Gorlitsky, Margaret Ivey, Postell Pringle, Adam Gopnik, Erica Schmidt, Comédie-Française
What: Celebration of Molière’s quadricentennial
Where: FIAF, Florence Gould Hall and Skyroom, 55 East 59th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
When: March 10-12, 24, 30, $20-$45 (three-event package $75)
Why: Jean-Baptiste Poquelin was born into a bourgeois family in early 1622 in Paris. Nicknamed “le Nez” because of his relatively large proboscis, he eventually became better known as poet, playwright, and actor Molière. In celebration of the four hundredth anniversary of his birth, the French Institute Alliance Française is hosting a trio of special events. Taking place March 10-12 at 7:30 ($45) at FIAF’s Florence Gould Hall, “Molière Turns 400: 17th Century Paris Meets 21st Century New York” consists of staged excerpts, complete with sets, costumes, and live music, from The Misanthrope, The School for Wives, and Tartuffe, with Lisa Gorlitsky, Margaret Ivey, and Postell Pringle and directed by Lucie Tiberghien, the founding artistic director of Molière in the Park, which performed livestreamed adaptations of all three works during the pandemic lockdown. The March 10 presentation will be followed by a reception.

Ivo van Hove’s adaptation of Molière’s uncensored Tartuffe screens at FIAF March 24

On March 24 at 7:00 ($25), New Yorker staff writer Adam Gopnik and director Erica Schmidt will be at the FIAF Skyroom for the talk “Modernizing Molière,” available in person and via livestream. Gopnik contributed the foreword to Molière: The Complete Richard Wilbur Translations, while Schmidt directed Molière’s The Imaginary Invalid at Bard SummerScape in 2012, starring her husband, Peter Dinklage. The fête concludes March 30 at 7:00 ($35) in Florence Gould Hall with a screening of Molière’s uncensored Tartuffe or the Hypocrite by Comédie-Française, directed by Ivo van Hove from the original script, which was censored by Louis XIV in 1664; the filmed version stars Christophe Montenez and features a score by Oscar-winning composer Alexandre Desplat.