twi-ny recommended events

DIANA OH: THE GIFT PROJECT

Who: Diana Oh
What: Live special event presented by All for One Theater
Where: Symphony Space, Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre, 2537 Broadway at Ninety-Fifth St.
When: Saturday, April 9, 8:00, and Sunday, April 10, 3:00, $25-$35
Why: Truth Teller, Truth Seeker, Punk Goddex, Wizard Phoenix, Dance Floor, and LGBTQ Korean American Artist Diana Oh nearly tore the roof of the Flea in their recent show-stealing performance in the communal healing ritual Arden — But, Not Without You. Oh and their band now just might tear the roof off Symphony Space in The Gift Project, presented by All for One Theater at the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre on April 9 and 10. The show, created by Oh ({my lingerie play} Clairvoyance) and directed by Oh and AFO founding artistic director Nicholas A. Cotz, was inspired by Oh’s meetings with “Elders of Marginalized Experience or Identity.” Oh wrote the music and lyrics after filming interviews, in collaboration with jb, with immigrant Elders born in 1956 or earlier who had overcome obstacles. Oh wrote a song for each Elder and presented it to them; the Symphony Space show will be “a rock & soul & shamanic & boomlala concert” with documentary footage of the Elders, honoring June Oh, Salomon Rettig, Xuyen Hinh, Gordon Rogoff, Shigeko Sara Suga, Kazi Khatoon, and Dr. MaryLouise Patterson.

“I feel the pang of losing the very special generation of people who moved to America and gave birth here,” Oh said in a statement. “The Americans of Immigrant and Marginalized Experience who’ve given birth to my generation: They are our Elders now and I’m scared of losing their stories and life seen through their eyes. Thanks to the pandemic, I felt the panic of the world ending and how anyone who lives beyond sixty-five years old is a miracle, and I wanted to let them know. That’s why I decided to do The Gift Project. I’d meet an Elder living in America who identifies with a Marginalized Experience or Identity, talk with them about anything, let the conversation flow: and then write them a song as a Gift: not a song about them but a song for them and then come back to see them and give the song to them as a Gift: so The Gift Project.” The band features Oh on synth and looper, music director Jack Fuller on keyboards, Matt Park and Viva Deconcini on electric guitar, Michael Maloney on guitars and bass, Serena Ebony Miller on bass, glockenspiel, and cello, and Timothy Angulo on drums, with guests Sarah Shin and Tim Hall.

CANDOCO DANCE COMPANY AT BAM

Candoco Dance Company reimagines Trisha Brown’s Set and Reset in BAM debut (photo by Chantal Guevara)

Who: Candoco Dance Company
What: BAM debut of London-based dance troupe
Where: BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, Peter Jay Sharp Building, 230 Lafayette Ave.
When: April 8-9, $20-$55, 7:30
Why: Candoco Dance Company was founded in 1991 in London by Celeste Dandeker-Arnold and Adam Benjamin, following a series of workshops at the Aspire Centre for Spinal Injury. The troupe, which pushes the boundaries of what dance can be for both disabled and nondisabled performers, will be making its BAM debut on April 8 and 9, presenting two works, one of which is a reinterpretation of a classic. Commissioned by BAM in 1983, Trisha Brown Dance Company’s Set and Reset is a postmodern masterpiece that is currently being reconceived as an art installation at the Tate. Candoco, which is included in the Tate show, will perform its reimagining as part of the Set and Reset/Reset Restaging Project, with direction by former TBDC member Abigail Yager and music by Laurie Anderson. The costumes are by Dandeker-Arnold and visuals by David Locke, both based on Robert Rasuchenberg’s originals, with lighting by Chahine Yavroyan, based on the 1983 design by Rauschenberg and Beverly Emmons.

Also on the BAM bill is Face In, a 2017 collaboration between Candoco and Israeli-American choreographer and director Yasmeen Godder. The work, featuring set design by Gareth Green, lighting by Seth Rook Williams, costumes by Adam Kalderon, and music by the Brandt Brauer Frick Ensemble ft. Emika and others, swirls in multiple colors and unique movement. “I think our identity can be extended to more places sometimes than we think — it can, or that we’re willing to expose,” Godder said in a behind-the-scenes video about the work.

AMANDA SELWYN DANCE THEATRE: THREADS

Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre presents world premiere of Threads at New York Live Arts this week (photo by Maria Baranova)

Who: Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre
What: World premiere of Threads
Where: New York Live Arts, 219 West Nineteenth St. between Seventh & Eighth Aves., and online
When: April 7-9, $15-$30, 7:30 (livestream $20)
Why: Since 2000, Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre has been staging works that explore what makes us human, the connections between people and nature, performer and audience, and humanity itself. The New York–based company will be presenting the world premiere of its latest evening-length piece, Threads, April 7-9 at New York Live Arts, looking at how we have dealt psychologically, emotionally, and physically with the last two years. “Threads explores what holds us together in isolation and the practice of letting go,” Selwyn said in a statement. “This pandemic has brought into focus where priorities are, the value of our human connections, and the very fleeting nature of it all. We are just a moment away from change. The threads can be fixed, torn, mended, or woven. . . . This is a story of heartbreak, forgiveness, loss, new beginnings, agency, and powerlessness.”

The work features set and costumes by Anna-Alisa Belous, lighting by Dan Ozminkowski, and sound by Joel Wilhelmi; it will be performed by Torrey Harada, Manon Hallay, Misaki Hayama, David Hochberg, Isaac Kerr, Minseon Kim, Ashley McQueen, Michael Miles, Oscar Antonio Rodriguez, Lauren Russo, John Trunfio, and Evita Zacharioglou. If you can’t make it to the Chelsea theater, the shows will also be livestreamed here.

“It starts as a thread of an idea and, from that thread, a fabric of meaning emerges,” Selwyn (Hindsight, Crossroads, Renewal) continues. “One thread at a time. By listening, pulling, teasing, tearing at each piece. Showing up in it. We can only see when our minds, eyes, and hearts are open. We can only see when we are ready. When we aren’t looking. In this pause, we step forward and balance on a thread to discover divine beauty. We measure risk, we acknowledge what is gone, we let go.”

MICHAEL DORF’S 60th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION: THE MUSIC OF JAMES BROWN

Who: Catherine Russell, David Gilmore, Vernon Reid, Corey Glover, Nicole Atkins, John Medeski, the Millennial Territory Orchestra, more
What: Celebration of the music of James Brown and the sixtieth birthday of City Winery founder Michael Dorf
Where: City Winery New York, 25 Eleventh Ave. at Fifteenth St.
When: Thursday, April 7, $60-$75, 8:00
Why: City Winery founder Michael Dorf knows how to throw a party. For his sixtieth birthday, he is celebrating with some of his favorite musicians, who will serenade him with the music of James Brown, accompanied by fine wine for the special occasion. Among the people who will be taking the stage and performing songs by the Godfather of Soul are Catherine Russell, David Gilmore, Nicole Atkins, Vernon Reid, Corey Glover, and John Medeski; the Millennial Territory Orchestra is the house band, featuring music director Steven Bernstein on trumpet, Curtis Fowlkes on trombone, David Gilmore on guitar, Charlie Burnham on violin, Peter Apfelbaum on tenor sax, Briggan Krauss on baritone sax, Erik Lawrence on alto sax, Ben Allison on bass, and Ben Perowsky on drums. Tickets range from $60 to $75. In a November 2021 twi-ny talk, Dorf said, “I’m a kid in a candy shop.” Fortunately, he gets to share all his sweet treats with the rest of us.

WORD. SOUND. POWER. 2022

Who: Baba Israel, AMYRA, Drew Drake, Dizzy SenZe, Freakquencee, DJ Reborn, Jade Charon
What: Live music, dance, and spoken word performances centered around Aṣẹ
Where: BAM Fisher, Fishman Space, 321 Ashland Pl.
When: April 7—9, $25, 7:30
Why: BAM’s annual celebration of spoken word and hip-hop features a stellar lineup of performers honoring the power of Aṣẹ, the Yoruba philosophical concept of affirmation, life force, and verbal creation. Artist, producer, educator, and consultant Baba Israel will host “Word. Sound. Power. 2022,” which takes place April 7-9 at BAM Fisher’s intimate Fishman Space. The impressive gathering brings together Bronx-born lyrical assassin Dizzy SenZe, Newark vibe curator Freakquencee, NYC-based poet and actor Drew Drake, and Harlem musician, author, and director AMYRA, with music by Brooklyn-based DJ Reborn and choreography by Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary artist Jade Charon. The seventy-minute showcase, exploring agency, creativity, resilience, and more, also includes student poets from Brooklyn public schools, part of a BAM in-school residency program, and will conclude with a twenty-minute Q&A with the artists.

LIVE FROM THE WOODY GUTHRIE CENTER: OKLAHOMA SINGS WOODY!

Who: Branjae, John Fullbright, David Amram, Red Dirt Rangers, Deana McCloud
What: Livestreamed concert from the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa
Where: Morgan Library & Museum online
When: Wednesday, April 6, free, 7:00
Why: The Morgan Library exhibition “Woody Guthrie: People Are the Song” takes visitors on a deep dive into the life and career of Oklahoma-born singer-songwriter Woodrow Wilson “Woody” Guthrie, the folk music legend who fought for everyday Americans through his staunch activism and protest songs. The outstanding show, continuing through May 22, features hundreds of items, from Woody’s instruments, records, letters, and notebooks to photographs, postcards, lyrics, and artworks, including a rare painting. The audioguide is narrated by country folk rock troubadour Steve Earle and features snippets of songs and archival interviews with Guthrie. Talking about moving to the West Coast, Guthrie says, “They called us ‘dust bowl refugees.’ But then there’s more than one kind of a refugee. There’s refugees that take refuge under railroad bridges, and there is refugees that take refugee and . . . take refuge in public office. But when we was out in California, all that the native sons and daughters called us was just ‘dust bowl refugees.’”

Guthrie, who was born in the small town of Okemah on July 14, 1912, and died of Huntington’s disease on October 3, 1967, in Coney Island, left behind a legacy that reaches around the world, impacting such musicians as Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Bragg, Wilco, John Mellencamp, Pete Seeger, and so many others. On April 6 at 7:00, the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa will present the live concert “Oklahoma Sings Woody!,” with performances by Branjae, John Fullbright, David Amram, and Red Dirt Rangers, playing three songs each, their own as well as Woody’s. While the in-person show is sold out, the event will be livestreamed for free by the Morgan, supplemented with a brief virtual tour of the center by founding executive director and chief curator Deana McCloud. Throughout his too-short career, Guthrie revealed the power that music can have on politics and the populace; as he famously carved into a guitar, “This machine kills fascists.” Yes, people are the song.

ReelAbilities FILM FESTIVAL: NEW YORK 2022

Who: ReelAbilities Film Festival: New York
What: Annual festival of films celebrating stories of people with disabilities
Where: Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan and other venues as well as online
When: April 7-13, free – $15
Why: Since 2007, the ReelAbilities Film Festival has been showcasing shorts, features, and animated works from around the world to continue its mission “dedicated to promoting awareness and appreciation of the lives, stories, and artistic expressions of people with disabilities.” The fourteenth annual event takes place at the host venue, the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan, as well as Lincoln Center, the IAC Building, the Museum of the Moving Image, the Maysles Documentary Center, the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, and online. The opening-night selection is Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano’s The Specials, about caregivers of autistic youths in underprivileged areas, starring Vincent Cassel, Reda Kateb, and Hélène Vincent; Victor Calise, former commissioner of the New York City Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, will be the guest honoree. The closing-night film is Brian Malone and Regan Linton’s imperfect, about a theater group staging Chicago; the screening will be followed by a Q&A with the directors moderated by actor Gregg Mozgala and the presentation of the ReelAbilities Spotlight Award to deaf actress Lauren Ridloff.

Among the other full-length films are Marc Schiller’s deeply personal No Bone: Scars of Survival, Jim Bernfield’s Me to Play, Margaret Byrne’s Any Given Day, Lynn Montgomery’s Amazing Grace, Teemu Nikki’s The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic, Linda Niccol’s Poppy, and Jack Youngelson’s Here. Is. Better.; the films deal with such issues as stroke, Parkinson’s disease, mental illness, Acute Flaccid Myelitis, multiple sclerosis, Down syndrome, deafness, ADHD, and PTSD. In addition, there will be workshops on film puppetry and storytelling, an accessibility summit, a solo musical by Anita Hollander, a conversation with Deaf Utopia author Nyle DiMarco, the panel discussion “Just Do It?: The Impact of Perfectionism & Productivity on Mental Health and Disability,” and such shorts programs as “Out of the Box,” “Relationships,” and “Autism.” Many of the screenings will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers, actors, documentary subjects, and health experts.