this week in lectures, signings, panel discussions, workshops, and Q&As

UNSETTLED: SEEKING REFUGE IN AMERICA FREE SCREENING AND LIVE Q&A

Unsettled follows four LGBTQ immigrants seeking refuge in America

Who: Samantha Power, Ari Shapiro, Tom Shepard, Subhi Nahas
What: Free screening and live Q&A of Unsettled (Tom Shepard, 2019)
Where: WORLD Channel and ITVS
When: Monday, June 22, free with advance RSVP, 7:00
Why: “I just want to live a normal life,” Junior Mayema says in Tom Shepard’s heart-wrenching documentary Unsettled: Seeking Refuge in America. In honor of the UN’s World Refugee Day, which took place on June 20, the film is being streamed on June 22 at 7:00, followed by a Q&A with producer-director Shepard, former US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power, All Things Considered host Ari Shapiro, and one of the film’s subjects, Subhi Nahas, a Syrian refugee who has unexpectedly become a spokesman for LGBTQ refugees and asylum seekers.

In the film, Shepard (Scout’s Honor, The Grove) follows the agonizing plight of several LGBTQ people who have escaped dangerous situations in their homeland to try to make a new, safer life in the United States, but obstacles abound. “I was always the black sheep, I was always the outcast. I think most gay people in Syria felt the same: isolation, people mocking them. And it’s been a lonely place for twenty-five years,” Subhi says. He left Syria shortly after an al-Qaeda branch began terrorizing gay people in his hometown in 2012; as he becomes a leader in the gay refugee movement, he is determined to get his sister out as well.

Cheyenne Adriano and Mari N’Timansieme are partners in love, music, and business, attempting to gain asylum through legal channels after their lives were jeopardized first in their native Angola, then in Capetown, South Africa. “Being kicked out by the people you most love and trust, I have this anger in my heart,” Cheyenne says. “At least here, we’re not going to have people stalking us, or following us, or throwing rocks, or calling us names on the street. I think this doesn’t happen here in America, right?”

Junior, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has the most difficulty making the transition, having trouble finding a job, friends, and a place to sleep. While Subhi, Cheyenne, and Mari are driven by very specific goals, Junior is lost, his life further disrupted by his alcoholism. Among those offering support to the four of them are various professionals, officials, and volunteers, including Powers, refugee and asylum advocate Melanie Nathan, refugee sponsor Fred Hertz, director of refugee services Amy Weiss, LGBT refugee advocate Neil Grungras, and attorney Kathlyn Querubin, but the road is not an easy one, for any of them.

The film is especially relevant given several recent developments in the USA, with the Supreme Court declaring that gay, lesbian, and transgender workers are covered by antibias laws and ruling on cases involving legal and illegal immigration. LGBTQ refugees come to America, fleeing countries where their sexual orientation might not only be against the law but is punishable by death, yet they still have to go through a complex system in order to gain asylum here. It’s a harrowing journey that does not always have a happy ending, even in San Francisco, and now under the current administration. After the free screening and live discussion on June 22, the documentary will be available for streaming on the WORLD channel and PBS from June 28 to July 12.

STATE VS. NATASHA BANINA

Darya Denisova gives a bold performance made for Zoom in State vs. Natasha Banina

Who: Arlekin Players Theatre
What: Live Zoom interactive theater art experiment
Where: Cherry Orchard Festival Zoom
When: Sunday, June 21, 28, July 5, 10, 12 free with RSVP, 8:00
Why: I’ve watched dozens of livestreamed presentations during the pandemic lockdown, from dance, theater, and music to literature, art, and political discussions. Among the standouts have been Richard Nelson’s made-for-Zoom What Do We Need to Talk About? for the Public Theater, a continuation of the Apple Family Plays; Martha Graham Dance Company’s reimagining of the lost 1937 solo Immediate Tragedy, comprising prerecorded movement from sixteen dancers, the Zoom boxes manipulated in breathtakingly inventive ways; On Site Opera’s To My Distant Beloved, in which a singer and pianist perform Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte over the phone for one person at a time, complete with emailed love letters about loneliness and isolation; and the Dropkick Murphys’ “Streaming Outta Fenway,” a furious live concert held in an empty Fenway Park, where they were joined onscreen by Bruce Springsteen from his home in New Jersey.

But the future of online productions might be best represented so far by Arlekin Players Theatre’s State vs. Natasha Banina, an online adaptation of the Boston troupe’s version of Yaroslava Pulinovich’s Natasha’s Dream, a solo work the company put on at the New Rep Theatre in February 2017. Part of the annual Cherry Orchard Festival, which focuses on Russian arts, State vs. Natasha Banina gets right in your face, literally and figuratively. The forty-five-minute drama features Darya Denisova as Natasha Banina, a young woman locked away in a claustrophobic white room, having been accused of a terrible crime. She speaks directly to the audience, which serves as a jury, as she describes what led her to commit the heinous act.

“See, that’s all a bunch of crap that they’re saying. None of that shit happened. Huh? You wanna hear what I did? Anything else you want?” she declares at the start. She draws on the walls, interacts with animation (from hearts to a spaceman), calls out the names of some of the audience members, and plays with her hair. It’s a sordid and gripping tale of obsession and mental illness, and Denisova gets deep under your skin with an edgy, brave performance boldly crafted for the internet. Director Igor Golyak, who is Denisova’s partner, shoots the live show from their living room, with choreography by Viktor Plotnikov, video by Anton Iakhontov, and music by Vadim Khrapatchev, all of which come together seamlessly. I can’t imagine that the award-winning 2019 stage version was more powerful.

Darya Denisova stars as a woman who has committed a heinous crime in State vs. Natasha Banina

The audience is asked to fill out a survey in the beginning, then render its verdict at the end. The play is followed by a Zoom Q&A in which Golyak and Denisova lay bare their fascinating process, eager to hear what we have to say about the various techniques and what the overall experience was like. Golyak has noted that State vs. Natasha Banina is “a new art form to overcome social distancing, the pandemic, and ultimately unite people in one virtual space by merging theater, cinematography, and video games.” He has also indicated that it’s not limited to the coronavirus crisis, that this presents a unique opportunity to explore the future of theater itself. There are only two performances left, on June 21 and 28 at 8:00; tickets are free, but donations will be accepted to support the Actors Fund’s Covid-19 Emergency Relief Fund. [Ed. note: The run has been extended with additional shows on July 5, 10, and 12.]

INSIDER INSIGHTS: GERHARD RICHTER PAINTING

Gerhard Richter reveals his creative process in fascinating documentary (photo courtesy of Kino Lorber)

Who: Brinda Kumar, Corinna Belz
What: Livestreamed prerecorded discussion
Where: MetMuseum Facebook and YouTube
When: Tuesday, June 23, free, 6:00
Why: In conjunction with the expansive Met Breuer exhibition “Gerhard Richter: Painting After All,” which opened March 4 for a brief run before the pandemic lockdown and hopefully will continue once the crisis is over, the Met’s “Insider Insights” series will examine Corinna Belz’s 2011 documentary, Gerhard Richter Painting. [Ed. note: It was announced on June 22 that the Met Breuer will be closing for good, so the exhibition will not be coming back.] On June 23 at 6:00, writer-director Belz will be joined by Met Modern and Contemporary Art assistant curator Brinda Kumar for a prerecorded interview discussing the making of the film, which can be streamed for free through July 31 here.

There’s nothing abstract about the title of Belz’s documentary on the German artist, no missing words or punctuation marks. Gerhard Richter Painting is primarily just that: Ninety-seven minutes of Gerhard Richter painting as he prepares for several exhibitions, including a 2009 show at the Marian Goodman Gallery in New York City. In 2007, Belz got a rare chance to capture Richter on camera, making a short film focusing on the stained-glass window he designed for the Cologne Cathedral. Two years later, the shy, reserved Richter, who prefers to have his art speak for itself, invited Belz into his studio, giving her remarkable access inside his creative process, which revealingly relies so much on chance and accident. Belz films Richter as he works on two large-scale canvases on which he first slathers yellow paint, adds other colors, then takes a large squeegee and drags it across the surface, changing everything. It’s fascinating to watch Richter study the pieces, never quite knowing when they are done, unsure of whether they are any good. It’s also painful to see him take what looks like an extraordinary painting and then run the squeegee over it yet again, destroying what he had in order to see if he can make it still better. “They do what they want,” he says of the paintings. “I planned something totally different.”

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About halfway through the film, a deeply concerned Richter starts regretting his decision to allow the camera into his studio. “It won’t work,” he says. “At the moment it seems hopeless. I don’t think I can do this, painting under observation. That’s the worst thing there is.” But continue he does, for Belz’s and our benefit. Belz (Life After Microsoft, Peter Handke: In the Woods, Might Be Late) even gets Richter to talk a little about his family while looking at some old photos, offering intriguing tidbits about his early life and his escape to Düsseldorf just before the Berlin Wall went up. Belz also includes clips from 1966 and 1976 interviews with Richter, and she attends a meeting he has with Goodman about his upcoming show, lending yet more insight into the rather eclectic artist. “To talk about painting is not only difficult but perhaps pointless, too,” Richter, who turned eighty-eight in February, says in the 1966 clip. However, watching Gerhard Richter Painting is far from pointless; Belz has made a compelling documentary about one of the great, most elusive artists of our time. “Man, this is fun,” Richter says at one point, and indeed it is; watching the masterful artist at work is, well, a whole lot more fun than watching paint dry.

MAKE MUSIC NEW YORK 2020

make music new york

Who: Amateur and professional musicians from around the world
What: Annual Make Music New York festival
Where: Make Music New York online
When: Sunday, June 21, free, 7:00 am – 11:00 pm
Why: “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there,” Sufi poet Rumi wrote. His words ring true now more than ever, with so much of the city still in lockdown mode because of the Covid-19 pandemic. With clubs, theaters, bars, and restaurants closed for live entertainment, the fourteenth annual Make Music New York festival, in which hundreds of free performances are held throughout the five boroughs in celebration of the longest day of the year, had to reinvent itself, so it has gone virtual, with shows being streamed online from wherever people are sheltering in place, with a few unique outdoor concerts as well, but not open to crowds. The list of performers is long and varied; here are just some of the participants: Janice Brown, Regina Opera Company, Andrea Frisch-Hara, Allan Harris, James Nyoraku Schlefer, Cheryl Grau, Vignesh Ravichandran, Brittany Santacroce, Leah Shaw, Muswell Hillbillies, Al Barcelon, Ensemble Ipse, Blair McMillen, Eleonor Sandresky, Robin Greenstein, Axiom Addicts, Mischief Boys, Melody Loveless, Wild Turkey Surprise, Murphy’s Big Idea, Rachel Lee Walsh, Jackson Dempsey, Ella Kronman, Ethan Liang, Emily Tong, gamin, Natie, Robin Rich & Willie Allen, Garrin Benfield, Social Robot, Peace of Heart Choir, Gwendolyn Fitz, Maurice Cobb, Salvo, R.E.D, Jared Lamenzo with Eddie Barbash, Renaissance Street Singers, Kate Theis, iSZ, PartyOwl, Airee, DECOSTER, It’s Just Another Pleasant Valley Monday, Adele & Felipe, Inner Gypsy, Carolyn Enger, and Sopio Murusidze.

Below are 2020’s special projects, a few of which are participatory not only online but, yes, in person.

#MySongIsYourSong, global song swap with Aaron Banes, Annie Nirschel, Barry Kay, Chris Oledude, Deborah Anne Karpel, Elaine Akins, Gary Newton, Hasani Arthur, Jascha Hoffman, Joel Landy, John Plenge, Jonny Leal, Kama Linden, Kenneth Murphy, Laela Giovanna, Rew Starr, Russ Stone, Stephanie Jeannot, Steven Blane, others, 7:00 am – 10:00 pm

#MusicMeAndMyKid, livestreamed home concerts by children, 7:00 am – 10:00 pm

Live from Home, with Tower of Power, Adryana Ribeiro, Becky Buller, Fiona Ross, Gloria Stanley, Isabella Manfredi, Josh Pyke, Laurence Juber, Lee Oskar, Lenka Kripac, Michael Barnum, Roberto Kuelho, Van-Anh Nguyen, Zachary Castille, Zuill Bailey, more, 7:00 am – 10:00 pm

Global Livestream, music from as many as 120 countries, 9:00 am – 11:00 pm

25 x 12: Live Online Lessons, for twenty-five instruments, including banjo, bassoon, cello, drum, flute, and voice, 10:00 am – 10:00 pm

Young Composers Contest, winning pieces set to William Carlos Williams’s poem, “By the road to the contagious hospital,” performed by the Make Music Quarantet, 10:00 am – 10:00 pm

Harold O’Neal: Virtual Performance at the New York Botanical Garden, 11:00 am

Flowerpot Music, performances from around the world using flowerpots, score by Elliot Cole, directed by Peter Ferry, 11:00 am – 8:00 pm

Mozart’s Requiem, third annual group performance, Requiem, K626, conducted by Douglas Anderson, noon – 1:00

Sounds from Scotland, with Jamie McGeechan, Alan Frew, Craig Weir Gleadhraich, Colin Hunter, John Rush, Laura McGhee, and Mike Nisbet, noon – 4:30

Bash the Trash, workshops creating instruments from recycled materials, followed by performances of “Ode to Joy” and/or “Baby Shark,” 1:00 – 3:00

32 for Third, Part 1, Beethoven sonatas performed by students, teachers, and guests of the Third Street Music School Settlement, 1:00 – 3:00

Bedroom Studios (aka Street Studios), with Nathalie Barret-Mas (2:00 – 5:00), Aaron Lazansky (5:00 – 8:00), and DJ Al Medina (8:00 – 11:00)

Vivaldi’s Four Seasons by the Oxford Philharmonic, with Anna-Liisa Bezrodny, Charlotte Scott, Yuri Zhislin, and Natalia Lomeiko, 3:00 – 3:50

Rumi Suite and Livaneli Songs, featuring Zülfü Livaneli, with Demet Sağıroğlu, Henning Schmiedt, Tara Nome Doyle, Tamara Jokic, Ara Dinkjian, Ismal Lumanovski, Engin Kaan Günaydin, Panagiots Andreou, Tamer Pinarbasi, Ahu Güral, and Arda Türegün, 3:00 – 4:00

Mass Appeal Harmonicas, with Jiayi He, beginners at 3:00, advanced at 4:00, everyone at 5:00

Make Music Ditmas, a Neighborhood Porch Music Celebration, 4:00 – 5:00

Songs of Struggle from the Stoop, with Paul Stein, 4:00 – 5:00

Concerts from Cars, by CenterPoint Arts, in front of Brooklyn Crepe & Juice, 274 Flatbush Ave., 4:14-4:45 PM

The World Wide Heart Chant, interactive performance of Pauline Oliveros’s “Heart Chant” with IONE, Claire Chase, and Raquel Acevedo Klein, 5:00 – 6:00

Porch Stomp!, socially distanced singalong in Brooklyn neighborhoods, 6:00 – 7:00

Harmonicas in Solidarity, performers playing the health-care anthem “The Oceans” on balconies surrounding Sasaki Garden by Washington Square, led by Dr. David Schroeder, 6:45 – 7:00

#SummerSolsticeSingalong, “Imagine,” by John Lennon, 6:55 – 7:00

Songs for Our City, finale, 8:00 pm

Touchy Subjects, by Tilted Axes: Music for Mobile Electric Guitars, by Patrick Grant, 8:00 pm

Joe’s Pub Virtual Block Party, archival performances by Kiah Victoria; Gary Lucas, Feifei Yang, and Jason Candler with special guest Yao Wang; Migguel Anggelo; Treya Lam; Martha Redbone; and AJOYO, 8:00 – 9:00

Track Meet, creative music relay, 9:00 – 11:00

SANFORD BIGGERS IN CONVERSATION WITH ROSELEE GOLDBERG: THE SOMETHIN’ SUITE

Sanford Biggers will talk to Performa head RoseLee Goldberg about The Somethin’ Suite and more on Juneteenth

Who: Sanford Biggers, RoseLee Goldberg
What: Talk and screening surrounding The Somethin’ Suite
Where: Performa Instagram Live and Performa website
When: Talk: Friday, June 19, free, noon; screening: June 18 & 19, free, 7:00
Why: In honor of Juneteenth, the anniversary of the end of the Civil War and slavery, Performa chief curator RoseLee Goldberg will discuss art, politics, systemic racism, and more with New York City-based multidisciplinary artist Sanford Biggers. The talk will take place on Instagram Live at noon, in conjunction with screenings on June 18 and 19 of Biggers’s 2007 Performa commission, The Somethin’ Suite, what he called “a post minstrel cycle” and “a darke xperiment.” The twenty-five-minute performance, held at the Box, featured Martin Luther, Saul Williams, Esthero, Shae Fiol, Imani Uzuri, DJ Dahi Sundance, CX KidTRONiK, and Freedome Bradley as a wide range of characters staging a minstrel show, using spoken word, song, music, dance, and film to bring to stark light historical aspects of racism.

In a 2007 interview, Biggers, who was raised in Los Angeles, told Goldberg, “The whole institution of our popular cultural media, which started with minstrel shows and has now become the hip hop music industry — one of the most lucrative entertainment industries worldwide — originated with making a mockery of blacks. So I’m interested in how much and how little has changed in these last 150 years. We’re at a crucial moment in race relations in America right now, with a lot of old wounds being reopened and reexamined. With the ‘PC’ ethos of the ’90s having passed, and a black man being seriously considered for the US presidency, we cannot afford to not develop a more sophisticated understanding of ‘race’ and ‘otherness.’ So I thought it was a perfect time to really look at the history of how we’ve been imagining ourselves, as African Americans, how white people have projected their stereotypes onto us, and how we’ve reflected their obsession by projecting some of those stereotypes back, because neither party is solely guilty — there’s a complicity.” Given what is happening right now in America, from George Floyd to Aunt Jemima, this program could not be any more timely.

THE ANTONYO AWARDS

antonyo awards

Who: Audra McDonald, Tituss Burgess, Alex Newell, Jordan E. Cooper, Teyonah Parris, Ephraim Sykes, LaChanze, Derrick Baskin, Nicolette Robinson, Jelani Alladin, Christiani Pitts, James Monroe Iglehart, Amber Iman, Kalen Allen, Nzinga Williams, Jackson Alexander, Cody Renard Richard, Ashton Muñiz, Shereen Pimentel, Kirsten Childs, Aisha Jackson, Antoine L. Smith, Griffin Matthews, Michael McElroy, Jocelyn Bioh, L Morgan Lee, more
What: Inaugural Antonyo Awards show with red carpet, musical numbers, and all-star presenters
Where: Broadway Black YouTube and Facebook
When: Friday, June 19, free, 7:30
Why: In celebration of Juneteenth, Broadway Black is hosting the inaugural Antonyo Awards, honoring the best in Black talent on and off Broadway. Online voting, which was open to the general public, has ended — you can watch the nomination ceremony here, then tune in to YouTube or Facebook on Friday night at 7:00 to see a virtual red carpet and the presentation of the awards, the name of which is a sly twist on the Tonys. Among the shows receiving multiple nominations are A Solder’s Play, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, A Strange Loop, One in Two, The Hot Wing King, Slave Play, The Secret of Life Bees, We’re Gonna Die, Toni Stone, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, and The Wrong Man, with nods going to such individuals as Okwui Okpokwasili, David Alan Grier, Saycon Sengbloh, Robert O’Hara, Whitney White, Raja Feather Kelly, Lileana Blain-Cruz, Camille A. Brown, Daniel J. Watts, Portia, Danielle Brooks, Audra McDonald, Blair Underwood, and Joshua Henry. In addition, the Kinship Awards (the Lorraine Hansberry Award, the Langston Hughes Award, the Welcome Award, and the Doors of the Theatre Are Open Award) will be given out, and Chuck Cooper will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award. Scheduled to appear during the broadcast are Tituss Burgess, Jordan E. Cooper, LaChanze, Jelani Alladin, Amber Iman, Nzinga Williams, Ashton Muñiz, Aisha Jackson, Jocelyn Bioh, and many others. Founded in 2012 by Drew Shade, Broadway Black is “dedicated to highlighting the achievements and successes of Black theater artists.”

IMMEDIATE TRAGEDY

Xin Ying, Lloyd Knight, Lorenzo Pagano, and Leslie Andrea are among the Martha Graham dancers collaborating from their homes on reimagined Immediate Tragedy (photo by Ricki Quinn)

Who: The Soraya, Martha Graham Dance Company, Wild Up
What: World premiere of digital dance
Where: The Soraya Facebook page, Martha Graham Dance Company YouTube channel
When: Friday, June 19, the Soraya, free, 7:00; Saturday, June 20, MGDC YouTube, 2:30
Why: During the pandemic, Martha Graham Dance Company has opened up its vast archives — the troupe was founded in 1926, and Graham created 181 ballets throughout her long, legendary career — presenting fabulous footage of classic recorded works, followed by live discussions with special guests. On June 19, MGDC is taking its next step with the world premiere of a new piece designed specifically for online viewing. Joining forces again with the Soraya, the California-based multidisciplinary performing arts organization, and chamber group Wild Up, the LA-based modern music collective, MGDC will be debuting Immediate Tragedy, a virtual reimagining of Graham’s lost 1937 solo, which was her artistic response to the Spanish Civil War. The ten-minute work will be performed by fourteen dancers (So Young An, Alessio Crognale, Laurel Dalley Smith, Natasha Diamond-Walker, Lloyd Knight, Charlotte Landreau, Jacob Larsen, Lloyd Mayor, Marzia Memoli, Anne O’Donnell, Lorenzo Pagano, Anne Souder, Leslie Andrea Williams, Xin Ying) and five musicians (Jiji, Richard Valitutto, Jodie Landau, Brian Walsh, Derek Stein) performing from wherever they are sheltering in place, set to a score composed and conducted by Christopher Rountree, the founder, conductor, and creative director of Wild Up.

Rare photograph of Martha Graham performing lost 1937 solo Immediate Tragedy (photo by Robert Fraser, 1937. Courtesy of Martha Graham Resources)

Choreographed by MGDC artistic director Janet Eilber and the dancers based on remnants of the 1937 original, including photos, musical notations, letters, and reviews, the work features digital design and editing by Ricki Quinn as it explores the current tragedies the world is experiencing; it will premiere June 19 at 7:00 on the Soraya’s Facebook page, followed June 20 at 2:30 on MGDC’s YouTube channel as part of the weekly Martha Matinees program, which has previously presented Lamentation, “Birth of the Modern: Martha Graham’s Revolution,” Letter to the World, and more. Each dancer was given four photos from which to develop their movement, while the musicians received snippets of notations from Cowell’s original, all using as inspiration a letter Graham wrote to Cowell in which she explained, “Whether the desperation lies in Spain or in a memory in our own hearts it is the same — I had been in a valley of despair, too. I felt in that dance I was dedicating myself anew to space, that in spite of violation I was upright and that I was going to stay upright at all costs.” Rountree said in a statement, “While the piece is really located in a ‘post Henry Cowell’ space, another big inspiration is: this moment itself, and the immediate tragedy of us all being apart. What are our modes of being together in this moment? What does it look like, what does it sound like and how do we deal with being apart like this?” The thirty-minute program will also include interviews with the collaborators and a screening of Graham and Cowell’s 1937 companion solo, Deep Song.