Live Cultures is your ~monthly~ dose of New York City cultural enrichment, hand-curated by Xiomara Bovell.
I’m feeling sentimental. I first conceived of Live Cultures back at the turn of the year, and launched this newsletter in May following an instagram story-turned-group theater outing. In that time, I’ve been writing consistently for four months, have made a habit of going to the theater at least once every month, have gotten to share space in theater with dozens of you lovely humans and have explored corners of the arts that I would never have previously sought out. All this to say that I’m grateful: for all the artists and their creativity, and for this community and your willingness to try something new with me. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I’m excited for what’s to come! (Especially in the fall bc the city’s theater programming is absolutely STACKED - stay tuned!)
As per usual, I have program notes and—as a reward for thoroughly reading my TED Talk on the importance of supporting theater—some fabulous August picks that include experimental plays and an evening on the beach.
If you didn’t pull up to the Lena Horne Bandshell, did you really have a Brooklyn Summer? Per my last email, I finally made it out to BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn (albeit late in the season) to see Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE, a Dance Company with my friend, Lex.
The triple-bill performance was an exhibition of the depth and breadth of Black dance vernacular, taking us through Afro-Latin jazz and salsa in Open Door, to folkloric dance in Gatekeepers, to a more contemporary offering in Upside Down.
Open Door was the perfect opener for a balmy evening in Prospect Park. In a sweet meeting of love interests, the piece started out with a gentle and romantic (if not, a little coy) duet, but soon the date took on a hotter tempo, seasoned with salsa rhythms, undulating bodies and rolling hips. Gatekeepers got deeper into the roots of Black dance and folklore, as dancers portrayed ‘soldiers walking toward heaven, searching for the wounded and looking out to make a safe haven for others to follow’. Finally, Upside Down was the night’s victory lap, connecting past and present through a soundtrack of pulsating house (a genre which originates from Black culture, let it be known!) and Fela Kuti’s afrobeat. How the dancers still had the spring in their legs to pull of this performance with such virtuosic dynamism, 2 hours into performing in 80 degree heat remains a mystery. But all I know is that whatever contagion they set loose in the air that night led to a very sweaty three hours on the dance floor at Rodeo straight after. If only every Friday night could be ushered in this way.
Beyond the performance itself, it brought me joy to see a community of Brooklynites (especially Black Brooklynites), young and old sitting together, whooping and cheering as they enjoyed Black, Brooklyn-made theater. Without getting too philosophical, the performance was a needed reminder that art is inherently interpersonal—a reciprocal give-and-take between spectator and performer. Too often, we’re defaulted into one-sided consumption arrangements that roll on regardless of whether we’re engaged or not.
To dive further down this rabbit hole, I recently, saw a clip (incidentally a TikTok video lol), in which Alex Ohanian, Reddit founder and former chairman, explains his rationale for investing so heavily in live sports. In short, he believes that as AI continues to play a greater role into media and entertainment, live sports will become increasing valuable for its unique ability to connect us back to our own humanity. Sports is to Alex, as live theater is to me.
Live Cultures is my small way of championing live theater and building a broader community of supporters beyond myself. To that end, I would appreciate if you shared this newsletter and future events with a friend. There could be 100 people in a room, and 99 of them are doom-scrolling, but if just one person to chooses to switch their screen for a stage, then we have succeeded.
Live Cultures is all about getting great humans acquainted with great live theater. Spread the love, and share with a friend <3
August marks a recess in the theatre but the show goes on. I have a stacked list of recs that are taking theatre outside the box (in various senses of the term).
For something a little out-the-box (conceptually)…
I’ve been meaning to catch a show at Pageant, an artist-run performance space in Brooklyn, forever. When I read Savannah Lyons Anthony’s description of her experimental play as “silly and serious and obsessive and freakish”, I knew my time had come. Join me on Friday night or catch the opening show on Thursday!
Open Call is a large-scale commissioning program run by The Shed for early-career, NYC-based artists. Through the program, artist receive robust production support, and resources to further nurture their practices and expand their audiences. In the penultimate performance of the series, Nile Harris and his ensemble use the biography of jazz cornetist Buddy Bolden, who was making music at the turn of the 20th century and spent the majority of his life in a mental asylum, as a theoretical launching point to stage a series of discreet events rejecting and subverting what audiences expect to find in a black box theater.
Note: This performance is sold out, however, there is an in-person wait list available 15 minutes before the show begins. Definitely worth trying your luck.
The Battery Dance Festival is New York City’s longest-running free public dance festival. The festival returns with seven nights of dance in the open air. Some notable programs include Young Voices in Dance (August 12th) celebrating the next generation of choreographers and performers aged 15-22 and the closing night performance (August 17th) spanning the spectrum of dance and geographies from Afro-Colombian to Contemporary to House and Vogue, from NYC to the Caribbean to Europe to the Midwest. All performances are FREE begin at 7pm in Rockerfeller Park.
L-R: Carsyn Gekas 'MODEL 35737' Photo by Isabella Pagano | Focus Dance Company ' Self-Portrait' Photo by Chang Chia-Hao | T’Ana Selah 'Bruised Heel' Photo by Mark Simpson
Beach Sessions Dance Series is a pioneering performance series that aims commission, produce, and present site-responsive choreographic work on New York’s shoreline, creating ambitious new work that expands the boundaries of contemporary dance. In their 10th year, performance maker, Faye Driscoll (heralded by The New York Times as a “startlingly original talent”) brings a massive cast to the dunes to explore the capacity of the body, heightened senses and the intensified mass of a group. Admission is FREE and the performance will take place at dusk at Beach 106 St.
Merce Cunningham, Beach Birds (1991) from Beach Sessions 2023. Photo by Maria Baranova.
That’s all from me for August! September (my birthday month) is just around the corner and I’m so excited to see many of you at my birthday party (a.k.a. R.O.S.E at Park Ave Armory). For those late to the party (pun very much intended), the Sep. 6 show has SOLD OUT, but I vehemently encourage you to snag tickets for one of the remaining dates.
