Harlem Stage Announces 2018 Fall Season 

Presenting Visionary Artists of Color  

Jazzy December Lineup featuring 

Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, Elio Villafranca, Weedie Braimah and more 

New York, NY -- Harlem Stage, the legendary uptown venue that for over 35 years has promoted the creative legacy of Harlem and artists of color from around the corner and across the globe, is proud to present its Fall 2018 season of performances. The season is curated by Monique Martin, recently appointed Director of Programming for Harlem Stage and features artists who #Disrupt and take creative risk. The performances feature a range of artistic genres, offering audiences the chance to experience legendary performers, as well as rising stars.

Harlem Stage’s 2018 fall season feature a variety of performances, which speak to the creative and uplifting ways in which the performing arts confront and transform the difficult realities of current times. 

Harlem Stage will present critically acclaimed vocalist Sarah Elizabeth Charles and her band SCOPE as they play hits from their newest album, Free of Form. The melodic music delivers socially referential messages, allowing the audience to both reflect and engage as Charles touches on issues surrounding mass incarceration, political ideology, social media, police brutality, addiction, war and historical context, while retaining colors of jazz, soul, indie rock, R&B and electronic experimentation.

Join Grammy-nominated Cuban pianist Elio Villafranca and his Afro Caribbean Trio as they offer up an evening of Jazz infused with Afro Caribbean rhythms. Born in the Pinar del Río province of Cuba and trained in percussion and composition at the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana, Cuba, Elio Villafranca is at theforefront of the latest generation of pianists, composers and bandleaders that has been making major creative contributions to the international development of modern jazz.

Harlem Stage and Christian Scott aTunde Adjuahpresent a free special pop up concert featuring Braxton Cook and hisquintet at Harlem’s own Silvana’s restaurant. One of this generation’s emerging voices on the alto saxophone Braxton is also a talented vocalist and songwriter whose sounds blends Soul, R&B, and Jazz. A Juilliard graduate, he has toured with Grammy Award-nominated trumpeter Christian Scott, Marquis Hill, and The New Century Jazz Quintet, among others 

Closing out the season, catch Weedie Braimah and The Hands of Timewith special guests Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah and Pedrito Martinez. Weedie Braimah’s percussive orchestra will surely awaken the rhythmic senses and soul of anyone present, as Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah stretches jazz music’s rhythmic, melodic and harmonic conventions to encompass a range of cultural influences from his native New Orleans to West Africa and the Caribbean.

“During a time in America and the world in which many of us feel impotent against the oppressive forces of the state, art enables us to respond, to speak truth to power, to resist and to attempt to transform. The time is now and the doors to the Harlem Stage Gatehouse are open” said Patricia Cruz, Executive Director of Harlem Stage.

Monique Martin, Director of Programming,said “This season, Harlem Stage will continue to be a ‘Sanctuary Space’ for dialogue, bridge building and transcendent theater, music and dance. Artists from down the block, around the way and across the globe will present bespoke programs to ignite our imaginations, pose disrupting questions and ground us in our collective commitment to a world that honors everyone. We look forward to holding space with you and honoring our collective humanity.”

TICKETING INFORMATION

Box Office Location: Harlem Stage Gatehouse (150 Convent Avenue at West 135th Street, Manhattan). 

Box Office Hours: Regular box office hours are 10AM–3PM Monday through Friday, except on performance days when the box office remains open until one hour after the start of the performance.

By Phone: 212.281.9240 ext. 19

Online: www.HarlemStage.org

ABOUT HARLEM STAGE 

Harlem Stage is the performing arts center that bridges Harlem’s cultural legacy to contemporary artists of color and dares to provide the artistic freedom that gives birth to new ideas.For over 35 years Harlem Stage has been one of the nation’s leading arts organizations, achieving this distinction through its work with artists of color and by facilitating a productive engagement with the communities it serves through the performing arts. With a long-standing tradition of supporting artists and organizations around the corner and across the globe, Harlem Stage boasts such legendary artists as Harry Belafonte, Max Roach, Sekou Sundiata, Abbey Lincoln, Sonia Sanchez, Eddie Palmieri, Maya Angelou and Tito Puente, as well as contemporary artists like Bill T. Jones, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, Tamar-kali, Vijay Iyer, Mike Ladd, Stew, Meshell Ndegeocello, Jason Moran, José James, Nona Hendryx and more. Its education program each year provides over 1,000 New York City children with introduction and access to the rich diversity, excitement and inspiration of the performing arts. In 2006, Harlem Stage opened the landmarked, award-winning Harlem Stage Gatehouse. This once abandoned space, originally a pivotal source for distributing fresh water to New York City, is now a vital source of creativity, ideas and culture. Harlem Stage is a winner of the William Dawson Award for Programming Excellence and Sustained Achievement in Programming (Association of Performing Arts Presenters).

For more information on Harlem Stage, visit: www.harlemstage.org. 

For a full list of donors, please visit: https://www.harlemstage.org/support/