Harlem Stage will present a mixture of in-person performance and digital programming for its spring 2022 season. Among the highlights are a stage adaptation of Julia Álvarez’s novel En El Tiempo de las Mariposas / In the Time of the Butterflies, Jason ‘Timbuktu' Diakité’s solo piece A Drop of Midnight, and the return of the company’s Uptown Nights series.
That latter series kicks at the Harlem Stage Gatehouse with alto saxophonist and composer Immanuel Wilkins and the album release show for his latest recording, The 7th Hand on Blue Note Records (January 29). Up next is Grammy-nominated percussionist and vocalist Pedrito Martinez, and his new work, Rumba Con Fundamento (February 11-12).
March welcomes Grammy nominee Carla Cook and her jazz quartet (March 12) and Maimouna Youssef aka Mumu Fresh (March 19) followed by Queen Esther (April 30). Finally, six-time Grammy-nominated pianist and composer Gerald Clayton and his multidisciplinary project, Piedmont Blues: A Search for Salvation (May 19-20), features vocalist René Marie and Clayton’s nine-piece jazz ensemble, The Assembly, with direction by Christopher McElroen, the co-founder of Classical Theatre of Harlem.
A co-presentation with Repertorio Español, En El Tiempo de las Mariposas (March 23) is a fictionalized account of the Mirabal sisters during the time of the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic. The show will be performed in Spanish with English supertitles.
E-Moves (April 15-16, 21-23) will feature dance works by Dormeshia, Leslie Cuyjet, Sydnie L. Mosley, Vinson Fraley, and Du’Bois A’Keen in a five-night performance run, developed with special residency support from Chelsea Factory.
The season will culminate with its annual gala (June 6), co-chaired by Harlem Stage board members Claire Danes and Hugh Dancy. The evening features the opening night performance and U.S. premiere of A Drop of Midnight (June 6-11) by Diakité. Adapted from the author’s memoir of the same name, the piece follows the hip-hop artist, born to interracial American parents in Sweden, and his story of growing up in a frail cultural and racial divide. The solo show features live musical accompaniment by the six-piece Rakiem Walker Project and Swedish composer/musician Erik Hjärpe. Jonathan McCrory is the director and dramaturg.
In addition to in-person performances, Harlem Stage will present digital streams of its 2021 live performances, including encores of the Bryant Park/Bank of America Picnic Performances (January 22-31) and Carnegie Hall Afrofuturism Festival (February 19-28) and last year’s Uptown Nights performances by Natu Camara (February 5-14), Matthew Whitaker (March 26-April 4), and Vuyo Sotashe and Chris Pattishall (May 7-16), along with music from The Sole’s Partido (June 18-27).
For more information, visit HarlemStage.org.
