Community Dialogues

In Partnership with the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Please join us for a reception at 5:30 PM.

Bill T. Jones, legendary choreographer and artistic director of New York Live Arts joins Elizabeth Alexander, renowned poet, educator, memoirist, scholar, cultural advocate and president of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to discuss the role of the dance arts in preserving the cultural record for a new generation. The conversation will be preceded by a special work-in-progress screening of the anticipated new documentary film, Can You Bring It: Bill T. Jones and D-Man in the Waters (co-dir. Rosalynde LeBlanc, Tom Hurwitz), about a group of dancers who must overcome the physical and emotional challenges required to learn Jones’s 1989 tour-de-force on risk and sacrifice, love, loss, and resurrection.

To celebrate this exciting conversation, we invite you to join us for a pre-chat reception in the Live Arts lobby at 5:30 PM. Please note there is limited capacity for this event. A free reservation does not guarantee entry. Please arrive early. Doors open at 6 PM. Runtime is approximately 2 hours.

Live Arts encourages a culture of respect around our free programming. It’s easy to forget that, in reality, none of our events are “free” to produce. An engaged and supportive community of artists, scholars, foundations, individual donors, government agencies, sponsors, and partners have generously joined in our efforts to make various events accessible to all audiences without charge. We ask audiences to respect this collective effort and simply let us know if you cannot attend.

If you have a reservation, and will not be able to make the event for whatever reason, just let us know at least as soon as you can. You can reach the box office at 212.924.0077 or boxoffice@newyorklivearts.org; we will shower you with thanks and offer your ticket to another member of the community. Thank you for Respecting the Reservation!

Presented as part of Open Spectrum: Ballroom Has Something to Say

5 PM Ballroom: Trans Sounds of Black Freedom
A Lecture / Performance / Discussion exploring the history of the House | Ballroom community as a Black Trans-Womanist theological discourse, a freedom movement, and its spiritual formation responses to race, class, sexuality, and gender oppression. This event examines how a community reimagines itself through Performance, Fashion, and Intentional Kinship. Featuring a lecture from Michael Roberson, Maison-Margiela, and performance from The Reverend Ken Alston, Jr.

Two category competition: Vogue Fem ($1,000 prize) and Arms Control ($500 prize)

Curated by Michael Roberson (theologian, public health practitioner, activist, leader within the LGBTQ and House | Ballroom community, and advisor for the TV show Pose) and presented in partnership with House Lives Matter and the Arbert Santana Ballroom Freedom and Free School Project. Sponsored by The Musagetes Foundation, Health & Education Alternatives for Teens (HEAT), and Callen-Lorde.

COMMENTATOR: precious

DJ: Byrell The Great

JUDGES:

1. FOUNDER TERRA MULAN BALENCIAGA
2. JASON SLIM RODRIQUEZ XXXTRAVAGANZA
3. LEGENDARY NY MOTHER JLIN LANVIN
4. ICON OVERSEER ROSE MAISON-MARGIELA
5. ICON FOUNDER PONY ZION
6. LEGENDARY VOGUER, FATHER RENALDO TISCI
7. ICONIC MOTHER JAZMIN PEREZ REVLON

Curatorial statement from Michael Roberson

Here We Are Again…at the opportunity to create greatness…To remember who We Really Are…To Remember Our Own Greatness…Our Own Divine Greatness…Yet the question remains…How have We evolved??…As individuals…as a community…as a collective…as a people whose creative gifts are shown…and replicated across the globe…all over this world…whose gifts have blessed this Universe in countless ways…Magnificent and Brilliant…whose relentless efforts…and tireless desires have “Made A Way Out of No Way”…And so…How do We evolve…in This Moment and Time when The Universe is begging Us to Be and Remember Our Own Audacity…How do We raise the bar…create new standards…in Our loving…in Our mobilizing…in Our own individual and collective process of self-definition…self-determination…through Our coalition building…Our community service work…on the runway…on the catwalk…on the Piers of New York against a landscape of a city where it all began and now finds itself across the globe…BALLROOM…Be Clear…Be Real Clear…Who We Are is Ballroom

We are such a Wonderful…Beautiful…UnBelievably Brilliant People…Ballroom Rockstars…Freedom Fighters…Radical Scholars…Revolutionary Artists…The Black Church…God in motion…The Universe enacting it’s Magnificence…Fusion Politics…The Radical Theology…Leaders in Our Own Right… And so This is that Moment moving towards the beginning of a new dawn, a new era, a new decade.

Presented as part of Open Spectrum: Ballroom Has Something to Say

Voguing Class co-taught by FX’s Pose cast member Jason A Rodriguez (Vogue New Way) and Ballroom Icon Pony Zion (Vogue Fem).

Open Spectrum provides a space for community dialogue on the most vital issues facing our community today, engaging participants in active listening, constructive discourse and action planning.

Support for Open Spectrum is generously provided by Partners for New Performance

Bill T. Jones in conversation with Elizabeth Diller (world renowned artist/architect of projects including The High Line and The Shed, partner/founder of Diller Scofidio + Renfro) about their collaboration on the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company’s upcoming work premiering in Spring 2020.

Live Arts encourages a culture of respect around our free programming. It’s easy to forget that, in reality, none of our events are “free” to produce. An engaged and supportive community of artists, scholars, foundations, individual donors, government agencies, sponsors, and partners have generously joined in our efforts to make various events accessible to all audiences without charge. We ask audiences to respect this collective effort and simply let us know if you cannot attend.

If you have a reservation, and will not be able to make the event for whatever reason, just let us know at least as soon as you can. You can reach the box office at 212.924.0077 or boxoffice@newyorklivearts.org; we will shower you with thanks and offer your ticket to another member of the community. Thank you for Respecting the Reservation!

Bill Chats: Elizabeth Diller is generously supported by the MacArthur Foundation.