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August 12, 2021
Restart Stages Comes to a Close This September with The Metropolitan Opera Summer HD Festival, Big Umbrella Outdoors, and Artistic Performances Celebrating Civil Rights Leaders and NYC Dance History
Lincoln Center News
Restart Stages Comes to a Close this September with
The Metropolitan Opera Summer HD Festival,
Big Umbrella Outdoors, and Artistic Performances Celebrating
Civil Rights Leaders and NYC Dance History
Highlights include:
—The Metropolitan Opera’s Summer HD Festival, featuring 10 opera screenings from the company’s acclaimed Live in HD series, and a special pre-festival screening of Susan Froemke’s acclaimed documentary The Opera House
—Big Umbrella Outdoors, a three-day festival of art, theater, dance, and music for audiences with autism and developmental disabilities
—Mahogany L. Browne, Lincoln Center’s first ever poet-in-residence, concludes her curation of “We Are The Work” with How The Work Begins: A Revolutionary Concert, an evening of musical performances, poetry readings, film screenings, and discussion, and Racial Justice: A Writing Workshop
—Buglisi Dance Theatre and Lincoln Center, in partnership with Dance/NYC, honor the 20th year since the events of 9/11 with a livestreamed performance of Table of Silence Project 9/11
—Faces of the Hero, the transatlantic art exhibition in collaboration with the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, on display
—First live public performance of The Baptism with Carl Hancock Rux, The Resistance Revival Chorus, with music by Meshell Ndegeocello and imagery by Carrie Mae Weems, to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the passing of civil rights leaders John Lewis and C.T. Vivian
—NYC breakdancing crew The Dynamic Rockers battle the Supreme Beings Crew, honoring an iconic 40-year Lincoln Center breaking battle anniversary, presented in collaboration with The KBL Foundation
—Sancocho, a musical theater work starring, conceived and co-written by Rhina Valentin, with jazz performance by Jenn Jade Ledesna, bachatera Andre Veloz, tap dancer Michela Marino Lerman and la ballerina Elisa Toro Franky
—The Williamsburg Salsa Orchestra performs traditional salsa and contemporary pop hits in their first performance since the pandemic
—New York City premiere and live performance of Kaki King’s newest album Modern Yesterdays
—WeFreeStrings free jazz performance with avant-garde bandleader and composer Amirtha Kidambi, presented in collaboration with Continuum and Soup & Sound Around
—Drew Dollaz’s Imperfect blends breakdancing, ballet, and modern dance in a new piece about the impact of bullying
—Mimi Lien’s participatory public art installation The GREEN remains open to the public daily through September 6
—The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts’ Outdoor Reading Room open daily
—Free tickets can be reserved through the TodayTix Lottery, Official Ticketing Partner of Restart Stages, or through Lincoln Center Guest Services, with additional free tickets available at the event, first-come, first-served
—Additional surprise Pop-Up performances of music, dance, art, and family workshops, and more to take place across campus
—Restart Stages is part of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation-Lincoln Center Agora Initiative
NEW YORK, NY (August 12, 2021) – Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts today announced artistic works celebrating iconic civil rights leaders, accessibility in the arts, and the rich history of dance in New York City coming to Restart Stages this September—the outdoor performing arts center created to champion the revival and recovery of New York City arts.
Lincoln Center’s 10 outdoor performance and rehearsal spaces and civic venues continue to be activated by artists, arts organizations, students and many more from across its campus and the five boroughs, bolstering the resurgence of the city’s artistic life.
“Throughout the summer, Restart Stages has offered hundreds and hundreds of performances and other activations for New Yorkers to begin to connect with one other again, come together through art, and support our collective cultural and economic recovery,” said Henry Timms, President and CEO of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. “It is such an honor to work with all of the organizations on campus and so many partners from around the city.”
Restart Stages at Lincoln Center is made possible through the generous support of the Lincoln Center Board of Directors and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) as part of the SNF-Lincoln Center Agora Initiative, a collaboration bringing new approaches in cultural engagement to public spaces.
This month, Big Umbrella Outdoors welcomes young audiences with autism and other developmental disabilities and their families for a weekend of music, theater, art, and dance. Events include a performance from E.P.I.C. Players, a neurodiverse theatre company; Écourte pour voir with Danse Carpe Diem/Emmanuel Jouth and Ballet For All Kids; Silent Disco featuring Music: Not Impossible for teens and young adults; and interactive installations for children and families including Squonk’s Big Hands for Big Umbrella immersive experience; a sonic soundscape from Swingset Drumkit; sensory sculpture OrchidsPlayscape; and Sun Runners, a virtual at home experience by Audioplay & Windmill Theatre Company. For tickets and more information, visit LincolnCenter.org/BigUmbrella.
The 3-day festival is an extension of the 2018 Big Umbrella Festival, an international endeavor that offered performances across New York City for children on the autism spectrum, and gathered arts professionals from across the globe to share best practices on serving these unique audiences. The 2018 festival, which took place during Autism Acceptance Month, was the first of its kind dedicated to arts programs for young people on the spectrum and their families.
Mahogany L. Browne, Lincoln Center’s first ever poet-in-residence, concludes her impactful “We Are The Work” residency in September, curating a thought-provoking program of dance, music, poetry, and film for How the Work Begins: A Revolutionary Concert. Alongside new work created by Browne over the course of her residency, the show includes a collaboration with artist and choreographer Hope Boykin, and performances by The Resistance Revival Chorus and DJ Jive Poetic. Readings by poets Jon Sands, Sarah Kay, Gia Kagan Trenchard, and Cyrus Aaron will be followed by a screening of the documentary film Dispatches From Cleveland. Browne’s celebration of poetry as a force for positive change continues with Racial Justice: A Writing Workshop and open mic for ages 15 and up. Readings include Browne, Barbara Fant, and poets from the New York Curriculum Collective, plus free giveaways of fresh produce from Seeds in the Middle, Sound Bowl Meditation with BK Yoga Club and live art featuring artists from Silenced Project, courtesy of Zealous.
A special event on September 12 commemorates the July one-year anniversary of the passing of civil rights leaders John Lewis and C.T. Vivian. Audiences can experience the first live public performance of the Lincoln Center commission The Baptism featuring performances by multi-hyphenate artist Carl Hancock Rux, The Resistance Revival Chorus, guitarist Christopher Bruce, with music by Meshell Ndegeocello and imagery by Carrie Mae Weems. The performance and screening of The Baptism will be followed by a panel discussion on the role of the arts in helping us grapple with critical issues and move our society forward.
Forty years ago, Lincoln Center became among the first major institutions to formally recognize the art of breakdancing, hosting a battle between the two biggest breaking crews in New York City – The Dynamic Rockers and the Rock Steady Crew – that proved to be a breakthrough moment for the art form in mainstream awareness. Honoring this battle anniversary, The Dynamic Rockers will battle Queens-based Supreme Beings Crew, judged and emceed by NYC breakdance legends, with producer DJ Fleg. The event is presented in collaboration with The KBL Foundation.
Now on display through September on the Lincoln Center campus is Faces of the Hero, a transatlantic art exhibition examining the meaning of a “hero” and “heroism” through time, a partnership with the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) in Athens. The project is the inaugural collaboration of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation-Lincoln Center Agora Initiative. The exhibit features eclectic interpretations of heroism from students at the Parsons School of Design in New York and the Athens School of Fine Arts.
Audiences can enjoy relaxing moments on The GREEN, the participatory public art installation on Josie Robertson Plaza, until September 6 and spend a few reflective moments with a book at the Outdoor Reading Room, created by the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. New Yorkers may also come across surprise Pop-Up performances in full swing on The GREEN and across campus including special activities for families and children of all ages.
Lincoln Center is continuing its commitment to civic and community service at Restart Stages and beyond. Lincoln Center is once again partnering with Food Bank For New York City on September 14, during Hunger Action Month, for a free community food distribution. Lincoln Center has also partnered with the New York Blood Center to address the critical shortage in NYC and with the City’s new mobile vaccination buses to serve New Yorkers alongside the Campus. In June, the David Rubenstein Atrium served as a designated primary election polling place, in partnership with the Board of Elections, and the Campus hosted public school graduations for over 3,000 graduates and their families from more than fifteen schools from across the city. Additional food distributions, blood drives, and community-related events will be announced in the coming months.
There are two ways to get seats for September’s Restart Stages events. Performances are open to general admission. Beginning 10 minutes before the show, non-ticketed guests will be invited to claim any available seats, first-come-first served. At select shows in Damrosch Park, over 1,000 free seats per performance will be available for general admission. Assigned seats will be made available through the TodayTix Lottery, the Official Ticketing Partner of Restart Stages. The TodayTix Lottery will open for entries two weeks before the performance and close three days prior to the performance at 12:59 p.m. EDT. Attendees who secure tickets will be required to follow safety protocols. Enter the Lottery through the TodayTix app. For those without access to the app, please call Lincoln Center Guest Services at 212-875-5456 to reserve.*
Select Restart Stages events will be live streamed on Lincoln Center and partner organization digital platforms, increasing access nationally and internationally, well beyond those able to travel to the physical campus.
All performances occur outdoors with health and safety protocols designed in consultation with medical advisors and state guidelines.
Restart Stages is developed in coordination with NY PopsUp, part of Governor Cuomo’s New York Arts Revival, in a partnership to help extend reach of the initiative far beyond Lincoln Center’s campus.
Accessible seating for Restart Stages is available. For all Restart Stages family programs, social narratives describing entry and seating through images will be available. These are designed for neurodiverse families preparing for new experiences. Assistive listening devices with headsets and neck loops are available. American Sign Language, captioning and live audio description are available for select performances upon request.
*No purchase is necessary to enter the TodayTix Lottery and reserve free tickets for these August performances. The prize value of tickets is $0. The odds of winning tickets depend on the number of eligible entries received. The TodayTix Lottery is open to residents of the 50 United States and D.C., age 18 or over. Complete official rules, prize description, and giveaway entry information will be available on the TodayTix website at TodayTix.com.
Visit RestartStages.org for updates.
Photos and assets are available here.
***In person press opportunities for Restart Stages are very limited due to mandatory safety protocols and must be arranged in advance with the Lincoln Center Press Office***
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Restart Stages at Lincoln Center Event Schedule
Friday, August 27 – Sunday, September 19
Friday, August 27 at 8:00 pm
The Restart Stage at Damrosch Park
The Metropolitan Opera Summer HD Festival: The Opera House
In this documentary, award-winning filmmaker Susan Froemke explores the creation of the Metropolitan Opera’s storied Lincoln Center home. Drawing on rarely seen archival footage, stills, and recent interviews, The Opera House looks at an important period of the Met’s history and delves into some of the untold stories of the artists, architects, and politicians who shaped the cultural life of New York City in the ’50s and ’60s. Among the notable figures in the film are famed soprano Leontyne Price, who opened the new Met in 1966 in Samuel Barber’s Antony and Cleopatra; Rudolf Bing, the Met’s imperious General Manager who engineered the move from the old house to the new one; Robert Moses, the unstoppable city planner who bulldozed an entire neighborhood to make room for Lincoln Center; and Wallace Harrison, whose quest for architectural glory was never fully realized.
Saturday, August 28 at 7:30 pm
The Restart Stage at Damrosch Park
The Metropolitan Opera Summer HD Festival: Verdi’s La Traviata
Any new Met production of Verdi’s beloved tragedy La Traviata would be noteworthy, but Michael Mayer’s dazzling staging, which premiered during the 2018–19 season, was doubly significant as it marked Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s first performances as the Met’s Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director. On the podium for this Live in HD transmission, Nézet-Séguin leads a starry ensemble. As Violetta, the consumptive heroine fighting to find true happiness, soprano Diana Damrau delivers yet another compelling portrayal on the Met stage. Tenor Juan Diego Flórez sings his first Verdi role with the company, as Violetta’s ardent yet impetuous lover, Alfredo, and baritone Quinn Kelsey rounds out the principal cast as Giorgio Germont, Alfredo’s implacable father.
Sunday, August 29 at 7:30 pm
The Restart Stage at Damrosch Park
The Metropolitan Opera Summer HD Festival: Verdi’s Otello
Tony Award-winner Bartlett Sher’s bold production probes the psychological underpinnings of Verdi’s dynamic Shakespeare adaptation. At the helm of this performance is maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who brings out all the cascading emotions in Verdi’s turbulent score. Tenor Aleksandrs Antonenko sings the title role of the triumphant general who is ultimately brought down by the sly insinuations of his friend Iago (baritone Željko Lucic). Soprano Sonya Yoncheva gives a heartrending performance as Desdemona, Otello’s faithful and long-suffering wife.
Monday, August 30 at 7:00 pm
The Restart Stage at Damrosch Park
The Metropolitan Opera Summer HD Festival: Philip Glass’s Satyagraha
Following the success of Philip Glass’s first foray into opera, Einstein on the Beach, the revolutionary American composer soon turned to another great figure of the 20th century for inspiration. Set to lines from the Bhagavad Gita, Satyagraha depicts scenes from the life of Mahatma Gandhi as he developed his philosophy of non-violent resistance in South Africa between 1896 and 1913. Satyagraha arrived at the Met during the 2007–08 season, with director Phelim McDermott making his company debut with a production that employs everyday materials like newspaper and corrugated tin to create towering puppets and striking tableaux. In this 2011 performance, tenor Richard Croft gives a moving performance as Gandhi, leading a remarkable ensemble cast conducted by Dante Anzolini.
Tuesday, August 31 at 7:30 pm
The Restart Stage at Damrosch Park
The Metropolitan Opera Summer HD Festival: Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer
In March 2020, the Met was forced to cancel the remainder of the 2019–20 season due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The decision also meant ending the Live in HD season early, only days before a scheduled transmission of François Girard’s stirring new production of Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer. Fortunately, as part of regular preparations for an HD broadcast, the preceding performance of the opera was recorded as a camera rehearsal. In this high-definition “scratch taping,” conductor Valery Gergiev is on the podium for Wagner’s eerie ghost story. Bass-baritone Evgeny Nikitin delivers a commanding performance in the title role, opposite soprano Anja Kampe in her Met debut as Senta.
Wednesday, September 1 at 7:30 pm
The Restart Stage at Damrosch Park
The Metropolitan Opera Summer HD Festival: Nico Muhly’s Marnie
Based on Winston Graham’s gripping 1961 novel of intrigue and deception, Nico Muhly’s new opera, with libretto by Nicholas Wright, had its United States premiere at the Met during the 2018–19 season. In this performance, mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard stars in the elusive title role, a young con woman who employs myriad false identities until she meets her match in the imperious Mark Rutland, sung by baritone Christopher Maltman. Director Michael Mayer’s cinematic production bursts to life in vivid color and features ravishing, ’60s-inspired costumes by Oscar-nominated designer and stylist Arianne Phillips. Robert Spano conducts.
Thursday, September 2 at 5:30 pm
The GREEN
Preeti Vasudevan's Thresh: Stories by Hand / L'Orient
The works of award-winning choreographer and performer Preeti Vasudevan create a provocative dialogue between western contemporary forms and her Indian traditions. As Founder & Artistic Director of NY-based performing arts nonprofit Thresh, she creates experimental productions that foster a provocative dialogue on identity and cultural heritage. Vasudevan returns to Lincoln Center with a socially conscious, site-specific showcase including an excerpt of her solo “Stories by Hand,” an exploration of a woman's identity by way of the displacement of gestures affected by memory; and excerpts from “L’Orient,” a dance opera-in-development, created by Vasudevan, composer Kamala Sankaram, and librettist Catherine Filloux, based on the 19th-century French opera, Lakmé.
Thursday, September 2 at 7:30 pm
The Restart Stage at Damrosch Park
The Metropolitan Opera Summer HD Festival: Berg’s Wozzeck
During the 2019–20 season, Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin took the podium to lead a powerful new production of Berg’s captivating masterpiece Wozzeck, directed by innovative artist, filmmaker, and director William Kentridge. In this performance, baritone Peter Mattei stars as the title character, making his role debut as the tormented soldier whose madness and paranoia ultimately drive him to murder, opposite soprano Elza van den Heever as his dissatisfied lover, Marie.
Friday, September 3 at 7:00 pm
The Restart Stage at Damrosch Park
The Metropolitan Opera Summer HD Festival: Massenet’s Manon
In 2012, star soprano Anna Netrebko scored a triumph in Laurent Pelly’s acclaimed production of Massenet’s sensual drama, singing the title heroine for the first time at the Met. Manon’s story—from innocent country girl to celebrated courtesan to destitute prisoner—is one of the great tragic tales in literature and music, and this performance brings out all of its colors, as seen through Massenet’s masterful score. Piotr Beczala is des Grieux, Manon’s lover, who decides to become a priest when she leaves him, but ultimately is reunited with her, only to lose her again. Fabio Luisi conducts.
Saturday, September 4 at 1:00 pm
The Deck
We Are the Work, Racial Justice: A Writing Workshop
Hosted by Lincoln Center Poet-in-Residence Mahogany L. Browne
Brooklyn’s own Mahogany L. Browne, the renowned author and community organizer, curates a thought-provoking afternoon program of politically driven spoken word poetry and creative instruction titled Racial Justice: A Writing Workshop, continuing her ongoing engagement as Lincoln Center’s first-ever Poet-in-Residence. The workshop includes Sound Bowl Meditations with BK Yoga Club, a Live Art Walk by Silenced & Zealous, and a curated open mic reading with Browne, Barbara Fant, and poets from the New York Curriculum Collective: AHJN, Exalt Youth NYC, JustMedia, Rehabilitation Through The Arts, and Urban Word NYC. Local healthy eating organization Seeds in the Middle will be offering free giveaways of fresh produce to all attendees throughout the afternoon.
Saturday, September 4 at 7:00 pm
The Restart Stage at Damrosch Park
The Metropolitan Opera Summer HD Festival: Mozart’s Così fan tutte
In this new production of Mozart’s effervescent comedy of young love and infidelity, director Phelim McDermott and his team of designers have updated the opera’s setting to a boardwalk amusement park inspired by Coney Island in the 1950s. The result is a twisted playground in which the two pairs of lovers at the heart of the tale find themselves on one emotional, and sometimes literal, thrill ride after another. The performance features a cast of breakout young artists—soprano Amanda Majeski, mezzo-soprano Serena Malfi, tenor Ben Bliss, and bass-baritone Adam Plachetka. Baritone Christopher Maltman, as the scheming Don Alfonso, and Tony Award–winning actress Kelli O’Hara, as his accomplice Despina, join the quartet of rising stars. David Robertson conducts.
Sunday, September 5 at 7:30 pm
The Restart Stage at Damrosch Park
The Metropolitan Opera Summer HD Festival: Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment
With one virtuosic vocal display after another, Donizetti’s charming romantic comedy has long served to showcase talented bel canto singers on the Met stage. This tradition continued during the 2018–19 season, when soprano Pretty Yende and tenor Javier Camarena thrilled audiences as the smitten young lovers Marie and Tonio. Yende offers an exuberant portrayal in the title role, while Camarena serves up nine effortless high Cs in the opera’s famous aria “Ah! Mes amis … Pour mon âme”—a feat which he encores by audience demand. Enrique Mazzola conducts Laurent Pelly’s witty and heartwarming production, which also stars mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe as the overbearing Marquise of Berkenfield, bass-baritone Maurizio Muraro as Sgt. Sulpice, and award-winning actress Kathleen Turner in a featured cameo appearance as the Duchess of Krakenthorp.
Monday, September 6 at 7:30 pm
The Restart Stage at Damrosch Park
The Metropolitan Opera Summer HD Festival: Verdi’s Il Trovatore
An extraordinary cast came together for the first Live in HD transmission of the Met’s 2015–16 season. Soprano Anna Netrebko is Leonora, the young noblewoman at the center of the story, who is in love with the troubadour of the title—tenor Yonghoon Lee—but also pursued by Count di Luna, sung by the great baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Dolora Zajick completes the quartet of principals in her signature role of Azucena, the mysterious Gypsy woman who sets the dramatic events in motion. Marco Armiliato conducts David McVicar’s Goya-inspired production.
Wednesday, September 8 at 7:00 pm
The Isabel and Peter Malkin Stage at Hearst Plaza
Williamsburg Salsa Orchestra
The Williamsburg Salsa Orchestra, featuring Solange Prat, is a young, vibrant, eleven-piece combo out of Brooklyn that preserves the authentic pop and groove of NYC's traditional salsa scene, but revitalizes that sound for a new audience with hybrid English-Spanish vocals and a broad catalogue of covers that embraces the work of The Cure, Fiona Apple, The Black Keys and The White Stripes. WSO’s sharp musical chops and sexy live dance performance makes for an experience that's earned respect from salsa traditionalists while providing an easy point of entry for younger newcomers to the genre. Originally scheduled to play Lincoln Center's David Rubenstein Atrium back in 2020, this evening’s concert will be the Orchestra’s first main stage show since the pandemic.
Friday, September 10 at 6:30 pm and 8:00 pm
The Isabel and Peter Malkin Stage at Hearst Plaza
IMPERFECT featuring Drew Dollaz and Steve Connell
Brooklyn choreographer/dancer Drew Dollaz is a champion of Flexin’, a gracefully flowing and near-impossibly elastic amalgam of street dance, ballet, and modern performance. His newly choreographed small ensemble work, IMPERFECT, commissioned in collaboration with Harlem Stage, is anchored by original works by spoken word artist Steve Connell with creative direction by dance theater director Chisa Yamaguchi. Inspired by a social media campaign to address the rampant effects of bullying and trauma, IMPERFECT, a double entendre of “I’m perfect” and “imperfect,” is a multidisciplinary work that considers how these profound scars can perpetuate deep divisions but just as trauma can be biologically inherited, so too can resilience.
*IMPERFECT was created and developed through Harlem Stage’s Fund for New Work Program. Fund for New Work is supported by the Jerome Foundation. Additional support for the development of IMPERFECT is provided by the Mertz-Gilmore Foundation and their Late Stage Stipend grant.
Supported by Jonah Bokaer Arts Foundation's Artist-In-Residence Program.
Friday, September 10 at 7:00 pm
The Restart Stage at Damrosch Park
How the Work Begins: A Revolutionary Concert
Hosted by Lincoln Center Poet-in-Residence, Mahogany L. Browne
Brooklyn’s own Mahogany L. Browne, the renowned writer, social justice advocate, and community organizer, curates a thought-provoking program of music and poetry titled How the Work Begins as a culmination of her ongoing engagement as Lincoln Center’s first-ever Poet-in-Residence. The evening begins with a movement piece created in collaboration with artist and choreographer Hope Boykin, and includes performances by DJ Jive Poetic and the beloved all-woman Resistance Revival Chorus, plus readings by poets Jon Sands, Sarah Kay, Gia Kagan Trenchard, and Cyrus Aaron. The evening also features a panel discussion with Daveen Trentman (Soze Agency), Alejo Rodriguez (Zealous), and EbonyJanice Moore (Black Girl Mixtape), plus a screening of the documentary Dispatches From Cleveland. Audiences will enter through a Live Art Walk by Silenced & Zealous.
Saturday, September 11 at 8:00 am
Josie Robertson Plaza
Table of Silence Project 9/11 –Live stream event only
Presented by Lincoln Center and Buglisi Dance Theatre, in partnership with Dance/NYC
Buglisi Dance Theatre and Lincoln Center, in partnership with Dance/NYC, honor the 20th year since the events of 9/11, and current crises that face humanity today, with a livestreamed performance of the Table of Silence Project 9/11, the annual public ritual for peace conceived and choreographed in 2011 by Jacqulyn Buglisi, Artistic Director of Buglisi Dance Theatre.
The socially distanced performance will begin this year with an excerpt of Ms. Buglisi’s masterwork Requiem, created in 2001 as an immediate response to 9/11. Premiering in the shadow of tragedy, Requiem became a vehicle for collective healing. For the 2021 Table of Silence Project 9/11, the original 10-foot-long silk costumes in vibrant reds, golds and greens will be transformed by costume designer Elena Comendador into tones of alchemic white and silver, to recall the ashes, purity and sacredness of the lost souls remembered on this anniversary.
The livestream will also include:
* the World Premiere of Études II, a film by Nel Shelby Productions that features dancers from around the world in movement stories inspired by the twelve repetitive sacred gestures of the Table of Silence Project; and
* the full presentation of the 2019 Table of Silence Project 9/11, a public tribute to the events of 9/11 and a call to action for peace in our world.
Saturday, September 11 at 7:00 pm
The Isabel and Peter Malkin Stage at Hearst Plaza
WeFreeStrings and Amirtha Kidambi
Presented in collaboration with Continuum Culture & Arts’ Soup & Sound Around Series
Andrew Drury started the Soup & Sound series to provide an intimate concert experience for adventurous artists and listeners from around the world. This fall, Soup & Sound Around presents a series of live and online shows that place high-level performance in public and cultural centers around Brooklyn, often in the artist’s immediate neighborhood, providing situational context and representation for their creative work. Their season kicks off with WeFreeStrings and Amirtha Kidambi at Restart Stages. WeFreeStrings is a string and percussion quintet exploring the intersection of free jazz and Afro-Atlantic heritage. A vocalist trained in Western Classical, Jazz, and South Indian Carnatic music, Amirtha Kidambi is an acclaimed avant-garde instrumentalist, composer, and bandleader.
Saturday, September 11 at 8:00 pm
The Restart Stage at Damrosch Park
The Dynamic Rockers versus the Supreme Beings Crew
Presented in collaboration with The KBL Foundation
Way back in 1981, Lincoln Center became among the first major institutions to formally recognize the urban art of breakdancing, one of the foundational elements of hip hop, by hosting a dance-off between two local rival crews, The Dynamic Rockers and the Rock Steady Crew. Forty years later, with breaking equally respected from the streets to the Broadway stage and the Olympics, we revisit those early glory days with the current members of The Dynamic Rockers defending their home turf against the Queens-based Supreme Beings Crew from across the River. World famous producer DJ Fleg will oversee the battle with classic and modern rap tracks. Add in a roster of NYC breakdance legends as judges and emcees and you’ve got an anniversary evening that no self-respecting old school head could afford to miss.
Sunday, September 12 at 8:00 pm
The Restart Stage at Damrosch Park
To Be Baptized: A Performance Tribute to John Lewis and C. T. Vivian
Written by Carl Hancock Rux
Directed by Carrie Mae Weems
Music by Meshell Ndegeocello
Live Performance by Rux, Christopher Bruce and The Resistance Revival Chorus
Featuring a screening of The Baptism
To honor the one-year anniversary of the passing of the civil rights leaders John Lewis and C.T. Vivian this past July, this celebration of civic engagement begins with the poet-performer Carl Hancock Rux, guitarist Chris Bruce, and The Resistance Revival Chorus performing Rux’s The Baptism live over a projection of director Carrie Mae Weems’ moving images. The Baptism is a Lincoln Center commission that Rux and Weems with songwriter Meshell Ndegeocello crafted to honor Lewis and Vivian. The event continues with a panel discussion considering the power and responsibilities of contemporary American citizenhood and the role of the arts in helping us grapple with critical issues and move our society forward.
Tuesday, September 14 at 8:00 pm
The Restart Stage at Damrosch Park
Kaki King: Modern Yesterdays
Hailed by Rolling Stone as “a genre unto herself,” Kaki King presents Modern Yesterdays. With technicolor imagination, technical wizardry, and carefully choreographed guitar and drum playing, Kaki King bridges future-forward modernity with contemplative longing. Modern Yesterdays sends us on an audiovisual journey reset by our recent past, arriving at the emotional place we yearn to visit.
The album Modern Yesterdays was released in late 2020 on Cantaloupe Music, recorded in New York City. It is Kaki King's first full-length studio project since the 2015 release of The Neck Is A Bridge to the Body. This upcoming Lincoln Center performance by Kaki King's will be the New York City premiere for both the album release and live performance of Modern Yesterdays.
Wednesday, September 15 at 8:00 pm
The Restart Stage at Damrosch Park
A Night with Deaf Broadway
Presented by Deaf Broadway
Garrett Zuercher co-founded Deaf Broadway during the pandemic in response to his experience viewing streamed theater performances as a profoundly Deaf person. Captioned streams often poorly presented the work of lyrically complex musicals, watering down the nuances of the original language and acting. Picking up the gauntlet, he and his team began producing American Sign Language interfaces to previously filmed productions of popular musicals. On September 15, Deaf Broadway is taking it off screen to Restart Stages—performing selections from Stephen Sondheim's smash hit, Into the Woods, in American Sign Language with a cast of 10 Deaf actors.
Thursday, September 16 at 8:00 pm
The Restart Stage at Damrosch Park
Sancocho
Narrated/Hosted by Rhina Valentin
Featuring the mixed blends of Jazz Soulstress Jenn Jade Ledesna, Bachatera Andre Veloz, Tap Dance Sensation Michela Marino Lerman, and La Ballerina Elisa Toro Franky
Written by Rhina Valentin and Ivelisse Rodríguez
For Sancocho, a musical theater work starring, conceived, and co-written by Rhina Valentin, the Latin American and Caribbean culinary community is personified by way of the titular meat and vegetable stew that serves as both Rhina's personal COVID coping mechanism and the play's central metaphor. Throughout lockdown, Valentin would whip up a weekly batch ofsancocho while contemplating the dish's gustatory and historically rich flavor. Featuring an all-woman Latinx cast and a four-piece band, Sancocho brings Valentin's experience to vibrant life in a celebration of the power of ancestry and food as medicine alongside the artistry of jazz soulstress Jenn Jade Ledesna, bachatera Andre Veloz, tap dance sensation Michela Marino Lerman, and la ballerina Elisa Toro Franky.
Friday, September 17 – Sunday, September 19
Big Umbrella Outdoors
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts welcomes young audiences with autism and other developmental disabilities and their families to Big Umbrella Outdoors for a weekend of programming. Big Umbrella Outdoors kicks off with a special event at 6 pm on Friday, September 17, welcoming teens and young adults for an evening of art, dance and music activities including neurodiverse theatre company E.P.I.C Players and a Silent Disco featuring Music: Not Possible.
Children and their families are invited to experience the festival on Saturday and Sunday in a two-hour ticketed window that begins at 11 am and 2:30 pm, with identical offerings. Each visit begins and ends with a live performance, with time between for attendees to choose and explore additional interactive installations: Squonk’s Big Hands for a Big Umbrella immersive experience; a sonic soundscape from Swingset Drumkit; sensory sculpture OrchidsPlayscape; as well as music and dance performances featuring artists with disabilities.
In addition, an at-home, action-packed experience for kids, Audioplay & Windmill Theatre Company’s Sun Runners: An Intergalactic Audio Adventure, will be available at LincolnCenter.org/BigUmbrella from September 13-26, 2021.
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About Restart Stages
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is spearheading Restart Stages, a sweeping initiative creating 10 outdoor performance and rehearsal spaces—an outdoor performing arts center—as well as other civic venues to help kickstart the performing arts sector and contribute to the revival of New York City.
As one of New York City’s leading arts institutions and an anchor of its cultural and public life, Lincoln Center is embarking on this effort as a symbol of its commitment to the city and to an equitable revitalization that elevates all New Yorkers. Restart Stages is a major, public-facing component of its broader effort to provide resources in this moment not just to Lincoln Center’s resident companies, but to the performing arts community as a whole — helping get artists back to work and supporting institutions from Brooklyn to the Bronx to engage their communities in the elevating power of the arts.
Restart Stages launched on World Health Day, April 7, with a special performance for healthcare workers. It has continued with pop-up performances by ensembles from The Juilliard School, Passion Fruit Dance Company/Tatiana Desardouin in collaboration with Works & Process, the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, and puppeteer Basil Twist. Many art installations have called the Lincoln Center campus home during Restart Stages, including “We Belong Here” by Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary artist, Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya.
Since the pandemic began, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts has driven efforts to bring the power of the arts to New Yorkers in person and digitally—from Love From Lincoln Center concerts for individual essential workers to works of art that elevate the voices and lived experiences of people of color in America, such as Carrie Mae Weems’ installation Resist COVID/Take 6!, Davóne Tines’ Vigil, and digital commissions like The Baptism by Carl Hancock Rux. International collaborations with the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center in Athens (SNFCC), including the transatlantic art exhibition Faces of the Hero, bring new approaches to cultural engagement in both cities. These are just the beginning of a reorientation towards prioritizing openness, access, and inclusive excellence—elevating talent from every corner of the globe and fostering a sense of radical welcome on the campus.
About Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is the steward of the world’s leading performing arts center, an artistic and civic cornerstone for New York City comprised of eleven resident companies on a 16-acre campus. The nonprofit’s strategic priorities include: supporting the arts organizations that call Lincoln Center home to realize their missions and fostering opportunities for collaboration across campus; championing inclusion and increasing the accessibility and reach of Lincoln Center’s work; and reimagining and strengthening the performing arts for the 21st century and beyond, helping ensure their rightful place at the center of civic life.
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Table of Silence 9/11 is made possible by Jody and John Arnhold and the Arnhold Dance Innovation Fund
The Summer HD Festival is generously supported by The Robert W. Wilson Charitable Trust
Lincoln Center accessibility programming is made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Taft Foundation, The FAR Fund, Kenneth Goldman Donor Fund and The Megara Foundation
Programming for Lincoln Center Education is made possible by Sherman Fairchild Foundation, LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Constans Culver Foundation, Alice L. Walton Foundation, Henry and Lucy Moses Fund, Inc., Theodore H. Barth Foundation, The Giants Foundation, Lincoln Center's Education Committee, and Lincoln Center's generous donors and supporters
Restart Stages is made possible by Stavros Niarchos Foundation-Lincoln Center Agora Initiative
Major support provided by First Republic Bank
Additional support provided by BNY Mellon, Cleary Gottlieb, Warburg Pincus, Mitsui & Co. (U.S.A.) Inc., the Scully Peretsman Foundation, Shari and Jeff Aronson, and Lincoln Center’s 20/21 Donors and Members
Endowment support is provided by Oak Foundation, PepsiCo Foundation, The Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Foundation, and Rockefeller Brothers Fund
In-kind support is provided by United Staging and Rigging, Worldstage, Inc., Audio, Inc., Hudson Scenic Studio, and TGIF Event Services
Lincoln Center’s artistic excellence is made possible by the dedication and generosity of our board members
Operation of Lincoln Center’s public plazas is supported in part with public funds provided by the City of New York
Public support for Lincoln Center is provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Gonzalo Casals, Commissioner, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature
NewYork-Presbyterian is the Official Hospital of Lincoln Center
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For more information, please contact:
Isabel Sinistore
212-671-4195
Desiree Naranjo
212-875-5078