In conjunction with Place, part of the Next Wave Festival at the BAM Harvey Theater, Oct 11-13, 2018
How do we make sense of the place(s) where we live? What are the contortions we put ourselves through to justify ownership of places? What happens when the desire for expansion by some causes displacement for others? In Place, a modern-day oratorio, composer Ted Hearne brings personal questions of home and place-making in dialogue with a larger historical framework provided by spoken word artist Saul Williams and director Patricia McGregor. The three are joined in dialogue by moderator Brian Vines (BRIC TV’s Senior Correspondent) to explore how these questions manifest in Brooklyn, and how they were investigated in the upcoming production in BAM’s Next Wave Festival.
Bios:
Ted Hearne (b.1982, Chicago) is a composer, singer, bandleader and recording artist noted for his “pan-stylistic freedom” (Pitchfork) and “tough edge and wildness of spirit” (The New York Times), who “writes with such technical assurance and imaginative scope” (San Francisco Chronicle). Hearne's Sound From the Bench, a cantata for choir, electric guitars and drums setting texts from U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments, was a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize. The New York Times included Hearne’s oratorio The Source on its list of the best classical vocal performances of 2014, and (along with The New Yorker and The Nation) the best albums of 2015. Alex Ross wrote in The New Yorker "Hearne's piece holds up as a complex mirror image of an information-saturated, mass-surveillance world, and remains staggering in its impact." Pitchfork called The Source "some of the most expressive socially engaged music in recent memory — from any genre." Law of Mosaics, Hearne’s 30-minute piece for string orchestra, was recently performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and San Francisco Symphony, and was named one of The New Yorker’s most notable albums of 2014 by Alex Ross. Hearne performs with Philip White as the vocal-electronics duo R WE WHO R WE. His works have been conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas, John Adams and Gustavo Dudamel. Recent collaborations have paired him with poet Jena Osman, director Daniel Fish and legendary musician Erykah Badu.
Patricia McGregor is a director and writer from St. Croix, US Virgin Islands. She has twice been profiled by The New York Times for her work. Recent credits include the world premiere of Lights Out: Nat “King” Cole (People’s Light, upcoming Geffen Theater), Skeleton Crew (Studio Theater, Geffen Theater), world premiere of Good Grief (Center Theater Group), Measure for Measure (The Old Globe), The Parchman Hour (Guthrie Theater), Hamlet (The Public Theater), NY premier of Ugly Lies the Bone (Roundabout Theatre Company), NY premier of brownsville song (b-side for tray) (Lincoln Center Theater), world premiere of Stagger Lee (Dallas Theater Center), world premiere of Hurt Village (Signature Theatre Company), and productions of A Raisin in the Sun, The Winter’s Tale, and Spunk (Cal Shakes). Other credits include: Becky Shaw, Adoration of the Old Woman, Blood Dazzler, Holding It Down, Four Electric Ghosts, Nothing Personal, and The House That Will Not Stand and Indominatable: James Brown. She served as consultant for J Cole’s 4 Your Eyez Only tour AD of Fela! on Broadway. For several years she has directed The 24 Hour Plays on Broadway. McGregor is co-founder of Angela’s Pulse with her artist/activist sister Paloma McGregor, a Usual Suspect at New York Theatre Workshop, and was a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow at Yale School of Drama, where she served as artistic director of the Yale Cabaret.
Saul Williams came to worldwide attention as a writer and performer with his debut film, SLAM (directed by Marc Levin), winning Sundance's Grand Jury Prize and Cannes Camera D'Or in 1998 and introducing the world to the phenomenon of slam poetry. As a musician his albums, which have featured genre-bending collaborations with producers Rick Rubin and Trent Reznor, ushered in Brooklyn's Afro-Punk movement. Williams has also collaborated with Swiss composer Thomas Kessler on two symphonies based on two books of his poems and has performed as a poet and performer in over 40 countries and hundreds of universities. In 2013 Williams became the first African-American to win best actor in the largest and oldest African film festival, FESPACO, in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso for his work in the L'Etalon d'Or prize-winning film TEY (directed by Alain Gomis). He is currently working on a multimedia project in connection with his forthcoming graphic novel MartyrLoserKing.
Brian Vines is an Emmy Award winning journalist. After completing the Masters Program in Broadcast Journalism at Boston University’s College of Communication, he fetched coffee for some of the most respected journalists and news figures in the world during his tenure at CNN. After a stint in political communications Brian fell in love with his own reflection and reported for here! networks, NYC-TV, and the Guardian US among others. Brian is currently the Chief Correspondent at BRIC TV where he moderates the #BHeard Town Hall series on social justice and hosts Going In With Brian Vines.
Venue Information:
The Stoop at BRIC House is a public cultural gathering space featuring free, drop-in programming, and offering a place to sit, observe, and participate in multi-disciplinary work.
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