150 Convent Ave
New York
NY 10031
Uptown Nights: Live Radio Play- The Renaissance EP: A Theatrical Mixtape
November 21 – 23, 2019
At Harlem Stage
150 Convent Ave, New York, NY 10031
Combining music, theatre and imaginative foley i.e. beat boxer, The Renaissance EP takes you on an anthropological excavation through time and space to explore the power and legacy of a neighborhood that has been described as the epicenter of Black Culture and the Radical Black Imagination. Think A Prairie Home Companion flipped upside down into a juke joint with Nella Larsen and Langston Hughes in a cypher with a numbers runner, hip hop MC, Earl ‘Fatha’ Hines and Amos and Andy.
Track I: The Return
Written by Nsangou Njikam
Directed by Adesola Osakalumi
With Celestine Rae, Joseph Webb and Nsangou Njikam
A young couple goes to the Apollo Theater, hoping to connect with the Spirit of The Renaissance, thinking it will bring back an energy that’s all but lost. Their plan is to appease and seek the help of Sandman, whose Spirit guards the secrets of the original Renaissance. Before long, they are on a journey that connects them with the beauty and harsh realities of the neighborhood they love. Can they truly bring back a “New Renaissance,” or is Harlem doomed to lose its famed history forever?
Joseph Webb performs a set celebrating the hoofers of the Renaissance. After visiting a poetry reading at the Langston House a young griot in training becomes inspired by the legends of the Harlem Renaissance era. Oscillating between the New Negro Movement and modern times-through swing and hip-hop this visit drives his ambition to tell the history of yesterday with the younger generations of today. This piece encompasses tap dance, piano, song, and poetry/emceeing.
