2022 Events and Performances
2022: Nona featured in "The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales" documentary
Watch “The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales” and listen for Nona’s song "Love, Peace, and Understanding. Nona Hendryx is a featured vocalist on the song written by Blake Leyh.
SUMMARY: Abigail Disney looks at America's dysfunctional and unequal economy and asks why the American Dream has worked for the wealthy, yet is a nightmare for people born with less. As a way to imagine a more equitable future, Disney uses her family's story to explore how this systemic injustice took hold.
Official Selection of the Sundance Film Festival 2022
Sign up for viewing updates on the website: www.americandreamdoc.com
Spring 2022: Dream Machine
Nona Hendryx’s collaborative 3D animation music-driven game, “Dream Machine” with the Berklee School of Music will return for a 3rd iteration in Spring 202, featuring Vernon Reid from “Living Color'.“ Stay tuned for more updates!
5/21: Nick Cave and Jack Cave: "The Color Is" ArtEdge Gala in Chicago
May 21, 2022 6:00 pm at the DuSable Museum of African American History Roundhouse
ArtEdge, Chicago’s premier gala, builds upon the MCA’s legacy of unforgettable events dedicated to celebrating contemporary art in Chicago.
In 2022, we will continue this tradition as we celebrate The Color Is by Nick Cave and Jack Cave with special guests Labelle at the DuSable Museum of African American History Roundhouse. Presented on the occasion of the MCA exhibition Nick Cave: Forothermore, The Color Is features original fashion design, dance choreography, and a one-night performance by legendary Labelle.
Proceeds from this event will support the MCA’s collaborative efforts to provide a platform for living artists, in pursuit of a creative and diverse future.
For more information, please email hloomis@mcachicago.org, or call 312-397-3871
5/16: Bessie! Empress of the Blues Justice Aid Benefit Concert
JusticeAid Spring Benefit Concert for SMYAL
Join us for an evening of incredible live music at City Winery, New York City, on May 16, 2022. Bessie! Empress of the Blues celebrates the legacy of jazz and blues vocalist Bessie Smith through intimate performances by this amazing line-up: Paula Cole, Valerie Simpson, Nona Hendryx, Terri Lyne Carrington, Madeleine Peyroux, Allan Harris, Morley, Chris Bergson & Ellis Hooks, and Samara Joy. Your host for the evening will be Emmy Award winner, veteran broadcaster, and musicologist, Mark Ruffin, the Program Director/On-Air host for Sirius XM’s Real Jazz channel.
Monday, May 16, 2022, 7 PM | City Winery, 25 11th Avenue, NYC 10011
5/7: The Gathering: A Collective Sonic Ring Shout
First practiced by enslaved Africans in the Caribbean and in the United States, a Shout (or Ring Shout) is an ecstatic, transcendent ritual in which worshipers move in a circle while shuffling, stomping, and clapping, creating an open space to collectively grieve, awaken joy as a source of liberation, and find love as a form of resistance.
This new evening-length program, co-presented by the Apollo, brings the ancestral gathering into a contemporary context, taking audiences on a sonic journey rooted in the tradition of call and response with a diverse array of contemporary multi-disciplinary artists.
The not-to-be-missed event features the orchestral performance of Carlos Simon’s Amen!, Courtney Bryan’s Sanctum, and the New York premiere of Seven Last Words, a choral work by composer Joel Thompson containing seven movements, each of which quotes the last words of an unarmed Black man before he was killed. These works will be presented in conversation with original works from Nona Hendryx and Toshi Reagon and a new commission from Tony Award winner Jason Michael Webb, created to honor our ever-present need for a collective space of remembrance.
The performance is anchored by the American Composers Orchestra, comprised of 80-members and a 50-voice choir of both professional and amateur singers from African American churches and choral ensembles in New York including Abyssinian Baptist Church Choir, Broadway Inspirational Voices, Convent Avenue Baptist Church Choir, and Sing Harlem Choir with appearances by the poet and writer Mohagany L. Browne and singer Abby Dobson.
The Gathering will honor the lives we have lost and uplift the lives we continue to lead in the aftermath.
In the tradition of the ring shot, audiences are encouraged to wear white.
Co-Presented by the Apollo Theater and American Composers Orchestra
Co-Curated with National Black Theatre
In Partnership with Gateways Music Festival and Harlem Chamber Players
Creative Concept and Direction by Jonathan McCrory
5/6: ICA Gala 2022: Bringing the Biennale to Boston
Join Gala Co-Chairs Leslie Riedel and Camilo Alvarez in celebrating a historic moment. The ICA is incredibly honored to have been selected as commissioner of the U.S. Pavilion at the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia in 2022, presenting the work of Simone Leigh. Following the opening in Venice, we will bring the spirit of the Biennale back to Boston to share at the Gala.
Proceeds from the Gala support the ICA’s work as educator, incubator, and convener, including exhibitions, performances, and dynamic programming for all ages.
Co-Chairs
Leslie Riedel and Camilo Alvarez
Guest Chef
Douglass Williams
MIDA Boston, MIDA Newton, APIZZA Boston
Performance by
Nona Hendryx + DJ Spinderella
All Sponsorship packages include an extraordinary evening of cocktails, dinner, dancing, and special performances for a table of ten guests. Levels correspond with priority table placement and recognition prominence.
4/29: Bang on a Can Long Play Music Festival
CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO & TICKETS
Nona Hendryx & Gary Lucas will perform Friday April 29, 2022 @ 8:30pm at The Roulette
“Right now – this minute – is an amazing time to love music. Musicians and listeners from every corner of the music world are pushing beyond their boundaries, questioning their roots, searching and stretching for the new. There has never been a time when music contained so much innovation and diversity, so much audacity and so much courage. And we want to show you all of it. With the creation of LONG PLAY we are presenting more kinds of musicians, playing more kinds of music, bending more kinds of minds. LONG PLAY expands and enlarges our scope and our reach, and puts more new faces on stages than ever before. It’s a lot of music!” - Michael Gordon, David Lang & Julia Wolfe
4/14: Jazz in the Key of Ellison
JAZZ IN THE KEY OF ELLISON celebrates the musical world of Ralph Ellison. It is a concert production inspired by the musical life of America’s iconic writer Ralph Ellison, presented in music, words, and images. Ralph Ellison, acclaimed author of the National Book Award-winning novel Invisible Man, was an accomplished trumpeter who was close to many of the great jazz innovators of his lifetime – from Armstrong and Ellington to Bird and Monk. The concert celebration premiered in November 2016 at New Jersey Performing Arts Center.
The star-led evening of music and narration includes iconic Labelle singer/recording artist Nona Hendryx, 2017 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition winner Quiana Lynell, Lizz Wright, the Andy Farber Jazz Orchestra from the Broadway show After Midnight, and narration by leading Ellison scholar Robert O’Meally. Other performing artists from the R&B/Jazz world to be announced.
Still images and video of Ellison, legendary performers including Louis Armstrong and Count Basie, and paintings by Ellison’s close friend Romare Bearden provide a visual backdrop.
3/13-15: Berklee on Broadway
Join Nona Hendryx for an evening of music in NYC as the Ambassador for Artistry in Music at Berklee College of Music in Boston. More info for Berklee affiliates: https://www.berklee.edu/musical-theater/BOB
3/10: The People Sing!: Celebrating the Centenary of Howard Zinn
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Thursday, March 10 at 7:30 pm
This event is free and open to the public. Seating and entry are first-come, first-served; the line will form at the Atrium’s entrance on Broadway, between 62nd and 63rd Street.The work of Brooklyn-born author and historian Howard Zinn (1922-2010), particularly the classic bestseller A People's History of the United States, continues to shine a light on the extraordinary history of those engaged in struggles for freedom and justice in the United States. In collaboration with a longtime Lincoln Center partner, Voices of a People's History, the David Rubenstein Atrium honors the centenary of Zinn's birth with The People Sing! This musical celebration of our nation’s rich history of dissent sets Zinn's subjects’ words to music, alongside protest songs by rebels and visionaries of our past and present. Featured musical accompanists will include Nona Hendryx, Linda Diaz, Martha Redbone, Lama El Homaïssi, J. Hoard, and many more.
This event is approximately 90 minutes.
03/18: George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic with Questlove, Vernon Reid and Nona Hendryx
Celebrate 80 years of George Clinton, the “Godfather of Funk” behind Parliament and Funkadelic. One of the foremost innovators of ‘70s funk, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (by Prince himself!) in 1997, and received a much-deserved GRAMMY® Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019. Join us at NJPAC as we hail the living legend who gave the world P-Funk, “Atomic Dog,” One Nation Under a Groove and Mothership Connection. With a career spanning five decades, three dozen albums and sweeping musical influence, George Clinton is a fearless creative mastermind who keeps on rocking.
Multi-GRAMMY® Award winner Questlove will also join the celebration. The DJ, producer and drummer of Philly’s beloved hip hop group The Roots also serves as musical director for The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
Bring your dancing shoes—after the concert, we’ll have a DJ dance party in NJPAC’s grand lobby.
2/3-3/6: Young Nerds of Color
Hiding in plain sight in the science labs, grappling over civilization’s greatest challenges are Young Nerds of Color. Some speak with the poetry of wise sages, others subvert the establishment with renegade ways, and, finally, there are rock stars whose ideas flow like jazz improvisation - all changing the world like a bolt of lightning illuminating the night sky. If knowledge is power, their powers make them superheroes. Playwright Melinda Lopez weaves together over 60 interviews with scientists from the most underrepresented backgrounds - with original music by Nona Hendryx - amplifying the rich harmonies, breaking down boundaries and showing us what is possible.
Twitter: @CentSqTheater
Instagram: @CentralSqTheater
Facebook: @CentralSquareTheater
Produced by Underground Railway @ Central Square Theater
A Catalyst Collaborative@MIT Production
2/17: The 36th Annual Brooklyn Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC AND THE OFFICE OF THE BROOKLYN BOROUGH PRESIDENT ANTONIO REYNOSO
PERFORMANCES Mon, Jan 17 at 10:30am RUN TIME 2hrs
VENUE Peter Jay Sharp Building BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
TICKET INFO FREE
All visitors ages 5+ must present proof of vaccination and ID to attend.
RSVP for additional updates and reminders. Please note that admission is first-come, first-served and RSVP-ing does not guarantee entry.
WEBSITE: https://www.bam.org/mlktribute
This beloved Brooklyn tradition returns to the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House to ring in a new year with music, dance, and an invigorating call to action. Led by keynote speaker Dr. Imani Perry, this year’s tribute encourages us to continue in Dr. King’s radical spirit: relentlessly pressing forward in pursuit of justice—even against the odds—and celebrating the strength and power of community to create change.
This free event features speeches by civic leaders and activists and performances, including live appearances from singer Nona Hendryx with Craig Harris & Tailgaters Tales and Sing Harlem and a recorded dance piece by choreographer Kyle Marshall. Join us in hope and in solidarity!
Plus, this year we’re expanding our tribute with a Celebration of Dr. King that includes a wide variety of free performances and events throughout the day.
1/9: On Broadway “Trouble in Mind”
October 29, 2021—January 9, 2022
Purchase Tickets HERE
PRESENTED AT American Airlines Theatre - 227 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, NY between 7th and 8th Avenues
Follow an experienced Black stage actress through rehearsals of a major Broadway production in Alice Childress's wry and moving look at racism, identity, and ego in the world of New York theatre. At the forefront of both the Civil Rights and feminist movements, the prescient Trouble in Mind opened to acclaim off-Broadway in 1955, and was announced to move to Broadway in 1957...in a production that never came to be.
TROUBLE IN MIND CAST
Wiletta LaChanze
TROUBLE IN MIND CREATIVE
Playwright Alice Childress
Director Charles Randolph-Wright
Set Design Arnulfo Maldonado
Costume Design Emilio Sosa
Light Design Kathy A. Perkins
Sound Design Dan Moses Schreier
Original Music Nona Hendryx