ABOUT THE ARTISTS STUDIO
Launched in March 2016 alongside the inauguration of the revitalized Veterans Room, the Artists Studio serves as a space for artists to experiment, collaborate, create, and push the boundaries of their craft. This season, the series takes inspiration from the inventive spirit and collaboration present at the room’s inception with interventions by some of today’s most creative voices who have a distinct relationship to sound with a visual aesthetic. Curated by jazz pianist, composer, and MacArthur fellow Jason Moran, these performances invite these imaginative innovators to explore exciting new directions in their practice.
Previous Artists Studio programs have featured performances by: jazz pianist and composer Jason Moran; Dutch contemporary composer Louis Andriessen and pianist Jason Moran; American composer and accordionist Pauline Oliveros and noted author, director, and dream specialist IONE; pianist and composer Conrad Tao and multifaceted percussionist, instrumentalist, and composer Tyshawn Sorey; seminal drummer and acupuncturist Milford Graves and drummer and musician Deantoni Parks; artist Lucy Raven; groundbreaking sound designer Ryan Trecartin with his primary collaborator Lizzie Fitch, music producer and DJ Ashland Mines (aka Total Freedom), and composer/ producer Aaron David Ross; acoustic ensemble Dawn of Midi; composer Ryuichi Sakamoto; tenor Lawrence Brownlee with pianists Myra Huang and Jason Moran; multidisciplinary artist Rashaad Newsome; vocalist Dominique Eade and pianist Ran
NEXT IN THE SERIES
ROBERT AIKI AUBREY LOWE
MARCH 22
Adventurous artist, curator, and composer Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe creates hypnotic sound worlds that blur the boundaries between live performance and installation. His signature style builds upon the call-and-response tradition in African American music that can be traced from sacred hymnals to the secular work songs that inform the 20th century continuum of the blues, jazz, and soul. This veteran sound artist comes to the Veterans Room with a modular synth and vocal performance in the realm of spontaneous music, blending analog synthesizers with organic vocal expression to create auditory passageways with trancelike suspensions.
Blake with composer Kavita Shah; experimental composer Alvin Curran; internationally renowned composer, saxophonist, sound experimentalist, and mixed-media practitioner Matana Roberts; pioneer of experimental music Charlemagne Palestine; art icon and DJ Juliana Huxtable; composer and saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell; experimental composer, improviser, and performer Miya Masaoka; My Barbarian collective founders Malik Gaines and Alexandro Segade; cutting edge visual artist Rosa Barba; Dominican accordionist Krency Garcia (El Prodigio); the late trumpeter jaimie branch and visual artist Carol Szymanski; pioneer of performance and video art Joan Jonas; conceptual artist, writer, and performer, Rodney McMillian; a full season residency by the revolutionary collective the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, Inc. (AACM), featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Henry Threadgill, drummer and percussionist Thurman Barker, musical partners Adegoke Steve Colson and Iqua Colson, scholar and composer George Lewis, composer and percussionist Reggie Nicholson, and multidimensional artist and creator Amina Claudine Myers; artist and musician Jasper Marsalis; American poet, musician, and activist Moor Mother with free jazz quintet Irreversible Entanglements (IE); performance artist EJ Hill; and filmmaker, writer, curator, and founder of the BlackStar Film Festival Maori Karmael Holmes
SOFIA JERNBERG & SPECIAL GUESTS
MAY 20
Swedish experimental singer, improviser, and composer Sofia Jernberg harnesses unconventional techniques and sounds with a focus on the human acoustic voice in durational performances that freely mix between improvisation and composed song. She has developed a broad repertoire ranging from overtone singing to guttural lutes, including childlike wailing and soft, intimate melodies that touch on themes of identity, internationality, origin, and belonging. This singular talent is joined by additional musicians and guests for a unique performance of pre-existing and new compositions that embrace her creative practice of communion and collaboration.
2024 ARTISTS STUDIO
IN THE RESTORED VETERANS ROOM
THE
MAORI SHOW
HOSTED BY MAORI KARMAEL HOLMES
Monday, November 18, 2024 at 7:30pm featuring MacArthur fellow and filmmaker Louis Massiah, and
Grammy-nominated singer, writer, and actress Wayna with music director and bassist Anthony Tidd , guitarist Miles Okazaki , and drummer Timothy Angulo
Tuesday, November 19, 2024 at 7:30pm featuring filmmaker and artist Rashid Zakat and
hip-hop artist and motivational speaker Mike Africa, Jr.
beat spinning and DJ sets by DJ lil’dave
Support for Park Avenue Armory’s artistic season has been generously provided by the Thompson Family Foundation, Charina Endowment Fund, the Donald A. Pels Charitable Trust, The Shubert Foundation, Wescustogo Foundation, the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, the Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, the Howard Gilman Foundation, the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, the Marc Haas Foundation, Mary W. Harriman Foundation, the Reed Foundation, the Leon Levy Foundation, the May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, Gregory Annenberg Weingarten, GRoW @ Annenberg, The Emma and Georgina Bloomberg Foundation, the Richenthal Foundation, and the Isak and Rose Weinman Foundation. Additional support has been provided by the Armory’s Artistic Council. Public support is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature as well as the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council under the leadership of Speaker Adrienne Adams. Cover image: James Ewing.
ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS
MAORI KARMAEL HOLMES
Maori Karmael Holmes is a filmmaker, writer, and curator. She founded BlackStar Film Festival in 2012 and serves as Chief Executive & Artistic Officer of its parent organization, BlackStar Projects. She has organized film programs at Anthology Film Archives, MOCA, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. She has organized the exhibitions Rashid Zakat: Uses of the Ironic (2024), Terence Nance: Swarm (2023), Assemblage (2019), and Lossless (2017). As a director, her works have screened internationally including “Scene Not Heard: Women in Philadelphia Hip-Hop.” She has directed music videos for India.Arie, Mike Africa, Jr., and Wayna. She has produced several films including Iyabo Kwayana’s By Water (2023). Her writing has most recently appeared in Seen, Documentary Magazine, The Believer, Film Quarterly, and Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good. She hosts the culture podcast Many Lumens. In 2023, Holmes was announced as recipient of the United States Artists Berresford Prize and as an inaugural Philadelphia’s Cultural Treasures Fellow. In 2019, she was included in Essence Magazine’s Woke 100 List and in 2022, she was included among Philadelphia Magazine’s 100 Most Influential Philadelphians as well as designated “Best Film Ambassador” and named one of the Kennedy Center’s #Next50.
WAYNA
Wayna is an Ethiopian-born, Grammy-nominated singer, former White House writer, and actress, who celebrates the cultural influences of her background through electrifying performances on screen and on stage. She is a two-time All Africa Music Awards nominee, and the co-creator of the Grammy Award for Best Song for Social Change. Wayna has performed around the world at renowned venues including the White House, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Essence Fest, and the Apollo Theatre. In addition to her solo career, she joined music icon Stevie Wonder as a vocalist on the Songs in the Key of Life Tour and in other performances internationally. Her music has been featured in publications such as USA Today, Billboard, BBC News, the UK’s Daily Mail, Essence Magazine, Complex, The Baltimore Sun, Toronto Star, and The Washington Post
DJ LIL’DAVE
DJ lil’dave is a Philadelphia based producer, composer, radio host, and member of DJ crew Illvibe Collective. With a strong presence in Philadelphia’s music scene, lil’dave is a fixture in nightclubs, lounges, and on stage. He has been broadcasting for over 25 years on radio station WKDU 91.7FM, where he currently hosts the internationally-known Eavesdrop Radio along with DJ Junior. As a recording artist, he has released original music and remixes under various aliases for record labels around the world, such as BBE Records, Tru Thoughts, and Bastard Jazz. His original compositions have found their way into art exhibits, television shows, podcasts, and films.
LOUIS MASSIAH
Louis Massiah is a documentary filmmaker and the founder of the Scribe Video Center in Philadelphia, a media arts center that provides production workshops to community groups and emerging media makers. As an educator and institution builder, Massiah has developed production methodologies that assist first time makers author their own stories, including the Precious Places Community History project, a collection of 150 collaborative documentaries; Muslim Voices of Philadelphia; The Great Migration - A City Transformed; and currently The Tenants of Lenapehocking in the Age of Magnets, an oral history project. Massiah’s documentaries include The Bombing of Osage Avenue, W.E.B. Du Bois – A Biography in Four Voices, Cecil B. Moore, films for the Eyes on the Prize II series, A is for Anarchist, B is for Brown and is completing TCB – the Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing. A MacArthur Foundation “Genius Award” fellow, he is currently an A.D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University.
TIMOTHY ANGULO
Timothy Angulo is a drummer and composer whose music follows the lineage of Black musical innovators. Originally from Berkeley, California, Angulo now calls two coasts home and is currently based in New York City. His teachers include Milford Graves, Michael Carvin, Ndugu Chancler, and Darcy James Argue. A glimpse of his sound can be heard in the score of Starz’s newest hit series Blindspotting. Pitchfork has lauded his “deep pocket drums’’ in his collaborative endeavors. By synthesizing sounds from his wide-ranging experiences, Angulo has opened doors for himself to work with renowned artists such as Ambrose Akinmusire, Reggie Workman, Bill Frisell, Wallace Roney, Kamasi Washington, Jeff Parker, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, and Marlena Shaw. He is also a current member of the experimental music group L’Rain.
MILES OKAZAKI
Miles Okazaki is a New York-based guitarist originally from Port Townsend, a small seaside town in Washington State. His sideman experience over the last two decades covers a broad spectrum, from standards to experimental music: Kenny Barron, John Zorn, Steve Coleman, Stanley Turrentine, Henry Threadgill, Dan Weiss, Matt Mitchell, Jonathan Finlayson, Anthony Tidd, Jane Monheit, Amir ElSaffar, Darcy James Argue, and many others. He has released ten albums of original compositions over the last 12 years on the Sunnyside, Pi, and Cygnus labels. In 2018 Okazaki received wide critical acclaim for his six-album recording of the complete compositions of Thelonious Monk for solo guitar. That year, Okazaki was voted the #1 Rising Star Guitarist in the Downbeat Magazine Critic’s Poll. In addition to performance and recording, he published Fundamentals of Guitar on Mel Bay guitar in 2013, served as faculty at the University of Michigan and Princeton University, and holds degrees from Harvard University, Manhattan School of Music, and The Juilliard School.
ANTHONY TIDD
Anthony Tidd is a British transplant, Guggenheim Fellow, and Grammy-awarded musician, known for his work as a composer, producer, educator, and curator. He has collaborated with artists such as The Roots, Steve Coleman, Meshell Ndegeocello, Lady Gaga, Zap Mama, David Berne, The Black Eye Peas, Jill Scott, and others, contributing to many multi-platinum albums. His album, Quite Sane – The Child of Troubled Times (2002), became a modern jazz staple. Tidd has written for various ensembles and orchestras, contributing to projects like Jay Z’s documentary series Rest in Power – The Trayvon Martin Story and Black No More – A Broadway Musical. At the Kimmel Center (Philadelphia), he launched the Creative Music Program and Sittin’ In, a concert series, both widely successful. During the pandemic, he co-founded ACT4Music, an online festival featuring 250 international artists. In 2022, he helped establish Public Orchestra Philadelphia with Drexel University and Curtis, making history in the process.
RASHID ZAKAT
Rashid Zakat is a multidisciplinary artist, filmmaker, and DJ based in Philadelphia. He uses video, photography, design, audio, and the web to encourage people to find as much beauty, joy, and wonder as possible. Professionally Zakat has a 15-year-long career as a director and cinematographer for non-fiction, experimental films and music videos. He has done work for India.Arie, Carmelo Anthony, Black Thought, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, BlackStar Film Festival, Soul Train, Topic, WHYY, Philadelphia Contemporary, Mural Arts, and BET, to name a few. His personal work includes short documentary, iPhone and traditional portrait projects, visual mixtapes, digital publications, video installations, open mics, and dance parties that experiment with visuals.
MIKE AFRICA, JR.
Conscious hip hop artist and motivational resilience speaker Mike Africa, Jr. was born to two political prisoners in a jail cell following a deadly police attack and a witness of the 1985 MOVE bombing that murdered 11 of his family members. Since then, Africa has worked to free his parents and other MOVE members from incarceration over the past 40 years. He is currently is the Owner and Legacy Director, second generation native son, and newly anointed Minister of Education and Inspiration for the MOVE Organization. He was the star of the documentaries 40 Years A Prisoner (HBOMax), I am free, now you’re free (PBS), and Worn Stories (Netflix), and has been featured on the Summer of 85 (Audible, with Kevin Hart) and Africa’s vs America (CBC) podcasts. He is the creator of the political hip hop group Seeds of Wisdom and Co-Creator of the Move Activist Archive with Krystal Strong. He has been invited to speak at Harvard, UPenn, Vassar, Cornell, Princeton, UCLA, Madison Square Garden, the 55th Anniversary of the Black Panther Party, the Paul Robeson House 125th Birthday, and many other venues and events.
PRODUCTION ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Nathan Riley Stage Manager
Benjamin Wygonik Audio Engineer
Audio equipment by Masque Sound
Special thanks to Kim Brundidge, Gabe Bryant, Denise Beek, Imran Siddiquee, and Rashid Zakat
ABOUT PARK AVENUE ARMORY
Part palace, part industrial shed, Park Avenue Armory supports unconventional works in the performing and visual arts that cannot be fully realized in a traditional proscenium theater, concert hall, or white wall gallery. With its soaring 55,000-square-foot Wade Thompson Drill Hall—reminiscent of 19th-century European train stations—and an array of exuberant period rooms, the Armory provides a platform for artists to push the boundaries of their practice, collaborate across disciplines, and create new work in dialogue with the historic building. Across its grand and intimate spaces, the Armory enables a diverse range of artists to create, students to explore, and audiences to experience epic, adventurous, relevant work that cannot be done elsewhere in New York.
The Armory both commissions and presents performances and installations in the grand Drill Hall and offers more intimate programming through its acclaimed Recital Series, which showcases musical talent from across the globe within the salon setting of the Board of Officers Room; its Artists Studio series curated by Jason Moran in the restored Veterans Room; Making Space at the Armory, a public programming series that brings together a discipline-spanning group of artists and cultural thought-leaders around the important issues of our time; and the Malkin Lecture Series that features presentations by scholars and writers on topics related to Park Avenue Armory and its history. In addition, the Armory also has a year-round Artists-in-Residence program, providing space and support for artists to create new work and expand their practices.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Chairman Emeritus
Elihu Rose
Co-Chairs
Adam R. Flatto
Amanda J.T. Riegel
President
Rebecca Robertson
Vice Presidents
David Fox
Pablo Legorreta
Emanuel Stern
Treasurer
Emanuel Stern
The Armory’s creativity-based arts education programs provide access to the arts to thousands of students from underserved New York City public schools, engaging them with the institutions artistic programming and outside-the-box creative processes. Through its education initiatives, the Armory provides access to all Drill Hall performances, workshops taught by Master Teaching Artists, and in-depth residencies that support the schools’ curriculum. Youth Corps, the Armory’s year-round paid internship program, begins in high school and continues into the critical post-high school years, providing interns with mentored employment, job training, and skill development, as well as a network of peers and mentors to support their individual college and career goals.
The Armory is undergoing a multi-phase renovation and restoration of its historic building led by architects Herzog & de Meuron, with Platt Byard Dovell White as Executive Architects.
Marina Abramović
Abigail Baratta
Joyce F. Brown
Cora Cahan
Hélène Comfort
Paul Cronson
Jonathan Davis
Tina R. Davis
Jessie Ding
Sanford B. Ehrenkranz
Roberta Garza
Kim Greenberg
Samhita Jayanti
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Edward G. Klein, Brigadier General NYNG (Ret.)
Ralph Lemon
Jason Moran
Janet C. Ross
Stephanie Sharp
Joan Steinberg
Dabie Tsai
Avant-Garde Chair
Adrienne Katz
Directors Emeriti
Harrison M. Bains
Angela E. Thompson*
Wade F.B. Thompson* Founding Chairman, 2000-2009
Pierre Audi
Anita K. Hersh Artistic Director
ABOUT THE VETERANS ROOM
“In a sense, the Veterans Room, of all the Armory’s opulent reception rooms, has the deepest spiritual kinship with a work of contemporary art.” —The New York Times
The Veterans Room is among the most significant surviving interiors of the American Aesthetic Movement, and the most significant remaining intact interior in the world by Louis C. Tiffany and Co., Associated Artists. The newly formed collective led by Tiffany included some of the most significant American designers of the 19th century at early stages of their very distinguished careers: Stanford White, Samuel Colman, and Candace Wheeler among them. The design of the room by these artists was exotic, eclectic, and full of experimentation, as noted by Decorator and Furnisher in 1885 that “the prepondering styles appear to be the Greek, Moresque, and Celtic, with a dash of Egyptian, the Persian, and the Japanese in the appropriate places.”
A monument of late 19th-century decorative arts, the Veterans Room is the fourth period room at the Armory completed (out of 18). The revitalization of the room responds to the original exuberant vision for the room’s design, bringing into dialogue some of the most talented designers of the 19th and 21st centuries – Associated Artists with Herzog & de Meuron, Platt Byrd Dovell
White Architects, and a team of world-renowned artisans and experts in Tiffany glass, fine woodworking, and decorative arts. The revitalization of the Veterans Room follows Herzog & de Meuron’s design approach for the Armory building, which seeks to highlight the distinct qualities and existing character of each individual room while interweaving contemporary elements to improve its function. Even more so than in other rooms at the Armory, Herzog & de Meuron’s approach to the Veterans Room is to amplify the beauty of the room’s original vision through adding contemporary reconstructions of lost historic materials and subtle additions with the same ethos and creative passion as the original artisans to infuse a modern energy into a harmonious, holistic design. The room’s restoration is part of an ongoing $215-million transformation, which is guided by the understanding that the Armory’s rich history and the patina of time are essential to its character, with a design process for the period rooms that emphasizes close collaboration between architect and artisan.
The restoration and renovation of the Veterans Room was made possible by The Thopson Family Foundation, Inc., Susan and Elihu Rose, Charina Endowment Fund, Lisa and Sanford B. Ehrenkranz, Almudena and Pablo Legorreta, Assemblymember Dan Quart and the New York State Assembly, Emanuel Stern, Adam R. Flatto, Olivia Tournay Flatto, Kenneth S. Kuchin, R. Mark and Wendy Adams, American Express, Rebecca Robertson and Byron Knief, Amy and Jeffrey Silverman, the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and Anonymous (2).
