SELF PORTRAITS (DELUXE) AFFINITY NIGHTS:

 

Access & discount for this community only:
BLACK THEATER NIGHT on 2/15, $15 with code SP0215

Refreshments and post show conversation with Dominique Rider (Director) and Ayana Parker Morrison (Line Producer)

 

Access & discount for this community only:
ALIVE WE MUST: CANE AFFINITY NIGHT on 2/20, $5 off with code 0220CANE

Celebrating the connections between contemporary Black theater and a 100-year-old Harlem Renaissance classic. 

Playwright Phillip Howze and director Dominique Rider are both contributors to a new critical edition of Jean Toomer's Cane, a uniquely original literary work that just turned a century old. Howze and Rider will be joined in conversation by book editor Diane Exavier (Starr Reading Series playwright). Reflecting on Cane and its connections to Self-Portraits (Deluxe), this conversation will feature invocations and readings from Howze, Rider, and Exavier as they invite the audience to delve deeper into the interdisciplinary practices of Black artists across time and space.

CANE: A NEW CRITICAL EDITION is a boxed set that includes The 3rd Thing's faithful, beautiful printing of Toomer's masterpiece along with an Oracular Card Deck and Companion Guide. Together, they are a call to wonder, speculate and create.

Each card in the Oracular Deck is authored by one of today's most important Black thinkers and makers. They offer you their insights, prompts, gestures, questions, and calls to respond.⁠

Project Contributors: alea adigweme • Alexis Pauline Gumbs⁠ • Andrew E. Colarusso • Angela Davis Johnson • Aricka Foreman • Arielle Julia Brown • Awoye Timpo • Barbara Earl Thomas • Bettina Judd • Bill Lowe • Canisia Lubrin • Christina Sharpe • Daniel Alexander Jones • David Thomson • Desiree C. Bailey • Dominique Rider • Douglas Kearney • Dr. Elijah Heyward III • drea brown • El/yse Ambrose • Gabrielle Civil • Jefferson Pinder • John Keene • K’eguro Macharia • Kameelah Janan Rasheed • Kevin Adonis Browne • m. nourbeSe philip • Malcolm Tariq • Maya Marshall • Nikky Finney • Nissy Aya • Omi Osun Joni L. Jones • Phillip Howze • Phillip B. Williams • Quenton Baker • Rinaldo Walcott • Sarah Stefana Smith • Sharon Bridgforth • Sheree Renée Thomas • Tchaiko Omawale • Therí Alyce Pickens

The project editors are Diane Exavier, Carlos Sirah and Anne de Marcken.

 

SELF PORTRAITS (DELUXE) is playing February 6 - 24, 2024

At JACK: 20 Putnam Ave., Brooklyn
Tuesdays - Saturdays at 7pm

The Bushwick Starr is thrilled to partner with JACK to present SELF PORTRAITS (DELUXE), the newest work by playwright Phillip Howze, directed by Dominique Rider.
An inventive, impressionistic new work that blurs the lines between personal and collective memory, refracting and reframing how we spectate in America. Suspended at the edge of confrontation and contemplation, when put together these discursive theatrical portraits – performed in promenade – invite an expansive vision of Blackness and civil society in today’s age, while also opening new portals into the possibility of our greater, shared and speculative futures.

The production features: Clover St Hubert, Christina Jones, Justus Ross and Aris Stevenson

Creative team: Devon Gates (Composer & Music Director), Brittany Vasta (Scenic), Nia Safarr Banks (Costumes), Masha Tsimring (Lighting), Kathryn Ruvuna (Sound)
Sydneii Colter (Stage Manager), Jordan Barnett (Assoc. Lighting)

Presented in association with JACK
Line Produced by Ayana Parker Morrison

Production Info:

  • Our Box Office will open at 6:30pm and the show will begin at 7pm.

  • The show runs approx. 80 minutes in one act.

  • No late seating, no re-entry.

  • The time you spend with SELF PORTRAITS (DELUXE) is time you will spend untethered from your mobile device; it is a phone-free zone. As such, you will be asked to put your phone in a pouch provided by our front of house team, which will remain with you, and be locked when you enter and unlocked when you leave. Exceptions will be made for access requirements.

  • Due to the intimate seating space, we will be requiring coat check and we ask that audience members do not bring large bags to the performance.

  • This production contains strobe lights.

  • Recommended for ages 14+. 

  • We will not be checking vaccination status, but masks are required. 

  • JACK is fully ADA compliant for wheelchair and mobility access needs. More info about the venue HERE

  • Closed Captions: This production will include a closed captions broadcast available during performances on February 6, 9, 10, 15, 16, 21, 23. During the show you can view these on your mobile device browser, by following a link that will be provided on arrival at the venue. If you plan to use closed captions during the show, please make sure your phone is fully on silent mode, for both sound and vibration.

  • JACK has a variety of seating. We have an open seating policy so you can feel free to sit wherever you would like. However, we ask that you be considerate of your fellow audience members and allow those in need of specialized seating access to those chairs first.

SELF PORTRAITS (DELUXE)  is made possible with generous support from The Jerome Foundation, The MAP Fund, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature. 

Portions of SELF PORTRAITS have been previously developed, presented, or iterated at  BRIC Arts-Media, Lincoln Center, PRELUDE Festival, and Performance Space New York.

Show artwork: Self Portrait #33