WATERWORKS EMERGING ARTISTS SHOWCASE
Ancestral Table is a shared family meal and interdisciplinary performance that examines the relationships between ecology, migration, cultural inheritance and legacy through the lens of my Thai mother’s family recipes.
For nearly 30 years, the WaterWorks Emerging Artists program, formerly Fund for New Work, has supported artists of color emerging in their careers and artistic practice. Today, the program continues this tradition by awarding commissions to five early-career artists of color per year. The year-long program offers a space among a multidisciplinary cohort of artists who receive mentorship, critical feedback, professional development workshops, rehearsal space, and production support. Throughout the duration of the experience, artists develop an original performance piece.
In this culminating work-in-progress showcase, Harlem Stage presents works by the 2023 WaterWorks Emerging Artists cohort: interdisciplinary performing artist and painter Shantelle Courvoisier Jackson; singer/songwriter Hannah Lemmons aka LEMMONS; choreographer and dancer Bobby Morgan; interdisciplinary artist, composer, and pianist Mary Prescott; and trumpeter and composer Kalí Rodríguez-Peña.
Commissioned by Harlem Stage through its WaterWorks Emerging Artists Program and supported by a grant from the Jerome Foundation. Other supporters of the WaterWorks Emerging Artists Program are the Mellon Foundation, Ford Foundation, Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Thompson Family Foundation, and the Leonard & Robert Weintraub Family Fund.