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Samora Pinderhughes is a composer, pianist/vocalist, and interdisciplinary artist whose work delves into the things our society tries to hide—about its history, its structures, and the individual and daily things we all experience but don’t know how to talk about. His art is an invitation to feel things deeply and to think deeply about how we all live. He is known for his honest lyrics, his harmonic language, his vulnerable visuals, his cultural commentary, and his commitment to making art that is of use to everyday life. He is also known for using his music to examine sociopolitical issues and fight for change, and he works in the tradition of the Black surrealists, those who bend word, sound, and image toward the causes of revolution. Pinderhughes’s emotional, soulful music and lyrics beautifully unravel difficult and vulnerable topics.  

For this one-night-only experience at the ICA, Pinderhughes will perform in support of his new album, Venus Smiles Not in the House of Tears. He will be joined onstage by his longtime band members and a multi-voiced choir for an unforgettable evening of contemplative, searching, and joyful music.

Pinderhughes has collaborated with many artists across boundaries and scenes, including Herbie Hancock, Glenn Ligon, Sara Bareilles, Simone Leigh, Daveed Diggs, Kyle Abraham, Titus Kaphar, and Lalah Hathaway. He is the first-ever Art for Justice + Soros Justice Fellow and a recipient of Chamber Music America’s 2020 Visionary Award.

Accessibility

  • Accessible and companion seating can be selected when purchasing tickets online, or at the Box Office at 617-478-3100 or visitorservices@icaboston.org.
  • Assistive listening devices are available for all theater programs at the theater entrance.
  • A link to live captioning will be shared by the day of the event and will be available in the theater.
  • ASL interpretation is available by advance request; please contact the Box Office at 617-478-3100 or visitorservices@icaboston.org to make a request.

Are there other access accommodations that would be useful to help you fully participate in this program? Let us know at accessibility@icaboston.org or learn more about Accessibility at the ICA at icaboston.org/accessibility.

Renowned quartet Sandbox Percussion joins forces with Gandini Juggling to illustrate how we hear, see, and perform sounds and rhythm. This unique new live collaboration combines percussion music by contemporary composers Steve Reich, Iannis Xenakis, Amy Beth Kirsten, and Andy Akiho performed live by Sandbox with the virtuosic, mind-blowing juggling of Gandini to illuminate music both visually and aurally. With vanishing dots of sound and balls replicating and complementing complex rhythms in the air, Gandini Juggling and Sandbox Percussion make the complex simple and the simple complex. This will be serious fun.

Following the Friday performance, members of the company will join John Andress, Bill T. Jones Director/Curator of Performing Arts, for a post-performance conversation.

Advisory note: This performance includes moments of flashing light.

Read the performance program

Accessibility

  • Accessible and companion seating can be selected when purchasing tickets online, or at the Box Office at 617-478-3100 or visitorservices@icaboston.org.
  • Assistive listening devices are available for all theater programs at the theater entrance.
  • A link to live captioning will be shared by the day of the event and will be available in the theater.
  • ASL interpretation is available by advance request; please contact the Box Office at 617-478-3100 or visitorservices@icaboston.org to make a request.

Are there other access accommodations that would be useful to help you fully participate in this program? Let us know at accessibility@icaboston.org or learn more about Accessibility at the ICA at icaboston.org/accessibility.

This performance was developed at a Summer Stages Dance @ ICA/Boston residency in July 2023. Summer Stages Dance @ ICA/Boston is made possible, in part, with the support of Jane Karol and Howard Cooper, George and Ann Colony, The Aliad Fund, and Stephanie and Leander McCormick-Goodhart. 

“An enthralling, epically adventurous work”
—New York Times

Choreographer Faye Driscoll’s newest work Weathering is a multi-sensory flesh sculpture made of bodies, sounds, scents, liquids, and objects. Ten people (dancers, singers, and crew) enact a glacially morphing tableau vivant on a mobile raft-like stage surging through the Anthropocene. Their voices generate a score that crescendos and resonates as they clutch, careen, and cleave in a space too small to contain them, spilling off the edges. The audience embanks the performers, close enough to smell the sweat and feel the steam of these central, spiraling scenes. The symphonically active, luminously living work is a breathing, leaking choreography of micro events within a momentum thrusting from just beyond the perceivable. Driscoll and her team of collaborators ask: How do we feel the impact of events moving through us which are so much larger, yet are animating and activating our bodies all the time? How do we get closer to the impact? Can we slow down enough to feel the dust, hurt, howl, absence, spill, plume? 

Advisory note: This performance includes moments of full and partial nudity.

Accessibility

  • Accessible seating is available first-come first-served and may be selected upon theater entry. Please contact our Visitor Services team at visitorservices@icaboston.org or 617-478-3100 for more information.
  • Assistive listening devices are available for all theater programs at the theater entrance.
  • A link to live captioning will be shared by the day of the event and will be available in the theater.
  • ASL interpretation is available by advance request; please contact our Visitors Services team at 617-478-3100 or visitorservices@icaboston.org to make a request.

Are there other access accommodations that would be useful to help you fully participate in this program? Let us know at accessibility@icaboston.org or learn more about Accessibility at the ICA at icaboston.org/accessibility.

Experience the Boston premiere of Gary Hustwit’s groundbreaking generative documentary Eno and hear from the filmmaker during this unique cinematic program. Working with generative software, director Gary Hustwit created a documentary process that produces infinite variations—each with its own archival material, interviews, backstage footage, oblique strategies, and musical numbers—befitting its always experimental subject, Brian Eno. Visionary musician and artist Brian Eno is known for producing the music of David Bowie, U2, Talking Heads, among many others; pioneering the genre of ambient music; and releasing over forty solo and collaboration albums. The New York Times describes Eno both as, “unlike any other portrait of a musician” and “marvelously watchable.”

For these special screenings, the film will be created live on-stage in real time, and these versions will never be seen again.

Accessibility

  • Accessible and companion seating can be selected when purchasing tickets online, or at the Box Office at 617-478-3100 or visitorservices@icaboston.org.
  • Assistive listening devices are available for all theater programs at the theater entrance.
  • A link to live captioning will be shared by the day of the event and will be available in the theater.
  • ASL interpretation is available by advance request; please contact the Box Office at 617-478-3100 or visitorservices@icaboston.org to make a request.

Are there other access accommodations that would be useful to help you fully participate in this program? Let us know at accessibility@icaboston.org or learn more about Accessibility at the ICA at icaboston.org/accessibility.

New Orleans electro-revival dynamo Dawn Richard unites with multi-instrumentalist, producer, and composer Spencer Zahn for a stunning concert in support of their second collaborative album. Quiet in a World Full of Noise blends atmospheric and orchestral soundscapes with mellifluous soul, jazz, and journalistic vocalizing—driving it all home with stark, confessional lyricism. Richard is, “a singer of big emotions, and even as she’s pushed her solo work further into experimental realms, she has continued to foreground feeling above all else” (Pitchfork). Zahn and Richard have made an album that serves as a blueprint for stillness, simplicity, and the art of working across differences in the midst of a polarizing cultural climate. Richard describes Quiet in a World Full of Noise as grounding: “Right now, everyone’s a little bit overwhelmed. I hope that this will be the record that people put on when they need the opportunity for reflection, when they need the stillness in their lives, now more than ever.”

Niecy Blues will perform an opening set. The music of South Carolina singer and producer Niecy Blues captures a sense of deep-rooted divination, cycling between simmering ballads, ghostly R&B, downtempo gospel, and looped vocal improvisations.

Accessibility

  • Accessible seating is available first-come first-served and may be selected upon theater entry. Please contact our Visitor Services team at visitorservices@icaboston.org or 617-478-3100 for more information.
  • Assistive listening devices are available for all theater programs at the theater entrance.
  • A link to live captioning will be shared by the day of the event and will be available in the theater.
  • ASL interpretation is available by advance request; please contact our Visitors Services team at 617-478-3100 or visitorservices@icaboston.org to make a request.

Are there other access accommodations that would be useful to help you fully participate in this program? Let us know at accessibility@icaboston.org or learn more about Accessibility at the ICA at icaboston.org/accessibility.

The ICA is pleased to present the Boston debut of enigmatic singer and visual artist Kaya Wilkins. The Norwegian-bred, Brooklyn-based performer, “offers softly sung lyrics that simultaneously skew sarcastic and soberingly real, set to saccharine bedroom-pop melodies” (Vogue). Kaya’s poetic lyrics playfully wander through themes such as emotional ambivalence, shared loneliness, and habitual love. Her records draw on both laconic folk and upbeat disco, as well as a host of esteemed collaborators (Eli Keszler, Adam Green, Taja Cheek of L’Rain, to name a few), to conjure hypnotically immersive soundscapes that create a one-of-a-kind live experience. This special, one-night-only performance is offered as a tribute to her Boston-based grandmother, and will feature a blend of original music, a reimagining of jazz standards, and other tunes of yesteryear.  

Accessibility

  • Accessible and companion seating can be selected when purchasing tickets online, or at the Box Office at 617-478-3100 or visitorservices@icaboston.org.
  • Assistive listening devices are available for all theater programs at the theater entrance.
  • A link to live captioning will be shared by the day of the event and will be available in the theater.
  • ASL interpretation is available by advance request; please contact the Box Office at 617-478-3100 or visitorservices@icaboston.org to make a request.

Are there other access accommodations that would be useful to help you fully participate in this program? Let us know at accessibility@icaboston.org or learn more about Accessibility at the ICA at icaboston.org/accessibility.

Jazz Urbane Cafe, the Longy School of Music, and the Institute of Contemporary Art present: 

Affirmations for a New World 
featuring Sweet Honey in the Rock 

The concert will take place at the ICA/Boston.

Read the performance program

In 1973, Bernice Johnson Reagon founded Sweet Honey in the Rock, an a capella vocal ensemble founded with the mission to empower, educate, and entertain. Fifty years later, the legendary group celebrates in style with a monumental anniversary concert featuring performers from across generations. This unique, collaborative event features musicians from Jazz Urbane’s Imagine Orchestra, students from the Longy School of Music, and the incomparable voices of Sweet Honey in the Rock performing Boston composer William Banfield’s Symphony No. 10: Affirmations led by conductor Julius Williams. The concert also features a powerful, spirit-lifting solo set by Sweet Honey in the Rock. 

For composer Banfield, Affirmations “affirms every great human power we have; love, imagination, fear and courage, the will to change, to dream, to ask questions, [and] to touch someone else’s soul.”  

Both concert events will be sign-language interpreted. 

About Sweet Honey in the Rock

The Grammy-nominated African American vocal ensemble, Sweet Honey in the Rock® marks its 50th anniversary in November 2023 with a powerful three-year celebration that will honor its storied past and set the course for the future of the group, which has been described as, “one of the most dynamic, versatile, and still relevant musical collectives today.”

Since its inception in Washington, D.C. (1973), Sweet Honey in the Rock has thrived as a performance ensemble founded on the missions of empowerment, education, and entertainment.

Their current roster includes vocalists Carol Maillard, Louise Robinson, Aisha Kahlil, Nitanju Bolade Casel, and Rochelle Rice, with Romeir Mendez on upright acoustic/electric bass, and American Sign Language interpreter, Barbara Hunt.

Throughout five decades, the ensemble members have worked to create engaging and socially conscious music that consistently takes an active stance toward making our planet a better place for all in which to live. Their musical landscape embraces multiple genres/generations and addresses civil & human rights, women’s issues, gun violence, death, love, spirituality, children’s songs, and so much more.

About Imagine Orchestra

Created in 1992 by composer Dr. Bill Banfield, the Imagine Orchestra is a Boston hybrid-chamber group with an eclectic modern approach in style and orchestration. Imagine Orchestra is currently ensemble-in-residence at the Longy School of Music. The ensemble’s seminal recording Live at The Landmark (Innona Recordings) brought the group’s work critical praise from industry veterans Dr. Billy Taylor, David Baker, and Maria Schneider.

About Jazz Urbane Cafe

Jazz Urbane Cafe is an urban arts venue, scheduled to open in the fall of 2024, that spotlights the local and national artists who define and celebrate the diverse cultural traditions that make Boston a unique and global city. Our arts program will consist of nightly musical performances from local artists on the Jazz Urbane Recordings label (the Cafe’s sister company) and across greater Boston.  Jazz Urbane Cafe will also offer other presentation modes – ranging from film screenings to dance to dramatic theater to multimedia installations – to provide a holistic presentation of form and expression.

Tastefully complementing our performance series will be an exciting culinary program designed to make the Cafe a full sensory experience.  Our dinner, lunch, catering and takeout menus will feature a fusion of global flavors with many ingredients sourced locally.  The commitment to unique, sensuous flavors made from many local ingredients will extend to the Cafe’s bar program where offerings will include craft spirits and beers and a wine selection curated to be approachable for casual wine drinkers and thrilling for wine lovers.

About the Longy School of Music

The Longy School of Music of Bard College prepares students to make a difference in the world. Through groundbreaking conservatory training, Longy students discover new ways to make their music matter while expanding their vision of what a life in music can mean. Longy welcomes all kinds of musicians, eliminating barriers to ensure access for students who are passionate about changing lives and impacting communities through music. Longy prepares students to meet the challenges of a changing global landscape head-on, giving them the skills to reach new audiences and engage new communities.

Accessibility

  • Accessible and companion seating can be selected when purchasing tickets online, or at the Box Office at 617-478-3100 or visitorservices@icaboston.org.
  • Assistive listening devices are available for all theater programs at the theater entrance.
  • A link to live captioning will be shared by the day of the event and will be available in the theater.
  • ASL interpretation is available by advance request; please contact the Box Office at 617-478-3100 or visitorservices@icaboston.org to make a request.

Are there other access accommodations that would be useful to help you fully participate in this program? Let us know at accessibility@icaboston.org or learn more about Accessibility at the ICA at icaboston.org/accessibility.

logo for Longy school of music of bard college

Three celebrated musicians Grammy Award-winning vocalist Arooj Aftab, pianist Vijay Iyer, and multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily debut in Boston their collaborative project Love in Exile. The trio creates lush, haunting collaborative soundscapes of meditation and yearning. Rich improvisations bloom into achingly provocative experimentation and creates a sound as described by Aftab as “about self-exile, and the search for freedom and identity, and finding it through love and music.” 

Read the performance program

Accessibility

  • Accessible and companion seating can be selected when purchasing tickets online, or at the Box Office at 617-478-3100 or visitorservices@icaboston.org.
  • Assistive listening devices are available for all theater programs at the theater entrance.
  • A link to live captioning will be shared by the day of the event and will be available in the theater.
  • ASL interpretation is available by advance request; please contact the Box Office at 617-478-3100 or visitorservices@icaboston.org to make a request.

Are there other access accommodations that would be useful to help you fully participate in this program? Let us know at accessibility@icaboston.org or learn more about Accessibility at the ICA at icaboston.org/accessibility.

The ICA joins the centennial celebration of the iconic drummer, composer, and activist Max Roach with an evening of dance made in tribute to the legendary jazz pioneer. Curated by Summer Stages Dance co-founder Richard Colton, Max Roach 100 celebrates Roach’s legacy with new dance works choreographed by Ayodele Casel, Rennie Harris, and Ronald K. Brown, featuring some of the late musician’s most acclaimed recordings.

Characterized by its Afro-Cuban percussion, the 1961 album Percussion Bitter Sweet becomes the soundscape for choreographer Ronald K. Brown and Arcell Cabuag’s latest work for dancers from Havana-based Malpaso Dance Company and Brown’s own EVIDENCE, A Dance Company. In Jim Has Crowed, Roach’s band joins a recording of Martin Luther King Jr. in an aspirational and urgent conversation, now amplified by the streetdance storytelling of Rennie Harris Puremovement. Tap artist Ayodele Casel performs an explosively theatrical solo set to a series of duets between Roach and fellow Jazz pioneer, pianist Cecil Taylor. The program opens with Max Roach Live: Video Art by Kit Fitzgerald, a short film by video artist Kit Fitzgerald with footage from her decade-long collaboration with Roach, highlighting Roach’s influence across artistic disciplines. 

On Saturday, John Andress, Bill T. Jones Director/Curator of Performing Arts, and Richard Colton, curator of Max Roach 100, will join the artists for an audience Q+A following the performance.

Read the performance program

Accessibility

  • Accessible and companion seating can be selected when purchasing tickets online, or at the Box Office at 617-478-3100 or visitorservices@icaboston.org.
  • Assistive listening devices are available for all theater programs at the theater entrance.
  • A link to live captioning will be shared by the day of the event and will be available in the theater.
  • ASL interpretation is available by advance request; please contact the Box Office at 617-478-3100 or visitorservices@icaboston.org to make a request.

Are there other access accommodations that would be useful to help you fully participate in this program? Let us know at accessibility@icaboston.org or learn more about Accessibility at the ICA at icaboston.org/accessibility.

Read the performance Program

BLACK HOLE—Trilogy And Triathlon is a multidisciplinary performance choreographed by the award-winning movement artist Shamel Pitts and co-created and performed by his Brooklyn-based arts collective TRIBE. Deeply inspired and infused by the spirit of Afrofuturism, the performance combines dance, original sound, video projection, and light design in a tale of vitality and tenderness, darkness and light, personal growth and collective empowerment.  

In BLACK HOLE, a trio of Black performers (all of African heritage) shares the stage in a narrative of unity, vigor, and unrelenting advancement. Their journey originates in the darkness of the titular Black Hole, understood not as a cosmic void but a metaphorical place of transformation and potential. Engulfed in an evocative soundscape of original music, sound samples, and spoken word, the dancers embark on an hour-long uninterrupted journey in movement in which their tenacity and grace are illuminated by cinematic video projections and stark, monochromatic lights.  

Choreographed by 2020 Guggenheim Fellow and 2021 Bessie Award winner Shamel Pitts, who also performs in it, the piece features dancers Tushrik Fredericks and Ashley Pierre-Louis; video and lighting designed by Lucca Del Carlo; music composed by Sivan Jacobvitz; spoken word text by Shamel Pitts; and costumes by Naomi Rapaport and Mirelle Martins. Photography and cinematography for the piece are by Itai Zwecker and The Adeboye Brothers.

Following the Friday performance, members of the company will join John Andress, Bill T. Jones Director/Curator of Performing Arts, for a post-performance conversation.

Accessibility

  • Accessible and companion seating can be selected when purchasing tickets online, or at the Box Office at 617-478-3100 or visitorservices@icaboston.org.
  • Assistive listening devices are available for all theater programs at the theater entrance.
  • A link to live captioning will be shared by the day of the event and will be available in the theater.
  • ASL interpretation is available by advance request; please contact the Box Office at 617-478-3100 or visitorservices@icaboston.org to make a request.

Are there other access accommodations that would be useful to help you fully participate in this program? Let us know at accessibility@icaboston.org or learn more about Accessibility at the ICA at icaboston.org/accessibility.

BLACK HOLE was developed with the kind support of Trust for Mutual Understanding (TMU), American Dance Abroad, gloATL, PearlArts Studios, CrossAward (Italy), Dock 11 / Eden (Germany), Derida Dance Center (Bulgaria), Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant, Artis, New York Live Arts, and 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center. 

Support for BLACK HOLE is provided, in part, by The David Henry Fund for Performance.