Community Calendar

Quarteto Americanos is Omar Sosa’s first U.S.-based jazz ensemble since the 1990s! Featuring drummer Josh Jones, bassist Ernesto Mazar Kindelán, and saxophone / clarinet / flute player Sheldon Brown, the group came together in February 2021 when Omar was in the Bay Area for several live streams. Connecting with Josh and Sheldon was a gratifying reunion for Omar, as he played extensively with them during his early days in San Francisco and Oakland in the late 1990s. Josh Jones’ Trio at the time, including Omar and bassist Geoff Brennan, played frequently at Bay Area clubs. Josh remains one of Omar’s favorite drummers - a versatile musician and educator equally at home in Latin, jazz, hip-hop, and fusion styles. Sheldon Brown was a member of Omar’s first Septet ensemble in the Bay Area, performing in San Francisco and Oakland and around the world in support of Omar’s earliest recording projects, ‘Free Roots’, ‘Spirit of the Roots’, and ‘Bembón’, also known as the Roots Trilogy. Sheldon is a talented composer, arranger and producer whose first recording, ‘Shifting Currents‘, caught Omar’s ear when he first moved to San Francisco in 1995. Ernesto Mazar Kindelán is a dynamic Cuban musician who came to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2014 following a ten-year stint with Charanga Habanera, the celebrated Cuban timba band from Havana.

Omar’s Quarteto Americanos plays a number of arrangements of Omar’s signature compositions from his early career, including ‘My Three Notes’, ‘Angustia’, and ‘Toridanzón’, as well as new songs written by Omar in Barcelona during the lockdown in 2020. Like Omar’s oeuvre, Quarteto Americanos’ repertoire is eclectic and energizing. Its improvisational approach seamlessly fuses elements of jazz, Latin, hip-hop, and electronica into an exciting, passionate, contemporary sound.

The 4th Witch is a fantastic new tale, inspired by elements of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, in which a girl escapes war and seeks protection from three witches. They agree to take her on as an apprentice with only one condition: she must never use her powers for revenge. Consumed by grief and rage, the girl comes to realize that it was Macbeth who killed her parents. Now she must choose between reconciliation or vengeance.

Told through inventive practical effects executed in plain sight, the troupe brilliantly employs shadow puppetry, live music and actors in silhouette, to create an entire new world in The 4th Witch. Manual Cinema has built a devoted fanbase in Boston over the course of their thrilling past productions at ArtsEmerson including Ada/Ava and Frankenstein. Do not miss their triumphant return this fall!

SpaceBridge brings together Russian refugee children—who fled to the U.S. due to their families’ anti-war stance and now live in NYC shelters—with American peers to build a more welcoming world where their new friendships can thrive and grow.

Created by Irina Kruzhilina, the piece centers children we seldom consider: Russian youth affected by the war in Ukraine. It follows their efforts to integrate into American society, where they often encounter suspicion, bullying, and a lack of empathy.

SpaceBridge draws its inspiration from two significant historical events: the 1983 peace mission to the USSR led by 11-year-old American activist Samantha Smith, who bridged the gap between American and Russian children during the Cold War; and the satellite-mediated “citizens’ debates”, known as “spacebridges” between the US and the USSR, which prompted unfiltered and uncensored conversations between ordinary people from both cultures.

The performance emerged from a series of storytelling workshops with immigrant and non-immigrant youth which used art and performance to spark dialogue about the realities faced by young refugees in the US.

SpaceBridge was originally presented by La MaMa ETC in association with En Garde Arts and Visual Echo, as part of the Under the Radar Festival in NYC.

SpaceBridge brings together Russian refugee children—who fled to the U.S. due to their families’ anti-war stance and now live in NYC shelters—with American peers to build a more welcoming world where their new friendships can thrive and grow.

Created by Irina Kruzhilina, the piece centers children we seldom consider: Russian youth affected by the war in Ukraine. It follows their efforts to integrate into American society, where they often encounter suspicion, bullying, and a lack of empathy.

SpaceBridge draws its inspiration from two significant historical events: the 1983 peace mission to the USSR led by 11-year-old American activist Samantha Smith, who bridged the gap between American and Russian children during the Cold War; and the satellite-mediated “citizens’ debates”, known as “spacebridges” between the US and the USSR, which prompted unfiltered and uncensored conversations between ordinary people from both cultures.

The performance emerged from a series of storytelling workshops with immigrant and non-immigrant youth which used art and performance to spark dialogue about the realities faced by young refugees in the US.

SpaceBridge was originally presented by La MaMa ETC in association with En Garde Arts and Visual Echo, as part of the Under the Radar Festival in NYC.

SpaceBridge brings together Russian refugee children—who fled to the U.S. due to their families’ anti-war stance and now live in NYC shelters—with American peers to build a more welcoming world where their new friendships can thrive and grow.

Created by Irina Kruzhilina, the piece centers children we seldom consider: Russian youth affected by the war in Ukraine. It follows their efforts to integrate into American society, where they often encounter suspicion, bullying, and a lack of empathy.

SpaceBridge draws its inspiration from two significant historical events: the 1983 peace mission to the USSR led by 11-year-old American activist Samantha Smith, who bridged the gap between American and Russian children during the Cold War; and the satellite-mediated “citizens’ debates”, known as “spacebridges” between the US and the USSR, which prompted unfiltered and uncensored conversations between ordinary people from both cultures.

The performance emerged from a series of storytelling workshops with immigrant and non-immigrant youth which used art and performance to spark dialogue about the realities faced by young refugees in the US.

SpaceBridge was originally presented by La MaMa ETC in association with En Garde Arts and Visual Echo, as part of the Under the Radar Festival in NYC.

Noli Timere is a soaring aerial performance featuring eight extraordinary, multidisciplinary performers moving over and within a custom designed net sculpture, suspended up to 25 feet in the air. Conceived by Guggenheim Award-winning choreographer Rebecca Lazier in partnership with world renowned sculptor Janet Echelman, Noli Timere presents a seamless, symbiotic interaction between movement and sculpture in which both are continually reshaped and transformed by one another. Created with original music by acclaimed Quebecoise composer Jorane, Noli Timere fuses contemporary dance and avant-garde circus with art installation and advanced engineering, to question how one navigates an unstable world.

The culmination of a 5-year collaboration, Noli Timere, Latin for ‘be not afraid’, uniquely renders interconnectedness visible and tangible–demonstrating, like the Butterfly Effect, how a change in one element generates cascading reverberations throughout a whole system. Noli Timere offers a mesmerizing kinesthetic metaphor and meditation upon the challenges of global interconnection.

Noli Timere is a soaring aerial performance featuring eight extraordinary, multidisciplinary performers moving over and within a custom designed net sculpture, suspended up to 25 feet in the air. Conceived by Guggenheim Award-winning choreographer Rebecca Lazier in partnership with world renowned sculptor Janet Echelman, Noli Timere presents a seamless, symbiotic interaction between movement and sculpture in which both are continually reshaped and transformed by one another. Created with original music by acclaimed Quebecoise composer Jorane, Noli Timere fuses contemporary dance and avant-garde circus with art installation and advanced engineering, to question how one navigates an unstable world.

The culmination of a 5-year collaboration, Noli Timere, Latin for ‘be not afraid’, uniquely renders interconnectedness visible and tangible–demonstrating, like the Butterfly Effect, how a change in one element generates cascading reverberations throughout a whole system. Noli Timere offers a mesmerizing kinesthetic metaphor and meditation upon the challenges of global interconnection.

Noli Timere is a soaring aerial performance featuring eight extraordinary, multidisciplinary performers moving over and within a custom designed net sculpture, suspended up to 25 feet in the air. Conceived by Guggenheim Award-winning choreographer Rebecca Lazier in partnership with world renowned sculptor Janet Echelman, Noli Timere presents a seamless, symbiotic interaction between movement and sculpture in which both are continually reshaped and transformed by one another. Created with original music by acclaimed Quebecoise composer Jorane, Noli Timere fuses contemporary dance and avant-garde circus with art installation and advanced engineering, to question how one navigates an unstable world.

The culmination of a 5-year collaboration, Noli Timere, Latin for ‘be not afraid’, uniquely renders interconnectedness visible and tangible–demonstrating, like the Butterfly Effect, how a change in one element generates cascading reverberations throughout a whole system. Noli Timere offers a mesmerizing kinesthetic metaphor and meditation upon the challenges of global interconnection.

Noli Timere is a soaring aerial performance featuring eight extraordinary, multidisciplinary performers moving over and within a custom designed net sculpture, suspended up to 25 feet in the air. Conceived by Guggenheim Award-winning choreographer Rebecca Lazier in partnership with world renowned sculptor Janet Echelman, Noli Timere presents a seamless, symbiotic interaction between movement and sculpture in which both are continually reshaped and transformed by one another. Created with original music by acclaimed Quebecoise composer Jorane, Noli Timere fuses contemporary dance and avant-garde circus with art installation and advanced engineering, to question how one navigates an unstable world.

The culmination of a 5-year collaboration, Noli Timere, Latin for ‘be not afraid’, uniquely renders interconnectedness visible and tangible–demonstrating, like the Butterfly Effect, how a change in one element generates cascading reverberations throughout a whole system. Noli Timere offers a mesmerizing kinesthetic metaphor and meditation upon the challenges of global interconnection.

Composed, Written, and Performed by Ahamefule J. Oluo

The Things Around Us is a dazzling, funny, and introspective new work from acclaimed musician, artist, and storyteller Ahamefule J. Oluo. In this one-person-show, Oluo builds layers of live, looped music and then tells us revealing, personal stories to create an introspective evening about strangers, acquaintances, and friends—and how all three might be more similar to each other than we often think. It is the third in a trilogy of shows from Oluo, following Now I’m Fine and Susan.

Using looping technology, trumpet, vocals, cardboard shipping boxes for drums, and other instruments, Oluo creates an expansive symphony that becomes the perfect soundtrack to Oluo’s personal reflections, laugh out loud stories, and universal observations about life. The Things Around Us is an evening that will draw you in and remind you of the beauty that surrounds all of the people and places we hold dear.