Greetings! Our December GBE “Black Family Month” and the holidays are in motion as the World Famous Apollo Theater announces its 2019 winter season featuring an exciting new lineup of concerts, film screenings, dance, theatrical performances and more. Check below and for more info, visit: www.apollotheatre.org.
Eleven-year-old Charlotte Nebres is making history as the first Black ballerina to play Marie in the New York City BalletGeorge Balanchine production of “The Nutcracker” since it launched in 1954. Nebres is one of two alternating in the role, which is usually double cast. Her mother is from Trinidad and her father from the Philippines. See also: “Hip Hop Nutcracker” (“DANCE”)
With Nelson Mandela’s death (Dec. 5, 2013) commemorated worldwide, a work in progress, “Mandela,” a new musical about the renowned global icon’s life, is generating quite a buzz.
THEATER
“Fires in the Mirror” is a re-imagining—with new performers and collaborators—of Anna Deavere Smith’s Drama Desk award winning groundbreaking response to a civil outbreak. The work reveals the underlying racial tensions in the nestled Brooklyn community of Crown Heights during the summer of 1991. This landmark play launches Anna Deavere Smith’s Residency 1 at Signature Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre. Through Dec.15. Pershing Square Signature Center, 480 West 42nd St., Manhattan; for more information, call: 212-244-7529 or visit www.signaturetheatre.org.
“Slave Play” comes to Broadway. Written by Jeremy O. Harris, directed by two-time NAACP and OBIE Award winner Robert O’Hara. The Old South lives on at the MacGregor Plantation—nothing is as it seems, and yet everything is as it seems ripping apart history to shed new light on the nexus of race, gender, and sexuality in the 21st-century. For more information, visit: www.slaveplaybroadway.com
“Tina: The Tina Turner Musical” written by Katori Hall with Frank Ketelaar and Kees Prins, directed by Phyllida Lloyd. Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, 205 West 46th St, Manhattan. The ‘Queen of Rock n Roll,’ in performances now; Tony Award and Olivier Award nominee Adrienne Warren (“Shuffle Along”) is cast in the title role, Nkeki Obi-Melekwe as Tina at select performances Daniel J. Watts as Ike Turner. For information, visit: www.ticketmaster.com
“Ain’t Too Proud” celebrates The Temptations’ extraordinary journey from the streets of Detroit to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, written by three-time Obie Award winner Dominique Morisseau. Imperial Theatre, 249 West 45th Street, Manhattan. For information, call: 844-379-0370 or visit: www.secureboxoffice.com
“Hip Hop Nutcracker” Celebrate the season with an original holiday extravaganza, which reimagines the traditional Tchaikovsky ballet with explosive urban choreography. Featuring rap legend Kurtis Blow as special guest MC. Fri.–Sat. Dec. 20-21 at NJ Performing Arts Center, Prudential Hall, 1 Center Street, Newark, NJ 07102. For information, call:888-GO-NJPAC
DANCE
New York City Ballet “The Nutcracker” now at David H Koch Theatre NY. For performance schedules and tickets, call: 212-496-0600 or visit www.davidkochtheatre.com
MUSIC
“Holiday Joy: A Gospel Celebration,” Sat., Dec. 21 at 4 p.m. Let the music lift your spirit this Christmas season. Grammy-award winning singer Yolanda Adams returns to the Apollo for a soul-stirring holiday concert with gospel artist Donald Lawrence and comedic host Marcus Wiley. visit: www.apollotheatre.org.
“Friday Night Disco Fever” celebrating “A Night at Studio 54,” Fri., Dec. 27 at 7 p.m. The Wellmont Theater, 5 Seymour Street, Montclair, New Jersey 07042. For information visit: ticketmaster.com
Eric Benet, Dec. 28, 7:30 p.m., Sony Hall, 235 W 46th Street, Manhattan. For information visit: ticketmaster.com.
“The Femme It Forward Tour” featuring Ashanti, Monica, Keri Hilson, Amerie and Lil Mo is coming to Kings Theatre, 1027 Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn on New Year’s Eve, Tues., Dec. 31 For information visit: ticketmaster.com.
TV
“The Apollo” Helmed by Academy and Emmy Award-winning director Roger Ross Williams, chronicles the unique history and contemporary legacy of the New York City landmark, the Apollo Theater. Now streaming and on demand.
“Hitsville: The Making of Motown.” Featuring Motown co-founders-legends, Berry Gordy and Smoky Robinson with Motown greats and vintage footage. Showtime.
“Greenleaf,” “Queen Sugar,” “Super Soul Sunday,” “The Haves and The Have Nots,” “Iyanla, Fix My Life” and more on OWN network. Visit: www.oprah.com
Also Season 4 of “Greenleaf” is available on Netflix.
FILM
“21 Bridges” starring Chadwick Boseman as NYC detective Andre Davis, who shuts down all the bridges in Manhattan to track down a pair of cop killers. But like “The Fugitive,” this manhunt thriller has some surprises. Check theater listings.
“Harriet” The biographical film about slave-turned-abolitionist-soldier, Harriet Tubman. Stars Cynthia Erivo as Tubman, with Leslie Odom Jr, Joe Alwyn and Janelle Monáe with music by Terence Blanchard. Story by Gregory Allen Howard. In theaters now.
COMMUNITY
The Apollo Theater Education Program presents “Beyond The Beat: Technology’s impact On Music Production” Tues, Dec. 17 at 6 p.m. Visit: www.apollotheatre.org
The Apollo Theater Presents Kwanzaa Celebration: Regeneration Night on Saturday, Dec. 28 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., featuring performances by Abdel R. Salaam’s Forces of Nature Dance Theatre with special guests The KIPP AMP Legacy Jazz Ensemble, a special tribute to the Elombe Brath family and host The Radio Griot, Imhotep Gary Byrd.
Black Solidarity Day 2020 citywide organizing meetings will be held on the first Monday of every month until Nov. 2020 at Sistas’ Place, 456 Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn. For more information, contact the Dec. 12 Movement and the Black Solidarity Coalition at: 718-398-1766 or visit: www. d12m.org
WBAI Fightback continues to fight back the coupsters and affirmatively to work to maintain WBAI as a local station broadcast venue and to help stabilize it. Fight back the attacks against WBAI. Stay tuned and Stay woke.
Listen to Imhotep Gary Byrd’s “Express Yourself,” Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on WBLS-FM and simulcast over WLIB 1190AM. The full show can also be heard on HD radio at WBLS-HD2 and at WBLS.com, WLIB.com. IGB’s “Radio GBE” is heard Fridays 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Archived online at www.wbai.org. For bookings or to reach us about your GBEvent or for comments, email co-editor Nyerere, nyerere1@aol.com, find us at Imhotep Gary Byrd on Facebook or call 212-592-3279.