BOOKS

WRITING WORKSHOP

MARITA GOLDEN

Saturday, January, 20 2024

RSVP

12 P.M. TO 1:30 P.M. EST

Don’t Worry Be Happy: Navigating and Surviving the Writer’s Life

Marita Golden and Itoro Bassey will discuss the often difficult and sometimes taboo topics that can haunt and threaten to derail a writer’s work and life:

• How to live with and learn from rejection
• How to find your authentic voice
• How to define success on your own terms
• How not to be derailed by competition.
• How to create a supportive community with other writers
• The importance of rest and practices that support emotional balance and well-being.

Marita Golden is the award-winning author of over 20 works of fiction and nonfiction, a veteran teacher of writing, and co-founder of the Hurston/Wright Foundation.

Itoro Bassey is a Nigerian-American author and journalist based in Washington, D.C. She is an award-winning short story writer, and her debut novel Faith was published in 2022 by Malarkey Books.

FILM

ART

Dawoud Bey: Elegy

Courtesy VMFA

Through Feb. 25 2024

Lower Level: Altria Group Gallery, NewMarket Gallery, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Va.

Mesmerizing and evocative, these 42 photographs and two film installations by contemporary American artist Dawoud Bey contemplate the harrowing journeys and human realities of the Virginia slave trail, Louisiana plantations, and Ohio’s Underground Railroad. Dawoud Bey: Elegy premieres a trilogy that includes Bey’s most recent series of never-before-seen photographs taken in Richmond and commissioned by VMFA. Internationally renowned for his Harlem street scenes and expressive portraits, Bey, in these landscapes, meditates on place as profound repository of memory and witness to American history. In this immersive and transportive exhibition, his works poetically imply a human presence, deepening our understanding of African American experiences rarely represented in collective US history.

Organized by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and curated by Valerie Cassel Oliver, Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Dawoud Bey: Elegy showcases three photographic series. Visitors will first encounter Stony the Road, commissioned by VMFA, which takes viewers to the historic trail in Richmond, Virginia, where Africans arrived in bondage to an unknown land and were walked into enslavement. The photographs in In This Here Place contemplate the plantations of Louisiana and the toils and horrors of enslavement. Photographed in Ohio, Night Coming Tenderly, Black elucidates our understanding of the Underground Railroad and the perilous flight to self-emancipation.

The first film installation, 350,000, evokes the 350,000+ men, women, and children sold from Richmond’s auction blocks at Manchester Docks between 1830 and 1860. The film’s soundtrack features Dr. E. Gaynell Sherrod, VCU professor of dance. Visitors will also experience Evergreen, a three-channel film installation created in collaboration with composer and experimental ethnographer Imani Uzuri, whose multilayered vocal score adds a haunting soundscape.

MUSEUMS

I Have a Dream

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) celebrates Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and legacy with various educational opportunities throughout January. From in-person activities to online offerings, the museum commemorates King and the holiday surrounding his impact on the world. Beginning Jan. 8, 2024, King’s original “I Have a Dream” speech from the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, on loan from Villanova University, will be on display through March 4, 2024. For digital visitors looking to learn more about King online, a blog post highlighting surprising facts about King’s life is now available at nmaahc.si.edu/5thingsMLK.

Alongside the “I Have a Dream” speech on view are objects associated with King, including a Congressional Gold Medal awarded posthumously to him and Coretta Scott King in 2014, a laundry pail used by King during the march from Selma to Montgomery and 1956 handbill advertising a prayer meeting with King at a Boston church.

On Monday, Jan. 8, 2024, the museum welcomes author Jonathan Eig for a special event to discuss his biography King: A Life in the Oprah Winfrey Theater and streaming online. The event “The People’s Holiday: The Many Dreams of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” Monday, Jan. 15, reinterprets the life and work of King through powerful performances by students from Duke Ellington School of the Arts.

From Jan. 12 to Jan. 15, 2024, the museum’s Sweet Home Café will celebrate the holiday with a special menu featuring a selection of King’s most-liked dishes, including ribs, collard greens and a chocolate bourbon pecan pie. For more details, visit the Sweet Home Café website. Entry to the museum includes access to the café, and special Dine and Shop passes are available for access to the café and museum store only.  

In observance of the holiday, the museum will remain open during its regular operating hours from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Advanced and same-day free timed-entry passes are available online.

MUSIC & THEATER

Hell’s Kitchen

Kitchen, a new musical with music and lyrics by Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter and pianist Alicia Keys, is coming to Broadway. The musical, inspired by Keys’ experiences growing up in the New York City neighborhood, will begin performances on March 28, 2024 at the Shubert Theatre, with an official opening set for April 20.

The show, which made its world premiere off-Broadway at the Public Theater this fall—in a run that continues until January 14— features a book by Pulitzer Prize finalist Kristoffer Diaz, music supervision by Emmy and Grammy Award winner Adam Blackstone, music consulting by two-time Tony and Emmy winner Tom Kitt and choreography by Tony Award nominee Camille A. Brown. It is directed by Tony Award nominee Michael Greif.

“Good things take time and, for 13 years, I’ve been dreaming, developing and finding inspiration for a musical based on my experience growing up in Hell’s Kitchen, NYC,” said Keys in a statement. “Hell’s Kitchen is inspired by my life, but it’s not a biographical story. It’s a story about family relationships and identity: Who are we? Who do we want to be? Who are we becoming?”

Keys continued, “The score features new songs that I’m really excited to get out into the world alongside many of my album releases that you know but you’ve never heard like this—rearranged and reinterpreted. I’m honored to be a part of this Broadway season with so much incredible talent and great stories. I grew up with musical theater and have so many memories of standing on line at TKTS to see shows like Miss Saigon and Rent. For me, Hell’s Kitchen is also a New York story of finding your dreams and for me, this musical coming to Broadway is the embodiment of that idea. I’ve learned so much from the experience and the collaboration with Michael Greif, Camille A. Brown, Kristoffer Diaz and Adam Blackstone. I love and respect the art form so much and I’m excited to see it come to Broadway.”

Keys was born Alicia Augello Cook in Hell’s Kitchen in 1981. Growing up in the neighborhood, she carried around a homemade knife, but was also immersed in the music of Thelonious Monk, Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong at home. Her Italian-American mother enrolled her in classical piano lessons at the age of seven, and she wrote her first song a few years later.

Hell’s Kitchen features sets by Robert Brill, costumes by Dede Ayite, lighting by Natasha Katz, sound design by Gareth Owen, projection design by Peter Nigrini and hair and wig design by Mia Neal.

The cast of the Broadway production is yet to be announced. The cast of the Public Theater production includes Shoshana Bean, Chad Carstarphen, Brandon Victor Dixon, Vanessa Ferguson, Crystal Monee Hall, Jakeim Hart, Chris Lee, Jackie Leon, Kecia Lewis, Maleah Joi Moon, Mariand Torres and Lamont Walker II.

MLK DAY 2024

Virginia Union University

Richmond Symphony

Virginia Beach Convention Center

Urban League of Hampton Roads