NYU Skirball Center Presents the New York Premiere of “the break/s” by Hip-Hop Performance Poet Marc Bamuthi Joseph

Media Advisory/Request for Coverage

• WHAT: the break/s: a mixtape for stage is a multimedia excursion across planet Hip-Hop, presented in verse, dance, and film, which dramatically realizes the living history of the Hip-Hop generation through the performed personal narrative of poet Marc Bamuthi Joseph. the break/s draws its inspiration from the artist’s emergence in a time of globalization and Jeff Chang’s Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, a 2005 American Book Award winner, which captures the creation of Hip-Hop as a local, political, and artistic movement inspired by a generation’s longing to make culture that impacts the world. The piece explores Joseph’s travels from Port-au-Prince to Paris, Tokyo to Minneapolis while emphasizing a synthesis among performer, score, and projected image that puts Hip-Hop culture into personal, historical, and political perspective. Both sound score and visual projections are mixed in real time while onstage Tommy Shepherd, aka Soulati, and DJ Excess collaborate with Joseph to sample style, meaning, and presentation to create something wholly new and unique.
• WHO: the break/s is a featured co-presentation with the Hip-Hop Theater Festival, directed by Michael Garcés, and executive produced by MAPP International Productions. The show co-premiered at the 2008 Humana Festival and the Walker Art Center.
• WHEN: The four-performances-only New York premiere is September 23, 25, 26 & 27 at 8 PM. Tickets are $40. Press tickets are available for the Wednesday, Sept. 23 performance and media wishing to review should call Richard Pierce at 212.998.6796, or email richard.pierce@nyu.edu to make arrangements in advance.
• WHERE: The Jack H. Skirball Center for the Performing Arts at New York University, 566 LaGuardia Place (Washington Square South), New York City. The Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, now in its fifth year, is the premiere venue for the presentation of cultural and performing arts events for NYU and lower Manhattan.