Singing and Dancing on East 4th Street

In March 2020, NYTW and Poetic Theater Productions quickly transitioned the Open Mic Night series into the virtual space. From the very first virtual Open Mic Night, artists from across the globe were chiming in every month to share poetry, music, dance, theatre, and movement in response to themes that spoke to the political and cultural moment. With the reopening of public spaces after more than a year, NYTW and Poetic Theater Productions wanted to find a way to finally provide space for some of these artists to come together, meet, and perform live in-person. Why not perform outside on the streets of New York?

In collaboration with FABnyc and NYC’s Open Streets initiative, NYTW and Poetic co-produced a live in-person, socially distanced “Welcome Back Community Jam Session” on Thursday, August 5, 2021, on East 4^th Street between Bowery and 2^nd Avenue (opposite of NYTW). The 2-hour event coincided with the opening of Whitney White’s Semblance at New York Theatre Workshop.

Inspired by a previous in-person Open Mic in December 2019, we assembled a band with musicians who had never before created music together. They improvised with our fellow performers for the entirety of the event. The featured band members were the talented and lauded Jerome Jordan (collaborations with Wu-Tang Clan, Saul Williams, Jeni Fujita), D-Cross (MTV, The Electric Company, BET), and Yayoi Ikawa (The Bridge Project, Reggie Workman, Howard Johnson). The event also highlighted live performances from several frequent collaborators along with artists who made their mark on audiences in PTP and NYTW’s Virtual Open Mic Series including theater-makers, poets, and music artists Carrie Beehan, Celeste Sage, Emily McNally, Jai Mohan, Jay Delise, Jei, Jenny Pacanowski, Katy Pinke, Luna Mia, Roland Tec, Vanessa Rappa, and Zoe Wilson.

Last week’s presentation marked PTP’s first in-person event with NYTW after a year and a half of virtual programming that has included the aforementioned Virtual Open Mic Series and the Veteran Voices Playwriting Seminar. Equal parts performance, celebration, and reunion, the event was a long-awaited return to in-person performance.

Yayoi Ikawa (piano), Jenny Pacanowski (poet), D-Cross (beatboxer), and Jerome Jordan (guitar)

NYTW Community Engagement Associate Gaven Trinidad hosted the event.

The crowd started gathering around 5:15pm and we played till around 7:40pm!

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Categories: Community Spotlight. Tags: FABnyc, Open Mic Night, and Poetic Theater.