Minor Music at the End of the World

"Behind and all around, the heavens glowed in dim, weird radiance that suffused the darkening world and made almost a minor music." (W.E.B. Du Bois, "The Comet")

From the monologue of the last man on earth to the creation of new modes of relation in the wake of catastrophe, this multi-disciplinary performance event explores the possibility of Black life at the end of the world: What might blossom in the black morning?

A collaboration in three movements based on writer and scholar Saidiya Hartman’s texts and directed by Sarah Benson, Minor Music at the End of the World is a polyvocal utterance with performances from André Holland, Okwui Okpokwasili, Bria Bacon, Audrey Hailes, and AJ Wilmore—and a film by Arthur Jafa. This collaborative work of hybrid form features a "murderers' row of collaborators" (Artnet) that bridges performance, movement, film, and visual art, with a site-specific scenic design by Mimi Lien, a stage installation by Precious Okoyomon, and innovative live camera design by Josh Higgason.

Minor Music at the End of the World is based on Hartman’s acclaimed essays, “The End of White Supremacy,” “Litany for Grieving Sisters,” and an original unpublished work, “Dead River.” The first movement draws inspiration from Du Bois’s “The Comet,” a speculative short story written in the aftermath of the 1918 global pandemic and the violence of the Red Summer. Together, the three movements leave the audience "singed and recast." (Art Monthly)

Minor Music was commissioned by Hartwig Art Foundation and developed in workshop at the Harvey Theater.