Community | Talks

Alicia Garza is an organizer, political strategist, and cheeseburger enthusiast. She is the principal at the Black Futures Lab and the Black to the Future Action Fund, co-creator of #BlackLivesMatter and the Black Lives Matter Global Network, Strategy & Partnerships Director at the National Domestic Workers Alliance, and host of the Lady Don’t Take No podcast. Her acclaimed new book, The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart, offers an essential guide to building transformative movements to address the challenges of our time.

New Orleans-based singer-songwriter PJ Morton performs deeply soulful R&B with a passionate delivery that simultaneously comforts and entrances. A longtime keyboardist for Maroon 5 and music director for Solange, Morton boasts a roster of collaborators that include Lil Wayne, Busta Rhymes, and India.Arie. His albums Gumbo, Gumbo Unplugged, and Paul have all earned him Grammy nominations for Best R&B Album, with additional wins for Best Traditional R&B Performance in 2019 and a Best R&B Song in 2020.

Originally the breakout choir for Mama Foundation for the Arts’ School of Gospel, Jazz, and R&B Arts, this award-winning choir has flourished under the direction of Ahmaya Knoelle Higginson, serving as both a social impact initiative for young alumni and a commercial choir. They have performed at Lincoln Center, Saturday Night Live, and the Grammy Awards—among many others—and accompanied artists including Sting, Arianna Grande, and Madonna. All proceeds benefit the Mama Foundation’s music training programs, which are provided to the Harlem community tuition-free.

Hailing from New Orleans, Tarriona “Tank” Ball is the frontwoman of the Grammy-nominated Tank and The Bangas. The four-piece group has a rare knack for combining various musical styles—fiery soul, deft hip-hop, deep-drove R&B, and subtle jazz—into one dazzling, cohesive whole that evokes the scope of New Orleans music while retaining a distinctive feel all its own. Following their 2019 major-label debut album Green Balloon, the group released the EP Friend Goals in November 2020, with a host of features including PJ Morton, CHIKA, Pell, and Duckwrth.

Ashley August is Black, alive, and loves a good list! She is an Afro-Latina actress, author, playwright, activist, teaching artist, touring spoken word artist, third ranked woman poet in the world, ASTEP at Juilliard fellow, former Youth Poet Laureate of New York City, and one of The New York Times’ “30 Under 30 Most Influential People.” With Belize and Brooklyn embedded into her (he)art, August is motivated to speak the unsaid truth and push the boundaries of spoken word and performance to realms they’ve yet to live in.

Timothy DuWhite (he/they) is a Black/queer poet, actor, and activist based in Brooklyn. His essays and poetry can be found in The Rumpus, The Root, Afropunk, and elsewhere. His acclaimed one-man show NEPTUNE headlined Dixon Place’s Hot! Festival in 2018 and kicked-off Brooklyn Museum’s First Saturdays series in 2019. He is an alumnus of the Public Theater’s #BARS program, a member of the Public Theater’s Emerging Writers Group, and a BAM Resident Artist. Previous BAM appearances include Word. Sound. Power. 2019 and Essex Hemphill: Remembering and Reimagining.

Brooklyn artists investigate the notion of freedom and the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in this new art installation presented on the BAM sign.

A brand new 4K restoration of William Greaves’ (Symbiopsychotaxiplasm) long-lost documentary about the 1972 National Black Political Convention, narrated by Sidney Poitier.