ACO: "The Gathering: A Collective Sonic Ring Shout" // The Kennedy Center

NATIONAL BLACK THEATRE AND THE APOLLO PRESENT

The Gathering: A Collective Sonic Ring Shout
John F. Kennedy Center Opera House

Sat. Jun. 1, 2024 7:30p.m.

Join Nona Hendryx, Abby Dobson, Toshi Reagon, Joel Thompson, Carlos Simon, Courtney Bryan, Troy Anthony and more as they take you on a sonic melodic quest to “The Gathering.” With virtual host, Mahogany L. Browne as our guide —along with the American Composers Orchestra and NEWorks Voices of Inspiration— this experience is meant to be our space to collectively center the social impact issues of our time, to awaken joy as a source of liberation and to find love as our form of possibility and resistance.

Program
Through orchestral, choral, gospel and soul choral music, this one-night-only event is the signature celebration for The Kennedy Center’s Conflux partnership with National Black Theatre (NBT) running May 26 - June 2, 2024.

The Gathering: A Collective Sonic Ring Shout will take us on a sonic quest produced by National Black Theatre & The Apollo. Taking place in the Opera House at The Kennedy Center, “The Gathering” will center the soul of Black folks and the heart of America's brilliant and bitter present.

With Creative Concept and Direction by NBT’s Executive Artistic Director, Jonathan McCrory, and featuring 80 members of the American Composers Orchestra conducted by Chelsea Tipton, II and 48 members of the NEWorks Voices of Inspiration chorale under the leadership of choirmaster Nolan Williams, Jr, this night will feature the DC premiere of Seven Last Words of the Unarmed by Joel Thompson alongside Carlos Simon’s Amen! and Courtney Bryan’s Sanctum. In conjunction with these pieces, the night has been curated in the African tradition of call and response to include original works by genre-defying Black artists such as Abby Dobson, Toshi Reagon, Troy Anthony, and Nona Hendryx.

The Gathering: A Collective Sonic Ring Shout was originally performed to a sold-out audience at The Apollo in Harlem, New York 2022.

This performance is co-produced by National Black Theatre and The Apollo in association with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and is an external rental presented in coordination with the Kennedy Center Campus Rental Office