Friday, October 9, 6:30pm 

Join us for a staged reading of playwright Jeannie Barroga's BUFFALO'ED directed by Claro de los Reyes. The reading will be followed by a facilitated conversation by historian Michael Salgarolo and scholar Cynthia Marasigan. This event is presented in partnership with Hi-ARTS, and is a featured program within Baryo Brooklyn: a public programs series on Filipino History in Brooklyn 

Buffalo Soldiers and the Philippines' is sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council.

Tickets: $0-$17.85

OPEN CALL: Solo & Duo Edition⁠
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Hi-ARTS is now accepting applications for 2026-27 CRITICAL BREAKS and SKY LAB Artist Residencies. This cycle, we are on the lookout for Solo & Duo projects seeking their next big break. ⁠
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Placing an emphasis on process and creative exploration, we take pride in providing our artists with financial support, time and space, and public programming opportunities. We do this through two developmental residencies: CRITICAL BREAKS and SKY LAB.

CRITICAL BREAKS is a residency program for artists who are in a pivotal phase of developing new work, while SKY LAB supports artists who center community at the root of creative development, research, and process. ⁠
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Hi-ARTS and Tribe present ARTIST LAB | In Practice, a movement workshop with award-winning choreographer Shamel Pitts.

Through a 6 Step Program of Artistic Practice | Creation Process, Pitts will explore the following questions:

• How do these 6 steps inform the rehearsal & artistic process?

• How might what is learned as an artist inform you as an administrator?

• How might your Artistic Practice/Artistic Life inform your administration working style/flow within an arts organization? 

Attendees should bring pen & paper, and arrive in comfortable clothing, ready to dance as he guides them into movement.

Pitts will also demonstrate how these 6 steps show up inside of the rehearsal process of Touch of RED with dance partner Channce Williams.

Hi-ARTS and TRIBE are pleased to invite you to the film screening of the dance documentary Touch of RED: RECOLLECTION. 

Touch of RED: RECOLLECTION is an ethereal dance documentary following MacArthur fellow Shamel Pitts, as he embarks on a storied journey of discovery through multiple art residencies with members of his Brooklyn-based arts collective TRIBE. The documentary directed by Taylor Antisdel weaves together the threads of memory and experience as we witness Shamel creating his live work, Touch of RED.

Join us for the first screening of this documentary in the heart of our hometown, Brooklyn.

Complete your experience by joining our workshop with Shamel Pitts at Hi-ARTS. More details here.

Free with RSVP

Join us for a monthly dance practice rooted in Zora Neale Hurston’s sacred tools of ritual movement, folktales, and work songs.

Each month, close to the full moon, we will gather to explore the methodology at the heart of The Zora Project. We will activate the earth’s latent energy, make the mundane sacred, and practice what Zora taught us: to be both human and cosmic at the same time.

Led by SPAIR artist-in-residence Tanya Birl-Torres, we will lean into theater, somatic practices, and ritual dance to weave a story of all of us together.

SWEETFISH! is a play with music that deals with themes of race, colour, gender, and sexuality, but really about the silent power that exists behind relationships — all with a strong dose of camp and drag.

Tickets: $5-20 | Pay what you can

Luminance: The Unearthing
An ensemble of six poets travel through time, grief, and gratitude, while shifting identities and barriers to excavate their personal truths. 

Youth Artists
Sasha Bolkova • Kadija “K-Drizzy” Camara • Ligaya Cullo • Kassidy Khuu • Hakimah Malam • Colin Sherer

Luminance: The Unearthing
An ensemble of six poets travel through time, grief, and gratitude, while shifting identities and barriers to excavate their personal truths. 

Youth Artists
Sasha Bolkova • Kadija “K-Drizzy” Camara • Ligaya Cullo • Kassidy Khuu • Hakimah Malam • Colin Sherer

America is in the Heart is an adaptation of what is considered to be the first novel, of the same name, that depicts the Filipino-American experience, written by Carlos Bulosan and published in 1946. Adapted for performance, America is in the Heart will serve as a means of building solidarity across class, age and race; shedding light on how forgotten ancestors contributed to and built the labor movement in 1930s California while asking, “how can we follow in their footsteps?”

Tickets: $5-20 | Pay what you can

Join us on March 26 for Maleek Rae’s GUTTAH PART II: ecdysis. Developed through CRITICAL BREAKS, GUTTAH PART II: ecdysis, the second installment of the trilogy series set in Detroit that reframes life in the hood as one of royalty, spirit, and ceremony. The work employs music and movement to explore Black bloodlines, family, transness, and transformation. During their Hi-ARTS residency, Maleek will focus on deepening music as a foundational ceremonial practice.

Tickets: $5-20 | Pay what you can

For the last 4-weeks, MODArts Dance Collective has been facilitating their Move to Change Residency with support from Hi-ARTS. Join them on November 1 for an intimate showing will highlight each artist's creative process in a work-in-progress solo, culminating the tenure of a four Saturday residency.

Suspicious, indeed. In TWELVE ANGRY BLACK WOMEN, a new experimental & speculative play by Andrea Ambam, the fate of a peculiar and unprecedented case in American history rests in the hands of an all-Black, all-Femme jury.

Set within a USA stamped as a backsliding democracy, TWELVE ANGRY BLACK WOMEN is a theatrical truthtelling experience where satire, ritual, and reenactment collide to stress-test American democracy and contemplate the consequences this country would face if Black women voted not with our resilience, but our righteous rage.

This staged reading is directed and choreographed by Obie Award-winner nicHi douglas, with music composition by Obie Award-winner S T A R R busby.

Suspicious, indeed. In TWELVE ANGRY BLACK WOMEN, a new experimental & speculative play by Andrea Ambam, the fate of a peculiar and unprecedented case in American history rests in the hands of an all-Black, all-Femme jury.

Set within a USA stamped as a backsliding democracy, TWELVE ANGRY BLACK WOMEN is a theatrical truthtelling experience where satire, ritual, and reenactment collide to stress-test American democracy and contemplate the consequences this country would face if Black women voted not with our resilience, but our righteous rage.

This staged reading is directed and choreographed by Obie Award-winner nicHi douglas, with music composition by Obie Award-winner S T A R R busby.

For the last 4-weeks, MODArts Dance Collective has been facilitating their Move to Change Residency with support from Hi-ARTS. Join them on November 1 for an intimate showing will highlight each artist's creative process in a work-in-progress solo, culminating the tenure of a four Saturday residency.

ECHOES OF THE FUTURE: CELEBRATING 25 YEARS
October 9, 2025 - National Sawdust, Brooklyn, NY

Get ready for the party of the year! Echoes of the Future is more than an anniversary — it’s a living archive, a homecoming (Brooklyn in the house!), and a collective invocation of what’s to come. Hosted at National Sawdust, this homecoming celebration will bring together artists, alumni, donors and culture makers for an evening of performance, storytelling and future-building.  Join us in celebrating our legacy and our future — where we will honor the incredible work and achievements of our talented artists, dedicated alumni, administrators, and vibrant community members from past, present, and future generations.

Join us for a hands-on, movement-based workshop where we’ll explore how personal stories, music, memory, and history can all live in the body. This workshop invites you to tap into your own experiences—whether it’s a favorite song from your childhood, a place that shaped you, or the energy of 80s and 90s Hip-Hop culture—and use them to inspire movement and connection.

CRITICAL BREAKS | Alle Mims

A Soviet Film on Negro Life in America is a political satire that uses masks and puppets to tell the unbelievably true story of the Soviet Film that almost changed the world. In 1932, Langston Hughes, Louise Thompson Patterson, and twenty other Harlem Renaissance artists and intellectuals traveled to Moscow to make a Communist propaganda film sponsored by the Soviet Government. Langston and Louise lead their comrades to the other side of the world with the promise of stardom, revolution, and a guaranteed good time on the Soviet's dime; hopeful that their voyage will mean change back home within their lifetime.

A Soviet Film on Negro Life in America is a political satire that uses masks and puppets to tell the unbelievably true story of the Soviet Film that almost changed the world. In 1932, Langston Hughes, Louise Thompson Patterson, and twenty other Harlem Renaissance artists and intellectuals traveled to Moscow to make a Communist propaganda film sponsored by the Soviet Government. Langston and Louise lead their comrades to the other side of the world with the promise of stardom, revolution, and a guaranteed good time on the Soviet's dime; hopeful that their voyage will mean change back home within their lifetime. 

Step into Rivers Unsettled, with Eto Otitigbe as your guide. This intimate walkthrough invites audiences to experience the exhibition not just as viewers, but as active listeners to the river, the materials, and the layered stories this exhibition carries. 

How are you healing? We are excited to announce the return of Spirit & Flow: Nurturing the Inner Child, a workshop series curated by Donny. Kick off 2025 with Spirit & Flow’s monthly workshop series. 

Supported by Hi-ARTS through our Artist Intensive Program, Jeffrey will concentrate on the development of Fire, Like Rain.

About Fire, Like Rain

Fire, Like Rain is a sweeping theatrical journey that reclaims the lost voices of Tulsa’s Greenwood District during the harrowing events of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Told through the eyes of Jasper, a scrappy, street-smart 12-year-old; Theodore, a restless young dreamer; and Dean, a resilient elder, the play unearths the intertwined lives of a once-thriving Black community. Portrayed by a single actor, Fire, Like Rain bears witness to a tragedy too long buried while celebrating the brilliance, ingenuity, and unbreakable bonds of a people who refused to be forgotten.

How are you healing? We are excited to announce the return of Spirit & Flow: Nurturing the Inner Child, a workshop series curated by Donny. Kick off 2025 with Spirit & Flow’s monthly workshop series. 

Have you struggled with writing about yourself and your art? This workshop guides you through the process of creating and editing written materials for application and audition season. 

Putting Words to Your Art is an experiential learning workshop led by Robyn Ayers, geared towards emerging and early-career artists.

Since 2001, REBEL VERSES is where the next generation of theater artists in New York City showcase their unapologetic and unrelenting creativity.

It’s where collaboration and connections between youth companies and prominent artists are fostered promoting the development of new works in theater.

It’s a curated collection of performances by some of the best youth companies in NYC & beyond who are committed to nurturing and elevating diverse voices, championing artistic excellence, and creating a vibrant community of young artists who are challenging the status quo and shaping the future of theater.

Since 2001, REBEL VERSES is where the next generation of theater artists in New York City showcase their unapologetic and unrelenting creativity.

It’s where collaboration and connections between youth companies and prominent artists are fostered promoting the development of new works in theater.

It’s a curated collection of performances by some of the best youth companies in NYC & beyond who are committed to nurturing and elevating diverse voices, championing artistic excellence, and creating a vibrant community of young artists who are challenging the status quo and shaping the future of theater.

Since 2001, REBEL VERSES is where the next generation of theater artists in New York City showcase their unapologetic and unrelenting creativity.

It’s where collaboration and connections between youth companies and prominent artists are fostered promoting the development of new works in theater.

It’s a curated collection of performances by some of the best youth companies in NYC & beyond who are committed to nurturing and elevating diverse voices, championing artistic excellence, and creating a vibrant community of young artists who are challenging the status quo and shaping the future of theater.

How are you healing? We are excited to announce the return of Spirit & Flow: Nurturing the Inner Child, a workshop series curated by Donnell E. Smith. Kick off 2025 with Spirit & Flow’s monthly workshop series.