Until Sunrise, Poetry Overnight Takes the Adam Space at BAM
Hanif Abdurraqib's week of poetry and music in Fort Greene opens with Meshell Ndegeocello on October 23 and includes a free all-night reading
Most readings end in time for the last train. This one is built to outlast it.
On Sunday, October 25, the Adam Space at the Brooklyn Academy of Music opens at 7:30 p.m. for Poetry Overnight, which BAM describes as a night of featured readers, special guests and collaborations running until sunrise. It is free. BroadwayWorld reports it is BAM's first-ever Poetry Overnight, led by Hanif Abdurraqib and hosted by Jon Goode, with Helga Davis among the readers. You can come and go, or bring comfortable clothes and a sleeping bag and stay until morning.
It is one night in a week-long series, and the series is worth building a week around.
A Lodestar Named June Jordan
The series is called I Guess It Was My Destiny To Live So Long. Abdurraqib, whom BAM identifies as a MacArthur "Genius," is curating it for the third year. It runs from October 23 to 30 as part of the Next Wave Festival.
BAM says this edition spotlights voices from across the African Diaspora. Its guiding spirit is June Jordan, whom the BAM page calls an "inspirational lodestar."
The Opening Night
The first night is the one with a band. On Friday, October 23, bassist Meshell Ndegeocello and composer-pianist Samora Pinderhughes share the Howard Gilman Opera House at 7:30 p.m. Tickets start at $35.
BAM's listing calls Ndegeocello a bass player above all else, and says that for more than 30 years her work has redefined expectations for women, queer artists and Black music. She has a Grammy and numerous nominations, and she has played alongside the Rolling Stones and Madonna.
BroadwayWorld says she is there for one night only to celebrate Synonym, her third album for Blue Note. It reimagines familiar songs with guest vocalists, the outlet reports, among them Cynthia Erivo, Cat Power and Chaka Khan. Pinderhughes, a composer, pianist, vocalist and filmmaker, opens the evening.
Most readings end in time for the last train.
Four More Nights
After the opening comes a run of smaller rooms, all at 7:30 p.m. according to BAM.
Poetry Overnight on October 25 is in the Adam Space and free. On Wednesday, October 28, Southern Oracles, conceived and created by Scott Woods, plays the same room. It is also free.
On Thursday, October 29, Be Holding moves to the Fishman Space at BAM Fisher. It is built on a Ross Gay poem with music by Tyshawn Sorey. Tickets start at $35.
The series closes Friday, October 30, at the Harvey Theater with Stones in the Water, a reading by Sarah Kay, Anis Mojgani, Clint Smith and Abdurraqib. Tickets start at $28.
How to Do the Week
Poetry in New York is usually an early evening habit. BAM has put it on the late side. If you only see one thing, the all-night reading is the one that matches the city's hours.
Tickets for the paid nights carry a $3 facility fee, and online and phone orders add an $8 handling fee per ticket, according to BAM. Members and patrons get 20 percent off single tickets, and a bundle of three or more performances is 30 percent off.
BAM's plaza has been busy this week too. For En Garde Arts' free outdoor nights outside BAM Fisher, see Prelude.
The reading starts at 7:30. The poets, if the schedule holds, are still talking when the sun comes up over Lafayette Avenue.
