The Moving Memory project, HAS

We are thrilled to invite you to a one night only screening and installation dedicated to HARLEM AIR SHAFT by Justin Randolph Thompson at Theaterlab, 357 W 36th St, 3rd floor, New York, NY, Sunday April 2nd 4,00-5,30 pm.  

HARLEM AIR SHAFT is a two screen video installation based on a multidisciplinary performance ritual examining the relationship between jazz and memory in the context of a Harlem streetscape, conceived by the award-winning multimedia artist Justin Randolph Thompson in collaboration with choreographer Stefanie Nelson and visual artist Bradly Dever Treadaway. The piece invites viewers to immerse themselves in an improvisation-driven performance featuring dancers, a musician, a jazz union representative, and a poet in perpetual motion. HARLEM AIR SHAFT disrupts everyday reality to remind viewers of the rich cultural heritage of the place, the economics of memory and the complex history of community, resilience, art, and healing. 

Inspired by the tradition of DIY Harlem rent parties of the 1930s and 40s, HARLEM AIR SHAFT draws its title from a Duke Ellington composition, a sonic narration of an architectural space meant to bypass building codes that were designed to ensure adequate living conditions. The piece, focuses on the economics of jazz, and the capacity of historic sites to hold memory, enveloping a city block around 17 East 126st Street – famously known from Art Kane’s iconic jazz greats photo, A Great Day in Harlem – in a ritual procession weaved into the flow of everyday traffic. Featuring three dancers (Bianca Cosentino, Emily Tellier, and Omari Wiles, choreographed by Stefanie Nelson) with portable dance floors rhythmically driving the work in Morse code and a cast of other participants performing from moving cars, Musicologist Kwami Coleman speaks to the comings and goings of jazz in Harlem; jazz union representative Todd Bryant Weeks talks about the economic hardship in the field through the language of the soapbox, poet Thomas Sayers Ellis delivers a meditation on the intersection of class dynamics and exclusionary histories, while saxophonist James Brandon Lewis plays a solo meditation on Duke’s composition. 

This is a world premiere of the video work and is accompanied by a dialogue with Justin Randolph Thompson and special guests. 

Supported by the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs

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