HARLEM WEEK is an annual festival that celebrates one of the world’s most culturally rich neighborhoods with conferences, seminars, music, food, and more. This year’s digital HARLEM WEEK, from Sunday, August 16 to Saturday, August 23, brings the culture, history, resilience, and strength of Harlem to the world.
OK ~ we won’t be able to gather quite the way we’ve done in the past, but gather we will ~ Online where you can dance, taste and shop. Here are a few suggestions. Let’s Celebrate!
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, August 16-17-18-19-20-21-22-23, The Traditional Harlem 5K Run! Check out the Harlem Week Virtual Exhibitor Vendor Village (pretty creative, don’t you think?) and the Imagination Film Festival. Also, the Children’s Corner, Dance Workshop, A Great Day in Harlem and A Taste of Harlem – Virtually!
Monday, August 17, Youth Education & Career Conference; Artist Talk & Performance featuring Melba Moore!
Tuesday, August 18, Greater Harlem Business Conference; Harlem Stories presented by The MOTH; Performance from Broadway’s “Girl From The North Country.”
Wednesday, August 19, Broadway Behind the Scenes Jobs and Careers, a Discussion; The Percy Sutton Harlem Entrepreneurs Virtual Boot Camp!
On Wednesday, August 19, the world-famous Apollo Theater will help celebrate HARLEM WEEK 2020, with a line-up of special digital programs that pay tribute to the Theater’s home in one of the most culturally influential neighborhoods in the world.
The Apollo’s HARLEM WEEK programming includes a dance party with former DJ of the Fugees and official DJ of the Apollo Music Café series, DJ Hard Hittin’ Harry, who will spin a mix of house, hip-hop, and R&B. The Theater will also host two of the Apollo’s New Works artists, Ebony Noelle Golden and Kamau Ware—selected by the Theater to create original new works as part of the Apollo’s first multi-work commissioning initiative—in conversation with Apollo Executive Producer Kamilah Forbes. Together, they will discuss their artistic inspirations, their projects for Apollo New Works, and address the significance of Black artists’ voices during the worldwide social justice and Black Lives Matter movements.
Wednesday, August 19th ~ 5:00 – 7:00pm ET: Apollo Theater Dance Party Featuring DJ Hard Hittin’ Harry
The Apollo will kick off its HARLEM WEEK 2020 events with a mix of house, hip-hop, and R&B hits curated by Apollo Music Café mainstay, DJ Hard Hittin’ Harry. The two-hour virtual dance party will give a taste of the Apollo Music Café series, showcasing a myriad of genres (R&B, hip-hop, soul, jazz, pop, funk, and rock) that reflect the diversity and vibrancy of the Harlem community.
7:00 – 8:00pm ET: Apollo New Works in Conversation, Featuring Apollo Executive Producer Kamilah Forbes and Artists Ebony Noelle Golden and Kamau Ware
Following the Apollo Theater Dance Party on August 19, Apollo Executive Producer Kamilah Forbes will speak with two members of the inaugural Apollo New Works cohort, the Theater’s first multi-work commissioning initiative dedicated to the creation of diverse, 21st-century American performing arts canon. Artist, scholar, culture strategist, and Harlem-resident Ebony Noelle Golden, whose project is a commission for the Park Avenue Armory’s 100 Years | 100 Woman program, a celebration of the 100thanniversary of women’s suffrage, and visual storyteller and founder of Black Gotham Experience Kamau Ware will discuss their artistic process and their commissioned works for the Apollo. As part of the Apollo’s commissioning initiative, Kamau Ware is designing a site-specific, immersive walking tour that centers on and celebrates the Harlem Renaissance and the Apollo’s rich history. Further, Ebony Noelle Golden is creating a multidisciplinary performance triptych involving dance, music, and visual art that seeks to answer the question: “How does a liberated black feminist world operate, work, exist, and sustain when systems of oppression fall away?”
The Apollo Theater has been a cultural anchor in the Harlem community for more than eight decades, and has participated in HARLEM WEEK since the festival’s inception, highlighting the Theater’s longstanding mission to create spaces for artists and audiences to express themselves while celebrating music’s power to unite, transform, and heal.
Thursday, August 20, ‘Abyssinian Mass‘ by Wynton Marsallis and the Jazz of Lincoln Center Orchestra.
Friday, August 21, Lincoln Center presents the premiere of audio excerpts from “The Black Clown.”
Saturday, August 22, Apollo Teen Takeover! and Harlem Week Fashion Show produced by HerGame2Productions.
Sunday August 23, Harlem Day! It’s the culminating event of the Harlem Week Festival.
All Apollo Theater events for HARLEM WEEK 2020 are free, and more information is available on the Apollo’s website. For a full program calendar of HARLEM WEEK events, running from Sunday, August 16 to Saturday, August 23, please visit harlemweek.com/calendar.