red, black, & GREEN: a blues by Marc Bamuthi Joseph (review) [play review]

Abstract

Through a mesmerizing hybridization of hip-hop aesthetics, dance, spoken word, visual art, rhythm, song, theatre, and film, red, black, & GREEN: a blues offered a powerful, ecologically engaged performance that built a personalized and emotional connection among issues of survival, urban wastelands, violence, food scarcity, poverty, homelessness, toxic dumping, and intergenerational health. Marc Bamuthi Joseph created and performed red, black, & GREEN in collaboration with visual artist/set designer Theaster Gates, as well as actor/dancer Traci Tolmaire, drummer/beat-boxer/turntablist Tommy Shepherd (aka Emcee Soulati), and vocalist Yaw. Commissioned by the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, this immersive production has collaborated with audiences in San Francisco, Chicago, Houston, New York, Boston, and Seattle, among other cities, to build a new vision of sustainability, with additional performances scheduled into 2014.