I served as Artistic Director for the 2020 & 2021 Galas at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM).
In 2020, after several months of working on this event, we turned in a digital direction because of the onset of the pandemic. The performance line-up was incredible: St. Vincent, dancers from Pina Bausch and Alvin Ailey, and a special song from my beloved Brooklyn Youth Chorus. Loving speeches from our otherworldly honorees: Cate Blanchett, Zadie Smith and Jeannie Donovan Fisher. A raucous, live dance party from the best DJ New York has to offer: Eli Escobar. The gathering, even though it was digital, left us sweaty and joyful.
In 2021, we returned to the theater with a small audience, the first show in BAM’s Opera House after the longest closing in it’s history. The luminous Helga Davis hosted, the raucous Antibalas headlined and we were graced with an incredible performance from Urban Bush Women. I directed the stage show and called a live six-camera broadcast. It was a magic evening.
