Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole, A Tribute to Reggie Workman, Cyrus Chestnut, Obediah Wright’s Balance Dance Theatre, An Ode to Nikki Giovanni, and more headline The New School’s College of Performing Arts Celebration of Black History Month
All Things Work Together For Good—A Celebration of Black History is curated by Charlotte Small and co-presented by the College of Performing Arts Committee on Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice. The one-night only event will take place on Friday, February 21st, at 7:00PM in the Tishman Auditorium.
NEW YORK, February 10, 2025 – The New School’s College of Performing Arts is excited to announce All Things Work Together For Good—A Celebration of Black History, curated by Charlotte Small, a special concert of song, dance, theater, oration and community to celebrate Black History Month, featuring performers, artists, and activists, including keynote speaker Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole, A Tribute to Reggie Workman, Cyrus Chestnut, Obediah Wright’s Balance Dance Theatre, An Ode to Nikki Giovanni, Charlotte Small’s gospel chorus, the Mannes Orchestra performing Adolphus Hailstork’s Ndemera, and more. The one-night only performance will take place on Friday, February 21rd at 7:00pm in the Tishman Auditorium and is presented by The New School’s College of Performing Arts and the College of Performing Arts’ Committee on Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice.The program is listed below.
The concert is free and open to the public. Please find registration and more information here.
*Program:
Act One
1. Welcome Address
Executive Dean Richard Kessler, Toya Lillard, & Gary Padmore
2. Mannes Orchestra- Mina Kim, Conductor
Ndemara, Adolphus Cunningham Hailstork III
3. The School of Jazz and Contemporary Music’s Gospel Chorus led by Charlotte Small
Lift Every Voice and Sing, James Weldon Johnson arranged by Roland Carter
4. Introduction of Keynote Speaker
Provost Renée T. White
5. Keynote Speaker
Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole – The Power of the Black Arts at Such a Time as This
6. Musical Selection by Jazz Pianist Cyrus Chestnut
Intermission
Act Two
7. Obediah Wright’s Balance Dance Theatre
Ako
8. A Tribute to Nikki Giovanni
Nikki Rosa
Allowables
BLK History Month
9. A Tribute to Reggie Workman
Introduction by L.E. Howell
New Stars on the Horizon, Reggie Workman
Willow Song, Reggie Workman
Wha’s Nine, Reggie Workman
10. The School of Jazz and Contemporary Music’s Gospel Chorus led by Charlotte Small
Any Day Now – Vincent Bohanan
You are an heir – Donald Lawrence
Things Will Work Out for me – Ricky Dillard
I’ve Got The Victory – Ricky Dillard
*Program Subject to Change
The College of Performing Arts at The New School was formed in 2015 and draws together the Mannes School of Music, the School of Jazz and Contemporary Music, and the School of Drama. With each school contributing its unique culture of creative excellence, the College of Performing Arts is a hub for vigorous training, cross-disciplinary collaboration, bold experimentation, innovative education, and world-class performances.
The 1,000 students at the College of Performing Arts are actors, performers, writers, improvisers, creative technologists, entrepreneurs, composers, arts managers, and multidisciplinary artists who believe in the transformative power of the arts for all people. Students and faculty collaborate with colleagues across The New School in a wide array of disciplines, from the visual arts and fashion design, to the social sciences, public policy, advocacy, and more.
The curriculum at the College of Performing Arts is dynamic, inclusive, and responsive to the changing arts and culture landscape. New degrees and coursework, like the new graduate degrees for Performer-Composers and Artist Entrepreneurs are designed to challenge highly skilled artists to experiment, innovate, and engage with the past, present, and future of their artforms. New York City’s Greenwich Village provides the backdrop for the College of Performing Arts, which is housed at Arnhold Hall on West 13th Street and the historic Westbeth Artists Community on Bank Street.
Founded in 1916 by America’s first great violin recitalist and noted educator, David Mannes, and pianist and educator Clara Damrosch Mannes, the Mannes School of Music is a standard-bearer for foundational excellence and radically progressive music education, dedicated to supporting the development of creative and socially engaged artists. Through its undergraduate, graduate, and professional studies programs, Mannes offers a curriculum as imaginative as it is rigorous, taught by a world-class faculty and visiting artists. As part of The New School’s College of Performing Arts, together with the School of Jazz and Contemporary Music and the School of Drama, Mannes makes its home on The New School’s Greenwich Village campus in a state-of-the-art facility at the newly renovated Arnhold Hall.
The School of Jazz and Contemporary Music is renowned across the globe as a center for progressive, innovative artists. Considered the most innovative school of its kind, it offers students an artist-as-mentor approach to learning. The world’s leading contemporary and jazz musicians, like Matt Wilson, Mary Halvorson, Linda May Han Oh, Jane Ira Bloom, and more, work with students to hone their craft and create groundbreaking music. This is a rare place where students can pursue what makes you a unique contemporary musician. We encourage students to explore their own talents and reach across disciplines to construct new rhythms, inventive compositions, and original means of expression. There are nearly 80 ensembles students can play in each semester. Outside the classroom, New York City becomes a performance hall. Play in clubs, concert halls, and venues throughout New York and in festivals and exchange programs around the world. Start your professional performance career now through our Gig Office; we have the largest music internship program in New York. You can work with producers, editors, and recording artists of the highest caliber. Students will be immersed not only in the newest music but also in the nuances of how the music industry runs. Our curriculum allows students to infuse their music education with elements of design, literature, history, journalism and more. You can take courses offered at the Mannes School of Music, Parsons School of Design, and Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts. In addition, we have created a number of project-based interdisciplinary classes, such as an exploration of sound-image relationships in early 20th-century multimedia art, offered by Parsons and Jazz. The results of this university-wide interconnectivity can be seen in the success of our alumni in a range of genres and categories of creative work, both in and outside of music.
The School of Drama is the most recent incarnation of theater education at The New School that goes back to the programs once led by the Group Theater, Piscator’s Dramatic Workshop, and The Actor’s Studio, and is a creative home to a dynamic group of actors, directors, writers, creative technologists, and multi-disciplinary theater artists. With a focus on authenticity of expression, the school’s curriculum confronts today’s most pressing societal issues through the making of theater, film, and emerging media. The School of Drama’s faculty is made up of award-winning actors, playwrights, and directors who bring a currency of professional experience, artistic training, and project-based learning into the classroom. The multidisciplinary MFA and BFA degree programs bring together rigor, creativity, and collaborative learning to create work marked by professionalism, imagination, and civic awareness. The school takes inspiration from the greats who walked its halls in the past, including Marlon Brando, Harry Belafonte, Shelley Winters, and Vinnette Carroll, as well as more recent graduates, like Adrienne C. Moore, Bradley Cooper, Jordan E. Cooper, and Jason Kim.
Founded in 1919, The New School was established to advance academic freedom, tolerance, and experimentation. A century later, The New School remains at the forefront of innovation in higher education, inspiring more than 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students to challenge the status quo in design and the social sciences, liberal arts, management, the arts, and media. The university welcomes thousands of adult learners annually for continuing education courses and public programs that encourage open discourse and social engagement. Through our online learning portals, research institutes, and international partnerships, The New School maintains a global presence.