Schedule Announced for Symposium: Sound & Color -- The Future of Race in Design at Park Avenue Armory

Park Avenue Armory announces the full schedule of public events Symposium: Sound & Color - The Future of Race in Design, an interdisciplinary forum exploring how race matters in creative design for live performance, especially in the current moment of creative, technological, and cultural unrest. Hosted by lighting designer and co-organizer Jane Cox, playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, set designer Mimi Lien, and sound designer and composer Mikaal Sulaiman, the event will include a series of conversations and interventions on Saturday, January 14 and Sunday, January 15.

The event opens on Saturday at 1pm with a conversation with Lien, Cox, and Sulaiman, moderated by Jacobs-Jenkins. Next comes Creating a Collaborative Aesthetic Over Time, in which costume designer Montana Blanco, set designer Adam Rigg, sound designer Palmer Hefferan, and puppet designer and fabricator James Ortiz discuss their collaborative history, especially on last season's Lincoln Center Theater revival of The Skin of Our Teeth. The moderator is Lileana Blain-Cruz, the production's director.

The day concludes with Conversations Between Generations. Actor, playwright, and director Ruben Santiago-Hudson takes part in conversation with lighting designer and educator Victor En Yu Tan, sharing their experiences of working in culturally specific theatres with younger artists. The moderator is Puerto Rican scenic designer and head of scenic design at DePaul University Regina García.

The session runs concurrently with Teaching Design and Production through an Anti-Racist Lens. Costume designer and Princeton faculty member Sarita Fellows and head of lighting design training at NYU Tisch Jeanette Yew will be in conversation with University of Rhode Island professor Christine Mok.

Sunday kicks off at 1pm with The Future of Theatre Design in XR, presented in collaboration with Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Korean director, artist, and producer Scarlett Kim and director Mei Ann Teo will be in conversation with new media artist and creative technologist LaJuné McMillian; multidisciplinary artist and performer Justin Hicks; costume designer Dede Ayite; Ojibwe and Oneida writer, actor, and interdisciplinary artist Ty Defoe; and dancer/choreographer Raja Feather Kelly.

Running concurrently with the above session will be Black Sound Artists Round Table. Sulaiman will take part in conversation with composer, sound design artist, and musician Justin Ellington; Ghanaian interdisciplinary artist Jojo Abot; vocalist, composer, and performance artist Holland Andrews; and duo Mendi + Keith Obadike.

Later, the schedule will feature Afrofuturism in Conversation with Design for Live Performance. Park Avenue Armory curator of public programming Tavia Nyong'o will take part in conversation with director Shariffa Ali and Taiwanese scenic designer You Shin Chen. Running concurrently with this session will be Culturally Specific Design, featuring New York City Center Encores! producing creative director Clint Ramos and theatrical lighting, projection, and puppetry designer Jeanette Yew. The moderator will be Diep Tran, editor-in-chief of Playbill.

Darkness and Light: Lighting Design Onstage will be presented in collaboration with Princeton University's CreativeX. Lighting designers Itohan Edoloyi, Stacey Derosier, Alejandro Fajardo, and Alan Edwards will take part in the conversation, moderated by Jane Cox. Running simultaneously with this session will be Costume Design Conversation, hosted by costume designer and founder of Black Trans Liberation Qween Jean and featuring costume designers Dominique Fawn Hill and Devario D. Simmons.

Both days will see micro-commissions, presented in collaboration with the organization Design Action. Featured will be commissions by Barrymore-nominated scenic designer Marie Laster; designer and artisan Danielle DeLaFuente and sound designer Nina Field; queer, nonbinary interdisciplinary artist Gylanni Carrington; Mexican scenic and costume designer Rodrigo Hernandez Martinez; sound designer and composer Elliot Yokum; and lighting designers Christina Tang and Alex Vásquez Dheming.

Ongoing presentations will include, Movement Portraits 19K by LaJuné McMillian, which documents the performance work rasgos asiáticos (about migration and displacement), and a pop-up version of Oregon Shakespeare Festival's Quills Fest VR World.

Day passes at $45 (plus fees) and weekend passes at $60 (plus fees) are available for purchase online at armoryonpark.org and by phone through the Park Avenue Armory Box Office at (212) 933-5812, 10am to 6pm Monday through Friday. In person box office hours may vary.