Marc Bamuthi Joseph engages with his audience in the aisles of the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall. (Photographs by Phyllis Graber Jensen)

For a performance Jan. 13, performer, educator, activist and slam poetry champion Marc Bamuthi Joseph took the Olin Concert Hall stage—only to leave it again.

“This place is really fancy,” said Joseph, jumping off the stage into the audience. “I believe in ‘not fancy.’ ”

Joseph offered a staged (or off-staged) reading of his acclaimed performance piece red, black & GREEN: a blues in the evening event, part of Martin Luther King Jr. Day observances at Bates.

The piece is usually performed on a circular stage, with large “houses” on wheels representing different American cities. His Bates reading performance included two of the four acts, Chicago and Oakland. (The Bates Dance Festival presents the full-blown production April 27-28.)

Joseph called upon the Bates audience to fulfill the roles usually performed by the other artists working on the project. For one poem, the audience was split into four sections, each with a verse of “I’ve Got Peace like a River.” Without breaking cadence, Joseph would conduct the audience in singing while he moved around the room telling the story of a woman who emigrated to the U.S. from Sudan to escape the violence there, only to have her son murdered in Chicago.

Along with the excerpts from rbGb, Joseph offered original poems from previous projects. In tribute to King Day, he began with a piece dedicated to the civil rights leader. Using quotes from some of King’s greatest speeches, Joseph asked how far America has come in realizing King’s “dream.”

When an audience member asked Joseph how he came to be a performer, he answered with a rap from the album that, he says, changed his life, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back by Public Enemy. “Chuck D gave me a whole new vocabulary for liberation,” said Joseph.

But his last piece of the evening, a story from his time in Senegal, also shed some light on his emergence as a performer. After realizing his vulnerability to street hustlers and theft, Joseph encounters an American woman who is fighting the traditional practice of genital mutilation.

While visiting one village, that friend asks him to distract an impromptu village dance party while she negotiates an end to genital mutilation with the village elders. As a poet, Joseph is unsure how to “distract” a crowd of dancing locals. On a whim, he breaks into the hip hop dances he learned growing up in New York City–and the village is won over, as was the Bates audience by his re-enactment.

Joseph performs on the Olin stage.

Joseph worked his magic in a more intimate setting the evening prior to the Olin performance. While plows cleared the streets after the winter semester’s first snowstorm, Bates students congregated in the student-run coffee house, the Ronj, to enjoy an evening of hot chai, music and poetry from Joseph and student performers.

Sponsored by the Arts House, the evening was a successful turnout of student talent.

It was one of several opportunities for students to interact with Joseph, who also visited anthropology, dance, environmental studies and rhetoric classes during his four-day visit.

Standing in the middle of the room rather than onstage, Joseph performed two energetic spoken-word pieces that combined dance with storytelling and role-playing to captivate the room.

Humorous but introspective, Joseph’s pieces tackle questions about identity: What does it mean to be a father? What does it mean to be “hip hop” outside of America? Joseph danced, contorting his body to show pain, pleasure and confusion, his arms and legs swinging out over the heads of students sitting on the floor around him.

Eleven students representing all class years read original poems. Although some seemed nervous, the room was supportive and everyone got a hand. Many students admitted it was their first time reading in front of their peers.

“All of the student readers and performers were incredibly talented,” said Emma Timbers ’14, a creative writing major who co-organized the event with fellow Art House representative Doug Welsh ’14. “And it was exciting to see so many freshmen sharing their work.”

For some, reading has been an important aspect of their time at Bates. Seniors Charlotte Simpson and Alana Folsom, both members of the Bates Authors Guild, read from their creative writing theses. About half of the readers performed original slam poems and invited the audience to join their new slam group.

As for student musicians, Sawyer Lawson ’12 kicked off the evening with a bluesy acoustic guitar set. Also performing were Grace Glasson ’14, who performed folksy covers and originals on ukulele, and Hansen Johnson ’13, who performed covers and originals on acoustic guitar.

– by Erica Long ’12

As part of an ongoing exploration of ways to connect to community audiences and enhance the campus environment for the arts, Bates College holds an “Arts Summit” Jan. 24-25 that includes events open to the public at no cost.

At 4:15 p.m. Monday, Jan. 24, in a presentation titled Artists in the Liberal Arts: Guest Perspectives, three visiting artists discuss their work and the value of the arts in a liberal arts education. A Q&A follows the presentation.

The artists are Lynne Conner, chair of the theater and dance department at Colby College; Amara Geffen, a professor of art at Allegheny College who focuses on environmental, economic and community themes; and Marc Bamuthi Joseph, a renowned spoken-word performer and hip hop dancer. The panel takes place in Schaeffer Theatre, 305 College St.

Staged readings from works by Joseph follow at 8 p.m. on Jan. 24, also in Schaeffer. His Word Becomes Flesh (2003) uses dance, poetry and music to document a pregnancy from a young single father’s perspective. A work in progress, Red Black & GREEN: A Blues is a multimedia piece designed, the artist says, to “jump-start a conversation about environmental justice, social ecology and collective responsibility in the climate-change era.”

Finally, in a related event later that week, Bates students and faculty present a variety of creative work in a campus “Arts Crawl” beginning at 5 p.m. Friday, Jan. 28. Modeled on downtown programs that feature a mix of performance and arts events, such as Portland’s First Friday, the Bates Arts Crawl offers attractions at several stops around campus.

A map and schedule will be available. The Arts Crawl will be followed at 7 p.m. by the annual Asia Night of student performances, food and fashions in Schaeffer Theatre. For more information about the Arts Summit, please contact 207-786-6381 or nsalmon@bates.edu.

“The Arts Summit will reach both outward and inward to celebrate art within the liberal arts,” says Kirk Read, associate professor of French and chair of the Bates Arts Collaborative, a group of faculty and staff charged with strengthening the arts at the college.

“Our guests, these respected and innovative artists, will enrich our discussions about connecting the arts on campus and in the broader community.”

“We have invited these artists because of their experience creating art in academic settings, with all the inherent delights and challenges,” adds Nancy Salmon, summit coordinator. “In addition, they are experts in using their artistry to connect with and build audiences.

“We’re excited about the perspectives and opportunities they might expose here at Bates.”

The college’s renewed investment in the arts is one aspect of Choices for Bates, a collaborative college-wide strategic initiative, led by President Elaine Tuttle Hansen, that is also reinforcing diversity, collaborative learning and pedagogy in math and the sciences.

A playwright, director and scholar, Conner taught at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh before coming to Colby. Her publications include Pittsburgh in Stages: Two Hundred Years of Theater (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2007) and In the Garden of Live Flowers, co-authored with Attilio Favorini (Dramatic Publishing Company, 2003).

Conner’s research focuses on the history of audience behavior and psychology in order to guide cultural institutions toward more effective and inclusive participation practices.

Geffen, a ceramicist, sculptor and professor at Allegheny since 1982, is the director of the college’s Center for Economic and Environmental Development, which involves Allegheny students with the local community through projects involving sustainability.

Known to local audiences from his work at the Bates Dance Festival, Joseph is a National Poetry Slam champion, Broadway veteran, GOLDIE award winner and inaugural recipient of the United States Artists Rockefeller Fellowship, which annually recognizes 50 of the country’s “greatest living artists.”

Descriptions of his work range from “electrifying” (Houston Chronicle) to “ever-elegant” (The Washington Post). In its review of Word Becomes Flesh, The New York Times called his work “eloquent . . . seamless . . . and remarkable.”

Spoken word dynamo Marc Bamuthi Joseph presents his latest full-evening work, Scourge, fusing hip-hop, spoken word, dance and live music. The Bates Dance Festival presents Bamuthi at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, July 28 and 29, in Schaeffer Theatre, 365 College St., Bates College. Tickets are $18/$12 (students and seniors) and may be purchased by calling 207-786-6161 after July 8. (This performance contains some strong language.)

In Scourge Bamuthi explores the narrow space between history, myth and speculation in a revolutionary look at the tragic history of his native Haiti. Breaking down the boundaries of racism and ignorance to reach a new kind of understanding, “Scourge” is a rich collaboration between Bamuthi, choreographers Rennie Harris and Adia Whitaker and director Kamilah Forbes. These artists, together with the voices and rhythms of three gifted musicians, create what Bamuthi calls “a theatrical exorcism.”

Bamuthi is a National Poetry Slam champion, 2003 GOLDIE award winner, former Stanford University Institute for Diversity in the Arts resident artist, Broadway veteran and a featured artist on the past two HBO seasons of Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry. His previous evening-length work, Word Becomes Flesh, was called “remarkable” by The New York Times and “extraordinary” by The Washington Post, and prompted The Seattle Times to name him their “Cutting Edge Performer of the Year” in 2003.

Bamuthi’s performance schedule has carried him from dance apprenticeships in Senegal and Cuba to teaching fellowships in Bosnia and Japan. During the next two years, he will develop new projects with Le Centre Nationale de Dance, the National Dance Project and the International Theater Institute, where his work will be performed in France, Zaire, Germany and the Philippines. His proudest collaboration has been with Youth Speaks, where he mentors 13- to 19-year-old writers and co-curates the Living Word Festival for Literary Arts.

In addition to main stage performances, the festival offers a selection of free and low-cost events. Complete information is available at the website.

At press time the Bates Dance Festival gratefully acknowledges support from the National Endowment for the Arts, New England Foundation for the Arts, National Performance Network, Maine Arts Commission, Surdna Foundation, Asian Cultural Council, Altria, Fisher Charitable Foundation, Sam L. Cohen Foundation, Androscoggin Bank, Cole Hahn, Liberty Mutual Insurance, Mechanics Savings Bank and TD Banknorth.

Marc Bamuthi Joseph. Photo by Bethanie Hines.

The Bates Dance Festival, northern New England’s leading contemporary dance producing and training program, presents a double bill featuring Different Voices, an evening of works by international and U.S. artists presented in Schaeffer Theatre, and The Atrium Project, a site-specific performance in the Perry Atrium, Pettengill Hall, 4 Andrews Road.

The double bill begins in Schaeffer Theatre, 305 College Street, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 14, and Friday, Aug. 15. Immediately following the conclusion of Different Voices, audience members will be guided to the nearby Pettengill Hall for The Atrium Project.

The annual Different Voices concert showcases new works by acclaimed international choreographers and gifted emerging artists. The evening includes Lifting I, a humorous, multi–layered new work by Cuba’s pre-eminent contemporary choreographer, Marianela Boan. Her dance/theater works about the harsh contemporary conflicts of her native Cuba have toured to more than 40 countries.

Spoken-word artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph performs Words Are Flesh, which examines through poetry and movement the exploitation of the black male body. A two-time San Francisco Poetry Grand Slam winner, Bamuthi entered the literary performance world after working as a choreographer in traditional theater, most notably on Broadway in the Tony award-winning The Tap Dance Kid.

Emerging choreographer Chris Elam, whose company Misnomer Dance Theater has performed in more than 40 theaters internationally, presents a brand-new quintet. Alejandro Vera Avalos and Adriana León Arana of the acclaimed Folkloric Dance Company of the University of Colima, Mexico, present a duet that blends contemporary and folkloric dance traditions. Completing the program will be new works by artist from Indonesia, Vietnam and the United States.

With the presentation of The Atrium Project in Pettengill Hall, renowned site choreographer Stephan Koplowitz and award-winning composer and cellist Robert Een will transform the 8,000-square-foot Perry Atrium in a unique site-specific event. This collaboration of 50 dancers, singers and musicians will give audiences a chance to explore the three-story atrium from within and without. Simultaneous performances, all created in response to the design of the atrium space, will provide new meaning and context to this distinct architectural site.

Director/choreographer Koplowitz has developed an international reputation for creating large-scale, site-specific multimedia works in architecturally significant urban locations. He was awarded a 2000 “Bessie” (New York Dance and Performance Award) for sustained achievement in choreography. Since 1984 he has created 45 works (32 of them commissions) for sites, the concert stage and film. His site-works have been seen throughout the United States, from New York City’s Grand Central Terminal, Lincoln Center and Bryant Park to settings in Houston, Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Among Koplowitz’s European pieces are commissions by the Dance Umbrella Festival at London’s Natural History Museum and the British Library.

Een is an acclaimed composer, singer and cellist. The recipient of a 1998 “Bessie” for music composition and in 2000 for sustained achievement, Een has performed at locations worldwide, including the Buddhist caves of Ellora, India; a theater above the Arctic Circle in Bodo, Norway; and a Shinto shrine in Tsurugi, Japan, as well as at Lincoln Center and the Knitting Factory in New York City.

Known for his use of extended vocal and cello techniques, Een has written extensively for film, television, dance and theater, and has recorded seven albums of his compositions, including Mystery Dances, Fertile Fields and Your Life is Not Your Own.

Een’s film scores include Mr. Jealousy, Trouble on the Corner and The Rook. His music for dance and theater can be heard in the repertories of Liz Lerman, David Dorfman, Sara Pearson/Patrik Widrig, Jennifer Muller and Yin Mei. His long association with Meredith Monk culminated in the creation of their duet, Facing North.

For more information, or to request a brochure, contact the Bates Dance Festival at 207-786-6381, or e-mail.

The season celebrates the diversity and creativity of contemporary dance with performances featuring modern, jazz, world dance and improvisation by acclaimed U.S. companies and established and emerging choreographers from around the world. Recognized throughout the national cultural community for its outstanding performance series, the Bates Dance Festival features critically acclaimed new works by Vincent Sekwati Mantsoe, Doug Varone and Dancers, Sara Pearson Patrik Widrig and Company, Companhia Clara Andermatt, Stephan Koplowitz and Judy Smith of AXIS Dance Company, as well as performances by emerging choreographers Chris Elam, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Larry Keigwin and others.

The five-week performance series kicks off with Alone and Together, featuring a dynamic array of new work by choreographers Shonach Mirk-Robles, former principal with Maurice Bejart’s Ballet of the Twentieth Century; Cathy Young, whose 2002 evening-length jazz work was recognized as the “Best of Twin Cities” by Minneapolis’ City Pages; Chris Aiken, a leading performer in the field of contact improvisation; postmodern choreographers Larry Keigwin and Nicole Wolcott, whose recent New York debut concert won raves from the critics; and Sekou Sylla, a former principal dancer, acrobat and musician with Les Ballet Africains of Guinea West Africa. Also performing will be modern choreographer Karen Love, and hip-hop dancer Danah Bella. The festival presents Alone and Together at 8 p.m. Saturday, July 19, in Schaeffer Theatre, 305 College Street.

Soweto-born dancer and choreographer Vincent Sekwati Mantsoe returns to the festival with a spellbinding triple bill of solo works that fuse his South African ancestral traditions with an inspired blend of Asian and European elements. Mantsoe’s spiritually grounded dances address themes of cultural alienation and identity with an intense physicality and charisma that have won accolades and awards worldwide. In Phokwane, Barena and Motswa Hole, Mantsoe performs three breathtaking solos with hypnotic intensity. The festival presents Vincent Sekwati Mantsoe in concert at 8 p.m. Friday, July 25, and Saturday, July 26, in Schaeffer Theatre.

Sara Pearson Patrik Widrig and Company thrilled audiences with their imaginative site work at the Portland Museum of Art in 2000. This summer the company presents The Return of Lot’s Wife, a dance/theater/salt epic. In this edgy and heartbreakingly funny evening-length work, Lot’s wife finally confronts God in a 1950s Brooklyn kitchen as she looks back again and again. The piece, which explores the theme of turning back through the prisms of Sufi mysticism and Hollywood/Bollywood pop cultures, is performed to original music by Carter Burwell, known for his many film scores, including Fargo, Three Kings and Being John Malkovich. Pearson and Widrig have gained an international following for work that pushes rituals of the familiar towards the mysterious, the subversive and the intimate. The festival presents Sara Pearson, Patrik Widrig and Company at 8 p.m. Tuesday, July 29, in Schaeffer Theatre.

Highlighting the season, Doug Varone and Dancers return to the festival with an engrossing evening of new works. Known for his ability to “wed sheer kinetic force with emotional insight,” Doug Varone and Dancers perform a body of work heralded by critics as “among the most compelling in the contemporary repertory.” Honored with seven New York Dance and Performance Awards (Bessies), the company has been singled out for dances of extraordinary physical daring, vivid musicality and genius. The company will present the Maine premieres of As Natural As Breathing, a playful jazzy group romp, casual on the surface but with subtle, sharp-edged undercurrents; Short Story, a turbulent give-and-take between a man and a woman; The Drawing Lesson, an upbeat, humorous solo danced by Mr. Varone; and a brand new group work set to the music of composer Steve Reich. The festival presents Doug Varone and Dancers in concert at 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 1, and Saturday, Aug. 2, in Schaeffer Theatre.

Lisbon-based choreographer Clara Andermatt is known for her bold vision, powerful emotional energy and frank revelations. Considered the pre-eminent voice in contemporary Portuguese dance, Clara Andermatt and long time collaborator and acclaimed dancer Amelia Bentes perform the U.S. premiere of Pola Roid. Intertwining text, movement, sound and image, Pola Roid unfolds in a series of three fast-paced vignettes addressing themes of speed and excess of our contemporary global universe, the dual nature of death, and a utopian view of the future. Memory, desire, catastrophe, the quest for happiness and the possibility of transcendence define the provocative universe of Pola Roid. The festival presents Companhia Clara Andermatt in concert at 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 8, and Saturday, Aug. 9, in Schaeffer Theatre.

The annual Different Voices concert showcases new works by acclaimed international choreographers and gifted emerging artists. The evening includes performances by award-winning Cuban choreographer Marianela Boan whose brilliant dance/theater works dealing with the harsh contemporary conflicts of her native Cuba have toured to more than 40 countries; spoken word artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph, a two-time San Francisco Poetry Grand Slam winner, who entered the literary performance world after crossing the sands of traditional theater, most notably on Broadway in the Tony award-winning The Tap Dance Kid, and emerging choreographer Chris Elam whose company, Misnomer Dance Theater, has performed in more than 40 theaters internationally. Works by artists from Vietnam, Indonesia and Cape Verde will complete the program. The Different Voices concert will take place at 8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 14, and Friday, Aug. 15, in Schaeffer Theatre.

Continuing a tradition of commissioning site-specific work for unique architectural and natural sites, the festival has invited internationally recognized site choreographer Stephan Koplowitz and award-winning composer Robert Een to transform the 8,000-square-foot Perry Atrium in Pettengill Hall, 4 Andrews Road, through their art. Audiences will be led on a roving exploration of the three-story atrium as 30 dancers and singers bring the space alive. The Atrium Project will take place at 9:45 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 14, and Friday, Aug. 15, immediately following the Different Voices concert.

In conjunction with its performances, the festival presents Inside Dance: Understanding Contemporary Dance, a series of pre-and post-performance discussions and lectures, led by dance scholar and critic Suzanne Carbonneau, offering audiences insight into the artists and contemporary dance. The lectures accompany performances by Doug Varone and Dancers on Saturday, Aug. 2; and by Clara Andermatt on Saturday, Aug. 9. Discussions will be held at 7:15 p.m. in Schaeffer Theatre.

In addition to main stage performances, the festival offers a selection of free and low-cost events. Choreographer Judith Smith of AXIS Dance Company, a company of multi-abled dancers, will give a video talk on Integrated Dance, at 8 p.m. Thursday, July 31, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St. The Musician’s Concert, at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 5, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, features an eclectic mix of original and improvised works by gifted musician/composers in residence. Site choreographers Stephan Koplowitz, Sara Pearson and Patrik Widrig give a video talk, Beyond the Proscenium: Site Specific Work, at 8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 7, in Olin Arts Center Concert Hall. Sharing Across Cultures: Finding Common Ground in a Troubled World, a panel discussion with visiting artists from Cuba, Portugal, Cape Verde, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia and South Africa, will take place at 8 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 10, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall. New Dance in Indonesia and Japan, an installation of video, text, sound and live performance created by filmmaker Molly Davies, will be on view from 2-6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 9 and 10, in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Ave.

Moving In The Moment, an improvisational performance led by contact-improviser Nancy Stark Smith with a diverse group of festival dancers and musicians, takes place at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 12, in Alumni Gymnasium, 130 Central Ave. Rounding out the festival’s five-week season is the “Festival Finale,” featuring dancers of all ages and abilities performing modern, jazz and integrated dance works by Doug Varone, Sara Pearson, Patrik Widrig, Nancy Cranbourne, Jane Weiner and Sara Sweet Rabidoux. A special 10th-anniversary performance by local youth will open the program. The evening will also feature a new work by the Community Dance Project directed by Judy Smith in collaboration with composer/percussionist Shamou and members of the local multi-abled community. The “Festival Finale” takes place at 8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 16, in Alumni Gymnasium.

In addition to its main stage performance series of 16 concerts, the festival offers two intensive training programs, one for adults and one for younger dancers. For more information, or to request a brochure, contact the Bates Dance Festival at (207) 786-6381, send an e-mail, or visit the festival Web site here.