24 stories by "Michele Simms-Burton"
The world premiere show is based on Jacqueline Woodson's children's book about ancestral matrilineal history, hope, and freedom.
The new Washington National Opera work is provocative, sweeping, intriguing, and chockful of some of the best voices and creatives of the 21st century.
Although Shakespeare Theatre Company's acclaimed The Amen Corner had to shut down in March before its run was done, the production proved fortuitous for STC's future: It brought Director Whi…
In an effort to illuminate the historic and ongoing impacts of racial discrimination in land and property use laws in Hyattsville, MD, Mapping Racism Project, an initiative led by the Hyatts…
Nothing speaks louder about a musician's accomplishments than receiving a standing ovation and cheers from the audience before he plays a single note. NEA Jazz Master and recipient of the Of…
In May 1955, when Howard University staged James Baldwin's play, The Amen Corner, Washington Post reviewer Richard L. Coe deemed it a "fine play that merits not only your attention but also …
Jazz vocalist, Jazzmeia Horn, returned to her home at the Kennedy Center on Saturday evening to deliver the first performance in the REACH's jazz club, Studio K. Perhaps there is no better a…
The Grand Foyer at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts teemed with patrons sporting gowns swirling against the carpeted floor and tuxedos announcing an auspicious occasion, si…
A panoply of performers graced the stage last night to honor the extraordinary musician, composer, and civil rights activist Nat King Cole, who would have been 100 years old this past March …
DCMTA joined the teeming crowd at the Kennedy Center's "unprecedented new expansion," the REACH, on the second day of a 16-day multi-genre festival to check out the spotlight on jazz. From t…
Gracious, engaging, and a powerhouse of a voice, Jennifer Hudson brought the house down and left the audience standing and cheering while in concert with the National Symphony Orchestra at W…
Perhaps it is his distinctive voice or the fact that he has been called the "best storyteller of his generation" that makes Ruben Santiago-Hudson the apparent inheritor of the body of work p…
In 2016, after the presidential election that put Donald Trump in the White House, musician Mark Meadows felt lost. He believed that his voice, and the voices of other artists "weren't heard…
Last week, DCMTA caught up with Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JLCO) bassist Carlos Henriquez via telephone on a rainy day in Chicago to chat about his Washington, DC tribute performance …
In 1871, Fisk University " an all-Black institution of higher learning in Nashville, Tennessee " was in dire financial straits. To raise money for the institution, Treasurer and Music Profes…
Since 1990 when New York's Public Theater first staged George C. Wolfe's adaptation of three short stories by Zora Neale Hurston into the play Spunk, audiences have gleaned the creative mind…
Arresting, provocative, and hauntingly relevant, 14 by playwright José Casas weaves a tale of sixteen characters living or born in Arizona who express their divergent views about immigrants…
In Les Deux Noirs: Notes on Notes of a Native Son, Playwright Psalmayene 24, Director Raymond O. Caldwell, and Founding Artistic Director Ari Roth take on the risky task of staging a well-kn…
"Pick a chord and I'll be there," Alicia Hall Moran told husband Jason Moran from the stage of a packed performance hall at Georgetown University. Moran, accompanying on piano, nodded in agr…
DC Metro Theater Arts caught up with Director and Playwright Psalmayene 24 to discuss Native Son and Les Deux Noirs: Notes on Notes of a Native Son, which play in rep at the Mosaic Theater t…
Cynthia Erivo may as well call the Kennedy Center home. Having previously performed with the National Symphony Orchestra, the intimacy between Erivo and the musicians is strong. For her upco…
The East Coast has the Newport and DC jazz festivals. The Midwest claims the world's largest free jazz extravaganza, the Detroit Jazz Festival. The South showcases jazz and R&B talent at…
These days, it is rare to hear an organ in a jazz ensemble. The exception is Dr. Lonnie Smith who not only remains the master of the Hammond B-3 organ but also has had a career that spans mo…
Moments in jazz performances punctuate the annals of jazz history. There are some performances that you wished you had attended because they will be talked about for years. "Archie Shepp's A…
