Live Ideas Gala: Alter-Worlds: Black Utopia and The Age of Acceleration

ABOUT THE GALA

The gala is one of Live Arts’ most important fundraising efforts, supporting our programs and helping us to commission and present artists who represent the highest levels of artistic virtuosity and whose work engages in the world of ideas. A wonderful evening of performance and celebration is in store, with many mutual friends, business and social leaders, celebrities, and performers attending.

HONORING

Sir David Adjaye OBE, principal and founder of Adjaye Associates. His largest project to date, the $540 million Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African American History and Culture, opened on the National Mall in Washington DC in fall of 2016 and was named Cultural Event of the Year by the New York Times. In 2017, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II and was recognized as one of the 100 most influential people of the year by TIME magazine.

Spike Lee, Oscar and Academy award-winning filmmaker, director, actor, producer, author, and educator known for classics She’s Gotta Have It, Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, and most recently, BlacKkKlansman, for his ability to constantly create works that arise from imaginative space and the sphere of reality.

*Jean-Michel Basquiat, his late father Gerard Basquiat, and Jean-Michel’s surviving sisters Lisane and Jeanine, and his step-mother, Nora Fitzpatrick. We honor the Basquiat Estate for maintaining and enhancing his legacy and for making his art more accessible to vast audiences throughout the world. Jean-Michel’s focus on social issues remains as relevant today as it was during the turbulent 1970’s and ’80s.

HOST Saul Williams

CO-CHAIRS Barbara & Alan D. Marks, Ruth & Stephen Hendel, Alanna Rutherford

PERFORMANCES BY CHOP & QUENCH “the Fela! Band,” Black Thought, YoungArts Alumni Elena Ayodele Pinderhughes accompanied by **Gabe Schnider, Live Arts Live Feed Residency Artist Holly Bass, and the legendary Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company.