The Center for the Arts at Monmouth University has announced that tickets are on sale for “Next Stop Harlem,” a Feb. 4 offering scheduled as part of the Winter/Spring Performing Arts Series of events at the Pollak Theatre, Monmouth University, 400 Cedar Ave., West Long Branch.
Presented in observance of Black History Month, the 8 p.m. show encapsulates the bottled-lightning energy of the Harlem Renaissance, that brief but blazing interval during which uptown Manhattan became the nexus for an explosion of new cultural currents in poetry, prose, dance, visual art, and a dynamic new music called “jazz.”
Conveying the spirit of that time into the 21st century is a performer who represents a one-woman renaissance all her own: Mimi Jones, the bassist, vocalist, bandleader and producer who in recent seasons has expanded her musically inclined activities into stints as a producer of documentary films, a co-director of the multimedia D.O.M.E. Experience social activism project, and — beginning with her 2009 release “A New Day” — the founder and CEO of her own Hot Tone Music record label.
Described as “a mini musical comedy featuring acting, poetry, tap dance, vocal and instrumental music,” the performance piece known as “Next Stop Harlem” spins a fictional story of life in the midst of the Harlem Renaissance years of the 1920s and beyond; inspired by the words, images and music of the artists who chronicled that pivotal time and place in American cultural history. The Pollak Theatre event will represent one of the first public performances of this recently completed work, which features newly arranged jazz music from the 1930s, 40s and 50s.
Tickets for the Feb. 4 performance of “Next Stop Harlem” are priced at $20 and $30, with a Gold Circle seating option available for $40. Reservations are available through the Monmouth University Performing Arts Box Office at 732-263-6889, or online at www.monmouth.edu/arts.
Tickets for other upcoming Performing Arts events — including Sweet Honey in the Rock (Feb. 24) and Doo Wop Explosion II (March 4) — are also on sale now. To schedule interviews, please contact Kelly Barratt, at 732-263-5114.
