Last week, the Kravis Center dropped its long-awaited 2023-2024 season announcement, promising another stellar lineup of Broadway shows, dance productions, classical and pop music, comedians and more. But as usual, I gravitated toward the edgiest material, presented under the umbrella PEAK, or Provocative Entertainment at Kravis, which this season will feature everything from Nat Geo lecturers to pioneering Black cinema to culture-bridging music and dance. Here is the full rundown.
National Geographic Live: The Beginning of Us, Oct. 19
Arguably the English-speaking world’s most public-facing paleoanthropologist, Lee Berger is as expert at distilling his discoveries to average Americans through media appearances and lectures as he is unearthing them in the first place. A 2008 discovery of a clavicle and a jawbone embedded in a rock near Malapa Cave in South Africa—actually found by Berger’s then-9-year-old son!—led to the excavation and discovery of Australopithecus sediba, a then-unknown hominid ancestor. And just last month, National Geographic announced that Berger’s scientific team discovered what appears to be burials made by Homo naledi, another primitive species on the road to Homo sapiens, which would be the first time on record that a “smaller brained” hominid engaged in such a remarkable act. Expect this discovery to play a major part in Berger’s fascinating lecture “The Beginning of Us.”
National Geographic Live: Mesoamerica Illuminated, Dec. 14-15
Mesoamerica, the fabled historical region spanning from central Mexico through most of Central America, housed many of the world’s ancient and pioneering civilizations, from the Olmec to the Maya to the Aztec. Its mysteries and its extraordinary achievements are still being mined and interpreted by experts such as art historian and microarchaeologist Dr. Diana Magaloni-Kerpel. In “Mesoamerica Illuminated,” she’ll take the audience on an illustrated journey to the region, exploring the creation of the iconic Olmec heads of Mexico, plumbing the hidden meaning behind the impressive Teotihuacan pyramids, and offering insights into the culture of the Mayan city of Chichen Itza.
American Patchwork Quartet, Jan. 10
Inspired by the ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax’s quote that “America has a patchwork culture made of the dreams and songs of all its people,” this ace quartet draws from its own “patchwork” of players to excavate and reimagine treasures of early American roots music. An American-born drummer and guitarist join a Mumbai-born vocalist and a native Japanese bassist—all naturalized U.S. citizens, and all with Grammy nominations or victories to their credits—weave a “nation of immigrants” narrative into their entrancing takes on classics from “Wayfaring Stranger” to “Shenandoah,” for an uplifting sound that fits snugly into folk and jazz festivals alike.
Hip-Hop Orchestra Experience, Jan. 20
At least since the electronic musician Wendy Carlos began to re-arrange Bach compositions for the electronic moog synthesizer, in the 1960s, artists have been interpreting works of classical virtuosity for new mediums and new audiences. The Hip-Hop Orchestra Experience continues in that tradition. South Korean Artistic Director and pianist JooWan Kim’s boundary-collapsing project fosters a vibe that is equal parts concert performance and club night, as talented MCs rap over a live orchestra, complete with woodwinds, French horns, strings and drums, breathing new life into works by Beethoven, Bach and Mozart. It’s all of a piece with Kim’s vision to “sample differences, change everything.”
The Fanoos Ensemble, Jan. 23
Music is among many pleasures of the free world banned by the Taliban, so to perform his art, Afghan vocalist and harmonium player Ahmad Fanoos had to flee the country—specifically aboard a Fox News evacuation plane during the final weeks of the U.S. presence in the country, in the summer of 2021. Now he’s reunited in the States with his family-centered ensemble, including sons Elham Fanoos on piano and Mehran Fanoos on violin, and Sohail Karimi on tabla. Despite the troubles in their native country, the Fanoos Ensemble considers itself a cultural ambassador to Afghanistan, performing material from the country’s pre-Islamic Buddhist period through contemporary compositions, and supplemented with poetry and visual art. The Fanoos Ensemble may not be able to perform in Kabul, but it has played Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center—and now the Kravis.
African-American Film Series, Feb. 15-18
The Kravis continues its annual celebration of African-American achievements in film, always a highlight of Black History Month. Folded this season into the PEAK programming, the series is presented as a mini-festival spread over four days. It opens with the timely “Black Barbie,” focusing on the African-American designers who contributed to Mattel’s most newsworthy brand; and continues with “Losing Ground,” Kathleen Collins’ breakthrough 1982 indie feature; “Bright Road,” a 1953 drama with an all-Black cast that introduced Harry Belafonte to moviegoers; “Island in the Sun,” a 1957 landmark of Caribbean cinema, starring Belafonte, Joan Fontaine and Dorothy Dandridge, among others; “Ruby Bridges,” a 1988 biopic about one of the first Black students to attend an integrated public school in New Orleans; and “Daughters of the Dust,” independent director Julie Dash’s avant-garde 1991 masterpiece.
Hideaway Circus: Beyond Babel, Feb. 22-23
“Beyond Babel” isn’t the first time Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” has been adapted to a more urban and contemporary environment (“West Side Story,” anyone?). But this fiercely relevant and imaginative dance-theatre take on the Bard’s star-crossed lovers is sure to resonate with today’s audiences. A two-time Drama Desk nominee, this dance theatre spectacular is centered on a community riven not so much by age-old hatred but by an administrative state that decides to build a wall between factions, dividing them into a separate camps. Lovers on either side of the structure will have to scale great heights—and will do so to a riveting hip-hop soundtrack and first-rate street dancing.
Step Afrika!, March 11-12
Celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2024, the dance troupe Step Afrika! will honor this achievement by returning to its roots: a self-titled routine that introduces spectators to its athletic, immersive and culturally edifying choreography. Inviting audience participation, Step Afrika! combines the African-American “stepping” tradition with South African gumboot dance, while adding its own percussive instruments for a rousing polyrhythmic drum symphony.
National Geographic Live: Life on Thin Ice, March 27
The Kravis’ season-wide association with National Geographic concludes with a presentation from adventure photographer Kiliii Yüyan, a Chinese-American of East Asian Indigenous ancestry who is also among the most fearless of ethnographic photographers. He is naturally drawn to the Arctic despite the risks inherent in filming there—he has fled collapsing sea ice and endured a bout of botulism while on the job—but his survivalist knowledge and boundless curiosity have paid off. “Life on Thin Ice” will illuminate the native people of the Arctic and their unique relationship to their land through stunning imagery and accompanying stories.
Las Cafeteras, April 3
This six-piece Chicano band from East Los Angeles cuts a wide musical swath, with a style that coalesces spoken-word poetry with folk music, Afro-Mexican beats and traditional zapateado dancing. Las Cafeteras’ infectious sound has led to collaborations with everyone from the alternative band Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes to the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Expect to hear unique instruments such as the cajon, jarana jarocha, glockenspiel and Native American flute, on songs that address such urgent issues as civil rights, immigration reform and labor struggles.
The Kite Runner, May 17-19
Adapted from Khaled Hosseini’s best-seller of the same name—a sprawling saga of the changes in Afghan life across the decades through the prism of a young boy from Kabul—this adaptation from Matthew Spangler debuted in Broadway in 2022, and endeavors to capture the book’s weighty themes and cultural importance, hewing its story reverentially to Hosseini’s powerful writing.
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