Created by Baba Israel, Leo Kay & Yako 440
World Premiere Performances: January 8, 9, 15, 16, 2016 at 8PM
Fireworks Residency: December 15, 2015 – January 29, 2016
The Spinning Wheel, conceived by hip hop theater artist Baba Israel with UK based director Leo Kay and musician Yako 440, is a multimedia performance and interactive gallery exhibition that engages with the 50 year radical archive of Israel’s late father and Living Theatre alum steve ben israel. Through spoken word, video, and live music, the show preserves and animates the collectivist impulses of New York counterculture while carrying on a family legacy of generosity via a son’s loving tribute to his father.
Drawing on his father’s archival material for contextual inspiration and audio visual content, Baba collaborated with UK theatre maker Leo Kay, long time musical collaborator Yako 440, dramaturg Talvin Wilks and video artist Richard Ramchurn to create The Spinning Wheel, which will combine storytelling, hip hop, live-looping, projection mapping, and a fusion of Hip Hop, jazz and spoken word, reflecting on themes such as intergenerational connections, family legacy, political action, and the roles we play in the everyday lives of others.
The Spinning Wheel is produced by Unfinished Business in association with Baba Israel.
This season of performing arts programs at BRIC House are supported through a generous grant from the Howard GIlman Foundation. The Spinning Wheel has been developed as part of BRIC’s Fireworks Residency and commissioning program for collaborative teams of artists who are interested in developing new, large-scale multidisciplinary work that cross—or erase—artistic boundaries. It is supported in part by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation’s NYC Cultural Innovation Fund.