Nikki Giovanni Tribute

We're closing out Black History Month with an evening full of performance, music, and poetry honoring the life and legacy of Nikki Giovanni!

This heartfelt tribute features a line-up of incredible artists from a wide array of disciplines gathering celebrate Giovanni’s influence on their artistry and lives. Experience this extraordinary tribute inside 651 ARTS' state-of-the-art theater at the new L10 Arts & Cultural Center in Downtown Brooklyn.

Connecting the mind, to the body, to the soul, Lovie's sets inspire the warmest, most community-minded dance floors you'll find in New York.Lovie's musical discovery began in the digital music age: a young lover of local radio and after-school MTV marathons, her early mixes took shape in the form of burned CDs she made for her friends. After relocating from her hometown of Washington, D.C. to New York in 2020, Lovie's unique selection of soulful, spiritual music swiftly ushered her into New York's local music scene.
At the taste-making Brooklyn radio station, Lot Radio, she gave birth to her homey platform, summer school radio. For four years Lovie's radio mixes—now being offered as one of the station's few weekly residencies—have thumbed through the intimate corners of her music collection. She saunters through slow-groove disco, dusty '70s funk and groovy '80s jazz at a studied pace that makes it easy to marvel at every timeless chime, trill, and drum beat. She's as tempted by the bedroom pop of Clairo as much as the cosmic funk of Lonnie Liston Smith.

PHOTO: © Chester Higgins Archives

ABIODUN OYEWOLE is a poet, author, teacher, and a founding member of the American music and spoken-word group The Last Poets, which laid the groundwork for the emergence of hip-hop.

​Abiodun Oyewole was born Charles Davis in Cincinnati, Ohio and grew up in Queens, New York. Listening to his parents' jazz and gospel records and studying Langston Hughes and other great poets in school helped nurture Oyewole's love of poetry. His mother taught him to "throw his voice" by making him recite the Lord's Prayer in their basement so that she could hear him in the kitchen. When he was fifteen years old, Oyewole and a friend went into a Yoruban Temple in Harlem out of curiosity. The Yoruba priest performed a ceremony and gave him the name, "Abiodun Oyewole." As he began reading about the Yoruba gods and the significance of one's ancestors, Oyewole felt a deep spiritual connection to the religion that continues to this day.

Liza is an artivist; an actress, playwright, poet, author and youth advocate who has worked steadfast with incarcerated populations for more than two decades. Her critically acclaimed one woman show, The Peculiar Patriot, was nominated for a Drama Desk Award, Elliot Norton and a recipient of a Lilly Award. The play is also available on Audible. Liza performed The Peculiar Patriot in 35 prisons across the country and a documentary, Angola Do You Hear Us; Voices from a Plantation Pr*son, features her historic performance of The Peculiar Patriot at Louisiana State Penitentiary (aka Angola) which is streaming on Paramount Plus and Amazon Prime, and was shortlist for an Academy Award.

In addition to The Peculiar Patriot, Liza has written several other plays which received development support from The Lark, Syracuse Stage, The McCarter Theater, Manhattan Theater Club, New York Theater Workshop, and The Atlantic Theater Company.

Najee Omar is black, queer, and making magic somewhere in Brooklyn. A multidisciplinary poet, rapper, and educator, Najee’s art cultivates spaces of healing and community building. Named a New York Times ‘2018 Visionary’ for his passion for youth activism, Najee is the Founder, Executive Director of Spark House: an arts education organization that champions black and brown teen voices by bringing poetry and performance programs to New York City public schools. Najee was commissioned by The Shed to co-develop DIS OBEY: a space for New York City youth to explore creative action through writing, story telling, and visual arts. In 2020, his commitment to art and home led him to become the Founding Curator for The Neighborhood Project: an initiative designed to propel emerging black artists further in their careers with the support of their neighbors. He has received fellowships from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, The Public Theater, Lincoln Center and elsewhere. Najee was the first ever Artist-in-Residence for BRIC and University Settlement’s Intergenerational Community Arts Council. He was named a Fort Greene Community Hero for his deep engagement work with artists and residents in neighborhoods across Brooklyn. Keep up with Najee at @najeeomar.

Image Credit: Christian Hicks

Neil Clarke is a master percussionist of legendary status. Born in the spring of 1951 and raised in Bedford-Stuyvestant, Clarke is internationally acclaimed as a percussionist who has been involved with African drumming and the percussive arts, traditionally and internationally, for more than half a century. Neil Clarke has made it his mission to continue the pioneering work of his mentors and collaborators who include Randy Weston, Miram Makeba, Harry Belafonte, and many more.

In honor of that collective of elders who played a pivotal role in bringing African cultural traditions to North America, South America, and the Caribbean in the late 1950's and early 1960's, Chief Clarke has helped keep those traditions alive and taken them to stages around the world. He continues to practice for audiences and communities both ritually and on stage. 

Image Credit: H. King

Host or Publisher 651 ARTS