About this Performance

serpentwithfeet’s experimental electronic music explores passion and love between gay Black folks so tenderly, The Guardian said of his 2021 record DEACON, “There can be few albums this year more wholesome, soppy, or unabashedly life-affirming.” He joins with MacArthur Fellow Wu Tsang and choreographer Raja Feather Kelly to present Heart of Brick, a theatrical dance and musical performance that tells the story of two men finding themselves and falling in love in a gay dance hall—and captures the multi-generational spirit of the Black queer community. Combining music created for the performance with material from serpentwithfeet’s new album, as well as older songs, Heart of Brick is an evocative new work that embodies the sweetness and sincerity at serpent’s core.

Josiah Wise savors romantic moments under his alias serpentwithfeet. The 35-year-old Los Angeles-based artist with a background in R&B and classical music expresses desire and pleasure in songs so beguilingly gentle that he has become one of the most exciting alternative R&B voices. Now he is developing his first stage work with award-winning visual artist Wu Tsang, who expresses queer identity in films and is resident director at Schauspielhaus Zurich. Completing the team is Raja Feather Kelly, one of New York’s most luminous choreographers, with both Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway works and his own experimental dance works, as well as Solange and Bob Wilson designer Carlos Soto, star stylist Julio Delgado, and poet Donte Collins. Together with seven dancers, the team tells the story of a Black gay nightclub. This is where the utopian potential of a safe space and a great love story between the club security guard Brick and serpentwithfeet unfold. The latter is on stage himself—with songs from his new album Grip.

Co-Commissioned by: The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, The Joyce Theater Foundation, The International Summer Festival (Kampnagel), The LA Phil - with generous support from Linda and David Shaheen, Seattle Theatre Group, Hancher Auditorium at the University of Iowa

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