History & Highlights

The summer of 2000 gave birth to the first New York City Hip-Hop Theater Festival. It marked the first organized event showcasing the stories, people, music, dance, and word of Hip-Hop in one venue. That summer, the Hip-Hop Theater Festival brought together some of the finest actors, playwrights, b-boys and b-girls to narrate the stories of the Hip-Hop generation. Performances included Will Power’s The Gathering, Universes’ Slanguage, La Santa Luz Dance Company, and the two centerpieces: Sarah Jones’ Surface Transit and Liza Colon Zayas’ Sistah Supreme. Rave reviews, sold-out shows and mad props from audiences confirmed the success of the first Hip-Hop Theater Festival and gave an affirmative nod to future festivals.

In its brief history, the Hip-Hop Theater Festival has expanded substantially from presenting two events in 80 and 150-seat theaters to 30 full-length productions and staged readings in multiple venues, and in various cities all around the country, including Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Chicago.

In the last six years, the Festival has presented over 100 artists from the Hip-Hop generation from the United States, England, Brazil and Canada, including Will Power, Rennie Harris, Benji Reid, Aya de Leon, Nilaja Sun, Felicia Bell, Liza Jesse Peterson, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, oLive Dance Theatre, The Tortuga Project, Ben Synder, Indio Melendez, Ka’Ramuu Kush, Kristina Wong, Sarah Jones, Universes, Frank Ejara, Ise Lyfe, The Suicide Kings, and Liza Colon-Zayas.

Since its inception, The Hip-Hop Theater Festival has grown into one of the most influential outlets showcasing Hip-Hop performing arts in the country and has become an important contributor to the cultural life of participating Festival cities. In addition to critical acclaim and positive response from enthusiastic audiences, HHTF was recently recognized with a special award from the New York Regional Association of Grantmakers as an outstanding grantee of the Nathan Cummings Foundation for "its innovative approach to addressing socio-political issues in New York City and beyond.”

 

2000 - New York City

Surface Transit  Written & Perfromed by Sarah Jones
Sistah Supreme Starring Liza Colon Zayas

 

2001- New York City

Rhyme Deferred   Hip Hop Theatre Junction
Jonzi D’s  Lyrical Fearta

2002 - New York City

PS 122 Performances

Hip Hop Theater Festival All-Stars
    Featuring Danny Hoch, Will Power, Jonzi D and Sarah Jones

Keep Hedz Ringin’   Rickerby Hinds
Art Start’s  Are You Feelin’ Me?
The Seven   Written by Will Power
Rennie Harris/Puremovement
Thieves in the Temple   Aya De Leon
Hip Hop Nightmares   Psalmayene 24
Playback NYC  A Night of Hip Hop Theater & Improvisation
Manchild Dilemma   Indio Melendez
Kenya   Radha Blank
Heiroglyphic Graffiti  Hip Hop Theatre Junction / Chad Boseman

Evening of Shorts
Breakdown – Claudia Alick
Joy In Repetition – Felice Belle
Boogie Rican – La Bruja
You Can Clap Now – Ben Snyder
Essential Personnel, America the Beautiful – Al Letson
Witness the Priestess – Liza Jesse Peterson
Hairstory (a memory play) – Tish Benson

Dance Montage
What We All Are – Kazum & The Body Poets ft. Postmidnight (guest poet)
Raphael Xavier
Rockafella
AKim Funk Buddha  Dha Fuzion

Nuyorican Poets Café Stage Readings
Blood Trinity   Suhier Hammad
kA’   kA’RAMUU KUSH
Burning Trees   Derek Beres
Rough Draft of My Life   Tigerlily
Ride the Rhythm   Florante Galvez

 

2003 – New York City 

PS 122 Performances

Crutchmaster    Bill Shannon
Will Power’s FLOW 
Danny Hoch’s  ‘Til the Break of Dawn
Jen Sabel’s  Digital Overload  &  Open Street Hydrant
Rubberband Dance    Re-Inventing the Hip Hop Routine: Take 3  &  Secret Service
olive
Beatbox: A Raparetta   By Tommy Shepard and Dan Wolf
Word Becomes Flesh   Marc Bamuthi Joseph
D’Bi Young
Black Folks Guide To Black Folks   Written & Performed by Hanifah Walidah
Bullet Proof Deli   Sabela                                                  
Hop Fu
Raising Sugarcane
In The Last Car   Mums
Rough Draft of My Life   Tigerlily

Evening of Shorts
TEA – Ben Snyder
Soundtrack City: A Beatbox Musical (excerpt) –
Sick Rhymes – Claudia Alick
My Starship – Seth Zvi Rosenfeld
Culture Bandit  (excerpts)  Written & Performed by Vanessa Hidary

New York Theatre Workshop : 4^th St Space   Rough Cuts
Playback Theater
Stakes is High   Pattydukes
Angela’s Mixtape  Eisa Davis
Melic Composed / Memory is a Body of Water   Lisa Biggs & Tanisha Brady Christy
Rewind  Greg Beuthin
Giving Up The Gun   David Rodriguez
In The Heights   Tommy Keil 

  

2003 – Washington DC

Kennedy Center
Olive
Rubberband Dance
Hop Fu

Source Theater
Jonzi D  Lyrical Fearta
Culture Bandit  Written & Performed by Vanessa Hidary
Deep Azure Written by Chad Boseman
Rhapsodist   Isaac Colon
Playback NYC
Hip Hop Prophets by Ross Kelly
Sol Y Soul

 

2003 – San Francisco

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts performances 
Singular Sensations
Jonzi D  Lyrical Fearta
Marc Bamuthi Joseph
Coconut Masquerade   Written & Performed by Melinda Corazon Foley
Black Folks Guide To Black Folks   Written & Performed by Hanifah Walidah
Culture Bandit  Written & Performed by Vanessa Hidary
Will Power’s  FLOW
Rhyme Deferred   Hip Hop Theatre Junction

 

2004 – Washington DC

olive Dance
Full Circle Productions
Benji Reid 
Word Becomes Flesh – Marc Bamuthi Joseph
Thieves in the Temple   Aya De Leon
Melic Composed / Memory is a Body of Water   Lisa Biggs & Tanish Brady Christy
Deep Azure  Chad Boseman
 

2005 –  New York City 5^th Anniversary  

New York Theatre Workshop – Opening Night
Universes
Danny Hoch  excerpt
Ben Snyder’s    No Salute
Playback NYC
Reg E. Gaines - Savion Glover
olive Dance
Full Circle

Dance Theater Workshop
13 Mics   Benji Reid
Storm  Solo For Two
Jerry Quickley’s Witness to War  (Live From the Front)
Yuri Lane’s From Tel Aviv To Ramallah
Reminiscence of the Ghetto  (excerpt) Angela Kariotis
NE 2^nd Ave  (excerpt)  Teo Castellano   

New York Theatre Workshop : 4^th St Space - Critical Breaks
Breathe  Javon Johnson
Welcome to Arroyo’s  Written by  Kristoffer Diaz
Playback NYC’s  Hip Hop Commedia Project

Apollo Theater
Russell Projects  Big Voices
Deep Azure   Chad Boseman

 

2006

 

 

2007

 

 

On Tour Past Performances

 
Montclair University - Hip-Hop Theater Festival On Tour (2005) 
Lehigh Universit y - Hip-Hop Theater Festival On Tour (2006)
Franklin & Marshall College - Hip-Hop Theater Festival On Tour (2008)  

 

Will Power’s  FLOW (2004 – 2006)   

·          Miami Light Project – Miami, FL

·          UC Riverside – Riverside, CA

·          UC Santa Barbara – Santa Barbara, CA

·          Flynn Performing Arts Center – Burlington, VT

·          Children’s Theatre Company – Minneapolis, MN

·          Hopkins Center / Dartmouth College – Hanover, NH

·          Power Center – Ann Arbor, MI

·          Bonn Festival - Bonn, Germany

·          5-week UK tour including:
Battersea Arts Centre - London
Contact Theatre – Manchester

 

Jerry Quickley’s Live From the Front (2006 – 2007)

·          Bumbershoot Festival – Seattle, WA

·          PICA – Portland, OR

·          Apollo Theater – New York, NY

·          Newman University – Wichita, KS

·          Washington Center for Performing Arts – Olympia, WA

·          UC Riverside – Riverside, CA

·          Hopkins Center / Dartmouth College – Hanover, NH

·          Stanford Lively Arts – Stanford, CA

·          The Andy Warhol Museum – Pittsburgh, PA

·          Yerba Buena Center for the Arts – San Francisco, CA

 

 

Critical Breaks - Past Performances

 Go Home  Written by David Tianga, Directed by David Anzuelo
Welcome to Arroyo’s Written by  Kristoffer Diaz
Actor’s Rap! Writeen & Directed by J. Kyle Manzay