In joint efforts to unify the Armenian community, The Mirror-Spectator Calendar is a place to find, post and share interesting events and gatherings, ANYWHERE around the world. Posting events is always FREE for everyone!
The Center for Peace, Justice and Reconciliation at Bergen Community College presents the 2023 award recipients composer/writer Dr. Michelle Ekizian and Lynn Needle, dancer/choreographer in their showcase collaboration on the composer’s GORKY’S DREAM GARDEN: a musical theater opera of love, courage and modern art.
Of exile, love, heartbreak and dreams, OFF THE GRID: PASSIONATE ABSTRACTIONS explores up-close the art and life of artist Arshile Gorky—a founding father of American abstract-expressionism and a child survivor of the 1915 Armenian Genocide, the first genocide of the 20th century. As in the opera’s epic psychodrama, it fuses the everyday of Gorky’s dynamic modern art world of pre and post-World War II America with tragedy (of genocide, amouricide and suicide) where dreams of nighttime, enigma and nostalgia collide. A mystical, magical, mystery tour of the artist’s incredible story of survival, the hour-length concert and its following brief Op/Art TALK offers a global perspective in tune with today’s dream for light and peace. Needle’s Art of Motion Dance Theatre and special guests MOIPEI, female vocal trio from Kenya, will perform alongside stars from Broadway, opera and classical; immersive visuals and floating community Processions of Light. Afterwards in the lobby, the Dream Garden Soirée will welcome the audience to participate in the show’s interactive Wishing Tree Art Installation, sip Dream Garden Sparklers and float to the global mix of a Neapolitan/Yiddish/Armenian Reggae Hip Hop band including Viken Makochiaan, the multi-ethnic/Armenian folk keyboardist/vocalist . Creative dress suggested: Dream Garden & Modern Art Fantasy!