NEW YORK SKETCHES: So The People Came is a 60-minute guided tour of New York City through the eyes and ears of choreographer, Hilary Brown-Istrefi and composer/conductor, Lamy Istrefi. Joined by dance artist, Magda Kaczmarska, vocalist/poet, Rie Yamaguchi-Borden, and Musical Minds Orchestra (MMO), they take the audience across a map of the 5 boroughs: Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island, to evoke the time, space, and sound of a city like no other. A homage to the eclecticism of these communities, the performance navigates the intersection of movements and instruments on stage to share stories of the past, personal, and spiritual.
If anyone wishes to hear stories, let them come here and roll in a little tobacco or a bead, and I will tell them a story.
So the people came.
And that is the beginning of the stories which we do not know are true or not.
- Lenape Creation Story
Concept and Direction by: Hilary Brown-Istrefi | HB² PROJECTS and Lamy Istrefi
Choreography by: Hilary Brown-Istrefi | HB² PROJECTS in collaboration with Magda Kaczmarska
Music Composed and Conducted by: Lamy Istrefi
Poetry by: Rie Yamaguchi-Borden
Performance by: Hilary Brown-Istrefi, Magda Kaczmarska, and Musical Minds Orchestra (MMO): Rie Yamaguchi-Borden (vocals), Michael Irwin (trumpet), Stacy Dillard (saxophone), Corey Wilcox (trombone), On Ka'a Davis (guitar), James Hurt (keyboards), Sean Conly (contrabass), and Lamy Istrefi (drums + percussion)
NEW YORK SKETCHES: So The People Came was created with the support of the EtM Choreographer + Composer Residency, administered by Exploring the Metropolis. Exploring the Metropolis is grateful to the Mertz Gilmore Foundation and the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation for their support of the EtM Choreographer + Composer Residencies in partnership with the Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning (JCAL). This Program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in Partnership with the City Council.