A Weekend with Hope Boykin & Friends

A Weekend with Hope Boykin & Friends

Lincoln Center Activate presents an energizing weekend hosted and curated by Hope Boykin, celebrated educator, mentor, speaker, choreographer, and former Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater dancer. Boykin is joined by highly respected colleagues and friends—fellow trailblazers and leaders in arts and education—for virtual conversations and a dance performance, all taking place for free via Zoom on January 22–23, 2022. 

Kicking the event off on January 22 at 2 PM, Hope Boykin hosts a Zoom discussion exploring the ways, tactics, and formulas we should adopt to encourage continued creativity in the arts, in the studio, and on our world’s stages. Joining her will be Taryn Kaschock Russell, Director of 92Y Harkness Dance Center and former Associate Director of The Juilliard School Dance Division, and Denise Saunders Thompson, President and CEO of the International Association of Blacks In Dance and Assistant Dean for Administration of the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts at Howard University. 

Streamed live from Lincoln Center’s Clark Studio Theater on January 22 at 7 PM, Hope Boykin delivers an innovative keynote that combines choreography, dance and her own reflections on learning, artistic process, and welcoming. The performance includes excerpts from “Re-Define US, From the INside OUT,” a dance work created during the height of the pandemic. 

Hope will also lead an engaging multi-disciplinary conversation with Al Crawford, award-winning, world-renowned lighting designer, and Matthew Rushing, Associate Artistic Director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Collectively, they’ll consider what it means to be an artist and how artists can cultivate encouraging spaces for those following in their footsteps. 

Finally, on January 23 at 2 PM, Hope and distinguished guests—Alicia Graf Mack, Dean and Director of The Juilliard School’s Dance Division, and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Founding Artistic Director of Urban Bush Women and 2021 MacArthur Fellow—close out the weekend by reflecting on the important part they play as educators and the value of nurturing our future artists and leaders. The central question of exploration: What is the work we must do together to lead and guide the next generation of artists and change makers? 

Register now for one, two, or all three virtual events, each exploring the importance of acceptance in creating radically welcoming spaces. Click here to register and learn more.