National Black Box Performing Arts Festival

The National Black Box Performing Arts Festival promotes social activism through three performing art forms: theatre, music, and dance. The festival commissions the creation of a multi-disciplined performance that demonstrate the historical connection between protest and art.

The theme for the 2018 (March 28 - April 1, 2018) Festival is ‘Civil Rights and Performance Art.’

Just as most art is inspired by an era, person, or event, the Festival will commission a choreographer, a singer/songwriter/ and a playwright, to each create a 15-minute work inspired by a specially selected social activist who, in the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr., has preserved despite risk. These three performance art pieces will braid into a 45-minute show.

An HBCU Performance Art Conference is a key element of the festival. The conference is comprised of three, three-hour workshops in each of the performance art disciplines. Students from 10 HBCUs will learn how to marry performance art to highlight the festival’s social justice theme.