The Rotunda at the DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center
TENTATIVELY FEATURING:
Anthony Roth Costanzo (Countertenor)
Lily McMenamy (Performer, Model, and Actress)
Hyun Jung Jun (Dream Cake Test Kitchen)
Shahryar Nashat (Artist and Frequent Collaborator)
And other invited performers and guests
ABOUT RENBEN
RenBen 2023: TRU RENAISSANCE gives carte blanche to artist and choreographer Adam Linder. In keeping with the format of artist-conceived evenings inaugurated with Piero Golia’s memorable RenBen at the South Shore Cultural Center in 2022, which featured chef and artist Laila Gohar, movement designer and Master of Ceremonies Stephen Galloway, and the spirited Cavaliers Drum and Bugle Corps. To quote Andrew Berardini of Artforum:
“Elegantly wrought, at times brassily bombastic, with moments of shimmering magic, humor, and just the right amount of romance, [RenBen 2022] was all those things …”
RenBen raises a significant portion of the museum’s annual budget, enabling new artistic commissions, scholarly discourse, and lasting publications. Your contributions allow us to keep all Ren exhibitions and events free and open to the public.
ADAM LINDER
In 2023, the prolific and peripatetic dancer and choreographer Adam Linder has been invited to Chicago to design RenBen: TRU RENAISSANCE. Linder’s Shelf Life, created together with artist Shahryar Nashat—who will have an exhibition on view concurrently at the Ren—was one of two inaugural commissions for the Museum of Modern Art’s Kravis Studio, dedicated to live art in 2020. Linder is the 2016 recipient of the Hammer Museum’s $100,000 Mohn Award, granted for artistic excellence to an artist featured in its biennial, Made in L.A.—the first time this award was bestowed on a dancer. Further, Linder has developed projects and performances for The Wattis Institute in San Francisco, Serralves Museum in Porto, LAXART in Los Angeles, The Schinkel Pavillon in Berlin, The Centre Pompidou in Paris, and countless other arts venues. This will be Linder’s first project in Chicago and the Ren is thrilled and honored to welcome him.
ANTHONY ROTH COSTANZO
Linder has invited countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo to be a co-conspirator for the evening. Costanzo sang the title role in Philip Glass’s Akhnaten at the Met Opera in 2019 and performed in the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s world premiere of Jimmy López’s Bel Canto in 2015–16. Costanzo was Artist-in-Residence with the New York Philharmonic in 2021–22 and recently released a new album, Only an Octave Apart, with Broadway, film, and cabaret performer Justin Vivian Bond following the project’s run in London. According to Rachel Pearl of PBS, “there is one voice—and one opera star—soaring particularly high this season [2022]. Countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo is leading music in new and thrilling directions as he brings his incredible voice to the opera and beyond.”
LILY MCMENAMY
Lily McMenamy will play a central role as an emcee of sorts. McMenamy models for fashion brands including Chanel, Gucci, Pucci, and YSL, among others, and has worked with photographers such as Juergen Teller and Peter Lindbergh. Her movement direction and narrative involvement for the evening will be designed by Linder.
THE ROTUNDA
RenBen 2023: TRU RENAISSANCE will take place at The Rotunda at The DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center. A former stable in the shape of a soaring rotunda, The Rotunda was built in 1880 by one of Chicago’s most legendary architects and urban planners, Daniel Burnham—also known for having designed the Flat Iron Building in NYC and Selfridges department store in London.
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