Music, Theater Performances, Special Commissions, and
Light Installation to Honor LGBTQIA+ Communities
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts today announced events and activations celebrating Pride this June at Restart Stages, its newly launched outdoor performing arts center championing the emerging arts revival in New York City. Music, theater performances, newly commissioned works, and a rainbow light installation at Lincoln Center’s iconic fountain will honor the histories, struggles, and contributions of the LGBTQIA+ communities and celebrate the full spectrum of queer identity.
Restart Stages is a program of the SNF-Lincoln Center Agora Initiative with the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), a collaboration bringing new approaches in cultural engagement to public spaces.
“It is incredibly important for us to support artists of all backgrounds and identities here at Lincoln Center. We serve the City of New York first and foremost, and this diversity is at the core of our values and is how we will achieve excellence,” said Jordana Leigh, Senior Director of Artistic Programming at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. “As we play our part in the city’s revival, we welcome all to join us in honoring, celebrating, and lifting up our LGBTQIA+ communities.”
For the first time, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is partnering with the National Queer Theater and will bring two new theater works to Restart Stages as part of the Criminal Queerness Festival, which supports the development and production of new works by international and immigrant theater-makers experiencing censorship or criminalization around the world. Playwright Victor I. Cazares presents their new work «when we write with ashes», a personal and complicated love story set in their native Mexico. Actor and writer Dima Mikhayel Matta’s debut autobiographical solo performance This is not a memorized script, this is a well-rehearsed story, explores Matta’s lived experience and evolution as a creative queer scholar and a lover—through the lens of a sometimes-troubled relationship with their hometown of Beirut. For additional Criminal Queerness Festival performances in NYC, visit NationalQueerTheater.org.
Lincoln Center will once again light its iconic fountain with a rainbow design and fly the Pride flag, starting in June. Pride celebration performances, beginning June 21 through June 26, include the incomparable Taylor Mac – featuring The 24-Decade Gang with Matt Ray, and Machine Dazzle – in a night time concert entitled Egg Yolk, a specially commissioned performance by poet and political activist Staceyann Chin, a concert of beloved and brand-new works by singer/songwriter Treya Lam, and a musical theater exploration of queer, immigrant, and Latino identity by Migguel Anggelo in LatinXoxo.
In addition to artistic programming throughout June, Lincoln Center will be facilitating opportunities for its staff to participate in reflection and celebration throughout the month with guided conversations, gatherings, and support groups.
All seating for Restart Stages is located on accessible routes and can be removed to make space for mobility devices. Live audio description will be available at all seating locations for «when we write with ashes» on June 24. ASL interpretation will be available on June 25 for This is Not a Memorized Script, This is a Well-Rehearsed Story.
Free tickets to each event in Restart Stages’ Pride celebration will be made available through the TodayTix Lottery, the Official Ticketing Partner of Restart Stages. The TodayTix Lottery will open for entries two weeks before the performance and close three days prior to the performance at 12:59 p.m. EDT. Attendees who secure tickets will be required to follow safety protocols. For more information visit TodayTix.com or download the TodayTix app.*
*No purchase is necessary to enter the TodayTix Lottery and reserve free tickets for these June performances. The prize value of tickets is $0. The odds of winning tickets depend on the number of eligible entries received. The TodayTix Lottery is open to legal residents of the 50 United States and D.C., age 18 or over. Complete official rules, prize description, and giveaway entry information will be available on the TodayTix website.
Visit RestartStages.org for updates.
**In person press opportunities for Restart Stages are very limited due to mandatory safety protocols and must be arranged in advance with the Lincoln Center Press Office.**
Celebrating Pride at Restart Stages Performance Chronology
Monday, June 21 – Saturday, June 26
June 21 at 7:00 p.m.
The Club at Hearst Plaza
Pride at Lincoln Center’s Restart Stages
Staceyann Chin
The NYC-based poet and outspoken political activist Staceyann Chin has a long tradition of support both for and from within the LGBTQ and Black communities. Chin’s star first rose with a break-out role in the Tony-nominated Def Poetry Jam and burst into a supernova with her critically acclaimed memoir The Other Side of Paradise. Her fierce and uncensored rhetoric, matched with an abiding kindness and clarity of purpose, have made her an indispensable voice of righteous truth and a Lincoln Center featured artist for over a decade. For this performance, specially commissioned in support of Restart Stages’ Pride Celebration, Ms. Chin will bring to bear her considerable talents as an author and a monologist, confronting topics of race, class, gender, sexuality and post-pandemic life.
June 24 at 7:00 p.m.
The Club at Hearst Plaza
Pride at Lincoln Center’s Restart Stages
National Queer Theater Presents: Criminal Queerness Festival
«when we write with ashes»
Written by Victor I. Cazares
Directed by Borna Barzin
Playwright Victor I. Cazares’ work centers on addiction, freedom, and rituals of mourning and celebration. Their latest work, «when we write with ashes», directed by Borna Barzin (New York Theatre Workshop), draws from their self-identified background as a non-binary, HIV-positive, queer, indigenous Mexican artist to tell a personal love story complicated by fascism, eroticism and—ultimately—death.
This event is a part of the National Queer Theater’s Criminal Queerness Festival, which presents exciting new plays by LGBTQ artists from countries that criminalize queer and trans people.
June 24 at 8:00 p.m.
The Restart Stage at Damrosch Park
Pride at Lincoln Center’s Restart Stages
Treya Lam
Treya Lam is a classically-trained, nonbinary, Taiwanese-American singer/songwriter whose joyously complex identity informs but does not define their work, whether solo or when playing with The Resistance Revival Chorus. Their strident voice, politically charged songwriting and fluent instrumental prowess on guitar, piano and strings recalls not only Nina Simone and Ani DiFranco, but also Kaki King, who signed Treya to her Short Stuff Records label in 2018. A regular performance veteran of past NYC Pride celebrations, Lam’s headlining Lincoln Center debut will be backed by a supporting septet of musicians and will feature music from their album Good News, more recent songs developed during their recent Joe’s Pub Working Group residency and brand-new work crafted during quarantine and intended for their forthcoming sophomore LP.
anna azarov photography 
anna azarov photography
Friday, June 25 at 7:00 p.m.
The Club at Hearst Plaza
National Queer Theater Presents: Criminal Queerness Festival
This is Not a Memorized Script, This is a Well-Rehearsed Story
Written by Dima Mikhayel Matta
Directed by Em Weinstein [First directed by Yara Bou Nassar]
Actor and writer Dima Mikhayel Matta’s debut autobiographical solo performance This is not a memorized script, this is a well-rehearsed story, directed by Em Weinstein (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater), explores Matta’s lived experience and evolution as a creative queer scholar and a lover—through the lens of a sometimes-troubled relationship with their hometown of Beirut. Presented as a direct address to the audience, This is not a memorized script manifests the direct connections between personal vulnerability and political revolution.
This event is a part of the National Queer Theater’s Criminal Queerness Festival, which presents exciting new plays by LGBTQ artists from countries that criminalize queer and trans people.
Friday, June 25 at 8:00 p.m.
The Restart Stage at Damrosch Park
Egg Yolk
Taylor Mac
Featuring The 24-Decade Gang with Matt Ray and Machine Dazzle
In 2016, Wesley Morris of The New York Times called theater artist Taylor Mac’s marathon performance art concert A 24-Decade History of Popular Music “one of the great experiences of my life.” In the nearly five years since that Pulitzer Prize-nominated piece launched Taylor onto the world stage, Mac (who prefers “judy” as a chosen pronoun) has toured internationally, received a MacArthur Fellowship, brought the multiple Tony-nominated Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus to Broadway and recently released a short film based on the work of Walt Whitman for ALL ARTS. Now, judy returns to Lincoln Center with some 24-Decade friends for Egg Yolk, an evening of songs created in collaboration with his longtime music director, arranger and American Songbook favorite Matt Ray. As with every Taylor Mac show, no doubt Egg Yolk will offer some unpredictable surprises.
Saturday, June 26 at 7:00 p.m.
The Club at Hearst Plaza
LatinXoxo
Conceived by Migguel Anggelo
Book by C. Juilian Jiménez
Musical Direction by Jaime Lozano
Directed and developed by Srda Vasiljevic
Costume design by Ryan Park
Jaime Lozano, Piano and Guitar; Alberto Jiménez, Guitar; Victor Murillo, Bass; Reinaldo de Jesús, Percussion
Migguel Anggelo is a Venezuelan-born and Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary artist whose creative work explores the intersections of queer, Latino and immigration identities. As a musician, Anggelo has released two full-length albums: Dónde Estara Matisse and La Casa Azul. As a theater artist, he has developed residency works for MASS MoCA, Brooklyn’s BRIC, and the downtown cabaret Joe’s Pub, where he and his creative partners first staged LatinXoxo.
An outrageous and gender-busting solo musical theater performance that makes full use of his remarkable vocal range, nuanced acting and muscular grace, LatinXoxo—conceived by Anggelo with musical direction by Jaime Lozano, book by C. Julian Jiménez and directed and developed by SRÐA—is by turns hilarious, risqué and deeply moving. The work’s flamboyant costumes and ostentatious characters frame Anggelo’s reckoning with cultural preconceptions of machismo and identity, presented through intimately personal renditions of the Spanish boleros and pop music of his youth.
About Restart Stages
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is spearheading Restart Stages, a sweeping initiative creating 10 outdoor performance and rehearsal spaces—an outdoor performing arts center—as well as other civic venues to help kickstart the performing arts sector and contribute to the revival of New York City.
As one of New York City’s leading arts institutions and an anchor of its cultural and public life, Lincoln Center is embarking on this effort as a symbol of its commitment to the city and to an equitable revitalization that elevates all New Yorkers. Restart Stages is a major, public-facing component of its broader effort to provide resources in this moment not just to Lincoln Center’s resident companies, but to the performing arts community as a whole — helping get artists back to work and supporting institutions from Brooklyn to the Bronx to engage their communities in the elevating power of the arts.
Designed with expert advice from medical and public health professionals, Restart Stages will create a safe, welcoming, accessible, and dynamic environment for arts and community organizations from across New York City, including Lincoln Center resident companies.
Restart Stages begins its months-long activation of Lincoln Center’s outdoor spaces with the opening of “The GREEN” on May 10, a physical reimagining of Josie Robertson Plaza into an open space by celebrated set designer and MacArthur Genius grantee Mimi Lien. A land blessing ceremony—conducted by Chief Dwaine Perry of the Ramapough Lenape and facilitated by the Redhawk Native American Arts Council—will open the evening’s free performances. Singer/songwriter Martha Redbone will follow, using a fusion of gospel, folk, and blues to celebrate her Native and African-American heritage and address pressing issues, both political and personal, head-on. Headlining the evening is groundbreaking, Tony-nominated Broadway performer, actor, and powerful baritone Norm Lewis.
Restart Stages launched on World Health Day, April 7, with a special performance for healthcare workers. It has continued with a New York Blood Center blood drive and several pop-up performances by ensembles from The Juilliard School, Passion Fruit Dance Company/Tatiana Desardouin in collaboration with Works & Process, the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, and puppeteer Basil Twist. The transatlantic exhibition, Faces of the Hero, a partnership with the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) will be on view beginning in July. Also in July, a new commission by Andrea Miller will animate the Lincoln Center campus as part of Restart Stages; a sound, sculpture and performance installation, You Are Here will feature audio portraits of artists and civilians in a continually shifting sound garden that transforms into a live performance experience.
The initiative is being developed in coordination with NY State PopsUp, part of Governor Cuomo’s New York Arts Revival, in a partnership to help extend reach of the initiative far beyond Lincoln Center’s campus.
Restart Stages is made possible through the generous support of the Lincoln Center Board of Directors and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) as part of the SNF-Lincoln Center Agora Initiative, a collaboration that reimagines and reactivates public space for a new era.
Select Restart Stages events will be offered via livestream on Lincoln Center and partner organization digital platforms, increasing access nationally and internationally, well beyond those able to travel to the physical campus. Visit RestartStages.org for more information.
About Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is the steward of the world’s leading performing arts center, an artistic and civic cornerstone for New York City comprised of eleven resident companies on a 16-acre campus. The nonprofit’s strategic priorities include: supporting the arts organizations that call Lincoln Center home to realize their missions and fostering opportunities for collaboration across campus; championing inclusion and increasing the accessibility and reach of Lincoln Center’s work; and reimagining and strengthening the performing arts for the 21st century and beyond, helping ensure their rightful place at the center of civic life.
EY is the Lead Sponsor of Pride Lighting at Lincoln Center
Restart Stages is made possible by Stavros Niarchos Foundation-Lincoln Center Agora Initiative.
Major support provided by First Republic Bank.
Additional support is provided by BNY Mellon, Cleary Gottlieb, Warburg Pincus, the Scully Peretsman Foundation, Shari and Jeff Aronson, and Lincoln Center’s 20/21 Donors and Members.
Endowment support is provided by Oak Foundation, PepsiCo Foundation, The Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Foundation, and Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
Lincoln Center’s artistic excellence is made possible by the dedication and generosity of our board members.
Operation of Lincoln Center’s public plazas is supported in part with public funds provided by the City of New York.
Public support for Lincoln Center is provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Gonzalo Casals, Commissioner, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
NewYork-Presbyterian is the Official Hospital of Lincoln Center.
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