Event Program
Toshi Reagon in Residence: Nov 10
TOSHI REAGON: YOU’RE HAVING TOO MUCH FUN... SO WE'RE GONNA HAVE TO KILL YOU
THUR, NOVEMBER 10
FEATURING
Afi Bijou
Josette Newsam
Neil Dawson
Toshi Reagon
Be Steadwell
MUSICIANS
Fred Cash Bass
Matt Graff Drums
Kim Jordan Keyboards
Adam Widoff Guitar
“You’re Having Too Much Fun…” a work in progress, was developed in residency and commissioned in part by the Center for the Arts, Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut.
The Artists
Toshi Reagon
Toshi Reagon is a multi-talented and versatile singer, composer, musician, curator, and producer with a profound ear for sonic Americana. Her expansive career includes residencies at Carnegie Hall, the Paris Opera House, and multiple festivals and venues nationally and internationally. A highly collaborative artist, she has worked with many musicians, choreographers, film, and theater makers, including Meshell Ndegeocello, Urban Bush Women, Dorrance Dance, Nona Hendryx, Carl Hancock Rux, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Robert Wilson, and her band BIGLovely. Toshi co-composed music for two Peabody Award- winning films. She is a 2015 Art of Change Fellow by the Ford Foundation. A 2018 United States Artist Fellow, and an Andrew W. Mellon Creative Futures Fellow Carolina Performing Arts. In 2021, Toshi received the APAP Award for Merit in the Performing Arts and was a 2021 recipient of the Herb Alpert Award in Music. In 2011 she founded the Community festival Word*Rock*& Sword. Toshi Reagon and Bernice Johnson Reagon created the opera Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower, on tour Spring/Summer 2023.
Toshi Reagon is a multi-talented and versatile singer, composer, musician, curator, and producer with a profound ear for sonic Americana. Her expansive career includes residencies at Carnegie Hall, the Paris Opera House, and multiple festivals and venues nationally and internationally. A highly collaborative artist, she has worked with many musicians, choreographers, film, and theater makers, including Meshell Ndegeocello, Urban Bush Women, Dorrance Dance, Nona Hendryx, Carl Hancock Rux, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Robert Wilson, and her band BIGLovely. Toshi co-composed music for two Peabody Award- winning films. She is a 2015 Art of Change Fellow by the Ford Foundation. A 2018 United States Artist Fellow, and an Andrew W. Mellon Creative Futures Fellow Carolina Performing Arts. In 2021, Toshi received the APAP Award for Merit in the Performing Arts and was a 2021 recipient of the Herb Alpert Award in Music. In 2011 she founded the Community festival Word*Rock*& Sword. Toshi Reagon and Bernice Johnson Reagon created the opera Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower, on tour Spring/Summer 2023.
Afi Bijou
Afi Bijou just finished wrapping the 3rd season of her role as Sister Marny on Godfather of Harlem (HULU/EPIX). Her credits include Law & Order (NBC); The Night Of (HBO); Insecure (HBO). Broadway: Fela!; Holler If You Hear Me; Once On This Island, and many off-Broadway and regional productions such as Blood Quilt (Arena Stage); An Octoroon (Berkeley Rep); and Good Goods (Yale Rep). It’s been a few seasons and so it feels good to be back live.
Afi Bijou just finished wrapping the 3rd season of her role as Sister Marny on Godfather of Harlem (HULU/EPIX). Her credits include Law & Order (NBC); The Night Of (HBO); Insecure (HBO). Broadway: Fela!; Holler If You Hear Me; Once On This Island, and many off-Broadway and regional productions such as Blood Quilt (Arena Stage); An Octoroon (Berkeley Rep); and Good Goods (Yale Rep). It’s been a few seasons and so it feels good to be back live.
Josette Newsam
New York native Josette Newsam has performed solo and background on the Today Show, Live with Regis and Kelly, and Live with Kelly and Michael. She's done voice-overs for NBC Universal. She has performed lead and background vocals with amazing artists such as Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, Toshi Reagon, Melba Moore, Lou Reed, Macy Gray, Angelique Kidjo, Nona Hendricks, Billy Bragg, Norm Lewis, and Ben E. King.
She’s been in regional theatre productions of Ragtime where she was featured as 'Sarah,' Ain’t Misbehavin’ as ‘Nell,’ Paul Lawrence Dunbar’s The Party (Ensemble) and A Christmas Carol (Ensemble).
She’s toured with Bernice Johnson Reagon and Toshi Reagon’s musical adaptations of Gustave Flaubert's The Temptation of St. Anthony and Zinnias in partnership with the world-renowned Robert Wilson. She is currently ‘Mrs. Simms’ in the musical adaptation of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower.
She currently performs with the world-renowned Toshi Reagon’s band “Big Lovely.”
New York native Josette Newsam has performed solo and background on the Today Show, Live with Regis and Kelly, and Live with Kelly and Michael. She's done voice-overs for NBC Universal. She has performed lead and background vocals with amazing artists such as Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, Toshi Reagon, Melba Moore, Lou Reed, Macy Gray, Angelique Kidjo, Nona Hendricks, Billy Bragg, Norm Lewis, and Ben E. King.
She’s been in regional theatre productions of Ragtime where she was featured as 'Sarah,' Ain’t Misbehavin’ as ‘Nell,’ Paul Lawrence Dunbar’s The Party (Ensemble) and A Christmas Carol (Ensemble).
She’s toured with Bernice Johnson Reagon and Toshi Reagon’s musical adaptations of Gustave Flaubert's The Temptation of St. Anthony and Zinnias in partnership with the world-renowned Robert Wilson. She is currently ‘Mrs. Simms’ in the musical adaptation of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower.
She currently performs with the world-renowned Toshi Reagon’s band “Big Lovely.”
Be Steadwell
Be Steadwell earned a BA in Black Studies from Oberlin College and an MFA in film from Howard University in 2014. Her thesis film Vow of Silence was screened in film festivals around the world, including Black Star, HBO's OutFest, The Schomburg Center, and Inside Out Toronto. In 2019, Be composed the music for The Alvin Ailey Dance Company's production of The Gone, and directed the musical A Letter to My Ex, which imagines a queer black woman's experience through the year of a big breakup. In 2021 Be released her latest album Succulent. In 2022, Be joined the cast of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower, an opera by Toshi Reagon and Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon.
Be Steadwell earned a BA in Black Studies from Oberlin College and an MFA in film from Howard University in 2014. Her thesis film Vow of Silence was screened in film festivals around the world, including Black Star, HBO's OutFest, The Schomburg Center, and Inside Out Toronto. In 2019, Be composed the music for The Alvin Ailey Dance Company's production of The Gone, and directed the musical A Letter to My Ex, which imagines a queer black woman's experience through the year of a big breakup. In 2021 Be released her latest album Succulent. In 2022, Be joined the cast of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower, an opera by Toshi Reagon and Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon.
Neil Dawson
Neil Dawson is a NYC based actor originally from Bronx, NY. Acting credits include The Mountaintop (Weston Playhouse), Parable of the Sower (LA Tour), Waiting for Giovanni (The Flea Theater), Fires in the Mirror (Cincinnati Playhouse), Stick Fly (Majestic Theater), The Blacks (Classic Stage Company), Ain't Supposed to Die... (Classical Theatre of Harlem), Intimate Apparel (Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater), 365 Days/365 Plays (Public Theater), AmericanBlackout (NY Fringe Festival), Macbeth (Bonn International Theater Festival), Brooklyn Bridge (Children's Theatre of Minneapolis), Black Man Rising (Audelco Award Winner, National Black Theatre Festival), Flambeaux (Theater for the New City) TV: Godfather of Harlem, New Amsterdam, Law and Order, The Today Show, numerous national commercials, voice-overs and industrials. Education: MFA, University of Washington Professional Actor Training Program.
Neil Dawson is a NYC based actor originally from Bronx, NY. Acting credits include The Mountaintop (Weston Playhouse), Parable of the Sower (LA Tour), Waiting for Giovanni (The Flea Theater), Fires in the Mirror (Cincinnati Playhouse), Stick Fly (Majestic Theater), The Blacks (Classic Stage Company), Ain't Supposed to Die... (Classical Theatre of Harlem), Intimate Apparel (Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater), 365 Days/365 Plays (Public Theater), AmericanBlackout (NY Fringe Festival), Macbeth (Bonn International Theater Festival), Brooklyn Bridge (Children's Theatre of Minneapolis), Black Man Rising (Audelco Award Winner, National Black Theatre Festival), Flambeaux (Theater for the New City) TV: Godfather of Harlem, New Amsterdam, Law and Order, The Today Show, numerous national commercials, voice-overs and industrials. Education: MFA, University of Washington Professional Actor Training Program.
More Information
This program is made possible by Susan Bay Nimoy, the Howard Gilman Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, the MacMillan Family Foundation, the Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund, The Achelis and Bodman Foundation, the Charina Endowment Fund, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, the Michael Tuch Foundation, the Vidda Foundation, and The Grodzins Fund.
This program is also made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
Music programming also receives support from an endowment established by The Bydale Foundation, Mary Flager Cary Charitable Trust, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Christopher and Barbara Dixon, the Herman Goldman Foundation, William and Angela Haines, Walter and Marge Scheuer, and Zabar’s.
Symphony Space thanks our generous supporters, including our Board of Directors, Producers Circle, and members, who make our programs possible with their annual support.
Pianos by Steinway & Sons – the Artistic Choice of Symphony Space.
Kathy Landau Executive Director
Peg Wreen Managing Director
Isaiah Sheffer*
Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director (1978-1988)
Artistic Director (1988-2010)
Founding Artistic Director (2010-2012)
Allan Miller
Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director (1978-1988)
Darren Critz Director of Performing Arts Programs
Sofia Frohna Assistant Producer of Performing Arts Programs
*in memoriam
