BRICKS: A New Musical by Charlene Jean and Franklin Rankin
June 19, 2024
This performance will also be livestreamed. For tickets and more information, click here.
Join multi-faceted artists Charlene Jean and Franklin Rankin at 54 Below as they present a selection of songs from their new musical BRICKS, in honor and celebration of Juneteenth. BRICKS, a funk rock show, centers on a young woman blessed with the ability to see the spirits of Black and Indigenous spaces that flourished before her time; a gift inherited from her mother. We meet Maelle Etienne, a gifted child and her equally gifted and protective mother, Colette Etienne. D’Aija, Colette’s rebellious and late older sister, connects with Maelle in ways that Colette fears would lead to Maelle’s demise.
BRICKS has been described as “a 20-year music tour of retroactive-reparations,” reaching from modern-day Washington Square Park back to the biblical Jericho. Hear songs from BRICKS, including “Fog,” “Jericho,” “Let Me in So I Can Love You,” and other pieces centered around connecting our past to our futures. Produced by Charlene Jean and Chesray Dolpha, with co-production by En Garde Arts. Directed by Dolpha, with music direction by David Kawamura.
Featuring:
Lauren Gissentanna
Subiya Mboya (Rattlestick Theater, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, TADA! Youth Theater)
Kevin Tappan Jr.
Simón Gómez Villegas
Charlene Jean is a 2022 MAP Grant Fund awardee, a 2023 New Georges Audrey Resident, a 2023/2024 Creative Capital WILD FUTURES finalist, and a 2023 finalist for the Jonathan Larson Grant, Van Lier New Voices, Richard Rodgers Award, and NYSAF Founders Award. Jean also works as a dramaturg.
Franklin Rankin is a professional guitarist and songwriter. Having worked with world class artists such as Nona Hendryx, Azealia Banks, Mwenso and the Shakes, and Rashaad Newsome’s Assembly, Rankin has also been featured on “The Tonight Show” with Jimmy Fallon in the “Battle of the Instant Songwriters.” Rankin leads the pop/soul group Big Stuff and The Franklin Rankin Quartet, a jazz/funk collective.
Please note that all artists and acts are subject to change at any time.
