DIRECT CURRENT, Announces Completed Lineup for Third

Press Release                            FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
                                                 November 5, 2019
                                          UPDATED: January 23, 2020

   The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
     Announces Completed Lineup for Third
               DIRECT CURRENT,
      Its Contemporary Culture Immersion
                  (March 8–21)

    Focus on Female Creators Honors 100th Anniversary of
   Women’s Suffrage – New Artists and Performances Added
      Including Ava DuVernay, Beyoncé Mass, Ami Dang,
                      and Many More

                 Press photos available HERE

(WASHINGTON)—The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announces the full lineup for
DIRECT CURRENT, the Center’s two-week celebration of contemporary culture, which returns for a
third season this spring. With special emphasis on female creators, works new to the District of Columbia,
and interdisciplinary creations, the 2020 immersion showcases some of the most provocative, original,
and pioneering voices in the arts today. DIRECT CURRENT takes place on March 8–21 at the Kennedy
Center—including the flexible indoor and outdoor spaces of the REACH, its unprecedented new
expansion—and beyond.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which
granted women’s suffrage. To honor this milestone centennial, DIRECT CURRENT 2020 not only
shines a light on female artists and their work, but also collaborates with two D.C.-based organizations:
the 2020 One Woman, One Vote Festival and Vital Voices Global Partnership. The 2020 One
Woman, One Vote Festival marks the centennial with presentations of films, concerts, exhibitions, and
special events in the city of Washington. Its centerpiece is the One Woman, One Vote Film Festival, which
showcases documentary and feature films exploring the issues that impact women today. International
non-profit Vital Voices provides a support network and platform for women leaders in all disciplines
around the world, helping to make their vision for global change a reality through long-term investments
to develop their skills, expand their connections, and enhance their visibility.

DIRECT CURRENT’s wealth of offerings span the artistic spectrum, from the D.C. premieres of two major
new operas to an interactive light show, bold new experiments in dance, and the first live-scored screening
of a critically important new documentary. This year’s celebration boasts a strong contingent of
prominent female creators including Ava DuVernay, Ellen Reid, Patti Smith, and Jeanine Tesori,
while performers range from Chris Thile to Washington National Opera. All told, DIRECT
CURRENT’s third season offers a snapshot of contemporary culture through a thoughtfully curated
collection of work by some of today’s foremost cultural risk-takers.

International Women’s Day
International Women’s Day 2020 falls on March 8, which marks the launch of the third DIRECT
CURRENT with Vital Voices’s annual Global Mentoring Walk. This event brings together more than
200 women of all ages and walks of life for a day of mentorship and inspiration. Selected young
professionals, chosen from among members of the public who sign up at the Vital Voices website, will be
paired with female leaders in their fields to walk together in the open, informal spaces of the REACH, the
Kennedy Center’s celebrated new expansion. After sharing life and career advice, the walk participants
will attend a private panel discussion led by two eminent female role models: Kennedy Center president
Deborah Rutter and Vital Voices president Alyse Nelson (The REACH, March 8).

Mainstage events
The DIRECT CURRENT mainstage season kicks off with a special screening of 13th (2016), the
“incendiary, indelible and indispensable” documentary (Rolling Stone) that scored Emmy, BAFTA, and
Peabody Award-winning director-writer-producer Ava DuVernay her second Oscar® nomination. Named
for the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery but permitted involuntary servitude as punishment for
conviction of a crime, 13th is an in-depth investigation of the U.S. prison system and its role in our national
history of racial injustice. Presented in collaboration with the One Woman, One Vote 2020 Festival,
the film features an original score by Kennedy Center Artistic Director for Jazz Jason Moran, four-time

Grammy®-nominated drummer Eric Harland for the first live score performance of the score to
accompany the screening. A post-show discussion with Ava DuVernay will follow the performance.
(Concert Hall, March 9). DuVernay, America’s highest grossing black female director to date, will also
have further selections from her distinguished filmography, including August 28th (2016), A Wrinkle in
Time (2018), and Selma (2014), screened at the Kennedy Center throughout the festival as part of a
citywide retrospective of her work, with support from the Mayor’s Commission on Television, Film,
Media and Entertainment.

Each year, the Vital Voices Global Leadership Awards honor creative and fearless women around the
world who lead the way in strengthening democracy, increasing economic opportunity, boosting political
engagement, and protecting human rights. Coinciding with the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage,
the 2020 Global Leadership Awards gather together a host of inspiring women as honorees, award
presenters and guests. Each honoree will be introduced by means of a specially produced film that
celebrates her leadership journey and bold vision for change in her community (Concert Hall, March 11).
Throughout the two weeks of DIRECT CURRENT, there will also be an accompanying exhibition: Vital
Voices: 100 Women Using Their Power to Empower. Presented in collaboration with Vital Voices, the
exhibition comprises penetrating portraits of female leaders by award-winning artist and illustrator
Gayle Kabaker, widely known for her popular New Yorker covers (Hall of Nations, March 8–21).

DIRECT CURRENT is thrilled to present the D.C. premiere of p r i s m, the surreal and haunting first
opera by composer Ellen Reid, which explores the trauma of sexual abuse and the elasticity of memory
that can follow in its wake. Set to a libretto by Roxie Perkins and developed by Beth Morrison
Projects, the work has been recognized with both the Music Critics Association of North America’s “Best
New Opera Award” and the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Music. As at its LA Opera and PROTOTYPE Festival
premieres last year, the Kennedy Center’s production is by “gifted young American director” James
Darrah (Chicago Tribune) with musical direction by Grammy®–nominated conductor Julian Wachner,
choreography by No One Art House co-founder Chris Emile, and performances from soprano Anna
Schubert and mezzo-soprano Rebecca Jo Loeb, who reprise the starring roles they created and
“perfectly carried off” (Boston Globe) in Los Angeles and New York, with support from the Grammy ®–
nominated Choir of Trinity Wall Street and the contemporary music specialists of Trinity Church Wall
Street’s NOVUS NY orchestra. Both Reid and Perkins will be in attendance to take part in a post-
performance panel discussion on the opening night (Terrace Theater, March 13 & 14).

American Public Media’s Live from Here currently reaches 2.6 million listeners on nearly 600 public
radio stations from its new Manhattan home. Now D.C. audiences can attend a live broadcast of the
nationally syndicated, weekly variety show on tour at DIRECT CURRENT, where MacArthur fellow and
four-time Grammy®–winning mandolinist Chris Thile, a member of both Nickel Creek and the Punch
Brothers, hosts an all-female lineup of guest artists (Concert Hall, March 14).

Washington National Opera (WNO) presents the D.C. premiere of Blue, a new chamber opera from
Tony Award®–winning composer Jeanine Tesori and NAACP Theatre Award–inning librettist-director
Tazewell Thompson. Drawing inspiration from contemporary events and the writings of James
Baldwin, Claude Brown, and Ta-Nehisi Coates, their new work uses gospel-influenced music and vivid
flashbacks to capture the grief of a family and community ravaged by loss at the hands of the police. As at
its recent Glimmerglass Festival premiere, the opera—a WNO co-production—stars the “superb” trio
(New York Times) of Kenneth Kellogg, Briana Hunter, and Aaron Crouch under the baton of John
DeMain, in an exploration of race, violence, and reconciliation that the New York Times called

“powerful—as well as sadly timely,” and the Financial Times, in a five-star review, proclaimed “an
exceptionally strong new opera” (Eisenhower Theater, March 15, 18 & 20).

For its penultimate mainstage event, DIRECT CURRENT presents a music and dance double-bill crowned
by the East Coast premiere of 1 0 0 1 (2019), performed live by its creators: choreographer and
Company Wayne McGregor member Fukiko Takase, best-known for her viral video collaboration with
Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, and composer Dustin O’Halloran, whose original scores for Marie Antoinette,
Lion, and Transparent have been recognized with Oscar®, Golden Globe nominations, and an Emmy
Award. Produced by Kate Nordstrum—and premiered in Minneapolis—1 0 0 1 explores ideas of
technology, humanity, and mind-body dualism in an existential, electronics-forward performance. It
shares the program with Variations, an in-depth look at the “theme and variations” structure by Dance
Metro DC Award–winning choreographer Erica Rebollar, founder of the Rebollar Dance collective, to
original music by Golden Reel Award winner Charlie Campagna (Terrace Theater, March 19).

DIRECT CURRENT’s mainstage season draws to a close with an evening of music and poetry from Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame punk icon and National Book Award-winning poet Patti Smith; her daughter, the
composer, instrumentalist, and activist Jesse Paris Smith; and Canadian cellist and composer Rebecca
Foon, a co-founder of the Juno Award-winning Esmerine ensemble. To complete the evening, the three
women will lead the audience in the D.C. premiere of Little Sunrise, an interactive lightshow by
trailblazing Danish-Icelandic visual artist Olafur Eliasson. This features the solar-powered LED lamps
Eliasson designed for off-grid areas, as seen at Coachella and London’s Tate Modern (Concert Hall, March
21).

Free multi-genre performances on the Millennium Stage and around the KC
To amplify the wealth of mainstage offerings, each evening during DIRECT CURRENT there will also be
free live multi-genre performances on the Millennium Stage and other Kennedy Center venues, where
the voices of female creators will once again dominate. Highlights include jazz sets from trumpeter
Jaimie Branch, a mainstay of the Chicago jazz scene who is now, as Jazz Times put it, “one of the most
thrilling new voices of the New York avant-garde” (Studio K, March 11) and Chilean singer-guitarist
Camila Meza, “a luminous fixture on the scene in New York” (NPR), who joins her eight-piece Nectar
Orchestra to perform music from their Sony Masterworks label debut, Ámbar (Studio K, March 14). The
REACH hosts the D.C. premiere of Forte (2019), a new documentary written and directed by American
filmmaker David Donnelly. Following the unconventional journeys of three female classical artists—
Tatiana Berman, a Russian-born former prodigy who brings music into underserved U.S. schools; Lucía
Caruso, an Argentinean-born film composer; and Eldbjørg Hemsing, a young Norwegian violinist on
the brink of stardom—Donnelly’s film challenges outdated notions of classical success and spotlights the
strength that all three women share (Justice Forum, March 12).

The DIRECT CURRENT Millennium Stage season continues with Beyoncé Mass a womanist worship
service celebrating black womanhood (March 8). The Army Chamber Ensemble presents works by
female composers in Her Voice: Celebrating Music by Women (March 9). Then D.C.–based emcee and
activist Dior Ashley Brown returns for an inspiring and soulful performance (March 11). Kennedy
Center audience favorite National Sawdust presents Sonic and Womxyn Amplify—a queer, partially
deaf artist and Womxyn of color—Sonic immerses audiences in an experiential journey of self-love and
affirmation (March 12). Queer multi-dimensional abstract creative of Hawaiian, Chinese, Japanese, and
Portuguese descent Jocelyn Kapumealani Ng (March 13), bandleader, composer, performer and

improviser Aurora Nealand presenting the Monocle Ensemble (March 14), and Native folk songstress
Raye Zaragoza (March 15), all bring their unique performance art to the Millennium Stage. The Boston
Conservatory at Berklee College of Music’s Guerilla Opera presents Rumpelstiltskin—composed by
Marti Epstein (March 16). Then ambient Sikh-American artist from Baltimore Ami Dang produces and
performs experimental sitar, vocals, and electronics (March 17). Weaving visual artist and cellist Janel
Leppin (March 18), as well as black trans singer Ah Mer Ah See (March 20), bring their unique sounds to
the Center in three separate evenings. Sarah Sherman, aka Sarah Squirm—“a true alternative comic
[who] has quickly made her mark on Chicago’s scene” (Chicago Tribune)—shares her signature mix of
feminism, self-loathing, and performance art (March 21.) And finally, the DIRECT CURRENT Millennium
Stage performances wrap up with experimental Latin American ensemble, La Mecánica Popular, as they
explore the frontier between social dance and experimentalism (March 21).

Beyond the concert hall
As in previous years, DIRECT CURRENT takes Kennedy Center artists and programming out into the
world beyond the traditional concert hall, reaching new audiences through collaborations at alternative
D.C. performance spaces. This season, at the independently owned and operated D.C. basement dance
club U Street Music Hall, Mija—“EDM’s next superstar” (Nylon)—heads an all-female DJ lineup during
the festival’s DJ Showcase (March 13). This event also kicks off U Street Music Hall’s 10-Year
Anniversary Week celebration.

About the Kennedy Center
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is America’s living memorial to President Kennedy.
Under the guidance of Chairman David M. Rubenstein, and President Deborah F. Rutter, the nine theaters
and stages of the nation’s busiest performing arts facility attract more than three million visitors to more
than 2,000 performances each year, while Center-related touring productions, television, and radio
broadcasts reach 40 million more around the world.

The Center produces and presents performances of music, dance, comedy, and theater; supports artists in
the creation of new work; and serves the nation as a leader in arts education. With its artistic affiliates, the
National Symphony Orchestra and Washington National Opera, the Center has produced more than 300
theatrical productions, and dozens of new ballets, operas, and musical works, in addition to hosting
numerous international cultural festivals. The Center’s Emmy and Peabody Award-winning The Kennedy
Center Honors is broadcast annually on CBS and annual The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for
American Humor is broadcast on PBS. On September 7, 2019, the Kennedy Center inaugurated the
REACH, its first-ever major expansion. Designed by Steven Holl Associates as a complement to the
original, iconic Edward Durell Stone building, the REACH provides visitors with new opportunities to
interact and engage with the Center as the nation’s premier nexus of arts, learning, and culture.

The education programs of the Kennedy Center, including those of its affiliate VSA, the international
organization on arts and disability, have become models for communities across the country and have
unlocked the door to learning for millions of young people. Education at the Kennedy Center produces
and presents age appropriate performances and educational events, and fosters innovative programming,
curriculum, and professional development for students, teachers, and families.

The Center and its affiliates stage more than 400 free performances by artists from throughout the world
each year on the Center’s main stages, and every day of the year at 6pm on its Millennium Stages, which are
also streamed live online. The Center also offers reduced and complimentary tickets to young people,
active members of the military, and the underserved through its MyTix program and offers a Specially
Priced Tickets program for students, seniors, persons with disabilities, and others with fixed low incomes.

To learn more about the Kennedy Center, visit www.kennedy-center.org.

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The Kennedy Center presents DIRECT CURRENT
Third season: March 8–21, 2020
All events take place at the Kennedy Center unless otherwise noted.
For tickets and full schedule, visit kennedy-center.org/DIRECTCURRENT.
Tickets for the screening of 13th will go on-sale to the public Monday, January 27, 2020.

Sun, March 8 at time TBA
The REACH
Vital Voices: International Women’s Day Global Mentoring Walk
Panel discussion for walk participants with Alyse Nelson and Deborah Rutter

Sun, March 8–Sat, March 21
Hall of Nations
Vital Voices/Gayle Kabaker exhibition: Vital Voices: 100 Women Using Their Power to Empower

Sun, March 8 at 6pm
Eisenhower Theater
Beyoncé Mass

Mon, March 9 at 6pm
Millennium Stage
Army Chamber Ensemble: Her Voice: Celebrating Music by Women

Mon, March 9 at 8pm
Concert Hall
Ava DuVernay: Screening of 13th with live music performed by Jason Moran, Lawrence Brownlee,
and Eric Harland

Join Us: Following the performance, a post-show discussion with Ava DuVernay

Tues, March 10 at 6pm
Millennium Stage
TBA

Wed, March 11 at 6pm
Millennium Stage
Dior Ashley Brown

Wed, March 11 at 7:30pm
Studio K
Jaimie Branch

Wed, March 11 at 8pm
Concert Hall

Vital Voices: Global Leadership Awards

Thurs, March 12 at 6pm
Millennium Stage
National Sawdust presents Sonic and Womxyn Amplify

Thurs, March 12 at 7:30pm
Justice Forum
David Donnelly: Forte

Join Us: Following the performance, there will be a post-show discussion including members of the creative
team

Fri, March 13 at 6pm
Millennium Stage
Jocelyn Ng – Control Release Constraint

Fri, March 13 at 7pm
U Street Music Hall
DJ Showcase featuring Mija and other female DJs TBA (taking place during U Street Music Hall’s Ten-Year
Anniversary Week celebration)

Sat, March 14 at 2pm
Justice Forum
Wrinkle in Time

Fri, March 13 at 7:30pm
Sat, March 14 at 2pm
Terrace Theater
Ellen Reid / Roxie Perkins: p r i s m

Sat, March 14 at 6pm
Millennium Stage
Aurora Nealand’s Monocle Ensemble

Sat, March 14 at 5:45 pm
Concert Hall
Live from Here with Chris Thile (live national broadcast)
Guest artists TBA

Sat, March 14 at 7:30pm
Studio K
Camile Meza + Nectar Orchestra

Sun, March 15 at 2pm
Wed, March 18 at 7:30pm
Fri, March 20, at 7:30pm
Eisenhower Theater
Jeanine Tesori / Tazewell Thompson: Blue
Washington National Opera

         Join Us: Let’s Go There – “When Tough Issues Hit Home”
         Saturday, March 21, 2020 at 1 p.m.
         Kennedy Center REACH, Skylight Pavilion
         Washington National Opera is committed to developing meaningful conversations and building greater
         civic understanding, using the opera as a prism to examine and candidly discuss modern-day issues. The
         second conversation in the series, “When Tough Issues Hit Home,” focuses on the ways in which families

confront tough topics—especially with children. Conversations on race and policing can differ along racial
        lines, as black families teach their children not only what it means to be good citizens, but also how they
        must navigate how they are perceived and treated when they go out into the world.

Sun, March 15 at 6pm
Millennium Stage
Raye Zaragoza

Sat, March 15 at 7:30pm
Justice Forum
August 28th & Selma

Mon, March 16 at 6pm
Millennium Stage
Guerilla Opera: Rumpelstiltskin by Marti Epstein
Boston Conservatory at Berklee College of Music

Tues, March 17 at 6pm
Millennium Stage
Ami Dang

Wed, March 18 at 6pm
Millennium Stage
Janel Leppin

Thurs, March 19 at 6pm
Millennium Stage
TBA

Thurs, March 19 at 7:30pm
Terrace Theater
Fukiko Takase + Dustin O’Halloran: 1001
Erica Rebollar: Variations

Fri, March 20 at 6pm
Millennium Stage
TBA

Sat, March 21 at 6pm
Millennium Stage
Sarah Sherman aka Sarah Squirm

Sat, March 21 at 8pm
Concert Hall
Patti Smith, Jesse Paris Smith, and Rebecca Foon

Sun, March 22 at 6pm
Millennium Stage
La Mecánica Popular

About the 2020 One Woman, One Vote Festival
The 2020 One Woman, One Vote Festival is a collaboration with national organizations and cultural
institutions to present films, concerts, exhibitions and public events leading into the commemoration of the
centennial year of the 19th amendment passing, and the OWOV Film Festival in March 2020. The film
festival event showcases documentary and dramatic films that embrace both history and contemporary
issues that make a difference for all women today. Visit 2020owovfest.org/about to learn more.

About Vital Voices Global Partnership
Vital Voices is an international non-profit organization that empowers and champions women leaders around the world.
Vital Voices believes that women are the key to unlocking global shared progress. The organization searches the world for
women leaders with daring vision for change, then partners with them to make that vision a reality. For more than 20
years, Vital Voices has amplified and invested in more than 18,000 women leaders from 182 countries and territories.
Vital Voices works with women who are changing the world by advancing economies, safeguarding human rights, ending
gender-based violence, increasing political engagement and leading their communities. The organization provides these
women with capacity building, skills training, grants, mentoring, visibility, guidance and access to a network of their
peers to accelerate that change on a global scale. Vital Voices is a venture catalyst. Its work has ignited a global movement
of change-makers who exhibit bold ideas, develop real solutions to problems affecting their communities, and use their
power to empower each other and thousands more. Visit www.vitalvoices.org to learn more.

About U Street Music Hall
Opened March 2010, U Street Music Hall is an independently owned and operated basement dance club and live music
venue. Its 500-person capacity room features one of the region’s best sound systems and a 1200 square foot cork-
cushioned dance floor. Visit https://www.ustreetmusichall.com/ to learn more.

                                      #DirectCurrentDC #KennedyCenter

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PRESS CONTACTS
Eileen Andrews/Kennedy Center
(202) 416-8448
ETAndrews@kennedy-center.org

Chanel Williams/Kennedy Center                           TICKETS & INFORMATION
(202) 416-8447                                           (202) 467-4600; (800) 444-132
CPWilliams@kennedy-center.org                            www.kennedy-center.org
                                                         www.kennedy-center.org/mytix