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- [00:10]
A
This is all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. Under the Radar, New York City's longtime festival celebrating experimental theater returns tomorrow. Now in its 21st year, the festival will showcase the latest performances through shows at venues including Lincoln Center, La Mama, Symphony Space, and Park Avenue Armory. Under the Radar runs through January 25th. Joining me now with a preview of under the Radar are co creative directors Merope Peponides and Kaneza Shaw. Welcome to all of it.
- [00:44]
B
Thank you.
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C
Thank you, Alison. We're happy to be with you.
- [00:46]
A
So, Merope, you started as an intern on under the Radar. I love that dedication. What made you want to dig into the organization?
- [00:58]
B
Well, I should clarify that I interned for a few years for under the Radar many, many years back, left and did a host of other things, and then just recently returned as one of the co creative directors with Kaneza Shaw. But I think something that really drew me to the festival is in this new incarnation, under the Radar is striving to become a citywide festival. It is now existing in 24 venues across Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn. There are 31 shows that are collectively being created and produced by. I couldn't even even tell you if I tried how many artists, producers, managers, you know, all coming together to make this festival happen. So this, like, big, ambitious collective effort across disciplines. You know, there's theater folks, there's dance folks, you know, music folks coming together across venues and across borders. Right. We're also an international festival, so bringing international artists into conversation with artists from New York, all of those things are just so exciting to now.
- [02:09]
A
Kaneza, I believe we've interviewed you before as a director.
- [02:13]
C
Yes. It's great to be back.
- [02:14]
A
It's nice to talk to you again. What made you want to be involved in under the Radar and what does it represent to you as an artist?
- [02:24]
C
One of the things that I am so stunned by about the 20 years of under the Radar and the world that Mark built, that Mark Russell built in, you know, pushing this festival into the world is that it's really, to me, the invitation that Merope and I have is less about curation and more about participating in this ecology and participating in the conditions for making art and the genealogies of art practice that under the Radar has served. So I really think of this as the invitation to seed new genealogies and to think about the practices that under the Radar has developed to tend art artists over time.
- [03:06]
A
This year, for the first time, under the Radar was programmed under a, quote, rotating leadership model. How does that work?
- [03:15]
B
Yes. So Keza and I are a part of the curatorial team of under the Radar alongside the brilliant Mark Russell, who founded the festival 21 years ago. So we are serving two year terms. We are bringing our communities, our perspectives, our, you know, various tastes and what we love to the table. And we're in conversation not just with Mark and our brilliant producers at Archetype, Tommy and Sammy, but also with all of the venue partners. You know what, what do you think makes it under the Radar show is, you know, a question we're asking to all of these 24 venue partners. And it's through that ongoing conversation that, you know, the festival got made.
- [04:04]
A
Kaneza, how do you see the benefits of a rotating leadership in this year's slate?
- [04:09]
C
I think at its best, under the Radar presents divergent forms, divergent opinions, maybe even contradictory opinions. And I think that that takes more voices and it, and it takes listening to the 24 venue partners and it takes it, it takes understanding, leadership in, in the. In a new American model that isn't about serving permanence, but is about serving change and ecology. And so the two year tenure, I think is part of this multiplicity of voices that it is, is at the core of what the festival does best.
- [04:49]
A
All right, let's get into it. Merope. On January 17, La Mama will host 12 last songs described as part live exhibition, part epic performance. I need to know more.
- [05:04]
B
Yes, we are so excited for 12 last songs. Something that I think excites me most is that this is a celebration of New Yorkers that will last. It's a 12 hour durational performance and there's no actors. Every person who you will see on stage is a worker who will get up on stage and either do their job live on stage or demonstrate how their job is done live on stage. And it's a celebration of the labor that quite literally makes our city run. It's a celebration of performance and labor, and labor is performance. And I think also just like really is at the heart of what Kaneza mentioned. This celebration of these divergent perspectives all coming together under this one umbrella in the form of 12 last songs. It's an epic 12 hour performance. Don't worry, you can come and as you please for as much or as little of that time as you as you wish. But I think it's also so emblematic of the wider umbrella that is under the radar. This bringing together of divergent perspectives, of expertise of all kinds to be shared with New Yorkers in this way.
- [06:24]
A
Kaneza, the hot plates, they'll be at the heer Art Center January 9th through the 25th. Who are the Hot Plates?
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C
The Hot Plates are an extraordinary company of musicians comprised of Kenita Miller, Hicks, Jade Hicks and Justin Hicks. I had the pleasure of seeing an early version of these ideas that have culminated into Dream Feed, actually at Shirley Chisholm's home, former home in Brooklyn.
- [06:54]
A
Wow.
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C
Where there was this informal sharing of this music. And I mention that because again, back to genealogies. One of the things that astounds me in the practice of the Hot Plates is the, the musical genealogies that these artists pull on the vastness, the personalness and the, the utter originality of, of what these artists bring to the stage. To me, this is. I can't imagine a better prayer to start 2026 with January 9th through 25th at Hear Arts Center. Dr. It is. It is the fuel we need to meet this year.
- [07:36]
A
Merope, what other music performances do you have in the lineup this year? What are you excited about?
- [07:42]
B
I'm super excited about Love Force. That is Sunny Jane's latest work happening at Symphony space this Friday, January 9th. Sonny is an incredible musician, performer and maker and is telling this beautiful story about black and brown solidarity across decades that I think is just so needed and so important in our moment right now. So I'm very excited about that one.
- [08:09]
A
How about for you, Kaneza?
- [08:12]
C
You know, I'm excited about the ways that we get to explore practice with artists. So it makes me think about someone like Narcissist who is doing Voyage into infinity at NYU Skirball January 16th through 18th. This is an artist who, who many people have defined her practice in hundreds of ways. Crudely, people often think about her in relationship to white box space or gallery space. And to watch her sink her teeth into kind of the theatrical tools and the scale of the skirball is really exciting. And I feel like another one of these places that under the radar is such a vital part of the ecosystem.
- [08:53]
A
I'm speaking with Merope Pepanides. I hope you got your last name right. And Kaneza Shahl. They are the co creative directors of under the Rad Radar Festival which begins tomorrow and runs through January 25th. Dance in general. Let's talk about dance in general. Who else on the slate? I'm sorry, I've lost my place here. Dance Focus Theta. Yes, Mami. That's what I want to talk about.
- [09:21]
B
Yes, Mami is an incredible piece that is the US Premiere for Mario Bonuschi, who's an extraordinary young director who's been making Waves all over the European festival festival circuit. And he doesn't use text in his work, but it's this incredible striking visual storytelling that's just almost expressionistic in the way that he makes his stage pictures. Also going to be at Skirball and is just, yeah, I think gonna be an incredible piece that is all about the relationship of mothers and children. So also just like, you know, an incredibly universal topic, you know, even though in a, you know, kind of done in a very avant garde way.
- [10:09]
A
You said there wasn't music that it was performed with.
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B
That he doesn't use.
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C
Text in his text.
- [10:17]
B
Yes.
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A
And what is it?
- [10:19]
C
So go ahead and still calls it theater, which I think is one of the fun bleeding places we have towards your, towards your question around dance. There are many pieces in the festival, I think this year that do that beautiful thing of getting out of the silos of how we like to classify in the west and living in the kind of expression that is true to each artist.
- [10:43]
A
Mommy will be performing at NYU Skirball January 7th through the 10th. Let me get to Data Room. It's at the performance garage January 10th through the 12th. It will also include conversations and panels. Data Room is one of them. What is Data Room?
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C
Data Room is my response to the wonderful invitation as a commissioned artist along with this co directorship. And I really wanted to think not about the piece I wanted to make so much as how I wanted to serve the festival. And that came back to me about these genealogies of practice. So I am hosting three conversations which for me are really about how we exchange knowledge and invest in creative age and build senses of shared meaning in this time of fragmented attention and digital hyper exposure. And those three conversations, one of them is with Esperanza Spalding and Kyle Abraham, thinking about histories and futures of experimental jazz drawing. Yes. And one of them is with Helga Davis and Alicia Hall Moran and Daniel Alexander Jones, thinking about the genealogies of performance practice that are in their current work. And they will each share a song and then talk about the histories of performance practice in that song. And then finally on Monday the 12th, I'll host a conversation with Anne Hamilton and Liliana Blaine Cruz, really thinking about mythologies of practice. I have been in very few rooms with Anne's work live, and yet the conversations I've had about her work have really influenced me. And so I'm excited about how mythology passes between all of us.
- [12:29]
A
Merope tell people how they can find out more.
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B
You can see our full lineup@utr fest.org and at the websites of our incredible 24 partner organizations across the city. And we hope you join us.
- [12:47]
A
I have been speaking with the co creative directors of the under the Radar Festival, Merope Pepanotis and Kaneza Shaw. Thank you for being with us.
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B
Thank you for having us.
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C
See you in the lobby.
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A
And that is all of it for today.
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C
I'm Alison Stewart.
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A
I appreciate you listening and I appreciate you. I will meet you back here tomorrow.
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B
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