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Inside 20|20: Exploring the History of Atlanta with Home in 7

Atlanta Ballet presents 20|20:Visionary at the Cobb Energy Centre, March 18-20, 2016. Learn more about one of the three thrilling dance works on this program, Home in 7, which fuses live poetry, music, and dance in one unforgettable experience.

Home in 7 is an emotionally charged exploration of Atlanta featuring seven scenes touching on darker stories of the past to southern belles to baseball. Spoken word artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph and composer/musician Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR) accompany the dancers live onstage at all performances.

Choreographed by Amy Seiwert, Home in 7 was created on Atlanta Ballet and premiered during the 2010|2011 Season.

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About the Guest Artists

Marc Bamuthi Joseph
Spoken Word Artist, Home in 7

Marc Bamuthi Joseph is a pillar of American performance, arts education, and artistic curation. After appearing on Broadway as a young actor, Joseph wrote and performed in a series of poetically-based works for the stage that have toured worldwide, including Word Becomes Flesh, Scourge, and the break/s: a mixtape for stage, which co-premiered at the Humana Festival of New American Plays and the Walker Arts Center (2008). His full-evening theater work, red, black & GREEN: a blues, premiered at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (2011) and completed touring in 2014. red, black & GREEN: a blues was nominated for a Bessie (2013) for “Outstanding Production of a work stretching the boundaries of a traditional form.” The Walker Arts Center says of his work that “it’s socially engaged without being didactic..utilizes a high-level of self-awareness, self-deprecation and humor that disarms an audience that worries about being preached to.”

Joseph’s commissions include the libretto for Home in 7 for Atlanta Ballet (2011) and theater work for South Coast Repertory Theater’s “Crossroads Commissioning Project.” His essays have been published in “Cultural Transformations: Youth and Pedagogies of Possibility,” Harvard Education Press (2013); and “Total Chaos: Next Elements,” Basic Civitas (2007). Joseph has lectured at more than 200 colleges; has carried adjunct professorships at Stanford and Lehigh, among others; and currently serves as director of performing arts at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. He co-founded “Life is Living,” a national series of one-day festivals designed to activate under-resourced parks and affirm peaceful urban life. Joseph has won numerous grants, including from the National Endowment for the Arts and Creative Capital Foundation. Named one of “America’s Top Young Innovators in the Arts and Sciences,” he graced the cover of Smithsonian Magazine (2007), received the inaugural US Artists Rockefeller Fellowship (2007), and was an inaugural Doris Duke artist (2012).

He is currently collaborating with composer Daniel Bernard Roumain on a new duo show Blackbird, Fly, as well as a new chamber opera with Opera Philadelphia.

Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR)
Composer/Musician, Home in 7

DBR’s acclaimed work as a composer and performer spans more than two decades, and has been commissioned by venerable artists and institutions worldwide. “About as omnivorous as a contemporary artist gets” (New York Times), DBR is perhaps the only composer whose collaborations traverse the worlds of Philip Glass, Bill T. Jones, Savion Glover, and Lady Gaga.

Known for his signature violin sounds infused with a myriad of electronic and urban music influences, DBR takes his genre-bending music beyond the proscenium. He has been nominated for an EMMY for Outstanding Musical Composition for his work with ESPN; featured as keynote performer at technology conferences; and written large scale, site-specific music for public parks.

DBR’s made his Carnegie Hall debut (2000) with the American Composers Orchestra performing his Harlem Essay for Orchestra, a Whitaker commission. He went on to compose works for the Boston Pops Orchestra; Carnegie Hall; the Library of Congress; the Stuttgart Symphony, and myriad others.

DBR’s commitment to arts education has garnered long-term relationships with countless universities, orchestras, and performing arts centers. He is currently the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center Artist-in-Residence (University of Houston) and a Center for Art and Performance Resident Artist at UCLA. DBR earned his doctorate in music composition from the University of Michigan, where he currently serves as guest entrepreneur.

DBR is currently working on We Shall Not Be Moved, a chamber opera commissioned by Opera Philadelphia, and Meditations for Raising Boys, an oratorio commissioned by Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra.

An avid arts industry leader, DBR serves on the board of directors of the League of American Orchestras,Association of Performing Arts Presenters, and Creative Capital; is on the advisory committee of the Sphinx Organization; and is co-chair of 2015 and 2016 APAP Conferences.

Spoken word artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph with Nayomi Van Brunt and Jared Tan in Amy Seiwert's Home in 7. Photo by Charlie McCullers.
"Home in 7 Teaser (Atlanta Ballet);" video by Brian Wallenberg.
Marc Bamuthi Joseph and Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR). Photos by Bethanie Hines.